When Southern used to be called Southern Missionary College,
the initials SMC were sometimes called Southern Marrying College.
So many students met and married.
Then the name was changed to Southern Adventist University.
3 Likes
Ann, There are also differences in QUALITY of Home Schooling.
When I was teaching in Academy we would have missionary kids who
would come. They had been home schooling.
It would take almost a Semester for them to get in the groove of
discipline of studying for tests. Having homework done on time to
either grade or turn in.
There is also the differences in the quality of the parents to be able
to teach the subjects and make sure their child is up to grade level in
abilities.
For about 4 years I also taught Junior Chemistry. And there was a need for
students to understand Fractions and Ratio and Proportion.
I would give my students a test of problems I took from an 8th grade math
book. Every year I would HAVE to teach fractions and ratio and proportion
to these Juniors because many of them lacked the ability as seen on the
test before we were too far along in the year.
Most of them came from SDA church schools.
4 Likes
Thank you cfowler for your supportive, kind, non condemnatory evaluation of my failure to send my children to Adventist schools.
Sounds like you are a kindred spirit.
Please contact Bonnie Dwyer at Spectrum fo my e mail / phone number.
I would like to invite you as a guest in my Maui and French Riviera homes.
That is why many Adventist parents in Michigan would not send their children to nearby Andrews ( with its more racially diverse campus ) and would send their daughters to more white Southern Missionary College !
1 Like
You mentioned a couple of those barriers. One thing you failed to mention is dogma and/or a lack thereof. We lived in an area where there was ample access from multiple sources to Adventist education, k-12, yet many parents chose home schooling because the believed the Adventist education system was akin to Sodom and Gomorrah. Or the flip side of that they simply werenât connected into Adventist culture and belief enough feel it was important.
Now into my retirement years Iâve come to the point where Iâd be in the latter category if I was still raising a family, but thatâs now. Back then I fell for the mind control games of our Adventist peers.
3 Likes
If you are saying or implying that the only way to be in Godâs good graces is to be a Christian, what does that say or imply about how you think of God? As a parent it is obvious that you love dearly and are extremely proud of your kids. Do you think that God is not capable of doing the same?
MICHAEL WORTMAN
Sorry, but I am upset that a daughter who was raised Christian ( Adventist ) with its emphasis on Christâs saving power ( for example EGWâs DESIRE OF AGES ), is now raising her children as non Christians.
My13 year old granddaughter recently asked her mother:
â Mom are we Christian ? â The answer was â no we are not Christian â.
And this in Great Britain, with its plethora of Anglican chapels / churches / cathedrals in every village / town /city.
Not to mention itâs Wesleyan Methodist heritage !
Yes I am sure God loves my daughter, as do I ,
and unlike her siblings,
she is regularly in her UNITARIAN church,
teaching Sunday School,
and even giving occasional sermons
( her major in her non Adventist college was RELIGIOUS STUDIES )
( when the woman pastor is ill or on vacation ).
Believe it not, even these â non Christian â UNITARIANS honor and esteem their clergywomen, unlike the â Christian â Adventists who still refuse to ordain !
3 Likes
Robin â
Unitarians I know are very good people.
Introduce your Granddaughter to
Exodus 21,22,23; Leviticus 19; Psalm 112; Isaiah 58; Micah 6:8.
which is HOW we become like God in character, and can
BE God to others.
Jesus says âLet your light shineâ, âBe salt to those around youâ.
Jesus says we do that through our Good Works. Working the works
of God.
Showing LOVE to God, to strangers, to neighbors, to the handicapped.
You say she is 13. At that age kids are able to begin looking âoutwardâ
from themselves and enjoy doing so.
She may NOT become an SDA, but she can be a child of Abraham which
might actually be MORE important. At least to God.
Matthew 5:48 tells us âyou shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven
is perfect.â Luke 6:36 says âbe merciful just as your Father in heaven is
merciful.â
PERFECTION is what your granddaughterâs character will develop into.
1 Like
Your post sums up the situation with Adventist education as Iâve observed it, too. Coming to the realization that there is such a dichotomy within Adventism over how the schools are viewed has been a surprise. The middle ground, where parents view the sda schools as useful, has shrunk to almost nothing outside of large SDA centers.
3 Likes
I religiously sent my kids to SDA schools. In hind sight, it was not money well spent. If I had used our money to have vacations and family time together rather than working long hours to keep the bills current, it would have been a better investment.
8 Likes
Itâs not just a state-by-state thing either. Zip codes, which is really a SES issue, matter too. In Dr. Leukertâs part of southern CA, there is a dramatic difference in the quality of education within a 35 minute drive in any direction from La Sierra University. San Bernardino unified school district is terrible in so many ways. Drive 35 minutes the other direction into Orange county and youâll find some of the best K-12 schools in the country.
2 Likes
Question:â
Do ALL SDA elementary schools teach CURSIVE writing?
In Georgia CURSIVE writing has been DELETED from the curriculum of
the Public Schools.
Well said! Not using the same standardized test also applies to comparing US schools with those in different countries.
1 Like
Private schools, in general, tend to teach cursive. This includes Adventist schools. Public schools in my state do not teach it. But my son barely learned it, even though he was taught it, because all his schools allowed kids to type a lot of their work.
Both of my children have been typing all of their homework and creative writing since before high school. They rarely even print workâjust submit it online.
This used to bother me, but with all that my children face today I donât worry about it anymore. While I value beautiful handwriting I can see that the time taken on the instruction might be better used on something else. Thatâs why schools have dropped it.
2 Likes
Itâs hard for us old timers to see this art going the way of robotic technology. We remember the hours spent in school, every Friday for me, of spending time in handwriting class.
2 Likes
I think you said it correctly, itâs become an art formâprobably not for everyone. Kind of like candle making when electricity came to every home, it will become a novelty that we appreciate.
I remember those little thin handwriting books. 
I loved writing cursive, but these days I rarely use it!
1 Like
So true. But anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that it is possible that US schools are not very good at teaching math compared with many other countries. What about you? What have you seen?
Yes, keyboarding is the big thing.
Keyboarding has taken over any of the typing classes.
Keyboard and printer have made typewriters disappear.
One can even distance print now days with certain printers.
The only thing left is the QWERTY keyboard from the
original idea of the inventor.
Charles Thurber [aug 26, 1843] invented the typewriter to aid
his blind friend.
Christopher Latham Sholes invented the 1st commercially
successful model in 1878.
Think what these persons, Alex G. Bell with his telephone,
the early cotton gin, Edison with his light bulb, phonograph,
movie machine, Henry Ford with mass produced cars,
the Radio have done to change the world.
Madam Curie and x-rays.
We had the invention of Ether prior to the civil war. But the
local people threatened the southern doctor with bodily harm. Saying
relief of pain during painful procedures was un-biblical. So
not available during the Civil War.
Explosion of businesses associated with them.
I donât know of any prophet who predicted them or commented
upon their uses or their futures.
George Washington Carver with his Peanuts and Sweet Potatoes
saved the southern farmers.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.