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

Page 14 text:

Miss Elvira Schroeder What is a typical day in the Blumenhof Primary room ? Maybe you would come along with me into the classroom during a typical day. Remember, this is not Parent’s Day, so you must remain hidden; for which child can act like a typical child with its parents watching? We start, like other mornings, with Devotions. Pupils listen attentively to the Scripture passage and help heartily with the singing of choruses. After the opening exercises we get down to work. Reading and Arithmetic come first in our work schedule. After everybody finds their books and pencils everything goes smoothly. The Grade threes, who are doing arithmetic need some help with their prob¬ lems, and then comes oral reading with the grade ones and twos. After the twenty- two pupils have read their stories they do their reading workbook at their desks. When this is finished we watch the stu¬ dents as they drill their arithmetic facts and reading words. Now comes recess. Everybody outside. Visitors, you may remain in the classroom to see the pupils work. You will see neat work, sloppy work, many mistakes. Teacher’s Report ROOM i After recess the pupils come back to work. Again we have reading and arithmetic. This time the grade ones and twos learn their numbers while grade threes review their reading skills. After dinner school begins again. My! the boy who could not find his pencil this morning has lost it again and another’s writing scribbler has disappeared. Oh well, after a few minutes everything is straigh¬ tened out again and everybody is working. The writing period which we have right after dinner is followed by spelling. Here everybody strives for perfection so as to get their names on the board. After this we have a languag e period. The correcting of many language errors along with many efforts to write and express ourselves have filled the many minutes of Language peri¬ ods with work. Now comes recess. Let’s go along with the pupils to the football field. We have two fairly even sides. Everybody is helping — or wait a minute — some of the girls seem to think this is talking period. After a time the bell rings again. Today is Mon¬ day, so we’ll have singing. How we all sing! Then comes our last period, our Bible story. Everybody listens very quietly. Even our class wrigglers sit still, enjoying the stories. Finally it is four o’clock. Everyone is eager to get home as fast as possible. So ends a typical school day. A day in which children — quite well-behaved, are eager to learn as much as they can. Elvira Schroeder. 10

Page 13 text:

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

Page 15 text:

Let us pause for a while from our hurry and scurry of life to glance back and de¬ termine what we have accomplished dur¬ ing this last school term. Has this year at school been beneficial to us as students ? Or have we come to school without a thought of gaining knowledge? To me go¬ ing to school is a privilege and not a be¬ grudged chore. Our fall term started with approximate ' y ten students enrolled. But slowly students trickled into the once more laughter-filled halls of Blumenhof. The students come from Ridgewood, Blumenort, and Giroux districts, as well as Blumenhof itself. We were ready for another year of studying, so we got out our text books and went to it full swing. Although studying was a joy in itself we willingly took time off for recess and some fresh air. Games like soc¬ cer, football, softball, and volley-ball were enjoyed by most students. In winter, when the snow came in flurries, and the wind howled, we played table tennis in our cozy classroom. Some of the main events of the year were: a) playing hockey with Landmark, b) going to Niverville High School to see the play “Let’s Be Congenial’’, c) driving out to the Hutterite Colony, and d) present¬ ing a debate on Parent’s Day. Taken all in all this year at school has been intermittently enjoyable. As a challenge to the students who will attend Blumenhof after we are gone, I would like to say “Do your best, for only the best counts”. I want to thank Mr. Doerksen, our teacher, for the faithful and inspiring way he instructed and guided us in our studies. For closing, I want to ex¬ tend our heartiest “Thank you” to everyone who has strived to make this year at school beneficially ingrediented. May the One who hears, sees, and knows all things direct and keep us on the right path. Gordon Carriere. Gordon Carriere The President Speaks H