Elk Point (S. D.) Academy by Bert Rhoades

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 7, 1907

Elk Point (S. D.) Academy

By Bert Rhoades

This is the fifth year of this school, and we are having the largest attendance in its history. Our dormitories are both full and overflowing. Our enrolment has reached fifty-seven, and there are fifty students in the Home—twenty-three girls and twenty-seven boys. One year ago at this time there were thirty-three students in the Home; two years ago there were twenty-three.

There is an excellent interest in the school work; and special attention is being given to the study of the Bible and the common branches, such as arithmetic, grammar, spelling, and writing. The class of students that come here needs just this kind of work. The Bible classes include nearly every student.

Plans are being laid continually to place the students in close relation to the conference work. Canvassers’ schools and teachers’ institutes are held here. In this and in many other ways the field and the message are kept prominently before the students all the year.

Realizing that many who have little means will want to get an education, industries have been established to give such students an opportunity to earn their way. During the summer and fall the farm work and the tomato canning require a number of workers. During the winter our principal industry is the broom work. At present several boys are engaged in the broom shop. Of the fifty students in the Home this year, at least twenty-three have been obliged to depend wholly or in part on the labor of their own hands to keep them here. And were it not for the industries, the greater portion of these twenty-three students would not be with us, for lack of means.

Any faithful, energetic student (boy or girl) coming about the first of April, and staying the full year, will be able to pay most of his expenses, if not all of them, by labor. And the fact that a student earns his way through school is in itself a valuable part of his training. The lack of means can not stand in the way of the student determined to have an education. Determination, and a willingness to work hard and faithfully, will accomplish wonders.

Bert Rhoades.