The granting of degrees, prizes, honors, etc., is borrowed from the Papal system of education.
"In our institutions of learning there was to be exerted an influence that would counteract the influence of the world, and give no encouragement to indulgence in appetite, in selfish gratification of the senses, in pride, ambition, love of dress and display, love of praise and flattery, and strife for high rewards and honors as a recompense for good scholarship. All this was to be discouraged in our schools. It would be impossible to avoid these things and yet send them to the public school." (Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, Jan. 9, 1894).
Before 1844 God was endeavoring to do for an Protestant denominations what he is now endeavoring to do for Seventh-day Adventists. The educational reform prior to the midnight cry proved a failure. But he who shares in the loud cry must succeed in the educational reform.
"Oberlin is somewhat peculiar in the matter of marks, prizes, honors and the like. During the thirties when Mr. Shipherd and his associates were laying the foundations, there was much earnest discussion abroad concerning the value and legitimacy of emulation... in student life. Many of the foremost educators held most strenuously that they are not needed to secure the best results, while in general tendencies it was on the whole positively harmful and vicious. In every way it was far better to appeal to pupils of all grades as well as to all others by addressing only their higher nature. Influenced largely by such convictions, it has always been that, though recitations and examinations are marked and a record is kept, this is not to establish a basis for grading or for distribution of honors, but only for private consultation by the teacher, a student, or other persons concerned. No announcement of standing is ever made." (The Story of Oberlin, p. 408).
University of Nashville
While Oberlin was struggling over the question of prizes, rewards, classics, etc., other institutions were battling with the same problem. Doctor Lindsley, founder of the University of Nashville, the predecessor of the well-known Peabody Institute, established in this period, said, "The giving of prizes as rewards for scholarship was discarded," and the founder testifies. that "a much greater peace, harmony, contentment, order, industry, and moral decorum prevailed." (Lucius S. Marriam, Higher Education in Tennessee, p. 33).