Neil McNeil High School Celebrates 50 Year

Martin, Noel P

English

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Spiritan Magazine Volume 32 Number 2 May Article 10 5-2008 "Our Title is Our Glory" Noel P. Martin Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/spiritan-tc Recommended Citation Martin, N. P. (2008). "Our Title is Our Glory". Spiritan Magazine, 32 (2). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/spiritan-tc/vol32/iss2/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Spiritan Collection at Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Spiritan Magazine by an authorized editor of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. 14 May 2008 / Spiritan“You are going to Toronto,” theProvincial said. “That’s in Canada,”he added sensing that I might begeographically challenged.And so it was that on September 13,1965 I arrived at Neil McNeil High School,and a forty-three year old love affair with aCanadian education institution began.“Neil boys are we, our title is our glory!” Neilimprinted me, Neil informed me, and in ahost of different and differing ways NeilMcNeil High School shaped the Catholicteacher in me. I have often said, sometimesin jest but more often in earnest, and withapologies to Shakespeare for this butcher-ing of The Merchant of Venice, “if youscratch me, will I not bleed maroon andgrey!”“Our Title is Our Glory”Noel P. MartinBut back to the beginning. After a rous-ing welcome to the school by an assemblyof the whole community on September 14,reality came crashing about my head onSeptember 15. I had a Homeroom — 10C.I had never heard of a Homeroom before.‘Home’ — yes; ‘room’ — yes, but ‘Home-room’? We didn’t have ‘Homerooms’ inIreland. What is a ‘Homeroom’? What doyou do in a ‘Homeroom’? And when youfind yourself standing clueless in one, willsomeone please tell me what to do withthese thirty plus maroon clad Canadianteens!A fun place to teachWorse was to come. Peter Fleming, ofblessed memory, was the Vice-Principal.You remember; he went about his dutieswith a two dollar bill sticking out of the toppocket in his jacket. This was a not so gen-tle hint to the smokers that two dollarswere the ‘wages of sin’ if apprehended inflagrante delicto! But I digress. My class schedule had two subjects —Latin in Grade 11A and 12B and Sciencefor all Grade 9. In a moment of excessiveenthusiasm I had indicated to Pete that myteaching subjects were Latin, Greek, Irishand Botany. Vice-Principal Fleming saw‘Botany.’ He made the unwarranted as-sumption that I could teach ‘Science’, andsolved his dilemma of not having a Grade 9Science Teacher. The first half of the coursewas all Physics. I do not like Physics.Physics and I are not on any kind of speak-ing terms. My teaching of those Grade 9Science classes gave new meaning to theconcept of being one page ahead of thekids. And that was on good days!But thanks to the help and encourage-ment of Ed Hannah and Fr. FitzGerald, Isurvived those early months, and with sur-vival came the dawning realization that Iliked teaching, and I liked teaching in NeilF I D E L I T A S   Spiritan / May 2008 15McNeil High School. Teaching in aCatholic School is a unique vocation.Without sermonizing or proselytizing, youbegin to realize that you can bring that dis-tinctiveness of the Catholic school to bearon the lives of young people. The fact thatone could have fun doing so was an addedbonus. And Neil was a fun place to teach.All one had to do was look at the staff! A unique teaching staffOne remembers Gerry Crowe, a greathistory teacher, standing on a desk in hisclassroom waving a real sabre in his imag-ined role of some heroic general leading histroops into some great battle. Or we re-member the same Gerry Crowe musing ingreat perplexity as to how his Volkswagenhad managed to park itself between the twogreat maple trees that bordered the footballfield. (Footnote: I think it is time for thosesix students from Grade 11 to own up totheir mischief!)All-boys schoolMcNeil boys are we! A school withoutstudents is just an empty shell. Students arethe life blood of a school. Their indefatiga-ble energy and enthusiasm vibrate through-out a school. A school during the longsummer vacation rings hollow, and issomehow eerily silent.The Christmas HooleyAn all-boys school can be raucous andloud. It has an atmosphere and smells all ofits own. But it is unquestionably alive. Thebrash and exuberant energy of the Neil boysfound a ready outlet in the plethoraof extra-curricular activities thatfilled the school calendar. Theystretched from the wide ranging athlet-ics program to that most unique Neil Mc-Neil creation — the Christmas ‘Hooley.’This Roman circus was the brainchild of thelate Gerry Smialek in which the late PaulMcKerry was once featured as a MontyPythonesque Cardinal from theSpanish Inquisition, and the Phys. Ed.Department, suitably attired in tou-tous,performed a pas de deux from The SleepingBeauty to the howls of laughter and derisionfrom an audience high on Gerbil Juice. This latter, a Hooley tradition, was thecreation of the Science Department Head,the same Gerry Smialek, and was a labora-tory concoction of various fruit juices andcordial that was quite popular with themasses, and as far as can be told was inno-cent of any intoxicants. It might be tempt-ing to surmise that when one member ofthe cast of The Sleeping Beauty, having ex-ecuted a flying leap, hit the stage floor witha resounding thud because his erstwhilecatcher, semi-blind without his glasses,hopelessly failed to see the flying HelmutStoekle, the cause of the balletic mishapwas in some manner related to the GerbilJuice ingredients. The standing ovation thatfollowed was notorious for its insincerity.Angels we have heard on highBut it was Christmas, and that was theChristmas of the Apparition of the NeilMcNeil Angel. There were those whodismissed the apparition as a hoax or thedelusion of unsteady minds besotted withthe afore-mentioned Gerbil Juice, but therewere reliable witnesses who were there forthe spectacular event. Paul Torrance, the Head of English, hadindicated to his Grade 13 English class acertain reservation about his belief in thereality of the Angelic Horde. This quasi-heretical musing came to the attention ofI N   A R D U I S16 May 2008 / Spiritanthe Religion Department, notably to themind of one Ted Schmidt, who felt it washis bounden Christian duty to counteractsuch disbelief. Conspiring with Russ Stachiwand willing conspirators from the Grade 13class, a scenario was played out which sawTed, robed as an Angel, being lowered byrope from a classroom window on the sec-ond floor, to the only window in Paul’sclassroom that had the drapes partiallydrawn, while the trumpet section of theSenior Band playing Angels we have heard onHigh in the corridor outside Room 108!Ancient Canadian customsAnd that same brass section of the SeniorConcert Band was part of another story, butin a different setting and in a far away land.In 1970 the band was on one of its manyinternational tours. This time we were inOsaka, Japan, to play at the World’s Fair.We were billeted for three days in a ruralhostel several miles from Osaka where ourJapanese hosts were applying the somewhatrigorous and restrictive rules of the hostel towarm-blooded Canadian youths who wereon tour. The omens were not auspicious. On our second night there, with a callfor the 10:00pm ‘Lights Out’ imminent,Father Tom Garvey conspired with thetrumpet section, with the rest of the bandmembers and, I hasten to add, the supervis-ing staff members, that just as the “LightsOut” call sounded the trumpets would playa stirring version of the The Last Post, per-haps better known as Taps. The “LightsOut” call sounded. Fr. Garvey dropped hisimaginary conductor’s baton. And as theclarion notes of The Last Post reverberatedin the stillness of the quiet night air, and the rest of us froze to a stiff attention, ourJapanese hosts came racing upstairs to in-vestigate and quell the cause of this un-seemly commotion, only to be met with theawesome phenomenon of the penetratingGarvey glare. He froze the unfortunatenewcomers with an icy, “Silence! Please toshow respect for ancient Canadian custom.”A two-way propositionNeil McNeil is all about community, avibrant Catholic school community. It is inaddition a vibrant Spiritan community,which shares in the same educational phi-losophy with other Spiritan high schoolsaround the globe. That philosophy looks tothe education of the whole person intellec-tually, spiritually, emotionally, physicallyand with a significant emphasis on serviceto humanity at home and abroad. Yes, there were days for many of us,when any other profession on the face ofthe earth seemed more attractive than thetask of opening young minds to the possi-bilities that lay ahead. But that was a pass-ing shadow. To teach, one has to love thestudent in all that student’s moods andtenses. The vocation of teaching has longterm implications, and teaching in aCatholic school has eternal implications. It is with great pride that we the teachersat Neil view the significant contributionsthat the students have made to the fabric oflife in Ontario and indeed across Canadaand beyond. Neil McNeil Alumni havegraced many careers and professions. Thatso many have followed us into the teachingprofession is both flattering and humbling.Learning is a two-way proposition. Stu-dents learn from us, we learn from you. Ifthe learning in a classroom is not mutual,then it is an undeveloped learning.Remembering and forgettingThe human memory has the capacity tofilter out most of the unpleasantness thatlife throws our way. We cherish the excitingand fun situations — Father McGough’sFrench verbs; the Student Council Elec-tions; teams winning championships;Hockey Night at Ted Reeve Arena; NickNolan’s record-setting relay team at theGardens Indoor Track and Field meet; theChocolate Bar campaign; Cory Boisselle’sincredible two points against Del whilelying on his back under the basketball net.We forget the boring classes, the food in thecafeteria, the visits to Mr. Heron’s office,the football practices on those cold, wet Oc-tober evenings, the assignments that wentin really late, the day your pants ripped!It is in the nature of every human com-munity that death should come to all. On this 50th anniversary we remember thestudents and staff who were taken from usin an untimely fashion. But we do notgrieve as those who have no hope. OurChristian hope solidly reminds us that ‘foryour faithful people life has changed notended.’ Our dead are still part of us, and weare part of them.Grateful heartsI shall never forget Neil McNeil. It wasmy introduction to this wonderful countryand I would not change it. Many of us, stu-dents and staff, are older now, maybe evenwiser. Our hair which was long, short orshaven is now grey, thinning or gone. Butwe celebrate this Anniversary with gratefulhearts knowing that we spent time togetherin this mutual enterprise called CatholicEducation, and in that time affected somechange in each other. And with an apologyand a paraphrase of the W.B. Yeats poem,Easter 1916, we, the alumni and staff ofNeil McNeil High School proclaim:Now and in time to be,Wherever maroon and grey is wornMcNeil boys are we!Our Title is our Glory! ■F I D E L I T A S   

Our Title is Our Glory

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Our Title is Our Glory

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