Home and Church School Manual

The Location of Schools

Education in the cities

“The youth educated in large cities are surrounded by influences similar to those that prevailed before the flood.... The large cities are fast becoming hotbeds of iniquity.”—Special Testimonies on Education, 44. PH140 41.3

“How many children there are in the crowded cities who have not even a spot of green grass to set their feet upon. If they could be educated in the country, amid the beauty, peace, and purity of nature, it would seem to them the spot nearest heaven. In the retired places, where we are farthest from the corrupting maxims, customs, and excitements of the world, and nearest to the heart of nature, Christ makes his presence real to us, and speaks to our souls of his peace and love.”—Special Testimonies on Education, 46, 47. PH140 41.4

“Serious times are before us, and there is great need for the families to get out of the cities into the country.... Let those who are suffering with poor health go out into country places.... Years ago I was shown what would be if our people in Battle Creek would arouse and go out of the city, extending the work now done in Battle Creek to other places.”—P. C. PH140 42.1

The experience of Lot in a city

“The marriage of Lot, and his choice of Sodom for a home, were the first links in a chain of events fraught with evil to the world for many generations.” We are told to “remember Lot's wife.” PH140 42.2

“Cities and even country towns are becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah, and like the world in the days of Noah. The training of the youth in those days was after the same order as the children are being educated and trained in this age.”—Special Testimonies on Education, 93. PH140 42.3

“Those who will take their families into the country, place them where they have fewer temptations.”—Special Testimonies on Education, 104. PH140 42.4

“Fathers and Mothers who possess a piece of land and a comfortable home are kings and queens.”—Special Testimonies on Education, 105. PH140 43.1

Locate your school in the country

“Let the students be out in the most healthful location that can be secured, to do the very work that should have been done years ago. Then there would not be such great discouragements. Had this been done, you would have had some grumbling from students, and many objections would have been raised by parents, but this all-around education would prepare children and youth not only for practical work in various trades, but would fit them for the Lord's farm in the earth made new. If all in America had encouraged the work in agricultural lines that principals and teachers have discouraged, the schools would have had altogether a different showing. There is room within earth's vast boundaries for schools to be located where ground can be cleared, land cultivated, and where a proper education can be given. This work is essential for an all-round education, and one which is favorable to spiritual advancement. Nature's voice is the voice of Jesus Christ, teaching us innumerable lessons of perseverance. The mountains and the hills are changing, the earth is waxing old like a garment, but the blessing of God, which spreads a table for his people in the wilderness, will never cease.”—P.C. September 24, 1898. PH140 43.2

“No pains should be spared to select places for our schools where the moral atmosphere will be as healthful as possible, for the influences that prevail will leave a deep impress on young and forming characters. For this reason a retired locality is best. The great cities, the centers of business and learning, may seem to present some advantages, but these advantages are outweighed by other considerations.”—Special Testimonies on Education, 43. PH140 43.3

“If people would encourage the church in which they are members to establish small, humble school buildings in which to do service for God, they would accommodate their own children within their borders.”—P.C. February 2, 1895. PH140 44.1

“Teachers should be employed to educate the children of Sabbath-keepers. This would close the door to a large number who are drifting into the Battle Creek, the very place of God has warned them not to go.”—P.C. December 15, 1897. PH140 44.2

School land is sacred to the institution

“Students are not to regard the school land as a common thing, but are to look upon it as a lesson book which the Lord would have them study. These lessons will impart knowledge for the spiritual elevation of the soul. If you should settle this land near the school with private houses, and then be driven to select for cultivation other land at a distance from the school, it would be a great mistake, and one always to be regretted. All the land near the building is to be considered the school-farm, where the youth can be instructed under well-qualified superintendents. The youth that shall attend our schools need all the land near by. They are to plant it with ornamental trees and fruit trees, and to cultivate garden produce. The school-farm is to be regarded as a lesson-book in nature, from which teachers may draw their object lessons. Our students are to be taught that Christ, who created the world and all things therein, is the light and life of every living thing. The life of every child and youth who is willing to grasp the opportunities for receiving a proper education will be made thankful and happy while at school by the things which his eyes shall rest upon.... PH140 44.3

“This land by the appointment of God, is for the benefit of the school. You have had evidences of the working of human nature and what it will reveal under temptation. The more families you settled around the school building, the more difficulties you found in the way of the teachers and students. The natural selfishness of the children of men is ready to spring into life if everything is not convenient for them. This land about the school is to be the school farm, and this farm is to occupy much more space than we have thought it would. Work in connection with study is to be given here, according to the counsels given.... Then let everything not essential to the work of the schools be kept at a distance, and thus prevent any disturbance or annoyance through the proximity of families and buildings. Let the school stand alone. There must not be this one and that one claiming personal property near it. It would be better for private families, however devoted they may be in the service of the Lord, to be located at some distance from the school buildings. PH140 45.1

“The school is the Lord's property, and the grounds about it are his farm, where the great Sower can make his garden a lesson book. The results of the labor will be seen, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. The land will yield its treasures, bringing the joyousness of an abundant harvest, and the produce gathered, through the blessing of the Lord, is to be used as nature's lesson book, from which spiritual lessons can be made plain and applied to the necessities of the soul.... There needs to be patient, painstaking effort made for the uplifting of the surrounding communities and for their education in industrial and sanitary lines. The school and everything connected with it should be object lessons, teaching the ways to improve, and appealing to the people for reform, so that taste, industry, and refinement may take the place of coarseness, uncleanness, disorder, ignorance, and sin.”—P. C., “The Avondale School Farm.” PH140 46.1