families in the community or on their own. This exacerbated problems of discipline. Hosts, naturally inclined to sympathize with and to accredit the reports of the respective students who boarded with them, took sides on school-related issues. This brought divisions in the Battle Creek church, itself a church without a pastor. Goodloe Bell, virtually the founder and father of the school, remained as a teacher. He was an excellent educator, but he lacked good public relations. His insistence on thoroughness