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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
Industrial Work
In establishing our schools out of the cities, we shall give the
students an opportunity to train the muscles to work as well as the
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brain to think. Students should be taught how to plant, how to gather
the harvest, how to build, how to become acceptable missionary
workers in practical lines. By their knowledge of useful industries
they will often be enabled to break down prejudice; often they will be
able to make themselves so useful that the truth will be recommended
by the knowledge they possess.
In our school in Australia we educated the youth along these
lines, showing them that in order to have an education that is com-
plete, they must divide their time between the gaining of book knowl-
edge and the securing of a knowledge of practical work. Part of each
day was spent in manual labor. Thus the students learned how to
clear the land, to cultivate the soil, and to build houses; and these
lines of work were largely carried on in time that would otherwise
have been spent in playing games and seeking for amusement. The
Lord blessed the students who devoted their hours to learning lessons
of usefulness. To the managers and teachers of that school I was
instructed to say:
“Various industries should be carried on in our schools. The
industrial instruction given should include the keeping of accounts,
carpentry, and all that is comprehended in farming. Preparation
should be made for the teaching of blacksmithing, painting, shoe-
making, and for cooking, baking, washing, mending, typewriting,
and printing. Every power at our command is to be brought into
this training work, that students may go forth well equipped for the
duties of practical life.
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“Students should be given a practical education in agriculture.
This will be of inestimable value to many in their future work. The
training to be obtained in felling trees and in tilling the soil, as well
as in literary lines, is the education that our youth should seek to
obtain. Agriculture will open resources for self-support. Other lines
of work, adapted to different students, may also be carried on. But
the cultivation of the land will bring a special blessing to the workers.
We should so train the youth that they will love to engage in the
cultivation of the soil.