1966-St-Joseph-College-Terrace.Pdf
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' 5649n on 4.054 to, 1966 9 V... "Ws, ,r21 Or , a w -www Registered at G.P.O., Brisbane for Transmission by Post as a Periodical . ok.40- "."" ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE GREGORY TERRACE 1876-1966 4nnticri c_.Alcrgazine 1966 I MOST REV. P. M. O'DONNELL, D.D. Archbishop of Brisbane 7nally, lrothers, fill all your minds with everything that is true everything that is noble Ir Set everything that is good and pure everything that we love and honour and everything that can bethought virtuous 4.1 or worthy of praise. - `Keep doing all the things that you learnt from me and have been taught by me V and have heard or seen 1 4 that A. - S I e Jo ,71 ."?.. fit. " Men the god of 'Peace will be with you. 'yr,* 7.1. PHIL. 4 V 8.9 Silver jutilcrrians Saceriotes atcjue 4lutmni o 4 REV. GRANTLEY LAKE REV. BASIL BERGIN Senior Chaplain, R.A.N. Parish Priest, Ekibin Terrace 1927-33 Terrace 1922-33 Page Three Brother Davy was a Headmaster who was com- fortable in his position. He was a thinker, a prober, an experimenter, an initiator, interested in the big things in education and paying little homage to the trifling minutiae of daily school life; one to whom every school day was a challenge urging him to see that everyone and everything within the school tended towards the best in education; one who sensed the need for a more articulate leadership and set about inculcating it both inside and outside the schoolroom; one who daily led staff and students ever upwards to the highest ideals in thought and effort. Yet he was one who could take his place in the classroom with the verve and enthusiasm of a teacher fresh from college, and could inspire in his students a genuine love of the subjects he taught. He was one who could turn to the sports fields and Tennyson and with one stroke provide building and equipment of a vital nature, and with another, alter existing plans to provide Terrace with an oval that has a setting and completeness befitting a school of Terrace's stature. In school he immediately grasped the strength, the vitality, the solidity, the potential of Terrace and in every sphere he never ceased to impress on all that forwards and upwards was the only policy worthy of Terrace, if Terrace was to play its appointed role both in Church and State. Brother Davy guided Terrace over the past two years. His term of office was terminated abruptly when he was appointed to the Provincial Council, the governing executive of the Christian Brothers' Northern Province, Terrace regrets the loss of Rev. Br. W. L. DAVY, B.A., Dip. Ed., M.A.C.E. Brother Davy but realises that he has been elevated to a much wider sphere of influence. Page Four _ riTT,.1111 r -71- JrrTrtt'vr;rulirmk,J., THE ANNUAL REPORT, 1966 ILIC .i Ii IIIJITUIllilla His Grace, Archbishop P. M. O'Donnell, D.D., that human happiness consists in freely obeying the presided at the Annual Speech Night held at the law of God; that God, not man, is the source and Festival Hall on Monday, 31st October. The Guest guarantee of law and value. Speaker was the Honourable, Senator J. G. Gorton, Minister -in -charge, Commonwealth Activities in Edu- This is a virile philosophy on which a sound cation and Research. The Official Party comprised educational theory was built - a credit to the Rev. 0. K. Oxenham,Administrator; Rev. Br. J. S. Catholic community that has maintained and ex- Campbell, Provincial Consultor; and Mr. J. P. Reid, panded its system during the difficult years since the President of the Old Boys' Association. Education Act of 1880, but it would be foolish and dishonest not to recognize the fact that despite the excellence of so many of our schools there is never- Excerpts from the Headmaster's Report:- theless a gap between what we aim to do with our It is not easy to get people to agree on educa- pupils and what we do actually achieve. This is true, tional values. Some deny the existence of a specific of course, of most forms of human endeavour but education philosophy but maintain it is merely the since we are concerned in our schools with human philosophy of life, suitably applied; others see educa- persons, their souls and their bodies, we can never tion merely as the transmission of knowledge or as make peace with mediocrity. The Australian com- the development of critical thinking with no real munity itself is beginning to realize this and the philosophic basis at all; still others, and I think this Catholic school system cannot stand outside this includes many professional educators of today, see national awakening. It, too, must be upgraded. it rather as a theory of education expressed in a con- crete programme of education. For purposes of this Here we can clearly see the need for a sound talk, this is the interpretation, I too, shall adopt be- pragmatic philosophy of education for, unless we cause it is at this level I feel most of our problems know with reasonable certainty what we are trying lie. to do with our pupils in terms of total education we have no yardstick with which to measure our per- We have long believed in the Catholic schools formance or to plan for the future. that the philosophical uncertainty noticed in other systems was not to be found in our own and that the There is a real need, because it comes at an his- dilemma of the "what" and the "why" and, to a cer- torical point of time that rejects mediocrity, and is tain extent, the "how" was more pronounced in the impatient of delay, for a critical, candid, objective secular system. I personally believe this to be so. survey of the entire Catholic school system. If such We have felt secure in a philosophy firmly rooted on a survey were made, as it was in U.S.A. recently, I that of St. Thomas Aquinas, a philosophy which think we may find that the Catholic schools are even explores man's relationship with God, and asserts better than we had thought. Such a survey would Page Five be invaluable in determining the weaknesses and It has always been our standpoint that no child strengths of the system and in measuring its per- should be penalized educationally because of the formance-and a pre -requisite, perhaps, for any religious convictions of his parents. It would be the significant increase in Commonwealth aid. In the supreme example of irony if ever such a penalty U.S.A. the professional research team that conducted were to be imposed from within. It is important, the survey was financed by the Carnegie Foundation. then, that in our thinking and planning we do not The Catholic authorities in Australia would have no allow the disabilities forced on us over the years to such resources available to them but one wonders if become permanent and, what is worse, to be the resources of the Australian Research Grants accepted as the norm. Committee would ever be made available for such a research programme as this. There can be only one acceptable standard for the Christian schools-that of excellence. There is Most of the problems that beset Australian little justification for their existence, despite their education are financial rather than educational. I religious character, if their standards fall below once heard the Headmaster of a very famous inde- those of the ordinary school provided by the State. pendent school say that there were no educational problems but only financial ones. I considered that I would like to assure you that most Catholic an oversimplification and a somewhat cynical re- schools provide a good education despite the diffi- mark but on reflection I had to admit it cut closer culties, but the going is tough. to the bone than I had at first imagined. If the purse is big enough we can buy ourselves out of most, but But because we educate human persons made not all, of our problems. The Catholic education unto God's likeness we must teach them Christian purse has never been large enough. If there is values and because we must also train young people a tendency in our system to see the problems of to take their place in a modern complete society we education purely in terms of numbers and space; if must train them well. there are too many pupils, too few teachers and insufficient amenities; if in any Catholic school there To fail the children would be to fail the nation. are limited educational opportunities for the pupils who go there, it is not because of any break-down in Our schools have served Australia and the the fundamental philosophy of the system but Church well. We cannot afford to let even one be- simply because there isn't enough cash. come second rate. C,\ Page Six FROM THE HEADMASTER'S REPORT: An Mrs. W. Wilkes and Mrs. P. O'Shea for the import- appreciation. I cannot really say why in this report, ant part they play in the cultural training of the boys. as in so many others, the thanking of the staff should be left to the last, for, in any evaluation of a school's Finally and most sincerely do. I want to thank Miss J. Coffey and Miss I. Healy in charge of the performance, the quality and the enthusiasm of the domestic staff and the College Secretaries, Mrs.