by Haley Sheriff |

Room 904 is far from the traditional classroom. Quizzes, finals and even the French Revolution are non-existent. Instead, students embark on Quests of intellectual enlightenment, perform Finales as a last act of learning and indulge in the horrendous bloodshed of the Frevolution. The most foreign of these words is test—an incomprehensible term that has been substituted with the renowned Celebration of Knowledge.
“I began using the term my first year of teaching, so I’ve been using it for six years,” social studies teacher Zach Werner said. “Honestly, I have no idea how I even came across the word—I had to have heard it from somewhere, but I can’t remember.  I like its positive context—everyone likes to celebrate—and that’s exactly what students should be doing: celebrating what they’ve learned.”
Until recently, Werner has been the only known teacher in the building to give Celebrations of Knowledge. Students, particularly the sophomores in his World History classes, began noticing other teachers using his word.
“Mr. Jorgensen has used it before, but only on the first quiz we took this year,” sophomore Ben Wilson said. “He hasn’t used it since then.”
Meaning no harm in using the phrase, chemistry teacher Stuart Jorgensen, like Werner, simply admired the positive perspective of testing one’s knowledge.
“I used it off and on last year, but I only wrote it on the board and never on paper. It’s much friendlier and easier to approach than ‘Exam’,” Jorgensen said. “I actually didn’t know Werner used it until some of the students started commenting about it.”
The term has also managed to find its way down the hall to the Math Department.
“Ms. Boike has used the term a couple of times this year, and even claims she started using it the same time Werner did,” sophomore Addison Moore said. “Mr. Werner claims differently.”
Unlike Jorgensen, math teacher Joyce Boike is very deliberate in using the term, and relishes in the fact it gets under Werner’s skin.
“I didn’t start using it a lot until after Werner started complaining. I find it amusing he thinks he came up with it originally, when I had learned about it during college in Iowa,” Boike said. “In all honesty I don’t use it very much—if anything, I’ve used it once this year.”
Werner, of course, has not taken the news so lightly.
“Thieves, copiers, crooks—all of them. It is 100 percent, hands down, my word. I was the first to use it on a wide scale basis—I even use it in my syllabus,” Werner said. “I tell my students to make sure teachers know I’m the first ‘Celebration of Knowledge Man.’ For Boike, I have them call her a tall freak. She wears heels, and they’re completely unnecessary; she’s already taller than everybody in the building.”
Boike is not the least bit phased by Werner’s remarks, and even continues the banter.
“I call myself a tall freak all the time, so? I say he’s jealous of my height. Just think of how better of a basketball player he’d be if he were taller,” Boike said.
Though their students may have interpreted their incessant insults as a sign of clashing, the two harvest no hard feelings for one another.
“This is all in good fun. We started teaching the same year and have become very good friends. She’s a nice lady,” Werner said. “But seriously, I want credit for it.”