30
Fundamentals of Christian Education
been agricultural and manufacturing establishments connected with
our schools, and had competent teachers been employed to educate the
youth in the different branches of study and labor, devoting a portion
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of each day to mental improvement, and a portion to physical labor,
there would now be a more elevated class of youth to come upon the
stage of action to have influence in molding society. Many of the
youth who would graduate at such institutions would come forth with
stability of character. They would have perseverance, fortitude, and
courage to surmount obstacles, and such principles that they would
not be swayed by a wrong influence, however popular. There should
have been experienced teachers to give lessons to young ladies in
the cooking department. Young girls should have been instructed to
manufacture wearing apparel, 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 are very many girls who have married and have families,
who have but little practical knowledge of the duties devolving upon
a wife and mother. They can read, and play upon an instrument of
music; but they cannot cook. They cannot make good bread, which is
very essential to the health of the family. They cannot cut and make
garments, for they never learned how. They considered these things
unessential, and in their married life they are as dependent upon some
one to do these things for them as are their own little children. It is
this inexcusable ignorance in regard to the most needful duties of life
which makes very many unhappy families.
The impression that work is degrading to fashionable life has laid
thousands in the grave who might have lived. Those who perform only
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manual labor, frequently work to excess without giving themselves
periods of rest; while the intellectual class overwork the brain, and
suffer for want of the healthful vigor that physical labor gives. If the
intellectual would to some extent share the burden of the laboring class,
and thus strengthen the muscles, the laboring class might do less, and