Fireside Correspondence School by W. E. Howell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 28, 1910

Fireside Correspondence School

By W. E. Howell

The Teacher's Refectory

AMBITION to become a teacher is a noble aspiration. Teaching is enumerated among the gifts of the Spirit. No more delicate and responsible work is committed to mortal kind than that of directing the thoughts, forming the tastes, defining the ideals, molding the character, and determining in large part the career and destiny of God's youth and children. Yet of such kind is the work of the teacher. He that desireth to become a teacher desireth a good thing.

But the favorable conditions of having the desire, the aspiration, the ambition, are not sufficient to produce the successful teacher unless there is a corresponding energy of action to qualify for so solemn, so delightful a work. Nor is it enough to have made a good beginning, either in preparation for, or in the pursuit of, this vocation. There is urgent need of —

A Follow-Up System

Did you ever receive by request a circular of information from some large commercial house? Whether you made a purchase or not, did they let the matter rest there, or did you receive once or twice a month thereafter a friendly, breezy letter, calling your attention to the same matter again, or to some new proposition or attraction? What is all this for? — They have something to sell, and they want you to buy it. Their follow-up system often leads you to feel that you too want to buy it.

Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown of gold and silver and greenbacks; but we teachers have to do with incorruptible crowns. We are seeking one ourselves, and want it decked with many stars — a star for every soul it may please God to give us as a compensation that can not be expressed in a paltry wage. So great a work calls for adequate qualifications. One of the greatest teachers among us writes: —

“God wants every teacher to be efficient, not to feel satisfied with some measure of success, but to feel his need of perpetual diligence in acquiring knowledge.”

“Many who are teachers of the truth cease to be students, digging, ever digging for truth as for hidden treasures.”

“God does not ignore ignorant men, but if they are connected with Christ, if they are sanctified through the truth, they will be constantly gathering knowledge.”

The import of these words is that the teacher should make constant use of a follow-up system to broaden and deepen his education. No wide-awake teacher will be “content with a meager knowledge, a few attainments, just to be passable.” He grows weary — or at least ought to — of passing out to his students the same article of mental diet over and over. But he can not stop now to attend the banquet of good things over at the college, where they fare sumptuously every day, and he sometimes feels faint and helpless and ready to die.

Now the Fireside Correspondence School has found many lines of usefulness, but it has seemed good to it to establish also a —

Teacher's Refectory

Here refreshments are served a la carte. The teacher may order what his soul lusts after if it is on the bill of fare; he will get what he orders, and pay for only what he gets. There is perhaps nothing like a little experience in teaching to whet the teacher's appetite for more — more of what he has a little of, and much of what he has nothing of. The correspondence method is well adapted to the need of the teacher who must go on with his teaching, but who is hungry for better and more extended knowledge of his subjects. No teacher is properly qualified to teach a subject in which he has not himself advanced at least two or three grades beyond his class. It takes the master of a subject to simplify it to the understanding of the uninitiated.

Our educational statistics show more than a thousand teachers in active service, some worthily, some more or less unworthily, even in their own eyes. Teachers, you who are hungry and faint, why not step into the Teacher's Refectory and have some refreshments? We should be most happy to serve you if we have anything to your liking. The summer will bring you some spare time. It would rest you to feel that you were getting something fresh and new for your students next year, even if at first thought you may think you are tired of books and study. A teacher in the middle West has already written in to make arrangements for taking up correspondence study for the summer as soon as his school is out. You will be safe in doing likewise. We have prepared a special leaflet (menu) for teachers, entitled “The Teacher's Refectory.” It will tell you some interesting things you want to know. Send for it. Always address Fireside Correspondence School, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.

We regret deeply to announce the death of the first student to enroll in the Fireside Correspondence School, Emma L. Runck. Her registry number was A1. She was taking general history and life of Christ, and looking forward to medical study. We miss her lessons, which always bore evidence of earnest, conscientious work. Particulars may be found in the REVIEW of March 31.

W. E. HOWELL, Principal.