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

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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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BEN B. DUECK Teaches Grades 9-11 Received his high school education in Steinbach and later attended Provincial Normal School. Teaching experience, 11 years. Dear Students, Colleagues, Parents and Friends: With amazing rapidity the major portion of this school year has slipped by, and here we are, almost ready to flash past the finish-line. What a race these ten months have been! In August we started. The school “mile¬ stones” bobbed up, then receded into the distance; registration, initiation, Thanks¬ giving, first-term tests, Christmas—and a fresh term, more intensive studies, Easter tests, Easter, review, and the finals loom¬ ing in the near future. For most of the high school students (and I dare say, for many of the pupils in the primary and elementary rooms as well), the race-track was, to say the least, rugged in many places. Science and Mathematics (not to mention Social Studies) were either stony places where knees might be skinned or miry swamps in which it was all too easy to get bogged down. If it hadn’t been for the occasional “refresher” tossed to the runners in the form of a rugby match, hockey game, or field-trip, the pace might have been crippling. However, with the Principals particular form of stamina and endurance typical of our rural-Manitoba young people, every obstacle was overcome and left be¬ hind. Such persevering candidates surely deserve the laurel wreath! Just as a race needs more than merely the racers, so this school race required the combined efforts of the students, parents, school board, and teaching staff to make it a success. Perhaps no one individual in the school feels this co-operation more keenly than the principal, and for this, I want to say with all earnestness, “Thank you, students, colleagues, parents, and school board, for making this 1956-57 year a pleas¬ ant and profitable one. The yearbook committee and our grow¬ ing circle of advertising friends have con¬ tributed in no small measure to our bigger, better yearbook. Thank you, one and all. Though the graduating class is small, we rest assured that they will be diligent and useful workers, keeping the Golden Rule always as their motto and Christ as their example. Remember, students in Grades 1 to 11— the Race of Life, as well as the school race, offers rewards only to those who persevere. We’ll see you next year! Ben B. Dueck 6

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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