Westdale Secondary School - Le Raconteur Yearbook (Hamilton, Ontario Canada)

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TRIUNE STUDENT COUNCIL 1963-64 MARG AWREY Vice-President GREG MUNT Assistant Treasurer JANICE PROBERT Chairman of Publications SHARON MIGHTON Chairman of Dance and Entertainment CHRIS TURNER Chairman of Music and Drama STANLEY RAPHAEL Chairman of Sports and Games LINDA MURPHY Councillor DAVE GARSON Councillor ANN TRAPLIN Councillor JOAN MORRISON Councillor DOROTHY WEISE Councillor FRANCES MINDEN Councillor SARAH MINDEN Councillor DONNA DECKER Councillor CHARLES MORRIS Councillor

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which range from highly probable facts to sheer guesses. Future events are less likely to be correctly described than past. The descrip- tion of past events is less hazardous than the prediction of future occurrences. When a scien- tist speaks about nature and projected experi- ments he must often resort to statements having only a moderate likelihood of being correct hypotheses. Guesswork takes up where science leaves off. When we can design whole cultures with the confidence we bring to physical technology, the question of guesswork will not be raised. Should the designing of the new culture be left to the gueswork of the non-scientist, or to the caution of the scientist? Are we to be controlled by tyrants, by acci- dent, or by ourselves, in effective cultural design? We admire Lincoln for rising above a deficient school system. His educational environment was certainly unplanned, but he was a rare man and so were the circumstances of his childhood. We do not give the same credit to Franklin Delano Roosevelt for becoming an educated man with the help of Groton and Harvard, or similar credit to the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy, educated at Harvard. The founding of Groton and Har- vard somewhat reduced the possibility that for- tuitous combinations of circumstances would erupt to produce other Lincolns. Yet the found- ers of Harvard or Groton can hardly be con- demned for attacking an admirable human quality. TRIUNE PRESIDENT ' S MESSAGE The publication of another edition of Le Rac- onteur signifies that another school year is draw- ing to a close. To many of us it means not only the end of another year, but the end of a definite phase of our lives. This year the Triune was off to one of its earliest starts, a true indication of the success that was to follow. The Triune this year has accomplished much. The member committees have co-operated closely to provide the students with a well rounded program of activities rang- ing from the addition of a stag dance to the annual Prom, from the always popular variety shows to the reintroduction after the lapse of a year, of an annual school play. This year ' s operetta Patience can only be termed a tre- mendous success. At this time, on behalf of the members of the student government, I would like to convey our sincere appreciation to our principal Mr. Bell, the senior advisor, Mr. Noad and innumerable teachers who co-operated so willingly to make this a very enjoyable and memorable year. Out of sheer ingratitude, wrote Dostoevsky, man may play you a dirty trick just to prove that men are still men and not the keys of a piano. Ingratitude, however, would be un- thought-of if the specifications previously men- tioned were attained: let men be happy, in- formed, skillful, well-behaved, and productive. That such perversity is a fundamental reaction of the human organism to controlling conditions is sheer nonsense. An immediate application of such a society is reflected in the teaching machine. It can be adapted to special kinds of communication — as, for example. Braille — and, above all, it has infinite patience. B. F. Skinner, eminent American psychologist, has written, In achieving control of the world of which he is a part, he may learn at last to control himself. A. J. Toynbee, British historian, has said, Man has been able to control nature ... it is now his ambition to be able to control himself. Historically, people were fond of the pattern; today, we are fond of ours. They never found the will to break it. We must. Ivan Rival. [It is undoubtedly true that conventional language is a basis for ambiguity. Rather than to distort the content of the idea by this inherent ambiguity of language, it is more productive to utilize those commentaries which have proven, by experience, to successfully convey the idea. It is on this assumption that I have chosen to base the following largely on C P. Snow ' s controversial Rede Lecture, The Two Cul- tures and The Scientific Revolution , which has had a tre- mendous impact on both the scientific and the literary com- munities (though considerably less on the latter), and on B. F. Skinner ' s Cumulative Record , a masterpiece (in the scientific sense), which has proven to be a momentous con- tribution to the scientific world and to those aspects of society and government which are flexible to progress (again in the scientific sense).] In closing a reminder to all, that although we are eagerly trying to fore-tell what the future holds for us, no one who participates in extra- curricular activities, will ever need to be remind- ed of a prosperous and educational stay at West- dale, a school respected for its students as well as its competitive teams. Ron Wilson. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank Miss Smith and the commercial training office for the patient assist- ance they have given us throughout the year. Thanks are extended to the experienced help of Mr. McCord, to the teacher advisers, and to the students of Westdale who have made this school project possible. — Raconteur Staff

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» r miki Mclaughlin Councillor GERRY MacKINNON Councillor DAVID PAIKIN Councillor BARB WILSON Councillor TIM MARLATT Councillor DONNA STRINGER Councillor VIRGINIA SOMERVILLE Councillor DAVE RAMSBOTTOM Councillor NANCY CHIVERS Councillor SUZETTE LEDERER Councillor BARB ANDERSON Councillor MR. J. V. NOAD MR. R.T. BEZAIRE MR. B. A. ROBERTS MR. D. R. EDEN Senior Adviser Treasurer Adviser Adviser