COMMENCEMENT ANNUAL (

FOREWORD

NO REVERSION

Our school motto is “Vistigia Nulla Retrorsum” or “No Backward Step.”
A new pupil entering school sees in front of him, in large letters of black and gold,
the motto in latin. He asks what it means, it is explained and from his initiation
into school life that element of advancement is before him. The motto is tradition,
handed down from graduates to new pupils. It is known in nearly every large Indian
Village in British Columbia and that mighty factor, unconscious ‘influence, looms
up in the making of a man and woman out of the boy and girl who go through
our school.

In regard to the Indians of British Columbia, it is not true that they take a
backward step as soon as they leave school. It is not true that they return to
primitive methods. It is not true that their training is lost and that they shed it as
easily as rain runs down a window pane. It is a psychological untruth, for, if the
pupils have been properly trained, the attitude of mind unconsciously reduces the
tendency to all retrogressions. The intermingling of habits and ideals acquired at
school with existing conditions in|the villages and reserves to which they return
upon graduation results in improved conditions in the home, community and
village life. In a generation the change witnessed in some Indian villages is so
great that it 1s almost a modern miracle.

A number of Indian Agents, Missionaries and others have borne unsolicited
testimony, written and verbal, that the remarkable advancement in villages of the
north-west coast is largely due to the influence of pupils trained in Residential
Schools.

HIGHER EDUCATION

A few years ago the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs met a large
delegation of the native people in Vancouver. Amongst other things they requested
of the government that their children should have access to High School privileges
as readily as the children of other people. The Superintendent General assured
them that if the pupils, when they had passed through the Residential School were
capable of further training, the necessary provision for higher education would be
made. This programme has been followed out conscientiously by the Department
of Indian Affairs. The Deputy Superintendent General and the Secretary of
Education have provided High School facilities and advanced technical training
for those who have passed their Entrance and wish to proceed further in their
education. Never in the history of the native people has there been offered a better
opportunity for an all round education than at the present time. Let me say,
however that if the parents would insist that their children attend the Day
Schools more regularly than in the past, a better foundation would be laid,
advancement would be more rapid. More would reach the high school grades at
an earlier age which is desirable.

“Coqualeetza,”’
Sardis, B.C.., : é
June 20th, 1932. a

ae EO INGIPAL.

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