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Christian Education
mark of humility to be ignorant and uncultivated. Such persons are
deceived as to what constitutes true humility and Christian meekness.—
“Testimony,” No. 30.
Practical Discipline.—Among the youth will be found great di-
versity of character and education. Some have lived in an element
of arbitrary restraint and harshness, which has developed in them a
spirit of obstinacy and defiance. Others have been household pets,
allowed by overfond parents to follow their own inclinations. Every
defect has been excused, until their character is deformed. To deal
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successfully with these different minds, the teacher needs to exercise
great tact and delicacy in management, as well as firmness in govern-
ment. 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. If the
parents would stand pledged to sustain the authority of the teacher,
much insubordination, vice, and profligacy would be prevented. Par-
ents 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 estab-
lished. 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 sim-
plicity of dress and manners, industry, sobriety, and economy. Many
students are extravagant in spending 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 conse-
quence 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 con-
sideration, to seek counsel from the word of God, and then 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
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