Blumenhof High School - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Blumenort, Manitoba Canada)

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MISS SUSAN FRIESEN Grades 1-3 Teaching experience, six years “Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowl¬ edge.”—Prov. 12:1. It is not only in this day and age that we are striving for knowledge. The above words were written by King Solomon many centuries ago. However, the desire for knowledge is taking hold of a greater num¬ ber of people during the present time. In our country the opportunity to study is provided for every child. Many adults who have not been so privi leged are also seeking ways and means in in which to increase their knowledge. Are they justified in doing this? Should they spend their time studying when there are so many opportunities to earn a good salary? Again I quote King Solomon. “Wisdom is better than rubies and all things that may be desired are not to be compared to her.”—Prov. 8:11. There is no doubt that knowledge is something worth striving for. It is a wide field, though, with almost unlimited oppor¬ tunities. Many people of varying interests and abilities are there to avail themselves Teacher’s Report Room 1 of these opportunities. However, many a youthful person stands bewildered at the threshold wondering what field of learning to enter. This is not peculiar to the present age either. Job wrote long ago: “Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof: neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not in me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof . . . “No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies . . . “Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?” Job found the answers to the beginning of wisdom when he said, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom: and to depart from evil is under¬ standing.” If we then know what the beginning of wisdom is, the words of the Greek philo¬ sopher Plato can enlighten us further. “The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.” 8

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Teacher’s Report Room 2 What is learning—or education ? Is it merely an assimilation of a conglomeration of facts and theories? Is it simply learning the three “R’s”—reading, ’riting and ’rith- metic? Is it merely a means of filling up a child’s time during the day—to get him out of the way? Why go to school? Why get an education? Why get “wise”? Be¬ cause you want to show everybody else how to do this or that? Because you want to have some golden coloured feathers in¬ stead of all black? Because you want to learn how to be a gentleman? What is a gentleman nowadays? Is it a man who will step aside for a lady in a crowd because she is a lady, or is it a man who will step aside for a lady in a crowd so that she can make a pathway for him? When you are educated, will life’s grindstone grind you down or will it polish you up? When you are educated, will you be like the work¬ man who, answering his foreman’s question of “Why do you carry only one board when all the others carry two?” remarked, “I guess they’re just too lazy to make trips the way I do.” ? Why go to school? Why get an educa¬ tion? The questions are pertinent and de¬ mand an answer. If it is because of play¬ ing hockey I go to school, my cause is lost. If it is to become “wise,” my cause is lost. If it is because I have nothing else to do, my cause is lost. We read in 1 Tim. 4:8, “For bodily exercise profiteth little.” We read in Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” and in Prov. 15:33, “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before ( honour humility,” and in Proverbs 11:30, . . he that winneth souls is wise.” Why then, go to school ? The answer must now turn from “to show others” to “to help others.” With an education this serving and helping others can increase to four or five times what it usually is. A man with schooling can quite often win souls where he could not have done without an education. If we want to keep our Men- nonite beliefs such as non-resistance, we JOHN KORNELSEN Teaches Grades 4-8 Teaching experience three years. Former student of Mr. Dueck. will have to challenge the world on an intellectual basis, or it will laugh at us. How can anyone with only elementary schooling reason with an intellectual man sufficiently enough to convince him? Let us do what Paul wrote to Timothy: Tim. 3:17: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 7

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H. A. MOURITSEN Inspector 1 Congratulations to the pupils of the Blumenhof School on the publication of their yearbook. I am sure it has been a useful and interesting experience, and that in the future it will prove to be a source of pleasure to all who had a hand in its making. School life for the average pupil today is varied and intriguing. Sports, crafts, woodworking, yearbooks and school news¬ papers have become an integral part of school life with each contributing in its own way to training for modern living. No longer need the school year be filled with drill and drudgery, but instead it can be filled with a series of useful projects which bring added zest and colour to life in school. However, the pursuit of these projects must always be tempered with reason. They can easily be overdone to the detriment of essential learning. To avoid this pitfall, and to make it possible for the largest number of pupils to gain the greatest good from these projects, every pupil must contribute according to his talents and abilities some¬ thing to promote the projects, otherwise, they will fall short of achieving their objec¬ tive, which is learning by doing. I am sure that the pupils and the staff have taken the precaution to prevent the production of this yearbook from becoming an end in itself, and have used it as a means of gain¬ ing added knowledge and training for all concerned. Now that your yearbook is complete, I feel confident that in the years to come it will prove to be a source of pleasure and delight to many of you. Although your school chums and friends will then be scat¬ tered to the four comers of the globe, you can live again with them for a few trea¬ sured moments simply by paging through the yearbook of the Blumenhof School for the year 1956-57. Mr. H. A. Mouritsen (Inspector of Schools) 9