Education Afield by W. E. H.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 28, 1913

Education Afield

By W. E. H.

On the fourteenth of July, I left Washington for College View, Nebr., to hold a four-day council with the educational superintendents and union secretaries of the Central and Northern Union Conferences. This first council of its kind was held in pursuance of the desire of the Department of Education to come into fuller and more intimate touch with the work in the field; in harmony also with a recommendation passed at the recent General Conference that the department define more fully the duties of superintendents and secretaries. To serve these two purposes, a series of such councils is being held in the stronger unions, the second also having been held in the Lake Union on this trip.

One deep and lasting impression was made on my mind in these two councils,—that in the face of trying and at times all but insuperable difficulties in promoting educational reform, our brave superintendents and secretaries are standing courageously at their posts and gaining victories that promise much for the future education of our children and youth. At the College View council there were present six superintendents and two secretaries; at Berrien Springs, seven superintendents and one secretary. The frankness with which these men and women told of their experiences, and the eagerness with which they sought wise means of improving their work, assured progress in developing the efficiency of our church-schools and academies in those unions the coming year. An excellent spirit of cooperation with the general department was manifested in all the discussions.

A few recommendations of general interest adopted by these three unions are given here, that our churches may be in touch with them and assist in carrying them out:—

1. That in churches where there is an academy, the church-school operate separately from the academy, under the same supervision by the educational superintendent as other church-schools; and that where it is necessary to hold the church-school in academy quarters, the principal have general supervision of such discipline as may affect the welfare of the academy.

2. That our local conferences consider the advisability of making the educational superintendent a member of the academy board.

3. That our academies send monthly reports to the parents or guardians of each pupil.

One purpose in recommendation two is to bring the superintendent into closer touch with the work of the academy for the help it will be in working for the academy’s interests in the field, and in shaping the church-school pupil’s work for entrance to the academy, to the end that fewer pupils may stop work on completing the elementary course. The purpose of recommendation three is to cultivate closer relations between the academy and the home, a relation indispensable to the welfare of both.

A committee on church-school library made the following report:—

1. A list of books to begin with: “Early Writings,” “Story of Daniel,” “Seer of Patmos,” “Acts of the Apostles,” Youth’s Instructor, Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, and selections from the Junior Volunteer list on missions, travel, biography, manners and customs, history, geography, natural science, and occupations, these selections to be reported later.

2. Suggestive ways of getting means to start a library: (a) Suitable programs, charging a small admission fee or taking up a collection; (b) making and selling small articles; (c) taking a special church collection for the purpose; (d) asking for donations of suitable books, to be first examined by the teacher.

3. Securing five subscriptions to the educational journal for a globe offered by that magazine.

Union College

President Griggs, with his board and faculty, is laying plans for a strong school the coming year. Professor Benson will remain at the head of the history department, carrying at least three classes. Mrs. Rowell returns after a year’s furlough to resume her work at the head of the English department. Professors Morrison and Wood continue as heads of the mathematics and science departments, respectively. Prof. H. C. Lacey, recently from Stanborough Park College, England, will be at the head of the Bible department after spending six weeks at the Bible teachers’ summer institute in Takoma Park, D. C. Miss Peck is revising and improving her plans for the normal department.

Last May, Union College graduated twenty students in the college course, the largest class of its kind in the history of our denominational schools, and has another large class in prospect for next year. The summer school, in session while I was there, had about seventy students enrolled, largely church-school teachers. For the first time the work was conducted, under the leadership of Prof. M. B. Van Kirk, the union secretary, on such a basis that teachers without full normal training could obtain definite credits on the normal course, thus making it possible, by a few summers’ work, to obtain a normal diploma without any break in their teaching.

Oak Park Academy

This academy is ideally located for a Christian school, at Nevada, Iowa, the geographical center of the State. The building is new, substantially built, and well arranged. After very arduous work in establishing this school on the principles of Christian education, Professor Lamson is taking a furlough from school work, and Prof. S. M. Butler, for five years president of Mount Vernon College, assumes the principalship. Prof. S. A. Smith is doing most efficient work in building up the agricultural industries of the academy, both educationally and financially.

Broadview Swedish Seminary

I was more than gratified to see how substantial a beginning has been made in this school. On calling for Principal Nord by telephone, I was informed that he was “out in the field at work.” So also were some of his teachers and students. Two men were working on a brick addition to the main dormitory, which, when completed, will provide for all the ladies, the dining service, and a commodious chapel. The farm of seventy-eight acres is well and profitably cultivated, and the premises and buildings are a model of neatness, order, and cleanliness. The seminary is situated about thirteen miles from Chicago, with rapid trolley connections, making it possible to carry on missionary work in the city in connection with the school work. Chicago has a larger Swedish population than any other city in the world, except Stockholm. The past year the enrolment of the seminary was double that of the first of its three years of work. This school deserves the prayers and financial support of God’s people.

Emmanuel Missionary College

Here I found the summer school just closing its session, with an enrolment of one hundred and ten, a large increase over any attendance the last five or more years. One feature that contributed to the strength of this school is the fact that out of the total number in attendance only fifty had not been in school there before. This is a gratifying sequel to the regular college enrolment last year of two hundred and twenty-nine, more than double the attendance of six years ago, and fifty more than the previous year. Numbers would not count for so much were it not for the fact that this school is keeping close to the principles of Christian education enunciated in the spirit of prophecy, and is graduating students whose first and highest ambition is to have a part in denominational work. President Graf told me that their balance-sheet shows a net gain on operating expenses of over five thousand dollars, after allowing depreciation of all kinds, and that the farm made a substantial gain this year, after charging it with all student labor. All the five academies of Lake Union are cooperating harmoniously with the college on a ten-grade basis, and the college does not receive ninth- and tenth-grade students except local residents.

After close confinement in an office for several years, this trip afield has opened my eyes to the substantial advancement of our school work in the territory visited, church-schools and all, and to the wonderful possibilities that lie immediately before us if we take our stand squarely upon the principles of true education specially committed to us.

W. E. H.