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The Place and Work of the School

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

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 14.

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The Place and Work of the School

By A. W. Spaulding

We teachers had been rereading the first of the biographical sketch in Volume One of the Testimonies.
“Why is it,” one queried, “that the preaching of the gospel to-day has not the effect upon the young people it had then? Or does it have, and is our observation faulty?”
“It does not have,” answered the positive Youngest Member.
“We have sometimes a ‘revival’ service, when many young people are brought to the penitent’s seat; but, as we teachers have had to observe, in very few cases is the effect lasting.” This from the Oldest Member.
“And,” resumed the Youngest Member, “it is not lasting because there is no foundation to build on; and the reason for that is that the homes have been growing more negligent ever since those early days. If you will observe, the impression made upon Ellen Harmon by the preaching of the first angel’s message was due to her home training.”
“Of course,” said a Lady Teacher, “there were many then who rejected the message, and some, no doubt, because of their neglect of religious instruction at home. We must consider the personal factor in this: some, with the most careful home training, reject the truth; while others are rescued by the truth from the most evil conditions.”
“Yet,” interposed the Doctor, “when we find to-day fewer who receive the truth from the minister’s public effort, it is natural to refer the cause to the home, because we know that lies at the foundation of society, and does the greatest work of mind-molding.”
“And if we may rightly charge it to the home,” said the First Member, “what is evidently the most essential work in the giving of the gospel to-day? What will fill the breach made by the failure of the home, so that our young people may be saved?”
“The school,” said the Youngest Member, “is left with the burden by the failure of the home.”
“Certainly the school,” said the Oldest Member, “is left almost wholly with the problem of their salvation. It must fill to a great extent the place of the home. It really must be a combination of the teaching and the evangelistic forces.”
“Consider,” said the First Member, “what are the results of public preaching to-day. Once in a while we hear of ten, fifteen, or twenty-five brought out by a tent effort. Most commonly, however, there is but a gleaning of a few berries from the topmost branches. There may be a question of whether ministerial effort could be more profitably made in other plans and through other methods; but our main problem is how to fit the school to the conditions it must meet.”
“If it is to take the place of the home,” said the Lady Teacher, “it must conform as nearly as possible to the plan of the ideal home.”
“Do we?”
“There will be the regular family study and worship, there will be the daily duties of house and farm and shop, participated in by teachers (parents) and students alike. There will be the careful personal training in matters of diet and sleep and cleanliness and exercise, and the culture that comes from thoughtful social intercourse.”
“But how can we?” exclaimed the Doctor, as if somebody had looked at her. “Where is the time? With medical work and the cooking, I find it almost impossible to teach a single class. I know that many of our boys and girls have false ideas about eating between meals, and the care of their rooms and persons, and all that. Once in a while we reach an individual effectively; but generally talk is not effective.”
“It is individual work that tells,” admitted the First Member. “Is our family, our school, too large?”
“You can’t make it smaller and keep this force of teachers,” declared the Oldest Member; “tuition will not allow. And a reduction of student body and faculty is no gain.”
“I have dreamed of an industrial school,” began the Youngest Member—“of a self-supporting school that I think is in better accord with the ‘ideal home.’ We read last Sunday in the Fernando Testimony that every teacher should devote several hours each day to working with the students in some kind of manual training. Why?—Evidently that they may become proficient, for one thing. By that means, too, they could be self-supporting, if they should get profitable work.”
“Our work has all been profitable, in a way,” said the Oldest Member. “It is necessary for the maintenance and building up of the plant.”
“But such necessary work may not always last,” objected the First Member. “We shall be complete sometime.”
“Why not,” went on the Youngest Member, “have a class—say in carpentry—that shall do regular work under their teacher in the neighborhood? Why not a blacksmith shop doing custom work? Or, possibly, in some situations, even a bakery, or laundry, or a rug factory? Done in the spirit of Christ, would not such work open avenues of missionary enterprise?”
“A ten-hour day?” queried the Pleasant Member.
“A union day is eight hours,” answered the Youngest Member. “They have helped us that much.”
“What time for book study then?” asked the Doctor.
“Shorten it,” said the Youngest Member.
“Reverse the proportion of time now used in manual and in book work,” suggested the First Member. “It would be more rational: the first is living life; the second is reading reports of life.”
And then the bell rang.
A. W. Spaulding.