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by us all after fuur year spent in this school. These four years have been years of light ,and shade to us •all, years of sodal fellowship, pleasant recreation, mental and physi-cal improve- ment.
Life is full of irritati.ons. Some of them are little things; others, lik'! misunderstanding one an- other .and not being able to ex- plain ourselves ·clearly, are more rerious ·and 1bake a greater toll of our good na~ture. Thus at times our humour subsides and the first thing we know we are smothered under a pile of inci- dents which, perhaps unimport- ant in themselves, have the po- wer to destroy our enjoyment in life.
BwL ·thinking about our per- son.ality and sodal problem~ will not itself rid us of our worries and fears. Thinking straight a- bout pmblems, hopes and plans will make us surer of ourselves, increase our ·confidence, and re- duce both worry and fear. Olur work in school has taught us to be straight thinkers. One can- not dlelve far into History, Latin, Science or ''Dear Old Math" without doing some very straighit thinking. This continu- ous effort day after day soon be·comes a IVery valuable habit which should remain with us thvough all our lives.
But whalt kind of people are "we"? Of •cours·e the world is made up of .all kinds of POO!Ple, but we all •come under the clia.ss Canadi.a.ns. We Canadians have amnle and freely ay.aila•ble edu- cation.al resourees in Canada.
They are directed to provide the opportunity for self realization, human relationship, economic efficiency, and civic respons~bil­ ity.
The standard educational lad- der consists of eight grade.s in nublic elementary school and four or five in ipUiblic secondary school. The vit,al point is that throughout these years educa- tion is free. Afte•r school years comes adult education which enables the ma~ture members of the community to pursue vari-
ous courses of study. '!'his edu- cational system is the spine of our dem\Ocracy. We can listen at any moment and hear our co11r.1.ry gvQIW.ing. The .air is rich with pro.mise. The spirit of Oan- ada is still progressive. we can say ·to those students who leave school this year what old Vol- taile .said to the youth when he went to .Piaris in 1778, "The young are fortunate; they will see great things."
To quote a fine Greek adage, "Life is the gift of nature but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom." Wh31t we need in these days is to broaden ·our know- ledge and intelligence and at the same time ding to simple virtues - honesty, truthfulness, seU-control, f:air play, loyalty, devoutness, and many others.
Thus we will do our share to- ward IQringirug into .being the betil:Jer world of which all good men dream. This we hope to be capable of doing as a result of our school training, thanks to the pati.ence and perseverance of our 1teachers. Members of the st~ff: at times no doubt we have r.ausoo you great annoyance bv our childish follies. But in all thinQ,"s, you have proven your- selves our ·true friends and in our hearts we bear no malice. In whatever we have given you off.ence, we ask your forgiveness and ·carry aw:ay heartfelt grati- tude f•or ·all the m.any favours you have granted us.
We never do anything con- sciously for the last time with- out regret, ~en though we are .L o o k : i . n ! ! ' f o r v . n a v d t o s o m e t h i n g more pleasant. In our pa.s.t four years this graduation class has le.ft many good opportunities neglected, m.any hours· squand- ered UiPOn trifles, great plans unat:Jtempted, and great alt- tempts unfinished. ·
And now what we are going to do is really of much more importan-ce than what is left undone. As H. G. Wells once wrote, "Man lives in the dawn forever." Our past had no other mission th.an to equip us for the present and the future. The ru-
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C.iD.C. I. GLEANER