By Arthur
L. White, The Journal of Adventist Education, October-November,
1972: 10, 11.
“I turned to look for
the Advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice
said to me, ‘Look again, and look a little higher.’ At this I raised my
eyes, and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world.
On this path the Advent people were traveling to the city, which was at
the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them
at the beginning of the path….This light shone all along the path and
gave light for their feet so that they might not stumble. If they kept
their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the
city, they were safe.” –Early Writings, p. 14.
The
impact of the Spirit of Prophecy counsels on Seventh-day Adventist
education is seen in the location of every Seventh-day Adventist school,
in the curriculum from the first grade to the university, in the guiding
philosophy as discussed in important meetings of educators and
administrators, in the preparation of textbooks, and in the pages of
every school bulletin. Seventh-day Adventists understand that God called
our school system into being and gave us a blueprint to guide us in
forming it. But what we see today was not accomplished overnight, nor
did it come easily.
Striving to create a unique system of education following the
guidelines God has laid down for us has been an experience calling for
faith, daring, and perseverance. Looking at the results, we are reminded
of the words of George I. Butler, early church leader, who declared of
the Spirit of Prophecy counsels that “when we have heeded them, we have
prospered; when we have slighted them, we have suffered a great loss.”—Review
and Herald Supplement, August 14, 1883, p.12.
It was the lead article entitled “Proper Education” appearing
just 100 years ago [1872] in a 192-page testimony pamphlet that launched
Seventh-day Adventists into a concerted educational work. But some of
the concepts promulgated seemed quite strange and perhaps not too
relevant to education as conceived at that time. Those who were called
upon to begin and operate a school system guided by these principles
enunciated in the testimony article. Some of the directives were so
contrary to what was accepted in educational circles that at first they
were largely set aside as being idealistic but difficult or impossible
to implement.
But a system of education clearly was needed. We faced a
world evangelizing task. There was a sincere desire in the hearts of
church leaders and of educators to train our children and youth in a
manner that would meet Heaven’s approval, so ever keeping the pattern
before them they moved forward. The story is a thrilling one with some
pathetic interludes. It is a story of God giving His people special
light, of study and faith and determined effort, which led to the
development of a strong work. It is the story of willingness to accept
reproof and counsel, which changed the course in various phases of the
educational program, and of an attempt to build and conduct an
educational system following Adventist guidelines but at the same time
fully acceptable to the world and its accrediting bodies.
In some features we have not yet met the ideal set before us.
In some instances we have waited until seemingly there was support from
the word before we wholeheartedly and fully accepted and implemented the
counsels given us by God. Sometimes we have lagged behind the world.
Let’s pause for a moment to observe the impact of what is
happening around us as this article is being prepared. This effect
relates to the age when a child should begin school. In the basic
article on education referred to above and appearing in Testimonies,
volume 3, Ellen White declared: “Parents should be the only teachers of
their children until they have reached eight or ten years of age.”—Testimonies,
volume 3, p. 137.
Because of deeply established traditions and life practices,
it remains yet a question as to how Seventh-day Adventists and the
Seventh-day Adventist school system will find their way in implementing
a course of action urged upon us 100 years ago and which now is shown
clearly to be the ideal.
Thus in 1872 the challenge was set before us, but what could
we do? We had approximately 5,000 church members in some 230 churches.
One hundred forty-four ministers served the entire denomination. The
30-page testimony articles sparked action. At the General Conference
session held three months later resolutions were passed calling for a
Seventh-day Adventist educational society and the establishment of a
denominational school. Thus Battle Creek College was born. Choosing a
site and finding men who could implement an educational program in
keeping with the counsel that had just come to us were early challenges.
In choosing a site for the school, we made our first misstep.
Although the testimony counsel called for a rural location with
opportunities for industry and agriculture and James and Ellen White had
sought out sites within the vicinity of Battle Creek that might qualify,
the final decision, made in their absence, was to locate in Battle Creek
on seven acres across the street from the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
So at the outset we shackled our wrists and in our first
attempt could never meet the ideal set before us in the call for a
school. Nonetheless, Ellen White spoke at the dedication, called for
strong support of the school, urged Adventist young people to come and
secure the education they needed. She stood by the enterprise, crippled
as it was from the beginning.
Then there was the matter of curriculum. A hundred years ago
fine lines were not drawn as they are today between the elementary
school, the academy, and the college.
As to the personnel, 42-year-old Goodloe Bell, largely on his
own responsibility, had been carrying on educational activities for a
year or two among Adventist young people in Battle Creek. He was a
self-educated man but by every standard a teacher, and he was drawn into
the new institution. Sydney Brownsberger was called to be its acting
head. Twenty-nine years old, Brownsberger had become a Seventh-day
Adventist while he was a student at the University of Michigan, and had
been encouraged by James White to complete his college work because we
had few who would be able to qualify as he would. He taught public
school for three years in Ohio and then was brought to Battle Creek to
head the new school.
Brownsberger the scholar and Bell the practical teacher, with
their associates, endeavored to form a college program acceptable in
educational circles and harmonious with the counsels God had given.
There were some compromises. There were many problems. But even though
there were shortcomings, God blessed the work. Ellen White was often to
address the students when she was in Battle Creek and she ever held
before them the high standards of the educational program in which they
were engaged. One such statement presented by her in December, 1879,
reads:
“God designs that the
college at Battle Creek shall reach a higher standard of intellectual
and moral culture than any other institution of the kind in our land.
The youth should be taught the importance of cultivating their physical,
mental, and moral powers, that they may not only reach the highest
attainments in science, but, through a knowledge of God, may be educated
to glorify Him; that they may develop symmetrical characters, and thus
be fully prepared for usefulness in this world and obtain a moral
fitness for the immortal life”—Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 425.
Then she comments:
“I wish I could find
language to express the importance of our college. All should feel that
it is one of God’s instrumentalities to make Himself known to man”—Ibid.
Ellen White was also
given more light dealing with the details of the school program and
administration, which she published in the 90-page section of
Testimonies, volume 6, entitled “Education.”
It was during those days too, that attention was turned to primary
schools, or what we call church schools. As Ellen White on April 28,
1897, gave the opening address at the new Avondale school she stressed
the point that smaller children should not be neglected. She told of how
for years God had been calling her attention to the importance of church
schools. She told of how Adventist children attending public schools
received ideas opposed to truth and associated with children whose
influence was not good. She went on to say, “In localities where there
is a church, schools should be established if there are no more than six
children to attend” (ibid., p. 199).
That year in America twelve church schools were started, and more were
added the next year. Battle Creek College turned its attention to
training elementary teachers. By 1900 there were 220 elementary schools
with 5,000 students.
At the General Conference session of 1901 Ellen White called for moving
Battle Creek College to a rural location. The practicality of a college
located on a farm had been demonstrated in Australia. Our brethren in
America were ready to respond. The day of her appeal the decision was
made to move Battle Creek College to a country location. Berrien Springs
was soon chosen.
Before leaving Australia, Ellen White began work on the book
Education, and the work continued at Elmshaven. In 1902 this volume,
prepared for the world as well as the church, was ready.
Her counsel was sought in moving the Healdsburg school to Angwin,
California, in 1909 to a site with 1,000 acres of land, a farm, and a
bountiful spring of water. Several times in the next three years she
addressed the students. It was during these days that the counsels of a
more particular nature relating to schoolwork of Adventists were brought
together and published as Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students.
During the closing months of her life, while confined by a broken hip to
a wheel chair or her bed, Ellen White was cheered as her callers at
times reminded her of the young people in our schools preparing to
engage in finishing the work she had helped to begin.
“With such an army
of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the
message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried
to the whole world”—Education, p. 271. |
