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Foreword
Early in 1903 Ellen G. White published the book
Education
. It
was widely circulated and read with appreciation. For decades, the
fundamental principles clearly unfolded made it the handbook of
tens of thousands of parents and teachers.
Recognizing that nearly one hundred years have passed since
this influential book first appeared, and that a new generation is
now on the scene, the North American Division Department of
Education requested that a special edition be prepared. The present
volume, adapted from
Education
and titled
True Education,
is the
result. Edited to appeal to the modern mind, we believe it will attract
a host of new readers. Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture
quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the
Bible, a modern revision of the King James Version, which Mrs.
White used most often.
Every person must face the practical realities of life—its op-
portunities and responsibilities, its successes and its defeats. How
one meets these experiences, whether becoming master or victim
of circumstances, depends largely on the kind of education one
receives.
Many books on the principles and philosophy of education have
[6]
been published, each one based on a particular core theory as its
paradigm. This volume is singularly different in that it flows out of
a theological principle that the author calls “the central theme of the
Bible” (
p. 75
). That theme is the “redemption plan, the restoration in
the human soul of the image of God” (
ibid.
). In other of her writings,
Ellen White describes this core principle as the Great Controversy
theme.
Thus, the author points out that “the work of education and
the work of redemption are one” (
p. 21
). With this paradigm in
mind, parents and teachers lead students to appreciate that they are
“endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator—individuality,
power to think and to do.” Students who grasp this God-given power
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