Bethel University - Spire Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

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THE ACORN atmosphere of these schools that we uphold them, for they have other advantages also. President-emeritus Eliot of Harvard says, “Academies, as a class, are distinctly superior to high schools, as a class.” In such schools the classes are smaller and thus each student comes more into immediate contact with the teachers. This means that immaturity is under constant impact of maturity. Under such conditions the instructor becomes well acquainted wi.h each individual and is thus in a position to direct each student in the best way. Our great educators realize the importance of such conditions and are trying to provide some substitute for it. Not only are the students brought into closer touch with the teachers but with each other. In the small school where every person knows every other person, there is less tendency to the formation of cliques, or closed circles, that tend to narrow the sphere of the students rather than widen it. In the small school the students come into closer touch with all the school activities and not only with one or a very few as is the rule in the larger school. A business man in one of our large university centres recently expressed alarm at the prevalance of ‘cribbing” among tne students. He said that this would tend tc develop men who would be dishonest when they entered the business world. This is one instance of one of the many evils which have a more fruithful field in the state schools than in the Christian institutions. When we face the matter squarely we find that the small Christian institution has been a mighty power for good, and although by no means perfect, yet it will continue to exert its influence and is worthy of our attention. It is to the Christian school that we must look for an adequate ministry, for workers in the mission fields, and for Christian teachers. Not only that, but we need men of high ideals in all walks of life. We need laymen who have been trained in the atmosphere of Christianity. Wo need business and professional men who are guided by true Christian principles. The crowning work of education is to give an incentive to worthy conduct to set up high ideals and purposes, and to give clear visions of life’s possibilities. Education that does not issue in high moral purpose and worthy achievement is a failure. “Though I speak in the tongues of the Greeks and Romans, and though I have all Knowledge of the sciences and have not a noble purpose for life. 1 am nothing.” The graduate with high scholastic honors, without true ideals and inspiring motives, is defective in training. The noblest thing in the world is true manhood and womanhood with strong moral purpose, and that Is what Christian education brings about because it deals with the person as a whole and leaves no one of his essential elements undeveloped.

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4 THE ACORN that civilization. The religion of Mohame-dan, Jew, Buddhist, and Christian must characterize the education of each. If our civilization can make any just claims or superiority over any other, it must be based on the fact that the underlying religious principles are higher than those of any other. Assuredly then this element should have a place in education. An educational system without this is like a boat without ballast. The atmosphere of religion produces a spirit of reverence which is necessary for a nation’s strength. It manifests itself in a reverence for law, authority, and above all for God. Because of some narrow sectarians all religious training has been banished from the public sbools. Since the state cannot give a religious atmosphere to education, then it devolves upon the church to make good this deficiency. Many parents are justified in the desire that their children be trained under the influence of the ethical and religious views they cherish. But it must not he forgotten that the time comes when the young person throws off all external guidance and chooses whether or not lie shall hold to the belief of his parents. Because of this some would at the outset set the youth adrift on the pathless sea and let him find his own way so as not 10 interfere with the sacredness of individual choice. But the daily uprising of song from the college chapels of Oxford and Cambridge has not meant any decrease of intellectual liberty. A religious atmosphere does not mean an inhibition of freedom to think. In our colleges the average freshman and sophomore is a vigorous, living contradiction of the pleasing hypothesis that he has reached the point where he is able to draw his own charts and steer his own bark. Educators are beginning to realize that he needs wholesome advice in the choice of his studies. It is then possible that lie may still he guided with profit in the choice of his recreations, ideals of conduct, and even in his dominant thoughts of the Infinite One. He needs not control, but guidance; not explicit instructions or spoken or written word, but that of environing personality. Many admirable young persons have been sent to the large schools with serious results. Many who are not fit for the free and irresponsible life would do well in some Christian institution. Pres. Jordan of Belaud Stanford has suggested that the first two years be dropped from the university course so as to keep students of that stage of development under conditions more suited to their immaturity. If this be the case with respect to the first two years of the college, then certainly the students in the more tender years of the high schooi or academy period need healthy moral surroundings. Without any doubt our public schools are doing great work, yet there is an incompleteness since nothing is done to develop the spiritual nature, and so lor this we must turn to the Christian institutions. The environment is such as to help the spiritual life. It makes for righteousness because the majority of the students are Christians. The Bible classes, the mission study classes, and high plane of social life help to make conditions such that the clean life is more easily lived than the unclean. The reaching and living of the Christian teachers is a great factor. The daily contact with such liigh-mlnded instructors does more than to see and hear in the pulpit, once a week, the man who wears a Prince Albert coat. It is true that the state institutions have many Christian men on their faculties, but no provision is made for the moral and religious training. The teachers in the larger schools do not have the opportunity in this line such as afforded by the smaller Christian schools. The public schools leave their stamp, and it is usually one of indifference to religion. Such a place is not good for those who are not firmly enough fixed so as to be able to resist temptations. But it is not only because of the religious

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0 THE ACORN WHAT IRRIGATION MEANS TO THE DITCH-RIDER By Joel Burkman ’ll. John Anderson looked very tired, and out of sons as he saddled his horse preparatory to beginning his days work. The last few days had been very strenuous, and the farmers were more than usually discontent ed.. John lived in one of the many valleys between the Rockies and the Cascade Mountains. lie was supposed to take care of a large ditch that supplied a stretch of country with water. This canal ran along close to the side of a lava mountain, and in one place went right through a promontory of these lavas. When the canal had passed this, it ran along near the top of a tide-hill over forty feet higher than the plain below, in this side-hill the formation was not of the kind that easily holds water: layers of lava were frequent, and although thousands of dollars had been spent in trying to cement all the crevices in which the water was constantly escaping, it was still leaking in many places. No matter how closely it was watched the water would every once in a while transform one of these small cracks into a large washout that it often cost, thousands of dollars to repair. But more than that, it also took time—and time could only be valued by the price of the magnificicnt crops on those vast tracks of land that were deponent on the canal for their moisture. If the water should cease running for a week the crops would be a total loss: if but for a day. the loss, would yet be very great. This was one of the many things John was supposed to look out for and prevent. There were other phases of his work which while they were not so hard in some ways as the one mentioned, they were the more vexatious in other respects. From the canal, ditches led to each farm, or laterals to each group of farmers living together some distance from the main canal. At the head of each ditch and lateral tile water was measured, so that each tanner would get his share; and then again at the head of each private ditch that led out of the laterals. Otherwise, those who lived at the lower end would not get a drop of water, of course, those who lived nearer the head of the lateral never got enough, no matter how much they took, 'i'llis caused constant conflicts between the Mitch rider” (as the caretaker of the canal is called) and the farmeis, ami also between the farmers themselves, whenever they chanced to meet. Very little snow had fallen the previous winter. The river was, therefore, much lower than usual; and although the dam which was to raise the wafer in the river. jo that there should he a sufficient stream entering the canal, had been repeatedly repaiied and made higher, there was still not nearly enough water entering the canal «o fill the amount ordered. The canal company would have raised the dam still more, but the government had forbidden any more dams or other obstructions to be placed in the river, since a few miles below the river was entirely dry. and the animals and even the people were suffering for the want of water. Under these circumstances it was not to be wondered at. that the farmers were discontented: and it was of course only natural that John should receive all their surplus temper. When John had gotten up in the morning and looked at the canal, he had seen to his dismay that it contained even less water Ilian usual. He knew well what this meant. The farmer who had been almost desperate tefore at seeing their crops drying, would l c all the worse now. He had telephoned the manager urging him to send down more water, but was told that it would be impossible to send down any more for the