Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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Jean E. Harvie Graduating Class of 1931 A TRUE TRAFALGAR GIRL STUDENT 1926-1931 TEACHER 1939-1965 PRINCIPAL 1965-1975 2

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Good Schools are not made by talking about them, by legislation, or even by bricks and mortar. They are made by the cumulative efforts, teaching, sacrifices and above all the example of dedicated schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. This quotation from an article by the historian, Sir Arthur Bryant, states a truism that too many educational experts forget to-day. In looking for the latest technique which will enable young people to obtain instant knowledge and skill, they overlook the fact that it is the devotion of the teacher in the classroom that plays far the most important role in education. It is also becoming all too rare in these days to find a teacher who will serve a single school for a long period of time. Too often teachers fht from job to job and though they may be well versed in their subject, they show little inclination to put their roots down in a school community and give that community such full and undivided service as Jean Harvie has given to her beloved Traf. Jean Harvie became a Trafite in September 1926. She graduated five years later, taking first place in the Province in the McGill Matriculation Examination and winning the Grace Fairley Scholarship to McGill. In 1935 she gained her B.A. and was awarded the Henry Qiapman Gold Medal in Qassics. Next year she took her M.A. and won a Moyse Travelling Scholarship. She went to Oxford and obtained her degree in 1938. From Oxford she moved to London where she obtained her diploma at the Institute of Education. On her way home to Canada in September 1939 she was shipwrecked in S.S. Athenia, the first ship to be torpedoed by a German submarine in World War II. Unhke many of the passengers and crew, she returned safely to Montreal. Here she found that two of the staff at Trafalgar School had not returned from England and that Miss Cummings, the Principal, was glad to give her a job. Since then Miss Harvie has taught Latin with skill, devotion and marked success. In 1960 she was appointed Vice-Principal and in 1965, succeeded Dr. Foster as Principal. A shy and retiring person, with all the reticence and determination of her Scottish ancestors, Jean Harvie is not an easy person to know. Suddenly thrust into the principalship in a crisis, she took her time adjusting to a difficult situation but during the period of adjustment she kept her hand firmly on the tiller and, when better days dawned for the School, the basic structure of Traf remained intact. Those closest to her will long remember her courage in undergoing a major operation in August 1972, returning to school in October on crutches and organizing and carrying through the manifold changes involved in the demolition and rebuilding of 1973. Miss Harvie has collected around her a competent and devoted staff and brought the enrollment to the optimum number of two hundred and fifty girls. She leaves the School in the best possible shape for the Principal-Elect, Janette Doupe, who has worked closely with Miss Harvie since the latter became Principal in 1965. Throughout her years of service to Traf, Jean Harvie has been encouraged and supported by her mother, a famiUar figure at many a school function in years gone by and, if it is possible, as devoted to Traf as her daughter. Many people hope that Miss Harvie will find time in her retirement to write a history of a school that has made a significant contribution to education in Montreal and the Province of Quebec. Certainly no-one is as well qualified to do so as one who has known Trafalgar so intimately and served it so faithfully as Jean Harvie.

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In Those Days Among other memories of an older Traf , Miss Harvie last year told a Montreal Star reporter of a rat classroom. An old girl who had been at Traf before Miss Harvie offers this explanation. The Rat Classroom - or the true tale of a white rat. by a witness, Cristall Dawson, lower dorm 1915-16 It was wintertime. The boarders at Traf sometimes received parcels handed in to them from friends in Montreal. M dis covered she had a boy friend who was either jealous - or a practical joker. He sent her a parcel which contained, among other things, a WHITE RAT! - with a long tail. All the girls in the lower dorm gathered around M and held their breaths. How could they keep Os the rat without being detected? Well, M. kept him in her hat box, where he nibbled the leather trim on her hat. Feed him, how? we asked. Bits of food were brought to Os by carriers from the dining room. One night Os escaped from the box. He did not get very far. Amid muffled screams, he was returned to his hiding place. M said this was the end. She would take Os out with her when she went for her long leave that weekend. So Os was somehow concealed in a container and carried out in M ' s muff - and was successfully transferred to her friend ' s house, where another Traf day-girl lived. The day-girl thought it would be fun to put Os in her Traf teacher ' s desk on Monday. The teacher showed much self control when she found a white rat in the drawer of her desk. The class screamed a bit, and to us Os end is still a mystery. Or is it? Did someone mention a rat classroom?!