Fireside Correspondence School by W. E. Howell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 10, 1910

Fireside Correspondence School

By W. E. Howell

A Mecca of Opportunity

THAT is an interesting remark made by the young woman last week that in some respects correspondence study is better than school, for “in school we have to recite whether we have our lessons or not; in correspondence study we have to have our lessons prepared or we wouldn’t have anything to send in.” How often it happens, by the class method, that a student who comes to his recitation unprepared, depends upon slipping through without being called upon, or, catching a clew from his fellow students, ventures a guess at the answer, feeling his way along by observing the countenance of his teacher or his fellows, and leaving the class-room congratulating himself that he “got through,” as well as he did. None of that by the correspondence method. Nothing but honest, faithful work counts here. Not only the student’s knowledge of the content of his lesson is tested, but his use of language in all its aspects, in the expression of that knowledge. Every fault and every excellence stands forth boldly in black and white, and the student quickly learns to take pride in a clean sheet. The class method is only a makeshift, a resort for expediency and economy of teaching effort; individual instruction is the ideal, the kind that compels progress.

The young woman whose health gave way while studying by the class method, is not alone in her opinion of the virtues of study by correspondence. A girl of seventeen writes from Louisiana:—

“I for one have enjoyed and am enjoying my studies very much, especially in grammar. Some points seem much clearer to me than when I took grammar in school.”

A farmer’s son out in Missouri says:—

“I understand what I have studied in grammar better through correspondence than when studying at school.”

This is not bad testimony for grammar—that bugbear to so many young students, that shade that continually haunts some of us grown-ups, that one study which I “just hate” and “never could learn.” The remarkable success of our fifty-one grammar students (whose standings, with slight exception, range from ninety per cent upward, after close grading) is owing first of all to diligent, honest work, but also to the superiority of individual over class instruction, and to the virtues and methods of our thoroughly up-to-date course. Grammar is our leader among two hundred six subjects registered. On the roll are found the physician (in charge of a sanitarium), the teacher, the nurse, the miner, the plumber, the bookkeeper, the stenographer, the minister, the Bible worker, the canvasser, and many “home” and “farm” folk. We have prepared a special circular explaining our method, which may be had for the asking.

The correspondence school is the Mecca of opportunity for young people who are looking forward to an academic or college course, but who can not attend a resident school “this year” “for lack of means;” also for the multitude who “regret” lost or neglected opportunities at the usual school age. To all such we say, Come with us, come any time you please, and we will do you good. Always address Fireside Correspondence School, Takoma Park, D. C.

W. E. HOWELL, Principal.