The Educational Outlook for 1902.
By M. Bessie De Graw
It is customary at the close of one year and the ushering in of a new twelve-months to utter a prophecy concerning various matters. Such predictions sometimes consider matters in a most optimistic light, and there is danger that the pictures may be overdrawn. It is, therefore, a fortunate combination of circumstances that enables those who are connected with a certain phase of the educational work to see movements well under way, before the close of the present year, which bid fair to bring rich returns during the months that follow. My mind is directed especially to the field which is now open to the Advocate of Christian Education, our educational journal. Many readers of the REVIEW are acquainted with the Advocate. It has accompanied every church-school teacher; sometimes it has preceded and prepared the way for a school for the children. At any rate, it is the children's friend, and during its three years' life it has advocated strongly the truths of Christian education. It has pleaded with the parents, it has appealed to the church-members, it has encouraged teachers. With the opening of the year 1902, the mission of the Advocate will be extended; henceforth it combines the work formerly done by the Sabbath-school Worker and the Advocate. This combination carries with it a peculiar significance. It does not mean the death of one paper, nor the triumph of one journal over another. It means that henceforth two great forces—the Sabbath-school and the day-school—will be united. Heretofore the Sabbath-school has struggled against terrible odds. For one short hour during the week it has battled to stem the tide which throughout the week carried the children farther and farther away from port. The Sabbath-school has been considered the nursery of the Church, but it was working practically alone and unaided by the Church. The result was inevitable. There is scarcely a church in our broad land that does not bear painful witness to the fact that the children and youth have drifted away from the fold. Last summer, during the Educational Conference, Elder Daniells spoke of the hope which filled his breast when about to return to America. He had been away fifteen years,—time enough for those who were boys and girls when he left, to grow to manhood and womanhood. Had those who were children in our churches when he left for Australia, developed into workers, there would be to-day between twenty and thirty thousand missionaries in our ranks. An ancient Jewish proverb reads, “Jerusalem was destroyed because the education of her children was neglected.” Likewise to-day the Church confesses its inability to meet the demand for efficient workers with those same words, “The Church is weak because the education of the children has been so long neglected.” The organization of church schools has marked an era in the work of our denomination. A foundation stone has been laid, and the structure reared thereon will be enduring. If Christian education is a gift offered to every child, then it is time for Sabbath-school and church school to unite in the effort to train the children for the kingdom of God. And this is what is now being done. The Sabbath-school Association and the management of the Advocate will combine their energies to make the Advocate a purely educational journal. It will be the object henceforth to increase the influence of the Sabbath-school as an educational factor. Sabbath-school classes should be conducted in accordance with the laws of mental growth, just as truly as church schools should follow these lines. The work of one school should supplement that of the other; teachers in both should be thoroughly trained, and should be perfectly familiar with the methods of Christian education. Parents desire to know these same things. By uniting the Advocate and the Worker it is hoped to increase the good results of both church and Sabbath-schools, to bind teachers and parents together by making their interests more truly one, and to make of the union a journal which will be indispensable to every parent, teacher, and minister. It is in view of these facts that I say that this change is one of vital interest to all. It is when I see by faith some of the things which must be accomplished in a very short time, when I see your boys and your girls carrying the burden of the work, that I feel like taking you into the secret of these movements, and asking for the hearty co-operation of every lover of the children. The combination will be made in the January issue, which will be ready for circulation about the 25th of December. The price of the journal remains the same, 50 cents per year. M. Bessie De Graw.