At the Creation, work was appointed as a blessing. It meant development, power, happiness. The changed condition of the earth through the curse of sin has brought a change in the conditions of work, yet though now attended with anxiety, weariness, and pain, it is still a source of happiness and development. And it is a safeguard against temptation. Its discipline places a check on self-indulgence, and promotes industry, purity, and firmness. Thus it becomes a part of God's great plan for our recovery from the Fall.
Young people should be led to see the true dignity of work. God is a constant worker. All things in nature do their allotted work. Action pervades the whole creation, and in order to fulfill our mission we, too, must be active.
We are workers together with God. He gives us the earth and its treasures, but we must adapt them to our use and comfort. He causes the trees to grow, but we prepare the timber and build the house. He has hidden in the earth the gold and silver, the iron and coal, but only through work can we obtain them.
We should show young people that while God has created and constantly controls all things, He has endowed us with a power not wholly unlike His. To us has been given a degree of control over the forces of nature. As God called forth the earth in its beauty out of chaos, so we can bring order and beauty out of confusion. And though all things are now marred with evil, in our completed work we feel a joy similar to His, when, looking on the fair earth, He pronounced it "very good."
As a rule, the exercise most beneficial to young people will be found in useful work. Little children find both diversion and development in play, and their sports should be such as to promote not only physical but mental and spiritual growth. As they gain strength and intelligence, the best recreation will be found in some line of useful activity. That which trains the hand to helpfulness and teaches young people to bear their share of life's burdens, is most effective in promoting growth of mind and character.
Young people need to be taught that life means earnest work, responsibility, care-taking. They need a training that will make them practical men and women who can cope with emergencies. They should be taught that the discipline of systematic, well-regulated labor is essential not only as a safeguard against the vicissitudes of life but as an aid to all-around development.
Notwithstanding all that has been said and written concerning the dignity of physical work, the feeling prevails that it is degrading. Young men want to become teachers, clerks, merchants, physicians, lawyers, or to occupy some other position that does not require physical effort. Young women shun housework and seek an education in other lines. These need to learn that no man or woman is degraded by honest toil. That which degrades is idleness and selfish dependence. Idleness fosters self-indulgence, and the result is a life empty and barren--a field inviting the growth of every evil. "The earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected, and is near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned." Hebrews 6:7, 8.
Many branches of study that consume the student's time are not essential to usefulness or happiness, but every young person should have a thorough acquaintance with everyday duties. If need be, a young woman can dispense with a knowledge of a foreign language and algebra, or even of the piano, but it is indispensable that she learn to perform efficiently the duties that pertain to homemaking. In many ways, life's happiness is bound up with faithfulness in common duties.
Since both men and women have a part in home-making, 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; it will make him happier and more useful. And if girls, in turn, could learn to use the saw and the hammer, as well as the rake and hoe, they would be better fitted to meet the emergencies of life.
God Honors Workers
Children and youth should learn from the Bible how God has honored the work of the everyday toiler. Let them read of "the sons of the prophets" (2 Kings 6:1-7), students at school who were building a house and for whom God performed a miracle to save a borrowed ax. Let them read of Jesus the carpenter, and Paul the tentmaker, who linked the toil of the craftsman with the highest ministry, human and divine. Let them read about the boy whose five loaves were used by the Savior in that wonderful miracle for the feeding of the multitude; of Dorcas the seamstress, called back from death that she might continue to make garments for the poor; of the wise woman described in Proverbs, who "seeks wool and flax, and willingly works with her hands," who "provides food for her household, and a portion for her maidservants," who "plants a vineyard" and "strengthens her arms," who "extends her hand to the poor, yes, ... reaches out her hands to the needy," who "watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness." Proverbs 31:13, 15; 31:16, 17, 20, 27.
Of such a person, God says: "She shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates." Proverbs 31:30, 31.
For every child the first school for training in industries should be the home. And, so far as possible, facilities for manual training should be connected with every school. To a great degree such training would supply the place of the gymnasium, with the additional benefit of affording valuable discipline.
Manual training deserves far more attention than it has received. Schools should be established that, in addition to the highest mental and moral culture, shall provide the best possible facilities for physical development and practical industries. Instruction should be given in many of the most useful trades, as well as in household economy, healthful cooking, sewing, dressmaking, treatment of the sick, and similar lines. Gardens, workshops, and treatment rooms should be provided, and the work in every line should be under the direction of skilled instructors.
The work should be thorough and have a definite aim. While every person needs some knowledge of various handicrafts, all should become proficient in at least one. All young people, on leaving school, should have a knowledge of some trade or occupation by which, if need be, they may earn a livelihood.
The objection most often urged against industrial training in school is the large outlay and heavy expense involved. But the object to be gained is worthy of its cost. No other work committed to us is so important as the training of our youth, and every outlay demanded for its right accomplishment is money well spent.
Even from the viewpoint of financial results, the outlay required for manual training would prove the truest economy. The expenditure for gardens, workshops, and facilities for water treatments would be more than met by the saving on hospitals and reformatories. And the youth themselves, trained to habits of industry, and skilled in lines of useful and productive labor--who can estimate their value to society and to the nation!
As a relaxation from study, occupations pursued in the open air and affording exercise for the whole body, are the most beneficial. No line of manual training is of more value than agriculture. The Bible says much about agriculture--that it was God's plan for human beings to till the earth, that the first man, the ruler of the whole world, was given a garden to cultivate. Many of the world's greatest people, its real nobility, have worked the soil. Of those who cultivate the soil the Bible declares, "They are well instructed; their God teaches them" Isaiah 28:26, NRSV. And again, "Whoever keeps the fig tree will eat its fruit." Proverbs 27:18.
In the study of agriculture, let students be given not only theory, but practice. While they learn what science can teach in regard to the nature and preparation of the soil, the value of different crops, and the best methods of production, let them put their knowledge to use. Teachers should share the work with their students, and show what results can be achieved through skillful, intelligent effort. Thus may be awakened a genuine interest, an ambition to do the work in the best possible manner. Such an ambition, together with the invigorating effect of exercise, sunshine, and pure air, will create a love for agricultural work that with many youth will determine their choice of an occupation.
Manual Training Needed by Professionals
The benefit of manual training is needed also by professional people. They may have brilliant minds; they may be quick to catch ideas; their knowledge and skill may secure for them admission to their chosen calling;
yet they may still be far from possessing a fitness for its duties. An education derived chiefly from books leads to superficial thinking. Practical work encourages close observation and independent thought. Rightly performed, it tends to develop that practical wisdom which we call common sense. It develops ability to plan and execute, strengthens courage and perseverance, and calls for the exercise of tact and skill.
Physicians who have laid a foundation for their professional knowledge by actual service in the sickroom will have a quickness of insight, an all-around knowledge, and an ability in emergencies to render needed service--all essential qualifications that only a practical training can so fully impart.
Ministers, missionaries, and teachers will find their influence with the people greatly increased when it is demonstrated that they possess the knowledge and skill required for the practical duties of everyday life.
In acquiring an education, many students would gain a most valuable training if they would become self-sustaining. Instead of incurring debts or depending on the self-denial of their parents, let young men and young women depend on themselves. They will thus learn the value of money, the value of time, strength, and opportunities, and will be under far less temptation to indulge idle and spendthrift habits. The lessons of economy, industry, self-denial, practical business management, and steadfastness of purpose, thus mastered, would prove a most important part of their equipment for the battle of life.
Let young people be impressed with the thought that education is not to teach them how to escape life's disagreeable tasks and heavy burdens; its purpose is to lighten the work by teaching better methods and higher aims. Teach them that life's true aim is not to secure the greatest possible gain for themselves, it is to honor their Maker in doing their part of the world's work and lending a helpful hand to those weaker or more ignorant.
One great reason why physical work is looked down on is the slipshod, unthinking way in which it is often performed. It is done from
necessity, not from choice. The worker puts no heart into it, and he neither preserves self-respect nor wins the respect of others. Manual training should correct this error. It should develop habits of accuracy and thoroughness.
Students should learn tact and system. They should learn to economize time and make every move count. They should not only be taught the best methods, they should be inspired with ambition constantly to improve.
Such training will make the youth masters and not slaves of work. It will lighten the lot of the hard toiler, and will ennoble even the humblest occupation. Those who regard work as mere drudgery, and settle down to it with self-complacent ignorance, making no effort to improve, will find it indeed a burden. But those who recognize science in the humblest work will see in it nobility and beauty, and will take pleasure in performing it with faithfulness and efficiency.