Studies in Christian Education

Individuality, originality and independence of thought and action on the part of the student are in the end destroyed by the Papal system of education and other systems derived from it. This system is intended by its promoters to destroy these vital elements of character in order to make the individual a willing, blind, obedient servant to the mandates of men. The Papacy can not prosper except as it does destroy these most godlike faculties of man. Individuality, originality and independence of thought and action are developed by Christian education. This system is intended to develop minds capable of being guided by the Holy Spirit, even though that way may be at times diametrically opposed to the rulings of men. They learn to take their orders from the Captain of the Lord's army whose hand is among the wheels of the affairs of men to prevent confusion, anarchy, and disobedience to any organization which is based upon correct principles.

God was preparing a company who could be guided completely by His Spirit in the giving of the midnight cry. Only those trained to take the initiative, to be self-governing, would dare break away at the call of God from the errors and customs of Rome as found in the Protestant churches.

"The midnight cry was heralded by thousands of believers. Like a tidal wave the movement swept over the land... Fanaticism disappeared before this proclamation like early frost before the rising sun... All were of one heart and of one mind... It caused a weaning of affection from the things of this world, a healing of controversies and animosities, a confession of wrongs... Angels were sent from heaven to arouse those who had become discouraged, and to prepare them to receive the message... It was not the most talented, but the most humble and devoted who were first to hear and obey the call. Farmers left their crops standing in the fields, merchants laid down their tools, and with tears and rejoicing went out to give the warning. Those who had formerly led in the cause were among the last to join in this movement. The churches in general closed their doors against this message, and a large company of those who received it withdrew their connection... There went with it an impelling power that moved the soul." (The Great Controversy, pp. 400-402).

It does not require deep thought to discover the cause of the failure of the educational system of the Protestant denominations to train men and women to participate in the midnight cry. The whole scheme of education of that era, aside from the reform movement which was largely broken down by the pressure of the popular church leaders, was to make men conservative, fearful of leaving the well-trodden paths of action, and of course "the churches in general closed their doors against this message." Protestant teachers and preachers, in harmony with the Papacy, had for years bound the minds of students and church members to creeds both in education and religion, until their adherents were governed by tradition, prejudice, bigotry, and fear of their leaders. They had lost their love and power for self-government. Consequently, God could not lead them by His spirit; their organization was rejected; they had morally fallen; the second angel called them Babylon. On the other hand, a few devoted schools, educational reformers and ministers, had trained a small company to prize the privilege of being governed by the Spirit of God as revealed in His word. They had practiced what they had been taught in self-government, until they were willing to follow the guidance of the Spirit. This shows that true self-government does not mean do-as-you- please; it means that self shall be governed by the Word of God. While this company was cast out of the church organizations, while they left their crops, their tools, and former employments of all kinds to participate in what seemed to those who had not learned self-government to be a fanatical movement, yet from such a company sprang the wonderful Seventh-day Adventist church. And this church is called to set before the world a system of schools, institutions and organizations of self-governing Christians, such as this world has never before seen.

The character capable of carrying the midnight cry had to be developed in the Christian manual training schools, or in the school of the common walks of life. The leader of this movement, William Miller, "the farmer prophet," like Christ and John the Baptist, was educated in the latter. His biographer, a man well qualified to judge the value of the popular educational system of the churches, writes,

"What now, would have been the effect of what is called a regular course of education? Would it have perverted him, as it has thousands? Or would it have made him instrumental of greater good in the cause of God? Would it have performed its appropriate work, that of disciplining, enlarging, and furnishing the mind, leaving unimpaired by the process its natural energies, its sense of dependence and accountability as to God? Or would it have placed him in the crowded ranks of those who are content to share in the honor of repeating the twaddle, true or false, which passes for truth in the school or sect which has made them what they are? We think it would have been difficult to pervert him; but where so many who have been regarded as highly promising have been marred by the operation, he would have been in great danger. He might have become externally a better subject for the artist; but we doubt if he would have been a better subject to be used as an instrument of Providence. There are those who survive the regular course uninjured; there are those who are benefited by it, so far as to be raised to a level with people of ordinary capacity, which they never could attain without special aid. And there is a third class, who are a stereotype representation of what the course makes them; if they raise a fellowman out of the mire, they never get him nearer to heaven than the school where they were educated. Whatever might have been the result of any established course of education in the case of William Miller, such a course was beyond his reach; he was deprived of the benefit, he has escaped the perversion." (James S. White, Sketches of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William Miller, p. 15-16).

This is that William Miller, "the farmer prophet," who later brought the first angel's message to Oberlin. The futility of depending upon men who have not been trained to self-government has been seen in the midnight cry experience. Every Seventh-day Adventist is approaching his final test, just as the Protestant churches approached theirs in 1844. Ours will come with the loud cry, the latter rain. Those who lack training for self-government, those not able to depend upon their own efforts for support, who are not making the Bible the basis of study, and physiology the basis of every educational effort; all who, in other words, "do not understand the true science Of education" will have no part in the kingdom of God or in the loud cry.

Character needed for the loud cry is similar to that of the midnight cry

"The message of the third angel will be proclaimed. As the time comes for it to be given with the greatest power, the Lord will work through humble instruments, leading the minds of those who consecrate themselves to His service. The laborers will be qualified rather by the unction of His Spirit than by the training of literary institutions. Men of faith and of prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal proclaiming the words which God gives them." (The Great Controversy, p. 606).

The Jesuit schools taught their students blind obedience. The student was not required to go to God for wisdom regarding his conduct. His teacher assumed that responsibility. True self-government, which may be defined as bringing one's conduct into harmony with God's principles as expressed in His Word, was absolutely neglected. The terrible effects of the Papal system of school discipline has been seen during the first angel's message. Those students who blindly followed teachers rather than God's principles were bound by customs, traditions, organizations and leaders at a time when the Spirit of God was calling them to follow the truth. As a preparation for the loud cry, we are told,

"The plan of the schools we shall establish in these closing years of the work is to be of an entirely different order from those we have instituted." ("The Madison School," p. 28).

"The object of discipline is the training of the child for self-government." (Ellen G. White, Education, p. 287).

"Having never learned to govern himself, the youth recognizes no restraint except the requirement of parents or teacher. This removed, he knows not how to use his liberty, and often gives himself up to indulgence that proves his ruin." (Ibid., p. 288).

"They should not be led to feel that they cannot go out or come in without being watched." (Ibid., p. 289).

"Lead the youth to feel that they are trusted, and there are few who will not seek to prove themselves worthy of the trust... It is better to request than to command; the one thus addressed has opportunity to prove himself loyal to right principles. His obedience is the result of choice rather than compulsion. The rules governing the schoolroom should, so far as possible, represent the voice of the school... Thus he will feel a responsibility to see that the rules which he himself has helped to frame are obeyed. Rules should be few and well considered; and when once made, they should be enforced." (Ibid., p. 290).

"Those who desire to control others must first control themselves." (Ellen G. White, Education, p. 292).

"Co-operation should be the spirit of the school room, the law of its life... Let the older assist the younger; the strong the weak. This will encourage self-respect and a desire to be useful." (Ibid., p. 285).

Jefferson, the father of democracy, knowing that self-government was not taught in the schools of his day, and that democracy cannot exist in the State unless its principles are first taught and practiced in the school, introduced this principle into the University of Virginia.

"It is very generally known that at the University of Virginia exists a remarkable system of student self-government, by which a high morale and a manly tone of self-reliance have been successfully maintained." (Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, p. 94).

Self-government is contrasted with what is called "professorial espionage."

"Self-government established a frank and kindly spirit of cooperation between master and pupil. It repressed all dishonorable practices of cheating in recitations and examinations, and promoted a spirit of independence and self-respect." (Idem).

Oberlin found it necessary, in the training of the right kind of missionaries, to develop a system of self-government. In Oberlin

"the democratic feeling, the spirit of equality, the absence of classes and casts based upon mere artificial distinctions, is almost as marked in the institution as in the village... The Faculty ... never sought to lord it over the students as being themselves superior, nor have insisted upon a particular show of homage, reverence, or respect even... They played instead the role of elder brothers to their pupils." (The Story of Oberlin, p. 398).

Titles were unknown, and students addressed their teachers as "Brother Finney," or "Brother Mahan".

"Self-rule was the ideal. The assembled youth were to learn how to use freedom by being left free. A right public sentiment was to be the controlling force." (Ibid., p. 409).

"Each individual has full liberty to make the most of himself, and stands for just what he is actually worth in heart or brain. Class yells and class colors have come in of late, occasionally class hats, canes, and the like, at rare intervals the class robe, but with the consensus of judgment and taste heavely against any wide departure from fashions of dress in vogue elsewhere in good society." (The Story of Oberlin, p. 399).

In oberlin,

"the regulations are few. No strict personal surveillance was ever undertaken. The student has been thrown greatly on his own responsibility, with the understanding that his continual enjoyment of the privileges of the school must depend upon his satisfactory deportment... No monitorial system has ever been adopted. Each young man reports weekly in writing to the professor in charge, his success or failure in attendance upon prescribed duties. The young women report to the lady principal." (Oberlin: The Colony and the College, pp. 263-265).

This sounds very much like the following:

"The youth must be impressed with the idea that they are trusted... If pupils receive the impression that they cannot go out or come in, sit at the table, or be anywhere, even in their rooms, except they are watched, a critical eye is upon them, to criticise and report, it will have the influence to demoralize, and pastime will have no pleasure in it. This knowledge of a continual oversight is more than a parental guardianship, and far worse... This constant watchfulness is not natural, and produces evils that it is seeking to avoid." (Christian Education, p. 46).

Horace Mann on self-government

In those days when the Protestant denominations were settling their eternal destiny, when they were determining whether they would hear the world-wide judgment message, and themselves be prepared for the midnight cry, such men as Horace Mann wrote, "One of the highest and most valuable objects to which the influences of a school can be made conducive, consists in training our children to be self-governing." Mr. Mann had the following experience in dealing with students. He gave the young men to understand "that he looked to them to be their own police: and when a tutor, who had resided in a gentlemen's dormitory to keep order, was exchanged for a lady teacher, he appealed to the senior class, one day after chapel service, to know if they were not sufficiently strong in moral force to take care of the building without such supervision. They rose to their feet simultaneously, accepted the trust joyfully and confidently, kept the promise well, and transmitted its spirit to their successors." (Life and Works of Horace Mann, vol. 1, p. 438).

Mr. Mann, however, was always on the alert to assist these self-governing students by a word of caution, or by forewarning them of impending trouble. "It was Mr. Mann's pride and delight ever after to walk through the gentlemen's hall at any hour of the day or night, and to take visitors with him to convince them that a true spirit of honor and fidelity could be evoked from the young" in matters of self-government. At one time he wrote,

"Our dormitory, nearly filled with male students, has no tutor or proctor or overseer. In study-hours, it is as quiet as your house. We have no rowdyism, no drinking of intoxicating liquors, no gambling or card-playing; and we have nearly succeeded... in exorcising profanity and tobacco." (Ibid., p. 515).

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard;
Consider her ways, and be wise;
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer,
And gathereth her food in the harvest."
(Proverbs 6:6-8)