S T .MICHAELS U NIVERSITY S CHOOL Mentoring & Inspiration Fall 2002 Remembering The Barn “How strange that the gym won’t be there next time I stop by. In so many ways, that was my time at SMUS—the many, many hours I spent there—doing jump shots, hitting 100 three- pointers every day. An incredible amount of sweat was left on that floor as well as a fair amount of skin and even one kneecap!” Mike Wighton (SMUS ’99) These photos show the demolition of the old gym and the beginning of the new Crothall Centre for Humanities and the Arts. See story on page 24. school ties - fall 2002 1 Fall 2002 HIS SUMMER, we listened to the sounds of heavy equipment – T compressors, saws, trucks, hammers, drills, diggers, and more – rumbling behind the old School House. We felt the buildings shake as we witnessed the demolition of the Old Gym. Dump truck after On the cover dump truck rolled in, loaded up rubble, and carted it away. Then came the great excavators – they dug away shovelful after shovelful of dirt, Mentoring & Inspiration rock, and clay. Then began the construction of the underground parkade. Ian Hyde-Lay, SMUS Director of Athletics; Stephen Nash, You can view the minute by minute progress of the construction on the Grad 1992; Meggan Hunt, school’s website via the web cam. This time next fall, the doors will be Grad 1996; Nancy Mollenhauer, open – The Crothall Centre for Humanities and the Arts will be full of Faculty & Field Hockey Coach. students and classes will be in session – this being the result of brave and creative inspiration and vision! In this issue of School Ties, we look at inspiration and mentoring, two important components that help influence and shape our lives. Effective VERY STUDENT AT SMUS must have a meaningful relationship coaching offers us new perspectives – perspectives that can challenge our E with at least one adult staff member. This is an oft-stated goal assumptions, catch our blind spots, stretch our thinking, develop our here. As I communicate with alumni across all ages, it is only a imagination and keep us balanced and on track. Take a few moments matter of time before a comment, question, memory, or observation today to recognize the people who have mentored and inspired you in comes up about a warmly remembered staff person. Special teachers, your own life! house parents, coaches, grounds people and other staff – they all come up Archie Ives has been dusting off old books in the archives to bring you in conversation. These relationships are remembered and their memory an intriguing quiz on a group of men who have had a tremendous treasured, literally for decades. influence on our school and our community – the Headmasters! Herein, Two examples of inspiring leadership and meaningful relationship are you’ll find the Board’s Annual Report – a synopsis on the past year, the seen on this magazine cover. Two coaches, Ian Hyde-Lay and Nancy Annual Fund report, and all the latest news from our busy school Mollenhauer, both experienced national level athletes, mentored these community. We hope that you enjoy this issue! outstanding and hard working student athletes, Stephen Nash and – J.F. Meggan Hunt. Now this young man and woman represent their country and provide inspiration for others. – Chris Spicer, Director of Development SCHOOL TIES is distributed to more than 6,500 members of the St. Michaels University School community, including current families, friends, and current & past staff and students. The goal of the publication is to communicate current activities and initiatives, along with articles and reports on the alumni community. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this publication, please contact Jenus Friesen at (250) 370-6169 or email: [email protected] Between the Red Walls Published by: Still Available! The Development Office at St. Michaels University School On June 10, about 40 staff 3400 Richmond Road, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8P 4P5 Telephone: (250) 592-2411 Admissions: 1-800-661-5199 and students gathered in Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.smus.bc.ca the Barker Library for the Editors: launch of the third edition of Christopher Spicer, Jenus Friesen the Writing 12 chapbook, Between the Red Walls. The Contributors: (in no particular order) Robert Snowden, Peter Bousfield, Melanie Hadfield, Robert Wilson, book is the collected work Ian Hyde-Lay, Brenda Waksel, Stephen Martin, Archie Ives, John Reid, of the 17 students who were Sandra Moore, Tom Matthews, Rev. June Maffin, Cam Culham, in the class. Copies are still Kevin Cook, Dr. Iain Forbes, Rosemary Mansell, Donna Johnson, available for $5. Please Bruce Kuklinski, Donna Ray, Jen Walinga, Henry Frew, Peter Leggatt, contact Mr. Marchand at [email protected] Jake Humphries, Louise Winter, Chris Collins, Kathy Roth or (250) 370-6115 to order a copy. Photographers: Jenus Friesen, Chris Spicer, school family members & friends Production & Printing: Reber Creative Hillside Printing Ltd. Victoria, BC Lithographed in Canada If you are interested in attending school events, call (250) 592-2411 for further details, or visit the school’s website Calendar of Events: www.smus.bc.ca 2 from the headmaster Gargoyles by Robert Snowden, Headmaster, SMUS ARGOYLES HAVE OBSCURE ORIGINS. I knew mathematical ability. If our recent understanding of G nothing about them when I first entered learning and pedagogy didn’t result in greater success University College, at University of in attaining university entrance, we would likely Toronto, where they festoon the corners of the ignore it. The reality is that the “old” methods of building. They have appeared on many buildings rote, drill and lecture – methods that certainly since medieval times, often in locations too high up seemed to serve me fine decades ago – have proven to to be identified as gargoyles – a strange arrangement, be less effective in getting students into my alma because many hours of work had to go into the mater than the newer methods. production of these ornate statuettes. What appealed It is very clear at our school that even in the Robert Snowden, Headmaster to most of us students, when we thought about earliest grades, our parents are committed to the path gargoyles at all, was the weirdness of them, the of university preparation. In a survey we did three contrast between their simple functionality – as years ago, the most important priority of parents with “...academic rigour gives students downspouts for rain that collected in gutters – and children in the primary grades wasn’t self-esteem, the ability to sift the true from the their ornate and bizarre design. Their history is safety, or the “basics”– it was preparation for untrue, the relevant from the murky, although the Encyclopedia Britannica records university. To tell a parent, or to think, as an irrelevant – to think critically, that the first gargoyle was a monster in Rouen, who administrator, that university preparation is and to think for themselves...” terrorized the local inhabitants until a priest arrived something you can leave till grade 9 to worry about, and promised to rid the town of the creature if they is a mistake. I have come to realize that no one buys converted to Christianity. The gargouille was burned into the school’s mission – preparation for higher at the stake, but the head and shoulders refused to learning and for life – more completely than parents burn, whereupon it was placed on the town wall. who enrol their children in kindergarten. This gargoyle reputedly became the model for That path to higher learning definitely does gargoyles for centuries to come. Modern downspouts become a more immediate and delineated one in the are much more utilitarian, much less complicated. last couple of years of high school. It can become a University includes many puzzling features – time when parents and students disagree stubbornly corners of buildings that seem to be over what degree to pursue. On the afterthoughts, professors who teach “Busy students other side of the coin, it can be a time badly, laboratories devoted to enigmatic are much more when parents and students both despair research, course names that lead one to interesting thinkers.” that neither of them know what the question an entire university’s credibility. student is going to pursue in university. On the social and extra-curricular side, you have Nevertheless, there is a lot of faith that going to bookworms, computer geeks, supporters who paint university, or some similar institution of higher themselves in tribal colours for football games, learning such as art school, theatre school, cooking budding journalists, musicians and artists. There are school (yes, some of our top graduates have gone on also Nobel Prize winners, discoverers of insulin, and to culinary college), or community college – is an leaders of thought. important and worthwhile step. University of Toronto, McGill, Queen’s, Stanford, This faith persists, despite all the puzzling features Harvard, Princeton, University of British Columbia, of universities, their programmes and their broader University of Victoria: our students are headed there. culture which most of us find simply amusing. In other, earlier decades, even our Junior School Probably the most-frequently quoted justification for curriculum would have reflected, more obviously this faith is the difference in income between those than it does today, this eventual destination: reading with a university degree and those without. The and writing exercises, mathematics courses, and what difference quoted is significant, and is usually around I call the “macho” of examinations and testing 20%, but some would say it is more. We all want our pointed straight to the day when a student would sons and daughters to have economic security.