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Mennonite High School Education at Half Century
by Dale Shenk
Early in this century a minority of students attended school beyond the eight grade. Among Mennonites this percentage was even lower. As public high school became more routine in the 1930's, Mennonite participation also increased. Church leaders recognized potential negative affects of exposing church youth to the values and practices of the secular culture through high school attendance. They began to look for ways to provide education in settings that could also incorporate the values and teaching of the church. In communities across North America the solution to this problem was to open Mennonite high schools. This was done in Lancaster, Pa in 1942, Leamington, Ontario, Salem, Oregon, and Belleville Pa in 1945, Souderton, Pa, in 1953 and Goshen, Indiana in 1954. As these institutions approach or pass their fiftieth years we observe that many have significantly shifted away from their original purpose. Now, instead of protecting the students from the world, they seem to encourage dialogue with it.
Two such schools are Iowa Mennonite School and Rockway Mennonite Collegiate. On the occasion of their fiftieth anniversaries in 1994 each institution commissioned a history. Opening a Window to the World, A History of Iowa Mennonite School is written by Franklin L. Yoder. Yoder grew up on a farm in eastern Iowa and attended IMS. After operating a business for a number of years he returned to school, received a degree in history, and is currently a doctoral candidate in American history at the University of Chicago. Lead Us On A History of Rockway Mennonite Collegiate is authored by Sam Steiner. He is librarian and archivist at Conrad Grebel College in Ontario. Steiner has done writing and editing on other Mennonite history projects.
In these volumes the writers provide many stories and biographical information about students, faculty, administration and facilities. Those who have been a part of these communities will read factual background to most of the major decisions in each school's history. In addition, there are many anecdotes about students and faculty which lend a more narrative feel. The slow steady growth in the facilities is treated systematically, especially as it related to conference connections and financial support. Each text chronicles the administrators struggles to run a school, while balancing a budget. This fifty year journey of regular uncertainty demonstrates that some of the current financial concerns may not be as new as they seem.
The two books differ dramatically in their style and approach to similar tasks. Yoder begins with a description of the ways the creeks in this Iowa settlement flow and how that shaped the early settlers views of the community. Throughout the book he continues to identify the close connections between IMS and the church community. The details of the first 25 years show intimately the development and struggles in the relationship between the school and its constituencies A more careful presentation of the school's struggles in the 1970's and 1980's would have been helpful. These sections seem to blur together. Yoder's description of the present school is well done. Current and future themes are identified. While recognizing IMS's changes in the last fifty years, Yoder also acknowledges continuous cords that stretch back through the decades. If one were to join this community today, this book would offer a good perspective for what it was, and is, like to live in Kalona.
Steiner approaches his topic by giving us less of a sense of the specific church community. Instead, more connections are made between RMC and popular culture, Mennonite thinkers and public education. There is an excellent description of Ontario's educational system woven into the text. In addition, he identifies some basic issues of Mennonite education as discussed by various church leaders. An example of this is a fascinating dialogue on Mennonite secondary education between RMC principal, Ross Bender and theologian, John Howard Yoder. Steiner also gives good attention to questions of finance and facility. Appropriately his narrative is organized around the different administrators' eras, since the turnover and different styles shaped school life at numerous points. Other than occasional connections related to financial decisions, we are not in touch with the Ontario church community. There are numerous references to other schools and how their geographical relationships affected Rockway. A map might have made this part of the narrative more clear. As with Yoder's work on IMS, current issues and themes are well identified. The future existence of RMC seems sure. However, it's nature, as with IMS, is uncertain.
What these narratives share most completely is the recognition that both schools no longer function as environments to protect high school students from the secular culture, as they were expected to in 1944. Instead, students are given opportunities to study and examine all of the world around them. A brief look at five basic areas will demonstrate how the writers trace changes in the schools. These changes reflect a shift in orientation away from an outward emphasis on Mennonite distinctives. Throughout their lives IMS and RMC have slowly become conventional high schools in their music programs, athletics, faculty, boards, and the appearance of their students. In each of these areas the founding fathers and mothers had some specific expectations about ways that the school would be distinctive. Now their identity as explicitly Mennonite schools is more difficult to assess. Perhaps this is also true of the congregations which support them.
For decades music has been a distinguishing characteristic of the Mennonite church. In 1945 the style was uniform across the church. Congregations did not have instruments in their buildings since all singing was done acapella. Both RMC and IMS began with a musical program limited to singing hymns in class several times a week. This gave way by the end of the first decade to choral music that included classical pieces as part of the seasonal concerts. Early attempts at acquiring pianos were met with reluctance and refusal. RMC acquired a piano with the reluctant approval of the church in 1949. IMS was refused permission to purchase a piano on several occasions. In 1966 one was quietly donated to the school, and accepted without discussion by the conference, with later informal approval. The musical programs in each school soon expanded to include other instruments, and eventually, orchestras. Today these schools' music programs look like the programs in other schools in their communities. Students sing and play the same kinds of pieces that their peers do in public high schools. Sacred themes are part of the performances but the acapella hymns of the earlier era are seldom heard.
The faculty will always be at the heart of any school as they shape the students through curriculum and administrative direction. As small new church school, both IMS and RMC searched for teachers who were willing to come with a sense of mission and ministry that aligned with the local church. Initially this meant that theological and lifestyle agreement were more important than academic credentials. Teachers were asked if they would wear the plain coat and cape dresses at IMS. At RMC the first teachers were drawn from the church constituency even though their academic qualifications were limited. Sometimes these meant teachers were working in areas outside their field of expertise. As each school grew in size and financial strength, commitment to pay higher salaries brought more candidates with stronger academic credentials. While it is assumed that both schools were looking for faculty with a high degree of church commitment, teachers were hired as much for their academic and cultural contributions as for their church membership and ministerial credentials. Today teachers at IMS and RMC are trained educators, employed by a Mennonite high school.
A major component of high school life in the last half of this century is sports. All high school students recognize that even if some choose not to participate, the high school sports program still dominates much of their school life. IMS and RMC began when public high school sports were less important. Mennonites believed that organized competition was wrong. A few reasons cited were pacifism and simple dress. Teachers were assigned physical education classes, but there was little formal emphasis on developing team sports abilities for the first two decades in each school. IMS students participated in regular sporting events but none were sanctioned by the school until boys sports in 1972 and girls sports a few years later. RMC developed its first team sports in 1968. During the late 1970s and early 1980s both schools expanded their athletic programs, built facilities and added teams. Today each school competes with some success in public school leagues. Spectators would be hard pressed to distinguish IMS and RMC players from their public school opponents.
Since local Mennonite church conferences founded both IMS and RMC, early decision making was done by conference leaders. In each case a board or committee was appointed by the conference to oversee the development and administration of the school. Again, in each case, by the late 1960s the schools were becoming more independent. Conference groups, controlled by pastors or other persons with church leadership connections were replaced with boards of lay leaders. These persons maintained the same degree of commitment to the school, but at this point in each of the schools' histories, there seems to have been more freedom to set policy and to make decisions for the survival of the school rather than for continuity with conference standards. The tight control of the early years was replaced by boards representing variety of interests. In these cases, it clear that the schools were simply reflecting the growing autonomy of the congregations. The conferences no longer set boundaries. Congregations, institutions and perhaps even individuals made decisions primarily on their own.
Another distinctive that was shared by these schools with the larger church in the 1940s was dress. Mennonites were still significantly set apart by a commitment to plain dress, characterized by plain coats for men, especially leaders, and coverings for women. For high school students these principles were defined as dresses of a certain length and head coverings for girls, and long pants and dress shirts for boys. Both RMC and IMS were expected to uphold the standard on theses issues. Teachers were hired based on their willingness to agree to these standards. Students, as representatives of the school were evaluated on their appearance as they gave programs in churches.
These standards were maintained well into the 1950s at Iowa; movement away from them took place informally. teachers' requests, changing congregational practices, and the age-old drive of young adults to push the boundaries contributed to the relaxation of these dress standards. Examples of this are virtually identical in each volume. It seemed that more and more girls began to forget to wear their coverings to chapel. And when they did, they were less and less likely to be sent back to get them. This simple pattern demonstrates the variety of forces that contributed to the decreasing expectations regarding these old standards. Now each school maintains only the most basic rules regarding dress and these are not significantly different than those one would find in a public school.
Although they began as distinctive havens form the secular world, at the end of their first 50 years, these school look and feel much like public high schools. The have athletic teams, orchestras, trained teachers, school board, and students who look just like their peers in the high school across town. IMS and RMC students encounter information that is very similar to that taught in other schools. Through stories, facts and reflections both Steiner and Yoder trace narratives of a movement from protectionism to dialogue. It is clear that these schools no longer fit the mandate they were given 50 years ago.
So what should Mennonite High school education look like? If it is not obviously different from public education, what are the distinctives? Yoder and Steiner suggest that the basic commitment to God's way in the world remains strong at both IMS and RMC. Students are invited and encouraged to make a place for God in the midst of subject matter that is typical of public education. The school's understandings of who God is remain true to Mennonite theology. Both volumes suggest that the practices of this theology have simply shifted along with congregational shifts. In that sense these schools mirror the church. They no longer look like the separate Mennonite institutions that they were founded to be. The congregations which founded them have changed as well. So Ultimately, questions about the changes in the schools are simply reflections of church issues. Who are we? What is our identity as Mennonites? These are good questions for all of us.
Mennonite Historical Bulletin, July 1996