p. 27 | Our Schools by Pearl West Mulford

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 6, 1909

Our Schools

By Pearl West Mulford

How to Adapt Manual Labor to the Students with Whom We Have to Deal

For years we have been called upon to establish schools where the students may gain a knowledge of practical labor, while receiving their mental training. Feeble attempts have been made from time to time toward starting such schools, but each time we were brought face to face with the question, “How shall it be done?” and instead of solving the problem, the industrial phase of the work was usually abandoned.

Why are we called upon to establish industrial schools? I quote from the “Testimonies:” “The health can not be preserved unless some portion of each day be given to muscular exertion in the open air. Stated hours should be devoted to manual labor of some kind,—anything which will call into action all parts of the body.” “Brain and muscle must be taxed proportionately if health and vigor be maintained.”

Again: “Physical labor will not prevent the cultivation of the intellect. Far from it. A sound body is required for a sound intellect. It will soon be seen that those who unite work and study, make greater advancement in their books than those who devote all their time to study.”

“The effect is equally good upon the morals. Some do not appreciate the value of agricultural work.” “This work is essential to the education most favorable to spiritual advancement; for nature’s voice is the voice of Christ, teaching us innumerable lessons of love, and power, and submission, and perseverance.”

We are here to teach by precept and example what constitutes a true home and how to make one. With this in mind, let us consider how and where the industries should be taught. Would you take a student to the gymnasium to teach him how to swim?—Certainly not, and just as foolish would it be to go to the schoolroom to learn how to conduct a home. It is in the home that homemaking should be taught. It is on the farm that farming should be taught. Go onto the building if you would learn carpentry, or to the poultry-yard if you would understand how to raise poultry.

The schoolroom instruction on how to make bread may be as explicit as possible, but let the student go home and attempt to carry out that instruction, and we would all be much surprised should she go back taking a loaf of nice, light bread with her as the result. We learn to do by doing, and not by being told how to do.

But the problem by which we are confronted is this: The children do not live with us. We have them, perhaps from 9 a. m. to 3:30 p. m. Their parents need them at home outside of school hours. Shall we, because we have them but a short time, give them only book knowledge? Here is the answer: “If the youth can have but a one-sided education, and it is asked, Which is of the greater consequence, the study of the sciences or the knowledge of labor for practical life, we unhesitatingly say, the latter. If one must be neglected, let it be the

study of books.” “Education,” page 19.

We have made but a small beginning in our school at Fountain Head [Tenn.], but I am willing to give you the benefit of our limited experience. We spend the last hour and a half of each day’s work in manual labor. We have organized a sewing class, taking in all the girls and the little boys. These are divided into two classes. The tiny ones, under one teacher, are learning to take the “over and over” stitch in making quilts, while the older ones are learning to do practical sewing, such as darning stockings, making and mending garments, etc. During class time the children are allowed to converse, and we correct one another’s language. The older boys engage in some line of useful labor, receiving at the same time instruction and spiritual lessons. Thus far the building of the new schoolhouse has afforded ample class work in carpentry. Later we hope to take them into the orchard, where pruning and spraying will be taught.

In pleasant weather our sewing classes give way to an outdoor class, the work of which thus far has been the clearing up of our schoolyard. The students are made to feel that the yard is their own, and that it would not be right to ask the boys who are supporting themselves by hard labor, to stop their work to clear up the schoolyard. So the older boys grub out the stumps, while the rest of us rake, burn, or pick up the leaves, sticks, and brush, learning at the same time how God will make the rough places smooth, and take out even the roots of sin from our hearts.

By spring we hope to have a gravel walk out to the road, and bulbs, flowers, and shrubs on each side of the walk. Then we have a piece of land adjoining our school grounds on the east, which we hope to turn into a strawberry patch, to be planted and taken care of by the children. We also have grape-vines, which need pruning and training; this, too, will afford lessons for the children. While most of the children are working on the schoolyard, two girls clean the schoolroom, one doing the sweeping and the other the dusting. They report when finished, and then their work is inspected, and a chalk mark is made wherever dust or dirt is found. The two girls keep this work for a week at a time. Each child’s desk is considered his house, and the floor is the dooryard. These are inspected each evening before dismissal. During this period some of the girls are sent to the house, where they are taught practical housework. The one who is learning to make bread, puts the yeast to soak, stirs up the sponge, and leaves them to be stirred together in the evening by the teacher. She goes early the next morning, mixes it into a hard loaf, and places it where it will keep warm. Then she goes again and bakes it during the noon period. At each of these visits she is given scientific instruction about yeast, the nutritive value of foods, and spiritual lessons.

Those who wash the dishes are taught to first set back the chairs and sweep up the crumbs. They are taught how to clear the table and pile up the dishes, what to wash first, how to rinse, and how to wash out the dish-cloth when finished. Proper care of the dish towels is also taught. We resort to various ingenious devices for increasing speed and cultivating thoughtfulness. Those who pare potatoes are taught to do it sparingly, and at the same time to be careful to remove all the eyes. Economy is a lesson of no little importance. It is our intention to devote Friday afternoons to instruction and demonstration of simple treatments, using the students as patients and nurses as far as possible. What we have thus begun we hope to make much more complete as the work progresses.

Pearl West Mulford.