The Tragic Loss of Jason Peagram ’05

Posted on January 18, 2011 by admin

Monday in the USA was, Martin Luther King Day, a national holiday. It was a day for reflection and an opportunity to celebrate the great black Civil rights leader who did so much on behalf of all African Americans. In fact, Reverend Martin Luther King Junior dedicated his life to building bridges between peoples of all different backgrounds in the great American melting pot. So essentially, the national holiday was a day to celebrate diversity, racial equity, peace and compassion. It was well timed on the heels of the traumatic shooting only days ago in Tucson Arizona that killed or injured more than a dozen people, including a member of the House of Representatives who has miraculously survived a bullet to the brain.

So as America reflected and searched for avenues toward a more peaceful society, here at LCC we are also reminded of the callous impact of violence. Sadly, Jason Peagram, 22-years old and an LCC graduate from the Class of 2005, was killed late last week in a shooting here in our fair city – Montreal’s first homicide for 2011.

Monday, as America celebrated Doctor King’s important message of peace, I joined colleagues from LCC and attended Jason Peagram’s funeral. It is always tragic and somewhat unnatural to watch a mother bury her son. The fact that he was a victim of such a violent act only made it more difficult.

As the presiding priest shared with the congregation, this untimely and violent death of a 22 year-old with his future before him, reminds us that there is indeed evil in the world. That the grace and sanctity of life was taken from Jason in the street in a violent manner was shocking and brutal. We were advised to be cautious of violence that is creeping onto Canadian streets and into our households. Indeed, we should all be alarmed. We were also asked to consider what we have done for others recently. You see, Jason was a regular volunteer. A love of service was an attribute he picked up while at LCC–most recently as a volunteer with kids involved in basketball programs at the Trevor Williams Kids Foundation. The priest at the funeral also asserted that we should all be wary of selfishness, narcissism, and a tendency for all of us to be too self-absorbed. So how can we counter reckless, illogical violence? It is only through love, sharing and community outreach that we will defeat brash violence. Together we have to smother it. It begins in our daily lives at school and in our homes.

A young LCC brother was buried on Monday. He was a victim of a willful act of violence and we should all feel a sort of inner personal outrage. However, we cannot allow violence to triumph. Stop and reflect how you can respond through a personal gesture or act of compassion or empathy. However small or large, let’s each dedicate an individual private act of kindness to the memory of Jason Peagram, Class of ’05.

Jason’s Irish roots were evident at his funeral and the final words of the following traditional Irish prayer provided a fitting farewell.

Jason: “May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. May the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, May the Lord hold you in the palm of His hand.”
—Chris Shannon, Headmaster

Life After High School: Plan Ahead

Posted on January 18, 2011 by admin

Come grades 10 and 11, students begin to think about their future. What is the next step? Well, the first decision is Pre-University or CEGEP. For those who know that going away is not for them, their decision is quite easy. But for those who have even the slightest interest in a different kind of experience, the range of options is even greater.

Pre-U is the option if you want to go away for university. It’s a program that fully prepares you in terms of the workload and background you need to fully succeed when you get to university. The classes are small and I find this extremely helpful because unlike CEGEP, I get to know my teachers well as most of LCC students are used too. It’s true that at university you won’t have a class size of six students (depending on the type of school you choose) but you will have a much stronger academic background and skills that prove to be a great advantage. I’ve sat through the most boring of English classes where I had to analyze sentence structure and write a 100-word paragraph where word choice was of the utmost importance. I’ve spent time writing different kinds of sentences (by this I mean the use of a comma or semi colon) and yes I thought this was completely irrelevant because a sentence is a sentence. However, when it came time to write my college essay–a very important part of your application–I found that my writing had changed. I did care about structure, and I made sure I had used a variety of sentences to make my writing even more proficient. The point is, you may not realize it until you have to apply it, but the skills (like sentence structure) will save you many headaches in the future.

Now if you’re thinking that you want to do a year of CEGEP and then leave the province that’s fine. But let me warn you that you will not get the support system that Pre-U has. You won’t have a college advisor making sure your application is perfect. You won’t have teachers with flexible office hours and you certainly won’t have a community of peers that are going through the exact same thing you are. Never in my life have I been so stressed. I have to study for my SATs, keep up my grades, and write six different essays on top of my sports. It’s a crazy balancing act but the best thing about it is that I have 26 other friends who know exactly what I’m going through. You also don’t have an assortment of candy available to you all day. What I’m saying is that if you know after a year that you want to go away you might as well do Pre-U because it will make your application experience that much easier.

Lastly, I’d like to offer some advice to all potential Pre-U students. If there is more than an 80% chance that you will be enrolling in the program next year, prepare for your SATs this year. My biggest mistake was waiting to do the majority of my SAT studying at the beginning of my Pre-U year and believe me, I regret it. I only have two chances to get the score I need, but if you write at the end of this year you have three or four chances. This also saves you a lot of stress because you are not dealing with it on top of the lengthy US application process. Also, time management is key. Use your spares, go grab some lunch and then head to the library. This will keep your workload more manageable. Lastly, just know that you will get into university no matter what. Don’t let the stress get the best of you, if something’s wrong talk to Mrs. Tulloch or Ms. Levy, that’s what they are there for. In Pre-U you have ample amounts of resources available to you; use them to your advantage. Nonetheless, whatever road you choose to take, make sure it’s the right one for you.–Samantha Elefant ’10 (Pre-U ’11)

Happy Reading!

Posted on January 17, 2011 by admin

Now that the excitement of the holidays has abated and we settle back into our normal routines, we have an opportunity to re-establish the daily reading practices we might have cast aside during the pressure-packed social season.

Parents ask me about creating a reading climate in the home—an invaluable asset for personal and intellectual growth. Although there is not one tried and true approach, I can offer some suggestions that will assist you in fostering and, in some cases, re-kindling (pardon the pun) your child’s interest in reading.

I have mentioned in previous posts that it is imperative to begin by focusing on your child’s passions. If your son or daughter is an avid hockey fan, for example, you can start with the Sports section of The Gazette. You can share with your child articles that you find interesting, whether they be Red Fisher’s “Red Line” on Saturdays or Stephanie Myles’ daily column that gleans entertaining items from other sources. You may want to give your child a subscription to Sports Illustrated for Kids, Sports Illustrated or Hockey News. Sports biographies and autobiographies are also excellent resources for stimulating young fans’ interest in reading. Of course, I am referring only to the world of hockey. However, you can find print material and online resources for any hobby or activity your child finds fascinating.

To adapt Ernest Hemingway’s famous phrase, all one needs is a “clean, well-lighted place” to cozy up with a good book, magazine, newspaper or e-reader. In fact, you don’t even need light if you have an Apple iPad. Create attractive spaces in your home away from the television where you and your children can read either alone or together. As reading is usually a private act, reading nooks tend to be the most desirable areas for snuggling up on a cold winter’s evening to enjoy the pleasures of an alluring story. In any event, a comfortable chair or sofa and light are the bare necessities.

As e-readers become more popular, books and bookshelves may eventually disappear. Although this reality makes me sad, as I am an avowed bibliophile with a personal library of about two thousand books, I realize that technologies change. After all, we are no longer reading papyrus scrolls. However, creating a home library over time is a wonderful way to foster reading. Not only is a wall of books attractive, but it also contains millions of words and ideas that may be absorbed by your family. A library is a sanctuary, a physical space that cannot be replaced by an electronic screen.

Finally, show your children that reading is a worthwhile activity. Once they are beyond the age of bedtime stories, continue to model good reading habits. Read on a daily basis. Talk about the books you are reading. Leave good books lying around for your children to pick up in a casual way. Take your children to the local library and bookstore. Above all, show them that reading is a positive, fun activity. Readers tend not to be bored or lonely, as they can always find stimulation and companionship in the printed word. In the immortal words of Groucho Marx, “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” — Brian Moore, Department Head: English Language Arts, Communications Studies and Literacy Programs

Holiday Observations

Posted on January 13, 2011 by admin

Happy New Year and welcome to the second decade of the 21st Century. The lengthy and restful holiday period has provided inspiration for this entry and, as we prepare for the year ahead, I have three observations to share.

First, the Christmas and Hanukah season is a period of great celebration including the luxury of quality time with family and friends. But it’s also a season of excess: too much food, drink, sweets, and late nights. By the time we awake on January 1st, most of us are begging for a couple of quiet days and nights – a chance for our feet to come down to earth and really relax after exams, weeks of preparations and seasonal parties.

This was not the case for 43 year-old Donna Simpson from New Jersey who currently weighs about 600 lbs. – and has a goal of becoming the world’s heftiest woman, hoping to eventually reach 1,000 lbs! She has a website where people pay to watch her eat, consuming over 12,000 calories per day. She’s a poster girl for North American excess! All by herself, here’s what Mrs. Simpson ate on Christmas Day – an unbelievable 30,000 calorie gluttonous holiday feast:

• two 25 lb turkeys
• two maple-glazed hams
• 15 lbs. potatoes
• 5 loves bread
• 5 lbs turkey stuffing
• 4 pints gravy
• 4 pints cranberry sauce
• 20 lbs. vegetables

Unbelievable – one person. Mrs. Simpson definitely wins the gold star for excess in this age of excess.

A second observation over the holiday relates to all the end-of- year lists that are so popular during the week between Christmas and January 1st. You know what I mean: the year’s top songs, news events and so forth. Did you know that at the end of the year researchers told us that Canadians spend more time online than people in any other nation? We’re particularly fond of YouTube. According to a new international study, the average Canadian spends 42 hours online every month, including the viewing of 147 short videos/month. This is 50% more than any other country. So, as a nation we’re probably pleased that Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2010 was Mark Zuckerberg, the 20-something multi-billionaire creator of Facebook – an idea/tool that seems to have had more impact on Canadians than any other nationality in the world.

My third and final observation came on a short 5-day visit to Cuba. Cuba remains a communist country with very different standards for foreign tourists and locals. Beyond the hotels, beaches and comfort reserved for foreign visitors is the dilapidated Cuban infrastructure and a broken economy. I found out that virtually all basic foodstuffs are rationed and, for the past several weeks, milk has not been available to Cubans. However, as a foreigner I could by milk at a very inflated price – 25 times what Cubans pay. So the day that I visited Old Havana and hoped to buy a piece of Cuban art work, things turned out differently. While walking in the old city, I met a young father and several mothers who were desperate to find milk for their babies. I offered to buy some milk, but that still required two hours of walking and searching in Old Havana, as there was no milk to be found in the first 10 stores we visited. Finally we found the milk and thankfully, five families were happy. I didn’t find the Cuban painting I hoped to buy, but I did manage to do something in keeping with the spirit of giving that underpins the season, and I do feel better for it.

Excess, Canadians on the Internet, and alleviating some of the suffering of neighbours in one of the world’s last communist states. I learned a lot while on my break. I hope you did too.–Christopher Shannon, Headmaster

December: A Time to Focus on Peace

Posted on December 16, 2010 by admin

It’s important to recognize key dates in history as major events in the past frame and define who we are as a people today. A difficult yet important event and anniversary in our December calendar and in our collective Canadian memory was December 6th – the Montreal Massacre at École Polytechnique, the engineering school at the University of Montreal. This year marked the 21st anniversary of the tragic event.

A deranged, lone gunman did the shooting. Fourteen women, mostly young engineering students, died in this attack. It shocked our nation and the world, but it actually led to greater national awareness and consciousness about violence against women and the need to eliminate gender-based violence across Canada. To mark it, December 6th is now the national Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against women, with the national “White Ribbon Campaign” to combat violence against women in homes, schools and workplaces.

Another notable outcome of the shooting was the achievement of Mrs. Suzanne Edwards, a Montrealer and mother of Anne-Marie Edwards, one of the engineering students killed in the attack. Mrs. Edwards’ relentless effort in her daughter’s memory was instrumental in leading toward the creation of a National Gun Registry and application of stricter rules for the ownership of guns (especially automatic weapons) by Canadian citizens.

The Montreal Massacre at the École Polytheqnique will be forever etched in our national memory – part of our collective experience as Canadians. Let’s all learn from it.
The White Ribbon Campaign is a national initiative underscoring peaceful resolution to problems and the reduction of gender-based conflict. In our 16th year as a coed school, I want to openly affirm and support LCC’s commitment to gender equality and the reduction of violence against women.

As we enter the holiday season, remember this is indeed the season of peace, friendship and the warmth of family gatherings. May your holiday be restful. During some of your quiet time, please reflect on how you are, and can be, a peace-maker. Happy holidays and best wishes for 2011. —Chris Shannon, Headmaster