(- taken from an article in the 1969-1970 St. John’s Report)

For St. John’s Schools the past two years have been a time of escalating publicity, some bad, most good, but plentiful enough to send a story a about the schools into scores of Canadian and American newspapers, one national TV program and, most recently, towards the international edition of the Reader’s Digest.

What began the boom was the publication by St. John’s two years ago of a 40 page teacher recruiting booklet called “Men Wanted” that was sent to a dozen Canadian newspapers. Two of them, the Victoria times and the Ottawa Journal, did stories on the place.

The story in the Journal was spotted by Weekend Magazine which then sent a reporter and photographer west for a few days on a visit. Continue Reading…

Battle of Maldon the Year 991

We have had many requests for copies of the Green Literature Book. Plans are in the works for a limited reproduction – but here is one of the favourite poems from the book.

Battle of Maldon001.pdf – Google Docs.

52,000 Pounds Last Year

(article from the 1970-1971 Annual Report for Saint John’s School of Alberta)

Honey Production in 1971

Apris Mellifera in its uncounted thousands has provided the base for a program at St. John’s of Alberta which enabled students to gain some special knowledge and experience and also returned a cash profit to the school.

For those who wonder, that means bees. They produced 52,000 pounds of honey which students processed, packaged, promoted and sold door-to-door at a net profit of about $5,000 last year. Continue Reading…

Recruiting Pamphet

In 1956, as a result of a frustration with the way society was moving toward more secular attitudes, Ted Byfield and Frank Wiens began a Sunday school program for boys who sang in the choir at St. John’s Cathedral church in Winnipeg. The Sunday school program did not work – irregular attendance, amateurs teaching a subject that would tax professionals, teachers constantly changing, facilities bad – but beneath all this was what they felt was the true reason for the failure – children were not being taught to think. The habit of reasoning from premise to conclusion had played little part in their education. Also, the new generation lacked some old instincts; to Christians, life is a pilgrimage, an adventure, a voyage into distant lands with great dangers, arduous difficulties and indescribable rewards. But their students had been somehow trained to believe that the good life consisted of social security, physical comfort and physio-psychological thrill.

Continue Reading…

In September of 1968, Saint John’s School of Alberta opened it’s doors. The following is the story of how and who was involved with this happening:

SJSA Early Years003.pdf – Google Docs.

(article from the St. John’s annual report of 1969-1970, author Ted Byfield)

“Men wanted for hazardous journey, Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success”. – Sir Ernest Shackleton

When the British Antarctic explorer ran his famous advertisement in the London dailies of 1906, the results astonished him. Thousands of men came forward. Three years later those selected enabled Shackleton to locate the south magnetic pole and press within 150 miles of the south pole itself. Sixty-four years later the same ad did one thing more. It enabled St. John’s Schools of the Prairies to solve the central problem of their existence – how to find top notch men at a salary of $1 a day plus living essentials. Continue Reading…

In January, Mark Hutchison (SJSA ‘82) sent us a copy of an old article from the Alberta Report on SJCBS. His classmate Patrick Heuer had sent him this copy. Hope you enjoy a little  “blast from the past”.

Alberta Report 1987 SJCBS article.pdf – Powered by Google Docs.