Comments & Editorials 10
Editorial (1961-62)

NOW that St. Nicholas Grammar School is no longer to be regarded as a "new" school, since it has been numerically at full strength for the past two years, we are no longer justified in taking more than ordinary pride in our achievements, nor in offering excuses for our failures. Many of the amenities which the school lacked in its early years are now available, thanks to our numerous friends who have worked so hard and given so generously to further our interests. If, therefore, we claim to be exceptional in the future, we must support our claim with exceptional achievements.

There is the danger that few people will feel inclined to make the extra effort to raise our standards further. The school has been praised so often for past successes that it would not be surprising to find complacency seeping in - although there is certainly no justification for it. There are some grounds for the criticism that the Sixth Form is lacking in initiative and a sense of corporate responsibility. There is certainly scope, even the need, for improvement in some aspects of school life. Let us not, therefore, be content to rest on our laurels.

One specific example of the need for greater energy and public spirit concerns this magazine. It suffers from a chronic shortage of original material, a shortage which has been lately aggravated by the departure of some of our more notable contributors. In the last school magazine but one the editors recorded their disappointment that "so many people are reluctant to contribute articles or give constructive criticism". After an interval of a year our own disappointment is not less. Those same two editors were the first of their kind. Previously the magazine had been edited entirely by members of the staff. The new editors looked forward to more drastic changes in the future, particularly to the time when, they hoped, "the magazine will be entirely the preserve of the boys".

Unfortunately, since that time little progress seems to have been made towards such a position. It would by no means be an unprecedented state of affairs and the fact that our magazine appears to have stopped in its advance towards this aim can only be a reflection upon us, the boys of the school. And so, once again, we express the hope that this magazine may see more radical changes and urge all those who are in a position to bring this about to devote their energies to that end.

Doubtless, there are many who feel that the school magazine. should be an annual monument to the achievements of the school. We would not disagree - provided it were frank and honest about those achievements; indeed, we should like it to be a much better monument for its own quality is the truest reflection of the successes it records.

N. J. Dyson, Lower VI Arts, Sub-editor.