St Albert School - Aurora Yearbook (St Albert, Alberta Canada)

Page 15 text:

Fortunately, the great majority of our young people seem eager and wtil¬ ing to seize the many opportunities to improve themselves and to secure a sound ed¬ ucation. However, to those who seem to lack drive, who are lukewarm or even indif¬ ferent, I should like to pose some questions. Have you really ever made a serious effort to select a goal in life? Do you ever consider how you will spend those long years after you leave school? Do you see any real connection between what you learn in school and the vocation in which you will make your living? Possibly you come to school because of pressure from your parents, or from force of habit. If this is the situation, you are much like a scrap of paper at the mer¬ cy of vagrant winds or a piece of wood which drifts with the tides. You lack pur¬ pose, a sense of direction. Now a word of encouragement. Frequently students who for years have been merely going through the motions suddenly appear to awaken, especially during the second and third years of highschool. The grip of lazy work habits is very strong, yet some students have been able to rid themselves of their shackles and turn out reasonably good work. I suspect in many cases the person begins to grow up, takes a more mature view of the workaday world, and decides that a sound education is ir deed a good investment. Select a goal in life, and then take the proper steps to achieve it 1

Page 17 text:

rito»oi% This year ' s Aurora makes its appearance in an atmosphere of development apd change. When your Editor ' s invitation to write a few lines reached me, I had just read a nevspape article in which the prediction is made that St. Albert will grow into a modern metropolitan satellite with a population of twenty to twenty five thousand persons . One cannot read such reports without wondering what the effects of this development will be upon the lives of the boys and girls now in your school. Last year, on the Dedication page, the Editor stated that The expansion of the Town and the School makes us look, not only into the future, but also into the past . I should like to express the hope that St. Albert students will cultiv¬ ate this habit of retrospection. In a time of rapid expansion, such as your commun¬ ity is now entering, it is easy, especially for young people, to become so engrossed with plans for the future that no time is left for thoughts of the past. This, I think, is always regrettable. But in a community such as yours, whose history con¬ tains so many examples of simple, God-fearing heroism, the effects could be disas¬ trous. What sort of place will the future St. Albert be? Will it be a community in which the solid virtues of faith and labour which characterized its founders still predominate? Or will these virtues be submerged by the materialism which, alas, so often accompanies the so-called progress of modern civilization? The stud¬ ents whose names appear in this issue of Aurora may well have important parts to play in deciding the answers to these questions. In his message of 1957, Father Tardif wrote, Not only have you to walk in the footsteps of the pioneers, but you have also to surpass them, to set your goal higher. . This is a tremendous challenge. In your endeavours to meet it, do not neglect the inspirations of the past. If you look closely enough, you will find there truths and values which will carry you safely through all the vicissitudes of 1 he future.