Reform in education includes the buildings in which an educational institution is housed. The spirit of centralization is a necessary feature of the Papacy, and associated with the Papal educational system of mediaeval Europe there is usually found a certain characteristic form of buildings- buildings of the monastic order, dark, dingy cloisters, with which are associated long prayers, counting of beads, chained Bibles, cowls, gowns, mortar boards, night vigils, long examinations, degrees, parchment rolls; memory work instead of reason; sight not faith; thought not action. Rosenkranz says,
"Monkish education seeks by means of complete silence to place the soul in a state of immobility, which, through the want of all interchange of thought, at last sinks into entire apathy and antipathy toward all intellectual culture." (The Philosophy of Education, p. 256).
Think of attempting to give this kind of education in the open, free country, or in buildings with open windows through which streams the bright sunshine of heaven, surrounded by singing birds, working teams, milk cows, growing grain, and the sound of hammer and saw. Such surroundings kill this system of education as surely as light kills germs.
"The mistakes that have been made in the erection of buildings in the past should be salutary admonitions to us in the future... Our ideas of building and furnishing our institutions are to be molded and fashioned by a true, practical knowledge of what it means to walk humbly with God. Never should it be thought necessary to give an appearance of wealth. ... It is not large, expensive buildings; it is not rich furniture ... that will give our work influence and success." (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 7, pp. 92, 93).
Thomas Jefferson in his scheme for giving a democratic education discarded the mediaeval dormitory system of Papal schools.
"Instead of constructing a single and large edifice which might have exhausted their funds, and left nothing or too little for other essential expenses, they thought it better to erect a small and separate building for each professor with an apartment for his lectures, and others for their own accommodations, connecting these cottages, by a range of dormitories capable each of lodging two students only-a provision equally friendly to study as to morals and order." (Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, p. 69).
Of the students' cottages it is said, "They consisted of one story dormitories exhibiting a not unpleasant effect," and these buildings had their "garden grounds."
This certainly called for self-government. It placed teachers and students on the same level; it encouraged simplicity of life; it was economical, and appeals strongly to those who are limited in the amount of money they can spend in school buildings and equipments. But still other reasons are given for this cottage plan. Jefferson said,
"The plan offered the further advantages of greater security against fire and infection, of extending the buildings in equal pace with the funds, and of adding to them indefinitely hereafter... Instead of one immense building, [I favor] to have a small one for every professorship, arranged at proper distances around a square, to admit of extension, connected by a piazza, so that they may go dry from one school to another. This village form is preferable to a single great building for many reasons, particularly on account of fire, health, economy, peace, and quiet. ... Such a plan had been approved in the case of the Albemarle College." (Ibid., pp. 69, 73).
"Cabell also was thoroughly convinced of the soundness of the building policy of the University. Even the enemies of the institution acknowledged that Jefferson's course was wise. ... [An influential visitor] had been won over to the university by a mere visit of inspection which impressed him with the extent and splendor of the establishment... There was absolutely nothing in the neighborhood of Charlottesville to attract either professors or students. Jefferson was compelled, by the necessities of the situation, to create something visible and impressive which should compel admiration." (Ibid., p. 100).
Before the opening of the university, Jefferson wrote of ten distinct houses for the professors, "each with a garden," and "an hundred-and-nine dormitories sufficient each for two students." (Ibid., p. 101).
Jefferson saw the effect of architecture on the plastic minds of students, and said,
"My partiality for that division is not founded in views of education solely, but infinitely more as the means of a better administration of our government, and the eternal preservation of republican principles." (Ibid., p. 73).
Oberlin's founders came into line with the truth in the matter of simple buildings.
"To increase our means of service ... we will observe plainness and durability in the construction of our houses, furniture, carriages, and all that appertains to us." (The Story of Oberlin, p. 86).
"There is a plain, neat, simple style of building which commends itself to every man's enlightened good sense, and still will not be highly esteemed by the world, neither is it an abomination in the sight of the Lord." (Oberlin: The Colony and the College, p. 359).
The cottage plan for housing students was followed by other schools also. Of Oglethorpe University, one of the leading Presbyterian institutions in the early history of Georgia, it is said,
"There was a row of dormitories of one-story for the habitation of students... These were placed twelve feet apart and each one was divided into two rooms eighteen feet square." (Charles E. Jones, Education in Georgia, p. 83).
This was in 1837 when Presbyterians were wrestling with the "true science of education," and were settling the question whether they would help proclaim the last message to the world. The object of the Christian school is to train young people to "endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ." Worldly governments, when training soldiers, avoided those conveniences and luxuries that tend to make the soldiers unwilling to endure the hardships of the battlefield. They are not quartered in up-to-date hotels. But often the buildings of a school are constructed and equipped for the convenience of those who teach, house and board the students, rather than for the training necessary to fit these young people to become soldiers to endure hardness. The uniform, the manners, and the polishing in general, of the young student soldier receive more attention than actual drill from many of the officers who have had more experience in dress parade than in lying in the trenches. Need we wonder why such a large per cent of the students, after long training, prefer to take up work in an institution with up-to-date conveniences where good food, clothes, and a salary are insured, rather than to pioneer an enterprise where they are thrown largely on their own resources? To what extent are large, well- equipped schools responsible for this? In these last days schools that teach students to be content with simple food and clothing, and encourage the spirit of sacrifice, and give the ability to say, "From henceforth that land is my country which most needs my help," will be in greatest demand by those students who expect to triumph in the loud cry.
It was on this principle that Thomas Jefferson constructed simple school buildings in which to train a class of men to promote the principles of democracy in the United States. And practically every government in the world has been effected by these principles.
The average teacher, when thinking of a training school, conceives of large buildings, equipped with modern facilities and conveniences, calling for a large outlay of means. You students have had no such plant before you here. Your school would scarcely be recognized as an educational institution by one having the ordinary conception of a training school. This chapel, the small recitation rooms, the dining room, the shops, cottages, and other buildings grouped about the farm, provide the school facilities. Our facilities are, as a rule, more simple than many of you have in your own homes. What is the result? Scores of students from this plant have caught a vision, and have recognized the possibility of building up a school with limited means. As a result, over thirty little centers are providing education to hundreds of children outside the church, while if these same students had received their training in a school well equipped and expensive, no doubt the number of schools started would be considerably less.
Again, the average person when thinking of a sanitarium has before his mind one of our large institutions with every modern convenience. You have had before you a small sanitarium consisting of three frame, one-story cottages connected by covered porches, equipped so simply that they can be duplicated in almost any mission. You have seen this sanitarium filled with patients and a list of persons waiting admittance. Many have had their ideas revolutionized by this small sanitarium, and several health homes are coming into existence to be conducted on similar plans.
These two illustrations are cited to show that the effects of surrounding buildings and equipments on the minds of students are beyond calculation. The light was given to the Protestants before 1844 to guide them in the erection of buildings, equipment and furnishings; in diet, dress and surroundings, so that a great army might be able, in a simple manner to sweep the earth with that mighty message, the midnight cry.