Do you want me to name you the greatest educational institution in the world? It is not Oxford, nor Heidelberg, nor Harvard; it is not any of the famous schools of theology, or medicine, or music, or mechanics; it is not your denominational college, nor academy, nor church-school. The greatest educational institution in the world is the home.
Perhaps you didn’t know that. Perhaps you don’t believe that. Perhaps you are saying, “Oh, that’s only a figure of speech. Of course we can call the home a school but actually we know if our children are to get an education, we have to have real schools, from kindergarten to college, and teachers who do nothing else but teach.”
No, no ! brother, sister. I am not dealing in figures of speech; I am not passing a handsome compliment to parents. I mean, in the actual sense of the word, and in its fullest sense, that the home is a school, and the most important school in the world. We have a twisted idea of what a school is, if we limit it to a room with patented desks, and disciplined children, and a pleasant young woman surrounded by books, maps, and an air of authority. That is a school, too, but it is not the only school, nor the only kind of school, nor is it necessarily the best school. School is any place where something is taught; and the, school of most importance is the school where the ideals of life are shaped, where the habits of life are fixed, and where characters are determined.
God made the home to be the first school. And it is still, in its form, its natural facilities, and its inherent methods, the best model of school anywhere to be found. Make a home of the kind that God intends, and you have a school after which every other school, from the most elementary to the most advanced, may do well to pattern.
“The system of education instituted at the beginning of the world, was to be a model for man throughout all after-time.” “Under changed conditions, true education is still conformed to the Creator’s plan, the plan of the Eden school.”—”Education,” pages 20, 30.
Consider for a moment some of the features of the home as a school, which ought equally to be included in the plan of every school. First, there are comparatively few pupils to the number of teachers, thus permitting each child to have individual attention. Second, the pupils differ in age, thus permitting and encouraging the older children to help in the teaching of the younger. Third, the pupils are all the day in contact with the teachers, so that teaching by example, and not only by precept, is sustained and continuous. Fourth, the teaching is in practice, not merely in theory and by book. Fifth, the curriculum is ,omprehensive, covering the physical, the intellectual, the social, and the spiritual needs. Sixth, the controlling spirit of the school is love, which is the fountain-head of all right government, discipline, and instruction.
After all these principles and conditions a true education seeks. The most recent improvements in methods of teaching emphasize, for instance, individualistic training of the pupil, tutor-teaching by the older pupils, social contact of the teacher with pupils outside the class period, the combination of physical and moral training with the intellectual training which once was exclusively the school programme, and lastly, understanding and co-operation in place of autocratic government. There is, of course, always a tendency to professionalism and technicality in educational circles, and against these the more humanizing principles have to fight. But we who hold as precious the principles of Christian education ought to ,recognize that the best type of our church-schools and academies and colleges which we can make will be modelled in form and methods, not after some immense institution, but after God’s perfect example, the home. It would make some wonderful changes in our present plans and practices if we did that.
But now in the home we have naturally these very favourable conditions for the making of the best school. It is the part of every one in the home to do all he can to make this school successful. The more any member of the home knows, and the more experience he has, the greater is his responsibility to make the home all it should be. Parents, of course, have the first and greatest responsibility, because they are the oldest, most experienced members, and it is they who began the home. But the children, too, have their responsibility. The baby, of course, can hardly be held under any great obligation, because he knows nothing to begin with; but somehow, nevertheless, the baby has a part to play in making home happy, and by the grace that is given him in his chubby innocence, he plays the part wellnigh to perfection. Then the child, as he grows older, has an increasing responsibility to make home the best school in the world by his own cheerfulness, obedience, and happiness.
Still more the youth, growing into young manhood and womanhood, but still beneath the parental roof, have a responsibility in making the perfect home, both for the sake of their parents and their younger brothers and sisters, and for the sake of the homes which, in the near future, when they marry, they will establish for themselves. The home of every young man and young woman is for him and for her a place of practice for the perfecting of the art of home-making. So, all together, parents and children have a common cause and a great responsibility in making the present home what it is meant to be, the most perfect school on earth, “a little heaven here to go to heaven in.”
Another thing we will note : Every member of the home is both a learner and a teacher. Parents are, of course, the chief teachers; but as every one of experience knows, the teacher really is learning more than his pupils. The youth in the home have not only much to learn, but they have the blessed opportunity of teaching those younger than themselves. And let them remember that the great secret of successful teaching is unselfish love, out of which spring forbearance, patience, tact, cheerfulness, courage, and willing service. The very youngest child has something to teach; for even his parents, who teach him, also learn of him. Teaching is not mere telling; it is imparting life. We teach by what we say, but most of all we teach by what we do.
What is the home to teach? And what are all its members to learn? —the lessons of reverence, prompt obedience, courtesy, hard work and happy recreation, frugality and wise generosity, habits of study and improvement for service, cheerfulness, courage, and self-control. The principles of Christian temperance and right habits of living are to be learned and lived. The spirit of reverence and devotion is to be inculcated, with the family altar as the centre of religious instruction. The Sabbath is to be made a day of profit and joy. Love abounding, never failing, ever manifest, is to rill all the home and overflow into the community, and so to all the world. So will be manifest in the home the religion of Jesus Christ, Who “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.”
It is the duty of parents and children to study to make the best kind of homes there can be. Children will learn by example, by what they get from the experience of their childhood. But beyond this, parents and young people who are coming to the age of marriage need to study definitely the science of home-making and of child training. No school would think of employing a teacher who had had no training for his work. The home is the greatest school, and those who establish homes should be trained for their work.
“Never will education accomplish all that it might and should accomplish until the importance of the parents’ work is fully recognized, and they receive a training for its sacred responsibilities.”— “Education,” page 276.
It is not merely to save our children that our homes have a responsibility; it is, further, that through those ransomed children the work of God may be forwarded and finished. Our children do not belong to the devil; they belong to God. And it is the privilege of parents, through the school of the home, to devote them to God. Of the mother it is written:
“She has not, like the artist, to paint a form of beauty upon canvas, nor, like the sculptor, to chisel it from marble. She has not, like the author, to embody a noble thought in words of power, nor, like the musician, to express a beautiful sentiment in melody. It is hers, with the help of God, to develop in a human soul the likeness of the divine.”—”The Ministry of Healing,” page 378. It is true that the home is not the only influence bearing upon the life of the child. All around us are conditions and influences that tend to draw our children away from God. The times are evil. But it is the work of parents to counteract these evils. Let every agency of the church be used to save our children, but let it be remembered that the greatest agency of the church is the home. If we parents feel ourselves incapable of meeting the crisis, we must seek God for help. And we are to put ourselves to the stretch to study and prepare ourselves to be better parents. Then God’s promise to us is, “I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” Isa. 49 :25.
