According to The History of Early Education in Eastern DeKalb County they had a unique method (by today’s standards) for construction of a new school building. Back in the middle 1800s, each township was responsible for public education, and had multiple one- or two-room schoolhouses strategically placed around the township. Many of these buildings still stand today.

In 1849 a new brick school building was to be built in Wilmington Township. Every adult male in that township between the ages of 21 and 50 was taxed two days labor on the facility. I don’t know how they paid for building materials, but we know how they got the labor: they ordered it.

I’ve often contemplated how to recruit more laborers for the Kingdom within our church. We can’t just “tax them”. And we can’t afford to pay them. What do you think is a solution to the labor problem among the many ministries of the church?

Tags: education, labor, work