A Home in the Country and a School in the Woods
ONE of the most promising educational efforts of this generation is being wrought out at Berrien Springs. Each time I visit this school, I become more fully convinced that if those who are leading out in this work remain true to their God-given trust, in the providence of God Berrien Springs is destined to become as widely known as the exponent of true education as is Battle Creek for food reform, or Tuskegee for the solution of the negro problem. Our advanced methods in the treatment of the sick have attracted widespread attention among the medical profession. Is it too much to assume that our educational work might to-day have occupied a similar position in the educational world? A most encouraging feature of the work at Berrien Springs is the evident spirit of enthusiasm in the minds of the students for the ideas for which the school stands. At my recent visit I had expected to find a visible decrease in the number of students, on account of the pressure of spring work at their respective homes, but I was surprised to find almost as many in attendance as last winter, and that in spite of the fact that the school has been greatly hampered by lack of necessary buildings to accommodate these students. It is a part of a liberal education to study carefully the co-operative plan that is being forged out at this place. Every student seems to be as conversant with every feature of the management of this great enterprise as he is with the problems presented in his text-book. This is because every student literally shares in the development and working out of every question that arises in every phase of the movement. Each student pays for the amount of fuel and light that he consumes. The school management assumes no financial responsibility for the purchasing of coal, as that is entirely in the hands of a committee of students chosen by the student body. By this plan every student felt the importance of this coal strike in a more tangible way than by merely following it in the newspapers. Six young ladies who desired to take lessons in cooking volunteered to take part in that work; three of these prepare the breakfast, and the other three the dinner. Although working under many disadvantages at present, they have made a splendid success. As each student pays for the food he eats, a vital question that these amateur cooks must constantly have before them is not only how to prepare palatable food, but, Does it pay to cook a certain food material? This makes it necessary for them to give constant study to actual food values. One purpose of this school is to develop up-to-date church school teachers, so it is essential that they should practice agriculture with their other studies. Accordingly, the services of their farmer have been dispensed with, and the faculty have divided the responsibility of the farm work among themselves, and make it such a study that they are as ready to teach the students in the fields as in the class room. Their splendid school buildings were constructed almost entirely by the students, the majority of whom, when they entered the school, could not saw at all. Each student opens a regular book account with the institution, and an important part of the book-keeping work is taught in this practical way. There is among us a deplorable lack of men and women prepared to fill positions as matrons, business managers, and heads of departments. Modern methods of education do not furnish an education that fits one for such responsibilities, but19with such an educational effort as is being developed at Berrien Springs, we may certainly hope for better things in the near future. If there ever was an institution born without a golden spoon in its mouth, it certainly is the Berrien Springs school. Its promoters had the courage and devotion to divine principles that led them to abandon splendid buildings and educational facilities, and almost without any promising financial outlook, begin to plant a home for themselves in the country, and a school in the bosom of nature, and God is rewarding their noble movement. A class of students have gathered in here who were willing to lay aside their school work in the dead of winter, and go out in a body and sell “Christ’s Object Lessons” to raise enough money to enable the school to meet its pressing obligations, then return again to their books, instead of losing heart and going to their homes. With such loyalty and devotion pulsating in the hearts of a company of sturdy young men and women, the success of this educational effort is well nigh assured. The educational world has already begun to watch this work, as is evidenced by the words of a prominent Eastern educator: “I now understand better why your school moved from Battle Creek to its new location. You are placing the rock foundations of successful work. You are returning to nature, and many thousands will learn to thank you for your undertaking. The movement in that direction will take on vast proportions during succeeding years.” DAVID PAULSON.