Home and Church School Manual

Qualifications of Teachers

Converted teachers

“I would that the teachers in our schools could be of God's selection and appointment. Souls will be lost because of the careless work of professedly Christian teachers, who need to be taught by God day by day, else they are unfit for the position of trust. Teachers are needed who will strive to weed out their inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong, who will come into line, wearing themselves the yoke of obedience, and thus giving an example to the students. The sense of duty to their God and to their fellow beings with whom they associate, will lead such teachers to become doers of the word, and to heed counsel as to how they should conduct themselves.”—September 17, ‘887. PH140 32.1

“Every teacher should be under the full control of Holy Spirit. If the teachers will open their own hearts to receive the Spirit, they will be prepared to co-operate with it in working for their students. Every teacher should know and welcome this Heavenly Guest.”—Special Testimonies on Education, 50, 51. PH140 32.2

Special talent should be given to the education of the youth.... Educators of youth should be Christians who are themselves under the discipline of God.”—P. C., “Need of Church Schools.” PH140 32.3

Progressive teachers

“Those teachers who have not a progressive religious experience, who have not learned daily lessons in the school of Christ, that they may be ensamples to the flock, but who accept their wages as the main thing, are not fit for the solemn, awfully solemn position they occupy.”—P. C., “The Teachers and Students of our Educational Institutions.” PH140 33.1

“The truth is life and power, and to present it so that impressions will be made upon hearts, should be the work of our schools as well as of our churches, of the teacher as well as of the minister.”—P. C., “Need of Reform in our Educational Work.” PH140 33.2

“We can not in this day of peril accept teachers because they have been in school two, three, four, or five years. The question which should decide whether they are qualified for their work should be, Have they, with all their acquisition of knowledge, searched the Bible, and dug beneath the surface for truth as for hidden treasures? Or have they seized the chaff in the place of the pure wheat thoroughly winnowed? Are they partaking of the fruit of the tree of life?—P. C., “Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge.” PH140 33.3

“Many teachers are leading their students over the Same Track that they have themselves have trod. They think this is the only right way. They give students food which would not sustain spiritual life, but which will cause those who partake of it to die. They are fascinated by that which God does not require them to know.”—Test, “The Bible in Our Schools.” PH140 33.4

Efficiency required

“God wants the teachers in our schools to be efficient. Let none feel that having an earnestness in religious matters is all that is essential in order to become educators. While they need no less of piety, they also need a thorough knowledge of the sciences. This will make them not only good, practical Christians, but will enable them to educate the youth, and, at the same time, they will have heavenly wisdom to lead them to the fountain of living water.”—Christian Education, 51. PH140 34.1

No cheap cast of mind

“The teachers for our schools should be selected from the very best class. They should be experienced Christians who are balanced in mind, men and women who have learned the lesson of self-control. Then they can educate and do a work of larger importance than even the minister in preaching the word. They can prepare the soil that the truth may have effect upon human hearts..... PH140 34.2

“No cheap cast of mind should be placed in our church schools. The very best is required in educating and moulding the human mind.... I dwell upon this, because suitable teachers are much needed, and men and women must be fitted up in the home and in the school to do a work of ministry of which they will not be ashamed.”— P.C. September 24, 1898. PH140 34.3

No haphazard work

“Teachers themselves should be what they wish the students to become. They should possess well-balanced, symmetrical characters. They should be refined in manner, neat in dress, careful in all their habits, and should have that true Christian courtesy that wins confidence and respect.”—Special Testimonies on Education, 48. PH140 34.4

No haphazard work must be done in the appointment of teachers. Those who have devoted years to study, and yet have not gained the education essential to fit them to teach others, in the lines the Lord has marked out, should not be connected with our schools as educators. They need to be taught the first principles of true, all-round education. PH140 35.1

A practical knowledge necessary

“The physical powers should be developed in proportion to the mental faculties. This is essential for an all-round education, and they will then be at home in any place. They should be able to teach others how to build, how to cultivate the soil. A man may have a brilliant mind, quick to catch ideas; but this is of little value to him if he has no knowledge of practical work, if he does not know how to put his ideas into execution. Such a one is only half educated. The teacher who has an intelligent knowledge of the best methods, and who can not only teach the theory, but can show by example how things should be done, will never be a drug in the market.—P. C., “Our School Work. PH140 35.2

As disciplinarians

“None who deal with the youth should be iron-hearted, but affectionate, tender, pitiful, courteous, winning, and compassionate; yet they should know that reproof should be given, and that even rebuke must be spoken to cut off some evil doing.”—P.C. p. 549, June 21, 1897. PH140 35.3

“Every one who has to do with educating the younger class of students should consider that these children are affected by, and feel the impression of the atmosphere, whether it be pleasant or unpleasant. If the teacher is connected with God, if he has Christ abiding in his heart, the spirit that is cherished by him is felt by the children. When a teacher manifests impatience or fretfulness toward a child, the fault may not be in the child one half as much as in the teacher, who needs himself to be disciplined and trained, and deserves a heavier punishment than he puts upon the child, for he is old enough to know better.”—P. C. PH140 36.1

Close relation between teacher and pupils

“Teachers become tired with their work, then something the children say or do does not accord with their feelings, but will they let Satan's spirit enter into them and lead them to create feelings in the children very unpleasant and disagreeable, through their own lack of tact and wisdom from God? There should not be a teacher employed unless you have evidence, by test and trial, that he loves and fears to offend God..... PH140 36.2

Value of a child

“Teachers, Jesus is in your school every day. His great heart of infinite love is drawn out, not only for the best behaved children, who have the most favorable surroundings, but for children who have, by inheritance, objectionable traits of character.... There must not be any haphazard work in this matter, for even the work of educating the children in the day school requires very much of the grace of Christ and the subduing of self. Those who naturally are fretful, easily provoked, who have cherished the habit of criticism, of thinking evil, should find some other kind of work, which will not reproduce any of their unlovely traits of character in the children and youth, for they have cost too much. Heaven sees in the child the undeveloped man or woman, with capabilities and powers that, if correctly guided and with heavenly wisdom developed, will become the human agencies through whom the divine influence can co-operate, to be laborers together with God. Sharp words and continual censure bewilder the child, but never reform him.”—P. C. PH140 36.3