The School Work in Jamaica by Mrs. C. B. Hughes

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 2, 1908

The School Work in Jamaica

By Mrs. C. B. Hughes

Our school is located at Willowdene, Jamaica. The schoolhouse stands on the side of a hill, and mountains can be seen in every direction. At the time of writing the school family consists of twenty-four. The house has four rooms above, and an assembly room and a room for the boys below. They dine up-stairs on the veranda. The workers are all well, and are much pleased with the climate and the outlook in general. The summer is not hot. So far the climate has been delightful. At night the students sleep with the doors and windows open, but have as much cover as they would need in Texas. The weather the year round is said to be like fall in Missouri. We have been having much dry weather, but are expecting the rainy season in a few weeks. In the dry season we have a heavy dew and fog nearly every morning, so that the air does not seem dry. We are having no rain to wet the ground or replenish the tank, which is our only water-supply; hence until the rains come on, we have to haul water about two miles. We have bananas all the year round, and oranges until about the first of April. After that we shall be having star apples. Besides bananas there is some other kind of fruit in season throughout the year.

There is a natural bridge six miles and a half from the school. The boys had just completed clearing and plowing a piece of land, and had been working so hard that they were given a holiday, and all the school went with them to see the bridge.

The workers say they never before saw so many poor people. They certainly need schools, and there are nice, devoted young people as material to work with. There is as yet no church erected, hence Sabbath-school is held in the assembly room of the school. A few persons besides the school family meet for worship. The people speak English, but the language is so poor it is difficult to understand them.

MRS. C. B. HUGHES.

Notes

PROF. C. B. HUGHES in a recent letter writes that the attendance in the West Indian Training-school is now thirty. Others are expected soon. On account of the crowded condition, they are not advertising for students, but are planning changes to admit of a larger attendance.

The Adelphian Tent Company is an industrial department of the Adelphian Academy, located at Holly, Mich. It is at the present time having quite a large run of work. They put out a very neat little circular. It will be of interest to those who are contemplating the purchase of tents to correspond with the brethren at Holly.

The Walla Walla College is in receipt of a donation of two thousand dollars for the erection of a building for the normal department of the school. This building is much needed, and it will greatly increase the efficiency and value of the normal feature of this college. Plans are completed for the building, and its erection will begin at once.

The attention of our teachers is again called to the Supplement to the “Outline of Missions,” which has recently been prepared. This can be obtained by request from the Mission Board. Every teacher of geography should make constant use of the “Outline of Missions,” and the Supplement. It brings our missionary operations in all lands up to date.

Brother F. A. Page, principal of the Eastern Colorado Academy, reports a total enrolment of twenty-nine for the school thus far for the year. This school began work this past fall for the first time. It is so located with reference to our churches that it should be a valuable factor in the education of the children who are old enough to attend an intermediate school.

The holocaust in which nearly one hundred seventy children were burned to death recently at Collinwood, Ohio, should serve as a valuable lesson to all our schools. Every precaution should be taken to see that in case of fire there is no reasonable possibility for the loss of life. As the result of this fire the school boards in many large cities throughout the United States are taking special precaution to avoid a repetition of this horror in their cities. The lesson is an important one, the teaching of which should not have needed such an awful calamity.

Dr. L. A. Reed, president of the Pacific Union College, in a letter recently received says: “The meetings under Elder Warren have closed, but we are still carrying on the good work. Already seventy-four persons have been baptized, and there are about ten or fifteen others expecting baptism soon. Our students have signed an anti-fiction pledge. They have also organized into a band of Christian workers to do active personal work, besides the regular organized Young People’s Society. We are expecting to get out a copy of the Collegian giving a full outline of the work.” We all rejoice with this school in its spiritual prosperity. It will, of course, greatly increase the efficiency of its work. Many may be interested to obtain a copy of the college paper giving an account of these meetings.

Prof. C. Sorenson, principal of Keene Academy, writes: “At a meeting of our academy board there were no changes made in our faculty, but one additional teacher was employed. The sanitarium building was transferred from the Texas Conference to the school, and will be moved onto the academy campus as soon as we can make arrangements. The consideration was eight hundred dollars, which we all think very reasonable on the part of the Texas Conference. At our union conference our educational work received due consideration. It was decided to recommend the plan of paying the church-school teachers out of the second tithe. It was also decided to hold a union conference institute for the training of church-school teachers at this place during the summer.”

At a lecture recently delivered at the Columbia University in New York City, Dr. P. P. Claxton, head of the department of history of the University of Tennessee, discussed the marvelous development of educational interests in the Southern United States. He said, in part: “We have come up out of poverty, and in a generation we have risen from weakness to strength. There was no public school system in the South before the war, and nothing that could be called a system until ten years afterward. The start was made in 1873, and by 1890 we had something that was beginning to resemble the system of the North. Since 1902 the appropriations for public schools by the State legislature in Tennessee have increased 125 per cent, in North Carolina they have increased 100 per cent, and in Louisiana 140 per cent. Furthermore, the efficiency of the schools have been quadrupled through the establishment of normal schools and better school supervision. At first we copied the North in the establishment of our schools, but now we are creating a new type of education. To-day we are about as wide-awake on educational matters as any part of the world. We have to-day the best system of agricultural education of any State in the Union.” These words indicate a wide opening for our missionary teachers.