Bethel Industrial Academy
By H. A. Washburn
THIS is an intermediate school, located in central Wisconsin, serving as a preparatory school to the Emmanuel Missionary College. The third year of its work is now closing. From the first, rapidly the Lord has blessed the work of the school, and its influence has already been widespread. Not only have a large number of young people been instructed in the ways of God, and their parents encouraged and blessed, but a light is here shining out to the world, and exerting an influence beyond denominational limits. By the blessing of the Lord, the summer school has readily met its running expenses from the beginning, and a goodly number of our youth have been converted, and inspired with a spirit of consecration to the work of the third angel’s message. During the first year, which began in December, 1899, there was an attendance of 90 pupils; the enrollment of the second year was 160, and of the present year, 176. These figures include the pupils of the primary department. It is the aim of the managers of the school to make advancement each year, as light is received from the Lord. The past year has witnessed the introduction of industrial class work as a part of each student’s study. This work is conducted by the regular teachers on the same basis as the customary literary studies. The value of this innovation was not at first seen by all, but the results have been such as to impress all with the importance of this kind of education, practically and spiritually. It is the aim of the school to give a good education in agriculture and domestic economy to the students who pass through the higher grades of the school. The work is growing in strength as we advance. During the past year the following classes were conducted: agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, carpentry, cookery, sewing, nursing, and stenography. The people of Wisconsin are becoming interested in just this kind of education, and schools of this character will doubtless soon be scattered over the State as a part of the public-school system. It is evident that the Lord is leading his people in advance of this general movement, that when the public is fully aroused, the people of God shall have something to present which is superior to what the world has. We are planning and working with the idea in mind that our schools are to take that position in the educational work that our sanitariums have been taking in the medical world, to be “the head, and not the tail.” A devoted company of teachers are steadily working toward the accomplishment of this purpose, each studying diligently some phase of industrial education. We shall probably soon have a substantial patronage from those not of our faith, because of the industrial education here afforded. We are now studying how to make the privileges of the school accessible to a larger number of our youth. As it is chiefly financial difficulty which hinders students from attending school, we are devising plans whereby they may earn a large part of their school expense. Resources for this we have in the soil; consequently we are clearing our land, and placing it under cultivation as rapidly as possible. The cultivation of a large garden and the care of considerable fruit will give much profitable employment to students during the agricultural season, and at a time when the expense for board, fuel, light, etc., is least. Class work of as high a grade and as great value as that of any other term will be provided, and thus the summer term is destined to become our strongest term. The education for which the Lord is calling, wherein teachers “take their students with them into the gardens and fields, and teach them to work the soil in the very best manner,” can be given only by holding school during the agricultural season. Our chief difficulty now is the lack of students, as most of them drop out of school when the farm work begins in the spring. Our people need to be better informed regarding this matter, that they may see the importance of sending the youth to the school during this season of the year.