Probably no department in the government of our country has performed better service nor exerted a wider influence for the improvement of American citizens than our free public school system. Horace Mann, their founder, is as deserving of credit and esteem as any other benefactor of American people. These schools have encouraged high types of manhood and womanhood expressed in order, intelligence, industry, and art. We, to-day, no doubt, enjoy a higher idea of civilization and morality than would have been realized without the present system of education. While the prophecy that “wicked men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,” has a world-wide application, conditions would be many times worse were the restraint of these schools and the influence of some sober-minded educational men blotted out of existence.
Most Seventh-day Adventists, even among our best workers, look back to joyful, well-spent days, at least through the grammar grades, in the public schools. They sometimes review these days with the poet who said:— “How oft I remember the scenes of my childhood,
And the little red schoolhouse that stood in the lane,
Surrounded with flowers and embowered in wild-wood;
Where soft fell the sunlight, the dew, and the rain;
The playground, the woodland, the song of the robin,
The squirrels in the tree tops that waved in the sky,
The river, the mosses, the winds softly sobbing;
The innocent gladness of hours gone by.”
“I love the red schoolhouse, though childhood is over,
And memories sacred shall close it around.
To the friends of my youth I am still the same lover
As when we were playmates upon the old ground;
And when life is over, when nothing can sever,
I think I shall look for the old friends again,
And something of love binds us closer forever
For the little red schoolhouse that stood in the lane.”
Notwithstanding these pleasant memories, and all the splendid things that may have been achieved under its roof, the little red schoolhouse of to-day is insufficient for the complete education of Seventh-day Adventist children. It trains for citizenship in this world. “We seek citizenship not alone in this world, but in a better country, that is an heavenly.” It develops shrewd business men, who as a rule are possessed of an intense desire to become rich. We train workers for God—seek to develop Christian character, and create an ambition for the “true riches.” It, even in the lower grades, feeds the imagination upon fables and fairy tales, and in many cases undermines faith in the Scriptures by false theories of creation. We feed the mind with the truths of God’s Word; and both pray and labor for the conversion of our children.
Although the contrast between our purpose and that of the secular schools, as well as the means of attaining these purposes, is so clearly drawn, great caution should be exercised in speaking of these differences. Christ in contending with Satan “durst not bring against him a railing accusation.” It is to be feared that some of the hard statements against the public schools are among those which we are told are laid away to be used against us in the time of trouble. In our schools care should be exercised lest a spirit of criticism be fostered. A certain teacher in the public school much lamented the fact that her pupils were spoken of by the church-school children of the place as “only public school brats,” and other such terms were applied to them.
It is the nation, and not we ourselves, that is to say, “Surely this is a wise and understanding people.” And the Lord promises that his children shall be the head, and not the tail, only when they return to his commandments.
In our work of reform we must pray for wisdom and spiritual discernment, lest in rooting out the tares, we root up the wheat with them. I quote from “Special Testimonies on Sabbath-school Work:”—
“Some efforts have been made to interest children in the cause, but not enough. Our Sabbath-schools should be made more interesting. The public schools have of late years greatly improved their methods of teaching. Object-lessons, pictures, and blackboards are used to make difficult lessons clear to the youthful mind. Just so may present truth be simplified and made intensely interesting to the active minds of the children. . . . The modes of teaching which have been adopted with such success in the public schools could be employed with similar results in the Sabbath-schools, and be the means of bringing children to Jesus and educating them in Bible truth. This will do far more good than religious excitement of an emotional character, that passes off as rapidly as it comes.”
That which would improve our Sabbath-schools would also improve our church-schools. Our teachers might receive much help in visiting other schools and applying many of their methods both in teaching and in management.
Moses’ experience with Jethro, the Midianite chief, affords a good example on this point. He, a man of God, instructed by the Lord as no other man has been instructed, found the suggestions of this man of the world in regard to the organization and management of Israel of great value both to himself and the people he was leading.
Would we as a people think for a moment of casting away the doctrine of justification by faith because Martin Luther was the discoverer? Or does the fact that we accept the doctrine give us the name of Lutherans?
Our continual prayer should be, “O Lord, teach us thy way.” Our constant effort should be to place our schools where their own superiority will speak for itself. Let us accept light wherever we find it, and heed the instruction, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”