The Rural Schools of the South - A Symposium by Arthur G. Daniells

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 18, 1916

The Rural Schools of the South — A Symposium

By Arthur G. Daniells

A Mission Problem at Home

There is a strange problem in a section of the United States. In a country with widespread educational facilities, with compulsory educational laws which are supposed to be of universal application, is found a large number of people, living in practical isolation, with almost no opportunities for gaining an education or for learning anything about the gospel. Their land is poor, their methods are primitive, and they have no market for their produce, so they are poor as well as ignorant.

These people are, nevertheless, equal in physical and mental ability to any others in the United States. They are the descendants of the pioneer settlers of the country,—English, Scotch, Scotch-Irish, Germans, and French Huguenots,—pure European stock of stable quality.

The isolation in which they have lived has made them a difficult class to help. They need to learn how to cultivate their land, how to care for their bodies, how to train their children, how to read and write. They need above all to be taught the gospel. But they do not realize that they need to learn anything, and are suspicious of efforts that are made in a direct way to help them.

Experience has proved that the best way to help them is for those who wish to do so to live among them, and gain their confidence by lives of kindly ministry and by efficient work on the land. Devout Seventh-day Adventists have bought land, built simple, healthful homes, and when friendly relations have been established, have started schools for the youth and children, free of charge for tuition. That the need for such schools is great is shown by one case, where there are eighty families within two miles of the school, of whom seventy-five per cent cannot read or write.

These schools are practical. The children are taught the regular school subjects, and with these are given lessons on the cultivation of the soil, cooking, sewing, the care of the body, and other things that will build them up physically and mentally, and that will improve their financial condition. With these things they are taught the gospel message.

These schools are having an excellent influence, are raising the surrounding communities to higher standards of life, and gaining souls for the Lord. But there are not enough of them, and those that have been started are poorly supplied with necessary facilities. They are worthy of encouragement and assistance, for they are doing an important part in the giving of the last warning message in a difficult yet fruitful field.

A. G. DANIELLS.