p. 26 | Principles and Methods by Charles W. Lee

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 9, 1907

Principles and Methods

By Charles W. Lee

The Value of Economy in the Schoolroom

THIS I consider a matter of great importance, even though few give it much practical consideration and study. We may properly ask, Why is this so? To answer the question practically, let us scan the life history of the truly successful man in any business or profession. We will find, with hardly an exception, to ability, shrewdness, and push, has been added economy of either time or means, or both. This may not have been an inherited faculty, and certainly was not one born in an hour of emergency or need. The art of economy is a faculty developed by persistent effort in economy, and to be of value must be continually cultivated.

The time to begin the work of cultivating on this point is during the early life of the child, the formative period of its mind. Then this duty rests upon the parents, to plant the seed, and cultivate it continually by precept and practise. If the parents are faithful in doing this, the work of the teacher will be simplified; if not, it does not lessen the discharge of his duty. I believe that the teacher should teach the value of economy of time and means. Of the first, time, he would do well to impress on the mind the importance of heeding the words of Solomon, in Eccl. 3:1: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

Every teacher should have a written program, specifying the study and recitation periods, and see that it is carried out. School should begin promptly. The exercises of the worship period should be made attractive, and everything that would detract from the purpose of the hour be put away. Then the teacher should see that, at the study period, each applied his mind with diligence to the study of the lesson assigned to that period, and should promptly call the classes at the minute the program calls for the recitation. If the classes are called promptly, and not allowed to run over into the next period, the pupils know that they must have their lessons prepared in a given time, and if the opportunity will not be given them to think, “Well, the teacher always runs over time, and we shall have plenty of time.” That leads to the waste of precious moments.

The pupils should understand that there is a time for study, a time to recite, a time to speak, a time to refrain from speaking, and lastly a time to play; but the latter only at the proper time indicated on the program—at recess and outside of school hours.

The economy of means is very important. If carried out in the home and school, it will show in the later life of duty and conflict. The children can be taught the right use and care of everything about them. And they should learn the right use of the means that the parents have placed in their hands, often at a great sacrifice. I speak of books, tablets, and pencils. Some deface and soil their text-books to that extent that at the end of the year they are not fit to be handed down to a younger brother or sister, or perhaps sold to apply on a new book for the next year. The children should be instructed concerning the care of their books, and a good plan to induce children to care for them, is to examine them often, and perhaps grade them on their condition and cleanliness.

One of the worst features of extravagance that I have witnessed in the schoolroom, but one which can be remedied, is the waste of tablet paper. The tendency is to use but one side of the sheet, and sometimes but part of that, and throw the rest away. Upon asking the reason for such an action, they say, “Our teacher last year would not allow us to write but upon one side,” or, “That is the way they do in the public school,” or, “A tablet costs only a nickel.” Children do not seem to realize the value of a nickel, but if parents and teacher will co-operate in the matter, quite a number of nickels may be saved and put to a good use,—perhaps get into the missionary offering. However, the money is not the important factor in this; it is the development of the habit of economy. Yet in the economy, extremes should be avoided. Neatness and order need not be sacrificed. One need not crowd the work on the tablet so closely together that it can hardly be intelligible.

I firmly believe that by economy in the seemingly little affairs of life, and especially in school life, the faculty of economy will be developed and become a fixed habit, which will bring success both to the individual and to the cause of God, and will also be a great factor in gaining to its possessor an entrance into the kingdom of Christ.

CHARLES W. LEE.