p. 13 | Educational Notes by M. Bessie De Graw

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Oct 8, 1903

Educational Notes

By M. Bessie De Graw

M. BESSIE DE GRAW

ONE of the most interesting features of the system of Christian schools is the intermediate industrial school. If boys were always boys, and girls never developed into womanhood, the primary school would offer all the education necessary; but these are not the conditions. Consequently it is the duty of educators to meet the situation, and provide schools adapted to the needs of the youth. Neither children nor youth can be dealt with as adults. For this reason an attempt to educate all classes in the same institution fails to give the best results. Youth are full of activity; and their education should be so directed as to utilize this activity. If it is not directed into proper channels, a wayward life is the result. The world is full of such misdirected youth. We can not afford to add to the ranks of those on the downward march.

Upon us as a denomination is laid the responsibility of guiding hundreds of young people through the critical period in their life. A few preparatory industrial schools are in existence at the present time, but not a tithe of the number we need. As expressed by one writer, “There should be a road leading from every home to an intermediate industrial school.”

The location of these schools is important. Scriptural history shows that in olden times the schools were not in busy centers, but in secluded spots. Students were familiar with the hills about Gilgal, with the woods near Bethel, and with the banks of Jordan. And we are thus counseled: “No pains should be spared to select places for our schools where the moral atmosphere will be as healthful as possible.”

I have had the privilege of meeting a number of young men and women who have attended intermediate schools. It is gratifying, when attending a meeting where there is a large company of youth, to find so many of them alive to the needs of the day,—many who know that the Macedonian cry is sounding, and that God is calling them to a life of intense activity in the cause.

If there is a lack of interest on the part of young people in your church; if they are planning to stay at home when they have ability to work; if they do not have any ambition to respond to the numerous calls for workers, it is time to startle them, lest they die. The atmosphere in which they attempt to live is too heavy. They will die on your hands. Better to take some money from your own purse to help educate these people than to sit still and bemoan their loss.

You should demand intermediate industrial schools for the youth. It will be their salvation.