COLUMN: Carillon Flashback March 20, 1985 – Home-grown education kit helps students feel history

An education package complete with film strip, audio recording, student workbook and teachers’ manual, based on a visit to the Mennonite Village Museum in Steinbach, was released last week for schools across Canada.

The educational kit, Settling Manitoba the Mennonite Way, is a joint project of the Museum, Multiculturalism Canada and the Manitoba department of education and has been in the making for nearly two years.

Gareth Neufeld, a teacher at Landmark Collegiate, is the author of the script, as well as the photographer for the 20-minute film presentation. He told the group, invited to the first showing of Settling Manitoba the Mennonite Way in Winnipeg, the components of the kit complement each other to tell a story.

Neufeld says he feels history is something that should be alive and vital.

The multimedia kit was funded by the federal department of Secretary of State, with technical expertise coming from the provincial department of education.

The Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach is the focal point of the kit, since it is the destination for up to 6,000 school students during spring field trips every year. MHV manager Peter Goertzen and John Friesen, the museum’s cultural committee chairman, acted in an advisory capacity.

Settling Manitoba the Mennonite Way plugs into the province’s Grade 6 social studies curriculum and is geared for that age group. However, Neufeld pointed out, it can be easily adapted for younger grades as well.

Neufeld created a story told by two people from two different countries and two different generations.

Sigrid is 13 years old and a recent immigrant to Canada from Germany. Her best friend is Shawna, a Mennonite. Sigrid’s story is told through a letter she is writing to a friend in Germany. Sigrid writes about visiting the museum in Steinbach with Shawna and her grandfather, who provides the other half of the story.

The narration flows between Sigrid and Shawna’s grandfather creating empathy for both recent immigrants to a new country, including Sigrid and the Mennonite immigrants of Shawna’s grandfather’s time.

The kit is divided into sections, beginning with shelter in a new land, followed by customs, religion, education and business.

Neufeld explained there were generalizations in the film, due to the impossibility of pinpointing experiences of every pioneer.

“The story is this one man’s story, and it is potentially true and designed to give viewers a feeling of what it might have been like 100 years ago.”

Neil Unruh played the part of grandfather in the photographs and Abe Neufeld provided the voice of the grandfather for the film strip.

Shawna was played by Shawna Doerksen, a Grade 7 student at Landmark Collegiate and Sigrid was played by herself, Sigrid Kintscher, a Grade 8 student in Landmark. The voice of Sigrid was narrated by one of Neufeld’s former students, Winnipegger Chris Schillington. Neufeld noted that Sigrid really played herself in her role, having moved to Landmark two years ago from Bavaria and definitely having the feel of being a new arrival.

There are 30 educational kits available, which may be borrowed, rented or purchased from the Manitoba Textbook Bureau.

– with files from Sue Barkman