THE beginnings of our educational work were set forth somewhat fully in a previous chapter. It is gratifying to be able to say here that the fundamental principles that were clearly enunciated when our first college was brought into being in 1874, are still recognized. While the work has grown rapidly, and has taken on proportions little dreamed of by the founders, the reform ideas that gave rise to our first humble efforts to educate our own children, are still precious in the eyes of parents and fruitful among our young people. Adventist schools are founded and carried on for the purpose of giving Adventist young people such a fitting up for life as will enable them to act worthily their part in this world, and be ready for higher service in that better world beyond.

How far our schools are successful in carrying out these ideals must be judged from the records. Out of sixty-five college graduates that came from one of our colleges in 1921,

1 In writing this chapter, the author has drawn freely from the reports of the edu cational secretaries given at the General Conferences of 1918 and 1922. In some cases the language of the reports has been used with but slight modification.

fifty-two were in our own work a year later, or still in school, or making Christian homes. In another college, all except six of the graduates in three years went into our work, or were taking special courses intended to fit them for better serv

FOREIGN MISSIONS CLASS, UNION COLLEGE, NEBRASKA ice. These examples are typical. They are taken from our American colleges; but the schools in Europe and Asia and Africa and South America are not one whit behind our American institutions in this matter of giving their young people such a training as will fit them to take an active part in the great work of giving the gospel to the world.

In Africa, in India, and in the Far East, and also in South America, the Christian school is our principal evangelizing fac

tor. In Africa, out of seventeen organized conferences and missions, fourteen are operated essentially on a school basis. At Malamulo, in our Nyasaland Mission territory, the outschools number more than fifty, and there are literally thousands of young men and women in training. In South America, the Indian mission schools enroll some 2,500 students yearly, and there have been as many as 1,000 baptisms in one year.

While the evangelizing character of our schools here in the homeland may not be quite so outstanding, yet it is, nevertheless, a large factor. Statistics show that of the young people who are educated in our own educational institutions, a very large proportion continue true to the principles that are dear to us, while of those whose training is received in institutions not of our planting, the large majority go the other way. The educational work is a definite part of the work of this denomination. Adventist schools were born of a spiritual necessity, to serve the needs of a spiritual movement.

There are certain fundamental characteristics that have come to be associated with Seventh-day Adventist schools. They may be briefly summed up as follows:

The Bible is faithfully taught in all the years of school life. The teaching in all classrooms is related to the fundamental principles taught in the Bible, which is the source of spiritual truth. Those studies are emphasized which contribute most directly to the spiritual objectives that led to the founding of our schools. Manual labor is honored as having a definite place in an all-round preparation for life. The cultivation of correct physical habits is emphasized. Well-planned missionary activities form a large factor in the school program.

It has been the policy of the Educational Department to emphasize those phases of school work which best lend themselves to the needs of the denomination, at the same time endeavoring to maintain balance and all-round efficiency. When the church school work was new and the support of the teachers was precarious, it was, at times, difficult, if not impossible, to maintain those high intellectual standards that are necessary to the fullest success; but as time has gone on and the supply of well-trained teachers has become more nearly adequate to the demand, the efficiency of the church schools has been greatly increased.

The intermediate schools, academies, and colleges have been passing through a similar experience. While holding strongly to their denominational features, they have gradually strengthened their courses from the intellectual standpoint, at the same

time improving their facilities and equipment. The various educational conventions held under the auspices of the Educational Department have been a strong factor in raising the efficiency of these schools.

At the convention held in College View in the summer of 1906, certain general plans were adopted which have since been followed. A course of sixteen years, extending from the beginning year of the primary grades to the end of the fourth year of the college course, was then decided upon, and the work in the grammar grades and also in the four years of the preparatory or academic course, was made to correspond in a general way with the work given in the same years in the public high schools.

The convention held in Berrien Springs in the summer of 1910 marked the organization of sections representing the various departments with a view to the working out of syllabi covering the first twelve years. Important decisions were also made at this meeting with reference to approved textbooks. The educational council held at our college near St. Helena, Calif., in the summer of 1915, which was followed by conventions conducted in connection with other important colleges in the country, was successful in establishing more definite standards of education, and increased the efficiency of the schools and colleges by bringing about oneness of aim and methods.

The convention held at Colorado Springs, Colo., in the summer of 1922, was the largest and most representative gathering of the kind ever held by Seventh-day Adventists. It was the first real world convention in which the educational institutions of countries outside the United States were fairly well represented.

At this convention much earnest work was done in the direction of maintaining the distinctive ideals that called forth the establishment of Seventh-day Adventist schools, and of resisting worldly influences and policies that would neutralize our efforts to educate our young people for effective service in the work of the denomination. Emphasis was placed on the industrial features of our educational work, not only as a means of enabling students to work their way through school, but also as a valuable part of development in character and in physical skill.

The spiritual principles underlying the training of our young people received much attention. It was encouraging to note the perfect unanimity in such matters of the large delegation made up of educators from all parts of the world field.