THE BATTLE CREEK CHURCH SCHOOL.
By A. W. Spaulding
The parents and teachers connected with the Battle Creek church school will regard the meeting held the evening of March 13 a happy event in having drawn more closely together their common sympathies in the education of the children. Feeling that the members of the Battle Creek church should be given an opportunity more fully to understand the purposes and methods of the school management, and the meaning and results of the peculiar training Seventh-day Adventist children should receive, the college invited both those whose children are in attendance at the church school and those who have children in other schools, to meet with the teachers, Monday evening. A large company assembled. The meeting having been opened with a few remarks by Professor Sutherland, three of the church school teachers, representing three of the different groups into which the school work is divided, spoke at some length, explaining in detail the principles upon which the work is based, and illustrating these with some of the practical work done by the children. The primary teacher, in speaking, laid stress upon the manner in which the children are, from the very beginning, taught to look for the authority of God in everything they are directed to do. Emphasis is continually given to the fact that God means just what he says, and gives strength to do that which he tells us to do. The physiology lessons give constant opportunity for inculcating this principle. The teacher of the second group, which covers the ground of about the third and fourth grades in graded schools, briefly reviewed the work done by her pupils during the last two terms, and showed how this includes not only the work usually done by such grades; but, through correlation, many of the principles of the work carried by students in grammar school and high school. She also gave some examples of the arithmetic work given in correlation with other subjects, and read some of the problems constructed and solved by the pupils themselves, thus illustrating how the children are taught to reason and understand mathematical principles, rather than to work blindly at problems of whose basic principles they have no comprehension. One of the teachers of the third group spent some time in discussing the place that mathematics occupies in true Christian elementary education. She said that many of our people are afraid the practical and business faculties of the children are neglected on account of a lack of sufficient arithmetic in the church school; but she declared, and most successfully demonstrated, that the children are receiving more actual arithmetic work in their studies in the solution of problems than they would were the common method of text-book drills employed, and infinitely more of logical work in the construction of problems, and of nicety of judgment in the practical application of mathematical principles in all their studies and lives. One of her pupils, a boy of eleven years, had, in the study of the book of Daniel, discovered the faulty proportions of the map of the twenty-three hundred days which was used, and for the benefit of the school had worked out a chart minutely correct in proportion. At this point she called upon the boy to explain the chart, and the events connected with the twenty-three hundred days. This, without having had any previous preparation except his school work, he did before the audience in a most lucid manner. Does the church school educate Seventh-day Adventist children as workers in God's last message? An exhibit of the children's work in sloyd, sewing, drawing, and the common branches was arranged upon six tables. This exhibit included only what has been their everyday work, there having189been no special preparation; but to the patrons and visitors there was a beautiful display of the training which eye, hand, and mind receive in the education of the whole man as God has outlined. The whole exhibit showed its clear relation to the work of God, the sloyd work having been done to illustrate the Bible and nature lessons, which the children had received orally; the drawing illustrating the lessons of physiology and the symbols and diagrams of Daniel; while the composition books and arithmetic books, in which the children preserve their lessons, all bore upon the truths they were daily imbibing. Expressions of surprise and praise were continually heard as the brethren and sisters present examined the work, and many who before had doubted and trembled at the experiment they believed they were making in the education of their children, expressed full confidence because of the words they had heard, and the things they had seen. Those who missed this event missed more than mere sight and sound. There lies the weight of eternal things in the decision of every Seventh-day Adventist parent as to the education of his children. The teachers are anxious for the soul of every child. Will not the parents be anxious also? Teachers are glad at any time to have our brethren and sisters visit the school, and inspect the work being done. For the eternal welfare of the little ones and the sake of the cause of God, let us be faithful in following the Lord's command, “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them;” for “children are an heritage of the Lord.” A. W. SPAULDING.