The Huron Expositor, 1975-04-17, Page 46
More faces SCI students in 1931.
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SCI before WW 1 had personality all its own
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shorthand, typing, bookkeeping and
commercial law.
Later Misgt.M.Knight, Dr. N. Miller and
• '91 J.F.Ross were staff members. A sjeach teacher
taught his or her subject in all the various
classrooms, he or she learned the names of
each student as well as their relative strengths
and weaknesses. Thus there developed a
personal relationship which meant so much to
timid souls setting forth on the rugged path of
learning.
Graduates are quick to affirm that this
famed seat of learning had an honest
character based on the belief that only
through perseverance and industry can one be
privileged to eat of the bred of knowledge.
Each felt the pervasive ' strength of the
school's tradition and gave of his or her best to
the" broadening of its. personality. Preachers
and priests, nurses and nuns, doctors and
dentists, accountants, lawyers, priests, nurses
and nuns, doctors and dentist s, accountants,
lawyers, engineers, professors, teachers, civil
servants, business tycoons - and sundry-
artisans owe much of their success to the
instruction given and the habits of study
induced during their •formative years.
The day of intelligence quotients and
objective tests had not come into general
practice. Written examinations of the essay
type were the order of the day. Needless to
say, these were not enjoyable exercises.Today
hardly a harsh word is spoken against the
objective test due, no doubt, fo the fact that it
causes little emotional .distress. While the
modern test measures little beyond factual
• knowledge, mere undigested facts, they are
practically self-marking thereby circum-
venting the austere judgment of the teacher.
The old-fashioned essay type of
examination showed up the essential
• knowledge or ignorance of the writer but facts
like bricks need to be organized into
structures and their arrangement in some
intelligent system had and continue to have
merit.
The acquisition of the basic-skills, especially
reading and writing, is not only an important
goal of education, it is probably the most
fundamental one. Nothing can be achieved in
the intellectual order without d high degree of
proficiency in these basic skills, That is why'
they ought to be taught with intensity from
earliest youth. Neither accurate writing nor
intelligent reading can be acquired without
much concentrated, personal effort.
Universities and schools of higher learning
attest volubly that too many of those enrolled
are lacking in spelling ability, the
-Fundamentals--of -grammar and the_ability_to_ _
synthesize facts into meaningful forms.
Many will recall the purposeful stride of
Mr. Rogers as he sallied forth from his retreat
in the combined office , reference library and ,
staff quarters, brass bell in hand and, amid its
jangling notes, surveyed the laggards rushing
fearfully to their appropriate stations. Rarely,
if ever, was his authority challenged. He ruled
justly and fairly.
Nevertheless, on occasion, where there was
definite and deliberate defiance of established
rules, he could descend from his bench as
judge and adjudicator and assume the
formidable role of administrator to
implement his own sentence with a strong
right arm. Theorists may criticize punishment
' in all its forms and speak scathingly of it being'
a reversion to the barbaric. Be that as it may,
it is not suggested that punishment is the
keystone in the disciplinary arch but it is
submitted that the rarity of its use should be
the criterion of -the master's authority.
Many Boards of Education in this province
have banished corporal punishment in their
elementary schools on a trial basis with the
result that many members of the student body
have become bold, belligerent, aggressive,
insolent and defiant. Now some of those
Boards arerreluctantly, revoking their earlier
decree. This is a very controversial topic and
in another decade or so some keen
psychological mind may - discover some
panacea for this problem and enunciate his
truths to a gaping world grown weary of
student sit-ins, student riots, campus
uprisings, assaults on authority and sundry
evidences• of non-social, non-conformity
behaviour.
The Janitor
Who can forget the janitor? It has been said
that the school revolved about the janitor. As
the sun is to the earth, heat-warming and
remote, so was the custodian. His was, for the
greater part of the day, a rather isolated
situation( ministering to the mills of learning
but untouched by their purpose. Deep down in
his dusty, dreary habitation, he spent endless
hours in monastic solitude.
It was rumoured, however, that he was not
idle but developing a rating scale for each
staff member based, primarily, in accordance
with the amount of waste paper and rubble
left on the classroom floor at the end of the
day. Ink stains on the freshly scrubbed
softwood floor called for a certain deduction as
did the presence of thumbtacks in the
plastered walls. More points were taken off
for lengtky detentions which prevented his
access to the classroom.
During lunch-time, he supervis4 'the
building with the utmost fidelity and salkity.
In the dim recesses of the basement he was a
modern Gulliver among the Lilliputians
disp_ensing justice _ for_ misdemeanours too
trivial to be reported to one higher in
authority. At times the terrifying power of his
voice or a few unvarnished 'remarks proved
effective. In stained overalls, peaked cap
drawn over one eye and with apparent relish,
he would recite some of the rules which
pertained to the sanctity of his realm.
Needless to say, he was held in due respedt if
not in veneration.
As soon as the playing field to the south of
the school dried up following the Easter
break,' cadet drill was observed at noon and,
occasionally, after school. The corps was
made up of four sections each with a sergeant
in charge; two sections were under the control
of a lieutenant with a captain in full command.
EAch section was composed of fifteen or so
cadets drawn from the whole student body
with the leaders selected from the seniors.
Much time was spent in marching to the
crisp, distinct, detach' d voice of the instructor
with its "Lef, left, left, right, left.'.' As
inspection day approached, a drummer beat
out the monotonous rhythm 'to the
accompaniment of a snare drum. About the
first week in June an officer from WeStern
Ontario Military headquarters in London
made his official inspection when the sections,
separately, displayed their mastery of the
techniques involved. Later company drill and
the use of small arms climaxed the official
review. Following congratulatory remarks
relative to the smartness of the marchers and
their precision in the use of rifles, the corps
made its way to Main Street where sparse
groups of proud parents and by-standers
applauded appreciatively
to march as far' south as
the Town Hall, about turn and begin the trek
northward. Traditionally each sergeant was
expected to treat his recruits to ice cream
served at various parlours along the route.
One section dropped off at 'Neil's, a second at
Aberhart's, a third at Strasser's and the
fourth at Crick's. Those were theldays before
ice cream cones.A generous scoop-full cust-
five cents, a double dip ten cents. A
strawberry soda was rated at fifteen cents
while the maple walnut sundae or the banana
split was well worth the twenty cents. How
times and prices have changed!
Military Camp
Some members of the corps attended
military camp for a few weeks during the
summer for mokle advanced training, rifle
instruction and target practice at the ranges.
Some who wdnt on to university became a part
of the Canadian Officers' Training Corps
(COTC) and , when commissioned, joined
Canada's armed forces for active service in
World War I where they served with
distinction. Regretfully, many made the
supreme sabrifice.
In pang tribute to 'them, the words of
• Pericles given during a funeral oration • in
memory of the fallen some four hundred years
(Continued on Page 40)
THE HURON EXPOSITOR, APRIL 17, 1975 —31