p. 15 | Among the Schools by Frederick Griggs

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 29, 1915

Among the Schools

By Frederick Griggs

Walla Walla College

I FOUND a great climatic change in thirty-six hours, in going from our school in Lacombe, Alberta, where the thermometer was hovering around zero with deep snow, though with plenty of bright sunshine, to Walla Walla, with its spring warmth, open doors, and lawns beginning to green.

Walla Walla College is experiencing a very prosperous year. Its college work is being rapidly developed. There will be a good graduating class from the college course, as well as from the other courses, this year. Every department of the school seems to be in a healthy, growing condition, and faculty and students are very enthusiastic in the upbuilding of all the phases of their work.

I was pleased with the interest in the development of different industries in the school. Steps were taken at the annual board meeting, which was held at the time I visited the school, to strengthen these lines of manual education. A good spiritual atmosphere prevails. All this, with a united faculty, and a spirit of harmony and cooperation existing between it and the board of management, augurs well for the future of this school.

I was favorably impressed with the class of students of Walla Walla College and their courteous manner in the homes, in the classrooms, and in and about the buildings. Our faculties have a large work in teaching the principles and developing the habits of courtesy and proper etiquette on the part of our students. These young men and young women who are to go into homes all over the world, should be taught to do the right thing at the right time, and form those habits of manner and courtesy which not only make life's companionships more agreeable, but make the entrance of the truth easier.

Laurelwood Academy

With Professor Lawrence, the educational secretary of the North Pacific Union, I left Walla Walla to visit the academies of the union. We first went to Laurelwood Academy, which is located four or five miles in the country from Gaston, a little town about thirty miles from Portland. It is situated on a hillside, and the view from the buildings is a very pleasant one. The abundant winter rains keep everything green.

This school has twelve grades of work, and the faculty of Walla Walla College say that they get some of their best students from it. Quite a community has grown up around the school, and yet there seems to be a spirit of harmony and cooperation. The school has an enrollment of over one hundred. There are three main buildings,—the academy building, the young men's dormitory, and the young women's dormitory. These buildings seem in a good state of repair, and a spirit of thrift and order prevails not only throughout the school, but around the premises.

Portland Intermediate School

From Laurelwood we visited the Portland Intermediate School. Our people in Portland and the immediate vicinity have erected a very pretty and commodious school building. They are at the present time employing three teachers, and there is an enrollment of eighty or ninety students this year. The work of these ten-grade schools, thoroughly done, is of inestimable value not only to the pupils themselves, but to the upbuilding of the cause. When they finish these grades, the pupils must naturally go to the training school before entering the work. The eleventh and twelfth grades in the training school make them acquainted with the work of the college, and there is a strong tendency for them to continue their work through the college courses. The demands for well-trained workers make it imperative that we should encourage our young people to take work in our colleges. In these training schools the education which they receive by associating with young people from other States, and often from other countries, is a very broad and helpful one.

In such a city as Portland we are glad to see a school thus affiliated with the training school of the union conference. Many of our other churches in cities would do well to follow the example of the Portland churches in the establishment of similar schools.

Forest Home and Meadowglade Academy

Upon leaving Portland, we visited the two academies of the Western Washington Conference. These academies have not been prospering financially for some time, and each of them has quite a heavy debt resting upon it. The conference committee, together with the president of the union conference, took up the matter of reorganizing the management of these schools at the time we were present. At a previous conference meeting it had been voted to ask the churches where these schools are located, to take over their management, and conduct them as tenth-grade church schools. At each place steps were taken to carry out this action, and the churches have undertaken to carry forward the work of these schools on their own responsibility. There is a large church connected with each school, and there is little question that if care is exercised in the management of the school, an excellent work will be carried forward without the heavy financial loss which has resulted in the past. Some of these experiences only emphasize more fully the necessity of not endeavoring to carry the eleventh and twelfth grades in our academies unless the income from them fully covers their expenses.

In order to make our school work successful it is necessary that we should cooperate closely. The General Conference has, on at least two occasions, taken action advising against the conducting of the eleventh and twelfth grades in our academies, save in exceptional cases. Generally speaking, our ten-grade schools are financially successful, and they increase the attendance, and so help the finances, of the training schools. In the development of our school work it is necessary that we shall observe this spirit of cooperation in all the grades of our schools.

Royal Academy

Our next stopping place was the Royal Academy, located at Cottage Grove, Oregon. This school is about five miles from town. It carries but ten grades, is doing thorough class work, and has always been financially successful, so that it has not been a burden to the conference. At this place there was held, while we were there, an enthusiastic Missionary Volunteer institute. During the winter Professor Lawrence held a series of these institutes throughout the North Pacific Union. Such meetings in connection with our schools are of much value, as they serve to bring the large number of young people in these different localities into working order with the young people the world over. Through the Missionary Volunteer work and the schools, we hope greatly to increase the resources of our conferences and Foreign Mission Board, for, after all, the greatest asset which this denomination has is its youth.

FREDERICK GRIGGS.