Excerpt from The Academy, Vol. 31: October 1907-April 1910

Mr. Beck continued to impress this point by using as an illus tration a somewhat similar work done by one of his distinguished ancestors, Mr. John Beck, of Lititz, Penna, who, during his life time taught a limited number of boys, and whose school was usually filled by applicants from five to ten years in advance. Those who are acquainted with the Lititz Beck School will remember the celeb rity it attained and the universal affection and esteem in which it was held.

As we listened to this learned address we felt that it was a tribute to the policy which has influenced Moravian schools. Where ever a Moravian boarding school or college is found, provided it is based upon the immortal principles laid down by our great educator, Bishop John Amos Comenius, it will be seen that whether the num bers be few or many, whetheri there are fifty or five hundred pupils in attendance, these are divided into small individual schools, each of its one or two principals watching over the health, the development of the moral na'ure, the conscientious use of the study-hour, and it may be said of every true Moravian school, as it was said by Mr. Beck concerning the Moravfan College and Theological Seminary, that seldom does any one of the thousands who attend Moravian schools leave these institutions without being better, stronger and nobler than when they came.

Just here we note that peculiar advantage which Moravian schools enjoy, namely: that the benefits of the small private school are secured by the so-called room company system, and at the same time the advantages of the large. College are also secured when the numbers attain to those which have been reached by the Salem en rollment. A pupil who attends Salem Academy and College finds departments with specialists in Music, in Art, Commercial and In dustrial Studies, in Expression and in Gymnasium, and in other lines which we might mention, and these advantages are secured by vlrtue of the fact that the attendance has reached nearly five hun dred. On the other hand, parents who desire to have the special personal interest which characterized a school of a dozen, like the famous Beck School at Lititz, will discover that the room company at Salem has divided this large number into small individual schools, in which each and every one of the pupils receives just that splendid personal care and attention which Mr. Beck eulogized in his great oration during the first days of October. This entire subject is one of the first importance in so far that it means the success or failure of many precious lives, and we believe that seldom has this truth been set forth in stronger terms than was the case on the occasion referred to in the beginning of this article.

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