The Principal Reason by A. W. Spaulding

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 6, 1906

The Principal Reason

By A. W. Spaulding

Who should welcome the opportunities of the industrial school? only he who has no money, and sees there a good chance to get a training without it? Naturally this view will be held by any one who thinks the principal reason for connecting industries with schools is to help the student pay the expense of getting a literary training.

But the principal reason for connecting industries with schools is not to help students pay the expense of getting a literary training. If it were, it would be better to obtain from rich men and by popular subscription, money enough to pay the tuition of all such students, for it would save the time and energy of teachers. Or it would be better to have such prospective students take up the most paying job they could find in the world, and earn more quickly the money necessary for their schooling. If teachers or students regard the industrial work as simply a mill out of which to grind enough pennies to pay the bills, students will have the temptation to shirk and cheat, and teachers to oversee by proxy.

The principal reason for establishing an industrial school is to give the essential education, the education needed by every minister, teacher, physician, and every foreign missionary of whatever class. It is true that the industries may and should help students to make their way, but he who works just to make his way will lose his way. Any normal young person who is not able to do something with his hands which adds to men’s comfort and profit, is handicapped as a missionary. And as in ancient Israel, every one of us and of our sons and daughters should become proficient in a trade.

Further, the benefit gained by industrial work is not measured by the knowledge and skill attained in the trade. The sense of mastery over nature’s obstacles, the experience of dealing with men in mind and spirit, and the practise of applying principles of science, tell infinitely more for the development of character and of mind than any amount of solitary mental study.

If these things are true, who should seek the benefits of a thorough industrial school?—All young men and women who wish to give the third angel’s message, irrespective of whether they have plenty of money or whether they have not.

The problem is not yet solved of how to make possible the earning of a livelihood while still getting a school education. It is being solved, but it can not be said to be yet made evident to the common mind. It needs to be solved, and its solution should not be left only to farmers and artisans, but should engage the thought of scholars who from their lack of practical training are prone to look upon it as impractical. Many think it neither essential nor feasible. Should not the question be asked, if school is the place to learn how to live the right life (which is doing the right work), should not the school conform to the conditions of real life, in which men support themselves by working? And should not an answer be given to the retorting question. Is it the rule of real life to be gaining more knowledge and greater efficiency, while at the same time producing the means of support?

And at the end, the decision may turn upon whether school education is life or a preparation for life.

A. W. SPAULDING.