p. 16 | Help for the Home by W. E. Howell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 14, 1911

Help for the Home

By W. E. Howell

IN my correspondence during the past two years, requests have repeatedly come from parents for assistance in the teaching of their little ones at home. In many cases help is wanted for little ones who are of too tender years to see the inside of a schoolroom. In other cases the children are of suitable age to send to school, but no Christian school is accessible. In still other cases circumstances in the home are such that the grown boy or girl is obliged to remain away from school.

It is deeply to be regretted that in our educational zeal for forty years, especially during the last ten or twenty, more attention has not been given to what might be called the home-school, or, more properly perhaps, education in the home. In the development of our educational system, we seem to have worked from the top downward—from the college to the church-school. When the first official action to provide elementary schools for our children was taken, about twelve years ago, we thought the bottom of the educational ladder had been reached.

As a matter of fact, however, the foot of this ladder does not rest in the primary school, but in the home. In making the extension to this natural base, we again started at the top. The correspondence school was established to extend educational facilities from the neighborhood, where the church-school had brought them, into the home itself. But the work of this school is suitable for only the more mature members of the family. It is plain, therefore, that one more extension needs to be made before the real, the natural, the original Heaven-laid foundation of education is reached—suitable provision for the teaching of the little ones at home.

But is not this the work and responsibility of parents?—Most certainly it is. There is where God placed it. We would not, if we could, have it otherwise. We would not interfere with this work nor trespass upon this sacred right and responsibility of parents. But if I can interpret correctly the pleas that keep coming in from parents, there are many who want help in the exercise of this right, in the faithful, effective discharge of the responsibility that parenthood imposes. This help ought to be given. Parents have a right to expect it from those who make teaching a business.

Not all parents are natural teachers. Frequently the responsibilities of parenthood are assumed without an adequate understanding of what they imply. Again and again we see young men and women, sometimes scarcely more than boys and girls themselves, unite in marriage before they have carried their education beyond the eighth grade. More often than otherwise, their education stops with marriage, and in a few years fades away into haziness. Others who may have a better education, marry young with little visible means of support, depending merely upon what one or both may be able to earn from day to day. Daily cares incident to parenthood draw heavily upon their time and strength, and the proper teaching of their children is neglected. Time and means of keeping pace with the educational needs of the children, and of cultivating ability to teach them, seem wanting in many cases.

Yet the parent is the natural teacher of the child, and should be its only teacher up to eight or ten years of age (see “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. III, page 137). What, then, can be done to help in this important work? By giving parents proper assistance and encouragement, I believe that much can be done, and that much ought to be done, by our educators for those who are struggling with adverse conditions in the proper rearing of their little ones.

There is an evident awakening to the importance of home education, in some parts of the field. For the past two years the educational superintendent of one conference has been at work on this problem, with encouraging results. A “Mothers’ Home School Band” was organized, each mother who wished to follow the outline of work provided, registering her name with the superintendent. Weekly report blanks were supplied, and more than a year ago one quarter’s work showed from 400 to 500 lessons each given in Bible, reading, busy work, writing, and music. During 1910, twenty-three

mothers belonged to the band, and a summary of the weekly reports showed about 2,000 lessons given in each subject. This work was done, of course, for children old enough to begin book study.

The past winter, in another conference, a home-school convention was held, with two sessions a day for eight days. Regular normal class work for parents was given daily, and many excellent papers were read. The results were most gratifying to those who attended.

During my six weeks’ work in the field this summer, I found many educational superintendents and teachers deeply interested in the home-school phase of our educational work. At least two union conference educational conventions passed resolutions pertaining to this matter, and requested the educational journal to strengthen its Home-School department. We are glad to say that this is being done. We want to bid parents who are feeling the need of help in the teaching of their children at home, to be of good courage. Write to your educational superintendent and to our teachers and educators, and they will gladly help you all they can.

W. E. HOWELL.