Accueil Paysage Social Ways of Working: Labour and Manual Training at Canadian University College

Ways of Working: Labour and Manual Training at Canadian University College

par David Ridley

1  |  2  |  3  |  Page 4  

This historical relationship stands in relief with the educational and economic achievements of Seventh-day Adventism, which have firmly established the denomination in the middle class. One observer has pointed to Seventh-day Adventism as a "modern version of the protestant ethic," whereby a transformation of the world is enacted through the virtues of work and economic activity.¹¹ Such a transformation is indicated in figures showing the proportion of Adventists in professional and technical work as twice that of the general population and the proportion of Adventists with some college education three times as great. The educational programs at Canadian University College (CUC - previously named Canadian Union College) are one of the means to realizing this middle-class status, and the ability of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to maintain and develop these institutions depends on this achievement. Along with the dramatic demographic shift from country to city for the population at large, including Seventh-day Adventists, the transition markedly shifted the community's understanding of work in respect to the agrarian ideals set out by Ellen White and as practised in much of the history of CUC.¹²

It was not unforeseeable, then, that a shift in the relationship between CUC and its industries, particularly its farm holdings, would result in some disaffection within the Seventh-day Adventist community. On one hand, the community holds a biblical vision of the possibility of the restored Creation, reinforced by the 19th-century rural ideal pertaining to work and the moral life. These have been shaped and articulated by White and given institutional form. At CUC, those antecedents mingle with the need to nurture the professional and intellectual capacities to effectively communicate the Adventist message in the contemporary world. Of course, students come with career aspirations shaped by mass culture and the possibilities as presented in urban life.

CUC continues to remunerate students working as groundskeepers, cleaners, kitchen staff and support to academic departments. The administration plans to attract enterprises to the campus that will employ students. These possibilities, such as they are in the new dispensation of worklife, demonstrate a ready pragmatism and an ability to come to terms with the world. Yet these possibilities preserve the Seventh-day Adventist concern for the dignity of labour and the moral outcome of diligent work. In this respect, students at CUC receive a formation still informed by the understanding that "[they] are instruments in the hand of God, employed by Him to accomplish His purposes of grace and mercy."¹³ This understanding properly moves the life of the faithful into the ways of working, putting one's labour into the light of eternal reality.

[<<précédent]

D'Aspenland 1988 — Local Knowledge and Sense of Place
Edité par: David J. Goa et David Ridley
Publié par: Le Central Alberta Regional Museums Network (CARMN) avec l'assistance du Provincial Museum of Alberta et le Red Deer and District Museum.