Shawnigan Lake School - Yearbook (Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia Canada)

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using the spare half-hours and quarter-hours, that are splattered throughout your week, for studying instead of idling, you and others will have more time ' , not less, for leisure time activities. A rough and ready measure of your having established the habit of work or not, is, I suggest, whether you have achieved a good second class standing or better. We can ' t all be first class scholastically, but I believe that an average boy, if he knows how to use his time, should be able to make a decent second class standing. The habit of work is a particularly difficult one to achieve in Canada or the United States. Here, more than in most other countries, it is considered in some circles of the young to be smart not to work. Indeed, in some youthful groups, a fellow is considered a bit of a square if he gets good marks. Nothing could be more short-sighted or further from the truth. This you will certainly find out when you start the serious business of earning a living. You will find then that your progress will depend chiefly on the excellence of your efforts. Your efforts will not produce excellent results unless you have learned the habit of work. And how much simpler life is once the habit of work is formed! As John Shaw Billings said, There is nothing really difficult if you only begin. Some people contem- plate a task until it looms so big it seems impossible . . . there would be no coral islands if the first bug sat down and began to wonder how the job was to be done. The Russians have shown in startling fashion what can be acornplished in scientific fields by a combination of respect for scholastic excellence and industrious habits. The survival of the democratic way of life may depend upon your generation ' s ability to match them in these respects. Growing up is a difficult process, and I sympathize with you in the problems you face, but I don ' t want to make it sound more difficult than it is. Growing up is also a lot of fun, as you no doubt have found. The process of establishing good habits means sustained effort on your part, to be sure, but once the habits are formed they are an essential and automatic part of you. The rewarding thing is that then you not only find the problems of life much easier to cope with, but you find life much fuller and more interesting in your day-to-day living. Another attribute that our stock-taking should find in yon is some development of a sense of values, — the beginning of an awareness and appreciation of the qualitative things of life. Left to themselves, most humans tend to be materialistic, — to regard such things as wealth, size and having a good time as being the important things in this world. Such people live empty and unsatisfying lives. In the process of growing up few things are more important than one ' s own develop- ment of true quality. Quality is a spiritual matter. It affects thinking and guides be- haviour. A boy who develops such quality becomes a leader whom others follow gladly. The development of quality may result from various sources. — family background, the schools one attends, one ' s luck in teachers and friends. An important source is the reading of good books. That boy is fortunate who carries with him from school a love of reading. Perhaps no other single habit is more important, both for success in your career and happiness in your life, than that of reading. Reading puts you in intimate touch with a variety and richness of people and experience that is not otherwise obtainable. It is this richness of experience that develops quality. If you have given up reading for T.V. and radio, you will regret it. I use books as an important example. But the opportunity to cultivate quality exists in all things, great and small. It exists in people, conversation, standards of carrying out one ' s daily tasks. Yes, things count too. Quality, not expensiveness, in chairs and tables and pictures and belongings, stimulates quality of thinking and living. Handling beautiful things teaches gentleness and the understanding of beauty. For quality has to do with beauty, that intangible loveliness that draws the spirit of man up and away from ugliness toward something that is a satisfying delight. Quality enables one to endure, to take life with discrimination and understanding, with an open hand and an always tender heart. Quality can stand alone if need be, can lead when occasion requires, can serve when opportunity offers. It can do anything but stoop. It is always noble. It always soars. So I call upon the guardian angels of this graduating class, if you have gifts to bestow, let one of the first be quality. Page Thirteen