Teaching Useful Trades
273
Gardens, workshops, and treatment rooms should be provided, and the
work in every line should be under the direction of skilled instructors.
The work should have a definite aim and should be thorough.
While every person needs some knowledge of different handicrafts, it
is indispensable that he become proficient in at least one. Every youth,
on leaving school, should have acquired a knowledge of some trade or
occupation by which, if need be, he may earn a livelihood
A Training of Double Value—There should have been connected
with the schools establishments for carrying on various branches of
labor, that the students might have employment and the necessary
exercise out of school hours.... Then a practical knowledge of business
[358]
could have been obtained while their literary education was being
gained
Industrial Knowledge Is of More Value Than Scientific—
There should have been experienced teachers to give lessons to young
ladies in the cooking department. Young girls should have been in-
structed to cut, make, and mend garments, and thus become educated
for the practical duties of life.
For young men, there should be establishments where they could
learn different trades, which would bring into exercise their muscles
as well as their mental powers. If the youth can have but a one-sided
education, which is of the greater consequence—a knowledge of the
sciences, with all the disadvantages to health and life, or a knowledge
of labor for practical life? We unhesitatingly answer, The latter. If one
must be neglected, let it be the study of books
There may be those who have had wrong training and those who
have wrong ideas in regard to the training of children. These children
and youth want the very best training, and you must bring the physical
labor right in with the mental—the two should go together
Jesus Was an Example of Contented Industry—It requires
much more grace and stern discipline of character to work for God
in the capacity of mechanic, merchant, lawyer, or farmer, carrying
the precepts of Christianity into the ordinary business of life, than to
labor as an acknowledged missionary in the open field, where one’s
8
Education, 218
.
9
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 83, 84
.
10
Testimonies For The Church 3:156
.
11
Manuscript 19, 1887
.