Boarding Schools for Children
By F. G.
By children I mean those who are below the age of ten or twelve, those in whom principles of truth and righteousness can not be said to be well established. Shall these children be taken from their own parental homes and placed in a school home in company with a number of children of similarly unformed habits of life? This is a very practical question to many parents who are desirous of having their children in a school where the Bible is made the basis of all that is studied. The Lord has been giving some very plain instruction concerning the importance of educating our children on a Christian basis. But he has also been giving us some very plain instruction concerning the importance of home training. By “home training” I do not mean the home which begins with a capital “H,” but the parental home—the dearest and sweetest place on earth, or at least should be. God has a purpose in having our children grow up beneath the parental roof, and that purpose is wider, deeper, and higher than the majority of parents have comprehended. There is a most important ministry now due the world. To this ministry many a boy and girl in their humble homes are called. There was never a greater need than now for mothers like Hannah and children like Samuel. Why should not our children be consecrated to God? They certainly can be set apart to no greater service than his. Why should parents have aims of a worldly nature for their children? The parent has perhaps a greater influence upon the child’s aim than all other influences combined. An aim must be established worthy of the highest endeavor of the child. Success is never given to any except those who have this definite aim. To give to a child this definite aim for a part in the world’s ministry of to-day is the highest privilege of parents. For parents to turn this work to others, in a great part, is for them to lose the richest part of their life’s experience. Others can not possibly feel the importance of this work of character building for their children as should they; nor can others begin to do the work so successfully as can these parents if they are connected with their Heavenly Father. It becomes, then, a very serious question when children thus leave their own home and parental training for that of a school home as to whether they do not lose more in the work of real growth in character than they can gain from the school which they attend, even though that school be built and conducted upon right principles. Adventist children are an object of an especial attack of Satan, and, on the whole, can not be said to be any better than the children of those who do not believe in this message. This may seem rather a hard thing to say, but from rather an extended observation I believe it to be only too true. This being so, the danger of grouping quite a number of children, with their unformed characters, together with the home life, is only increased. It should be borne in mind that I am speaking of children. It is right, and in nearly all cases necessary, that a little later these children should go from their homes to school home life, where they are thrown in contact with many others similarly trained. But it is the privilege and duty of parents to have so trained and educated their children that they will stand against the harmful influences that they will meet. Now, I can conceive of circumstances that would warrant parents in placing children out of their own homes and under the care of others. Some children are certainly far better environed for the building of a good character in a well-conducted home than in their own homes. We must not disparage the great value of an education in a good church-school where the Word of God is taught and revered as the rule of life. We must not make this school and its work paramount to that of the parent. A sign of our times is that the hearts of fathers are to be turned to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. It is incumbent upon us to fulfil this prophecy by our godly home lives.
F. G.