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

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Remember, each of you, how important you are as an individual. You may not be aware of it but what you do, how you act, will always influence others. This is a good thing for upper-class men to remember in a school, — the effect, for better or worse, that they have on those below them. It is a good thing to remember after you leave school. Why not make this effect for the better? You are young men at an exciting stage of the world ' s development. Many old men, like myself, would gladly change places with you! When your grandfathers, or even fathers, were developing this Continent, the West was the great Frontier, the last Frontier. Now the stars, the Universe, is the frontier. The secrets of the Universe are being unlocked before your eyes. Up until recently, fire, a relatively late discovery of man, was considered one of his greatest discoveries. The whole time, without our realizing it, we were surrounded in the Universe by the dramatic mani- festations of the fusion process of the hydrogen atom. What was common in the Universe, as compared with our puny fire, we now know the secret of. It is true we are afraid we will blow the world up with our new found knowledge; but it is also true that it has just immense possibilities for the good. The possibilities of this exciting new world you are entering into are superbly staged in the words of Sir Isaac Newton, who said, I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordin- ary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. Sir Isaac died in 1727. Since then, great barriers to hitherto undisclosed truth have been shattered, of which some of the latest examples are nuclear fission, the fusion process and supersonic aircraft. You are indeed entering into an exciting world, — but it will need a lot of managing! At Shawnigan Lake School, you, who are graduating this year, have had a happy time. You have learned to do your duty, to treat others with consideration and to keep your values high and unsullied. While you have been here, the School has given you a great feeling of trust and stability; it has given you food and bed and health and education. Now the School is putting its trust in you, its graduates, and with all my heart I believe you will reward that trust. I believe your strong young shoulders will take on some of the world ' s burdens. I believe you will always do right, as nearly as you possibly can. Never lose heart! A hundred years ago a great man said, These are the times that try men ' s souls. So they are today. But difficult times are also times of great opportunity, provided we remember with George Bernard Shaw that discouragement is the only illness. Albert Camus puts the challenge to our times in striking language. ... It all comes down to whether we can go faster than the nuclear warhead, he says. Unhappily, the spirit matures more slowly than the invention of intercontinental missiles. Yet after all, the very fact that atomic warfare would make the future meaningless gives us back our freedom of action. We have nothing to lose — except everything. So let ' s go forward. This is the challenge to our gen eration. And now, in conclusion, in case I have been too serious, I want to tell you a story about a puppy. The father had taken his seven year old son to the local pet shop to pick out a pup for his birthday present. For several minutes the youngster and his father stood and watched an assortment of pups playing in the window. Decided which one you want? the father asked finally. Yes, answered the boy, pointing to one puppy which was wagg ' ng its tail so furiously that it could hardly stay on its feet. I want that one — the one with the happy ending. So, for each of you who graduate today to start your life ' s career, I and all your parents want that one — the one with the happy ending. The Headmaster thanked Doctor Grauer for his thought-provoking address and for presenting the prizes and trophies on behalf of the School. Page Fourteen