Rural School Convention by Lynn H. Wood

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 5, 1916

Rural School Convention

By Lynn H. Wood

THE ninth annual convention of rural schools convened at Madison, Tenn., on Thursday, August 31. Over thirty schools in the various States in the South were represented, and quite a number of speakers from a distance spoke on very timely subjects.

Of special interest were the remarks of Dr. H. W. Foght, the rural school specialist from the United States Bureau of Education. Speaking on Christian education, he expressed himself as follows: “Schools like yours, and schools similar to yours organized by other denominations, have done a work and are doing a work of a kind that the public schools in the United States have failed utterly to do in the past. I feel the time has come for our educators to give a more thorough study to just your kind of schools, because it is the only way out.” Dr. Foght has spent a great deal of time and study on the rural school question, and his advice and counsel were much appreciated.

The students at the school vacated their rooms for the use of the delegates, and did everything they possibly could to make the five days’ institute very pleasant. Over three hundred people were entertained at the school free of charge, and every possible courtesy was shown them.

On Friday the reports of the different schools were heard. On Sabbath the usual religious exercises were conducted, special attention being given to the subject of Christian education. Saturday night, Prof. H. A. Morgan, director of the Experiment Station, College of Agriculture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, gave a most interesting and instructive talk on the general topic of making agricultural subjects interesting to the rural school student. His lecture contained a great amount of food for earnest thought and study. Many will look back upon it as one of the most pleasing parts of the convention. Sunday the different lines of medical missionary work were considered, and speakers from Nashville and other cities spoke to the delegates. Monday was given over to the detail of school work.

Elder W. E. Videto, having been elected Bible teacher, was present from the North. He has come here to assist in the work of teaching at Madison.

A remarkable spirit of coöperation existed in all the meetings, and the Lord was very near to us. All went home feeling it had been one of the best conventions ever held in Madison.

LYNN H. WOOD.