Torch - Fall/Winter 2019-20

Traditions

Havergal Celebrates 125 Years of Excellence with New ebook

eBook

I n celebration of Havergal’s 125th anniversary, we have released a new ebook titled Reflections of Havergal to document the past 25 years of the school’s history. The ebook was designed to complement the Celebrating a Century book that was first published in 1994. This ebook was authored by Jean Sheppard, a former Havergal faculty member who taught at the school from 1986 to 2012. Read the full book to learn more about Havergal’s history online, for free, at havergal.on.ca/reflectionsbook

Reflections of Havergal 1994 to 2019

WRITTEN BY JEAN SHEPPARD

An Excerpt from Reflections of Havergal : There can be little doubt that Miss Knox would be proud of the growth of the Havergal tree she nurtured with such dedication. Certainly, her “school in a tree” provided a precious image for the community—and inspired one student to write "What the Apple Tree Saw" for the 1919 Ludemus . The symbol was also the focus of a compelling talk Brenda Robson gave in Prayers in the late 1990s. Havergal is like a tree. It’s a good old tree that has been growing for more than a hundred years and has good solid roots …What we see above is a vibrant, healthy, often noisy, usually happy school. There are two roots from which this school grows. The first is the root of education … the second is the root of religion. From the roots grows the tree. Our tree is a tall, spreading one with many branches representing a great diversity of people and activities. The branches are also representative of the traditions in the school. Some are old, like the Grandchildren’s Party and Graduation. Some are relatively new, like House Shout. Some are most dependent on the education root, such as the Debating Club. Others are dependent on the religion root, for example, the Carol Service and the Candlelight Ceremony. It is possible to prune the branches of the tree and to allow new ones to grow. Its … appearance will change as a result, but its strength and support will not—it will still be essentially the same tree …The same is true of this school. In 1994, the centennial year, the Havergal tree’s roots were deep and its canopy lush. The program was vibrant,

community support was wholehearted and, to draw on the words of the 1991 Mission Statement, Old Girls were conducting themselves with “both confidence and compassion in their professional, social, community and family lives.” However, the world beyond the ivy was being rocked by unprecedented disruption and change, with far-reaching implications for educational institutions. The early 1990s saw the collapse of the Soviet Union, the revocation of apartheid laws in South Africa, the detonation of a bomb in the World Trade Center and genocide in Rwanda. Even more far reaching in its impact was the exponential growth in the use of the Internet. As Dr. Winn Barlow observed in the final pages of Havergal: Celebrating a Century , “[t]he world has, in effect, shrunk and no individual or group can any longer live a life unaffected by the actions of others, whether they be neighbours or strangers.” [A Havergal education] must give our students the confidence to manage change. We must try to ensure that they graduate from the school with a love of learning and the desire to continue this learning throughout their lives: with a wide range of skills, especially the ability to think both critically and creatively; with knowledge that roots them in their own heritage while opening them up to the new and the different; and with a strong set of the basic values that transcend all cultures. In the years that have followed, Havergal has strived to provide just that kind of education. Given the gravity of these events and the speed of transformation, Dr. Barlow asserted the following:

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