”Good Morning, class!” Stacy said with a little more confidence than she had felt the day before. “How are you today – oh, but raise your hands first!” Stacy realized that she had better start with good classroom management habits right away. “Yes, William?”

“Do you know our names yet?” asked William, in the grade 5 row. “I remember your name, William,” Stacy replied. “You are the one who forgets to take off his hat in school. Please put it in the cloakroom.” William good naturedly took off his hat and put it in the cloakroom.

“I see that you are looking more like a Christian today,” William added. “You washed off your face paint and you’re wearing a dress.”

“Very observant of you, William,” Stacy ventured. “I think I am going to like that kid” Stacy thought. “Some of these kids are going to take a while to get to know.” Out loud, she announced “Will you all please stand to sing ‘Oh Canada’ and to say the Lord’s Prayer?” William raised his hand. Against her better judgement, Stacy addressed him, wondering if this little ten year old was going to be the bane of her classroom management skills. “Have you learned the Lord’s prayer in German yet, Miss Stubinsky? All church stuff has to be in German you know. The English, they don’t know God.”

“Stop bothering the teacher, William,” his sister Martha reprimanded from the 8th grade row. “We can say the Lord’s prayer in English.”

“That’s all right, Martha.” Stacy said, feeling her second day confidence beginning to fade. “You can all say the prayer in German. I will learn it as soon as I can.”

After singing Oh Canada (with no accompaniment; apparently musical accompaniment was “English” and therefore sinful, according to William), and saying the Lord’s Prayer in German; Stacy got out her Bible. “Is that an English Bible?” William asked without raising his hand. As Martha’s hand went up, Stacy announced, “That’s alright, Martha. William, I will be reading from the English Bible. I know that Mrs. Reynolds read the daily devotion from an English Bible.” (Mrs. Reynolds was the former teacher, now on maternity leave.) Stacy could see William settling down on his chair, content to allow her to take back the charge of the classroom. As she read the first chapter of Acts to her seventeen young charges, Stacy wondered how much more of Hutterite culture she would be learning soon.