Revival Plan

Testimonies 5 pp 89-98 Day 272


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Every defect has been excused, until their character is deformed. To deal successfully with these different minds the teacher needs to exercise great tact and delicacy in management, as well as firmness in government.

Dislike and even contempt for proper regulations will often be manifested. Some will exercise all their ingenuity in evading penalties, while others will display a reckless indifference to the consequences of transgression. All this will call for more patience and greater exertion on the part of those who are entrusted with their education.

One of the greatest difficulties with which teachers have had to contend is the failure on the part of parents to cooperate in administering the discipline of the college. If the parents would stand pledged to sustain the authority of the teacher, much insubordination, vice, and profligacy would be prevented. Parents should require their children to respect and obey rightful authority. They should labor with unremitting care and diligence to instruct, guide, and restrain their children until right habits are firmly established. With such training the youth would be in subjection to the institutions of society and the general restraints of moral obligation.

Both by precept and example the young should be taught simplicity of dress and manners, industry, sobriety, and economy. Many students are extravagant in expending the means furnished them by their parents. They try to show themselves superior to their associates by a lavish use of money for display and self-indulgence. In some institutions of learning this matter has been regarded of so great consequence that the dress of the student is prescribed and his use of money limited by law. But indulgent parents and indulged students will find some way to evade the law. We would resort to no such means. We ask Christian parents to take all these matters under careful, prayerful consideration,

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to seek counsel from the word of God, and then to endeavor to act in accordance with its teachings.

If facilities for manual labor were provided in connection with our school, and students were required to devote a portion of their time to some active employment, it would prove a safeguard against many of the evil influences that prevail in institutions of learning. Manly, useful occupations, substituted for frivolous and corrupting diversions, would give legitimate scope for the exuberance of youthful life and would promote sobriety and stability of character. All possible effort should be made to encourage a desire for moral and physical as well as mental improvement. If girls were taught how to cook, especially how to bake good bread, their education would be of far greater value. A knowledge of useful labor would prevent, to a great extent, that sickly sentimentalism which has been and is still ruining thousands. The exercise of the muscles as well as the brain will encourage taste for the homely duties of practical life.

The present age is one of show and surface work in education. Brother —– possesses naturally a love for system and thoroughness, and these have become habit by lifelong training and discipline. He has been approved of God for this. His labors are of real worth because he will not allow students to be superficial. But in his very first efforts toward the establishment of a school he encountered many obstacles. Had he been less resolute and persevering he would have given up the struggle. Some of the parents neglected to sustain the school, and their children did not respect the teacher because he wore poor clothing. They allowed his appearance to prejudice them against him. This spirit of disrespect was rebuked of the Lord, and the teacher encouraged in his work. But the complaints and unwise reports carried home by the children strengthened the prejudice of the parents. While Brother —– was seeking to inculcate true principles and establish

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