Why We Have School at Home by MRS. MARY EVANS-CLARKE

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 22, 1915

Why We Have School at Home

By MRS. MARY EVANS-CLARKE

MRS. MARY EVANS-CLARKE

WHEN our little ones came to us, we accepted it as our privilege and duty to protect them, as far as possible, from the temptations of the present day.

A large family lived near us whose older children were in the village school. When small, they attended Sabbath school, and while still young united with the church. But as they entered the higher grades in school, and made friends with those who cared nothing for religious things, they gradually lost their love for the truth. When childhood days were hardly passed, they had slipped from us, and are now in the world and of the world. The younger children of the family were placed in our schools, and are now workers in the cause we love. Did it pay to make the sacrifice needed to keep these children in our schools? Surely church schools pay. How can we run the risk of losing our children to the truth we hold dear by placing them under the teachings of the world?

Two years ago ours were the only children of school age in our church, so we had to have a home school or none. Our boy was seven in December, but not until the next summer did the director visit us. He was very kind, and we told him our plans to have a home school for a few years. We were two miles' distant from the schoolhouse, and no other children lived on that road.

He asked several questions about our plans, and finally suggested that I could teach the children by getting a certificate. We were surprised at that, as he had caused another Sabbath-keeping mother quite a little worry three years before.

We thought of having a girl for the housework, so I could give my time to the children. However, we gave up that plan as we could find no suitable girl for the housework, which is always abundant on a farm. Children are with the hired helpers, both in the house and outside, and are greatly influenced by them. A teacher would feel a burden to have her influence uplifting, and perhaps a paid helper in the kitchen would not. Again, the wages for a hired girl are about the same as for a teacher, but the running expenses of the home are usually increased when the housework is turned over to a girl. Expense and difficulties are to be met whichever course is followed; but though this is true, we cannot afford to expose our children to the alluring influences of the world.

In our own family we decided to hire a teacher for the school year. A pleasant upstairs room was fitted up with the necessary appliances, and as far as possible given the air of ‘school.’ Regular hours were kept, and the interest of the children never flagged.