“Third, he must select material of proper dimensions and fiber, and then must reflect how to apply it to the draught made so that there is no waste.
“Fourth, he must plane and saw to the line, correct and fit; in short, must create the project that has had existence in his mind and upon paper only. Then it is that his arithmetic begins to throb with life, his judgment to command, and his ethical sense to unfold.”
This is the testimony of teachers who have made a practical application of arithmetic and geometry in the carpenter shop. Children twelve and fourteen years of age solve problems in proportion, in square root, in measurements, and in denominate numbers, which baffle the skill of the ordinary high-school graduate. This, too, is a part of Christian education. Doubtless Christ himself gained most of his mathematical knowledge at the carpenter’s bench.
“The most practical education,” says Hiram Corson “(but this, so-considered, pre-eminently practical age does not seem to know it), is the education of the spiritual man; for it is this, and not the education of the intellectual man, which is, must be (or Christianity has made a great mistake), the basis of individual character, and to individual character ... humanity owes its sustainment.” The proper combination, then, of religious training and practical hand work in teaching mathematics or language will develop stability of character, and this is the end and aim of Christian education.
Carpentry not the only practical educator
There are, however, in this twentieth century, various other ways of rendering education practical; and since these ways are a factor in the Christian training of youth, they should receive attention. God made no mistake when he gave to Adam the work of tilling the soil. Since the days of Eden, those men who have shunned the cities, and chosen instead to dwell in rural districts, have, as a rule, come closest to the heart of the Creator. The true way to study the sciences is to come in touch with Nature.
Christ chose the country
For this, also, we have the example of Christ. “In training His disciples, Jesus chose to withdraw from the confusion of the city, to the quiet of the fields and hills, as more in harmony with the lessons of self-abnegation He desired to teach them. And during His ministry He loved to gather the people about Him under the blue heavens, on some grassy hillside, or on the beach beside the lake. Here, surrounded by the works of His own creation, He could turn the thoughts of His hearers from the artificial to the natural. In the growth and development of nature were revealed the principles of His kingdom. As men should lift up their eyes to the hills of God, and behold the wonderful works of His hands, they could learn the precious lessons of divine truth. Christ’s teaching would be repeated to them in the things of nature.... The things of nature take up the parables of our Lord, and repeat His counsels.”
The teacher who has a desire to ennoble the character of his pupils will seek a place where Nature in her silent language gives lessons which no human tongue can utter. Parents who desire the best good of their sons and daughters, will, when the light of Christian education dawns upon their minds, hasten into the country, that the youthful minds over which they are keeping guard may be influenced by the natural rather than by the artificial.