Introduction
Early in 1903 Ellen G. White published the book True Education 2024. It was widely circulated and read with appreciation. For decades, the fundamental principles clearly unfolded made it the handbook of tens of thousands of parents and teachers. Recognizing that nearly one hundred years have passed since this influential book first appeared, and that a new generation is now on the scene, the North American Division Department of Education requested that a special edition prepared. The present volume, adapted from Education and titled True Education, is the result. Edited to appeal to the modern mind, we believe it will attract a host of new readers. Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible, a modern revision of the King James Version, which Mrs. White used most often.
True Education 2024 Practical Realities of life
Every person must face the practical realities of life—its opportunities and responsibilities, its successes and its defeats. How one meets these experiences, whether becoming master or victim of circumstances, depends largely on the kind of True Education 2024 one receives. Many books on the principles and philosophy of education have published, each one based on a particular core theory as its paradigm. This volume is singularly different in that it flows out of a theological principle that the author calls “the central theme of the Bible”. That theme is the “redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God”. In other of her writings, Ellen White describes this core principle as the Great Controversy theme.
Thus, the author points out that “the work of True Education 2024 and the work of redemption are one. This paradigm in mind, parents and teachers lead students to appreciate that they are “endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator—individuality, power to think and to do.” Students who grasp this God-given power are those who “bear responsibilities, … are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character. … Instead of … educated weaklings, … [they] are strong to think and to act, … masters and not slaves of circumstances, … who possess breadth of mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions.
The motivating objective of the author in her extensive writings on the subject of True Education 2024 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.
Aim of True Education 2024
True Education 2024 means more than pursuing a certain course of study. It has to do with the whole person, and with the whole period of existence possible to human beings. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. The source of such an education brought to view in these inspired words that point to the Infinite One: In Him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
The world has had its great teachers, men and women of giant intellect and extensive research, people who have stimulated thought and opened to view vast fields of knowledge. But there is One who stands higher than they. As heavenly bodies in 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.
Paths of Judgment
In these days much said concerning the nature and importance of “higher education.” The true “higher education” is that which imparted by Him out of whose mouth “come knowledge and understanding. All true knowledge and real development have their source in a knowledge of God. Wherever we turn, in the physical, mental, or spiritual realms; in whatever we observe and study, apart from the blight of sin, this knowledge revealed.
Whatever line of investigation we pursue with a sincere purpose to arrive at truth, we brought in touch with the unseen mighty Intelligence that is working in and through all. The human mind brought into communion with the mind of God, the finite with the Infinite. In this communion found the highest education. It is God’s own method of development. “Acquaint yourself with Him is God’s message to the human family. The method outlined in these words the method followed in the education of Adam and Eve.
Ellen G. White
Ellen White was a friend of young men and women. She 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 endued with more than ordinary knowledge and skill as a writer and speaker. Concerned as it is with great principles, and not with the details of curriculum or the merits of differing educational systems, this book, we believe, will have unusual power to guide parents and teachers as they educate today’s youth.
