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

Page 12 text:

Gerry B. Doerksen From The Principal’s Desk The word “one” seems to have lost much of its value and prestige in our modern world. Weekend fata 1 ities are counted by “hundreds”, a certain number of “thou¬ sands” of immigrants are allowed to enter the country per year; people’s possessions are frequently counted by “mil’ions”; while the human body is said to be composed of approximately “so many billions” of cells. Certain of the political leaders of today seem to look at the people in their coun¬ tries and see only a “mass”. Is that the correct evaluation of humanity ? A stranger, when seeing the number of students in our school would certainly feel that we were only a very small “mass”. He might see that the enrolment in our high school is “only fifteen”. I have not found it to be so. I have found that this “little mass” is composed of individuals, individu¬ als who are facing a single whole life as their very own, individuals who are or will be personally making decisions about their eternal destiny and even the destiny of others, individuals who have decided to face our modem civilization with an education that will help them to be successful. May I give you graduates and students this challenge. Think of minutes as single units which you may spend at your Mas¬ ter’s bidding. Think of work as made up of individual pleasures so that you may do it lovingly and with joy. Think of people around you as individual hearts that are longing for at least one cheerful word or one act of kindness from you to make their pathway through life more pleasant. Think of your life as one life that shall be totally surrendered to God. Then, I am confident, the One “who seeth not as man seeth” will give a smile of approval upon your life — one life that will be really worthwhile. Gerry B. Doerksen 8

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I wou’d like to thank those responsible for editing this yearbook for the invitation to contribute a message. Also, because this is always a matter of great importance at this time of year, I want to wish all of the students of Blumenhof High School success in meeting the tests which determine the extent of your achievement during the year. Right now you will be receiving much good advice about applying your energies towards passing your grades. Before you also there may be a considerable amount of guidance material tha,t will help you in choosing a vocation suitable to your talents, and capable of providing you with a good living in the future. All of this is important. Ours is a complex world with a confusing maze of paths along which we may suggest that you move. Those of us who are most concerned with preparing you for life have a responsibility, along with you, of seeing that the direction in which education leads you is a right one. We are prone, I think, because of our con¬ cern for your material success, to stress things material. We are prone, because ours tends to be a materialistic age, to stress things material — wealth, prestige, superficial pleasure. What we may not stress enough, I believe, is the solid fact that life’s real return to us is a measure, not of what we may get from it, but of what we give to it. Any superiority that our way of life has over ways of life that threaten it lies no longer in material things, if it ever did. I lies, rather, in moral nation¬ hood, the product of Christian people. There is a great cry today for scientists who can help compete in the race for space, for engineers who can match the might of Soviet missiles, for every variety of educated person who can match or bet¬ ter the achievements made elsewhere in the world. True, we need these people; we need their contributions. But, above all, we need men, real men, with minds dedicated to right and justice and morality. Upon this depends our preservation. Will you be among them? K. R. Jasper I I I Inspector’s Message K. R. Jasper. 7

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Teacher’s Report ROOM II SOUND From a few minutes before nine until a few minutes after four, the school day is filled with sound. There are the sounds of a car driving up to the door, feet crunching on the gravel, doors opening and closing, happy laughter and talking, and then a cheerful “Good morning”. Soon comes the sound of the school bell rung by the principal. After “O Canada”, sounds float through the classroom that the teacher, students, and visitors will certainly remember after all else has been forgotten. Who will ever forget the students of Room Two singing song number 85 from the Spiritual Life Songs, “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord”, or number 129, “The Twenty-Third Psalm”, or number 98, or 91 or 13 or a dozen others. Following this refreshing singing period is the usual Bible reading and prayer. Arithmetic produces its typical sounds. There is the sound of chalk writing on the blackboard, with an occasional eery screech coming from a piece of chalk that is being- held at the wrong angle, intentionally or otherwise. If thinking could be heard, there would be quite a bit of sound emanating from some corners of the room where the thought machinery is going at a great speed. On the other hand, in other corners there might be a deathly silence. Take out your Health texts! There is the sound of books, slamming shut, being put into desks and others taken out. The teach¬ er discusses certain aspects of the problem; the pupils answer questions, or help in the discussion, or ask questions themselves, questions which may or may not apply to the subject under consideration. W. K. Schellenberg Recess is the time of greatest sound, in quantity at least, even if not in quality. Recess is also the happy time. Some pupils would like nothing better than a system of education that would allow a school day composed of nothing but recesses. Others again get just as much enjoyment out of the periods between the recesses. After recess readers are taken out. The students love to read aloud. Some read quietly, others loudly; some read with ex¬ pression, others in dull tones; some read fluently, others stumble along. What’s this I hear? Here’s someone who has taken advantage of the teacher’s back being turned and who has been playing instead of working. Here’s a sound that does not belong. We’ll have to see someone inside at recess time, perhaps after four as well! And so it goes through the whole day. The final period of the school day is either German or Bible. German, while not ex¬ actly a foreign language, has many sounds that are foreign to ears unaccustomed to it. Bible is the subject that could produce the most beautiful sound in the world — the sound of a soul praising God. Certain¬ ly the school has missed its mark if the student has not been made aware of our even-present, all-powerful, loving Creator, who made us and has a claim on us. W. K. Schellenberg. 9