Part 18

[Sidenote: Secular methods and religious truths]

This is indeed the exaltation of reason. There is, in such a system, no room whatever for faith. W. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, writing of Sunday-schools, attributes their decline to the adoption, by Sunday-school teachers, of the methods employed in the secular schools. A few words from him will suffice. He says: “With the spectacle of the systematic organization of the secular schools and the improvement of methods of teaching before them, the leaders in the church have endeavored to perfect the methods of the religious instruction of youth. They have met the following dangers which lay in their path; namely, first, the danger of adopting methods of instruction in religion which were fit and proper only for secular instruction; second, the selection of religious matter for the course of study which did not lead in a most direct manner toward vital religion, although it would readily take on a pedagogic form.”[178]

In order to show the reason why methods which are perfectly proper in giving secular education are not adapted to religious instruction, Mr. Harris explains: “The secular school gives positive instruction. It teaches mathematics, natural science, history, and language. Knowledge of the facts can be precise and accurate, and a similar knowledge of the principles can be arrived at. The self-activity of the pupil is ... demanded by the teacher of the secular school. The pupil must not take things on authority, but must test and verify.... He must trace out the mathematical demonstrations.... He must learn the method of investigating facts.... The spirit of the secular school therefore comes to be an enlightening one, although not of the highest order.”

The whole tendency of secular education, according to Mr. Harris, is to develop a spirit of investigation and proof. This, he says, is a means of enlightening, but not of the highest order. The highest means of enlightening the mind is by faith. That is God’s method. Christian schools must avoid the secular methods of instruction, adopting in their stead that highest form of enlightening,—faith. That separates Christian schools from secular schools in methods as well as in the subject matter taught.

[Sidenote: Secular methods require material proof]

This secular method of investigation saps the spiritual life, and is responsible for the decline in modern Protestantism. Mr. Harris continues: “Religious education, it is obvious in giving the highest results of thought and life to the young, must cling to the form of authority, and not attempt to borrow the methods of mathematics, science, and history from the secular school. Such borrowing will result only in giving the young people an overweening confidence in the finality of their own immature judgments. They will become conceited and shallow-minded.... Against this danger of sapping or undermining all authority in religion by the introduction of the methods of the secular school which lay stress on the self-activity of the child, the Sunday-school has not been sufficiently protected in the more recent years of its history.”

If the adoption of secular methods of teaching in the Sunday-school, where children are instructed one day only in the week, has so weakened Protestantism, what must be the result when children are daily taught in the public schools by methods which tend always to exalt human reason above faith. It is little wonder that five days’ instruction can not be counteracted by the very best Sabbath instruction even in those schools which have not adopted secular methods in teaching the Bible.

Protestants should learn from this that in starting Christian schools the methods followed in the secular schools can not be adopted. Here is the stumbling-block over which many are apt to fall. Religious instruction demands methods of teaching which will develop faith.

[Sidenote: Religion in schools of Comenius]

I can not refrain from recurring to the teachings of Comenius, since they so strongly opposed the methods of education followed by those who, to-day, claim to be his disciples. James H. Blodgett says: “Comenius, anticipating more modern leaders in the philosophy and the art of education, prepared an outline of the Pansophic School about 1650, in which the work of a complete education was divided for seven classes. The general school was to spend the first hour of the morning in hymns, Bible reading, and prayers.”[179] “Class III, the Atrial,” we are told by the same writer, “was to have the inscription, ‘Let no one enter who can not speak.’ In this class the boys should begin to read the Bible.... The history of this class is the famous deeds of the Biblical narrative.” Of Class IV we read: “A special collection of hymns and psalms must be arranged for this class; also an epitome of the New Testament, which should comprise a continuous life of Christ and His apostles, compiled from the four Gospels.... The accessory study is Greek.... It is comparatively easy to learn to read the New Testament [in Greek], and this is the chief utility of the study.” Bible study formed an important feature of the work of Class V, for concerning its work we read: “A Bible Manual, also, called the Gate of the Sanctuary, is to be placed in the pupils’ hands. This is to contain the whole of Scripture history in the words of the Bible, but so digested that it may be read in one year.”

Class VII was theological; and the reader will readily note the difference between the course of instruction marked out for it by Comenius, and that suggested by Professor Hoffman for theological students in the twentieth century. “Inscription over the door: ‘Let no one enter who is irreligious.’ ... The class book should be a work dealing with the last stage of wisdom on earth, that is to say, the communion of souls with God. Universal history should be studied, and in particular the history of the church for whose sake the world exists.... The future minister must learn how to address a congregation, and should be taught the laws of sacred oratory.”

Let it be remembered that Comenius was a bishop of the Moravian Brethren, a denomination noted for its extensive missionary work, its missions dotting the earth. Their activity in church work can readily be accounted for by their system of education. Any Protestant church which wishes to survive, and desires the spread of its principles, must see that its children are educated spiritually as well as mentally and physically.

[Sidenote: Christian education emphasizes practical]

We are now brought to consider another very important phase of education,—the relation of mental to physical training. False systems have ever exalted the former to the neglect of the latter. Christ combined the two, and educators from the seventeenth century on have presented correct views on the subject.

Locke begins his “Thoughts on Education” with these words: “A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.” “The attainment of this happy condition,” observes Painter, “is the end of education.... In his [Locke’s] mind, the function of education was to form noble men well equipped for the duties of practical life.”[180]

A PURE SOUL IN A SOUND BODY SHOULD PRECEDE STUDY OF MERE FACTS. Locke’s ideas of education are thus described by Quick: “His aim was to give a boy a robust mind in a robust body. His body was to endure hardness, his reason was to teach him self-denial. But this result was to be brought about by leading, not driving him. He was to be trained, not for the university, but for the world. Good principles, good manners, and discretion were to be cared for first of all; intelligence and intellectual activity next; and actual knowledge last of all.... The prevalent drill in the grammar of the classical languages was to be abandoned, and the mother-tongue was to be carefully studied.... In everything the part the pupil was to play in life was steadily to be kept in view.”

And yet to-day, when the editor of one of our magazines proposed that our university students discuss the question, “What order of studies is best suited to fit the average man for his duties in the world of to-day?” or, “What is the relative importance of the various branches of education in fitting a man to secure his own happiness and rendering him a useful citizen and neighbor?” the president of Yale University replied: “Some of the men hesitate to give the official sanction of the university to a debate on short notice on questions of which most of the contestants know very little. Why should not our university students know and choose the practical studies? If they do not know them, why not?”[181]

[Sidenote: Manual training and mathematics]

There are educators, however, who are willing to break away from the conservatism of the past, and who advocate a change of methods in the elementary schools. Such are the thoughts presented by the superintendent of public instruction in the State of Michigan, in a manual issued in May, 1900. There is sound sense in the following paragraphs, which will appeal to all who consider the needs of a child’s mind. He says:—

“It is the duty of the schools to produce parallel growths of all the faculties, leaving the pupil free to swing out into the realm of choice with no distorted tastes or shortened powers. The training of the hand ministers to this parallel development.

“We remember when the sciences were taught wholly from the text. Later, the principles of Pestalozzi entered the class room, and we stood open-eyed and open-minded, as the truths of science were demonstrated with the proper apparatus in the hands of the teacher. But to-day Froebel’s idea has taken possession, and the pupil performs the experiment. It is his hand that creates the conditions; it is his eye that watches the changes, his hand that notes them. Science teaching has thus adopted the manual training idea; and such are the results that Latin, Greek, and mathematics are no longer considered as the only intellective subjects for college training.

“What the manual training idea has done for science teaching, it will do for mathematics and other kindred subjects. The dissatisfaction among professional and business men regarding the teaching of practical things in our schools is wide-spread. This is especially true regarding arithmetic, penmanship, spelling, and language. Anyone who doubts this needs but to enter the business places of his own city and make inquiry. There is a well-grounded feeling that in the mastery of arithmetic is a discipline closely allied to that needed in the activities of life; and when a father discovers that his child of sixteen or seventeen years has no idea of practical business questions and little skill in analytical processes, he justly charges the school with inefficiency. The difficulty, however, is that the pupil has had no opportunity to sense arithmetic. To him measurements and values are indefinite ideas. He commits facts to memory, and blindly tries to work out problems. If his memory and imagination are good, he stands well, and receives a high mark. But still the work is vague; it does not touch his life or experience; it has no meaning. Put that pupil into a manual-training school,—the boy in the shop, the girl in the kitchen [practical experience has demonstrated that the girl has a place in the shop also],—and at once mathematical facts become distinct ideas.

“Step into the shop of a manual-training school [or step into the well-ordered kitchen], and observe the boy with a project before him. What are the steps through which his mind must bring him to the final perfection of the work.

“First, he must give the project careful study.

“Second, he must design it and make a drawing of it. This at once puts mathematics into his hand as well as his head. He must use square, compass, try-square, and pencil. Exact measurements must be made, divisions and subdivisions calculated, lines carefully drawn.

“Third, he must select material of proper dimensions and fiber, and then must reflect how to apply it to the draught made so that there is no waste.

“Fourth, he must plane and saw to the line, correct and fit; in short, must create the project that has had existence in his mind and upon paper only. Then it is that his arithmetic begins to throb with life, his judgment to command, and his ethical sense to unfold.”

This is the testimony of teachers who have made a practical application of arithmetic and geometry in the carpenter shop. Children twelve and fourteen years of age solve problems in proportion, in square root, in measurements, and in denominate numbers, which baffle the skill of the ordinary high-school graduate. This, too, is a part of Christian education. Doubtless Christ himself gained most of his mathematical knowledge at the carpenter’s bench.

“The most practical education,” says Hiram Corson “(but this, so-considered, pre-eminently practical age does not seem to know it), is the education of the spiritual man; for it is this, and not the education of the intellectual man, which is, must be (or Christianity has made a great mistake), the basis of individual character, and to individual character ... humanity owes its sustainment.” The proper combination, then, of religious training and practical hand work in teaching mathematics or language will develop stability of character, and this is the end and aim of Christian education.

[Sidenote: Carpentry not the only practical educator]

There are, however, in this twentieth century, various other ways of rendering education practical; and since these ways are a factor in the Christian training of youth, they should receive attention. God made no mistake when he gave to Adam the work of tilling the soil. Since the days of Eden, those men who have shunned the cities, and chosen instead to dwell in rural districts, have, as a rule, come closest to the heart of the Creator. The true way to study the sciences is to come in touch with Nature.

[Sidenote: Christ chose the country]

For this, also, we have the example of Christ. “In training His disciples, Jesus chose to withdraw from the confusion of the city, to the quiet of the fields and hills, as more in harmony with the lessons of self-abnegation He desired to teach them. And during His ministry He loved to gather the people about Him under the blue heavens, on some grassy hillside, or on the beach beside the lake. Here, surrounded by the works of His own creation, He could turn the thoughts of His hearers from the artificial to the natural. In the growth and development of nature were revealed the principles of His kingdom. As men should lift up their eyes to the hills of God, and behold the wonderful works of His hands, they could learn the precious lessons of divine truth. Christ’s teaching would be repeated to them in the things of nature.... The things of nature take up the parables of our Lord, and repeat His counsels.”

The teacher who has a desire to ennoble the character of his pupils will seek a place where Nature in her silent language gives lessons which no human tongue can utter. Parents who desire the best good of their sons and daughters, will, when the light of Christian education dawns upon their minds, hasten into the country, that the youthful minds over which they are keeping guard may be influenced by the natural rather than by the artificial.

[Sidenote: Value of the farm in education]

It is not surprising that the best educators who have opened their minds to truth have taught that cultivation of the soil, with the training of the eye and the hand in the shop, should accompany mental discipline. Prof. James R. Buchanan, says: “Blessed is the _farmer’s boy_.... The industrial feature, not limited to handicraft, but embracing all forms of useful exertion, _is the essential basis of a true education_; as it insures, if rightly conducted, a worthy character, a healthy constitution, a solid intellect, and a capacity for practical success; for it gives vigor to the entire brain, and a far better invigorating mental discipline than can ever be obtained from text-books. The boy who has constructed a wagon, or a bureau, or _raised a small crop_, as instructed, has more independence of mind and originality than the one who has only studied text-books. The boys of Lancaster, Ohio, who gave half their time to useful industry, made better progress in school studies than the common school pupils who had their whole time for study, and at the same time presented a model of conduct in all respects unequaled in any non-working school in this country.”[182]

Close adherence to the text-book is the papal method of teaching, and is a necessary accompaniment of prescribed courses, while the humanistic tendency is well developed. Christian schools, because of the truths they advocate, are forced to depart from the established order in the educational world, and their education is rendered practical by joining _the farm and the school_.

This method of teaching is already followed in some places, showing that that system so often designated Christian education is not a thing of recent birth, neither is it the product of some man’s mind. Its principles have been made known from time to time, and these principles have been followed more or less carefully in all periods of the world’s history.

[Sidenote: School Gardens of Modern Europe]

That the combining of soil-cultivation and study is a practical thing, and not a mere theory, is attested by the words of United States Consul-General John Karel, who reports as follows concerning “School Gardens in Russia:” “In a good many countries of western Europe, especially in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and partly in Sweden, the public village schools have sections of land allotted to them, which are either devoted to the use of the teachers, who take the profits therefrom, or serve for the establishment of school gardens. School gardens in western Europe bear, in a certain measure, a scientific character. Children are made to carry out in them practically what they learn theoretically.

[Sidenote: School gardens in Russia]

“In Russia ... it was well known that the land owners and peasants were in great need of instruction in farming; consequently schools of all kinds were established by the ministry of agriculture throughout the country.... For the development of the gardening industry, schools were founded first in Penza, in Bessarabia, ... and in 1869 a school of gardening and viticulture was found at Nikitsk. The work of the Nikitsk school was divided as follows: During the winter semester there were three hours of lessons per day and four and one-half hours of practical study in the garden, vineyard, and in the cellar. During the summer semester the lessons in class lasted only one hour, or sometimes two hours, but the practical studies occupied daily six or even eight hours.”[183]

Teachers in these schools are enabled to support themselves at least partially from the sale of fruits, berries, vegetables, honey, etc., but this was not the chief inducement in starting school gardens. The writer last quoted continues: “The desire to add something to the low salaries of the village school teachers, and, on the other hand, to acquaint as much as possible, not only children, but also grown-up people, with gardening, sericulture, and apiculture, has caused an increase during the last ten years, in the number of school gardens, apiaries, and silkworm hatcheries. In 1892 there were about two thousand school gardens in Russia. At the present time [1897] there are 7,521, with 532 apiaries, and 372 silkworm hatcheries.”

Mr. Mescherski, who is chief of one of the departments of agriculture, and one of the principal advocates of school gardens in Russia, has stated the object of school gardens and their significance as follows: “School gardens ... are of importance on the following grounds. (1) Hygienic, as being a place for physical labor in the open air, so necessary for the teacher and pupils.... (2) Scientific educational, as acquainting children with the life of useful plants, developing their minds by the study of nature, and promoting in the rising generation a regard for labor and a more moral and æsthetic sentiment concerning trees. (3) General economical ... and (4) personal economical,” which refers to the support of the teacher.

[Sidenote: Christians should encourage rural life]

If the Russian government, on the liberation of its serfs and its crown peasants, found it so greatly to its advantage to establish school gardens, of what lasting benefit would they be to Christians! Protestants, instead of crowding into the cities where the laboring man is subject to the trades unions, trusts, and monopolies, should seek for themselves a few acres of land, and should see that schools are established for the education of their children where the mechanical text-book grind is replaced by the study of God’s will as revealed in His Word and works. Nature studies thus conducted, instead of developing doubt, will strengthen the faith of the pupil, and the students from such schools will be fitted for citizenship not only in the governments of earth but in the Kingdom of God. This also is a part of the system of instruction known as Christian education.

XVII

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION (Continued)

[Sidenote: Education defined by Pestalozzi]

The nineteenth century has not been lacking in minds which have grasped, at least in part, the principles of Christian education. Thus writes Pestalozzi: “Sound education stands before me symbolized by a tree planted near fertilizing waters.... In the newborn child are hidden those faculties which are to unfold during life. The individual and separate organs of his being form themselves gradually into an harmonic whole, and _build up humanity in the image of God_.”[184]

With this agrees Milton’s definition of education. “The end, then, of learning,” he says, “is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, _which being united to the heavenly grace of faith_, makes up the highest perfection.” This is similar to the definition given by the author of “Christian Education,” that “the true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul.”

Christian education, then, is a spiritual education. In this sense the words of Pestalozzi, at the burial of his wife, are pathetic but weighty with significance. Turning to the coffin, he said tenderly: “We were shunned and despised by all; sickness and poverty bowed us down; and we ate dry bread with tears. What was it in those days of severe trial gave you and me strength to persevere and not lose hope?” Laying a copy of God’s Word on her breast, he continued: “From this source you and I drew courage and strength and peace.”[185]

Advocates of Christian education may to-day encounter the same sort of rebuff from the world; but God’s Word stands as guide, expressing the principles to be followed by the educator.

[Sidenote: The Bible as an educator]