THE PETERITE It Vol. LX
FEBRUARY, 1968
No. 377
EDITORIAL It has been the purpose of The Peterite to present its readers, threequarters of whom are old boys of the School, with a chronicle of events past, and a schedule of coming occasions. iBoth admirable aims and it should be our continued aim to better both these things. To be successful, the chronicle should acquaint its readers with as full a picture as possible. The Old Boy should be in touch with current trends of thought and the activities which express them; the present boy should have the chance to appraise his part in affairs, which are in these pages gathered as it were in miniature. How well we succeed is questionable. Questionable, first, on economic grounds. A 10% rise in production costs stems from devaluation and is something to take serious account of. The new paper will to some extent offset this (and incidentally give scope for better illustrative coverage of events, to which end a School press group is now operating and line drawing is encouraged). But it is financially naive to suppose that one can countenance certain long-winded sections of this magazine to the detriment of a full picture elsewhere. Questionable, too, at a deeper level. For the bare skeleton of factual summaries, which are its aim, lacks the flesh of comment and lively opinion which belong to them in life. It is difficult for events to live without people; difficult to evaluate a school without the attitude of its members. We become, in fact, servants to the "written Fact", licensed to interpret its meaning as best we may catch its reflection of the mirrored movement of school life. The chronicle is a study in grey, dangerous because it may mislead. From the relative coverage it gives to events, this or that event becomes the more momentous. We continue to report our major sports at luxurious length—have you ever thought, by the way, how hard that word "major" hits at the very notion of sport? Yet, the point is not that this information is to a large extent duplicated in the national Press for those who follow these things, but that this lack of balance will exclude mention of other vital aspects. "Dieu parmi nous" (*) will not strike a chord with many, but in the true estimate of our character as a school, commands the highest honour. You cannot compare the assiduous study of an A.R.C.O. with the training put in by a team, but you can, unless you want to kid everyone, ensure that each has a mention. Some small innovations in this issue may have helped to readjust this balance, but it should be known that the present form of The Peterite is inhibiting. Most of us here would welcome some reduction in, for instance, sports coverage or House notes. A majority view of staff aid boys is not flattering to our present study in grey. It was disappointing, therefore, to find in the Old Peterite Committee, whose heads may well be buried "sub antiquis viis", an aversion to change and a distrust for the critical
