School Home for Wayward Daughter—The enemy has had his way with your daughter until his toils have bound her about like bands of steel, and it will require a strong, persevering effort to save her soul. If you have success in this case, there must be no halfway work. The habits of years cannot easily be broken. She should be placed where a steady, firm, abiding influence is constantly exercised. I would advise you to put her in the college at -----; let her have the discipline of the boardinghouse. It is where she ought to have been years ago. (CG 330.1) MC VC

The boardinghouse is conducted upon a plan that makes it a good home. This home may not suit the inclinations of some, but it is because they have been educated to false theories, to self-indulgence and self-gratification; and all their habits and customs have been in a wrong channel. But, my dear sister, we are nearing the end of time; and we want now, not to meet the world’s tastes and practices, but to meet the mind of God, to see what saith the Scriptures, and then to walk according to the light which God has given us. Our inclinations, our customs and practices, are not to have the preference. God’s Word is our standard. (CG 330.2) MC VC

Resident Students—It seems that some teachers think that none of the children and young people whose parents live in the vicinity of a school should have school privileges unless they live with their teachers in the school home. This is to me a new and strange idea. (CG 330.3) MC VC

There are young people whose home influences have been such that it would be greatly to their advantage to live for a time in a well-regulated school home. And for those who live where they must of necessity leave their own homes in order to enjoy school privileges, the school homes are a great blessing. But the parental home where God is feared and obeyed is, and ever should be, the best place for young children, where under the proper training of their parents they may enjoy the care and discipline of a religious family, administered by their own parents.... (CG 330.4) MC VC

Regarding the youth that are of suitable age to attend a boarding school, let us avoid making unnecessary and arbitrary rules that would separate from their parents those who live in the vicinity of our schools.... (CG 331.1) MC VC

Unless the parents are convinced that it would be for the best interests of their children to place them under the school home discipline, they should be permitted to keep them under their own control as far as possible. In some places parents living near the school may see that their children would be benefited by living at the school home, where they can receive certain lines of instruction that they could not receive so well in their own homes. But let it not be urged that children must in all cases be separated from their parents in order to get the advantages of any one of our schools.... (CG 331.2) MC VC

Parents are the natural guardians of their children, and they have a solemn responsibility to oversee their education and training. (CG 331.3) MC VC

Can we not understand that the parents, who have watched for years the development of their children, should know best the kind of training and management they should have in order to bring out and cultivate the best traits of character in them? I should advise that children from homes within two or three miles of a school should be allowed to attend the school while living at home and having the benefits of parental influence. Wherever possible, let the family be held together. (CG 331.4) MC VC