Mr. Chairman, Honored Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Graduates
I am deeply honored to deliver the Valedictory address to you on behalf of the Graduating Class of 1959.
During the past twelve years, we, through the devotion of our parents and the dedication of our teachers, have been given an education. When consideration is given to the fact that less than forty per cent of the people of Canada have received a Grade XII education, we acknowledge our debt of gratitude for the instruction and guidance we have received.
For what purpose will the knowledge we have gained be used? Unfortunately there are many Canadians who value education only as a business asset. They value education, not as an experience but as a tool. Education is more than that!
Education is a key to the joys of intellectual experience and acquaintance with the best that has been said and done in the past. For only education can guide us to the enjoyment of that which is, at once, best in quality and infinite in quantity.
Through the education or its people, a nation grows and takes its place among other nations. Education and government are essential in a democratic society. Good government depends upon good education, and in contrast, education depends upon an enlightened government. "Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive, easy to govern, but impossible to enslave." True education develops inequalities; the inequality of individuality; the inequality of success; the inequality of talent, of genius; inequality, not mediocrity.
The inequality of individual superiority not the standardization as offered by autocratic governments. This inequality is the measure of the progress of the world. In the past nations have been lead to borrow billions for war, but no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization.
We, the youth as represented by the Graduation Class of 1959, must help make the choice — we cannot have both.
As we go on in our future endeavours we will carry with us memories of the past twelve years. To some these memories will be cherished forever but to others will be just memories.
Although we must rely upon the knowledge gained from experiences of the past, we must not remain there — or we stagnate. We must look ahead to the future, for although the past can provide assistance to the future, we must always bear in mind that the past is dead and gone, only the memories remain. The past, and those who lived in it will be gone. Only youth will remain. Not only those who are youthful in years, but also those who are youthful in mind as we11. Years alone do not determine age. It has been said that a man is old when his brain hardens, and his brain hardens when he refuses to accept new ideas. The old in mind can never understand the youthful or the problems of youth. Only youth itself can. Youth, then, is the native of its own times and must carry with it the key to its own salvation.
