The youth need to be taught that life means earnest work, responsibility, caretaking. They need a
training that will make them practical—men and women who can cope with emergencies. They
should be taught that the discipline of systematic, well-regulated labor is essential, not only as a
safeguard against the vicissitudes of life, but as an aid to all-around development.
Notwithstanding all that has been said and written concerning the dignity of labor, the feeling
prevails that it is degrading. Young men are anxious to become teachers, clerks, merchants,
physicians, lawyers, or to occupy some other position that does not require physical toil. Young
women shun housework and seek an education in other lines. These need to learn that no man or
woman is degraded by honest toil. That which degrades is idleness and selfish dependence. Idleness
fosters self-indulgence, and the result is a life empty and barren—a field inviting the growth of
every evil….
Since both men and women have a part in homemaking, boys as well as girls should gain a
knowledge of household duties…. Let the children and youth learn from the Bible how God has
honored the work of the everyday toiler.
Let them read of “the sons of the prophets” (2 Kings 6:1-7), students at school, who were building a
house for themselves, and for whom a miracle was wrought to save from loss the ax that was
borrowed. Let them read of Jesus the carpenter, and Paul the tentmaker, who with the toil of the
craftsman linked the highest ministry, human and divine. Let them read of the lad whose five loaves
were used by the Savior in that wonderful miracle for the feeding of the multitude; of Dorcas the
seamstress, called back from death, that she might continue to make garments for the poor; of the
wise woman described in the Proverbs, who “seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with
her hands”; who “looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness”
(Proverbs 31:13, 27).—Education, 215-217.