Page 49 - 1953

CREEMORE V ALEDICTORY
Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Staff and Fellow Students:
It is indeed a great pleasure to be the vale- dictorian for the class graduating from Cree- more Continuation School this year. I feel as if I have been given a special privilege to have the opportunity of expressing a few of our thoughts as we review our high school life and look forward to whatever may lie ahead.
However, I feel also that this valedictory means more than the usual farewell of a gradua- ting class. It is a farewell to our beloved school which has been the centre of secondary education in this community for many years.
Since we believe that the doors of Cree- more Continuation School will close this year and those of a large district collegiate will be opened. a desire develops within us to remi- nisce on the history of our school. In 1917 the doors of c.c.s. were opened for the first time and so a Grade B continuation school came into being and then in 1932 progress was shown when
the school was converted to Grade A. From that time until 1950 students have been able to acquire a complete high school education. In other words they have been able to obtain senior matriculation qualifying them for entrance to univer- sity, schools of teaching and nursing as well as other vocations.
During these thirty-three years C.C.S. has sent out her share of graduates of whom the community can be justly proud. They have entered various profes- sions. Many of-them have successfully reached their objective, while others are still working earnestly towards their ideals.
Those of us who are in the position to look back on our lives spent here at C.C.S. can recall experiences both enjoyed and endured - we enjoyed the parties but endured the examinations.
I myself do not pretend to recall my exact reactions when I entered high school but I am sure I felt somewhat lost, yet, nevertheless, proud to be climb- ing up a new step of the educational ladder.
As we beginners became acquainted with the routine work and play of high school, we soon found ourselves enjoying the spirit and relationship of one big family. If there was a task to be done, all the students did their best to help win success whether it was in the classroom or on the field. Thus a student took his responsibilities in every undertaking with a double purpose - first to do his best for the members of the school family, and second, to do his best for
himself. In this way we de~eloped a community consciousness and even a national consciousness as well as the consciousness of the individual.
It is only within the last one hundred years that education has been avail- able to most young people in Ontario. In the early days elementary education was concerned with the 3 R's- readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic. When a person had acquired a reasonable operating knowledge of these, he was educated. But how changed is our concept of education today: The objective of education now is to equip young people for a better understanding of life as they see it in their homes and neighbourhood and for more effective participation in that life. Edu- cation in our school trains us to live full, happy, well balanced lives, to de- velop our personalities as well as our thinking capacities; and to give reason- able well balanced thought to the solution of varying problems and situations as they confront us. Proper education trains us to assume duties and to discharge our responsibilities with pride rather than seek escape ending in failure. Edu- cation also makes us assume certain moral obligations, obligations of honesty, integrity, uprightness, as well as obligations involving the sound principles of Christian love.
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