STREET EDUCATION by Mrs. M. A. Loper

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 11, 1902

STREET EDUCATION.

By Mrs. M. A. Loper

MRS. M. A. LOPER. (St. Helena, Cal.)

Many who seemingly fail to see the importance of availing themselves of the ample opportunities afforded for the acquisition of useful knowledge, patronize instead that counter-system of education which calls into requisition the flood of trashy literature consisting of “yellow back novels,” exciting stories, police news, biographies of evil men, etc.

The street school, as we may call it, has its kindergarten, its primary, and all other grades, to meet the desires of those who wish to engage in the pursuit of evil knowledge. In the number of pupils, and also in the number of hours devoted to school work, this institution stands without a rival. Its principal—Satan—keeps a large corps of competent instructors in active service, the school being constantly in session, both day and night.

Pupils of all ages are accepted. Every inducement is given to make the attendance as large as possible, including those of tender years, there being a possibility that if they do not enter while young, they may be forever lost to the school. Nonprofessors of religion, as well as representatives from every denomination, find a hearty welcome. Satan is especially pleased to secure the patronage of those who once opposed his teachings, but having given up faith in the Bible, have finally joined his ranks. A very successful manual-training department is carried on in connection with the school, where students may become skilled in the manufacture of cigarettes, counterfeit money, burglar’s tools, implements of torture, and every other device that will promote wickedness. Thorough instruction is also given in drinking, lying, gambling, forgery, robbery, murder, etc.

Those opposed to children’s attending the street school, especially its night sessions, have established in some places a curfew ordinance, which is a hindrance to some extent. But after all, if small pupils can be thoroughly instructed during the day, they will be quite sure to join the night school when they become older.

Children who once really enter the street school find it very easy to be punctual in attendance. To them the endearing name of home seems to lose its attraction, their affections are gradually transferred to their street companions, and finally home becomes to them little else than a place in which to eat and sleep when a more attractive resort is lacking.

It is a sad comment on the neglect of parents that so many children from professed Christian homes have their names enrolled as pupils in Satan’s world-wide educational institution. It is deplorable that parents so far neglect their duty as to render it necessary for the civil authorities to look after the children, to see that they are not on the streets after a certain hour in the evening.

Just how many of those who to-day look out from behind gloomy prison walls took their first step downward when they learned their first lesson on the street, we know not; but we do know that since this system of education has become so far-reaching in its influence, crime has been fearfully on the increase. Nor is this evil confined alone to our large cities. Every village has its street school. And the evils resulting from the common practice of allowing children to run the streets cannot be overestimated. Those who are never allowed to form this habit are saved from many a snare laid to entrap unwary feet.

We as parents are sometimes strangely asleep to the interests that should lie nearest to our hearts. If the family horse or cow is missing, an immediate search is instituted, and kept up until the missing animal is returned to its accustomed place. But if one of the children is absent,—nobody knows where,—that by many a parent is not considered so serious a matter. He always has come back, and it is consoling to believe that he always will; that “my child would not misbehave,” “my child would not remain in bad company.” But the fact is, “my” child is human just like every other child; and how dare we presume that he is fortified against the attacks of the enemy?

Years ago, in a small suburban town in the West, a law was passed prohibiting the picketing of cows on the streets; and some one aptly remarked that if they would only pass a law compelling parents to keep their children off the streets, it would be productive of much more good to the town. Not that it is to the best interests of a town to picket cows on the streets, but it is infinitely worse to allow children to roam the streets at will, as they did in that village, some of them far into the night; and as years went by, the deplorable results of youthful waywardness brought many a heartache to fond parents and friends.

The mother especially should surely know the whereabouts of her children at any and all times. If a child is out from under parental care for even a short time, we know not what damaging experience may come to him. He may unnecessarily be led into the wilderness of temptation. He may be among the rabble, or he may be induced to join the conspirators against Christ. We may flatter ourselves that as parents we have carefully sown with precious seed the garden of our children’s hearts; but if we neglect to watch over them and tend them with diligence, at an unexpected moment the enemy may sow tares sufficient to choke out the good seed, and bring to naught the grandest work ever committed to our care.

In Gen. 18:19 we learn why it was possible for Abraham to become such a channel of blessing to the world: “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him.” The Lord designed that the children should be under the immediate care of their parents both day and night, as seen from Deut. 6:7; 11:19. After God had given His commandments to Israel, He emphasized their importance by saying, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” If such constant care and diligent instruction were necessary in the time of ancient Israel, how much more necessary in these last days, when crime is rampant, and when the world is fast becoming like the ancient “cities of the plain.” If we as parents to-day would heed the instruction to teach our children diligently the truths of God’s word, by both precept and example every hour of the day, we could command our children and our households just as did “faithful Abraham.”

Many children are permitted to run the streets when mere babies, and they become so accustomed to freedom from restraint that they soon feel quite independent and able to care for themselves. And along with this independence is developed a boldness which is by no means an ornament to childhood. Little girls talk about their “beaux,” and little boys talk about their “girls;” and their little minds become so poisoned that nothing but the grace of God can ever purify them from the contaminating influences to which they have been subjected. “God is not pleased with their disorderly, boisterous ways,—their unrefined deportment.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. II, page 698. After becoming accustomed to being absent from home during the day, it is not strange that the street should become attractive during the evening also, and far into the night. But it is strange that even among professed Christians there are those who do not seem to sense the danger of street education, who can even retire while aware that a lamb has strayed from the fold. Let us flatter ourselves that our children are so well trained that they would not do as others who have become entangled in the snares of Satan. If we neglect our duty plainly laid down in the word of God, we may be sure that the enemy of all righteousness will not fail to improve his opportunity.

“But,” says one, “my child is harder to control than many others. He is different from other children.” Every child is different from every other child, and it is the parents’ work to study from babyhood each individuality, and to govern and train it accordingly. If a child is especially hard to control at times, remember the blessed assurance, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” When human efforts fail, how precious is the privilege of taking the little one and in the tender spirit of Christ presenting his needs to Jesus. O the blessedness of such a prayer-meeting! It will do for a child what scolding and punishing will never accomplish. “Prayer is the key which unlocks heaven’s storehouse.”

Teach a child from babyhood that the street is not to be his playground. But see to it that home is to him the most attractive place on earth—where he loves everybody, and where he knows that everybody loves him. Strive daily so to thrill the harp of life with endearing home memories, that the reverberating echoes will bring sweet harmony into all the varied notes of life after years. Endeavor to strew his pathway thickly with the fragrant flowers of righteousness

that in coming days he will turn instinctively from the thorny paths of sin. Seek to surround his childhood with such a radiant halo of blessed influence as will light up the somber pathway of this brief life, and guide his feet even to the portals of the eternal city. And we have the blessed assurance, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”