The Battle Creek Industrial Academy
By B. E. NICOLA
WE are now in the last week of the third month of the school year; and they have been very pleasant months. The attendance seems to be more largely those who have a special conviction in favor of the church-school work than formerly. Our enrolment is one hundred and sixty up to this time, with an actual attendance of one hundred and forty-six. We have six regular teachers and one cadet teacher now at work, and all are very busy. Our course of study provides for regular academic or high school work, including the twelfth year. We do not advertise our school or its work outside of Battle Creek, and so have no attendance from a distance, and the majority of those who have left the school this year and last are those who have moved away from the place in harmony with the instruction in favor of such a step. Eleven years of work are represented in this year's classes. A large per cent of our young people are pursuing some industries daily. About forty per cent of them are earning their own tuition, or more. For the few of the older ones who remain unemployed, we have organized what we call “Minuteman's Labor Bureau,” by which the academy receives calls for work from those who have work to be done, and appoints the students to go and do the work, their time being reported to the academy, which makes the collections, and credits the student accordingly; in this way a large number are encouraged to earn their tuition, even though their parents are in some cases able to pay it. Although the boy is not directly under the oversight of some teacher in doing the work, his teachers nevertheless become acquainted with his work, and are able to see the points of weakness, so that the commercial benefit is by no means to be considered the most of it. The tuitions, which range from two dollars to four dollars, supply nearly the entire support of the school, the remaining part being made up by such other means as the church arranges. While tuition is charged, none are kept away on account of not being able to pay it. The per cent of those paying tuition this year is very much better than last. We believe we have a strong corps of teachers. They are mostly women who have been tried for a number of years, and have proved their capability. We are striving earnestly to make the school just what the Lord has intended by calling our church-schools into existence, both by the methods employed and by the text-books used, as well as by the study of the individual needs.