Fr Principal's address to 10thers

One day a young mother met Aristotle with this question, "When should I begin training my child?" "How old is your child?" asked Aristotle. "Why, he is five years old", answered the mother. "Hurry home", cried Aristotle, "You are five years late already."

Well, dear parents, you entrusted these young men when they were just five years old, and you dear students, some of you may remember that first day when you walked into the portals of this school, some crying, some laughing and brimming with excitement, some confused, some bewildered, and some of you may not even remember that day. After almost 11 years of journey that I am sure all of you will cherish throughout your life, you have arrived at one of the milestones that you would encounter as you march forward in your life. Today you have arrived at a very important juncture of your life from where you can look at the plethora of possibilities, myriad opportunities that are there waiting for you, inviting you, enticing you. Time has come when you have to leave the cozy cocoons that your parents have been providing you, and begin to stand on your own legs, taking responsibilities for your own thoughts, actions, achievements and failures.

Henry Ward Beecher once said, "Education is the knowledge of how to use the whole of oneself. Many men use but one or two faculties out of the score with which they are endowed. An educated man knows how to make a tool of every faculty how to open it, how to keep it sharp, and how to apply it to all practical purposes." It is in this context, dear parents and our graduates that I want to draw your attention to one of the issues of concern. All of us are aware that there is a rat-race out there to make everyone an engineer, a doctor or a lawyer. Surely we need all of these people - but we also need poets, we also need musicians, we also need artists, we also need good journalists, we also need good politicians, we also need good leaders, we also need good sports persons. May I ask you a question to all of you present here tonight? How many of our parents let their wards pursue the promptings of their hearts?

"Education fails," says Norman Cousins, " unless the three R's at one end of the school spectrum lead ultimately to the four P's at the other - Preparation for Earning, Preparation for Living, Preparation for Understanding, and Preparation for Participation in the problems involved in the making of a better world."

A liberally educated person is the one who is deeply interested in life and enjoys it; is the one who is sympathetic and generous in his attitude to other peoples, cultures, and countries; who accepts his world and himself as a growing, changing enterprise; who is sensitive to the beautiful and the ugly in actions and objects; who believes in human right and freedom; and above all, as a good Nobilian, is the one who loves and cares for his neighbours especially the poor and the underprivileged.

Remember, a person's worth is assessed not in terms of what he or she has in terms of his or her material possessions, but in terms of what he or she is or has become. What you are is more important than what you have.

The Duke of Wellington, who was educated at Eton, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Towards the end of his life, he visited his alma mater and kissed the walls of the school, saying, "The battle of Waterloo has been won here."

Dear graduates, as you step forward from the protective portals of your school into the thick and thin of the world outside where you will have to face many battles, this is my prayer for each one of you that May there be a day when you could come back to the same campus and say, "yes, my battle of Waterloo has been won here."

Thank you, and God bless each one of you!