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

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Service. The clue to the success of this project is that they are all actively doing something for the School, and can come toget! zx frequently— while they do it — to exchange the happy fellowship which is growing up in our family. At this point, in fact, I would like to thank our Mothers most sincerely for the tremen- dous efforts they are making to help the School, and I would like to assure each and every one of them that their support is greatly appreciated. To you boys, I have spoken on several occasions during the year with re- gard to our hopes for you as future citizens. At this stage I would just say this: your parents have given you a great opportunity by sending you to Shawnigan —but with this comes the duty to serve, and to help others who have not been so fortunate. While there is no doubt that the record for this year reads well, this is due mainly to the training we are able to give you at Shawnigan. This does not mean that as boys you are better people than boys anywhere else. You may have had better training but you are not better people. Don ' t ever think you are, be- cause it just isn ' t true. There are many, many boys who, if they had been given the opportunities that you have had, would have done as well — if not better. However, the fact is that the opportunity has been given to you, and with this come most important obligations: of constantly maintaining Christian principles— not of seeking your own glory or your own advantage, but of serv- ing God— of serving the country in which you will live, and of helping your fellow men. You will find that there is a tremendous job to be done in the world, and society on this continent desperately needs leaders who have the courage of their convictions and who are not afraid to stand up and to speak the truth on what they know is right. At Shawnigan we have tried to point out the star by which you should direct your course; and it will now depend on the extent of your unselfishness, your courage, your determination and — most important— your faith, as to how far you will go and as to the contribution you will make. Indeed, to bring in also our parents and visitors, I feel it is important to enlarge upon a matter which is concerning many schools and many teachers in schools. There has probably never been so much perplexity and discouragement expressed by men and women who are close to the younger generation as that expressed over the past few years. To put it simply, they seem to believe that the manners and ethics and morals of a larger number of adolescents than ever before are very far from satisfactory and are growing worse. They see both a lowering of standards and rules of conduct, until they hardly exist at all, and the disappearance of parental control. I don ' t think that this is a case of the older generation constantly criticizing the younger or the teachers trying to pass the buck to the parents. Anyone, who does not deceive himself and has the courage to look at the facts clearly, knows full well that the young have more freedom to go to the devil, and that there are more devils waiting about to attract them than ever before in living memory. I think we should realize that the teen-ager of today does not remember at first hand any of the war years — 78

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many prizes were won by our boys in the Cowichan Drama Festival and the Cowichan Music Festival and you will hear more about some of these later. So that everyone in the community gets an opportunity to contribute something in line with his particular talents, it is most important in a school that activities like these should flourish. In this connection, however, there is one aspect where I feel we are falling short and this is that we do not yet have a school orchestra. But we are making definite plans to do something about this next year, and if there are any of you who would like to join I would urge you to return with a musical instrument. Perhaps I may be permitted to appeal to the parents to encourage your sons in this direction if you know they have talent. Before I finish discussing our school activities I should like to express my most sincere appreciation to all our staff for their loyalty and their enthusiasm for their work. In all departments— academic, administrative, and domestic — we are blessed with a most co-operative and dedicated group of people. It would certainly not be possible to produce the results we produce or to have the happy school we have if it were not for the unselfish efforts of the staff— and I would like to extend to each one of them a very real and genuine expression of gratitude and appreciation. Unfortunately we shall be losing two of our Matrons and two of our Masters this year. They are Miss Webster, who has been our Head Matron for three years, and Miss Saunders, who has been House Matron in the Junior House for the past eighteen months. Both of these ladies have worked tirelessly in the interests of the boys since they have been at Shawnigan, and we shall sorely miss them next year. The two masters who are leaving are Mr. Webster, who is returning to his home in England, and Mr. Christie, who is returning home to New Zealand. While we are all very sorry to see these, our friends, moving on, at the same time it is easy to understand why they are doing so, and they leave with our best wishes for all prosperity and happiness in the future. At this time too, I would like to avail myself of the opportunity of saying thank you to our Board of Governors. I have heard from some School Principals of the difficulties which they encounter with their Boards, and I am always able to tell them of the easy rapport and co-operation there is between the Shawnigan Governors and myself. I feel quite certain that I must be very difficult to work with sometimes— it seems that I am for ever asking them to meet urgent needs— and, in spite of this, I am conscious of their continued understanding, sympathy and support and for this I must assure them I am deeply indebted. In addition, I should like to say a special word to our Parents ' Guild. The Shawnigan family could not be complete, nor could it be such a happy fellow- ship, without the magnificent support which is being given to us by our parents, and particularly by our Mothers. Some months ago, in their determination to do something for the school, they began to make attractively designed kneelers for our School Chapel. As so often happens in these matters, their enthusiasm for their project generated its own energy, and a great number of our Mothers have put in many, many hours of work on this most worthwhile project. Indeed, already some eighty have been completed and were in fact placed in the Chapel last evening by some Mothers, so that they would be ready for our Closing 17

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the losses, the wounded, the massacres, the thousands of refugees, the question of survival of whol e peoples, the unexampled courage and gallantry shown in the face of overwhelming odds, the quiet heroism of thousands in just maintaining life for their families, the ideals for which we fought and which we hold so dear. He has lived his impressionable years in times of unprecedented prosperity, unprecedented self-indulgence, and in the middle of an unprecedented barrage of communications, much of which is highly suggestive and destructive. At the same time, also, many parents are too occupied, in their children ' s free hours, to teach them how to meet these attacks or to give them a firm basis on which to build character. They leave it to the schools, who can hardly control their large classes and who wash their hands of responsibility after school hours. The net result is that we are face to face with the rising generation, large numbers of whom are drifting without a chart, without ideals, without loyalties, without real character or true religion. Furthermore they so often see their elders, for whom there seem few restrictions, indulging themselves, so that it is little wonder that so many fall in with the gang and utterly waste their talents. This seems to me to be the most dangerous missile in our midst. We remember the words of Her Majesty the Queen, speaking on Christmas Day: The trouble is caused by unthinking people who carelessly throw away ageless ideals, as if they were old and out-worn machinery. They would have religion thrown aside, morality in personal and public life made meaningless, honesty counted as foolishness, and self interest set up in place of self restraint. I have told our senior boys that they must realize that these conditions exist, and that there is no more important work for them to do than to try to correct some of these abuses and to salvage the youngsters of the future. In fact, parents, schoolmasters and clergy must work together as partners in meeting what has all the appearance of a real crisis in our social life. The western world must take stock of its coming manpower, and stop the rot which has set in before it is too late; that great work is surely much more essential than training large numbers in the use of weapons: for what good is an army without worthy aims and ambitions, without integrity and character, without ideals and self-control. In our lifetime we have seen the rout of such forces by the millions. Every one of us of adult years should begin now to tear away the tinsel, and the vain show and appearance and idle chat and solemn nothings of our lives, and get down with God ' s help to the fundamental kernel from which all worthwhile life develops. Only then can we do something for the post-war youth of North America, which seems to be on its way, in large numbers, to becoming a lost generation. A school like this has a special responsibility in such a crusade, and we shall not be living up to our obligations unless the boys who leave us are strong enough not only to direct and discipline themselves properly, but will also attract, lead, and help others who have not had the same advantages. 19