The times demand an education which will produce men and women capable of doing things. The Papal system divorces learning from doing and disqualifies men and women for giving the final warning to the world. God stirred every denomination, prior to 1844, to put practical Christian education within the reach of the young people.
"Had the system of education generations back been conducted upon altogether a different plan, the youth of this generation would not now be so depraved and worthless... There should have been in past generations provisions made for education upon a larger scale. In connection with the schools should have been agricultural and manufacturing establishments. There should have been teachers also of household labor... If schools had been established upon the plan we have mentioned, there would not now be so many unbalanced minds. I have been led to inquire, Must all that is valuable in our youth be sacrificed in order that they may obtain an education at the schools? If there had been agricultural and manufacturing establishments in connection with our schools, and competent teachers had been employed to educate the youth in the different branches of study and labor, devoting a portion of each day to mental improvement, and a portion of the day to physical labor, there would now be a more elevated class of youth to come upon the stage of action, to have influence in molding society. The youth who would graduate at such institutions would many of them come forth with stability of character. They would have perseverance, fortitude, and courage to surmount obstacles, and principles that would not be swerved by wrong influence, however popular. 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, to make, to mend garments, and thus become educated for the practical duties of life." (Christian Education, pp. 11, 18, 19).
Jefferson, as we might expect, caught a glimpse of this important phase of education, and made an attempt to put it into operation in the University of Virginia.
"He proposed what he called a 'School of Technical Philosophy'... To such a school will come the mariner, carpenter, shipwright, pumpmaker, clockmaker, mechanist, optician, founder, cutler, ... soapmaker, tanner, saltmaker, glassmaker, to learn as much as shall be necessary to pursue their art understandingly... In this school of technology, Jefferson proposed to group the students in convenient classes for elementary and practical instruction by lectures, to be given in the evening, so as to afford an opportunity for labor in the daytime." (Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, p. 84).
Jefferson is quoted as saying, "No nation will long survive the decay of its agriculture." (Samuel H. Comings, Pagan vs. Christian Civilizations, p. 43).
The "Society for Promoting Manual Labor in Literary Institutions" was formed in New York in 1831 "with nearly a score of eminent names among its officers."
"A tremendous impulse was given to the movement by the publication, in 1833, of Theodore D. Welds' famous pamphlet upon manual labor, under the auspices of the [society]... It contained the testimony of hundreds of noted men, all to the effect that this panacea without question was mighty to heal... His report... when published produced one of the sensations of the time." (The Story of Oberlin, pp. 230, 130).
Manual labor in Oberlin
Oberlin was among the schools of this period that placed themselves in the hands of God to be used in giving a practical education to hundreds and thousands of youth who would later be called to do strenuous service for the Master. The historian of Oberlin states that about the time that school started, there was "a widespread intellectual quickening, including radical reforms in educational methods." Mr. Shipherd, one of the founders of Oberlin, desired to be in harmony with the divine plan of education, and said,
"Hundreds of promising youth will doubtless be educated for God's service, or not educated, as we shall or shall not provide for them the means of complete education by their own industry and economy." (Oberlin: The Colony and the College, p. 321).
In the first annual report of Oberlin published in 1834, we read, "The manual labor department is considered indispensable to a complete education." (The Story of Oberlin, p. 224). The historian states,
"Honest toil would be honored, the richest and poorest would meet daily on a common level, the health of all would be secured, a magic stimulus would be imparted to both minds and morals; but the best of all, and most certain of all, whoever of either sex would gain an education could easily pay his way with the labor of his own hands." (Idem).
Oberlin's industrial department, the historian says,
"is furnished with a steam engine which propels a saw mill, grist mill, shingle and lath saw, and turning lathe, to which other machinery will be added. One workshop is now erected and supplied with tools, and others are to be added." (Idem).
"Manual labor was among the most indispensable elements of the Oberlin idea. Nothing did more for Oberlin's establishment and enlargement. For half a generation multitudes of students were brought in from the whole land over, who otherwise would never have entered its halls; and much more, in all probability, would never have gained an education." (Ibid., pp. 100, 101).
One of Oberlin's founders in 1833 wrote,
"that a female department would be established on the manual labor plan, including housekeeping, manufacture of wool, culture of silk, appropriate parts of gardening, particularly the raising of seeds for market, making clothes, etc." (Ibid., pp. 225, 226).
In fact, the object of Oberlin, as published in its first circular and first catalog [1834], is said to be:
"'to give the most useful education at the least expense of health, time and money; to extend the benefit of such education to both sexes and to all classes of the community. ... The thorough qualification of Christian teachers both for the pulpit and for schools;' ... 'the diffusion of useful science, sound morality, and pure religion among the growing multitudes of the Mississippi Valley, and to the destitute millions which overspread the world,' through ministers and 'pious school-teachers.'" (Ibid., p. 161).
Manual labor met with intense opposition, but in 1833, Mr. Shipherd wrote jubilantly,
"The scholars study and work well. Five minutes after the manual labor bell strikes, the hammers and saws of the mechanical students wake all around us." (Ibid., p. 224).
After naming the advantages of manual training, he adds,
"In a word, it meets the wants of man as a compound being, and prevents the common and amazing waste of money, time, health and life." (Idem).
Numerous manual labor institutions
"In all this Oberlin was not in the least original, but merely copied, with slight modifications, what was to be found in numerous institutions throughout the eastern, middle and western states. In 1830, ten could be named having manual labor attachments, while during the next decade several scores were added to the number. Maine Wesleyan was famous in its day and was among the earliest, while Bowdoin, Waterville, and Bangor Seminary possessed these advantages. In Dexter, Maine, not only all students, but teachers also were required to labor at least four hours each day. Massachusetts had at least half a dozen... New York was favored with several, Oneida Institute being prominent; and the Rochester Institute of Practical Education, in which students of ordinary mechanical skill while learning a trade can nearly pay their board, and it is calculated, when certain intended facilities are furnished, they will pay all their expenses. Pennsylvania, too, was well supplied. At Lafayette College, Easton, President Jenkins and the students performed the labor of erecting a two-story building... In the west where people were poorer and land was cheaper, manual labor was most popular. Hudson (Ohio) had shops and a farm, Marietta and Lane Seminary the same, with at least as many more. Michigan moved in the great matter while yet a territory, nor were Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, or Tennessee, in the least degree backward in ministering to the muscle of the student class." (Ibid., pp. 229-230).
"The educational societies of all the leading denominations were active participants, whether Baptist, Congregational, Episcopal, Methodist, or Presbyterian, and most of the leading educators were full of enthusiasm and zeal... The Episcopalian secretary could exclaim: 'We almost envy our successors in the academic course when something of the vigor of the fathers shall be found in the intellectual laborers of the day, and the sallow tinge of dyspepsia shall cease to be the uniform testimonial of a life of study.'" (Ibid., p. 230).
Dr. Lindsley, founder of the University of Nashville, now Peabody Institute, was an advocate of manual labor.
"[He] would have attached to schools of all grades, farms and workshops. These farms and workshops would serve a three-fold purpose. They would furnish the needed exercise, they would be useful in teaching trades, and they would give poor boys an opportunity of making a living." (Higher Education in Tennessee, p. 30).
Emory and Henry College, in 1835, was
"a manual labor college, an institute of learning in which the pupils were to be trained to labor as well as think. This manual labor feature was a very prominent one in the enterprise... This feature was made prominent in these incipient movements, for the institution was built up by a people engaged almost wholly in agriculture and the mechanic arts, a people among many of whom a prejudice existed against a learned and lazy race." (Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, p. 253).
Manual training in Baptist schools
"In 1830, a few devoted men met in the Second Baptist Church at five o'clock a. m. to devise and propose some plan for the improvement of young men who, in the judgment of the churches, were called to the work of the ministry... They organized the Virginia Baptist Educational Society, and for two years aided approved young men by placing them in private schools ... In 1832, the Society bought Spring Farm... opened a manual labor school, called the Virginia Baptist Seminary... The number of students ran up to twenty-six, about thirds of them preparing for the ministry... To this purchase of nine acres, six more were added in 1836... The design in adding more was to give more scope for the manual labor feature of the school. This was strenuously insisted on by the authorities as giving to the needy opportunity for self-help and to all opportunity for exercise. But it proved unpopular with the students... And finally as we read in the report of 1841, this feature ... has been virtually abandoned." (Ibid., p. 271).
The Georgia Baptists in 1833 founded Mercer University, a school
"which would unite agricultural labor with study, and be open for those only preparing for the ministry. The idea of founding a manual labor school where theory and practice should be taught, a scheme much in favor with Georgia Baptists, seems to have originated with Doctor Sherwood, who was the first to demonstrate its feasibility in the academy established by him near Eatonton in Putnam County." (Education in Georgia, p. 61).
We might multiply historical data concerning manual training schools during this remarkable educational reform preceding 1844. The examples given are typical of the experiences of more than sixty manual training schools of this period. To Seventh-day Adventist educational reformers, these experiences are thrilling. What would have been the results had the men responsible for these earlier reforms the pressure brought to bear upon them by the leading brethren of their respective denominations? This opposition was hard to meet, but the failure of the cause was really due to lack of courage and devotion to these principles, for where there is intense courage and love for God's work, opposition only strengthens the reformers. Adventists know that angels were busy everywhere encouraging these reforms. It is a startling fact that these schools relinquished their hold on the manual training reform just about the time that the midnight cry was due. Had they remained true, history would have made a different story. The history of Seventh-day Adventist educational work also would have been different.
Had Oberlin, for instance, remained true to her manual training idea, her missionary workers, going as they did to the mountaineers of the South and to the freedmen of the South, would have changed the whole complexion of Southern history. It would have placed the Southern states forty years ahead of the present. Booker T. Washington's work for negroes would have been established a quarter of a century before his time. But
"because men could not comprehend the purpose of God in the plans laid before us for the education of workers, methods have been followed in some of our schools which have retarded rather than advanced the work of God. Years have passed into eternity with small results that might have shown the accomplishment of a great work." ("The Madison School," p. 29).
Advantages of manual labor
"The students were divided into small companies of eight or ten each, and each company placed under the supervision of one of the older students... It broke the monotony of ordinary student life; it promoted health and buoyancy of spirit; in the hours of field and forest labor, there was found. not only relief from study but such a variety of incident, that the students of those days found more means of solid enjoyment than others have since... All the students except day students boarded in a common hall, where by practicing economy and with the help of the farm, a variable surplus was realized each year which was applied in making improvements." (Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, p. 253-255).
Manual labor, as a part of the curriculum in those schools training ministers and missionary workers, is a part of that "science of true education" which God made known to some men and women prior to the year 1844. It was one of God's ways of training practical missionaries for mission fields of the world. In spite of the fact that practically every Protestant denomination had some experience in conducting manual training schools, these denominations as a whole opposed the idea, and their persistent opposition finally forced the schools that had led out in the reform to close their manual labor departments. The closing of the manual labor departments is a signal for a return to the educational system of mediaeval Europe. They began to train worldlings instead of Christians. Herein lay one of the greatest mistakes of the Protestant denominations prior to the year 1844. Here is one of the reasons why they were unprepared for the midnight cry and the first angel's message. Manual labor in connection with education was called by men in these manual training schools "a panacea mighty to heal." The training school for Christian workers which lost that "panacea" became spiritually sick, and ceased to advocate Christian educational reforms. It is called "a missionary impulse," which through manual labor, "made it possible for the very poorest boy or girl to secure an education and thus enlarge his fitness to perform the duties of life."
Oberlin's fruit
God rewarded this school richly for its adherence to truth and for the product of its labors, in spite of the fact that it was finally compelled to yield. Of Oberlin it is said,
"Though the very name was so feared and hated, yet there were friends sufficient to desire and solicit more teachers than were to be had. The quality of their work was found to be so excellent that it was wisdom to swallow much prejudice in order to secure the benefit of their instruction. ... One year ... no less than 530 teachers went out for the vocation... Who can measure the benefit bestowed by these great companies of earnest hearted men and women who, for more than a generation, expended their energy upon the children and youth by the tens of thousands... Oberlin is the fruitful mother of colleges. Olivet College, Tabor College, Benzonia College, Berea College, Fisk University, Talladega College, Atlanta University, Straight University, Emerson Institute, Howard University, and other schools and enterprises absorbed for many years the missionary activity of Oberlin men and women." (The Story of Oberlin, p. 320-321).
Their students entered such "foreign fields as Turkey in Europe and in Asia, India, Siam, South America, Haiti, and Burma." (Oberlin: The Colony and the College, p. 341).
Students can readily gather from this brief sketch how extended might have been the influence of Oberlin had she remained true to her reform. The words addressed to Seventh-day Adventist educational reformers apply with equal force to the founders of Oberlin.
"Reformers have been handicapped and some have ceased to urge reform. They seem unable to stem the current of doubt and criticism." (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, p. 142).
Opposition
Students will be interested in a few statements showing the decline of these same institutions under the blighting atmosphere of suspicion, criticism, and opposition of the leaders. Oberlin withstood the opposition longer and More successfully than most other schools. The following extract gives the reader a picture of the doubt and criticism brought against Oberlin reforms by the leaders in the Presbyterian and Congregational churches.
"Manual labor, for example, had many friends and admirers, but a large number looked askance at the idea. The student did not need, and could not afford, four hours per day for toil upon the farm or in the shop. Nor was the financial result likely to be of any considerable value, either to him or the institution to which he belonged. [So said the critics.] Thus heads in New England and elsewhere began to shake." (The Story of Oberlin, p. 243-247).
Again,
"I have some doubts about a project lately started in this region and which makes no small demands on our regard as an enterprise of benevolence. I refer to Oberlin for which large funds have been received and are collecting. What need is there of another university or college in the woods of Ohio, surrounded by other institutions but a short distance off, still struggling for an existence?... It is said to have manual labor, but so has Hudson. ... Why should students be importuned to leave the institution where they are to go to Oberlin?" (Ibid., p. 247).
Yielding to opposition
"After the beginning of the forties, we hear little of manual labor. With the general increase of wealth there was less need of whatever pecuniary value it possessed. The consciences of the good were less scrupulous about seeking exercise outside of useful labor, and the modern gymnasium and athletics soon began to make all-sufficient provision for the physical well-being of the world." (Ibid., p. 231).
Note the year when this decline occurred. Mercer University, referred to above, had this experience:
"In 1844, the manual labor system which had been on trial since the foundation of the Institute in 1833, was abandoned, having proved inefficacious. Several other attempts had been made during the same decade to establish manual labor schools in different places which with one exception had likewise failed." (Education in Georgia, p. 65).
Do Seventh-day Adventists grasp the significance of this date? God cannot forever bear with unbelief, half-hearted efforts, and cold, indifferent trifling with divine principles.
"If all who had labored unitedly in the work in 1844 had received the third angel's message and proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts. A flood of light would have been shed upon the world. Years ago the inhabitants of the earth would have been warned, the closing work completed, and Christ would have come for the redemption of his people. It was not the will of God that Israel should wander forty years in the wilderness. He desired to lead them directly to the land of Canaan... In like manner it was not the will of God that the coming Christ should be so long delayed." (The Great Controversy, p. 458).