1,99 €
Niedrigster Preis in 30 Tagen: 1,99 €
Niedrigster Preis in 30 Tagen: 1,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
In 'Education,' Ellen G. White presents a profound examination of educational philosophy steeped in moral and spiritual growth, emphasizing the harmonious development of the mind, body, and spirit. With an engaging prose style that blends personal anecdotes with theological insights, White constructs a compelling narrative that advocates for an education that transcends mere academic achievement. This book functions within a historic context of late 19th-century educational reforms, responding to the materialism of her time while intertwining biblical principles with practical instruction'—a reflection of the ideals of the burgeoning Adventist movement. Ellen G. White, a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, draws from her extensive experience as an educator and her belief in holistic learning. Her upbringing in a diverse cultural landscape and her commitment to the welfare of youth shaped her perspectives on education, leading her to envision a system that empowers individuals to transform society. White's deep spiritual convictions resonate throughout her writings, making 'Education' a landmark contribution to the discourse on pedagogical methods aligned with faith. 'Education' is essential reading for educators, parents, and anyone interested in the intersection of spirituality and learning. White's insights challenge conventional approaches and encourage readers to cultivate environments where intellectual inquiry and moral growth are paramount. This text serves not only as a roadmap for effective education but also as a call to nurture the full potential of every individual. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - An Author Biography reveals milestones in the author's life, illuminating the personal insights behind the text. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
Ähnliche
Education
Table of Contents
Introduction
Education, in Ellen G. White’s vision, is the disciplined, joyful shaping of the whole person for service. This book unfolds a sweeping view in which learning is not merely the acquisition of facts but the cultivation of character, purpose, and wisdom. White calls readers to see the classroom as a workshop of mind and heart where truth, beauty, and duty converge. She sets before us a journey from curiosity to conviction, from talent to usefulness, and from self-interest to stewardship. The result is a portrait of education that enlarges the ordinary horizon of schooling into a lifelong pursuit of wholeness.
Education is regarded as a classic within Christian educational thought because it articulates a durable, coherent philosophy that has shaped generations of practice. Its stature rests less on novelty than on its unifying vision, gathering moral, spiritual, intellectual, and practical strands into a single fabric. Readers find in it not only counsel but categories for thinking about the aims of schooling. Its influence is evident in faith-based discourse, in the organizational ethos of Seventh-day Adventist education, and in ongoing debates about character formation. The book endures because it continues to offer a compelling alternative to narrowly utilitarian views of learning.
Written by Ellen G. White, a 19th- and early 20th-century religious author and cofounder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Education was first published in 1903. Composed amid widespread conversations about modern schooling, it presents a comprehensive philosophy of education rooted in a biblical worldview. The book surveys the learner’s development, the roles of home and school, the work of the teacher, the value of study and labor, and the aim of life’s vocation. Without prescribing a single method, White outlines principles intended to guide educators, parents, and students toward a balanced cultivation of intellect, character, practical skill, and spiritual discernment.
White’s purpose is to lift education above mere preparation for livelihood, arguing that true learning orients the whole person toward truth and service. She writes to reframe priorities: knowledge must be allied with integrity, inquiry with reverence, and achievement with usefulness. Across its chapters, the book urges a steady attention to formative influences that shape conscience and habit. It invites teachers to become mentors rather than taskmasters, parents to become first educators, and students to become partners in their own growth. The intention is neither sectarian isolation nor accommodation, but a wise engagement that keeps ultimate ends in view.
Part of the book’s enduring appeal lies in its voice and texture. White’s prose is clear, earnest, and illustrative, drawing on the imagery of nature and the narratives of Scripture to illuminate educational truths. She writes with the conviction of a moral realist, yet with pastoral sympathy for the complexities of classrooms and homes. The style is practical without being prosaic, devotional without sentimentality. Readers encounter aphoristic insights alongside patient exposition, making the work accessible to lay readers and provocative for professionals. This combination of clarity and moral weight grants the book a literary presence beyond its immediate instructional aims.
Education proceeds by broadening the frame in which teaching is understood. It begins with foundational principles, then moves to the responsibilities of parents and instructors, the shaping power of environment, and the journey of the student from childhood into maturity. Along the way, it considers the uses of discipline, the rhythms of study and rest, and the ethical claims that knowledge imposes. Rather than treating life stages and school subjects in isolation, the book interlaces them, showing how each region of learning bears upon the formation of character. The structure models the integration it recommends, always returning to purpose and destiny.
A hallmark of White’s program is the union of study with constructive labor. She advocates education that trains the hand as well as the mind, valuing agriculture, craftsmanship, and service as partners to literature, science, and mathematics. This is not an anti-intellectual stance; rather, it insists that truths tested in action become wisdom. The book commends habits of self-discipline and self-government, encouraging schools to cultivate initiative rather than mere compliance. It envisions classrooms where curiosity is harnessed by order, and where moral reasoning accompanies analysis, so that learning shapes the will, refines taste, and prepares students to meet practical challenges.
Another distinctive emphasis is the double book of knowledge: nature and revelation. White invites readers to study the created world as a living textbook that awakens wonder and trains careful observation. She places Scripture at the center of moral and spiritual formation, not as a substitute for other disciplines, but as a compass that aligns them. By treating faith and reason as complementary, the book argues for an education that is intellectually honest and spiritually rooted. This approach resists both skepticism that empties learning of meaning and credulity that fears inquiry, holding instead to a confident, orderly vision of truth.
Education also speaks to purpose and calling. It challenges the notion that success rests in rank or wealth, proposing usefulness and fidelity as better measures. White explores how early training shapes the capacity for thoughtful citizenship, steady work, and compassionate leadership. She commends perseverance, simplicity, and service as habits that dignify any vocation. Without prescribing careers, she prompts students to discern their aptitudes and obligations, uniting personal talent with the needs of the world. In these pages, vocation becomes more than employment; it is the arena in which knowledge, character, and love converge to bless others.
The book’s legacy is visible in the ideals and policies of the Seventh-day Adventist educational system, which has drawn deeply from its counsel on curriculum, teacher preparation, and campus life. Educators in various Christian traditions have engaged its arguments, citing its holistic emphasis in discussions of character education, service learning, and student well-being. Through reprints, study guides, and institutional adoption, it has remained in circulation for over a century. Its durability does not rest on institutional reach alone, but on its capacity to give coherent language and practical traction to aspirations that many schools profess but struggle to realize.
For contemporary readers, Education speaks into urgent concerns: fragmented attention, instrumental views of schooling, widening gaps between knowledge and ethics, and the search for meaning in a rapidly changing world. Its call to integrate thought with action and faith with inquiry offers a tested path toward resilience and responsibility. The book champions communities of learning where relationships matter and where wellbeing includes the physical, mental, and spiritual. In an era of specialization, it invites a humane breadth; in an age of speed, it recommends patient growth. It suggests that enduring relevance comes from enduring aims.
In sum, Education presents a vision of learning as the disciplined pursuit of wholeness, oriented toward truth, freedom, and service. It marries intellectual vigor with moral clarity, reverence with curiosity, and personal growth with social responsibility. Readers encounter themes of character, vocation, stewardship, and hope, rendered in prose that is accessible and persuasive. Its classic status rests on this steady integration, which continues to inspire educators, parents, and students. To open its pages is to be summoned beyond technique to purpose, beyond performance to integrity, and beyond achievement to a life that equips and gives in equal measure.
Synopsis (Selection)
Education presents a comprehensive philosophy of Christian education, defining true education as the harmonious development of physical, mental, and spiritual powers. Ellen G. White places education within the purpose of God for humanity, teaching that its aim is to restore the divine image in human beings and equip them for useful service in this world and the life to come. The book argues that knowledge and virtue must be united, that learning should bring joy and duty together, and that training must be practical. It introduces enduring themes: God as the source of wisdom, Scripture and nature as complementary textbooks, and character formation as the central outcome. Education is portrayed as lifelong.
The opening chapters look to Eden as the original model school, with the Creator as teacher and nature as lesson book. This ideal was marred by the entrance of sin, and the author links education with the plan of redemption, describing learning as a means of restoration. The individual worth of each learner is emphasized, including the development of conscience, reason, and will. Guidance is to foster self-control rather than coercion. The home is presented as the first classroom, where habits are formed and values impressed. Through this framing, the book moves from the ideal beginning to the ongoing work of recovering that lost pattern.
Scripture is presented as the primary guide for an integrated curriculum, uniting moral purpose with intellectual growth. Biblical narratives, laws, poetry, and proverbs are treated as sources of practical wisdom and moral instruction. Jesus Christ is portrayed as the master teacher whose methods provide a model: clear aims, simple language, concrete illustrations, parables drawn from everyday life, and an appeal to conscience. The text urges training students to think for themselves rather than to be mere reflectors of other people’s thoughts. Reverence for God is described as the foundation of knowledge, shaping both the content and methods of teaching across subjects.
The book affirms the study of nature and human experience as avenues to know God, when interpreted in harmony with revelation. It contends that true science and the Bible agree when rightly understood, cautioning against speculative theories that sever facts from moral purpose. Methods of instruction should cultivate observation, reasoning, and application, linking lessons with practical life. History is to be read for its moral lessons, and prophecy is treated as a framework for understanding the direction of events. By integrating nature study, scientific inquiry, literature, and history under a unifying purpose, education is said to develop balanced judgment and a coherent view of truth.
A substantial portion addresses the home as the foundation of education. Parents are called the first teachers, shaping habit, appetite, speech, and courtesy from infancy. Training the will is highlighted, combining firmness with kindness to encourage obedience that is intelligent and voluntary. The home atmosphere should be pure, cheerful, orderly, and industrious. Daily worship, thoughtful conversation, and careful choice of reading are recommended to nurture reverence and thoughtfulness. The book emphasizes cooperation between home and school, so that messages are consistent and influence is united. Early years are portrayed as decisive, with impressions that guide later development of character and capacity.
Turning to formal schooling, the author outlines the teacher’s qualifications and task. Teachers are to be competent, patient, self-controlled, and consecrated to their work, recognizing that their example powerfully shapes students. Discipline is framed as education in self-government, based on justice, confidence, and sympathy rather than fear. The school environment should promote industry, simplicity, and moral purpose. Practical organization, wise rules, and personal attention are recommended. The curriculum should integrate the Bible with language, mathematics, science, and history, valuing thoroughness over show. Schools are cautioned against city distractions and urged to consider rural settings that favor health, simplicity, and opportunities for useful labor.
Practical training receives sustained emphasis. Manual work, agriculture, and crafts are commended for linking study with useful skill, strengthening body and mind. Health education includes temperance, pure diet, cleanliness, fresh air, exercise, and adequate rest, taught as moral as well as physical duties. Recreation should be wholesome, simple, and invigorating, avoiding amusements that dull conscience or feed vanity. Music and art are valued for cultivating taste and uplifting thought when guided by noble purpose. Economy, diligence, and stewardship are presented as habits essential to competence. The overall goal is fitness for service, with education equipping students to meet life’s responsibilities capably and cheerfully.
The social and civic dimensions of education are explored, with counsel on friendships, conversation, and influence. Ambition and rivalry are discouraged; cooperation and helpfulness are promoted. The choice of reading and entertainment is weighed by its effect on character. Vocational aims are framed as callings in which one can serve God and humanity. Historical examples include Israel’s education and the schools of the prophets, offered as models of spiritual vitality and practical training, contrasted with periods when learning lost its moral center. The book urges schools and churches to unite in missionary purpose, viewing education as a chief instrument for reform and service.
The closing chapters gather the themes into a final appeal. Education is to prepare for the fullest life now and for unending growth in the world to come. The restored image of God in humanity is described as the ultimate objective, realized through the knowledge of God and service to others. Teachers and parents are called to a high standard, mindful that their influence reaches far beyond the classroom. The text envisions an eternal school in which redeemed minds continue to discover truth without end. With this outlook, the book summarizes its program: learning that marries faith, knowledge, work, and love in a coherent whole.
Historical Context
Ellen G. White’s Education (1903) is situated in the crucible of the late Gilded Age and early Progressive Era, when the United States and parts of the British Empire, including Australia, were redefining school, work, and public morality. White lived in Cooranbong, New South Wales (1891–1900), where she helped shape a rural educational model, and then at Elmshaven near St. Helena, California (from 1900). The book was issued by Pacific Press in Oakland, California, in 1903. Its “setting” is institutional and cultural rather than narrative: rapidly expanding public schooling, urban-industrial growth, immigration, temperance agitation, health reform, and missionary expansion provide the social landscape Education addresses.
The denominational context is equally important. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, formally organized in 1863 in Battle Creek, Michigan, grew from a few thousand members to tens of thousands by 1900. Battle Creek College (1874), the Review and Herald publishing office, and the Battle Creek Sanitarium formed a complex that made the town an Adventist hub. Overseas, the Echo Publishing Company opened in Melbourne (1885), and education grew to support missions. Education codifies counsel for schools such as South Lancaster Academy (Massachusetts), Healdsburg College (California), and the Avondale School for Christian Workers (New South Wales), seeking a globally transferable model of moral, mental, and practical training.
The book’s intellectual roots trace to the Millerite movement (1830s–1840s) and the “Great Disappointment” of October 22, 1844, after which Sabbatarian Adventists reorganized their hopes into practical mission and social projects. The Seventh-day Adventist Church formed in 1863, with a strong emphasis on biblical literacy, prophetic study, and reformist living. This heritage prized personal discipline and public service. Education reflects that lineage by making the Bible the core text for character formation, situating learning within a teleology of service to God and neighbor, and insisting that knowledge is accountable to ethical ends rather than mere professional advancement.
The nineteenth-century common school movement created the modern American public school. Horace Mann, secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education from 1837, championed tax-supported, graded schools and teacher training through normal schools. Massachusetts enacted compulsory attendance in 1852; by the 1890s most states had similar laws, and by 1918 all states mandated schooling. This growth standardized curriculum and, increasingly, secularized public instruction amid religious pluralism. Education engages this reality by articulating a comprehensive alternative for Christian homes and schools: rigorous intellectual training joined to moral purpose, the rejection of mechanistic recitation, and the cultivation of conscience in place of value-neutral instruction.
Industrializing America reshaped curricula through the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 and the Second Morrill Act of 1890, which funded state agricultural and mechanical colleges, including institutions for Black students in segregated states. The manual training movement flourished: the St. Louis Manual Training School opened in 1879 under Calvin M. Woodward; Swedish Sloyd methods appeared in Boston in 1888. Educators emphasized shops, drawing, and applied science. Education adopts this emphasis but redirects its aim: it binds agriculture and trades to stewardship, service, and self-support, advocating daily labor as an educational principle. The book’s work-study ideal mirrors these movements while grounding them in spiritual and ethical formation.
Late nineteenth-century health reform and temperance shaped educational goals. Adventists established the Western Health Reform Institute in 1866, later the Battle Creek Sanitarium under John Harvey Kellogg, popularizing hydrotherapy, vegetarianism, and physical culture. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (founded 1874) under Frances Willard promoted school-based temperance instruction, and numerous states passed temperance education laws in the 1880s–1890s. Education integrates these trends, arguing that the training of appetite, exercise, and hygiene belongs in curricula alongside literature and mathematics. By presenting health as moral education and civic duty, the book converts public reform impulses into a coherent pedagogy that joins physiology, character, and community welfare.
Post–Civil War nation-building included the schooling of formerly enslaved people. The Freedmen’s Bureau (1865–1872) coordinated thousands of schools. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute began in 1868 under Samuel Chapman Armstrong; Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881, blended academics with trades. These exemplified the era’s belief that industrial education could secure economic footing and civic participation for African Americans. Education reflects the same conviction that dignified labor elevates communities. White repeatedly urged schools to combine book learning with agriculture and crafts, and she commended mission-oriented institutions that equipped students with employable skills, moral purpose, and self-sustaining habits.
Jim Crow segregation hardened after the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision (1896), while disfranchisement and racial violence escalated, documented by Ida B. Wells’s anti-lynching campaigns in the 1890s. Within this context, the Adventist Church opened the Oakwood Industrial School in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1896 to educate Black students in agriculture and trades. Education aligns with such efforts by insisting that education is restorative and egalitarian in God’s design. It champions rural campuses, practical industries, and service learning as tools to uplift marginalized populations, implicitly critiquing social systems that restrict opportunity and calling for institutions that model equity and Christian brotherhood.
Campaigns for Sunday legislation reveal tensions between religion and the state. The National Reform Association (established 1864) urged Christian amendments and Sabbath laws. Senator Henry W. Blair’s national Sunday-rest bill (1888) spurred hearings at which Adventist A. T. Jones argued for liberty of conscience. Prosecutions under state Sunday statutes affected dissenters in the late 1880s and 1890s, including Adventists in Tennessee and Arkansas. Education addresses such pressures indirectly by warning against coercion in religion and conscience. It envisions schools where moral authority persuades rather than compels, and civic instruction emphasizes rights and responsibilities in a plural society, protecting minority faith practice.
Progressive Era reforms transformed pedagogy. John Dewey opened the University of Chicago Laboratory School in 1896 and published The School and Society in 1899, promoting experiential, child-centered learning. Urban school systems professionalized administration and expanded kindergartens and vocational tracks. Measurement and science pressed into classrooms. Education converges with certain progressive aims—learning by doing, integrated subjects, and community orientation—yet diverges in grounding purpose in a theistic anthropology. It critiques utilitarian careerism and purely secular pragmatism, insisting that wisdom is the integration of knowledge, ethics, and service, and that the finest mental culture emerges when moral law organizes the curriculum.
Adventist missions globalized educational needs and strategies. In 1874, J. N. Andrews departed as the church’s first official overseas missionary to Switzerland, modeling scholarly mission. The denomination entered Australasia in the 1880s, establishing the Echo Publishing Company in Melbourne (1885). In southern Africa, the Solusi Mission opened in Matabeleland in 1894, creating schools that mixed agriculture and evangelism under colonial conditions. Education speaks to this worldwide field by prescribing reproducible, low-cost, self-supporting schools adaptable to diverse cultures. It ties language study, health instruction, and manual skills to mission aims, preparing teachers who can build institutions and livelihoods in frontier and cross-cultural contexts.
The events that most shaped Education include the Australian school experiment at Cooranbong. White moved to Australia in 1891; amid the financial depression and bank crashes of 1893, Adventists purchased bushland near the Dora Creek at Cooranbong in 1894 to found a rural campus. The Avondale School for Christian Workers opened in 1897. Students cleared land, ran a sawmill, planted orchards, and learned carpentry while pursuing Bible, languages, and sciences. The locality’s scarcity of funds and distance from cities forced a self-supporting model. Education distills this lived experience into principles: country locations, industries on campus, work-study schedules, and curricula that unite piety, scholarship, and practical arts.
A parallel influence was denominational reorganization and educational redirection in 1901. At the General Conference Session in Battle Creek, leaders created union conferences, decentralized control, and clarified educational oversight. That same year, Battle Creek College was relocated to rural Berrien Springs, Michigan, as Emmanuel Missionary College, embodying the shift away from urban concentration toward agricultural settings. These reforms answered concerns about overcentralization and mission drift. Education takes this institutional moment and provides a blueprint: smaller, mission-driven schools; faculty who model service; and governance that empowers local responsibility while preserving broad standards of moral and intellectual excellence.
Institutional crises in 1902 reinforced the message. The Battle Creek Sanitarium burned on February 18, 1902, and the Review and Herald Publishing House burned on December 30, 1902. In 1903 the Review and Herald moved to Washington, D.C., symbolizing a geographic and philosophical reset. These fires, widely reported, exposed the risks of massive, debt-laden urban institutions. Education echoes the counsel that followed: avoid unwieldy concentrations, reduce ostentation, and place schools where land and labor can cooperate for health and character. The book urges simplicity, financial prudence, and spiritual focus, turning catastrophe into a rationale for sustainable, rural educational development.
Contests over religion in public schools formed another backdrop. In Cincinnati, the Board of Education voted in 1869 to end Bible readings and hymns; in 1872 the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the policy in Board of Education of Cincinnati v. Minor. Similar disputes across American cities, fueled by Protestant-Catholic tensions and rising pluralism, pushed devotional exercises out of many classrooms. Education responds by not seeking state-enforced religion but by calling for intentionally Christian schools supported by families and churches. It frames Bible study as the intellectual and ethical center of learning, taught persuasively and freely, rather than through legal compulsion or sectarian dominance.
As social critique, Education targets the mechanization and moral drift of turn-of-the-century schooling. It challenges class stratification that steered elites toward classical credentials and the poor toward drudgery, advancing the dignity of labor for all and insisting that manual skills and high scholarship belong together. It rebukes urban overstimulation and unhealthy habits bred by industrial capitalism, proposing rural campuses, gardens, and health reform as antidotes. It opposes coercion—whether in pedagogy or religion—advocating governance by principle, not fear. In place of credentialism and narrow specialization, it elevates wisdom, character, service, and the harmonious development of physical, mental, and spiritual powers.
The book also exposes structural injustices of its era. Against Jim Crow segregation and the exclusion of the poor, it commends accessible, self-supporting schools that equip marginalized communities for economic independence and civic contribution. Against Sunday-law coercion and sectarian privilege, it defends liberty of conscience and models religion taught by example. Its temperance and health emphases critique industries profiting from addiction and disease, calling education to safeguard public welfare. By wedding intellectual rigor to service, and decentralization to accountability, Education offers a politically resonant pedagogy aimed at reforming society through the formation of principled, competent, and compassionate citizens.
Author Biography
Ellen G. White (1827–1915) was an American religious writer and public speaker, best known as a formative voice in the rise of Seventh-day Adventism. Over seven decades she produced thousands of pages of counsel, devotional reflection, and narrative interpretation of Scripture, shaping a global movement’s theology, lifestyle, and institutions. Her work centered on themes of Christian discipleship, the conflict between good and evil, and practical spirituality. White’s influence extended beyond church members through books on education, health, and ethics. Her followers regarded her as exercising the biblical gift of prophecy; historians typically describe her as a prolific 19th-century reformer and author.
White was born in rural Maine and experienced limited formal schooling after a childhood injury, turning instead to extensive reading and religious participation. As a young Methodist influenced by the revival culture of the early 1840s, she joined the Millerite movement that anticipated Christ’s imminent return. After the Great Disappointment of 1844, she became part of a small group reexamining biblical prophecy and Christian life. In her late teens she began public ministry, including prayer meetings, exhortation, and itinerant speaking. Supporters reported that she experienced visions which offered practical and devotional guidance, a feature that would frame her later writing.
In the mid-19th century she worked with figures such as James White and Joseph Bates in shaping a Sabbath-keeping network that coalesced into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Her counsel encouraged systematic organization, publishing, and missionary outreach. The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald became a focal outlet for instruction and debate, and she contributed frequent articles and letters. Through the multivolume Testimonies for the Church, issued over several decades, she addressed spirituality, leadership, finance, and community ethics. She traveled widely to camp meetings and conferences, advocating careful Bible study and practical reform while urging cooperation among ministers, educators, physicians, and lay workers.
Ellen G. White’s literary output ranged from devotional classics to extended narratives on biblical history. Among widely read titles are Steps to Christ, The Desire of Ages, The Great Controversy, Patriarchs and Prophets, and Christ’s Object Lessons, along with Early Writings, Education, and The Ministry of Healing. She also prepared volumes such as Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing and Life Sketches, and oversaw revisions of The Great Controversy in later editions. Her books present a unifying “great controversy” motif, emphasize the life and teachings of Jesus, and offer practical counsel on prayer, character, health, and service, blending exhortation with accessible prose.
Health reform became a defining strand of her advocacy after the early 1860s, when she urged temperance, sanitation, and a largely plant-based diet as expressions of Christian stewardship. She promoted institutions where medical care, preventive health, and spiritual support complemented each other, influencing the rise of Adventist sanitariums and nursing education. In educational theory she argued for balanced development of mind, body, and spirit, endorsing practical labor and mission-oriented curricula. Her counsel shaped schools in North America and abroad, including work in Australia in the 1890s that contributed to the establishment of a training college and a broader network of ministries.
Reception of her work has varied. Within Adventism, many regard her as a prophetic messenger whose writings carry continuing authority for faith and practice, while also subject to the primacy of Scripture. Outside that community, readers often encounter her as a moral essayist and devotional interpreter of the Bible. Scholars have discussed her use of contemporary sources, noting literary borrowing common to the period; debates over originality and inspiration have accompanied those findings. Despite such controversies, her books have been translated widely and remain in print, used for personal devotion, pastoral training, and institutional planning in many parts of the world.
In her later decades White lived for periods in Europe and, more extensively, in Australia, before settling in northern California in the early 20th century. She continued writing and mentoring church leaders, preparing books and letters that consolidated earlier themes. At her death in 1915, she left a large manuscript collection and an organizational structure for its oversight. The Ellen G. White Estate has preserved her correspondence, journals, and drafts, facilitating ongoing publication and research. Her legacy endures in Adventist education, health systems, and devotional life, and her books continue to be read both within the denomination and by a wider Christian audience.
Education
Foreword
It is rare, indeed, for a book devoted to the subject of education to be read so widely or to endure so well the tests of changing times as has the present work now appearing in this new, popular form. The fundamental principles clearly unfolded in this volume have for many decades made it the handbook of tens of thousands of parents and teachers. Now, to further augment its already wide distribution and reading, it is published as one of the Christian home library volumes, but without change in wording or paging.
Every person must face the practical realities of life--its opportunities, its responsibilities, its defeats, and its successes. How he is to meet these experiences, whether he is to become master or victim of circumstances, depends largely upon his preparation to cope with them--his education.
True education is well defined as the harmonious development of all the faculties--a full and adequate preparation for this life and the future eternal life. It is in the early years in the home and in the formal schoolwork that the mind develops, a pattern of living is established, and character is formed.
Keenly discerning the relative and lasting values of what constitutes true education in its broadest sense, the author of this book points the way to their realization. An education in which the mental faculties are properly developed is clearly outlined. An education in which the hands are skilled in useful trades is emphasized. An education which recognizes god as the source of all wisdom and understanding is earnestly recommended. (p.8)
The motivating objective of the author in her extensive writings upon the subject of education was that youth on the threshold of life might be ready to take their place as good citizens, well prepared for the practical experiences of living, fully developed physically, god-fearing, with characters untarnished and hearts true to principle. This volume is the paramount work in this group of writings in which are set forth principles essential to the understanding of those who guide the youth in the home and in the school.
The writer of these pages was a friend of young men and women. She was for many years in close touch with institutions of learning and was well acquainted with the problems of youth in preparation for their lifework. Above all, she was endued with more than ordinary knowledge and skill as a writer and speaker.
Concerned as it is with great guiding principles, and not with the details of curriculum or the merits of differing educational systems, the influence of this volume has been worldwide, with editions published in a number of the leading languages of other continents. That this new American printing may still more widely disseminate the great principles of character education is the ardent hope of the publishers and--
The trustees of the Ellen G. White Publications.
Source and Aim of True Education
Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the pursual of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.
The source of such an education is brought to view in these words of Holy Writ, pointing to the Infinite One: In Him "are hid all the treasures of wisdom." Colossians 2:3. "He hath counsel and understanding." Job 12:13.
The world has had its great teachers, men of giant intellect and extensive research, men whose utterances have stimulated thought and opened to view vast fields of knowledge; and these men have been honored as guides and benefactors of their race; but there is One who stands higher than they. We can trace the line of the world's teachers as far back as human records extend; but the (p.14) Light was before them. As the moon and the stars of our solar system shine by the reflected light of the sun, so, as far as their teaching is true, do the world's great thinkers reflect the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Every gleam of thought, every flash of the intellect, is from the Light of the world.
In these days much is said concerning the nature and importance of "higher education." The true "higher education" is that imparted by Him with whom "is wisdom and strength" (Job 12:13), out of whose mouth "cometh knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2:6.
In a knowledge of God all true knowledge and real development have their source. Wherever we turn, in the physical, the mental, or the spiritual realm; in whatever we behold, apart from the blight of sin, this knowledge is revealed. Whatever line of investigation we pursue, with a sincere purpose to arrive at truth, we are brought in touch with the unseen, mighty Intelligence that is working in and through all. The mind of man is brought into communion with the mind of God, the finite with the Infinite. The effect of such communion on body and mind and soul is beyond estimate.
In this communion is found the highest education. It is God's own method of development. "Acquaint now thyself with Him" (Job 22:21), is His message to mankind. The method outlined in these words was the method followed in the education of the father of our race. When in the glory of sinless manhood Adam stood in holy Eden, it was thus that God instructed him.
In order to understand what is comprehended in the work of education, we need to consider both the nature of man and the purpose of God in creating him. We need to consider also the change in man's condition through (p.15) the coming in of a knowledge of evil, and God's plan for still fulfilling His glorious purpose in the education of the human race.
When Adam came from the Creator's hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker. "God created man in His own image" (Genesis 1:27), and it was His purpose that the longer man lived the more fully he should reveal this image--the more fully reflect the glory of the Creator. All his faculties were capable of development; their capacity and vigor were continually to increase. Vast was the scope offered for their exercise, glorious the field opened to their research. The mysteries of the visible universe--the "wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge" (Job 37:16)--invited man's study. Face-to-face, heart-to-heart communion with his Maker was his high privilege. Had he remained loyal to God, all this would have been his forever. Throughout eternal ages he would have continued to gain new treasures of knowledge, to discover fresh springs of happiness, and to obtain clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the wisdom, the power, and the love of God. More and more fully would he have fulfilled the object of his creation, more and more fully have reflected the Creator's glory.
But by disobedience this was forfeited. Through sin the divine likeness was marred, and well-nigh obliterated. Man's physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity was lessened, his spiritual vision dimmed. He had become subject to death. Yet the race was not left without hope. By infinite love and mercy the plan of salvation had been devised, and a life of probation was granted. To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back (p.16) to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized--this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life.
Love, the basis of creation and of redemption, is the basis of true education. This is made plain in the law that God has given as the guide of life. The first and great commandment is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind." Luke 10:27. To love Him, the infinite, the omniscient One, with the whole strength, and mind, and heart, means the highest development of every power. It means that in the whole being-- the body, the mind, as well as the soul--the image of God is to be restored.
Like the first is the second commandment--"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Matthew 22:39. The law of love calls for the devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our fellow men. And this service, while making us a blessing to others, brings the greatest blessing to ourselves. Unselfishness underlies all true development. Through unselfish service we receive the highest culture of every faculty. More and more fully do we become partakers of the divine nature. We are fitted for heaven, for we receive heaven into our hearts.
Since God is the source of all true knowledge, it is, as we have seen, the first object of education to direct our minds to His own revelation of Himself. Adam and Eve received knowledge through direct communion with God; and they learned of Him through His works. All created things, in their original perfection, were an expression (p.17) of the thought of God. To Adam and Eve nature was teeming with divine wisdom. But by transgression man was cut off from learning of God through direct communion and, to a great degree, through His works. The earth, marred and defiled by sin, reflects but dimly the Creator's glory. It is true that His object lessons are not obliterated. Upon every page of the great volume of His created works may still be traced His handwriting. Nature still speaks of her Creator. Yet these revelations are partial and imperfect. And in our fallen state, with weakened powers and restricted vision, we are incapable of interpreting aright. We need the fuller revelation of Himself that God has given in His written word.
The Holy Scriptures are the perfect standard of truth, and as such should be given the highest place in education. To obtain an education worthy of the name, we must receive a knowledge of God, the Creator, and of Christ, the Redeemer, as they are revealed in the sacred word.
Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator-- individuality, power to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character. It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men's thought. Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen. (p.18) Instead of educated weaklings, institutions of learning may send forth men strong to think and to act, men who are masters and not slaves of circumstances, men who possess breadth of mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions.
Such an education provides more than mental discipline; it provides more than physical training. It strengthens the character, so that truth and uprightness are not sacrificed to selfish desire or worldly ambition. It fortifies the mind against evil. Instead of some master passion becoming a power to destroy, every motive and desire are brought into conformity to the great principles of right. As the perfection of His character is dwelt upon, the mind is renewed, and the soul is re-created in the image of God.
What education can be higher than this? What can equal it in value?
"It cannot be gotten for gold,
Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir,
With the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
The gold and the crystal cannot equal it
And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls:
For the price of wisdom is above rubies."
Job 28:15-18
.
Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children. Godliness--godlikeness--is the goal to be reached. Before the student there is opened a path of continual progress. He has an object to achieve, a standard to attain, that includes everything good, and pure, and noble. He will advance as fast and as far as possible in every branch of true knowledge. But his efforts will be directed to objects as much higher than (p.19) mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are higher than the earth.
He who co-operates with the divine purpose in imparting to the youth a knowledge of God, and molding the character into harmony with His, does a high and noble work. As he awakens a desire to reach God's ideal, he presents an education that is as high as heaven and as broad as the universe; an education that cannot be completed in this life, but that will be continued in the life to come; an education that secures to the successful student his passport from the preparatory school of earth to the higher grade, the school above.
