The Home

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 4, 1909

The home has the first and most important of all responsibilities in the education and training of the child. Because many parents do not sense this, the conscientious teacher often endeavors to do that which should be done by parents in the home. Under certain circumstances this may be required, but the wise teacher recognizes that the first great responsibility in the development and education of every child rests upon the parents, and seeks by every conceivable means to encourage parents to discharge well these responsibilities.

The thoughtful teacher will seek in a proper manner to uplift the home as a first and most natural means of developing and properly educating the child. But it is not the work of the school to do for children in the school that which should be done by the parents in the home. Next to religious teaching of children in their homes comes proper industrial instruction. The child should be taught to work in an accurate, rapid, and skilful manner. But while the school has direct duties to discharge in teaching the dignity of, and love for, useful labor, and while such teaching should form an integral part of school work, and will directly affect the home for good, yet, after all, it is in the home that manual labor can be best taught; for such work is, in the end, for the direct benefit of home life; and to seek to do in the school what may be done in the home is a subversion of the great end of such education.

One of the greatest opportunities for good given our schools is to seek the elevation of home life; for in this way we can best prepare our pupils for home duties. Where pupils are in the school home, then, of course, the full responsibility for home training rests upon the school; but where children are in their own homes, the school should recognize the rights and obligations of the home, and seek to aid and encourage the children in the faithful discharge of such responsibilities. Let us earnestly seek a perfect adjustment of the home and school responsibilities in the child's education.