Fireside Correspondence School by W. E. Howell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Sep 5, 1912

Fireside Correspondence School

By W. E. Howell

Fourth Annual Opening

Three years’ experience in conducting study at home by correspondence has made it plain beyond question that this kind of work can be done efficiently. The results we get are gratifying even beyond what we expected when the school was started. Some of the reasons why study at home under our direction is successful, are:—

1. Every student does individual work; he is in a class of one; he really is taking private lessons.

2. No other student sees his recitation paper; he therefore feels free to “expose his ignorance” by reciting the very best he can, and asking all the questions he needs to.

3. Each student recites on the entire lesson; he does not merely answer one or two questions—possibly none—in a recitation, then spend the rest of his time listening to others or looking out of the window.

4. He has the teacher’s personal criticism on every essential point in the lesson; he therefore knows that he knows a lesson, or that he does not.

5. Before a student can set down an answer or an opinion in black and white, he must have very definite knowledge of what he is talking about; he is not coached along by the nod and beck of his teacher or the facial expression of his fellow students; he therefore strives continually to be independent in his thinking.

6. We do not require the lessons to be sent in on a fixed day; the student many times take extra time to work out the more difficult lessons or points in a lesson without feeling hurried or nervous over it; if a lesson has to be returned, he can take time to do it over without feeling that some one is getting ahead of him. On the other hand, we fix a limit of time to his scholarship in the school so he will not fall into plodding or indolent habits.

7. The student gets excellent practise in good expression, no matter what subject he is taking; for we criticize his writing in respect to spelling, punctuation, use of capital letters, sentence structure, choice of words, clearness and coherence of thought, and other qualities of good composition, including neatness, order, and legibility.

In these seven and various other helpful ways we are serving about two hundred students the year round. We now have our work thoroughly systematized, and are equipped to serve twice this number the coming year.

Who Our Students Are

Among our students the past year were:—

1. Thirty-eight teachers, from the elementary school to the college, seeking to advance in teaching efficiency.

2. Twenty-five farmers,—fathers and sons, sometimes in the same family.

3. Twenty-seven mothers and daughters at home, besides seventeen who classify themselves as housewives.

4. Students—those unable to go back to school, those in school but unable to take a certain subject there because of conflict, those who lack only one or two subjects of finishing a course.

5. Then come ministers, foreign missionaries, secretaries, canvassers, nurses, stenographers, and those employed in all kinds of occupations and professions.

Our Opening Date

We have chosen for our fourth autumn opening, October 7. It is the beginning of the best season for study. We do not need to urge our old students to continue,—some of them have been members of the school ever since it started,—but we do urge all who have not had the courage and determination to make a beginning in this interesting work, to attend to all the preliminaries for enrolment before our opening date, and start in promptly with the new year. For a calendar containing full information on the subjects we offer, the terms of tuition, and our methods of work, address Fireside Correspondence School, Takoma Park, D. C., or—

W. E. HOWELL, Principal.