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

Page 9 text:

EDITORIAL - 1966 In this modern age we are in some danger of being a little neurotic when we talk about the problem of Authority. It has always been a problem for any adults with a sense of responsibility for the young. Some kind of tension between the generations must exist. The adolescent has to grow up in a society which has values about which he has not been consulted; in a number of ways he is required to toe a line which he has not drawn. He has always felt that th e short cut to personal identity lies through revolt. The adult knows that he has to provide a background of security for the young and that the two extreme enemies of that security are remotness and posses- siveness; on the one hand, the cold shoulder and, on the other hand, what may be called the hug of death. For a healthy atmosphere between the generations he must tread delicately between these extremes. This inevitable conflict between the generations is sharpened today by the teen-age cult, a product of tem- porary media of advertising and of influences which have discovered in adolescents a profitable market. It is to their interest to flatter the young, to put an inflated value on their tastes and standards, subtly to encourage their revolt against Authority and in fact to herald the dawning of the Permissive Age. As a result of all this— and many other factors — Authority seems now to be on the defensive, and it appears that many educators are in fact looking at the question defensively. To many people the image of educators, who insist on a disciplined approach to worthwhile activities, is that of a fairly stiff-necked lot of reactionaries, yearn- ing to exercise a Victorian authoritarianism in the modern age. But in fact most of us are no more disposed to bossy than any other cross-section of our generation, and are as tempted by the charms of permissiveness as any other well-meaning adults. And thus there is growing up, within the profession itself, an attitude to Auth- ority which can be summed up in the following proposition: It is not our job to tell the young what to do — but to give them their heads, to leave them free from direction, and to stand by to pick up the pieces. What I want to state is that I believe this to be heresy — this which regards the educational process as one which allows your charges to run violently down a steep place and provides first aid at the bottom. Possibly it is old-fashioned for an educator to think of his job in pastoral terms and to regard himself as a shepherd rather than a swine-heard. But I believe that the trouble today is not that there are too few people prepared to lead the young — there are too many of the wrong kind. It is not only that the hungry sheep look up and are not fed, which is bad enough. They look sideways, or down and they are fed— by the irresponsible hirelings who gladly fill the gap in Authority when those who ought to be shepherds have abdicated. a little authority A real difficulty is that, when the young run violently down steep places, they drag others with them. Samson would make a good representative type for some adolescents. He was very strong and very impetuous and his hair was never quite the right length. Moreover, he involved other people in his self-destruction and no one could pick up the pieces. Those who entrust young people to our care have a right to expect that we shall not leave them to be the victims of one another ' s experiments in ethics. It would be a truism to say that the burnt child dreads the

Page 8 text:

Skawnlgan Lake School 965-6 6 FOUNDER The late C. W. Lonsdale VISITOR The Most Reverend the Archbishop of British Columbia H. E. Sexton, d.d. HONORARY BOARD OF GOVERNORS The Honourable Major-General G. R. Pearkes, V.C.. p.c. c.b., d.s.o., m.c. Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia The Honourable Henry I. Bird Chief Justice of British Columbia H. M. Boyce, Esq. Gordon Farrell, Esq. Walter Koerner, Esq. J. B. Macdonald, Esq., D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D., A.M. (Honorary), L.L.D. (Honorary) President of the University of British Columbia M. McGregor, Esq. b.a., ma., Ph.D. Head of the Classics Department, University of British Columbia D. K. Macrae, Esq. A. B. Robertson, q.c. M. G. Taylor, Esq., b.a.. ma., Ph.D. President of the University of Victoria BOARD OF GOVERNORS C. E. Morris, Esq. (Chairman) R. H. AngUS, Esq. M.D.(Lond.), M.D., B.S., F.R.C.P.(C), M.R.C.P.(Eng.) Peter Banks, Esq. •J. I. Bird, q.c. C. Burke, Esq. W. E. Burns, Esq. J. M. Cross, Esq. W. F. Foster, Esq. K. H. Gibson, Esq. K. Greenwood, Esq., m.b.b.b.s., m.r.c.p., m.r.cs.. l.m.c.c. G. P. Kaye, Esq., c.a. T. E. Ladner, q.c. J. M. McAvity, Esq. W. E. Murdoch, Esq. R. B. O ' Callaghan, Esq. C. E. Pratt, F.R.A.I.C., B.Arch. W. G. H. Roaf, o.b.e. J. H. Wade, f.r.a.i.c. f.r.i.b.a., aa.Di P . G. H. Wheaton, Esq. •J. W. Whittall, Esq. J. B. Williams, Esq. President of the Old Boys ' Society - E. V. Ardagh, Esq., for 1965-66 Indicates Old Boy of Shawnigan Lake School

Page 10 text:

fire, but this would make a very poor school motto. Let us hope that we shall keep some of them out of the fire altogether, even if we do have to exercise a little Authority to do so— or do we stand by and pick up the ashes? Before concluding, I would like to say three positive things about Authority and I can state them quite briefly. First, the young have a right to Authority and we must not deny it to them. However independent and even rebellious they may seem, part of their security is an inarticulate philosophy of crisis, when an adult will step in and deal with the emergency, before it has reached difficult proportions. To put it another way, they have a right to expect to be able to dial Authority and to reverse the charges. Second, they have a right to the right kind of Authority and to be free from the wrong kind. One of the most profound things ever said about Authority was this: You could have no authority over me unless it were given — and this is what the developing personal- ity which we call the adolescent knows in his bones. He accepts authority most of the time in rugby and in drama, in history and in music, from someone whose commands he respects because he knows them to be rooted in a discipline which carries its own conviction. The Authority that he rejects, however, is a kind of abitrary imposi- tion of merely personal preference: When I was your age we didn ' t do that kind of thing, or Why? Because I say so. And if we have any proper educational standards at all, we shall be proud to see him reject such preten- tious authoritarianism. The third thing is to be able to point to the Source of Authority. It is easy enough when the technique is a limited one like climbing a mountain or playing the violin; what when it is a matter of ethics and values and the technique of living? It is here where schools which are Christian foundations have an immeasurable advantage. For Christ is not only the source of our authority about life; He is also our example in the exercise of authority. In the Christian framework we find absolute points of reference (so that our authority is neither abitrary nor merely personal) ; and in the Christian spirit we find charity and a due regard for persons, in a discipline that can never become merely mechanical. And thus the yoke is eased and the burden lightened. Indeed the abdication from Authority, where it exists, is not essentially (as it has been called) a failure of nerve, but a failure in faith. Example, said Burke, is the school of mankind. -E.R.L. SCHOOL STAFF 3rd Row, left to right: ]. E. Dickens, G. W. Oleman, A. C. M. Brown, T. L. Brierley, 1. A. Galliford, F. Booth, K. ]. Hickling. 2nd Row: H. M. Mcintosh, ]. Arthurs, W. R. Salmon, P. H. Josselyn, H. Kays, ]. S. Grey, M. A. Nightingale. Sitting: G. L. Anderson, H. S. C. Archbold, L. P. MacLachlan, E. R. Larsen, Rev. E. W. Scott, M. A. Ellissen, D. W. Hyde-Lay