Chapter 7—“Taught of God”

“Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the pursual of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.” ^{48Ellen G. White, Education, 13.}TSAL 59.1

These are the opening words in Ellen G. White’s book Education, a book at once comprehensive and compact, penetrating to the heart of pedagogical truth and setting forth the philosophy and the science of a system most ancient, most neglected, and most vital to complete education. The clarity and wisdom of its teachings are matched by the beauty of its diction. It is recognized as a classic in quarters far beyond the immediate circle of Mrs. White’s ministry. In a certain country of Europe a professor in a noted university was so fascinated by its teachings, and so unprincipled, as to translate it into his native tongue and publish it under his own name as author. Wherever the English language is spoken, and in several cognate languages into which the book has been translated and legitimately published, it is admitted to be not only a fresh approach to the subject but a sane and compelling presentation of the greatest values in education.TSAL 59.2

But this book, published in 1903, though a digest of her educational ideas, is neither the most voluminous nor the first. Very early in her career she presented for the benefit of the infant church and of all who would listen a blueprint of education which is the embryonic pattern of what she later expanded and illuminated in several books and sections of books. In 1872 she published this article or testimony, “Proper Education.” ^{49Testimonies for the Church 3:131 ff.} In it she outlined the range of education as beginning in the home with the child’s earliest consciousness, prescribing the nature and substance of preschool training, and continuing through the years of school and beyond, so long as life lasts. This was envisaging education as life experience. Moreover, she dealt with the faults and deficiencies of current education, and offered correction by methods and subject matter, foreshadowing and transcending the advances which have since been made in pedagogical science.TSAL 60.1

Parents being the first teachers, she declared they should be trained for the role, and she presented in detail the fields of knowledge and skills in which they should be prepared to lead their children. The home lays the foundation of every individual’s education, and unless it is rightly and worthily done, the superstructure provided by the school is ill-formed and unsafe. This vital feature of her system has never yet been adequately implemented, either in the church or in the world; it remained a chief burden upon her mind throughout her life, and only the year before her death she declared, “This is the most important work before us as a people, and we have not begun to touch it with the tips of our fingers.”TSAL 60.2

Her vision of education was broad and deep. What are its salient features? A few pages are not enough in which to set forth her philosophy and system; the reader is invited to study for himself, beginning with the book above mentioned, and observing the list of auxiliary works in the footnote. ^{50The principal works upon education by Ellen G. White: Education, Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students; Fundamentals of Christian Education; The Ministry of Healing; Testimonies for the Church, Vol. VI, see. “Education.”} But since some analysis will naturally be expected, the following synopsis is offered:TSAL 61.1

1. Incentive, motivation. As opposed to the world’s most common and most powerful motive, competition, rivalry, there is laid down as of primary importance the divine incentive of love. Not self-aggrandizement, either of wealth, learning, or prestige, but instead unselfish service in the spirit and power of Christ, is inculcated in home, school, profession, and business. This principle is so vital that its employment or its neglect determines the character of the education, whether it is to be Christian or profane.TSAL 61.2

2. Environment. God set the model in the Garden. A country environment for the school, whether home, elementary, or advanced, is the ideal. Not only does it calm and invigorate the mind, but it spreads before the student the handwriting of God, from which all sciences are derived, and it invites him to test its curriculum with every power of his being—physical, mental, and spiritual.TSAL 61.3

3. Goal. No limited objective, such as a fitting for a temporal trade, business, or profession, is held before the student. Worthy as such an aim may be, it is but the acquiring of a tool to accomplish an infinitely greater work—service in saving, uplifting, and blessing men and preparing them for the life that measures with eternity. “It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world, and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.”TSAL 61.4

4. Organization. The structure of Christian education is an integrated system which has God as its center. Every true science that man has discovered has its origin in God, and is but a statement of a portion of His ways. Educators who leave God out of the equation are bound to reach wrong conclusions and develop false systems. Therefore only those teachers and those schools should be sought that make Christ: the center and active force in all their teaching.TSAL 62.1

5. Content. There are three fundamental books of God, which in order are: Nature, History, and Revelation, the last primarily contained in the Bible. Nature from the first has been God’s book. In infinite degree, hidden or veiled to the dulled mind of man, the created word of God speaks to us the wisdom and love of the heavenly Father. Next, unrolling through the ages, the parchment of history reveals the great design and the meticulous care of the Sovereign of the universe in the affairs of men. And last, the revelation of God through spokesmen selected for their supreme fitness is the substitute for the visible presence and instruction of the Creator in Eden, a substitute made necessary by the entrance of sin.TSAL 62.2

In the home or preschool the foundation of education is laid, in acquaintance with God through all His created works, in the association, duties, and responsibilities of the family, and in those basic skills which fit the capabilities of the child. In the elementary school these fundamental sciences are to be continued and enlarged, and in addition the arts of communication and service are to be learned thoroughly. In the secondary school the developing powers of the adolescent are to be harnessed to the work of life, with such complementary sciences as serve; and young people are to be inducted into the science and the amenities of social life, looking to marriage and united service. In the finishing school, the student’s vision is to be broadened into a consciousness of world interests and values, and the specialization of the chosen occupation is to be imparted, with particular attention to the need of preparation for home life and parenthood. This is “the only education worthy of the name.” ^{51The Ministry of Healing, 444.} Through all the range of education, the graces of God, in sympathy, understanding, and service, are constantly to be taught by precept and experience. No matter how great the learning, how brilliant the accomplishments, they are of value only as they are consecrated to the service of Christ and humanity.TSAL 62.3

6. The teachers. First of all come the parents; after them the professional teachers on various levels and in different directions; finally and comprehensively, every person and every circumstance that touches and affects the life of the individual. Human teachers must be the disciples of God, in character Christlike, in knowledge proficient and apt to teach, above all filled with the love of God toward children, youth, and elders. They must be like the Master: “What He taught He lived. ‘I have given you an example,’ He said to His disciples, ‘that ye should do as I have done.’ ‘I have kept my Father’s commandments.’ ... Thus in His life, Christ’s words had perfect illustration and support. And more than this; what He taught, He was. His words were the expression, not only of His own life experience, but of His own character. Not only did He teach the truth, but He was the truth. It was this that gave His teaching power.” ^{52Education, 78, 79.}TSAL 63.1

7. Life is a school. Education is not confined to institutions and curriculums. The mind open to heavenly impressions will learn from every experience; and to the Christian is presented a prospect so glorious, so entrancing, so filled with opportunity, appreciation, and progress, that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” ^{531 Corinthians 2:9.}TSAL 64.1

This was the experience, from girlhood to womanhood, of her who wrote: “The life on earth is the beginning of the life in heaven; education on earth is an initiation into the principles of heaven; the lifework here is a training for the lifework there. What we now are ... is the sure foreshadowing of what we shall be.” ^{54Education, 307.}TSAL 64.2

Mrs. White’s educational principles and plans were not mere mouthings, words cast to the winds of sound and dispersion. She not only spoke, she wrought. She was active in the location and equipment of schools, in the formation of curriculums, in the shaping of policies, in the establishment of social standards, in the imparting of spiritual tone. The system of Seventh-day Adventist schools, now numbering approximately five thousand, on elementary, secondary, collegiate, postgraduate, and professional levels, is a monument to her. If in the struggle to create and evolve a distinctive system of education the end result has not been perfection, through close adherence to the blueprint, it can be said at least that there has been great progress. There never was a prophet of God, in all the history of His people, who saw perfect acceptance and realization of his teachings; yet who will say that Moses or Elijah or Isaiah left no impression upon the consciousness, the history, and the institutions of the church? Acknowledging the dimness of vision, the perversity of tradition and habit, the tendency to drift with the tide, to be “like the nations round about us,” of many who have professed allegiance to the Spirit of prophecy, there is nevertheless tribute to be paid to the true, strong souls who have stood up against the trend and have built with intelligence and devotion a worthy temple of divine knowledge.TSAL 64.3

Mrs. White was identified with every development, every forward movement of the educational program in the church of which she was a founder. She was instrumental in the establishment of the first school, Battle Creek College, though it went against her earnest counsel by locating in the suburbs of a city rather than upon ample lands; twenty-seven years later she was the main force in removing it to a country location. In the years spent in Australia she carved out of the wilderness a school of the prophets, and remaining upon its virgin campus, she gave close attention and affectionate care to the formation of a collegiate institution which was designed to be the model for all Adventist institutions of higher learning. She mapped out the course and by her urgings established the system of elementary and secondary schools which, belatedly, put an underpinning to the college education of the church. The most grievous omission in implementing her blueprint is the foundation work of the home school and the training of its teachers, the parents. This omission she was not in her lifetime permitted to see remedied, though it lay heavy upon her heart to the last; but the great body of her instruction upon home education is pregnant with life, and elements in the church are at work which shall yet effectuate this basic reform and advance.TSAL 65.1

That such an apostle of true education should be evolved from a child unschooled, frail, timid, self-effacing, is a miracle of divine grace and guidance. She was not the product of school, college, or university, yet she molded the education of childhood, youth, and maturity with bold strokes and infinite art because she saw and adhered to the pattern God set in the beginning. And she brought forth to the educational world a form of service, beauty, and grandeur unapproached by any other scholastic system since the world began, save for her model, the Eden school. She was ever a student, widely read and deeply reflective, and she did not scorn the help of wise men of the past or the present; but her eyes were upon her Master, and in supreme degree she was taught of God.TSAL 66.1