p. 19 | The Huntsville (Ala.) School by H. R. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 25, 1911

The Huntsville (Ala.) School

By H. R. S.

IN a personal letter from Prof. Clarence J. Boyd, the principal of the Oakwood Manual Training School, Huntsville, Ala., he tells of the generous gifts which he received for the school while on a recent trip to the North:—

“I spent about six weeks going from city to city through Indiana, Michigan, and northern Illinois, visiting such manufacturing establishments as turned out articles that we could use to advantage in our work here at Oakwood. In all, about three car-loads of good, substantial donations were received, which will inventory at about twenty-five hundred dollars. This material was gathered at an expense of less than two hundred dollars. We loaded one car in Grand Rapids, Mich., which was filled mostly with furniture for our sanitarium and new buildings. In this city and vicinity I simply worked up a list which I carried from factory to factory, having previously met the officials of the city board of trade and being given the privilege of doing so. Two firms gave one bedroom suite each, another two office desks, another a hundred folding chairs, and another three dozen dining-room chairs. Others gave chairs of different descriptions, tables, buffets, mirrors, etc. The American Fork and Hoe Company, of Jackson, gave us a hundred hoes, fifty forks, and twenty rakes. We also received a dozen wheelbarrows, a cart, trucks, etc., from Lansing; a steam-pump from Battle Creek; tanks from Sturgis; washing-machines from Muskegon; etc. From another section we received some machinery; for example, a power corn-sheller, a two-horse potato-planter, and some pumps. The International Harvester people gave us a large three-horse manure-spreader. Another company gave us five and one-half miles of woven wire fencing.

“I find this class of men easy to approach and in nearly every instance deeply interested in our work. I had many interesting conversations with them, and tried in every case properly to represent our cause and work in general. I believe that many of these men, who occupy high positions of responsibility, might never know of Seventh-day Adventists and their work unless some humble servant, like myself, should talk to them about something of this kind. Our future prospects are encouraging.”

HERE is a suggestive paragraph in an interesting letter from one of our educational superintendents whose work is meeting with success:—

“I give four or five talks to the patrons of the school when I visit the schools and meet with the members of the board. I am not simply visiting schools, but I go into the schoolroom to work, introducing methods which I think will be helpful to the teacher. There is so much to be done that I often work late into the night with the teachers, but they are all so willing to co-operate with me that it makes my work a pleasure. We are working in harmony.”

ON this question of the church-school teacher, I wish to add another paragraph taken from a letter from Miss Sarah Peck, director of the normal department of Union College:—

“I am glad to hear you speak as you do of the normal work. In my estimation, the training of teachers is the practical solution of the problem which confronts us in extending the educational phase of the third angel’s message. Sometimes I think that our backwardness, our lack of faith, in this work is the one thing which, more than any other, delays our Lord’s coming. How can he come when by our neglect these poor children are so sadly unready for him! The one thing I pray for constantly is that the Lord will help us as educators to sense the condition of things as they exist, and give us some suitable burden for this work. The preparation of books and the laying of plans that are in harmony with the principles the Lord has given us, and then the training of teachers to appreciate these principles and carry out these plans,—these to my mind constitute our present work as educators.”

H. R. S.