Maplewood Academy - Maple Log Yearbook (Hutchinson, MN)

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H N 1' A . .p j--L Q uU'roHsoN1AN :fa -aiD3lm5wlNmxmsi 7 'af ,, IKMWWW W Q. ' K'-lk-'L GI Christian Education F, OR NEARLY thirty years Maplewood Academy has been endeavoring to 'give instruction in Christian education. Many young people who iq--L it have enrolled at this academy have left the institution to live the principles of such an education, others have not. Both classes re- ceived the same instruction, but they did not make the same choices. Just as there is no teaching when there is no learning, so no one has a Christian education when he ignores Christian principles. In a broad sense a Christian education is the training of all the faculties of mind and body to be used for God in service for humanity. Such a process would be the impartation of the knowledge, both industrial and cultural, intel- lectual and spiritual, that would tend to perfect a practical righteous character and to make life more abundant. The first step in such an education is to train the will to submit to laws higher than itself. This training should begin in the home during the earliest years of the child and continue the rest of his life. Then the next step is to teach self-control. After these lessons have been given, obedience to God is to be taught as the young mind develops. Imperfect as a child's conception of God may be, he can soon comprehend what would please or what would displease Hiun. This is the basic instruction in Christian education. When a solid foundation has been built the super- structure is not a difficult task, for the whole system is unfolded little by little by precept and by example. Thus knowledge is added to knowledge and truth to truth. When a youth has sensed his amenability to God, who as the source of all power and knowledge, is the keeper as well as creator of all creaturesg when that youth has by actual experience learned to talk and to walk with God, he is en- abled to acquire whatever knowledge that is needful to take him to the high- est rung of usefulness. This is Christian education. It continues throughout life, for as long as peo- ple live on this earth they will have contact with others of all classes in all kinds of circumstances, and so from childhood, during youth and through mature years to old age, every one will have opportunity to use all the training and knowledge that he has acquired either in school or out of it. In fact at the present time much stress is laid on adult education. A diploma showing that a prescribed course has been iinished satisfactorily according to the standard accepted by competent judges does not conclude one's efforts. The truth of the matter is that such diplomas only indicate that the holder has been submitted to a mental drill that will enable him in a better way to meet others and to do his part of the world's activities. The longer a person submits himself to formal training the better able he is to help himself and others pro- vided he has practiced what he has learned. Just as the begnning of an education is a training to submission so pro- gression in education is a continuation in submission, but in that progress a power is gained to direct, to lead. Thus we understand that a Christian education is one that enables an in- dividual to do his part well from childhood to old age, in the home, in the school, in the church, and in the community where he lives, whether in his native land, or in another of his choice, and to do it in the fear of God. But the only Christian education that a person has is the one that he himself by the help of heaven has gained through a constant choice of right principles.