The Fourth R BY CHARLES MILLS
M
16
y odyssey through Adventist
Without looking up, I stated flatly, “I didn’t like it.”
Education didn’t begin well.
Sixteen school years later, after attending two
1956. Singapore. My missionary
more church schools, two years of Home Study
parents were serving the Far
International classes (now Griggs International
Eastern Division and I was facing a decision. Mom
Academy), and two colleges, I watched in the
had walked with me down the gentle hill from our
rearview mirrors of my west-bound motorcycle
house on the division compound to the little church
as Southern Missionary College grew smaller and
school waiting among the trees and flowers. “You’re
smaller behind me. Graduation day had come and
going to love it,” she announced confidently as she
gone, and I was headed for California to begin my
introduced me to my first-grade teacher.
media career at Faith for Today as a member of
Then she left.
their production staff.
Later that morning, Mom walked into the living
Sixteen years of education. More to the point, 16
room of our house to find me sitting on the floor
years of Adventist Education. It never entered my
playing with my toy cars and trucks. “What are you
mind to attend any school other than one operated
doing here?” she gasped. “You’re supposed to be in
by my church. It wasn’t that I thought other schools
school!”
wouldn’t teach me anything. On the contrary, I
PA C I F I C U N I O N R E CO R D E R