A Place Called Oakwood

Instruction

You speak of the Oakwood Industrial School for colored students as not having sufficient buildings to accommodate the students, twelve in number occupying one room. My brother, is it not the duty of someone laboring in this line to labor for the creation of a fund to supply this need? Let appeals be made to our people. Let each give a little, even among the poor. Without delay, encourage the brethren to erect a humble building large enough to accommodate the students. PCO 152.4

Sources: Letter 90, 1899; The Southern Work, 85

Wise plans are to be laid for the cultivation of the land. The students are to be given a practical education in agriculture. This education will be of inestimable value to them in their future work. Thorough work is to be done in cultivating the land, and from this the students are to learn how necessary it is to do thorough work in cultivating the garden of the heart. PCO 152.5

The teachers should constantly seek wisdom from on high, that they may be kept from making mistakes. They should give careful consideration to their work, that each student may be prepared for the line of service to which he is best adapted. All are to be prepared to serve faithfully in some capacity. PCO 153.1

No laxness is to be allowed. The man who takes charge of the Huntsville School should know how to govern himself and how to govern others. The Bible teacher should be a man who can teach the students how to present the truths of the Word of God in public, and how to do house-to-house work. The business affairs of the farm are to be wisely and carefully managed. PCO 153.2

Each student is to take himself in hand, and with God's help overcome the faults that mar his character. And he is to show an earnest, unselfish spirit in the welfare of the school. If he sees a loose board in a walk or a loose paling on the fence, let him at once get a hammer and nails, and make the needed repairs. The wagons and harnesses should be properly cared for and frequently examined and repaired. When harnesses and wagons are sent out in a dilapidated condition, human life is endangered. PCO 153.3

Sources: Letter 215, 1904; The Review and Herald, September 1, 1904; Manuscript Releases 2:68-69; Manuscript Releases 14:38-40; The Oakwood Manual Training School, 8-9; Spalding and Magan Collection, 360

Just before we left, a meeting of the Southern Union Conference Committee was held in Nashville for the purpose of devising some means of helping the Huntsville School. Those who have had charge of the school have not felt the importance of putting brain, bone, and muscle to the tax in an effort to make the school a success. The students who attend this school are to be given an education that will fit them to work for the Master. They are to be given more than book knowledge. Should they be given book knowledge merely, their education would be imperfect. PCO 153.4

There should be a special school for the younger ones. Fathers and mothers are to be placed on the land, and parents as well as children are to be given an education. Promising families are to be brought in and settled upon a piece of ground as large as shall be deemed best. In connection with the school there should be an experienced carpenter who can teach the fathers and their boys how to build their homes, which are to be neat, convenient, inexpensive buildings. The mothers should be taught how to prepare food hygienically, and how to care for the sick. PCO 153.5

Sources: Letter 233, 1904; Manuscript Releases 14:215

A small sanitarium should also be established in connection with the Huntsville School. The sanitarium building should not be of a shoddy character. Neither should it be narrow and contracted. It should be built substantially, and there should be in it a room for the physician and nurses, to carry on the work of healing the sick and giving patients and students an education in regard to the right principles of living. PCO 153.6

Sources: Letter 205, 1905; The Watchman, August 29, 1905; Spalding and Magan Collection, 380; To Those in Charge of the Colored Orphanage Enterprise, 4

At the Huntsville School a thorough work is to be done in training men to cultivate the soil and to grow fruits and vegetables. Let no one despise this work. Agriculture is the ABC of industrial education. Let the erection of the buildings for the school and the sanitarium be an education to the students. Help the teachers to understand that their perceptions must be clear, their actions in harmony with the truth, for it is only when they stand in right relation to God that they will be able to work out His plan for themselves and for the souls with whom, as instructors, they are brought in contact. PCO 153.7

Let us encourage all Seventh-day Adventists to have a deep interest in the work that is being done at Huntsville for the education of men and women to be laborers among the colored people. The preparations for a sanitarium for these people should go forward at Huntsville without delay. If we will move forward with faith in God, He will fulfill His word to us. We have no time to lose, for wickedness in the cities is reaching a terrible pass. The night is coming in which no man can work. Let us not grudge to the colored people a well-equipped sanitarium in connection with the Huntsville School. The building should not be restricted. It should be made roomy enough to accommodate with comfort those who shall come to it. PCO 154.1

Sources: Letter 289, 1907; Manuscript Releases 2:74