The Rural School Work in the South
By Frederick Griggs
At the recent council of the North American Division Conference at Loma Linda, consideration was given to the rural school work of the South. For many years the “self-supporting” or “independent” schools, as they have been variously called, have been a matter of deep interest and some perplexity to the General Conference. For some fifteen or twenty years efforts have been made by our denomination to reach the people of the South, white and colored, through school work. In a general way it may be said that this work was first begun by the Southern Missionary Society. Much instruction had come to us through the spirit of prophecy regarding the needy people of the South and the necessity of our doing a special work for them. This work the Southern Missionary Society endeavored to do. It conducted quite a number of schools for colored children in various portions of the South, but its work seemed to lack that unity of effort necessary to produce the best results. With a view to greater efficiency the work of the society was taken over by the Southern Union Conference, and became a part of its regular work. As time passed a still greater burden for this work seemed to be laid upon Sister E. G. White, and she repeatedly counseled and urged that greater effort should be put forth to establish the message firmly in the South. Prof. E. A. Sutherland and Prof. P. T. Magan felt a desire to assist in carrying out the instruction thus received, and to establish a school in which to train workers for this field, and they were encouraged by Sister White to do so. A farm of about four hundred acres of land, located some nine miles from Nashville, near Madison, Tenn., was purchased, and a school was opened in October, 1904, with an enrolment of fifteen students. The school was not under conference management, but was incorporated by Brethren Sutherland and Magan and others under the General Welfare Act of the State of Tennessee. From the training school thus established there went out men and women into rural districts to establish small schools. Within two or three years a half dozen of these schools were in operation. They were located within a radius of one hundred miles of Nashville, away from other schools, public or private, where the people were in need of them. In the establishment of these schools, farms were purchased and school work begun, either in buildings already on the farms or in small ones erected after their purchase. The means used to purchase these properties belonged in20some instances to the purchasers, and in others it was obtained from friends and churches in the North. One object in the minds of those conducting these schools was to cultivate the soil properly, and to demonstrate that it could be a means of producing a better living than the people of the locality had been obtaining. The prime purpose, however, was to teach not agriculture, but the third angel’s message. These schools have increased in number until now there are twenty-five or thirty of them located in different States of the Southern and Southeastern Union Conferences. When the Madison school opened, and for some time thereafter, there were quite serious difficulties in the denomination relative to organization. As previously stated, this school and those schools affiliated with it were not under direct conference management, and naturally questions arose as to their relation to the organized work. In general it may be said that the misunderstandings concerning these schools have arisen from two causes: first, the teachings given, or supposed to have been given, in them, relative to organization and conference work; and second, the manner in which the funds for their establishment and maintenance were secured. These misunderstandings have resulted in a lack of that necessary and hearty cooperation which doubtless would otherwise have existed between them and the conferences in which they were located. The General Conference Committee has from the first recognized the necessity of this work so definitely outlined by the spirit of prophecy, and has at all times considered itself ready to advance it to the extent of its ability and the means at its disposal. But believing that all features of this cause should be carried forward by the denomination in a cooperative and organized way, it has not been able to enter into that sympathetic relation with these schools which is required for their best success. In an effort to bring about different conditions for the carrying forward of this work, concerning which so much instruction has come to us, the fall council of 1914 took the following action:— “Voted, That the chairman appoint a representative committee of five or more persons, the Chair being one, to give careful study to the independent work being carried forward in the Division Conference, formulate a report, and submit their findings to the next autumn council of the Division Conference Executive Committee. “This committee was chosen as follows: F. Griggs, W. T. Knox, I. H. Evans, S. E. Wight, O. Montgomery, J. J. Ireland, C. W. Flaiz, W. A. Ruble, Charles Thompson, W. C. White.” In accordance with this action, a subcommittee consisting of Elders S. E. Wight, O. Montgomery, C. W. Flaiz, and the writer, was delegated to make quite an extended visit to these schools. Some two weeks was spent in carrying out this plan, and later the whole committee, together with representatives of the schools, met at Nashville, for study of the questions involved. As a result of these deliberations, a tentative report was drawn up. Financial difficulties having arisen in connection with the work of the Hillcrest (Nashville) school for colored workers, conducted along lines similar to those of the Madison school, Elders I. H. Evans, W. T. Knox, and the writer again met, late in April, 1915, with the workers of the Madison and Hillcrest schools; and still later, in May, Drs. Sutherland and Magan came to Washington for a further conference. While the questions considered at these last two meetings related primarily to the immediate difficulties of the Hillcrest school, yet they involved a careful study of the relation of this kind of school to our conference organization, and resulted in a better understanding of that relation. The day before the opening of the fall council, Nov. 4, 1915, the whole committee met at Loma Linda to draft its final report. By invitation, Dr. P. T. Magan met with it. After a prayerful study of all the questions involved, the following report was drafted:— “Your committee appointed at the council held at Takoma Park, Oct. 25 to Nov. 3, 1914, to make a study of the independent institutions of the North American Division Conference, would submit the following with reference to school enterprises:— “We have visited many of the independent or self-supporting schools, as they are variously called, of the Southern and Southeastern Conferences. We made our investigations in this field because so many of these enterprises are located close together in this territory, thus saving expense. “A subcommittee spent two weeks in visiting these schools, and the whole committee spent three days studying the situation together. During this time we visited fifteen of these self-supporting enterprises. Our study leads us to make the following general statements:— “1. Your committee has sought earnestly and prayerfully to lay aside any preconceived opinions, and come to the study of this work with unprejudiced minds. “2. We were impressed with the spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice manifested by these workers. They are living in the plainest of homes, and in some instances their self-denial falls little short of actual suffering, but notwithstanding they seem possessed of a cheerful and uncomplaining spirit. “3. We believe there is need in the Southland for work of the general nature carried forward by these schools. It appears to us that the character of the people throughout large portions of the South, and particularly in the hill regions, is such as to demand a special effort toward permanency in our gospel work. It seems to us that if we would develop our work and give stability to it, it is necessary in many sections for gospel workers to live in the community and become leaders in the religious activities. We do not believe that people are to be brought into the truth solely by education, for the truth must be preached in its simplicity and purity. “4. We find many of these workers doing medical missionary work in their community, and as far as we were able to judge they have won the confidence and good will of the people by their ministrations. “5. We discovered two distinct classes of schools; one whose purpose primarily is to work for the people of the vicinity in which the school is located; the other seems to have to a greater or less degree the purpose of educating the children of Seventh-day Adventists outside the community, even soliciting students from other conferences from that in which the school is located. “6. We find a lack of supervision of this work, different methods being pursued in different schools, nearly every school seeming to be a unit of itself. A proper supervision would tend greatly to strengthen these schools. “7. In his prayer, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, our Saviour pleaded for the unity of the church until the end of time, and in sympathy with this prayer it is our desire that the utmost unity may be found throughout the territory of the North American Division Conference, both in our evangelical and our institutional work, in order that the blessing of God may be seen and his Spirit poured out upon our work for its speedy finishing. “Based upon the foregoing, are the following recommendations:— “We recommend, 1. That this work be enlarged and strengthened, and that hereafter the Madison school, and the efforts which have sprung or may spring from it, be considered a part of the regular work of the denomination, and that the Madison school be regarded by the denomination as the training school for workers for rural schools in the mountain districts of the South. “2. That the North American Division Conference regularly provide and support a Bible teacher for the Madison training school. “3. That we encourage our conference officers and our people to consider and look upon the rural school work in the hill districts of the South as a part of the regular work of the denomination, and that we encourage proper persons in all our conferences to enter the Madison school to receive a training for this work. “4. That hereafter these schools be designated as the Rural Schools of the South, and be promoted jointly by the local and union conference officials, and by the workers in the Madison training school, and that they be fostered and superintended by the regular organized work, and be operated on what is known as the self-supporting plan. “5. That when funds for these schools are gathered from the Seventh-day Adventist people, the title to such school properties shall be held in a manner agreeable to the conferences in which such schools are located. When the funds are provided by the promoters of the schools, the property shall be held by the promoters in such a manner as will safeguard the interests and future welfare of the school. “6. That hereafter when funds are solicited for this line of work, we follow closely the General Conference recommendation in regard to previously making satisfactory arrangements with conference officials. “7. That funds for the establishment and operation of these schools, when coming from our people, pass through the regular channels. “8. That all our schools, where support is supplied by the contributions of our people, keep an account of their receipts and disbursements, and that the conference auditor annually audit the books of such schools or provide for the same. “9. That in the teachers’ institutes21hereafter held, the managers and teachers in these rural schools have a part, and that provision be made in the program for the consideration of and instruction in the particular lines of work in which they are engaged.” This report was duly presented to the council and unanimously adopted. There is little that needs to be added at this time, for the report speaks for itself. We rejoice that this long step toward unity and cooperation in the work for the needy Southland has been taken; and now that a definite plan of organization has been effected, we look for this work to have a substantial and rapid growth. Men and women should be chosen for the work of this field with the same care as for foreign service. In the words of Sister White,— “God calls for missionaries, and asks us to take up our neglected duties. Let farmers, financiers, builders, and those who are skilled in various arts and crafts, go to this field [the South] to improve lands and to build humble cottages for themselves and their neighbors. “The most successful methods are to encourage families who have a missionary spirit, to settle in the Southern States and work with the people.” With the hearty cooperation of our conferences in the North as well as in the South, and with wise, careful management, we look for the rural schools of the South to be a valuable means of advancing the third angel’s message in that portion of the United States.