"Proper Education"
by G. H. Akers
The above title may not be all that
original. Neither was it in 1872 when
Ellen G. White utilized it to launch her distinguished career as a philosopher
of Christian education. A perusal of
the literature of the times reveals that the expressions "educational
reform" and "proper education" seemed to be favorite buzzwords
in the press, bandied about freely by editors, politicians, and celebrated
speakers on the Chautauqua circuit who found it popular to inveigh against the
impracticality of the classical curriculum.
The entrenched educational establishment of the day, so resistant to
change of any sort, was a special target of writers and speakers.
Clearly, grassroots post-Civil War
America was growing impatient with its schools. Elitist education, reserved for the upper class and essentially
for cosmetic effect, was definitely under siege as backward-oriented,
exhausted, and entirely too static to respond to the needs of the robust new
social order. The times called for a
more appropriate educational product--trained artisans, surveyors, architects,
engineers, technicians, service professionals, business leaders, and
practitioners of every sort. "Can Do" had become the order of the day
and America's colleges and universities were expected to help substantially in
achieving the manifest destiny of an exuberant, expanding young country.
It was in this late nineteenth-century
cultural context, with the Great Conversation moving from coast to coast
regarding the appropriate training of the young, that Ellen White moved in with
her landmark essay "Proper Education." In it she offered her own
prescription for worthy educational goals for society and church and the best
methods for their accomplishment.
Somewhat restrained in her critique of the educational profession of the
day and the application of education to national goals, she focused on the
centrality of moral training, particularly the Plan of Salvation in the work of
education. Or to put it the other way around, the centrality of education in
the work of the Plan of Salvation.
Either way, education had to do with the holistic, restorative
development of the individual in the advancement of the kingdom of God on
earth-a parental, pastoral (as well as professional) assignment for teachers.
The genetic themes "Righteousness
exalted a nation," "It's character that finally counts," and
"Education is for service and the practical duties of life" pervaded
her message to society at large; but it was primarily to the young Adventist
Church, its parents, pastors and teachers, that she directed her inspired
advice about training the young. For
the students themselves she had much counsel on how they might profit from
God's plan of education.
The prophetic quality of
Mrs. White's utterances on education is probably best seen in this 1872 premier
production "Proper Education."
It was here that she introduced the special perspectives that for the
remainder of her writing ministry occupied her thoughts about schooling. In this piece cluster the cardinal concepts
that constitute her contribution to early American educational
discourse--counsels to a young nation and church. Here seems to reside the foundational philosophy, which she
elaborated, reiterated, and applied to evolving Adventist education over the
next four decades. A cursory review of
her subsequent counsels on education reveals that she strayed very little from
the basic thrusts of 1872. It must be
said in all fairness that the macrovision she then brought to education was so
comprehensive that she probably needed the next forty-one years to define and
clarify it.
Ellen White, with many other
voices of the time, called for educational reform. She expressed her critique
of the status quo, but in addition did what true prophets of God have done from
the dawn of time. She joined the
national debate from heaven's point of view, enriching the dialogue with a
cosmic dimension. This aspect of her contribution to the educational thought of
the time illustrates an important aspect of the prophetic role. It does not operate in a vacuum. Ellen had to communicate with her world for
God, against the cultural backdrop of her times, and within the societal
sensitivities and issues on people's minds.
All this was legitimate grist for her mill. It has always been so with
the Lord's anointed through the ages.
As with her prophetic forebears,
Mrs. White gleaned the bits and pieces of her world from wherever they might
prove true and useful. She applied
contemporary illustration and every legitimate bridge of communication to
reflect and interpret the vision of Christian education given her. These building blocks went into the
distinctive edifice of thought she was erecting. The shallow criticism that recognizes a few borrowed or retouched
bricks here or there, and promptly declares the whole piece purloined and
therefore morally flawed, misses the mystery of the divine-human interface in
the prophetic function. Thus prophets
work with utter contemporaneity and relevancy of application. The indisputable fact remains that this
faithful messenger took a wheelbarrow of bricks from around her, a generous
giftload from heaven, and an armful of her own with which she built a brand new
conceptual edifice. The result was a
statement of educational mission and modality that yet stands as a marvel of transcendent
educational philosophy, replete with universal considerations.
Unfortunate it is that several
generations of Adventists have based their model of modern inspiration on the false
notion that this saint of God sat supinely by at Sunnyside in Australia or
Elmshaven in California, waiting for the angel to dictate. Not so; she did her part--her homework. No matter how the vision for Christian
education came to her (even the apostle Paul could not say for sure how he
visited heaven, yet he knew he had been taken there), Ellen White knew that she
had received some strong, more-than-human impressions--that she "saw"
God's plan for something better in education.
We have no evidence that she had some single supernatural encounter,
such as a dream or vision, with respect to eduction.1
The plan apparently unfolded
to her under the Spirit's steady tutelage over the thirty silent years,
1842-72. It awaited the issues and
problems of a ripe time, perhaps for optimum impact. That prime time came in 1872 when she put her pen to paper to
discuss formal education, laying out in thirty incisive pages her reaction to
the educational abuses and fads of the day and offering her version of something
better. As we will attempt to show
later in this discussion, God did indeed provide her with sublime alternatives
to the current conventional wisdom in education. The essay bears the insignia of divine illumination, in terms of
the overarching educational principles it enunciates.
Let us disabuse our minds
then of a long-standing legend regarding Ellen White that says she received her
heavenly instruction direct by supernatural dream/vision transmission
("how else can the extraordinary insights she conveyed be adequately
explained?" goes the rationale).
We now know that Ellen White was probably one of the best read thought
leaders of her day, and that out of the wealth of her reading and reflection
she spoke and wrote, receiving meanwhile the Holy Spirit's special illumination
that indited her words with compelling unction and moral authority--the gift of
prophecy at work in the modern church.
Her frequent admonitions to students and workers--to read and study on
their own and become the sharp instruments in the hand of God that they were
intended to be--were obviously born out of her own experience. We have the witness of the collection in her
personal library of more than eight hundred wellmarked books that attest to the
credibility of her counsel, not to speak of the numerous clippings and
scrapbooks that helped propel her pen.
While it may be oral history
from Battle Creek, or even "EGW folklore," yet it is commonly known
that Mrs. White requested the editorial staff of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald to pass on to her the
no-longer-needed, recent, outdated papers and weeklies to which they subscribed
in the office-publications which kept them abreast of the times as journalists
and which, as her broad range of knowledge and writings attests, she
voraciously absorbed. Our prophetess
was quite well educated. In the
grandest tradition of her era, she was self-educated. When she asserted that wrestling with great matters of duty and
destiny in the Word of God carried with it a Spirit-blessed, mind-stretching
capability without rival, a special potential for making ordinary people
brilliant beyond their kin, she probably had a firsthand knowledge of its
application, even if too modest for personal reference.
Two critical challenges, however, still
confront us with respect to an optimum utilization of the writings of Mrs.
White in Adventist culture and Christian education:
(1) A working hermeneutic. Foundational to her continuing validation as
a credible prophet to this Advent people is the necessity for the church to
develop a viable and generally accepted hermeneutic on her writings. This involves a sound and consistent system
of interpretation in the quest for meaning.
For many this is at present considerably murky and uncertain. This makes advocacy positions built solely
on Ellen White pronouncements incessantly controversial and divisive,
polarizing deeply committed Christian brethren and sisters, and fracturing the
unity of the family of God. It is
therefore a matter of considerable significance, for it drives right to the
heart of our identity as a special people deserving our best time and
attention.
In the context of hermeneutics, we may
note that it was probably only a diplomatic opener for a witnessing encounter
that prompted Philip to inquire of the Ethiopian, "How readest thou?"
But it is a critical question for us to address today in the Adventist
community of scholars before the most meaningful dialogue can take place regarding
Ellen White. We need to determine
whether the message under review is contemporary or eternal--whether the
messenger was speaking of God's people for a particular time and circumstance
or whether all pronouncements apply to all times and circumstances. (And that, as I understand it, is fairly
close to the very essence of hermeneutics).
This determination does not constitute a downsizing of Ellen White's
authority and influence as an acknowledged prophet among us, or another subtle
demythologization move against the founding mother of Adventist Christian
education. Rather it is a responsible act of pastoral leadership to help our
people understand what was timeless in her writings in terms of transcendent
principles in Christian education; what was worthy to be set unequivocally and
permanently in the inspired diadem of our spiritual legacy as a people; and
what was obviously beamed to a local time and circumstance, with all the
constraints inherent in such temporary situations.
Since we are many centuries
removed historically and culturally from the scene, scholars have the long
perspective from which to form a Biblical hermeneutic. But we are familiarly and emotionally still
very close to this modern prophetess, and that circumstance in itself makes it
a delicate assignment for anyone to assesses objectively her role in a wider
historical frame of reference. Despite
prospective perils to the courageous, however, the challenge remains. To
postpone the project further is to place at risk a whole generation of mainstream
Adventist youth who sincerely seek an appropriate and practical hermeneutic for
the serious study of Ellen White.
The chief beneficiaries to such a
clarification might be the modern, Christian, educational pioneers among us who
desperately need a viable interpretive matrix, lest they slide into an
increasing irrelevancy to the twentieth-century world and, through
ultraliteralism, unintentionally shortchange a genuine elite of conscientious
Adventist youth who trust them of reality guidance. Imperative to any such noble enterprise is a clear-headed notion
as to what is central to the inspired mission and what is peripheral.
(2)
An in-depth analysis of Mrs. White's educational counsels.
The urgent need also exists for our professional scholars and lay students
of the prophetess to undertake a serious, systematic synthesis of her writings
on education. The world of academic
awaits an impressive introduction to Ellen White--a philosophical, pedagogical, and sociopsychological synthesis
worthy of the claims we make for her and worthy of the substance and magnitude
of her prophetic insights in education.
This is indicated, and long overdue, in order for modern educators to
seriously assess her as one of the cardinal contributors to the American (and
world) legacy of educational philosophy.
The philosophical synthesis
of which we speak is almost identical to the theological task that earlier
confronted the Biblical scholar, like systematizing and analyzing the writings
of the Apostle Paul which--while often not formally attired and offered as a
straightforward theological propositions--yet contain within those pastoral
letters of admonition rich theological insights for modern ministry. These have been distilled and systematized
and now constitute the undisputed foundation of much theology. Similarly, to identify the conceptual
pillars of Ellen White's educational thought, and to organize the large residue
of expression contained in her many letters, speeches, and essays generated
over four decades of writing, constitutes an enormous scholarly challenge.
Especially
grateful for such an accomplishment would be the undergrads in Adventist
teacher training programs and graduates students in instructional theory and
educational leadership in Adventist colleges and universities. These coming leaders in Adventist education
need a towering historical figure around whom they can unapologetically marshal
their own emerging educational philosophy and theory of professional
practice. They yearn for a commanding,
guiding mentor from their own heritage, a thinker on a par with the classical
giants of the profession routinely assigned in the survey of conventional
wisdom in education. We have such a
luminary in the person of Ellen White.
But her educational writings stand in need of scholarly distillation and
packaging thus so be more conveniently accessed and seriously studied as prime
resources that organize and guide Adventist educational mission.
We cannot overstate the urgent
need for this primary intellectual frame of reference in the Foundations of
Education courses in professional programs in Adventist Education--particularly
at the undergraduate level where basic teacher preparation is undertaken. Too long have we presented Ellen White to
these young college students from a devotional or subcultural, orthodoxical
slant--and more often than not, taken the beguiling literary-appreciation
trip. This instructional modality
usually takes on the form of an adorative, superficial reciting and memorizing
of the highly quotable literary gems in her writings. Inspiring as this
exercise is, it often neglects the grand underlying and unifying themes that
distinguish her comprehensive philosophical, psychological, and theological
insights and her unique, substantive contribution to educational theory. Such classroom pursuit falls woefully short
of sound pedagogical practice, and we need to remedy that.
Ellen White begins her epochal essay
"Proper Education" which the centerpiece consideration, the personhood
of the teacher, a theme to which she returns repeatedly in this work and
her subsequent writings. At the center of her educational paradigm is the
teacher as model. Neither merely as
subject-matter specialist, nor able disciplinarian, nor even versatile,
creative provocateur--although these virtues for acceptable performance in the
teaching-learning arena are extolled.
But soaring above all other considerations is this powerful,
over-arching ideal: the influence of a noble, exemplary,
Spirit-filled-life--lived as parent, pastor, and priest at close range before
impressionable children and youth.
For her the incalculable
liberating powers of love, sincerely and authentically shared, is the
organizing principle of the school, freeing students to become all that they
can be. Long before Marshal McLuhan
popularized the slogan "The Medium Is the Massage," Ellen White had
that straight. Moreover, she exalted the teaching profession to the level of
ministry. The essay fairly pulsates
with this brand of robust idealism. It is a leitmotif that reverberates even
with stronger resonance throughout her writing career. The general news media these days and the
professional literature decry the loss of idealism in the institutionalized
school--value-teaching, modeling, and old-fashioned inspiration. Schools of
education in some of the most prestigious universities in the land are driving
now to restore this priceless commodity to teacher training and staff development. Faculty in-service seminars are stressing it
with increasing fervor.
From 1872 onward, Ellen
White reminded teachers that they are in the inspiration business as much as or
more than in the information business.
The modern education profession is awakening to the sober realization
that a good deal of the precious golden oil has leaked out of its chalice. Teacher training programs everywhere are
scrambling to recapture and enshrine this central, organizing principle of the
profession. It is a pearl of great
price to be handled with reverence and care.
The world is rediscovering what we have had for so long.
Growing out of the principle
of the magnetic, irresistible classroom influence of a committed, caring
teacher is a companion ideal regarding discipline. In this essay Ellen White uses this critical topic as a
springboard for all related pedagogical/psychological insights and methods, for
she recognized that punishment and discipline are poles apart. The former seeks to control through
inflicted pain (to the recipient and vicariously to the schoolroom
"grandstand" as a form of coercion and terrorization that can easily
be taken over by the "enemy" in a moment of injured adult pride or
insecure authority) while the latter is an earthly reenactment and
demonstration of God's way of blending justice and mercy, longsuffering and
control. Redemptive discipline, as
opposed to punitive discipline, was a favorite theme with Ellen White. She underscored the lesson in this essay,
and many times later, that discipline literally means making disciples. It is God's favorite methodology to use our
mistakes and failings as springboard to self-understanding and self-conquest.
The family unit parents, pastors and
teachers, that s is under siege all over the world, and special efforts are
being made by churches and municipal agencies to assist parents to a proper
understanding of this crucial aspect of childrearing and also of dealing with
the adolescent. Since discipline and
classroom control are demanding more and more of a teacher's time these
days--as the ills of the world are being brought onto campus each day--teachers
are being given special training in proactive discipline (treating children in
terms of their need, not in terms of teacher's reactions). Ellen White elevated the whole issue above
mere people-control to portray it as a marvelous opportunity to answer the most
profound theological question of all time "What is God like?" Nothing surely says more about the character
of God and His representatives on earth than the way parents, teachers, and
pastors deal with those who have broken the house rules. It is a bottom-line statement about
Christianity at the deepest level.
Ellen White was on the leading edge of psychological/managerial theory
in the counsels she gave to parents and teachers almost a century and a quarter
ago. The insights and ideals that she
reveals in this first essay (and
additionally in the one special chapter of the book Education devoted to the subject) 2 discloses how far
ahead of the behavioral sciences she was in her day, and is still.
At a time when the
educational process was heavily teacher-and textbook-oriented--and servile
obeisance to academic authorities was strongly established in the educational
milieu--Mrs. White extolled the virtues of vigorous, independent thought and
encouraged students to challenge all presuppositions and assertions, especially
those that hinted at skepticism of God's creatorship and sovereignty. Her concept of a school did not admit
mass-production methods. It was a place where young, active minds could stretch
and be stretched and begin the great conversation even in the little one-room
school. Modern educational is still straining to achieve that worthy ideal, and
so are we in our school system; but we got out marching orders on it long
before it became a buzzword in the profession.
Freedom was a cherished topic with Ellen White, and freedom to think and freedom to act were so central to the Great Controversy issue that she saw this as one of the inalienable rights of children and youth. Thus they could better understand how God reverences this special freedom that He has extended to His creative beings. Mrs. White realized the uniqueness of the individual and the special skill that Christian teachers should possess in calling it forth and encouraging its development. So the whole notion of personal accountability before God--in terms of one's talents and opportunities--was a theme that Ellen White expected the educational process to reinforce and idealize. Much of the literature of today speaks to this issue.
In speaking of nurturing the
gifted student, Ellen White has a special insight. Gifted students, under the doctrine of noblesse oblige, would
best develop their talents by tutoring and coaching younger students. She saw the classroom as a laboratory for
the congregational life in the family of God so that children, at their
earliest, most impressionable age, could begin to experience caring concern for
other members in God's family. Students
did not have to go off campus to learn how to do "missionary
work." The classroom was a place
that utilized every opportunity of cooperation over competition was
highlighted; and the alien concept "Who is the greatest?" was not to
find root in the seedbed of Christian education. The omnipresent question was to be "How can I best
serve?"
The sociologists of the last three
decades have studied the campus and classroom scenes, especially the
subcultural heroes and heroines, the prevailing mores, and social pecking
orders. As a result, the concerted
counsel that comes from them is to break schools down into even smaller units
and endeavor to reconstruct the family spirit and atmosphere as much as
possible. Likewise, let the older
students mentor and parent the younger ones.
It helps in their development, and it cultures a more benevolent and
humane climate in which young lives can develop naturally. Ellen White did not use the sociological
nomenclature that is elaborated in volumes of scholastic tomes, but that
scenario was clearly in her mind when she described the learning environment of
an ideal Christian school.
Balance of the physical,
mental, and spiritual activities was an absolute imperative in the Ellen White
model, and recognition that education is more than a "head
trip." The heart and hand were to
be equally involved, and where possible the balancing digressions from mental
exertion were to be significant activity that was truly recreative and
regenerative. To meet the current
demand for practical application of book knowledge to answer part of the
developmental needs of children and youth, Ellen White would posit gainful
employment--creative, self-fulfilling labor.
She would see it as a noble variation from strenuous mental effort. In fact, at a time when white-collar elitism
was at floodtide, she exalted useful labor and practical engagement to a new
level of importance in the educative process.
Among the major themes that preoccupied
her thought and writing was that of Christian character development--that she
school on earth is a preparation for the school of the hereafter. Distinct from extant educational philosophy
is the idea that earthly study and growth move on to eternity and that, through
the grace of God, building character fit for admission to eternity is the big
business of life. It is a cooperative
effort between home, school, and student.
This special dimension of faith-nurture is stressed throughout the Ellen
White writings, which indicate that teaching and learning should take place in
the context of a special sensitivity to the cosmic struggle between good and
evil. Accordingly Ellen White lifted up the Bible as a great source of
spiritual enlightenment hat should illuminate all subject matter. Conversely, the study of subject matter
should illustrate Biblical principles.
This integration of faith and learning was to be the ligature of
Christian education and the special expertise of a Christian teacher.
There is a constant reminder
in the professional literature today that the wholeness of learning and life
has been badly fractured, and that there is no unifying ultimate reality that
gives them structure and meaning. Ellen
White saw also, a long time ago, that learning does not float free. It has to
be anchored in something in order to have relevance now and in the future, and
she pointed to God as answer to that dilemma.
Our survival as a people of
educational destiny rides perpetually on a correct understanding of
"Proper Education." About this
we can never allow ourselves to become casual.
The Seventh-day Adventist school system does not derive its ideology and
mission statement from Comenious, Pestalozzi, Horace Mann, or John Dewey. We declare with grateful, God-honoring,
justifiable pride that we get it from Ellen White, a relatively unknown but
prodigious author of the nineteenth century, our inspired prophetess. A denouement yet to come in its fullness is
the general recognition of Mrs. White as a profound educational theorist who
ranged with consummate skill across the whole landscape of educational
endeavor: education in the home, the school, the congregation, and the social
order at large--whose revealed thought about the proper training of the young
has spawned, in less than one hundred twenty years, the world's largest
Protestant parochial school system.
Our special legacy of this
inspired vision in education has stood well the test of time, and we as a
people have good cause, unapologetically, to stay with it. It will see us through to the school above.
I.
Works by
Ellen G. White:
The Adventist Home (Nashville: Southern Publishing
Association, 1952).
Child Guidance (Nashville: Southern Publishing
Association, 1954).
Counsels on Education (Washington DC: Review and Herald
Publishing Association, 1964).
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and
Students (Mountain View:
Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1913).
Education (Mountain View: Pacific Press Publishing
Association, 1903).
Fundamentals of Christian Education (Nashville: Southern Publishing
Association, 1923).
Mind, Character, and Personality, 2 vols. (Washington DC: E. G. White
Publications, 1977).
Ministry of Healing (Mountain View: Pacific Press Publishing
Association, 1905).
II.
Other:
Cadwallader, E.
M., A History of Seventh-day Adventist
Education (Lincoln: Union College, 1958)
Cadwallader, E.
M., Principles of Education in the
Writings of Ellen G. White, Doctoral Thesis (Lincoln University of
Nebraska, 1951).
Edwards, Harry
Elmo, Our Academies, Their Purpose,
Organization, Administration, and Curriculum, a compendium of essays and
edited E. G. White quotations by various Adventist authors (La Sierra College,
1924).
Howe, Walter, An Introduction to the Philosophy of
Seventh-day Adventist Education, Master's Thesis (Texas Christian
University, 1949).
Knight, George, Myths in Adventism (Washington DC:
Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1985).
Lee, David, Reprints on Christian Education. (by
church leaders), a compilation, published privately at Loma Linda, circa 1975.
Nelson, Andrew,
and Manalaysay, Reuben, The Gist of
Christian Education, 6th edition (Loma Linda University and Philippine
Union College, 1961).
S.D.A. Yearbook 1988 (Washington DC: General Conference of
SDA).
Walter, Edwin, A History of Seventh-day Adventist Higher
Education in the United States, Doctoral Dissertation (Berkeley: University
of California, 1966).
NOTES
1Author L. White, The Progressive Years, 1872-1876, 6 vols. (Hagerstown: Review and
Herald Publishing Association, 1986, II: 372-84.
2Ellen G. White, Education (Mountain View: Pacific Press Publishing Association,
1942), 287-97.