The thought on which this talk is based —or as the preacher would say, the text —is simply this: Our Theological Seminary has the best prospect of all our schools to become the ideal institution of learning. That statement is not so much a compliment as a challenge. For where have Seventh-day Adventists given to their schools a more favorable setup, a more certain and secure financial plan of operation, a better-qualified staff, and a more willing and unhampered student body than we find here tonight?
Lest I be misinterpreted and my meaning be misconstrued, I hasten to explain and clarify the challenge which is here presented to faculty and students—not that we would wish you anything less, but rather for our schools everywhere the more.
The ideal teaching-learning situation consists of six essential factors : (t) Real teachers, qualified by training and experience which make "full men," free from anxiety concerning the problems of food, clothing, and shelter. (2) Real students, whose minds and hearts are wholly devoted to the quest for truth, without the necessity of spending one half to three fourths of their waking hours in the physical drudgery of making a living. (3) An environment suitable for, and conducive to, the business of research and learning, such as you have here in ample, commodious, comfortable classrooms and libraries, together with the tools of learning which have been accumulated over a period of years by thoughtful and ingenious teachers and students. (4) The thing taught and learned, known to us as the course of study, or the curriculum. In all too many cases this becomes the master instead of the medium in the learning process, and tends to become so much "bitter medicine" to be doled out by conservative, sometimes stereotyped, dispensers, to unwilling, often disinterested, and even at times a bit rebellious, recipients.
The fifth factor may be stated as the aim, or objective, which the teacher would attain through instruction and see manifested in the changed life, the broadened horizon, the deeper insight, the keener appreciation, and the greater skills developed in the learner. And lastly (sixth), the method or process through which all of this teaching and learning takes place.
When I look at this Seminary, it seems to me that you have these six essential factors existing to a greater degree and in a more nearly perfect balance than in any other Seventh-day Adventist educational institution. And remember that of him to whom much is given, much will be required.
May we not with profit at this point stop and digress a little to look at our educational work in general? Not that we can do anything about it at this time or in this place, but simply to observe by comparison, and to throw out some suggestions which may become seeds for thought. We can all agree on the principle that the denomination is responsible for the education of its own membership and the training of its future leadership. What we wish to prevail in our church must first of all prevail in our schools, and be made a part of the lives of our boys and girls. Thus the denomination can maintain and propagate itself. For such benefits the whole church is responsible, and all the church should share in the expense.
Remembering that the wish is often the father of the fact, it does no harm to wish something very big and wholly desirable. 0 that in some way we could find and follow a plan of "true education," or Seventh-day Adventist education, to be more exact, which would in every detail approach the mind of God for His children ! I do not mean by this that He has failed to make clear His mind on such a vital matter through His mouthpiece in these last days. Rather, it is my prayer that we might have the breadth of mind and the depth of insight to appreciate it at its full value, and the courage and conviction and will to put it into operation as a system of schools, from the first grade through to graduate study here in this seminary. How much better is such a unified system than so many individual, separate, often highly complicated and extremely sensitive units, struggling along at times on a very uncertain and insecure financial basis.
O that we could find a way to make our three-phased program of education available to every Seventh-day Adventist child and youth without regard to his or her economic and social standing—a Seventh-day Adventist education for each and every one, and as much Of it as the vessel of each could profitably hold! Would that we might make that education so rich and so vital and so wholly desirable that every child would want it above everything else in the world, and that every member of this great advent movement would feel it both a privilege and a responsibility to provide the necessary support of such a system of schools. Then, and only then, could we say with Isaiah, that great gospel prophet of the Old Testament, "And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children."
But here we stop to meditate and contemplate upon what has been done. We are not unmindful of the excellent work that has been accomplished by the men and women who led out in the past, with the somewhat meager resources at their command. Since we are among those who believe that our glorious history is not all in the past, that our great attainments have not all been attained, we believe that we stand upon a new and greater threshold with wider doors of Opportunity and challenge, with greater and still more glorious things to be accomplished in the future.
Our work in all its branches must rise to such a prominence and power that the eyes of the world will be focused upon it and its membership. God would have us, as responsible men and women in His remnant church, to expect greater things from Him and attempt far greater things for Him.
We must begin to think and talk of these greater things, and find newer and bigger and better ways of doing them. While we should not minimize our past achievements, we should launch out with much greater plans and larger visions so that we can be the mighty instruments in God's hands to bring to fruition the greatest and final moves in His plan for the salvation of the world. Our danger lies in our remaining too far behind the demands of this mighty hour.
Sometimes we are led to wonder if the time has not come for our administrators to solve the problem of Seventh-day Adventist schools for all Seventh-day Adventist youth, and to work out a more adequate and comprehensive plan which envisions something larger than the local church as the unit of support.
My own contact with Seventh-day Adventist youth who have come through the public schools—elementary and secondary—has convinced me of several things: First, that the young people themselves are aware of the dangers and know that they are but the product of an environment with insidious and ever-present adverse stimuli. Second, that, given an opportunity, our young people would choose our own schools, especially if we were to make them all that God's plan would have them be. And third, that we have a fine group of Seventh-day Adventist youth who are with this movement heart and soul, who are possessed of one great and all-consuming desire—that of receiving a Christian training and finding their places in the cause to help finish the work.
There is a fine balance of all the essential features outlined in God's plan of education, which, if found and maintained, will produce a type of education so high that men of the world will come to us to learn and not to dictate.
This brings to mind the much-discussed question of accrediting, one which most of us hesitate to mention. Realizing that I am laying myself open to criticism, I venture the suggestion that as long as we Seventh-day Adventists operate our schools on the basis of "getting along" with the mediocre in regard to plant, equipment, and personnel, just "getting by" from year to year, being satisfied with 65 or 7o per cent as a passing grade in scholarship as well as in efficiency in management, then the accrediting associations are doing us a real favor in being willing to spend the time and effort to come to check us up.
Personally, I am in favor of the accrediting associations in so far as they act as an external goad to prod us into doing something to improve the situations in our schools which we ourselves knew should have been improved, but which we thought might somehow just get along for another year or so. If it takes them to compel us to do our job better, and force us to more nearly approach the high standards which God has outlined in His instruction for the conduct of our educational work, then I am in favor of them to that extent.
Brethren and sisters, let us carry out God's ideal and plan for out schoolwork, and we shall not need the accrediting association to urge us to do our own job better. For if God's word be true and His blessings come as promised in proportion to the degree we do His will, then we may become "the head, and not the tail," in matters of education; and the very men who now come on our invitation with a critical eye, will come on their own initiative to seek help in solving the educational problems which are admittedly baffling the great leaders of society at this very time.
The fault is with us for allowing ourselves to have drifted into any such sorry conditions. The challenge of this hour is for Seventh-day Adventist leaders to address themselves to the task of re-examining the "blueprint" on education, with an eye to self-criticism and self-analysis, and with a determination to change where change is needed, reform where reform is needed, until we reach God's mind in this most important phase of the work.
Wherein we do have low standards, they have come largely from weak financial support—lack of an adequate plan for financing a system of schools. Is it too much to say that the constituency which wants a school—be it church school, academy, or college—should pay for it?
—To be concluded in May
