Another Word About Battle Creek College
By John Harvey Kellogg
The readers of the REVIEW have perhaps heard as much as they desire to hear in relation to the Battle Creek College, but in order that there may be no doubt left in the minds of any one respecting the situation, it may be best that a word should be added to what has already been said. The statement signed by the writer and others, which was published in the REVIEW of August 27, set forth the whole matter fully and completely so far as those concerned with the opening of the school know anything about it. As there stated, the purpose of this school is not to draw students to Battle Creek. Nothing could be more undesirable than that young men and women whose characters and purposes are not yet mature should be gathered into Battle Creek. The educational work formerly carried on by the Battle Creek College was removed to Berrien Springs at great cost, and at large expense school buildings have been erected in other places for the purpose of training and educating those who are not yet prepared to enter upon any definite line of work in connection with the cause, but there remained in Battle Creek a larger body of Seventh-day Adventist young people than is to be found in any other one place in the world, not excepting our largest educational centers. There is always to be found at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and always will be of necessity, four or five hundred young men and women. It has always been the aim of the managers of the Sanitarium to make the work of these young people, which is necessarily more or less commonplace in character on account of the great amount of household and domestic work required in the care of six or eight hundred invalids, something better than drudgery, which it might easily be made to be, by maintaining constantly educational opportunities for all classes of helpers, so that those employed in the kitchen and dining room, even bell boys and elevator boys, may find an opportunity for improving their talents and working up to increased usefulness with their advance in age and experience. Many of the men now most useful in this cause, some who are standing at the head of large and important institutions, began in the Sanitarium as cooks and scrub boys, and in other menial capacities. The training of hand and mind to expertness in the care of the sick, the development of the judgment and tact necessary for dealing with men and women, are not things to be accomplished in a few weeks or in a few months. Experience has shown that those men and women who are most loyal to the cause and most efficient in its service are those who have had years of training for the work in connection with our institutions. The establishment of the educational work at Berrien Springs made it necessary, as before explained, that provision should be made for the carrying forward of the educational work which has been conducted at the Battle Creek Sanitarium ever since the writer’s connection with it. For many years the Sanitarium school has numbered constantly from two to three hundred young men and women, and more or less of the time of fifteen to twenty persons has been employed in the teaching and training of these young men and women for the useful work which hundreds of them are now doing in all parts of the earth. From a human standpoint, it would be impossible to organize anywhere to-day medical missionary work of the right sort without the assistance of these missionaries who have been trained at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, or by those who have received their training there. At first, it was supposed that there would be no difficulty in carrying on the necessary educational work in Battle Creek, as it had at one time been done, by means of private teachers and tutors, but new rules soon after made by various State boards of health and boards of regents made it necessary that a legally qualified educational institution should be organized, so that the certificates granted for the course of study completed might be recognized by medical colleges and examining boards before whom the doctors and nurses might be required to appear. After it became evident that such a step was necessary, a circular letter was prepared setting forth all the facts and the reasons given above, and others, a copy of which was sent to the responsible head of every one of our educational and medical institutions. The whole situation was thus placed before everybody who might be interested in it. The plan which has since been carried out differs in no particular from that which was set forth in this circular, which was issued last winter some weeks before the General Conference. Those who are responsible for the training and education of the young people connected with the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the American Medical Missionary College are doing their utmost to discharge their responsibilities in a faithful and conscientious manner, and with due regard for the interests of21other educational institutions, and the general interest of the cause. This important educational work which has been for years a recruiting agency for missionaries for the denomination has been maintained without expense to the denomination, but many thousands of dollars have been contributed by the nurses and physicians and managers of the Battle Creek Sanitarium for the support of this educational work. The responsibilities of those in charge of this work do not extend beyond the training of medical missionaries. The training of other classes of missionaries belongs to our other educational institutions. The education of medical missionaries began at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and has been chiefly conducted there during the last twenty years, and it is of vital interest to the entire denomination that this educational work shall be continued at this point, and that it shall be conducted efficiently. It has been made sufficiently clear in the statement above referred to, and by the several articles relating to this subject which have recently appeared in the REVIEW, that a school for general educational purposes, such as is conducted at College View, South Lancaster, and other points, should not be opened at Battle Creek, and the writer desires it to be made equally clear that such a school has not been opened, and that it has not been contemplated by any one that such a school should be opened. At one of the earliest meetings held in relation to this matter, Thursday evening, Feb. 12, 1903, action was taken, of which Dr. George Thomason, the secretary of the meeting, furnishes the following copy from his record book, which he states reads exactly as it was recorded at the time the action was taken:— “In regard to a preparatory school for medical students in Battle Creek, it was moved by Dr. Morse, seconded by Dr. Stewart, to recommend the organization of a scientific educational work in such a way as to secure the required recognition from State’s board for preparatory schools. The purpose of the organization would be to legalize the work which is being done at the present time.”
From this it will be evident what has been the intention of the promoters of the educational work which has been announced under the name, Battle Creek College. In the announcement made, care was taken to state that this work was intended especially for the benefit of medical missionary students, and the statement respecting the terms and expenses was so worded as to make it necessary for others to correspond with the secretary of the school before coming, and the secretary was instructed by the Board, in correspondence with such students, to direct them to our other denominational schools. So it is only to prevent a further misunderstanding, and to correct any wrong impression which any may have received, that we reiterate the fact that the educational work which is to be conducted under the name of Battle Creek College, is for the exclusive purpose of aiding in training and educating for medical missionary work the young men and women who are necessarily resident in Battle Creek through their connection with the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the American Medical Missionary College. Care was taken to intimate this fact as plainly as was thought to be necessary in the announcement of the school; at the same time the Board reserved the right to make some possible rare exception to this rule in some individual case in which such exception could not be consistently refused. The managers of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the American Medical Missionary College have sufficient work on their hands to look after eight hundred sick people, seven hundred doctors, nurses, and other workers, a hundred medical students, and an extremely complicated and difficult educational work in the training school for nurses and the American Medical Missionary College, without undertaking to duplicate the excellent work which is being done by our denominational schools in other places. Those who are promoting these enterprises have been among the foremost in every move looking in the direction of educational reform, and especially in the promotion of missionary education. There has been no change in either purpose or policy. The work is going forward, and will be carried forward with the same spirit and the same purpose as heretofore. J. H. KELLOGG.