STUDIES IN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
"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."--Mrs. E. G. White.
"Before we carry the message of present truth in all its fullness to other countries, we must first break every yoke. We must come into the line of true education walking in the wisdom of God, and not in the wisdom of the world. God calls for messengers who will be true reformers. We must educate, educate, to prepare a people who Will understand the message, and then give the message to the world." (Madison School, p. 30). The object of these studies has been to aid you students to understand the instruction in the paragraph just read, that you may avoid the educational pitfalls, and that you may "come into the line of true education," and have a part in carrying the message to the world. We shall review briefly the subject, and list important educational principles found in both systems. As these are presented, determine your attitude to each one, and ascertain your reason for taking that position. You are asked to do this with the hope that it will strengthen your position on educational questions, and aid you to "come into the line of true education," and thus be better prepared to carry the message of Christ's soon coming. It is done with the hope that you may more fully sense the deep significance of the statement, "Now as never before we need to understand the true science of education. If we fail to understand this, we shad never have a place in the kingdom of God." - Protestants hold their children in the church when they receive Christian education. They lose these children when they attend schools having a Papal system. Melanchthon said, "Religion cannot be maintained without them (schools)."
The Papal system of education is never a fit model for Protestant schools. Luther and Melanchthon recognized this. Accordingly they reformed the school system, changing the curriculum, textbooks, and methods of teaching.
Some schools, Christian in form, follow the Papal system, sandwiching in a little Bible, and flavoring the course with Protestant theology. John Sturm did this. So have some schools since the days of Sturm.
This combination educational system--Christian and Papal mixed--always opens the way for hairsplitting theological controversies, and the students are neglected for heresy hunting. It always terminates in a victory for Papacy over Protestantism.
The Papal system of education makes a Moloch of abstract subjects and worships at his shrine. Its strength lies in repeating meaningless forms, and "a dead study of words takes the place of a living knowledge of things." Mental cramming and formal memorizing are exalted methods of its teachers. Emulation, prizes and rewards are needed stimulants for "a mechanical and compulsory drill in unintelligible formulas," and their long stereotype courses end in degrees, the sign or mark of the system. It is the subjugation of human minds to the authority of some one above, the stifling of free thought by unnatural, close supervision in place of self-government. It leads away from nature, nature's work and nature's God, and centralizes in cities and man-made institutions. This is Papal education, and its reward is the degree conferred at the end of the traditional course.
Every school is the pulse beat of some organization;-- of the State, if it is a state school; of the Papacy, if a Papal school; and of the Christian church if it is a Christian school. Any educational system which mechanically teaches a stereotype course leading to degrees, will, in time, result in the development of a creed by its control- ling organization--a creed written, or perhaps consisting only of the opinions of those in power, but a creed nevertheless, according to which every one not recognizing its power to initiate is considered irregular or independent.
Protestant education allows the student freedom in the choice of studies. This freedom from the stereotype course bears fruit in a church which provides for differences of opinion without the cry of heresy. Courses and degrees are an essential element in a religious trust. Trusts, in the very nature of things, can make no use of those who question their authority; those who differ must be crushed.
There are but two systems of education, one inspired by the Word of God and one by other literature. The Christian school not only has Bible study in its curriculum, but Bible principles are the guide of the student's life, and the spirit of the Bible is the inspiration of the school. If Bible principles are not the foundation of all subjects and the basis of all teaching, that school, even though Christian in name, has imbibed Papal principles. Oberlin, breaking from the Papal system before 1844, "restored the Bible to its place as a permanent text book," and pagan and infidel authors were thrown out.
- Any system of education that exalts the Bible will receive light on health reform, simplicity of dress, country life, etc. Oberlin, preparing for the midnight cry before 1844, accepted light on these subjects. Students discarded the use of flesh foods,
tobacco, condiments, tea and coffee, rich pastries, hot breads, they used graham flour, discarded sloppy foods, expensive dress, jewelry, accepted the country as God's home for man, etc. These same reforms will be carried to completion by those who are preparing for the loud cry. Christian schools are content with simple, modest buildings and equipment, but must give great and mighty truth. Papal schools must have massive buildings and elaborate equipment, but are content with little, or adulterated truth. Jefferson and others dealing with big truths caught the idea of simple buildings. The loud cry will be ushered in by schools content with simple buildings and equipment, but they will be doing a great work.
Christian education is not content with only, learning things in the mind. What is studied must be put into practice. Manual training, is a part of every Christian school curriculum. The Papal system is content to have its students learn and hold the knowledge without making any practical application. Its students are ever learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Manual training is not an essential part of their education. Before 1844, reformers in education established many manual training schools where students were taught agriculture, horticulture, gardening, various trades, such as blacksmithing, carpentry, manufacture of cloth, printing, domestic science, dressmaking, care of the sick, etc. They were breaking away from the Papacy, and were coming "into the line of true education." Since the loud cry will find many schools that have carried these reforms farther, the results will be greater.
Christian training schools make provision for physical culture and healthful exercise by providing plenty, of useful labor. Papal education makes little provision for manual training, therefore athletics, sports, games and gymnasiums become the artificial substitutes for God's plan for physical exercises. Schools preparing students for the loud cry should complete the work they have started.
Christian schools have for one of their most important objects the training of students to be self-governing, to take their places, not as dependent and devitalized members of the church, but as independent and original workers, under the direction of God's Spirit, all co-operating in harmony with divine principles. The Papal system makes no effort to train students to be self-governing, for such a training is fatal to the Papal church organization. Self-government appeared as an integral part of educational reform before 1844. Is it appearing in your school?
- Every Christian missionary should be a producer. In other words, he should be self-supporting. No great religious movement can be started, or successfully carried forward, that has not an army of lay members who are active self-supporting missionaries. Christian schools have no greater object than to train such an army. Papal schools must avoid this, for it is destructive to their system of organization for controlling men. Christian schools before 1844 caught this idea of training missionaries for the midnight cry. Church leaders suppressed this reform. Christian
schools before the loud cry will turn out an army of self-supporting workers. The needy places of the world are calling for self-supporting missionaries. When the church opposed Oberlin's training missionaries, and refused to give them a place in the regular work, thousands of them went to the Indians, to the freedmen, to the mountain whites, and to foreign countries, under the direction of the American Missionary Society, an organization created by self-supporting workers.
Oberlin teachers, in order to make their school a success, sacrificed heavily in the matter of wages. Her students were encouraged to go where God called, with little concern over the question of remuneration. Oberlin considered it her duty as well as her pleasure to assist students to find their life work.
Oberlin teachers shortened the time students spent in school, and made their study practical by correlating class work with the reforms they desired their students to accept.
Opposition to Oberlin, while she was in the line of true education, brought to her friends and their means, and her attendance increased.
Outside opposition is a serious matter to a Christian school, but so long as the school keeps in "the line of true education," the opposition will only strengthen the reform. But long continued internal opposition is destructive. It was responsible for the downfall of the 16th century Reformation; it ruined the movement in 1844.
The spirit of a parent is necessary to the prosperity and continued success of educational reforms. Oberlin had this blessing in a marked degree. Consider the advantage of having one teacher, strong as a reformer, on a faculty for fifty years.
Students, are you doing all you can to bring your school "into the line of true education?"
"The students are in our schools for a special training, to become acquainted with all lines of work, that, should they go out as missionaries, they could be self-reliant and able, through their educated ability, to furnish themselves with necessary conveniences and facilities." (T., Vol. 6, p. 208). "Studies should generally be few and well chosen, and those who attend our colleges are to have a different training than that of the common schools of the day." (C. E., p. 47). In addition to those subjects usually considered essential, we have the following which our schools should teach, so that the student, leaving the institution, is equipped not only to teach them to others, but to use them for his own support:-- CARPENTRY AND BUILDING:--"Under the guidance of experienced carpenters .... students themselves should erect buildings on the school grounds ... learning how to build economically." (T., Vol. 6, P. 176). AGRICULTURE. FRUIT RAISING, GARDENING:--"Study in agricultural lines should be the A, B, C, of the education given in our schools... Small fruits should be planted, and vegetables and flowers cultivated... (Students) are to plant ornamental and fruit trees." (Idem, pp. 179. 182). VARIOUS TRADES:--"Preparation should be made for teaching blacksmithing, painting, shoemaking, cooking, baking, laundering, mending, typewriting and printing." (Idem, p. 182). STOCK AND POULTRY RAISING:--"Students have been taught ... to care wisely for cattle and poultry." (An Appeal for the Madison School). NURSING:--"Training for medical missionary work is one of the grandest objects for which any school can be established." (Idem). HOUSEHOLD DUTIES:--"BOYS as well as girls should gain a knowledge of household duties.... To make a bed and put a room in order, to wash dishes, to prepare a meal, to wash and repair his own clothing, is a training that need not make any boy less manly... Let girls, in turn, learn to harness and drive a horse, and to use the saw and hammer as well as the rake and the hoe." (Ed., p. 216). COOKING AND SEWING:--"There should have been experienced teachers to give lessons to young ladies in the cooking department. Young girls should have been instructed to manufacture wearing apparel, to cut, make and mend garments." (C. EL, p. 19). SELF-SUPPORTING:--Students "have been learning to become self-supporting, and a training more important than this they could not receive." "The lesson of self-help learned by the student would go far toward preserving institutions of learning from the burden of debt." (Ed., p. 221). HAND WORK:--There is a science in hand work which Christian educators must recognize. It is a brain developer as well as a way to physical support. Scientists have found that symmetrical mental development is impossible apart from this physical training, for by the use of the hand an important area of the brain is developed. Again, a time of trouble is ahead of us when those who are in "the line of true education" will not have access to machinery which is so common today, and much now done in factory and shop will of necessity be done by hand. But success in this as in every reform will be in proportion to one's love of the cause. The educator who spoke, of manual training as "hoehandle education" came from a school whose Board had provided facilities for teaching agriculture and various trades, but these had all been neglected. That teacher's attitude made the students feel that these important subjects were only secondary. A CHANGED PROGRAM NECESSARY:--Many of the subjects in the curriculum, the Lord has said, are not essential and should be weeded out. These practical studies, he says, are essential, but they can not find their proper place by the side of the intellectual subjects until the program, followed for years and adapted to the old Order, is radically changed to meet the new demands. Again, it is necessary to make a number of radical reforms before a program can be arranged which gives students an opportunity to earn their school expenses while studying. "We need schools that will be self-supporting, and this can be if teachers and students will be helpful, industrious and economical." (T. Jan. 24, 1907). We must have schools of this character to train the missionaries that God calls for in the loud cry. SCHOOLS OF A NEW ORDER:--"The plan of the schools we shall establish in these closing years of the work are to be of an entirely different order from those we have instituted... There is among us too much clinging to old customs; and because of this we are far behind where we should be in the development of the third angel's message. Because men could not comprehend the purpose of God in the plans laid before as for the education of workers, methods have been followed in some of our schools which have retarded rather than advanced the work of God." (Madison School, p. 29). In the school with the new order of things we shall find that in addition to other essential studies, "The students have been taught to raise their own crops, to build their own houses, and to care wisely for cattle and poultry. They have been learning to become self-supporting, and a training more important than this they could not receive. Thus they have obtained a valuable education for usefulness in missionary fields. "To this is added the knowledge of how to treat the sick and to care for the injured. This training for medical missionary work is one of the grandest objects for which any school can be established. The educational work at the school and the sanitarium can go forward hand in hand. The instruction given at the school will benefit the patients, and the instruction given to the sanitarium patients will be a blessing to the school... The class of education given .... is such as will be accounted a treasure of great value by those who take up missionary work in foreign fields. If many more in other schools were receiving a similar training, we as a people would be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. The message would be quickly carried to every country, and souls now in darkness would be brought to the light. "The time is soon coming when God's people, because of persecution, will be scattered in many countries. Those who have received an all-round education will have great advantage wherever they are. The Lord reveals divine wisdom in thus leading His people to train all their faculties and capabilities for the work of disseminating truth... You have no time to lose. Satan will soon rise up to create hindrances; let the work go forward while it may... Then the light of truth will be carried in a simple and effective way, and a great work will be accomplished for the Master in a short time... We are to learn to be content with simple food and clothing, that we may save much means to invest in the work of the gospel." (An Appeal for the Madison School). THERE IS HOPE:--It is your duty as students to seek to discover what God's plan is for our schools, and may this little history enable you to better understand the kind of education that existed in our older schools so that you may avoid it. Let me impress you again with the thought that you must seek God for help to keep you from having worldly yokes of education placed on your necks, even by your teachers. Remember that God has said these pointed words to us teachers and students: "We are in positive danger of bringing into our educational work the customs and fashions that prevail in the schools of the world." (Madison School, p. 28). We have spent years wandering in the wilderness of worldly education. If we lack faith and courage to enter into this reform, God will raise up men who will do it. Already we know of worldly educators who look with favor upon the plan of education that has been delivered to us. For instance, the present United States Commissioner of Education, Doctor P. P. Claxton, like Horace Mann of old, is in sympathy with it; and, after visiting a number of schools that are striving to work out these reforms, he expressed to a company of teachers his appreciation of the system of education in the following words: "I wish very much it were possible for me to be present at the meeting of teachers and nurses of the hill schools which you are holding this week. I am greatly interested in the work which these schools are doing. The work which you are doing at Madison is remarkable and worthy of high praise. If you succeed permanently in maintaining the school on its present basis, it cannot fail to accomplish great good. The work which you are doing is highly practicable, and seems to me to be based on important fundamental principles of education. The same is true of the small schools which I visited, and I shall watch their progress With the greatest interest. I believe that you will succeed in accomplishing what you have in mind. "All education must grow out of the life of the people educated. You and the teachers you are sending out are wisely recognizing this principle. In order to educate children, parents must be educated also. All real education must be education of the whole community, and it must take hold of the life which the people live, making them more intelligent about this life. It is difficult and practically impossible to attain better conditions until existing conditions are understood." Have we the Caleb and Joshua spirit, and will we say, We are well able, by God's help, to build up a school. "in the line of true education?" We must remember the promise that our schools "are prisoners of hope, and God will correct and enlighten them and bring them back to their upright position of distinction from the world." If we are willing and obedient, God will give us the victory we need. "Let not managers, teachers or helpers swing back in their old customary way of letting their influence negative the very plans the Lord has presented as the best plan for the physical, mental and moral education of our youth. The Lord calls for steps in advance." (Dec. 27, 1901). "Teachers, trust in God and go forward. My grace is sufficient for you, is the assurance of the great Teacher. Catch the inspiration of the words, and never, never talk doubt and unbelief. Be energetic. There is no half-service in pure and undefiled religion." (T. E., p. 3O). "Before we can carry the message of present truth in all its fullness to other countries, we must first break every yoke. We must come into the line of true education, walking in the wisdom of God, and not in the wisdom of the world. God calls for messengers who will be true reformers. We must educate, educate, to prepare a people who will understand the message, and then give the message to the world. (Madison School, P. 30). "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."
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