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Intermediate Schools
173
“You are just beginning your work. Not all your ideas are posi-
tively correct. Not all your methods are wise. It is not possible that
your work at its beginning will be perfect. But as you advance, you
will learn how to use to better advantage the knowledge that you are
gaining. In order to do their work in harmony with the Lord’s will,
teachers must keep their minds open to receive instruction from the
Great Teacher.”
Los Angeles, California,
September 18, 1902
* * * * *
You will certainly make a serious mistake if you undertake, with
a few students and a few teachers, to do the advanced work that is
carried forward with so much difficulty and expense in our larger
schools. It will be better for your students and for the school, for
those who require the advanced studies, to go to the college, and
thus leave your faculty free to devote their best energies to doing
thorough work in teaching the common branches.
What is it that will make our schools a power? It is not the size
of the buildings; it is not the number of advanced studies taught. It
is the faithful work done by teachers and students, as they begin at
the lower rounds of the ladder progress and climb diligently round
by round.
Secure a strong man to stand as principal of your school, a man
whose physical strength will support him in doing thorough work as
a disciplinarian; a man who is qualified to train the students in habits
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of order, neatness, and industry. Do thorough work in whatever you
undertake. If you are faithful in teaching the common branches,
many of your students could go directly into the work as canvassers,
colporteurs, and evangelists. We need not feel that all workers must
have an advanced education.
* * * * *
The youth in all our institutions are to be molded and fashioned
and disciplined for God; and in this work the Lord’s mercy and love
and tenderness are ever to be revealed. This is not to degenerate into