Lancaster Mennonite High School - Laurel Wreath Yearbook (Lancaster, PA)

Page 27 text:

Expanding Vision, 1960-1967 Edna K. Wenger, who has been with LMS from its beginning, cites the first years and the sixties as the most exciting years at LMS. After the secure fifties the school was ready for change by the sixties, and change it cautiously did. Audio aids for language classes became common in the early sixties, dormitory literary societies developed in 1963, the Supen ' ising Committee enlarged in 1964, films and Select Chorus come in 1966, LAUREL WREATH changed publishers from Scottdale to Taylor Publish- ing Company in Dallas, Texas, in 1967. Another part of changing has been Brother Keener ' s becoming principal in 1963. Hall managers have always changed faster than matrons. One teacher has suggested that when the job becomes unbearable the hall managers simply get married and leave. At present 560 students are enrolled. The LMS of today could perhaps best be summarized by describing a typical student. The student of today is like his predecessor of earlier years in many ways, but in many others he is different. The pressure for college and good grades has become much stronger. The LMS student of today is very much aware of the world around him and is very eager to relate to it. Chances are that he has given his opinions at least a dozen times in the dining room, dormitory, or car- load discussions on the subject. And most important, the average LMS student of today is wide-awake spiritually. Revivals, chapel messages, Bible conferences, and prayer cells have made him keenly aware of the challenge and re- sponsibility he has of spreading the Gospel. Foundation of the classroom building By the beginning of the sixties LMS was badly in need of more classroom space, and by 1964, when the school was ready to burst at the seams, the .classroom building was built. The building was rushed to completion by Christmas, 1964, and over vacation while room numbers were being painted in on one end of the hall, members of the faculty were moving in on the other end. Over the past 24 years Lancaster Mennonite School has graduated approximately 2083 students. Preparing for the first Mill Stream outing 23

Page 26 text:

Growing Confidence J 950- 1 959; ' ' K«K A i . V ' Srf Paul Ciraybill, Edna Wenger, and Sadie Mae Yost, an- other faculty member, traveled to Europe. European relief workers were occasional speakers. Missionary children and students from distant states lent a more world-wide atmosphere to the school. Myron Dcitz became the first non-Mennonite faculty member. Along with the growing school came again the demand for more space, and in 1954 came the answer in the construction of the Agriculture Building. Brother Amos Weaver became principal in 1953. Noah Good and Clyde Stoner have kept their posi- During the fifties college and public high school administrators who had formerly written off the infant LMS began to take a second look at the growing institution along the Mill Stream. A reputation was being carved out for the school, partly due to the fact that the academic degrees of the teach- ers were first published along with the teachers ' names during this period. The school grew a great deal during this time. The enrollment for 1950 was 259 and by 1959 it had risen to 432. Along with this growth came the de- cline of the family atmosphere which had permeated the early school and a more institutionalized tenor took its pl-ice. During this period the school grew less isolated and more aware of the world around it. Clayton Keener, Lois Garber Keener, and Donald Jacobs went abroad as missionaries. Noah Good, J. Construction of the classroom building tions all 25 years. During these years the Mill Stream became a newspaper instead of a mere journal. The LAUREL WREATH grew larger and became a more modern production instead of the picture scrapbook it was earlier. Student Forum was initiated. The sjiiritual and missionar - cmph.isis continued strong. By 1957 the school was ready to enlarge again. This time a chapel was built opposite the Girls ' Dormitory. 22

Page 28 text:

Science Building 0%er the last five years Lancaster Mennonite School has witnessed increas- ing change. To predict that this change will suddenly, miraculously stop would be absurd. While morals, principles, and values dare not change, every institution must and does change. It is becoming increasingly eiident that LMS as part of the larger body of Lancaster Con- ference is in the midst of this change. Over the last 25 yc-ars LMS has estab- lished itself as a leader of the spiritual directives of youth in the conference. While more changes will doubtlessly take place, it will increasingly become the school ' s role to insure that these changes are, after all, only the super- ficial ones, and that the basic theological doctrines such as non-resistance, separa- tion of church and state, brotherhcx)d of believers, and love, are never lost. It will become the school ' s duty to safe- guard against our church ' s merging with the placid Qiristianity of America today Administration Building 24