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Talks on Education

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 14, 1913

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 33.

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Talks on Education

By W. E. H.

It would be very unfortunate for any one to gain the impression from these talks that nothing substantial is being done to strengthen and extend the work of providing our children and youth with the blessings of Christian education. I have just attended a council of the educational secretaries and superintendents of the Central and Northern Union Conferences (July 16-20), at College View, Nebr., in which much evidence was brought forth that earnest, persevering effort to build up the church-schools and academies in that territory is meeting with most encouraging success.A few concrete examples will be of interest:—
Case 1.—The church-members are all women but one or two, mostly wives of miners. With no resources but their own earnings, these mothers were determined to provide their children Christian instruction. They bought a building for $35 (worth $200), and with their own hands built a chimney, outhouses, and other equipment. To pay the teacher they take in washings, go out and paper rooms, and do any kind of work they can get to do. Last year they had eight months of school, twenty pupils, a praying teacher, and three of the pupils who were not Christians were converted.
Case 2.—This school is supported chiefly by one man, a farmer, with thirteen children. He has to raise the teacher's pay from his farm and other work he can get to do. His three oldest children went on from the church-school to the academy. One of them is now a nurse, another earned his way to the bookman's convention in Mountain View by selling $1,000 worth of books, and a third started out the other day with his father's best horse and buggy to canvass for a scholarship.
Case 3.—An uncle with four orphans whose mother had been killed by lightning, secured a teacher with twelve grades of education, paid her wages promptly each month, gave her board and room, and met the running expenses with an unusually good sorghum crop which the Lord gave him. One neighbor's child attended, and the school ran six months.
Case 4.—This school had been carried on for thirteen years. At one period of discouragement, it had been almost decided to drop it, but some one counted up the number of workers who had gone out from there, and finding it to be forty, they decided to go on, and now have as high as forty pupils enrolled.
Case 5.—Three years ago this school had run down in attendance to fifteen. One sister who was determined it should not break up, visited dealers in building material in the town, told their need of a better school building, asked contributions of lumber, doors, shingles, etc., then found a building offered for sale at a remarkable bargain, agreed to take it, and raised the money among church-members. They then leased a piece of ground, moved the building there, fitted it up, had school nine months, with an attendance of fifty-two last year, and twenty-five turned away for lack of room.
Case 6.—This church was warned by the county superintendent of public schools not to start a school, but on learning from the county attorney that they could not be hindered legally, they opened a school. The truant officer took the children to the court, but the judge let them go free, and the school went on. One poor man with four children moved near enough to send his children, and though he had no prospects of work, was prospered of the Lord so that he paid seven or eight dollars a month on school expenses.
Case 7.—This is a Danish school. A Lutheran neighbor said that the Seventh-day Adventist children advanced faster and better than his own, and though he had previously felt bitter toward the school, decided to send his children there. He has now kept them in this school three years, they receiving the same instruction in every respect as the Seventh-day Adventist children. He pays about fifty dollars a year in tuition, and now feels very friendly. The county superintendent came to visit this school for half an hour one day, but became so interested that she remained half a day, keeping a livery rig waiting at her expense. Later she drove twelve miles to attend the closing exercises, and with tears rolling down her cheeks, said, “It’s been many a year since I’ve seen or felt a spirit like this, and I know it’s because you teach God’s Word here.” Three public-school teachers were also present. The school has forty pupils and two teachers.
These are only a few selected from many. Little do we sense how great blessings the church is missing by being content to patronize the secular school. In one conference of nine hundred and thirty membership, there are nine church-schools and one family school. In another of four hundred and seventy-four membership there is a prospect of five church-schools and one family school next year. The great cry everywhere is for more and better-trained teachers. One conference with nine schools has eight teachers with a twelve-grade education, but lacking in normal training. There are about seventy teachers and prospective teachers in training this summer at the joint summer school of the Central and Northern Unions, at College View. Our reason for courage is that both the development of schools and the training of teachers is decidedly on the upward trend. W. E. H.