What Our Home School Has Accomplished by MRS. MARY EVANS-CLARKE

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 29, 1915

What Our Home School Has Accomplished

By MRS. MARY EVANS-CLARKE

MRS. MARY EVANS-CLARKE

It is sometimes hard to know just what has been accomplished in school work until we see the results in the matured life of the man or woman. Eternity alone will reveal all the little influences that have led to success or failure. Our children are now a stout lad of nine; a frail girl of seven, who could not have been in school had it been outside the home; and a little girl of kindergarten age. We are just closing the fourteenth month of school, and the children have greatly improved in physical vigor during the two years of mental development. There is less nervous strain than in the public school. Our nine-year-old has finished the fourth grade, with fifth-grade arithmetic; and our girl is well along in third-grade work.

The children have enjoyed their Bible and Bible nature classes. Once each week they, with their teacher, visit six of our neighbors with the Signs of the Times or the REVIEW AND HERALD. On Friday the teacher studies the Sabbath school lesson with them. Often as we study the Morning Watch memory verse, they exclaim, “We had that in school.” It seems so good to have the school work in harmony with the spiritual life of the home and Sabbath school. Instead of the Bible being the last book the children are able to read, it is the first, and its hard names seem to be learned as easily as the names of worldly friends.

While we cannot speak of great results from our little school, we are thankful we have been permitted so far to keep our children from influences that would be a hindrance rather than a help

to their best development, and from desiring many of the pleasures of the world. After an afternoon's visit at a neighbor's our boy said, “Mamma, is it wrong to play checkers and cards? We played them at Glen's. Is there anything said especially against such plays?” I replied, “My parents taught me that it was wrong, but I will look to see what is said about it, and read you what I find.”

In a few days I read the children several such passages as these: “There are amusements, such as dancing, card playing, chess, and checkers, etc., which we cannot approve, because Heaven condemns them. These amusements open the door for great evil.” The boy said, “Well, sister, we'll never play them again, will we?” How thankful I was that he was not daily thrown among children whose influence was for worldly amusements; that we did not have to forbid games, but only read the instruction given so many years ago. At present the results may seem small, but— > “Trifles even lead to heaven, > Trifles make the life of man.”