SCOPE OF WORK FOR PRIMARY AND INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS.
By M. Bessie DeGraw
When it is once established that the denomination should maintain schools for its children and youth, the next question is, What is the work to be done in the primary and intermediate schools? In planning a course of study, certain physical and spiritual laws must be followed. It is not right to launch out at random. These laws are outlined in the word of God, and the true educator is he who studies Christian education from this basis, and who conducts Christian schools upon this foundation. It is necessary, therefore, to give more than a passing glance to some Scriptural texts and some statements in the Testimonies. Let me say, before going further, that “The Desire of Ages” is the best text-book on psychology and child study that it is possible for you to find. If teachers will study this book,—not read, but study it,—they will find that it contains principles of eternal truth for the educator. The very basis of a course of study is given in the following words relating to the child Jesus: “The powers of mind and body developed gradually, in keeping with the laws of childhood.” From this we draw the following conclusions:— I. Mental growth should follow the laws of spiritual growth; that is, an intelligent study of physiology will enable the teacher to plan a course of study. The criticism which it is necessary to make when considering the popular system of education, is that it does not conform to physiological laws. Many educators recognize this fact, and bemoan the consequences. 2. The development is gradual. Children must not be given meat when they should have milk. This is a divine law. See Heb. 5:12, 13. Human educators disregard this; hence the cramming system of to-day. With this agree the words found on page 8 of “Christian Education:” “Many have died in childhood because of the course pursued by injudicious parents and school-teachers in forcing their young intellects . . . when they were too young to see the inside of a schoolroom.” Think of it! Parents have been killing their own children; teachers have been murdering their pupils. Christian education is a call to separate from all the evils connected with overfeeding and improper feeding, mentally speaking. Health reform takes the child from a table where he is fed on flesh foods, condiments, pastry, sweetmeats, and perhaps alcoholic drinks, and places before him a diet composed of but few articles, simply cooked and lightly seasoned. Christian education takes the child from mental food which is equally pernicious, a diet which is ruining his spiritual life. It offers a simple diet,—the milk of the Word, the fruit of the tree of life, the bread of heaven, and, as a drink, water from the fountains of eternity. The new diet may at first appear insipid; this is because perverted human nature is unaccustomed to pure foods, and finds it hard to grasp truth by faith. Nevertheless, in a work of reform this is the first, the all-important step. Wisdom by faith is the fundamental principle of true education, as righteousness by faith is the key to all religious work. Moreover, we can go a step further, and say that righteousness by faith includes wisdom by faith (Proverbs 2), hence it can be said with all truthfulness: “Now, as never before, we need to understand the true science of education. If we fail to understand this, we shall never have a place in the kingdom of God.” Your salvation and mine, then, depends upon an understanding of those principles which every true educator must understand before he can define the scope of work for the primary and intermediate schools. Christian education has its basis in the Bible, and we have a right to conclude that the work to be done in the Christian school is also outlined there. The first eight- or ten years of the child’s life belong to the parents. No mother who has seen the beauty of motherhood from the divine view-point will turn her child over to others to receive its training. Moreover, when God’s plan is followed, no woman will think herself prepared for the responsibilities of motherhood until she is a teacher in the true sense of the word; for in the catalogue of educators she holds the first and highest position. The work of the parent is supplemented by that of the church-school teacher. For convenience, we will consider the home and primary schools together, covering the period from infancy to the teens. During the first eight or ten years, no text-book should be placed in the child’s hands. Quoting from “Christian Education,” page 9: “The only schoolroom for children from eight to ten years of age should be in the open air, amid the opening flowers and nature’s beautiful scenery; and their only text-book should be the treasures of nature. These lessons, imprinted upon the minds of young children amid the pleasant, attractive scenes of nature, will not soon be forgotten.” 1. Nature lessons. “The mother should find time to cultivate in herself and in her children a love for the beautiful buds and opening flowers. By calling the attention of her children to their different colors and variety of forms, she can make them acquainted with God. . . . She can lead their minds to their Creator, and awaken in their young hearts a love for their Heavenly Father. . . . Parents can associate God with all His created works.” 2. “They taught them, even at the earliest dawn of intelligence, the sacred names of God and the Saviour. They sought to lead the infant minds of their children up to God, by familiar narratives from Scripture, of Joseph, of young Samuel, of Josiah, and of the holy child Jesus. The histories of the patriarchs and prophets, apostles, and holy men whose lives are narrated in the Holy Volume, were the nursery tales with which they sought to form the tender minds of their children. As the mind of the child expanded, the parents made it their sacred duty and delightful task daily to exercise him in the recital of selected passages of Scripture relating to the doctrines and duties of religion. The Bible was the entertainment of the fireside; it was the first, the last, the only schoolbook, almost, of the child, and sacred psalmody the only song with which his infant cry was hushed.” This is Coleman’s description of education as carried on in the early Christian homes. In spirit it agrees with the words in “The Desire of Ages:” “The child Jesus did not receive instruction in the synagogue schools. His mother was His first human teacher. From her lips, and from the scrolls of the prophets, He learned of heavenly things. The very words which He himself had spoken to Moses for Israel, He was now taught at His mother’s knee. . . . He gathered stores of scientific knowledge from nature. He studied the life of plants and animals and of men.” 3. Instill principles, even though these principles may not be understood. This is the memory period of life, and things stored up now will be remembered later on. Did not the Saviour himself say, speaking of the Spirit: “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you”? Through the mother, Jesus should be speaking to the child all its days, so that later in life the Spirit will bring to remembrance things learned in early childhood. “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” is a promise as well as an injunction. The teacher who has children from ten to fourteen years old continues this work. The common branches are taught, but so taught that every subject reveals the working of Jehovah. Reading, writing, arithmetic, language, and geography are like windows into the realms of creation. They are at first curtained. The child learns to read; one window is opened. He now has in his hand a powerful instrument. Have you so educated his taste that he will read that which will strengthen? or will he use his ability to read to his own destruction? Here lies the responsibility of parents and teachers. The child’s future depends upon the education of the first ten years. Geography is another window, which, opened, shows the hand of the Universal Artist at work. The picture in one of life; its trees are growing; the water of its rivers flows on to the ocean; its winds blow; its creatures are active; the Spirit of God actuates the whole. This is geography from the Christian standpoint. All science is the same. Are you, as teachers, opening these windows toward heaven? If not, how dare you plan a course of study for children and youth? You621are not doing it if you follow popular methods; for they do not claim to direct toward the spiritual. They are educating for this world, not for heaven. Faith, faith,—that is the ladder by which you must climb. Each year the child should reach a little farther, like the growth of the oak, which is each season “a little farther from the earth, a little nearer to the blue.” It is a real thing, this faith teaching, this teaching the common branches as a means, not as the end. When you make them the means, you will find that proficiency in their use will be absolutely necessary. You cannot let your pupils do slipshod work in the common branches. It is like polishing a lens: they are dealing with fine things, and must have a perfect knowledge of their tools. Poor spelling becomes a sin when one wishes to deal with truth. A bungling reader, when it is the truth of God’s word which is to be read? I tell you that once this truth is grasped, the next generation of workers will go forth with a power beyond anything on earth. As a child passes into young manhood and womanhood, reason dawns; the physical change through which he passes makes a mental change. The true educator sees this, and the mental work immediately assumes a different character. The first six grades are passed in the primary school: faith has been cultivated in every class; it is the faith age; the child has had the rudiments of all the common branches. From the sixth to the tenth grade the work should deal more closely with the sciences. It is as if the magnifying glass has increased in power. The subjects begun in the primary school continue. Reading, spelling, bookkeeping, arithmetic, language, and the sciences,—these are his tools for work; and as he progresses, he develops a higher degree of skill. In his actual Bible study, biography gives place to the study of the principles. Here is scope for reason. Faith, developed during the early years, will guide reason into the truth. The fundamental doctrines should be understood. Every youth should be able to give a reason for his faith. This is the work of the intermediate school. Manual training, which in childhood consisted of simple household duties, gardening, etc., should be replaced by more systematic labor. Youth is an energetic age, and the boy should be able to construct something, either about home or in the shops. Teach him to farm. This is the time to direct his reason so that he will construct in harmony with divine principles. Utilize the force which nature has given him. We conclude, therefore, that the work of the home and primary schools demands the teaching of faith. A biographical study of the word of God is adapted to the child’s mind. Thoroughness in the common branches is necessary. These are his tools. In the intermediate schools, faith is strengthened by further exercise; the growing reasoning powers are guided by faith. The common branches are now perfect tools. Trades are to be taught as a means of exercising the creative genius; for many will make their way in the world without further schooling.