The School for the Times by M. BESSIE DEGRAW

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 6, 1907

The School for the Times

By M. BESSIE DEGRAW

I HAVE thought for some time that if some of our energetic young people—readers of the REVIEW—could know of some things going on in neighboring States, it would awaken a desire in their hearts to enter quickly upon a work to which the Lord is calling them.

I have been collecting some interesting stories—true stories—of sacrifice and devotion which I am pleased to be able to give you. The first is the account of the starting of an industrial school in Rabun County, Georgia, described as “lying in the heart of the illiterate mountain region, and occupying a strategic position in this great field. Situated in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the extreme northeastern corner of Georgia, it has been, until the advent of a railroad, one of the most isolated and inaccessible counties in all the Southern mountain region. In its isolated position all the conditions have prevailed peculiar to the remote mountain community. It presents the mountain problem in all its phases—educational, social, moral, religious, and economic.”

The story of this industrial school in Rabun County, Georgia, is given by Andrew J. Ritchie, its founder and superintendent, himself a native of this same county and a Harvard graduate.

How the School Was Established

Professor Ritchie says: “In August, 1902, while on a visit to the county during my vacation as teacher at Baylor University, Texas, I saw the great need of not only a strong school in the county, but of a school that would provide something more than the old education of the text-books. I noticed that the brightest boys were leaving the county, and that the girls, as a rule, were being left without education, and in the midst of surroundings in which their social condition was helpless and hopeless. I thought how much it would mean if there could be a school in which these boys and girls could be educated at home and trained in profitable occupations, so that they would remain in the county and marry and make homes and elevate the standards of life and society in their communities.”

Mr. Ritchie traveled on horseback, visiting nearly every family in the county, and soliciting means and help. When the time came to build, having very little money in hand, “some brought their teams and made the excavations for the basement story, others quarried and hauled the stone, still others cut and hauled the logs to the sawmill for the framing, and almost the entire community shared in by hauling the rest of the material over the mountains from the railroad, a distance of fifteen or twenty miles for the round trip, and in this way saved a great deal of money which they were unable to give. Thus the building was constructed as the money and material came in, and with the great gain that, as it grew, the people felt that it was their own, and that as friendly gifts came from the outside, they realized they were doing what they could to help themselves.”

Concerning the plan for school work we read: “The school is planned as an industrial and high school for the surrounding mountain country in which poor boys and girls can support themselves in part by their work, and as a model school for the local community.”

Industrial Education Needed

Professor Ritchie describes the people for whom he is working; and since you and I are called to this work, we want to know the conditions to be met. He says:—

“These isolated mountain people are not only lacking in education, but are lacking in social and economic efficiency. They need not only education which will develop their latent intellect and talent, but also education which will develop their industrial and social activities. They need to learn how to live and how to work, not only to own their homes as most of them do, but to make them more comfortable and wholesome, and to cultivate their mountain farms in a scientific and intensive way. They need to learn the value of time, to acquire skill and efficiency, to cultivate thrift and frugality, and to make the most of their resources. . . .”

“The old education fails to reach the mountain problem because it is not adapted to mountain conditions. The goal which it sets before the mountain boy or girl is too often an escape from the work and environment of the mountain community, and a change to the life of the town or city. The kind of education needed is education which shall have a larger bearing upon the life which the people are to lead. The school through which this education is to be provided must establish a practical connection between education and work. Its course of study must have to do with the industries of the environment. The mountain boy needs to be trained in agriculture, forestry, dairying and animal husbandry, and in handicrafts in wood-work and other industries for which the materials lie at hand unused. The mountain girl needs to be trained in the arts of orderly housekeeping and successful home making, which will combine with the pure mountain air and water, to give these people the physical health which is their birthright.

“The mountain school must also be an evangelizing spiritual and moral force. It must do the work which is not being done in the remote mountain district by the church and the evangelistic preacher. It must set in motion influences which will soften the mountain temper and displace the spirit of feud. It must banish the evil of whisky and its attendant evils of moral and social degradation. It must impart such a breadth and richness of social life as shall make the mountain community an attractive place in which to live.”

Notice, the mountain school must be an evangelizing, spiritual, and moral force. Does that not mean that here is a call for teachers strong in the belief that the gospel must go to the world? Is not this a call to you?

Notice also that the education recommended by this Harvard graduate, this native of the mountains of Rabun County, for the mountain youth is verily the same as that which the Testimonies have long been urging upon us as a people,—an education that fits for every-day life, an education that makes lovers of work, an education based upon soil cultivation.

Are we ready to fill such calls? If so, come, step into the places waiting for you. If not, come, prepare for such work.

I have other stories for you, stories that bear a little later date even than this one, and which come even a little nearer home.

M. BESSIE DEGRAW.