Chap.
One - Importance of the Home School
Education Begins
at Home—It is in the home that the education of the child is
to begin. Here is his first school. Here, with his parents as
instructors, he is to learn the lessons that are to guide him
throughout life—lessons of respect, obedience, reverence,
self-control.
The educational influences of the home are a decided power for good
or for evil. They are in many respects silent and gradual, but if
exerted on the right side, they become a far-reaching power for truth
and righteousness. If the child is not instructed aright here, Satan will
educate him through agencies of his choosing. How
important, then,
is the school in the home!1 Here the
Foundations Are Laid—Upon all parents there rests the obligation
of giving physical, mental, and spiritual instruction.
It should be the
object of every parent to secure to his child a well-balanced,
symmetrical character. This is a work of no small magnitude and
importance—a work requiring earnest thought and prayer no less
than patient, persevering effort. A right foundation must be laid, a
framework, strong and firm, erected; and then day by day the work of
building, polishing, perfecting, must go forward.2 Deny the Child
Anything but This Right—Parents, remember that your home
is a training school, in which your children are to be prepared for the
home above. Deny them anything rather than the education that
they should receive in their earliest years. Allow no word of
pettishness. Teach your children to be kind and patient.
1Counsels to
Parents, Teachers, and Students, 107.
2Counsels to
Parents, Teachers, and Students, 107, 108.
17
Teach them to be
thoughtful of others. Thus you are preparing them for higher
ministry in religious things.3 The home should be a preparatory school, where
children and youth may be
fitted to do service for the Master, preparatory to joining the higher school
in the kingdom of God.4 Not a Secondary
Matter—Let not home education be regarded as a secondary
matter. It occupies the first place in all true education.
Fathers and
mothers have entrusted to them the molding of their
children’s
minds.5
How startling is
the proverb, “As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined.” This
is to be applied to the training of our children. Parents, will you
remember that the education of your children from their earliest years
is committed to you as a sacred trust? These young trees are to be
tenderly trained, that they may be transplanted to the garden
of the Lord.
Home education is not by any means to be neglected. Those who
neglect it neglect a religious duty.6 The Great Scope
of Home Education—Home education means much. It is a
matter of great scope. Abraham was called the father of the faithful.
Among the things that made him a remarkable example of godliness was
the strict regard that in his home he paid to the commands of God.
He cultivated home religion. He who sees the education given
in every home, and who measures the influence of this education,
said, “I know him that he will command his children
and his
household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice
and judgment.”7 God commanded
the Hebrews to teach their children His requirements,
and to make them acquainted with all
3Manuscript
Releases 10:2, 1903.
4Manuscript
Releases 7:1899.
5The Review and
Herald, June 6, 1899.
6Manuscript
Releases 8:4, 1897.
7Letter 9, 1904.
18
His dealings
with their people. The home and the school were one. In the place of
stranger lips, the loving hearts of the father and mother were to give
instruction to their children. Thoughts of God were associated with
all the events of daily life in the home dwelling. The mighty works
of God in the deliverance of His people were recounted with
eloquence and reverential awe. The great truths of God’s providence
and of the future life were impressed on the young mind. It became
acquainted with the true, the good, the beautiful. By the use of
figures and symbols the lessons given were
illustrated, and
thus more firmly fixed in the memory. Through this animated imagery
the child was, almost from infancy, initiated into the mysteries,
the wisdom, and the hopes of his fathers, and guided in a way of
thinking and feeling and anticipating, that reached beyond things seen and
transitory, to the unseen and eternal.8 It Precedes and
Prepares for the Day School—The work of parents precedes
that of the teacher. They have a home school—the first grade. If
they seek carefully and prayerfully to know and to do their duty,
they will prepare their children to enter the second
grade—to receive
instructions from the teacher.9 It Fashions
Character—The home may be a school where the children are
indeed fashioned in character after the similitude of a palace.10 Education in the
Nazareth Home—Jesus secured His education in the home. His
mother was His first human teacher. From her lips,
and from the
scrolls of the prophets, He learned of heavenly things.
He lived in a
8Fundamentals of
Christian Education, 95.
9The Review and
Herald, June 13, 1882.
10Manuscript
Releases 13:6, 1898.
19
peasant’s home
and faithfully and cheerfully acted His part in bearing the household
burdens. He who had been the commander of heaven was a willing
servant, a loving, obedient son. He learned a trade, and with His own
hands worked in the carpenter’s shop with Joseph.
11The Ministry
of Healing, 399.
20
REFERENCE
Child Guidance
Ellen G. White
1954
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