The second chapter of Genesis introduces the topic of education. God created Adam and Eve as man and woman, yet they were children in experience and had much to learn. God placed them in the Eden School, also known as the Garden of Eden.
To say that the Garden of Eden was a school may require us to rethink our assumptions, since it differed so widely from what most of us have experienced as school. Eliminating all the extras, a school needs a location, lessons, a teacher, and at least one student. In the book Education by Ellen G. White, a three-page chapter titled “The Eden School” says,
“The Garden of Eden was the schoolroom, nature was the lesson book, the Creator Himself was the instructor, and the parents of the human family were the students.” Education, p. 20. To be taught by God, outdoors in a natural garden setting, sounds inviting. What more are we told?
“The system of education instituted at the beginning of the world was to be a model for man throughout all aftertime. As an illustration of its principles a model school was established in Eden, the home of our first parents.” Education, p.20.
Today, the world has a system of education. It is shaped and maintained by local school boards, by the institutions that train teachers, by each state’s teacher certification requirements, by regional accrediting agencies, and by the U.S. Department of Education’s attempts at standardization. Many teachers’ colleges have demonstration classrooms, where student teachers learn to apply the theoretical knowledge they learn in their classes. These things that we are familiar with can help us understand that the Eden School was part of God’s system of education. Both the Eden School and the system were models that we were intended to copy.
If we were to try to copy this school today, we would do our best to use a garden as our classroom. Depending on the climate we live in, we may use a greenhouse part of the year, or we may fill our home with plants. A garden has the advantages of natural sunlight and fresh air, so we would try to include those. We would draw lessons from the things and processes of nature. Parents would oversee their children’s education, supplementing their own teaching with the help of others who hold the same principles.
“In His interest for His children, our heavenly Father personally directed their education. Often they were visited by His messengers, the holy angels, and from them received counsel and instruction. Often as they walked in the garden in the cool of the day they heard the voice of God, and face to face held communion with the Eternal.” Education, p. 21.
Eden shows us how the principles of God’s system of education look in real life, so we can copy it.
The record of the Eden School has been preserved for us. Moved and guided by the Spirit of God, we can study the Bible and inspired counsels and apply what we learn in our own homes, whether or not we choose to use the services of other educators.
A program that copies the Eden School will include gardening and other lines of useful work.
“To Adam and Eve was committed the care of the garden, ‘to dress it and to keep it.’ Genesis 2:15. … Useful occupation was appointed them as a blessing, to strengthen the body, to expand the mind, and to develop the character.” Education, p. 21.
“The Garden of Eden was a representation of what God desired the whole earth to become, and it was His purpose that, as the human family increased in numbers, they should establish other homes and schools like the one He had given. Thus in course of time the whole earth might be occupied with homes and schools where the words and the works of God should be studied, and where the students should thus be fitted more and more fully to reflect, throughout endless ages, the light of the knowledge of His glory.” Education, p.
The home of our first parents was to be a pattern for other homes as their children should go forth to occupy the earth. That home, beautified by the hand of God Himself, was not a gorgeous palace. Men, in their pride, delight in magnificent and costly edifices and glory in the works of their own hands; but God placed Adam in a garden. This was his dwelling. The blue heavens were its dome; the earth, with its delicate flowers and carpet of living green, was its floor; and the leafy branches of the goodly trees were its canopy. Its walls were hung with the most magnificent adornings—the handiwork of the great Master Artist. In the surroundings of the holy pair was a lesson for all time—that true happiness is found, not in the indulgence of pride and luxury, but in communion with God through His created works. If men would give less attention to the artificial, and would cultivate greater simplicity, they would come far nearer to answering the purpose of God in their creation. Pride and ambition are never satisfied, but those who are truly wise will find substantial and elevating pleasure in the sources of enjoyment that God has placed within the reach of all. PP 49.3
To the dwellers in Eden was committed the care of the garden, “to dress it and to keep it.” Their occupation was not wearisome, but pleasant and invigorating. God appointed labor as a blessing to man, to occupy his mind, to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties. In mental and physical activity Adam found one of the highest pleasures of his holy existence. And when, as a result of his disobedience, he was driven from his beautiful home, and forced to struggle with a stubborn soil to gain his daily bread, that very labor, although widely different from his pleasant occupation in the garden, was a safeguard against temptation and a source of happiness. Those who regard work as a curse, attended though it be with weariness and pain, are cherishing an error. The rich often look down with contempt upon the working classes, but this is wholly at variance with God’s purpose in creating man. What are the possessions of even the most wealthy in comparison with the heritage given to the lordly Adam? Yet Adam was not to be idle. Our Creator, who understands what is for man’s happiness, appointed Adam his work. The true joy of life is found only by the working men and women. The angels are diligent workers; they are the ministers of God to the children of men. The Creator has prepared no place for the stagnating practice of indolence. PP 50.1
The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring veil between. They were full of the vigor imparted by the tree of life, and their intellectual power was but little less than that of the angels. The mysteries of the visible universe—“the wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16)—afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. The laws and operations of nature, which have engaged men’s study for six thousand years, were opened to their minds by the infinite Framer and Upholder of all. They held converse with leaf and flower and tree, gathering from each the secrets of its life. With every living creature, from the mighty leviathan that playeth among the waters to the insect mote that floats in the sunbeam, Adam was familiar. He had given to each its name, and he was acquainted with the nature and habits of all. God’s glory in the heavens, the innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions, “the balancings of the clouds,” the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night—all were open to the study of our first parents. On every leaf of the forest or stone of the mountains, in every shining star, in earth and air and sky, God’s name was written. The order and harmony of creation spoke to them of infinite wisdom and power. They were ever discovering some attraction that filled their hearts with deeper love and called forth fresh expressions of gratitude. PP 50.3
So long as they remained loyal to the divine law, their capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love would continually increase. They would be constantly gaining new treasures of knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable, unfailing love of God. PP 51.1
God prepared for Adam and Eve a beautiful garden. He provided for them everything that their wants required. He planted for them fruit-bearing trees of every variety. With a liberal hand He surrounded them with His bounties. The trees for usefulness and beauty, and the lovely flowers, which sprung up spontaneously, and flourished in rich profusion around them, were to know nothing of decay. Adam and Eve were rich indeed. They possessed Eden. Adam was lord in his beautiful domain. None can question the fact that he was rich. But God knew that Adam could not be happy unless he had employment. Therefore He gave him something to do; he was to dress the garden. FE 38.2
Here is a project we can copy directly from Eden:
“It was the work of Adam and Eve to train the branches of the vine to form bowers, thus making for themselves a dwelling from living trees covered with foliage and fruit.” White, Ellen G., Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 46.
“Up to the time of man’s rebellion against the government of God, there had been free communion between God and man. But the sin of Adam and Eve separated earth from heaven, so that man could not have communion with his Maker. Yet the world was not left in solitary hopelessness.” PP 184.2