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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: How to Teach Religion</p> +<p> Principles and Methods</p> +<p>Author: George Herbert Betts</p> +<p>Release Date: May 8, 2005 [eBook #15800]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO TEACH RELIGION***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Karina Aleksandrova,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h6><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a>The Abingdon Religious Education Texts<br /> + +David B. Downey, General Editor<br /> + +COMMUNITY TRAINING SCHOOL SERIES NORMAN E. RICHARDSON, Editor</h6> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h1>HOW TO TEACH RELIGION</h1> + +<h2>PRINCIPLES AND METHODS</h2> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>GEORGE HERBERT BETTS</h2> + +<div style="height: 5em;"> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</div> + +<h5> +THE ABINGDON PRESS<br /> +NEW YORK CINCINNATI<br /> +</h5> + +<h4>1926</h4> +<p> </p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="dedication"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO HAVE IN THEIR KEEPING THE RELIGIOUS DESTINY OF +AMERICA—THE TWO MILLION TEACHERS IN OUR CHURCH SCHOOLS.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h2><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<ol class="TOC"> +<li>The Teacher Himself <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></span> + +<p>Importance of the teacher—Three types of teachers—The +personal factor in teaching religion—Developing the +power of personality—The cultivatable factors in personality—A +scale for determining personality—The teacher's +mastery of subject-matter—Methods of growth—Fields +of mastery demanded—Service and rewards—Problems +and questions.</p></li> + + +<li>The Great Objective <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></span> + +<p>Two great objectives in teaching—Making sure of +the greater objective—Teaching children <em>versus</em> teaching +subject-matter—Subject-matter as a means instead of +an end—Success in instruction to be measured in terms +of modified life, not of material covered—The goal of +a constantly developing Christian character and experience—Problems +for discussion.</p></li> + + +<li>The Fourfold Foundation <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></span> + +<p>What the four-fold foundation consists of: (1) right +<em>aims</em>, (2) right <em>materials</em> to reach these aims, (3) right +<em>organization</em> of this material for instruction, (4) right +<em>presentation</em> in instruction—The aim of teaching religion +is (1) fruitful knowledge, (2) right religious attitudes +and growing consciousness of God, (3) power and +will to live righteously—Selecting subject-matter to +meet these ends—Principles of organization of material—The +problem of effective presentation—Questions for +discussion.</p></li> + + +<li>Religious Knowledge of Most Worth <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></span> + +<p>Not all religious knowledge of equal value—What determines +value of knowledge—Kind of knowledge needed +<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>by child—Developing the child's idea of God—Harm +from wrong concepts of God—Giving the child the right +concept of religion—The qualities by which religion +should be defined to the child—The child's knowledge +of the Bible; of the church; of religious forms of expression—Problems +and questions.</p></li> + + +<li>Religious Attitudes to be Cultivated <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></span> + +<p>The meaning of religious attitudes—These attitudes +lie at the basis of both motives and character—Importance +of the pupil's attitudes toward the church +school and class—Enjoyment of the lesson hour and +the growth of loyalty—The sense of mastery necessary +to mental and spiritual growth—The grounding of a +continuous interest in the Bible and religion—Growth +in spiritual warmth and responsiveness—The cultivation +of ideals—The training of fine appreciations—Worthy +loyalties and devotions—Clearness of God-consciousness—Questions +and problems.</p></li> + + +<li>Connecting Religious Instruction With Life and Conduct <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></span> + +<p>Religious instruction must carry across to life and +conduct—Hence necessity of finding practical outlet in +expression for feelings, ideals, emotions and attitudes +resulting from instruction—The setting up of certain +religious habits—Expression in connection with the life +of the church—Expression in the home life—Expression +in the community and public school life—Expression +in worship and the devotional life—Problems for discussion.</p></li> + + +<li>The Subject Matter of Religious Education <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></span> + +<p>The Bible the great source-book of religious material—Yet +much material other than biblical required—Principles +for the selection of material from the Bible—Biblical +material for early childhood; for later childhood; +for adolescence—Story material and its sources—<a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>Materials +from nature—Materials from history and +biography—Picture material for religious teaching—Religious +music for children—Questions and problems.</p></li> + + +<li>The Organization of Material <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></span> + +<p>Four different types of organization—Organization applied +(1) to the curriculum as a whole, (2) to individual +lessons—Haphazard organization—Logical organization—Chronological +organization—Psychological organization—Three +types of curriculum organization: (1) Uniform +lessons, (2) Graded lessons, (3) text books of religion—Organizing +daily lesson material—Typical lesson +plans—Problems for discussion.</p></li> + + +<li>The Technique of Teaching <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></span> + +<p>Teaching that sticks—Attention the key—Types of +appeal to attention—The control of interest—Interest +and action—Variety and change as related to interest—Social +contagion of interest—The prevention of distractions—The +control of conduct—Danger points in +instruction—Establishing and maintaining standards—Questions +and problems.</p></li> + + +<li>Making Truth Vivid <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></span> + +<p>Vividness of impression necessary to lasting value—The +<em>whole</em> mind involved in religion—Learning to think +in religion—Protecting children against intellectual +difficulties—The +appeal of religion to the imagination—Guiding +principles for the religious imagination—The use of +the memory in religion—Laws of memory—How to +memorize—Problems for discussion.</p></li> + + +<li>Types Of Teaching <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></span> + +<p>The several types of lessons for religious instruction—The +informational lesson—The use of the inductive +lesson—The deductive lesson in religion—The application +of drill to religious teaching—The lesson in +appreciation—Conducting +the review lesson—How to make +the lesson assignment—Questions and problems.</p></li> + +<li><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>Methods Used in the Recitation <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></span> + +<p>Methods of procedure for the lesson hour—The use +of the topical method—Place and dangers of the lecture +method—Securing participation from the class—The +question method—Principles of good questioning—The +treatment of answers—The story method—Guiding +principles in story teaching—The teaching method of +Jesus—Jesus the embodiment of all scientific pedagogy—Questions +and problems.</p></li> +</ol> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION</h2> + +<p>The teacher of religion needs to be very sure of himself at one point. +He ought to be able to answer affirmatively the question, "Have I the +prophetic impulse in my teaching?" Sooner or later, practical +difficulties will "come not singly but by battalions," and the spirit +needs to be fortified against discouragement. When driven back to the +second or third line defense it is important that such a line really +exists; the consciousness of being the spokesman for God makes the +teacher invulnerable and unconquerable.</p> + +<p>But in order that this divine impulse may attain its greatest strength +and find the most direct, articulate, and effective expression, the +teacher must know <em>how</em> as well as <em>what</em> to teach. The most precious +spiritual energy may be lost because improperly directed or controlled. +Unhesitating insight into the solution of practical problems helps to +open up a channel through which the prophetic impulse can find fullest +expression.</p> + +<p>There is no substitute for mastery of the technique of the teaching +process. Prayerful consecration cannot take its place. This ready +command of the methods of teaching, on the other hand, is in no sense an +equivalent of the consciousness of having been "called" or "chosen" to +teach religion. The two must go hand in hand. No one who feels himself +divinely appointed for this sacred task dares ignore the responsibility +of becoming a "workman not to be ashamed, <em>rightly</em> dividing the word of +truth."</p> + +<p>This volume by Dr. Betts offers the earnest teacher of religion an +exceptional opportunity to make more <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>effective his ideal of +instruction. The treatment applies the best of modern educational +science to the problems of the church school, without, however, for a +moment, forgetting that a vital religious experience is the final goal +of all our teaching.</p> + +<p>Besides setting forth the underlying principles of religious teaching in +a clear and definite way, the author has included in every chapter a +rich fund of illustration and concrete application which cannot fail to +prove immediately helpful in every church classroom. It is also believed +that students of religious education will find this treatment of method +by Professor Betts the most fundamental and sane that has yet appeared +in the field.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps;">Norman E. Richardson.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>AUTHOR'S PREFACE</h2> + +<p><em>Children can be brought to a religious character and experience through +right nurture and training in religion.</em> This is the fundamental +assumption on which the present volume rests, and it makes the religious +education of children the most strategic opportunity and greatest +responsibility of the church, standing out above all other obligations +whatever.</p> + +<p>Further, the successful teaching of religion is based on the same laws +that apply to other forms of teaching; hence teachers in church schools +need and have a right to all the help that a scientific pedagogy +permeated by an evangelistic spirit can give them. They also have the +obligation to avail themselves of this help for the meeting of their +great task.</p> + +<p>This book undertakes to deal in a concrete and practical way with the +underlying principles of religious instruction. The plan of the text is +simple. First comes the part <em>the teacher</em> must play in training the +child in religion. Then the spiritual changes and growth to be effected +in <em>the child</em> are set forth as the chief objective of instruction. Next +is a statement of the <em>great aims,</em> or goals, to be striven for in the +child's expanding religious experience. These goals are: (1) fruitful +<em>religious knowledge</em>; (2) right <em>religious attitudes—interests, +ideals, feelings, loyalties</em>; (3) the <em>application of this knowledge and +these attitudes to daily life and conduct</em>.</p> + +<p>Following the discussion of aims is the question of just <em>what subject +matter</em> to choose in order to accomplish these ends, and <em>how best to +organize</em> the chosen material for instruction. And finally, <em>how most +effectively<a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a> to present</em> the subject matter selected to make it serve +its purpose in stimulating and guiding the spiritual growth and +development of children.</p> + +<p>The volume is intended as a textbook for teacher-training classes, +students of religious education, and for private study by church-school +teachers. It is also hoped that ministers may find some help in its +pages toward meeting their educational problems.</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Northwestern University,<br /> +Evanston, Illinois.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE TEACHER HIMSELF</h3> + + +<p>It is easy enough to secure buildings and classrooms for our schools. +The expenditure of so many dollars will bring us the equipment we +require. Books and materials may be had almost for the asking. The great +problem is to secure <em>teachers</em>—real teachers, teachers of power and +devotion who are able to leave their impress on young lives. Without +such teachers all the rest is but as sounding brass or a tinkling +cymbal. And to be a real teacher is a very high achievement.</p> + +<p>Bishop Vincent was giving a lecture on "That Boy." He himself was "that +boy," and in the course of describing his school days he fell into +meditation as follows: "That old school master of mine!—He is dead +now—<em>and I have forgiven him!</em>—And I am afraid that was the chronology +of the matter; for I never was able to forgive him while he lived." I, +as one of the listeners, smiled at the bitter wit of the speaker, but +was oppressed.</p> + +<p>This somber view of the impression sometimes left by teachers on their +pupils received an antidote the following day, however, when a venerable +old man approached my desk bearing in his hands an ancient and dog-eared +copy of a text in grammar. He opened the book and proudly showed me +written across the fly leaf "Grover Cleveland, President." Then he told +me this story:</p> + +<p>"I have been a teacher. In one of my first schools I had Grover +Cleveland as a pupil. He came without <a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>a textbook in grammar, and I +loaned him mine. Years passed, and Grover Cleveland was President of the +United States. One day I was one of many hundreds passing in line at a +public reception to grasp the President's hand. I carried this book with +me, and when it came my turn to meet the President, I presented the +volume and said, 'Mr. President, do you recognize this book, and do you +remember me?' In an instant the light of recognition had flashed in Mr. +Cleveland's eyes. Calling me by name, he grasped my hand and held it +while the crowd waited and while he recalled old times and thanked me +for what I had meant to him when I was his teacher. Then he took the old +book and autographed it for me."</p> + +<p><strong>Three types of teachers.</strong>—Two types of teachers are remembered: one to +be forgiven after years have softened the antagonisms and resentments; +the other to be thought of with honor and gratitude as long as memory +lasts. Between these two is a third and a larger group: those who are +<em>forgotten</em>, because they failed to stamp a lasting impression on their +pupils. This group represents the <em>mediocrity</em> of the profession, not +bad enough to be actively forgiven, not good enough to claim a place in +gratitude and remembrance.</p> + +<p>To which type would we belong? To which type <em>can</em> we belong? Can we +choose? What are the factors that go to determine the place we shall +occupy in the scale of teachers?</p> + + +<h4>THE PERSONAL FACTOR</h4> + +<p>When we revert to our own pupil days we find that the impressions which +cling to our memories are not chiefly impressions of facts taught and of +lessons learned, but of the <em>personality</em> of the teacher. We may have +<a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>forgotten many of the truths presented and most of the conclusions +drawn, but the warmth and glow of the human touch still remains.</p> + +<p>To be a teacher of religion requires a particularly exalted personality. +The teacher and the truth taught should always leave the impression of +being of the same pattern. "For their sakes I sanctify myself," said the +Great Teacher; shall the teachers of his Word dare do less!</p> + +<p><strong>The teacher as an interpreter of truth.</strong>—This is not to say that the +subject matter taught is unimportant, nor that the lessons presented are +immaterial. It is only to say that life responds first of all to <em>life</em>. +Truth never comes to the child disembodied and detached, but always with +the slant and quality of the teacher's interpretation of it. It is as if +the teacher's mind and spirit were the stained glass through which the +sunlight must fall; all that passes through the medium of a living +personality takes its tone and quality from this contact. The pupils may +or may not grasp the lessons of their books, but their teachers are +living epistles, known and read by them all.</p> + +<p>For it is the concrete that grips and molds. Our greatest interest and +best attention center in persons. The world is neither formed nor +reformed by abstract truths nor by general theories. Whatever ideals we +would impress upon others we must first have realized in ourselves. What +we <em>are</em> often drowns out what we say. Words and maxims may be +misunderstood; character seldom is. Precepts may fail to impress; +personality never does. God tried through the ages to reveal his +purposes to man by means of the law and the prophets, but man refused to +heed or understand. It was only when God had made his thought and plan +for <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>man concrete in the person of Jesus of Nazareth that man began to +understand.</p> + +<p>The first and most difficult requirement of the teacher, therefore, +is—<em>himself</em>, his personality. He must combine in himself the qualities +of life and character he seeks to develop in his pupils. He must look to +his personality as the source of his influence and the measure of his +power. He must be the living embodiment of what he would lead his pupils +to become. He must live the religion he would teach them. He must +possess the vital religious experience he would have them attain.</p> + +<p><strong>The building of personality.</strong>—Personality is not born, it is made. A +strong, inspiring personality is not a gift of the gods, nor is a weak +and ineffective personality a visitation of Providence. Things do not +<em>happen</em> in the realm of the spiritual any more than in the realm of +nature. Everything is <em>caused</em>. Personality grows. It takes its form in +the thick of the day's work and its play. It is shaped in the crush and +stress of life's problems and its duties. It gains its quality from the +character of the thoughts and acts that make up the common round of +experience. It bears the marks of whatever spiritual fellowship and +communion we keep with the Divine.</p> + +<p>Professor Dewey tells us that character is largely dependent on the mode +of assembling its parts. A teacher may have a splendid native +inheritance, a fine education, and may move in the best social circles, +and yet not come to his best in personality. It requires some high and +exalted task in order to assemble the powers and organize them to their +full efficiency. The urge of a great work is needed to make potential +ability actual. Paul did not become the giant of his latter years until +<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>he took upon himself the great task of carrying the gospel to the +Gentiles.</p> + +<p><strong>Our own responsibility.</strong>—It follows then that the building of our +personalities is largely in our own hands. True, the influence of +heredity is not to be overlooked. It is easier for some to develop +attractive, compelling qualities than for others. The raw material of +our nature comes with us; is what heredity decrees. But the finished +product bears the stamp of our training and development. Fate or destiny +never takes the reins from our hands. We are free to shape ourselves +largely as we will.</p> + +<p>Our inner life will daily grow by what it feeds upon. This is the great +secret of personality-building. What to-day we build into thought and +action to-morrow becomes character and personality. Let us cultivate our +interests, think high thoughts, and give ourselves to worthy deeds, and +these have soon become a life habit. Let our hearts go out in +helpfulness to those about us, and sympathy for human kind becomes a +compelling motive in our lives before we are aware. Let us consciously +listen to the still small voice speaking to the soul, and we will find +our souls expanding to meet the Infinite.</p> + +<p><strong>The secret.</strong>—He who would develop his personality into the full +measure of its strength and power must, then, set his goal at <em>living +constantly in the presence of the</em> BEST. This will include the best in +thought and memory and anticipation. It will permit none but cheerful +moods, nor allow us to dwell with bitterness upon petty wrongs and +grievances. It will control the tongue, and check the unkind word or +needless criticism. It will cause us to seek for the strong and +beautiful qualities in our friends and associates, and not <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>allow us to +point out their faults nor magnify their failings. It will cure us of +small jealousies and suppress all spirit of revenge. It will save us +from idle worry and fruitless rebellion against such ills as cannot be +cured. In short, it will free our lives from the crippling influence of +negative moods and critical attitudes. It will teach us to <em>be ruled by +our admirations rather than by our aversions</em>.</p> + +<p>Above all, he who would build a personality fitted to serve as the +teacher of the child in his religion must constantly live in the +presence of <em>the best he can attain in God</em>. There is no substitute for +this. No fullness of intellectual power and grasp, no richness of +knowledge gleaned, and no degree of skill in instruction can take the +place of a vibrant, immediate, Spirit-filled consciousness of God in the +heart. For religion is <em>life</em>, and the best definition of religion we +can present to the child is the example and warmth of a life inspired +and vivified by contact with the Source of all spiritual being. The +authority of the teacher should rest on his own religious experience, +rather than on the spiritual experience of others.</p> + +<p><strong>A character chart.</strong>—There is no possibility, of course, of making a +list of all the qualities that enter into our personalities. Nor would +it be possible to trace all the multiform ways in which these qualities +may combine in our characters. It is worth while, however, to consider a +few of the outstanding traits which take first place in determining our +strength or weakness, and especially such as will respond most readily +to conscious training and cultivation. Such a list follows. Each quality +may serve as a goal both for our own development and for the training of +our pupils.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a><span class="smcap">Positive Qalities</span></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Negative Qualities</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>1</td><td align='left'>Open-minded, inquiring, broad</td><td align='left'>Narrow, dogmatic, not hungry for truth</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>2</td><td align='left'>Accurate, thorough, discerning</td><td align='left'>Indefinite, superficial, lazy</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>3</td><td align='left'>Judicious, balanced, fair</td><td align='left'>Prejudiced, led by likes and dislikes</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>4</td><td align='left'>Original, independent, resourceful</td><td align='left'>Dependent, imitative, subservient</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>5</td><td align='left'>Decisive, possessing convictions</td><td align='left'>Uncertain, wavering, undecided</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>6</td><td align='left'>Cheerful, joyous, optimistic</td><td align='left'>Gloomy, morose, pessimistic, bitter</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>7</td><td align='left'>Amiable, friendly, agreeable</td><td align='left'>Repellent, unsociable, disagreeable</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>8</td><td align='left'>Democratic, broadly sympathetic</td><td align='left'>Snobbish, self-centered, exclusive</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>9</td><td align='left'>Tolerant, sense of humor, generous</td><td align='left'>Opinionated, dogmatic, intolerant</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>10</td><td align='left'>Kind, courteous, tactful</td><td align='left'>Cruel, rude, untactful</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>11</td><td align='left'>Tractable, cooperative, teachable</td><td align='left'>Stubborn, not able to work with others</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>12</td><td align='left'>Loyal, honorable, dependable</td><td align='left'>Disloyal, uncertain dependability</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>13</td><td align='left'>Executive, forceful, vigorous</td><td align='left'>Uncertain, weak, not capable</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>14</td><td align='left'>High ideals, worthy, exalted</td><td align='left'>Low standards, base, contemptible</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>15</td><td align='left'>Modest, self-effacing</td><td align='left'>Egotistical, vain, autocratic</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>16</td><td align='left'>Courageous, daring, firm</td><td align='left'>Overcautious, weak, vacillating</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>17</td><td align='left'>Honest, truthful, frank, sincere</td><td align='left'>Low standards of honor and truth</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>18</td><td align='left'>Patient, calm, equable</td><td align='left'>Irritable, excitable, moody</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>19</td><td align='left'>Generous, open-hearted, forgiving</td><td align='left'>Stingy, selfish, resentful</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>20</td><td align='left'>Responsive, congenial</td><td align='left'>Cold, repulsive, uninviting</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>21</td><td align='left'>Punctual, on schedule, capable</td><td align='left'>Tardy, usually behindhand, incapable</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>22</td><td align='left'>Methodical, consistent, logical</td><td align='left'>Haphazard, desultory, inconsistent</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>23</td><td align='left'>Altruistic, given to service</td><td align='left'>Indifferent, not socially-minded</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>24</td><td align='left'>Refined, alive to beauty, artistic</td><td align='left'>Coarse, lacking æsthetic quality</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>25</td><td align='left'>Self-controlled, decision, purpose</td><td align='left'>Suggestible, easily led, uncertain</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>26</td><td align='left'>Good physical carriage, dignity</td><td align='left'>Lack of poise, ill posture, no grace</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>27</td><td align='left'>Taste in attire, cleanliness, pride</td><td align='left'>Careless in dress, frumpy, no pride</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>28</td><td align='left'>Face smiling, voice pleasing</td><td align='left'>Somber expression, voice unpleasant</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>29</td><td align='left'>Physical endurance, vigor, strength</td><td align='left'>Quickly tired, weak, sluggish</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>30</td><td align='left'>Spiritual responsiveness strong</td><td align='left'>Spiritually weak, inconstant, uncertain</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>31</td><td align='left'>Prayer life warm, satisfying</td><td align='left'>Prayer cold, formal, little comfort</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>32</td><td align='left'>Religious certainty, peace, quiet</td><td align='left'>Conflict, strain, uncertainty</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>33</td><td align='left'>Religious experience expanding</td><td align='left'>Spiritual life static or losing force</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>34</td><td align='left'>God a near, inspiring reality</td><td align='left'>God distant, unreal, hard of approach</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>35</td><td align='left'>Power to win others to religion</td><td align='left'>Influence little or negative</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>36</td><td align='left'>Interest in Bible and religion</td><td align='left'>Little concern for religion and Bible</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>37</td><td align='left'>Religion makes life fuller and richer</td><td align='left'>Religion felt as a limitation</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>38</td><td align='left'>Deeply believe great fundamentals</td><td align='left'>Lacking in foundations for faith</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>39</td><td align='left'>Increasing triumph over sin</td><td align='left'>Too frequent falling before temptation</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>40</td><td align='left'>Religious future hopeful</td><td align='left'>Religious growth uncertain</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>It is highly instructive for one to grade himself on this list of +qualities; or he may have his friends and associates grade him, thus +getting an estimate of the impression he is making on others. Teachers +will find it well worth while to attempt to grade each of their pupils; +for this will give a clearer insight into their strengths and +weaknesses, and so indicate where to direct our teaching. Mark each +separate set of qualities on the scale of 10 for the highest possible +attainment. If the strength of the <em>positive</em> qualities of a certain set +(as in No. 10) can be marked but 6, then the negative qualities of this +set must carry a mark of 4.</p> + + +<h4>THE TEACHER'S BACKGROUND OF PREPARATION</h4> + +<p>One can never teach all he knows. Dr. John Dewey tells us that the +subject matter of our instruction should be so well mastered that it has +become second nature to us; then when we come to the recitation we can +give our best powers of thought and insight to the <em>human +element</em>—seeking to understand the boys and girls as we teach them.</p> + +<p>Our knowledge and mastery must always be much broader than the material +we actually present. It must be deeper and our grasp more complete than +can be reached by our pupils. For only this will give <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>us the mental +perspective demanded of the teacher. Only this will enable our thought +to move with certainty and assurance in the field of our instruction. +And only this will win the confidence and respect of our pupils who, +though their minds are yet unformed, have nevertheless a quick sense for +mastery or weakness as revealed in their teacher.</p> + +<p><strong>A danger confronted by teachers in church schools.</strong>—Teachers in our +church schools are at a disadvantage at this point. They constitute a +larger body than those who teach in the day schools, yet the vast army +who teach our children religion receive no salaries. They are engaged in +other occupations, and freely give their services as teachers of +religion with no thought of compensation or reward. The time and +enthusiasm they give to the Sunday school is a free-will offering to a +cause in which they believe. All this is inspiring and admirable, but it +also contains an element of danger.</p> + +<p>For it is impossible to set up scholastic and professional standards for +our teachers of religion as we do for the teachers in our day schools. +The day-school teacher, employed by the state and receiving public +funds, must go through a certain period of training for his position. He +must pass examinations in the subject matter he is to teach, and in his +professional fitness for the work of the teacher. He must have a +certificate granted by responsible authorities before he can enter the +schoolroom. He must show professional growth while in service if he is +to receive promotion or continue in the vocation.</p> + +<p><strong>Greater personal responsibility on church school teacher.</strong>—Naturally, +all this is impossible with volunteer teachers who receive no pay for +their services and <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>are not employed under legal authority. No +compulsion can be brought to bear; all must rest on the sense of duty +and of opportunity of the individual teacher. Yet the Sunday school +teacher needs even a more thorough background of preparation than the +day-school teacher, for the work of instruction in the Sunday school is +almost infinitely harder than in the day school. Religion and morals are +more difficult to teach than arithmetic and geography. The church +building usually lacks adequate classroom facilities. The lesson +material is not as well graded and adapted to the children as the +day-school texts. The lessons come but once a week, and the time for +instruction is insufficient. The children do not prepare their lessons, +and so come to the Sunday school lacking the mental readiness essential +to receiving instruction.</p> + +<p>This all means that the Sunday school teacher must rise to a sense of +his responsibilities. He must realize that he holds a position of +influence second to none in the spiritual development of his pupils. He +must remember that he is dealing with a seed-time whose harvest involves +the fruits of character and destiny. With these facts in mind he must +ask himself whether he is justified in standing before his class as +teacher without having given the time and effort necessary for complete +preparation.</p> + +<p><strong>The teacher and his Bible.</strong>—The teacher should know his Bible. This +means far more than to know its text and characters. The Bible is +history, it is literature, it is a treatise on morals, it is philosophy, +it is a repository of spiritual wisdom, it is a handbook of inspiration +and guidance to the highest life man has in any age conceived.</p> + +<p>To master the Bible one must have a background <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>of knowledge of the life +and history of its times. He must enter into the spirit and genius of +the Hebrew nation, know their aspirations, their political and economic +problems, and understand their tragedies and sufferings. He must know +the historical and social setting of the Jewish people, the nations and +civilizations that surrounded them, and the customs, mode of life, and +trend of thought of contemporaneous peoples.</p> + +<p>Not all of these things can be learned from the Bible itself. One must +make use of the various helps and commentaries now available to Bible +students. The religions of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, +and Rome should be studied. Ancient literatures should be placed under +tribute, and every means employed to gain a working knowledge of the +social medium out of which the Christian religion developed.</p> + +<p><strong>The teacher's knowledge of children.</strong>—Time was when we thought of the +child as a miniature man, differing from adults on the physical side +only in size and strength, and on the mental side only in power and +grasp of thought. Now we know better. We know that the child differs +from the adult not only in the <em>quantity</em> but also in the <em>quality</em> of +his being.</p> + +<p>It is the business of the teacher to understand how the child <em>thinks</em>. +What is the child's concept of God? What is the character of the child's +prayer? How does the child <em>feel</em> when he takes part in the acts of +worship? We talk to the child about serving God; what is the child's +understanding of service to God? We seek to train the child to loyalty +to the church; what does the church stand for to the child? We teach the +child about sin and forgiveness; just what is the child's comprehension +of sin, and what does he understand by forgiveness? We tell the child +that he must <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>love God and the Christ; can a child control his +affections as he will, or do they follow the trend of his thoughts and +experiences? These are not idle questions. They are questions that must +be answered by every teacher who would be more than the blind leader of +the blind.</p> + +<p><strong>Coming to know the child.</strong>—How shall the teacher come to know the +child? Professor George Herbert Palmer sets forth a great truth when he +says that the first quality of a great teacher is the quality of +<em>vicariousness</em>. By this he means the ability on the part of the teacher +to step over in his imagination and take the place of the child. To look +at the task with the child's mind and understanding, to feel the appeal +of a lesson or story through the child's emotions, to confront a +temptation with the child's power of will and self-control—this ability +is the beginning of wisdom for those who would understand childhood. The +teacher must first of all, therefore, be a sympathetic investigator in +the laboratory of child life. Not only in the Sunday school, but daily, +he must <em>observe, study, seek to interpret children</em>.</p> + +<p>Nor should the teacher of religion neglect the books on the child and +his religion. Many investigators are giving their time and abilities to +studying child nature and child religion. A mastery of their findings +will save us many mistakes in the leadership and training of children. A +knowledge of their methods of study will show us how ourselves more +intelligently to study childhood. Comprehension of the principles they +represent, coupled with the results of our own direct interpretation of +children, will convince us that, while each child differs from every +other, <em>certain fundamental laws apply to all childhood</em>. It is the +teacher's task and privilege to master these laws.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a><strong>Knowledge of technique.</strong>—Teaching is an <em>art</em>, which must be learned +the same as any other art. True, there are those who claim that anyone +who knows a thing can teach it; but often the teacher who makes such a +claim is himself the best refutation of its validity when he comes +before his class. Probably most of us have known eminent specialists in +their field of learning who were but indifferent teachers. It is not +that they knew too much about their subjects, but that they had not +mastered the art of its presentation to others.</p> + +<p>The class hour is the teacher's great opportunity. His final measure as +a teacher is taken as he stands before his class in the recitation. Here +he succeeds or fails. In fact, here the whole system of religious +education succeeds or fails. For it is in this hour, where the teacher +meets his pupils face to face and mind to mind, that all else +culminates. It is for this hour that the Sunday school is organized, the +classrooms provided, and the lesson material prepared. It is in this +hour that the teacher succeeds in kindling the interest, stirring the +thought and feeling, and grounding the loyalty of his class. Or, failing +in this, it is in the recitation hour that the teacher leaves the +spiritual life of the child untouched by his contact with the Sunday +school and so defeats its whole intent and purpose.</p> + +<p>The teacher of religion should therefore ask himself: "What is my +craftsmanship in instruction? Do I know how to <em>present</em> this material +so that it will take hold upon my class? Do I know the technique of the +recitation hour, and the principles of good teaching? Have I read what +the scholars have written and what the experience of others has to teach +me. Have I definitely planned and sought for skill? Is my work in the +classroom the best that I can make it?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a><strong>The teacher must continuously be a student.</strong>—The successful teacher of +religion must, therefore, be a student. He must continually grow in +knowledge and in teaching power. There is no possibility of becoming +"prepared" through the reading of certain books and the pursuit of +certain courses of study and then having this preparation serve without +further growth. The famous Dr. Arnold, an insatiable student until the +day of his death, when asked why he found it necessary to prepare for +each day's lessons, said he preferred that his pupils "should drink from +a running stream rather than from a stagnant pool." This, then, should +be the teacher's standard: <em>A broad background of general preparation, +constant reading and study in the field of religion and religious +teaching, special preparation for each lesson taught</em>.</p> + +<p>The churches of each community should unite in providing a school for +teacher training. Where the community training school cannot be +organized, individual churches should organize training classes for +their teachers. Such schools and classes have been provided in hundreds +of places, and the movement is rapidly spreading. Wherever such +opportunities are available the best church school teachers are flocking +to the classes and giving the time and effort necessary to prepare for +better service.</p> + +<p>Even where no organized training classes are at present available, the +earnest teacher can gain much help from following an organized course of +reading in such lines as those just given. Excellent texts are available +in most of these fields.</p> + +<p><strong>The reward.</strong>—One deep and abiding satisfaction may come to the teacher +who feels the burden of reaching the standards set forth in this lesson. +<em>It is all worth<a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a> while</em>. Some make the mistake of charging against +their task all the time, effort and devotion that go into preparing +themselves as teachers of religion. But this is a false philosophy. For +<em>a great work greatly performed leaves the stamp of its greatness on the +worker</em>. All that we do toward making out of ourselves better teachers +of childhood adds to our own spiritual equipment. All the study, prayer, +and consecration we give to our work for the children returns a +hundredfold to us in a richer experience and a larger capacity for +service.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. Recall several teachers whom you remember best from your own + pupil days, and see whether you can estimate the qualities in their + character or teaching which are responsible for the lasting + impression.</p> + +<p> 2. Are you able to determine from the character chart which are + your strongest qualities? Which are your weakest qualities? Just + what methods are you planning to use to improve your personality?</p> + +<p> 3. In thinking of your class, are you able to judge in connection + with different ones on what qualities of character they most need + help? Are you definitely seeking to help on these points in your + teaching?</p> + +<p> 4. Do you think that church-school teachers could pass as good an + examination on what they undertake to teach as day-school teachers? + Are the standards too high for day-school teachers? Are they high + enough for church-school teachers?</p> + +<p> 5. Have you seen Sunday-school teachers at work who evidently did + not know their Bibles? Have you seen others who seemed to know + their Bibles but who were ignorant of childhood? Have you seen + others whose technique of teaching might have been improved by a + little careful study and preparation? Are you willing to apply + these three tests to yourself?</p></blockquote> + + +<h4><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Palmer, The Ideal Teacher.</p> + +<p>Hyde, The Teacher's Philosophy.</p> + +<p>Slattery, Living Teachers.</p> + +<p>Horne, The Teacher as Artist.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE GREAT OBJECTIVE</h3> + + +<p>All teaching has two objectives—the <em>subject</em> taught and the <em>person</em> +taught. When we teach John grammar (or the Bible) we teach grammar (or +the Bible), of course; but we also teach <em>John</em>. And the greater of +these two objectives is John. It is easy enough to attain the lesser of +the objectives. Anyone of fair intelligence can master a given amount of +subject matter and present it to a class; but it is a far more difficult +thing to understand the child—to master the inner secrets of the mind, +the heart, and the springs of action of the learner.</p> + +<p>Who can measure the potentialities that lie hidden in the soul of a +child! Just as the acorn contains the whole of the great oak tree +enfolded in its heart, so the child-life has hidden in it all the powers +of heart and mind which later reach full fruition. Nothing is <em>created</em> +through the process of growth and development. Education is but a +process of unfolding and bringing into action the powers and capacities +with which the life at the beginning was endowed by its Creator.</p> + + +<h4>THE CHILD AS THE GREAT OBJECTIVE</h4> + +<p>The child comes into the world—indeed, comes into the school—with much +potential and very little actual capital. Nature has through heredity +endowed him with infinite possibilities. But these are but promises; +<a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>they are still in embryonic form. The powers of mind and soul at first +lie dormant, waiting for the awakening that comes through the touch of +the world about and for the enlightenment that comes through +instruction.</p> + +<p>Given just the right touch at the opportune moment, and these potential +powers spring into dynamic abilities, a blessing to their possessor and +to the world they serve. Left without the right training, or allowed to +turn in wrong directions, and these infinite capacities for good may +become instruments for evil, a curse to the one who owns them and a +blight to those against whom they are directed.</p> + +<p><strong>Children the bearers of spiritual culture.</strong>—The greatest business of +any generation or people is, therefore, the education of its children. +Before this all other enterprises and obligations must give way, no +matter what their importance. It is at this point that civilization +succeeds or fails. Suppose that for a single generation our children +should, through some inconceivable stroke of fate, refuse to open their +minds to instruction—suppose they should refuse to learn our science, +our religion, our literature, and all the rest of the culture which the +human race has bought at so high a price of sacrifice and suffering. +Suppose they should turn deaf ears to the appeal of art, and reject the +claims of morality, and refuse the lessons of Christianity and the +Bible. Where then would all our boasted progress be? Where would our +religion be? Where would modern civilization be? All would revert to +primitive barbarism, through the failure of this one generation, and the +race would be obliged to start anew the long climb toward the mountain +top of spiritual freedom.</p> + +<p>Each generation must therefore create anew in its own life and +experience the spiritual culture of the race.<a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a> Each child that comes to +us for instruction, weak, ignorant, and helpless though he be, is +charged with his part in the great program God has marked out for man to +achieve. Each of these little ones is the bearer of an immortal soul, +whose destiny it is to take its quality and form from the life it lives +among its fellows. And ours is the dread and fascinating responsibility +for a time to be the mentor and guide of this celestial being. Ours it +is to deal with the infinite possibilities of child-life, and to have a +hand in forming the character that this immortal soul will take. Ours it +is to have the thrilling experience of experimenting in the making of a +destiny!</p> + +<p><strong>Childhood's capacity for growth.</strong>—Nor must we ever think that because +the child is young, his brain unripe, and his experience and wisdom +lacking, our responsibility is the less. For the child's earliest +impressions are the most lasting, and the earliest influences that act +upon his life are the most powerful in determining its outcome. Remember +that the babe, starting at birth with nothing, has in a few years +learned speech, become acquainted with much of his immediate world, +formed many habits which will follow him through life, and established +the beginnings of permanent character and disposition. Remember the +indelible impression of the bedside prayers of your mother, of the +earliest words of counsel of your father, of the influence of a loved +teacher, and then know that other children are to-day receiving their +impressions from us, their parents and teachers.</p> + +<p>Consider for a moment the child as he comes to us for instruction. We no +longer insist with the older theologies that he is completely under the +curse of "original sin," nor do we believe with certain sen<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>timentalists +that he comes "trailing clouds of glory." We believe that he has +infinite capacities for good, and equally infinite capacities for evil, +either of which may be developed. We know that at the beginning the +child is sinless, pure of heart, his life undefiled. To know this is +enough to show us our part. This is to lead the child aright until he is +old enough to follow the right path of his own accord, to ground him in +the motives and habits that tend to right living, and so to turn his +mind, heart, and will to God that his whole being seeks accord with the +Infinite.</p> + +<p><strong>Religious conservation.</strong>—If our leading of the child is wise, and his +response is ready, there will be no falling away from a normal Christian +life and a growing consciousness of God. This does not mean that the +child will never do wrong, nor commit sin. It does not mean that the +youth will not, when the age of choice has come, make a personal +decision for Christ and consecrate his life anew to Christ's service. It +means, rather, that the whole attitude of mind, and the complete trend +of life of the child will be religious. It means that the original +purity of innocence will grow into a conscious and joyful acceptance of +the Christ-standard. It means that the child need never know a time when +he is not within the Kingdom, and growing to fuller stature therein. It +means that we should set our aim at <em>conservation</em> instead of +reclamation as the end of our religious training.</p> + +<p>Yet what a proportion of the energy of the church is to-day required for +the reclaiming of those who should never have been allowed to go astray! +Evangelistic campaigns, much of the preaching, "personal work," +Salvation Army programs, and many other agencies are of necessity +organized for the reclaiming <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>of men and women who but yesterday were +children in our homes and church schools, and plastic to our training. +What a tragic waste of energy!—and then those who never return! Should +we not be able more successfully to carry out the Master's injunction, +"<em>Feed my lambs</em>"?</p> + +<p><strong>The child-Christian.</strong>—All of these considerations point to the +inevitable conclusion that the child is the great objective of our +teaching. Indeed, the child ought to be the objective of the work of the +whole church. The saving of its children from wandering outside the fold +is the supreme duty and the strategic opportunity of the church, +standing out above all other claims whatever. We are in some danger of +forgetting that when Jesus wanted to show his disciples the standard of +an ideal Christian he "took a child and set him in the midst of them." +We do not always realize that to <em>keep</em> a child a Christian is much more +important than to reclaim him after he has been allowed to get outside +the fold.</p> + +<p>The recent report of a series of special religious meetings states that +there were a certain number of conversions "<em>exclusive of children</em>," +the implication being that the really important results were in the +decisions of the adults. The same point of view was revealed when a +church official remarked after the reception of a large group of new +members, "It was an inspiring sight, <em>except that there were so few +adults!"</em> When shall we learn that if we do our duty by the children +there will be fewer adults left outside for the church to receive?</p> + + +<h4>NO SUBJECT MATTER <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: Original reads 'AND'">AN</ins> END IN ITSELF</h4> + +<p>The teacher must first of all take his stand with the <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>child. He must +not allow his attention and enthusiasms to become centered on the matter +he teaches. He must not be satisfied when he has succeeded in getting a +certain fact lodged in the minds of his pupils. He must first, last, and +all the time look upon subject matter, no matter how beautiful and true +it may be, as a <em>means</em> to an end. The end sought is certain desired +changes in the life, thought, and experience of the child. There are +hosts of teachers who can teach grammar (or the Bible), but +comparatively <em>few who can teach John</em>.</p> + +<p>This does not mean that the material we teach is unimportant, nor that +we can fulfill our duty as teachers without the use of interesting, +fruitful, and inspiring subject matter. It does not mean that we are not +to love the subject we teach, and feel our heart thrill in response to +its beauty and truth.</p> + +<p><strong>Making subject matter a means instead of an end.</strong>—One who is not +filled with enthusiasm for a subject has no moral right to attempt to +teach it, for the process will be dead and lifeless, failing to kindle +the fires of response in his pupils and lacking in vital results. But +the true teacher never loves a body of subject matter for its own sake; +he loves it for what <em>through it</em> he can accomplish in the lives of +those he teaches.</p> + +<p>As a <em>student</em>, searching for the hidden meanings and thrilling at the +unfolding beauties of some field of truth which we are investigating, we +may love the thing we study for its own sake; and who of us does not +feel in that way toward sections of our Bible, a poem, the record of +noble lives, or the perfection of some bit of scientific truth? But when +we face about and become the <em>teacher</em>, when our purpose is not our own +learning <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>but the teaching of another, then our attitude must change. We +will then love our cherished body of material not less, but differently. +We will now care for the thing we teach as an artisan cares for his +familiar instruments or the artist cares for his brush—we will prize it +as the <em>means through which</em> we shall attain a desired end.</p> + +<p><strong>Subject matter always subordinate to life.</strong>—It will help us to +understand the significance of this fundamental principle if we pause to +realize that all the matter we teach our children had its origin in +human experience; it was first a part of human life. Our scientific +discoveries have come out of the pressure of necessities that nature has +put upon us, and what we now put into our textbooks first was <em>lived</em> by +men and women in the midst of the day's activities. The deep thoughts, +the beautiful sentiments, and the high aspirations expressed in our +literature first existed and found expression in the lives of people. +The cherished truths of our Bible and its laws for our spiritual +development appeal to our hearts just because they have arisen from the +lives of countless thousands, and so have the reality of living +experience.</p> + +<p>There is, therefore, no abstract truth for truth's sake. Just as all our +culture material—our science, our literature, our body of religious +truth—had its rise out of the experience of men engaged in the great +business of living, so all this material must go back to life for its +meaning and significance. The science we teach in our schools attains +its end, not when it is learned as a group of facts, but when it has +been <em>set at work</em> by those who learn it to the end that they live +better, happier, and more fruitful lives. The literature we offer our +children has fulfilled its purpose, not when they have <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>studied the +mechanism of its structure, read its pages, or committed to memory its +lines, but when its glowing ideals and high aspirations have been +<em>realized in the lives</em> of those who learn it.</p> + +<p>And so this also holds for the Bible and its religious truth. Its rich +lessons full of beautiful meaning may be recited and its choicest verses +stored in the memory and still be barren of results, except as they are +put to the test and find expression in living experience. The only true +test of learning a thing is <em>whether the learner lives it</em>. The only +true test of the value of what one learns is the extent to which it +affects his daily life. The value of our teaching is therefore always to +be measured by the degree to which it finds expression in the lives of +our pupils. <em>John</em>, not grammar (nor even the Bible), is the true +objective of our teaching.</p> + + +<h4>EFFECT OF THE OBJECTIVE ON OUR TEACHING</h4> + +<p>Not only will this point of view vitalize our teaching for the pupils, +but it will also save it from becoming commonplace and routine for +ourselves. This truth is brought out in a conversation that occurred +between an old schoolmaster and his friend, a business man.</p> + +<p><strong>The true objective saves from the rut of routine.</strong>—Said the business +man, "Do you teach the same subjects year after year?"</p> + +<p>The schoolmaster replied that he did.</p> + +<p>"Do you not finally come to know this material all by heart, so that it +is old to you?" asked the friend.</p> + +<p>The schoolmaster answered that such was the case.</p> + +<p>"And yet you must keep going over the same ground, class after class and +year after year!" exclaimed the business man.</p> + +<p>The schoolmaster admitted that it was so.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>Then," said his friend, "I should think that you would tire beyond +endurance of the old facts, and grow weary beyond expression of +repeating them after the charm of novelty and newness has gone. How do +you live through the sameness and grind?"</p> + +<p>"You forget one thing!" exclaimed the old schoolmaster, who had learned +the secret of the <em>great objective</em>. "You forget that I am not really +teaching that old subject matter at all; I am teaching <em>living boys and +girls!</em> The matter I teach may become familiar. It may have lost the +first thrill of novelty. But the <em>boys and girls are always new</em>; their +hearts and minds are always fresh and inviting; their lives are always +open to new impressions, and their feet ready to be turned in new +directions. The old subject matter is but the means by which I work upon +this living material that comes to my classroom from day to day. I +should no more think of growing tired of it than the musician would +think of growing tired of his violin."</p> + +<p>And so the schoolmaster's friend was well answered.</p> + +<p><strong>Unsafe measures of success.</strong>—It is possible to lodge much subject +matter in the mind which, once there, does not function. It is possible +to teach many facts which play no part in shaping the ideals, quickening +the enthusiasms, or directing the conduct<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: was ','">.</ins> And +all mental material which lies dead and unused is but so much rubbish +and lumber of the mind. It plays no part in the child's true education, +and it dulls the edge of the learner's interest and his enjoyment of the +school and its instruction.</p> + +<p>It is possible to have the younger children in our Sunday schools from +week to week and still fail to secure sufficient hold on them so that +they continue to come after they have reached the age of deciding <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>for +themselves. The proof of this is all too evident in the relatively small +proportion of youth in our church-school classes between the ages of +fifteen and twenty-five.</p> + +<p>It is possible to offer the child lessons from the Bible throughout all +the years of childhood, and yet fail to ground sufficient interest in +the Bible or religion so that in later years the man or woman naturally +turns to the Bible for guidance or comfort, and fails to make religion +the determining principle of the life.</p> + +<p><strong>The child the only true measure of success.</strong>—Let us therefore be sure +of our objective. Let us never be proud nor satisfied that we have +taught our class so much <em>subject matter</em>—so many facts, maxims, or +lessons of whatever kind. We shall need to teach them all these things, +and teach them well. But we must inquire further. We must ask, What have +these things <em>done</em> for the boys and girls of my class? What has been +the outcome of my teaching? How much effect has it had in life, +character, conduct? In how far are my pupils different for having been +in my class, and for the lessons I have taught them? In how far have I +accomplished the <em>true objective</em> of my teaching?</p> + +<p>Let us never feel secure merely because the children are found in the +Sunday school, and because the statistical reports show increase in +numbers and in average attendance. These things are all well; without +them we cannot do the work which the church should do for its children. +But these are but the externals, the outward signs. We must still +inquire what real influence the school is having on the growing +spiritual life of its children. We must ask what part our instruction is +having in the making of Christians. We must measure all our success in +terms of the child's <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>response to our efforts. We must realize that we +have failed except as we have caused the child's spiritual nature to +unfold and his character to grow toward the Christ ideal.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. As you think of your own teaching, are you able to decide + whether you have been sufficiently clear in your objective? Have + you rather <em>assumed</em> that if you presented the lessons as they came + the results must of necessity follow, or have you been alive to the + real effects on your pupils?</p> + +<p> 2. Are you able to discover definite changes that are working out + in the lives of your pupils from month to month as you have them + under your instruction? Are they more reverent, more truthful, more + sure against temptation, increasingly conscious of God in their + lives? What other effects might you look for?</p> + +<p> 3. Do you think that the church is in some degree overlooking its + most strategic opportunity in not providing more efficiently for + the religious education of its children? If more attention were + given to religious nurture of children, would the problems of + evangelism be less pressing, and a larger proportion of adults + found in the church? What can the church school do to help? What + can your class do?</p> + +<p> 4. Do you love the matter that you seek to teach the children? Do + you love it for what it means to you, or for what through it you + can do for them? Do you look upon the material you teach truly as a + means and not as an end? Are you teaching subject matter or + children?</p> + +<p> 5. Do you feel the real worth and dignity of childhood? Do you + sometimes stop to remember that the ignorant child before you + to-day may become the Phillips Brooks, the Henry Ward Beecher, the + Livingstone, the Frances Willard, the Luther of to-morrow? Do you + realize the responsibility that one takes upon himself <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>when he + undertakes to guide the development of a life?</p> + +<p> 6. Can you now make a statement of the measures that you will wish + to apply to determine your degree of success as a teacher? It will + be worth your while to try to make a list of the immediate + objectives you will seek for your class to attain in their personal + lives. Keep this list and see whether it is modified by the + chapters that lie ahead.</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Harrison, A Study of Child Nature.</p> + +<p>Moxcey, Girlhood and Character.</p> + +<p>Dawson, The Child and His Religion.</p> + +<p>Forbush, The Boy Problem.</p> + +<p>Richardson (Editor), The American Home Series.</p> + +<p>Richardson, Religious Education of Adolescents.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h3> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The point of view and in some degree the outlines of this +and several following chapters have been adapted from the author's text +"Class-Room Method and Management," by permission of the publishers, +<em>The Bobbs-Merrill Co</em>., Indianapolis.</p></div></div> + + +<p>All good teaching rests on a fourfold foundation of principles. These +principles are the same from the kindergarten to the university, and +they apply equally to the teaching of religion in the church school or +subjects in the day school. Every teacher must answer four questions +growing out of these principles, or, failing to answer them, classify +himself with the unworthy and incompetent. These are the four supreme +questions:</p> + +<blockquote><p>1. What definite <em>aims</em> have I set as the goal of my teaching? What + <em>outcomes</em> do I seek?</p> + +<p> 2. What <em>material</em>, or <em>subject matter</em>, will best accomplish these + aims? What shall I stress and what shall I omit?</p> + +<p> 3. How can this material best be <em>organized</em>, or arranged, to adapt + it to the child in his learning? How shall I plan my material?</p> + +<p> 4. What shall be my plan or <em>method of presentation</em> of this + material to make it achieve its purpose? What of my technique of + instruction?</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>THE AIM IN TEACHING RELIGION</h4> + +<p>First of all, the teacher of religion must <em>have</em> an aim; he must know +what ends he seeks to accomplish. Some statistically minded person has +computed that, with <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>all the marvelous accuracy of aiming modern guns, +more than one thousand shots are fired for every man hit in battle. One +cannot but wonder how many shots would be required to hit a man if the +guns were not aimed at anything!</p> + +<p>Is the analogy too strong? Is the teacher more likely than the gunner to +reach his objective without consciously aiming at it? And can the +teacher set up for attainment as definite aims as are offered the +gunner? Do we <em>know</em> just what ends we seek in the religious training of +our children?</p> + +<p><strong>Life itself sets the aim.</strong>—This much at least is certain. We know +<em>where to look for</em> the aims that must guide us. We shall not try to +formulate an aim for our teaching out of our own thought or reasoning +upon the subject. We shall rather look out upon life, the life the +child is now living and the later life he is to live, and ask: "<em>What +are the demands that life makes on the individual?</em> What is the +equipment this child will need as he meets the problems and tests of +experience in the daily round of living? What qualities and powers will +he require that he may the most fully realize his own potentialities and +at the same time most fruitfully serve his generation? What abilities +must he have trained in order that he may the most completely express +God's plan for his life?" When we can answer such questions as these we +shall have defined the aim of religious education and of our teaching.</p> + +<p><strong>The knowledge aim.</strong>—First of all, life demands <em>knowledge</em>. There are +things that we must know if we are to avoid dangers and pitfalls. +Knowledge shows the way, while ignorance shrouds the path in darkness. +To be without knowledge is to be as a ship without a rudder, left to +drift on the rocks and shoals. The <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>religious life is intelligent; it +must grasp, understand, and know how to use many great truths. To supply +our children with <em>religious knowledge</em> is, therefore, one of the chief +aims of our teaching.</p> + +<p>Yet not all knowledge is of equal worth. Even religious knowledge is of +all degrees of fruitfulness. Some knowledge, once acquired, fails to +function. It has no point of contact with our lives. It does not deal +with matters we are meeting in the day's round of experience. It +therefore lies in the mind unused, or, because it is not used, it +quickly passes from the memory and is gone. Such knowledge as this is of +no real value. It is not worth the time and effort put upon its mastery; +and it crowds out other and more fruitful knowledge that might take its +place.</p> + +<p>To be a true end of education, knowledge must be of such nature that it +<em>can be put at work</em>. It must relate to actual needs and problems. It +must have immediate and vital points of contact with the child's common +experiences. The child must be able to see the relation of the truths he +learns to his own interests and activities. He must feel their value and +see their use in his work and in his play. This is as true of religious +knowledge as of knowledge of other kinds. The religious knowledge the +child needs, therefore, is a knowledge that <em>can at once be incorporated +in his life</em>. To supply the child with knowledge of this vital, fruitful +sort becomes, then, one great aim in the teaching of religion.</p> + +<p>But knowledge alone is not enough. Indeed, knowledge is but the +beginning of religious education, whereas we have been in danger of +considering it the end. Many there are who <em>know</em> the ways of life but +do not follow them. Many <em>know</em> the paths of duty, but choose an <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>easier +way. Many <em>know</em> the road to service and achievement, but do not enter +thereon. If <em>to do</em> were as easy as to know what to do, then all of us +would mount to greater heights.</p> + +<p><strong>The attitudes aim.</strong>—Life demands <em>goals</em> set ahead for achievement. It +must have clearly defined the "worth whiles" which lead to endeavor. +Along with the knowledge that guides our steps must be the impulses that +drive to right action. Besides knowing what to do there must be inner +compelling forces that <em>get things done</em>. The chief source of our goals +and of the driving power within us is what, for want of a better term, +we may call our <em>attitudes</em>.</p> + +<p>Prominent among our attitudes are the <em>interests, enthusiasms, +affections, ambitions, ideals, appreciations, loyalties, standards, and +attachments</em> which predominate. These all have their roots set deep in +our emotions; they are the measure of life's values. They are the "worth +whiles" which give life its quality, and which define the goal for +effort.</p> + +<p>Chesterton tells us that the most important thing about any man is the +<em>kind of philosophy he keeps</em>—that is to say, his <em>attitudes</em>. For it +is out of one's attitudes that his philosophy of life develops, and that +he settles upon the great aims to which he devotes himself. It is in +one's attitudes that we find the springs of action and the incentives to +endeavor. It is in attitudes that we find the forces that direct conduct +and lead to character.</p> + +<p>To train the intellect and store the mind with knowledge without +developing a fund of right attitudes to shape the course of action is +therefore even fraught with danger. The men in positions of political +power who often misgovern cities or use public office as a <a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>means to +private gain do not act from lack of knowledge or in ignorance of civic +duty; their failure is one of ideals and loyalties; their attitude +toward social trust and service to their fellow men is wrong. The men +who use their power of wealth to oppress the poor and helpless, or +unfairly exploit the labor of others to their own selfish advantage do +not sin from lack of knowledge; their weakness lies in false standards +and unsocial attitudes. Men and women everywhere who depart from paths +of honor and rectitude fall more often from the lack of high ideals than +because they do not know the better way.</p> + +<p>The goal and the motive power in all such cases comes from a false +philosophy of life; it is grounded in wrong attitudes. The education of +those who thus misconceive life has failed of one of its chief aims—<em>to +develop right attitudes</em>. Hence character is wanting.</p> + +<p><strong>The conduct, or application, aim.</strong>—The third and ultimate aim of +education has been implied in the first two; it is <em>conduct, right +living</em>. This is the final and sure test of the value of what we +teach—how does it find <em>expression in action</em>? Do our pupils think +differently, speak differently, act differently here and now because of +what we teach them? Are they stronger when they meet temptation from day +to day? Are they more sure to rise to the occasion when they confront +duty or opportunity? Are their lives more pure and free from sin? Do the +lessons we teach find expression in the home, in the school, and on the +playground? Is there a real outcome <em>in terms of daily living</em>?</p> + +<p>These are all fair questions, for knowledge is without meaning except as +it becomes a guide to action. High ideals and beautiful enthusiasms +attain their end only when they have eventuated in worthy deeds.<a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a> What +we <em>do</em> because of our training is the final test of its value. Conduct, +performance, achievement are the ultimate measures of what our education +has been worth to us. By this test we must measure the effects of our +teaching.</p> + +<p><strong>Summary of the threefold aim.</strong>—The <em>aim</em> in teaching the child +religion is therefore definite, even if it is difficult to attain. This +aim may be stated in three great requirements which life itself puts +upon the child and every individual:</p> + +<blockquote><p>1. <em>Fruitful knowledge</em>; knowledge of religious truths that can be + set at work in the daily life of the child now and in the years + that lie ahead.</p> + +<p> 2. <em>Right attitudes</em>; the religious warmth, responsiveness, + interests, ideals, loyalties, and enthusiasms which lead to action + and to a true sense of what is most worth while.</p> + +<p> 3. <em>Skill in living</em>; the power and will to use the religious + knowledge and enthusiasms supplied by education in shaping the acts + and conduct of the daily life.</p></blockquote> + +<p>True, we may state our aim in religious teaching in more general terms +than these, but the meaning will be the same. We may say that we would +lead the child to a knowledge of God as Friend and Father; that we seek +to bring him into a full, rich experience of spiritual union with the +divine; that we desire to ground his life in personal purity and free it +from sin; that we would spur him to a life crowned with deeds of +self-sacrifice and Christlike service; that we would make out of him a +true Christian. This is well and is a high ideal, but in the end it sums +up the results of the religious <em>knowledge, attitudes</em>, and <em>acts</em> we +have already <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>set forth as our aim. These are the parts of which the +other is the whole; they are the immediate and specific ends which lead +to the more distant and general. Let us, therefore, conceive our aim in +<em>both</em> ways—the ideal Christian life as the final goal toward which we +are leading, and the knowledge, attitudes, and acts that make up +to-day's life as so many steps taken toward the goal.</p> + + +<h4>SELECTING THE SUBJECT MATTER</h4> + +<p>After the aim the subject matter. When we would build some structure we +first get plan and purpose in mind; then we select the material that +shall go into it. It is so with education. Once we have set before us +the aim we would reach, our next question is, What shall be the means of +its attainment? When we have fixed upon the fruitful knowledge, the +right attitudes, and the lines of conduct and action which must result +from our teaching, we must then ask, What <em>means</em> shall we select to +achieve these ends? What <em>material or subject matter</em> shall we teach in +the church school?</p> + +<p>The subject matter he presents is the instrumentality by which the +teacher must accomplish his aims for his class. Through this material he +must awaken thought, store the mind with vital truths, arouse new +interests, create ideals and lead the life to God. As the artist works +with brush and paint, with tool and clay, so the teacher must work with +truths and lesson materials.</p> + +<p><strong>Guiding principles.</strong>—Two great principles must guide in the selection +of subject matter for religious instruction:</p> + +<blockquote><p>1. <em>The material must be suited to the aims we seek.</em></p> + +<p> 2. <em>The material must be adapted to the child.</em></p></blockquote> + +<p>The tools and instruments the workman uses must <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>be adapted to the +purpose sought. Ask the expert craftsman what kind of plane or chisel +you should buy for a piece of work you have in mind, and he will ask you +just what ends you seek, what uses you would put them to. Ask the +architect what materials you should have for the structure you would +build, and he will tell you that depends on the plan and purpose of your +building.</p> + +<p><strong>The material must fit the aim.</strong>—What materials of religious truth +should the teacher bring to his class? The answer is that truths and +lessons must be suited to the aim we seek. Would we lead our children to +understand the Fatherhood of God and to love him for his tender care? +Then the lessons must contain this thought, and not be built on +irrelevant material. Would we lead youth to catch the thrill and +inspiration of noble lives, to pattern conduct after worthy deeds? Then +our lesson material must deal with the high and fine in character and +action, and not with trivial things of lesser value.</p> + +<p>So also, if we would capture the interest of childhood for the church +school and bind its loyalty to the church, the subject matter we offer +and the lessons we teach in the house of God must contain the glow and +throb of life, and not be dry and barren. If we would awaken religious +feeling and link the emotions to God, we must not teach empty lessons, +meaningless dates, and musty facts that fail to reach the heart because +they have no inner meaning.</p> + +<p>Small use to set high aims and then miss them for want of material +suited for their attainment. Small use to catalogue the fine qualities +of heart and mind we would train in our children and then fail of our +aim because we choose wrong tools with which to work.<a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a> Not all facts +found in the Bible are of equal worth to children, nor are all religious +truths of equal value. Nothing should be taught <em>just because it is +true</em>, nor even because it is found in the Bible. The final question is +whether this lesson material is the best we can choose for the child +himself; whether it will give him the knowledge he can use, train the +attitudes he requires, and lead to the acts and conduct that should rule +his life.</p> + +<p><strong>The material must fit the child.</strong>—The subject matter we teach <em>must +also be fitted to the child</em>. It must be within his grasp and +understanding. We do not feed strong meat to babes. What may be the +grown person's meat may be to the child poison. It does no good to load +the mind with facts it cannot comprehend. There is no virtue in truths, +however significant and profound, if they are beyond the reach of the +child's experience. Matter which is not assimilated to the understanding +is soon forgotten; or if retained, but weighs upon the intellect and +dulls its edge for further learning.</p> + +<p>There can be little doubt that we have quite constantly in most of our +Sunday schools forced upon the child no small amount of matter that is +beyond his mental grasp, and so far outside his daily experience that it +conveys little or no meaning. We have over-intellectualized the child's +religion. Jesus was "to the Greeks foolishness" because they had no +basis of experience upon which to understand his pure and unselfish +life. May not many of the facts, figures, dates, and events from an +ancient religion which we give young children likewise be to them but +foolishness! May not the lessons upon some of the deepest, finest and +most precious concepts in our religion, such as faith, atonement, +<a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>regeneration, repentance, the Trinity, be lost or worse than lost upon +our children because we force them upon unripe minds and hearts at an +age when they are not ready for them?</p> + +<p>Let us then, <em>not forget the child</em> when we teach religion! Let us not +assume that truths and lessons are an end in themselves. Let us +constantly ask, as we prepare our lessons, Will this material work as a +true leaven in the life? Will it take root and blossom into character, +fine thought, and worthy conduct? While our children dumbly ask for +living bread let us not give them dead stones and dry husks, which +cannot feed their souls! Let us adapt our subject matter to the child.</p> + +<p><strong>The use of stress and neglect.</strong>—That the lesson material printed in +the Sunday school booklets is not always well adapted to the children +every teacher knows. But there it is, and what can we do but teach it, +though it may sometimes miss the mark?</p> + +<p>There is one remedy the wise and skillful teacher always has at his +command. By the use of <em>stress</em> and <em>neglect</em> the matter of the lesson +may be made to take quite different forms. The points that are too +difficult may be omitted or but little emphasized. The matter that best +fits the child may be stressed and its application made. Illustrations, +stories, and lessons from outside sources may be introduced to suit the +aim. Great truths may be restated in terms within childhood's +comprehension. The true teacher, like the craftsman, will select now +this tool, now that to meet his purpose. Regardless of what the printed +lesson offers, he will reject or use, supplement or replace with new +material as the needs of his class may demand. The true teacher will be +the master, and not the servant, of the subject matter he uses.</p> + + +<h4><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>HOW SHALL WE ORGANIZE AND PLAN THE LESSONS?</h4> + +<p>When the <em>content</em> of the subject matter has been decided upon then +comes its <em>organization</em>. How shall we arrange and plan the material we +teach so as to give the children the easiest and most natural mode of +approach to its learning?</p> + +<p>The great law here is that <em>the arrangement of subject matter must be +psychological</em>. This only means that we must always ask ourselves how +will the child most easily and naturally enter upon the learning of this +material? How can I organize it for the recitation so that it will most +strongly appeal to his interest? How can I arrange it so that it will be +most easily grasped and understood? How can I plan the lesson so that +its relation to immediate life and conduct will be most clear and its +application most surely made?</p> + +<p><strong>The psychological mode of approach.</strong>—I recently happened into a junior +Sunday school class where the lesson was on faith. The teacher evidently +did not know how to plan for a psychological mode of approach to this +difficult concept. He began by defining faith in Paul's phrase as "the +substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen." He then +went to the dictionary definition, which shows the relation of faith to +belief. He discussed the relation of faith to works, as presented in the +writings of James. But all to no avail. The class was uninterested and +inattentive. The lesson did not take hold. The time was wasted and the +opportunity lost. I excused myself and went to another classroom.</p> + +<p>Here they had the same topic. But the teacher had sought for and found a +starting point from which to explain the meaning of faith in terms that +the children could understand. The teacher's eye rested for a mo<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>ment on +John; then: "John, when does your next birthday come?"</p> + +<p>"The sixteenth of next month," replied John promptly.</p> + +<p>"Going to get any presents, do you think?" asked the teacher.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," answered John with conviction.</p> + +<p>"What makes you think so?" inquired the teacher. "Not everybody does +receive birthday presents, you know."</p> + +<p>"But I am sure I will," persisted John. "You see, I know my father and +mother. They have never yet let one of my birthdays pass without +remembering me, and I am sure they are not going to begin to forget me +now. They think too much of me."</p> + +<p>"You seem to have a good deal of <em>faith</em> in your father and mother," +remarked the teacher.</p> + +<p>"Well I guess I <em>have!</em>" was John's enthusiastic response.</p> + +<p>And right at this point the way was wide open to show John and the class +the meaning of faith in a heavenly Father. The wise teacher had found a +<em>point of contact</em> in John's faith in the love and care of his parents, +and it was but a step from this to the broader and deeper faith in God.</p> + +<p>It is a law of human nature that we are all interested first of all in +what affects our own lives. Our attention turns most easily to what +relates to or grows out of our own experience. The <em>immediate and the +concrete</em> are the natural and most effective starting points for our +thought. The distant and remote exert little appeal to our interest; it +is the near that counts. Especially do these rules hold for children.</p> + +<p><strong>Making sure of a point of contact.</strong>—All these facts point the way for +the teacher in the planning and organ<a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>ization of material for his class. +The point of departure must always be sought in some <em>immediate interest +or activity in the life of the child</em>, and not in some abstract truth or +far-away lesson, however precious these may be to the adult Christian. +And no lesson is ready for presentation until the way into the child's +interest and comprehension has been found. Many a lesson that might have +been full of rich spiritual meaning for the child has been lost to our +pupils because it was presented out of season, or because the vital +connection between the truth and the child's experience was not +discovered by the teacher.</p> + +<p>This principle suggests that in the main children should not be taught +religious truths in terms which they cannot grasp, nor in such a way +that the application to their own lives is not clear. For example, the +vital truths contained in the church catechisms are not for children; +the statement of them is too abstract and difficult, and the meaning too +remote from the child's experience. Many of the same truths can be +presented to children in the form of stories or illustrations; other of +the truths may rest until the child becomes older before claiming his +attention. Bible verses and sentiments completely outside the child's +comprehension are not good material for memorizing. Lessons upon the +more difficult concepts and deeper problems of religion belong to the +adult age, and should not be forced upon children.</p> + +<p>Our guiding principle, therefore, is to <em>keep close to the mind, heart, +and daily life of childhood.</em> Then <em>adapt the subject matter we teach to +the mind, interests, and needs of those we teach.</em> Definitions, rules, +abstract statements, general truths have little or no value with +children. It is the story, the concrete incident, the direct +appli<a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>cation growing out of their own experiences that takes hold.</p> + + +<h4>PRESENTING THE LESSON—INSTRUCTION</h4> + +<p>After the aim has been clearly conceived, and after the lesson material +has been wisely chosen and properly organized, there still remains the +most important part—that of "getting the lesson across" to the class. +Many a valuable lesson, full of helpfulness, has been lost to the pupils +because the teacher lacked the power to bring his class to the right +pitch for receiving and retaining impressions. Many a class period has +been wasted because the teacher failed to present the material of the +lesson so that it gripped interest and compelled attention.</p> + +<p><strong>Response a test of instruction.</strong>—The <em>first</em> test of good instruction +is the <em>response of the class</em>. Are the children alert? Are they keen +for discussion, or for listening to stories told or applications made? +Do they think? Do they enjoy the lesson hour, and give themselves +happily and whole-heartedly to it? Is their conduct good, and their +attitude serious, reverent, and attentive? Are they all "in the game," +or are there laggards, inattentive ones, and mischief-makers?</p> + +<p>These questions are all crucial. For the first law of all learning is +<em>self-activity</em>. There is no possibility of teaching a child who is not +mentally awake. Only the active mind grasps, assimilates, remembers, +applies. The birth of new ideas, the reaching of convictions, the +arriving at decisions all come in moments of mental stress and tension. +Lethargy of thought and feeling is fatal to all class-room achievement. +Therefore, no matter how keenly alert the teacher's mind may be, no +matter how skillful his analysis of an important <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>truth may be if his +class sit with flagging interest and lax attention.</p> + +<p><strong>Results a test of instruction.</strong>—The <em>second</em> test of good instruction +is our skill in handling the material of the lesson, and <em>shaping the +trend of thought and discussion</em>. Are the children interested in the +right things? Are the central truths of the lesson being brought out and +applied? Is the discussion centered on topics set for our consideration, +or does it degenerate into aimless talk on matters of personal or local +interest which have no relation to the lesson? In short, does the +recitation period yield the <em>fruitful knowledge</em> we had set as a goal +for this lesson? Does it stimulate the <em>attitudes</em> and motives we had +meant to reach? Does it lead to the <em>applications</em> in life and conduct +which were intended? <em>Does it get results?</em></p> + +<p>The four points of this lesson are of supreme importance in teaching +religion. The <em>aim</em> must be clear, definite, and possible of attainment. +The <em>subject matter</em> of instruction must be wisely selected as an +instrument for reaching the aim set forth. The <em>organization</em> of this +material must adapt it to the mind and needs of the child. The +<em>presentation</em> of the lesson material in the recitation must be such +that its full effect is brought to bear upon the mind and heart of those +we teach.</p> + +<p>Each of these four points will be further elaborated in the chapters +which follow. In fact, the remainder of the text is chiefly a working +out and applying of these fundamental principles to the teaching of +religion.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. To what extent would you say you have been directing your + teaching toward a definite aim? Just how does the problem of this + chapter relate itself to the preceding chapter on the "Great + Objective"?</p> + +<p> <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>2. Do you think the majority of those who have come up through the + church school possess as full and definite a knowledge of the Bible + and the fundamentals of religion as we have a right to expect? If + not, where is the trouble and what the remedy?</p> + +<p> 3. Have you been consciously emphasizing the creation of right + attitudes as one of the chief outcomes of your teaching? Do you + judge that you are as successful in the developing of religious + attitudes as in imparting information? If not, can you find a + remedy?</p> + +<p> 4. To what extent do you think your instruction is actually + carrying over into the immediate life and conduct of your class in + their home, school, etc.? If not to so great an extent as you could + wish, are you willing to make this one of the great aims of your + teaching from this time on, seeking earnestly throughout this text + and in other ways to learn how this may be done?</p> + +<p> 5. Do you on the whole feel that the subject matter you are + teaching your pupils is adapted to the aims you seek to reach in + their lives? If not, how can you supplement and change to make it + more effective? Have you a broad enough knowledge of such material + yourself so that you can select material from other sources for + them?</p> + +<p> 6. To what extent do you definitely plan each lesson for the + particular children you teach so as to make it most accessible to + their interest and grasp? Do you plan each lesson to secure a + psychological mode of approach? How do you know when you have a + psychological approach?</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Betts, Class-Room Method and Management, Part I.</p> + +<p>Coe, A Social Theory of Religious Education, Part II.</p> + +<p>DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH</h3> + + +<p>The child comes into the world devoid of all knowledge and +understanding. His mind, though at the beginning a blank, is a potential +seedbed in which we may plant what teachings we will. The babe born into +our home to-day can with equal ease be made into a Christian, a +Buddhist, or a Mohammedan. He brings with him the instinct to respond to +the appeal religion makes to his life, but the kind and quality of his +religion will depend largely on the religious atmosphere he breathes and +the religious ideas and concepts placed in his mind through instruction +and training.</p> + +<p>What, then, shall we teach our children, in religion? If fruitful +knowledge is to be one of the chief aims of our teaching, <em>what</em> +knowledge shall we call fruitful? What are the great foundations on +which a Christian life must rest? Years ago Spencer wrote a brilliant +essay on <em>knowledge of most worth</em> in the field of general education. +What knowledge is of most worth in the field of religious education? For +not all knowledge, as we have seen, is of equal value. Some religious +knowledge is fruitful because it <em>can be set at work</em> to shape our +attitudes and guide our acts; other religious knowledge is relatively +fruitless because it <em>finds no point of contact</em> with experience.</p> + +<p>To answer our question we must therefore ask: "What knowledge will serve +to guide the child's foot-steps aright from day to day as he passes +through his childhood? What truths will even now, while he is still <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>a +child, awaken his spiritual appreciation and touch the springs of his +emotional response to the heavenly Father? What religious concepts, once +developed, will lead the youth into a rich fullness of personal +experience and develop in him the will and capacity to serve others? +What religious knowledge will finally make most certain a life of +loyalty to the church and the great cause for which it stands?" When we +can answer these questions we shall then be able to say what knowledge +is of most worth in the religious training of our children.</p> + + +<h4>THE CHILD'S CONCEPT OF GOD</h4> + +<p>The child must come to know about God, even as a little child. Long +before he can understand about <em>religion</em>, he can learn about a heavenly +Father. This does not imply that the child (or that we ourselves!) can +know God in any full or complete way. Indeed, a God who could be known +in his entirety by even the deepest and wisest finite mind would be no +God at all. Yet everyone must give some meaning to God. Everyone does +have some more or less definite idea, image, or mental picture of the +God he thinks about, prays to, and worships.</p> + +<p><strong>The child's idea of God develops gradually.</strong>—We need not be concerned +that God does not mean the same to the child with his mental limitations +that he means to us. Meaning comes only out of experience, and this will +grow. The great thing is that the child's fundamental concept of God +shall start right, that in so far as it goes it shall be essentially +true, and that it shall be clear and definite enough to guide his +actions. More than this we cannot ask for; less than this does not give +the child a God real enough to be a vital factor and an active force in +his life.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>It is to be expected, then, that the child's earliest concepts of God +will be faulty and incomplete, and that in many points they will later +need correction. Probably most children first think of God as having +human form and attributes; the idea of spirit is beyond their grasp. God +is to them a kind of magnified and glorified Father after the type of +their earthly father. This need not concern us if we make sure that the +crude beginnings of the God-idea have no disturbing elements in them, +and that as the concept grows it moves in the right direction.</p> + +<p><strong>The harm from false concepts.</strong>—Mr. H.G. Wells<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> bitterly complains +against the wrong concept of God that was allowed to grow in his mind as +a child. These are his words: "He and his hell were the nightmare of my +childhood.... I thought of him as a fantastic monster perpetually +waiting to condemn and to strike me dead!... He was over me and about my +silliness and forgetfulness as the sky and sea would be about a child +drowning in mid-Atlantic." It was only as the child grew into youth, and +was able to discard this false idea of God that he came to feel right +toward him.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> God the Invisible King, p. 44.</p></div></div> + +<p>The harm done a child by false and disturbing concepts of God is hard to +estimate. A small boy recently came home from Sunday school and confided +to his mother that he "didn't think it was fair for God to spy on a +fellow!" A sympathetic inquiry by the mother revealed the fact that the +impression brought from the lesson hour was of God keeping a lookout for +our wrongdoings and sins, and constantly making a record of them against +us, as an unsympathetic teacher might in school. The beneficent and +watchful oversight and care of God had not entered into the concept.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>It is clear that with this wrong understanding of God's relation to him +the child's attitude and the response of his heart toward God could not +be right. The lesson hour which left so false an impression of God in +the child's mind did him lasting injury instead of good.</p> + +<p><strong>How wrong concepts may arise.</strong>—Pierre Loti tells in his reminiscences +of his own child-life how he went out into the back yard and threw +stones at God because it had rained and spoiled the picnic day. In his +teaching, God had been made responsible for the weather, and the boy had +come to look upon prayer as a means of getting what he wanted from God. +It took many years of experience to rid the child's mind of the last +vestiges of these false ideas. The writer recalls a troublesome idea of +God that inadvertently secured lodgment in his own mind through the +medium of a picture in his first geography. In the section on China was +the representation of a horrid, malignant looking idol underneath which +was printed the words, "A God." For many years the image of this picture +was associated with the thought of God, and made it hard to respond to +the concept of God's beauty, goodness, and kindness.</p> + +<p>Wrong concepts of God may leave positive antagonisms which require years +to overcome. A little girl of nearly four years had just lost her +father. She did not understand the funeral and the flowers and the +burial. She came to her mother in the evening and asked where her papa +was. The stricken mother replied that "God had taken him."</p> + +<p>"But when is he coming back?" asked the child.</p> + +<p>The mother answered that he could not come back.</p> + +<p>"Not ever?" persisted the child.</p> + +<p>"Not ever," whispered the mother.</p> + +<p>"Won't God let him?" asked the relentless questioner.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>The heart-broken mother hesitated for a word of wisdom, but finally +answered, "No, God will not let him come back to us."</p> + +<p><strong>Care and wisdom needed.</strong>—And in that moment the harm was done. The +child had formed a wrong concept of God as one who would willfully take +away her father and not let him return. She burst out in a fit of +passion: "I don't like God! He takes my papa and keeps him away."</p> + +<p>That night she refused to say her prayer, and for weeks remained +rebellious and unforgiving toward the God whom she accused of having +robbed her of her father. How should the mother have answered her +child's question? I cannot tell in just what words, but the words in +which we answer the child's questions must be chosen with such infinite +care and wisdom that bitterness shall not take the place which love +toward God should occupy in the heart.</p> + +<p>Another typical difficulty is that children are often led to think of +God as a distant God. A favorite Sunday school hymn sings of "God above +the great blue sky." To many children God is "in heaven," and heaven is +localized at an immeasurable distance. Hence the fact of God's nearness +is wholly missed. Children come to think of God as seated on a great +white throne, an aged, austere, and severe Person, more an object of +fear than of love. And then we tell the children that they "must love +God," forgetting that love never comes from a sense of duty or +compulsion, but springs, when it appears, spontaneously from the heart +because it is compelled by lovable traits and appealing qualities in the +one to be loved!</p> + +<p><strong>The concept of God which the child needs.</strong>—The concept of God which +the child first needs, there<a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>fore, is God as loving Father, expecting +obedience and trust from his children; God as inviting Friend; God as +friendly Protector; God ever near at hand; God who can understand and +sympathize with children and enter into their joys and sorrows; God as +Creator, in the sunshine and the flowers; but above all, God filling the +heart with love and gladness. The concept which the child needs of Jesus +is of his surpassing goodness, his unselfish courage, and his loving +service. All religious teaching which will lead to such concepts as +these is grounding the child in knowledge that is rich and fruitful, for +it is making God and Christ <em>real</em> to him. All teaching which leads to +false concepts is an obstacle in the way of spiritual development.</p> + + +<h4>THE CHILD'S CONCEPT OF RELIGION</h4> + +<p>Gradually throughout his training the child should be forming a clear +concept of religion and the part it is to play in the life. This cannot +come through any formal definition, nor through any set of precepts. It +must be a growth, stimulated by instruction, guided by wise counsel, +given depth of meaning through the lives of strong men and women who +express the Christian ideal in their daily living.</p> + +<p>Matthew Arnold tells us that religion is "morality lit up by emotion." +We turn to God for our inspiration, for the quickening of our motives, +for fellowship, communion and comfort; but it is when we face the duties +and relationships of the day's work and its play that we prove how close +we have been to God and what we have received from him. As there can be +no religion without God, neither can there be religion without morality; +that is, without righteous living.</p> + +<p><strong>Connecting religion with life.</strong>—One of the chief aims <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>in teaching the +child religion should therefore be to ground him in the understanding +that <em>religion is life</em>. Probably no greater defect exists in our +religion to-day than our constant tendency to divorce it from life. +There are many persons who undertake to divide their lives up into +compartments, one for business, one for the relations of the home, one +for social matters, one for recreation and amusement, and <em>one for +religion</em>. They make the mistake of assuming that they can keep these +sections of the life separate and distinct from each other, forgetting +that life is a unity and that the quality of each of its aspects +inevitably colors and gives tone to all the rest.</p> + +<p>The child should be saved the comfortable assumption so tragically +prevalent that religion is chiefly a matter for Sundays; that it +consists largely in belonging to the church and attending its services; +that it finds its complete and most effective expression in the +observance of certain rites and ceremonials; that we can serve God +without serving our fellow men; that creeds are more important than +deeds; that saying "Lord, Lord," can take the place of a ministry of +service.</p> + +<p><strong>Religion defined in noble living.</strong>—There is only one way to save the +child from such crippling concepts as these: that is to hold up to him +the challenge of <em>life at its best and noblest</em>, to show him the effects +of <em>religion at work</em>. What are the qualities we most admire in others? +What are the secrets of the influence, power, and success of the great +men and women whose names rule the pages of history? What are the +attributes that will draw people to us as friends and followers and give +us power to lead them to better ways? What are the things that will +yield the most satisfaction, and that are most worth while to seek and +achieve as <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>the outcome of our own lives? What is true success, and how +shall we know when we have achieved it? <em>Why does the Christ, living his +brief, modest, and uneventful life and dying an obscure and tragic +death, stand out as the supreme model and example for men to pattern +their lives by?</em></p> + +<p>These are questions that the child needs to have answered, not in formal +statements, of course, but in terms that will reach his understanding +and appreciation. These are truths that he needs to have lodged in his +mind, so that they may stir his imagination, fire his ambition, and +harden his will for endeavor. These are the goals that the child needs +to have set before him as the measure of success in life, the pathways +into which his feet should be directed.</p> + +<p><strong>The qualities religion puts into the life.</strong>—What, then, are the things +men live by? What are the great qualities which have ruled the finest +lives the world has known? How does religion express itself in the run +of the day's experience? What are some of the objective standards by +which religion is to be measured in our own lives or in the lives of +others, in the lives of children or in the lives of adults? What are the +characterizing features in the life and personality of Jesus? What did +he put first in practice as well as in precept?</p> + +<p><em>Joyousness.</em> No word was oftener on the lips of Jesus than the word +"joy," and the world has never seen such another apostle of joyousness. +The life that lacks joy is flat for him who lives it, and exerts little +appeal to others.</p> + +<p><em>Good will.</em> The good will of Jesus embraces all manner and conditions +of people. His magnanimity and generosity under all conditions were one +of the charms of his personality and one of the chief sources of his +strength.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a><em>Service.</em> Jesus's life was, if possible, more wonderful than his death, +and nothing in his life was more wonderful than his passion for serving +others. The men and women whom the world has remembered and honored in +all generations and among all peoples are the men and women who found +their greatness in service.</p> + +<p><em>Loyalty.</em> Steadfastness to the cause he had espoused led Jesus to the +cross. Great characters do not ask what road is easy, but what way is +right. Where duty leads, the strong do not falter nor fail, cost what it +may. They see their task through to the end, though it mean that they +die.</p> + +<p><em>Sympathy.</em> Jesus always understood. His heart had eyes to see another's +need. His love was as broad as the hunger of the human heart for +comradeship. We are never so much our best selves as when self is +forgotten, and we enter into the joys or the sorrows of one who needs +us.</p> + +<p><em>Purity.</em> Sin has its price for all it gives us. We cannot stain our +souls and find them white again. We later reap whatever now we sow. +Jesus's life of righteousness, lived amid temptations such as we all +meet, is a challenge to every man who would be the captain of his own +soul.</p> + +<p><em>Sincerity.</em> No man ever doubted that Jesus meant what he said. No man +ever accused him of acting a part. His enemies, even, never found him +misrepresenting or speaking other than the truth. All truly fine +characters can be trusted for utter sincerity of word, of purpose, and +of deed.</p> + +<p><em>Courage.</em> Jesus was never more sublime than under conditions that test +men's courage. Did he face hostile mob and servile judge? did he find +himself misunderstood and deserted by those who had been his friends?<a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a> +must he bid his disciples a last farewell? did he see the shadow of the +cross over his pathway?—yet he never faltered. His courage stood all +tests.</p> + +<p><em>Vision.</em> A distinguishing quality of the great is their power to put +first things first. Jesus possessed a fine sense of values. He willingly +sold all he had that he might buy the pearl of great price. His +temptations to follow after lesser values left him unscathed, and he +refused to command the stones to be made bread, or to do aught else that +would turn him from his mission.</p> + +<p><em>God-Consciousness.</em> Those who have most left their impress upon the +world and the hearts of men have not worked through their own power +alone. They have known how to link their lives to the infinite Source of +power; the way has been open between their lives and God. Jesus never +for a moment doubted that all the resources of God were at his command, +hence he had but to reach out and they were his.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It is evident, as before stated, that this functional definition of +religion, this great program of living, cannot be thrust on the child +all at once—cannot be <em>thrust</em> on him at all. But day after day and +year after year throughout the period of his training the conviction +should be taking shape in the child's mind that these are the <em>real</em> +things of life, the truest measure of successful living, the highest +goals for which men can strive. The definition of religion which he +forms from his instruction should be broad enough to include these +values and such others of similar kind as Christianity at its best +demands.</p> + + +<h4>KNOWLEDGE OF THE BIBLE</h4> + +<p>A knowledge of the essential parts of the <em>Bible</em> is <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>indispensable to +Christian culture. The Bible is the storehouse of spiritual wisdom of +the ages, the matchless textbook of religion. Great men and women of all +generations testify to its power as a source of inspiration and +guidance. To be ignorant of its fundamental spiritual truths is to lack +one of the chiefest instruments of religious growth and development. Not +to know its teachings is to miss the strongest and best foundation that +has ever been laid for fruitful and happy living. To lose a knowledge of +the Bible out of our lives is to deprive ourselves of the ethical and +religious help needed to redeem society and bring the individual to his +rightful destiny. Yet this generation is confronted by a widespread and +universal ignorance of the Bible, even among the adherents of the +churches.</p> + +<p><strong>Making the Bible useful to the child.</strong> The child cannot be taught all +of the Bible as a child. Indeed, parts of if dealing with the ideals and +practices of peoples and times whose primitive standards were far below +those of our own times are wholly unsuited to the mind of childhood, and +should be left until maturity has given the mental perspective by which +to interpret them. Other parts of the Bible prove dry and uninteresting +to children, and are of no immediate spiritual significance to them. +Still other parts, which later will be full of precious meaning, are +beyond the grasp or need of the child in his early years and should be +left for a later period. But with all these subtractions there still +remains a rich storehouse of biblical material suited for all ages from +earliest childhood to maturity. This material should be assembled and +arranged in a <em>children's Bible</em>. This abridged Bible should then be +made a part of the mental and spiritual possession of every child.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>The knowledge of the Bible which will be of most worth to the child must +be a <em>functioning</em> knowledge; a knowledge that can and will be put at +work in the child's thought, helping him form his judgments of right and +wrong and arrive at a true sense of moral values; a knowledge that stirs +the soul's response to the appeal God makes to the life; a knowledge +that daily serves as a guide to action amid the perplexities and +temptations that are met; a knowledge that lives and grows as the years +pass by, constantly revealing deeper meanings and more significant +truths.</p> + +<p><strong>The test of useful knowledge.</strong>—This is all to say that the knowledge +of the Bible given the child must in no sense be a merely formal +knowledge, a knowledge of so many curious or even interesting facts +separated from their vital meaning and application. It must not consist +of truths which for the most part <em>do not influence thought and action</em>. +Not how many facts are lodged in the mind, nor how many have passed +through the mind and been forgotten, but <em>how many truths are daily +being built into character</em>—this measures the value of the knowledge we +teach the child from the Bible.</p> + + +<h4>KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE CHURCH</h4> + +<p>The church represents religion organized. Because of our social impulses +we need to worship together in groups. Many religious activities, such +as education, evangelism, missionary enterprises, and reforms, can be +successfully carried out only by joint action; hence we have the church, +a <em>means of religious culture</em>, and the <em>instrument of religious +service</em>. Few there are who, outside the church, maintain their own +religious experience or carry the ministry of religious service to +others.<a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a> A knowledge of the church is therefore an essential part of the +child's religious education.</p> + +<p><strong>What the child needs to know about the church.</strong>—This does not mean +that the child needs to know the technical and detailed history of the +Christian Church; this may come later. Nor does it mean that the child +needs to know the different theological controversies through which the +church has passed and the creeds that have resulted; this also may come +later. What the child needs first to know is that the church is the +instrument of religion, the home of religious people; that the Christian +Church began with the followers of Jesus, and that it has existed ever +since; that it has done and is doing much good in the world; that the +best and noblest men and women of each generation work with and through +the church; that the church is worthy of our deepest love and +appreciation, and that it should command our fullest loyalty and +support.</p> + +<p>Besides this rather general knowledge of the church, the child should +know the organization and workings of the present-day church. He should +come to know as much of its program, plans, and ideals as his age and +understanding will permit.</p> + +<p>Even the younger children are able to understand and sympathize with the +missionary work of the church, both in home and in foreign lands. +Missionary instruction offers a valuable opportunity to quicken the +religious imagination and broaden the social interests. Lessons showing +the church at work in missionary fields should therefore be freely +brought to the child.</p> + +<p><strong>Knowledge of the church's achievements.</strong>—The part the church has taken +and is to-day taking in advancing the cause of education will appeal to +the child's <a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>admiration and respect. A knowledge of its philanthropies +will make a good foundation for the later loyalties to be developed +toward the church as an institution. The important influence of the +church in furthering moral reforms and social progress is well within +the appreciation of adolescents, and should be brought to their +recognition.</p> + +<p>Especially should children know the activities of their own local +church; they should learn of its different organizations and of the work +each is doing; they should know its financial program—where the money +comes from and the uses to which it is put; they should know its plans +ahead in so far as their participation can be used in carrying out its +activities. All these lines of information are necessary to the child in +order that his interest and loyalty may have an intelligent and enduring +basis.</p> + +<p><strong>Knowledge of one's own church.</strong>—The first knowledge of the church as +an institution given the child should be of the <em>church as a whole</em>, and +should have no denominational bias. We should first aim to make out of +our children <em>Christians</em>, and only later to make out of them +Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, or Congregationalists.</p> + +<p>There comes a time, however, when the child should become informed +concerning his own particular church or denomination. He should learn of +its history, its achievements, its creeds, its plan of organization and +polity. This is not with the purpose of cultivating a narrow +sectarianism, but in the interests of a self-respecting intelligence +concerning the particular branch of the church which is one's spiritual +home. That the great mass of our people to-day possess any reasonable +fund of knowledge about the Christian Church or their <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>own denomination +may well be doubted. This is a serious fault in religious education.</p> + + +<h4>KNOWLEDGE OF RELIGIOUS MUSIC AND ART</h4> + +<p>Not all of the child's religious impressions come through direct +instruction in the facts and precepts of religion. Religious feeling and +comprehension of the deeper meanings and values often best spring from +their expression in music and art.</p> + +<p><strong>Music essential to religion.</strong>—No other form of expression can take the +place of music in creating a spirit of reverence and devotion, or in +inspiring religious feeling. So closely is music interwoven with +religion that no small part of the world's greatest musical masterpieces +have a religious motive as their theme. Even among primitive peoples +music is an important feature of religious ceremonials. The Christian +Church has a large and growing body of inspiring hymnology.</p> + +<p>The child needs to be led into a knowledge of religious music. He needs +this knowledge as a stimulus and a means of expression for his own +spiritual life. But he also needs it in order to take part in the +exercises of his church and its organizations. He needs it in order to +enjoy music and do his part in producing it in the home and the school. +This means that children should come to know the hymnology of the +church; they should know the words and the music of such worthy and +inspiring hymns as are adapted to their age and understanding. They +should finally, during the course of their development to adulthood, +learn to know and enjoy the great religious oratorios and other forms of +musical expression.</p> + +<p><strong>The place of art in religion.</strong>—Art, like music, owes much of its +finest form and development to religion.<a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a> Religious hope, aspiration, +and devotion have always sought expression in pictorial or plastic art +and in noble architecture. We owe it to our children to put them in +possession of this rich spiritual heritage. They should know and love +the great masterpieces of painting dealing with religious themes. They +should not only have these as a part of their instruction in the church +school classes, but they should also have them in their homes and in +their schools, and see them in public art galleries and in other public +buildings suitable for their display.</p> + +<p>Wherever possible the church building should in its architecture express +in a worthy way the religious ideals of its members. It should first of +all be adapted to the uses expected of it. It should be beautiful in +conception and execution, and should allow no unlovely or unworthy +elements to enter into its structure.</p> + +<p>We should teach our children something of the wonder and beauty of +religious architecture as represented in the great cathedrals and +churches of all lands, and lead them to see in these creations the +desire and attempt of great souls to express their appreciation for +God's goodness to men.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. It will help you to understand the child's idea of God if you + will think back to your own childhood and answer the following + questions: Just who and what was God to you? Was he near by or far + off? When you prayed, to what kind of a Being was the prayer + addressed? Did Jesus seem more near and friendly to you than God? + What were (or are) the most outstanding attributes of God's nature + to you? Did you ever have any disturbing ideas about God?</p> + +<p> 2. Now, suppose you attempt to answer these same questions about + the children in your class. You will have <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>to remember that the + child may not be able to explain just what God seems to + him—perhaps you can hardly do this yourself. Further, a child may + often have some notion that what he feels is queer or would not be + well received, and hence he will not fully express it to others.</p> + +<p> 3. Just what does religion seem to you to be? Is it largely a way + of living or a set of conventions and restraints? How did religion + appeal to you in your childhood? Are you able to tell how the + children of your class understand religion? What definite help are + you giving them toward broadening and enriching their concept of + religion? Are you leading them to see that religion is a way of + living the day's life?</p> + +<p> 4. To what extent do you feel that you really know the Bible? Could + you give a sketch of twenty of its leading characters, describing + the strengths and weaknesses of character of each? Could you + describe the great biblical events, and draw the lessons they + teach? Could you compare and characterize the Hebrew religion and + the religion of Jesus? Are the pupils in your class going to be + able from the work of the church school to answer favorably these + and similar questions?</p> + +<p> 5. We expect good citizens to know something of the history of + their country and their commonwealth. Is it too much to ask members + of the Christian Church to have the same information about the + church? Could you pass a fair examination on the history and + achievements of the church? Of your own particular church? Are the + children of your church school growing in this knowledge? The + children of your class?</p> + +<p> 6. To what extent do the children of your class know the hymns of + the church? Is care taken to give them such hymns as are suited to + their age? Are worthy hymns taught them, or the silly rimes found + in many church song books? (This does not mean that children should + be taught music beyond their comprehension; there is much good + music suited to different ages.) Are your children <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>having an + opportunity to know the great religious pictures? Religious + architecture? (Here also the work must be adapted to the age.)</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Coe, Education in Religion and Morals.</p> + +<p>Brown, The Modern Man's Religion, chapter on "The Use of the Bible."</p> + +<p>Fosdick, The Manhood of the Master.</p> + +<p>Weld and Conant, Songs for Little People.</p> + +<p>Bailey, The Gospel in Art.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES TO BE CULTIVATED</h3> + + +<p>Life never stands still; especially does the life of the child never +stand still. It is always advancing, changing, reconstructing. Starting +with an unripe brain, and with no fund of knowledge or expression, the +child in the first few years of his life makes astonishing progress. By +the time he is three years old he has learned to understand and speak a +difficult language. He knows the names and uses of hundreds of objects +about him. He has acquaintance with a considerable number of people, and +has learned to adapt himself to their ways. He has gained much +information about every phase of his environment which directly touches +his life—his mastery of knowledge has grown apace, without rest or +pause.</p> + +<p>Nor does the development of what we have called <em>attitudes</em> lag behind. +Parallel with growth in the child's knowledge, his interests are taking +root; his ideals are shaping; his standards are developing; his +enthusiasms are kindling; his loyalties are being grounded. These +changes go on whether we will or not—just because life and growth can +not be stopped. The great question that confronts teacher and parent is +whether through guidance, that is through education, we shall be able to +say <em>what</em> attitudes shall arise and <em>what</em> motives shall come to rule, +rather than to leave this all-important matter to chance or to influence +hostile to the child's welfare.</p> + +<p>The teacher of religion, like all other teachers, must <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>meet two +distinct though related problems in the cultivating of attitudes. These +are:</p> + +<blockquote><p>1. <em>The creation of an immediate or direct set of attitudes toward + the school and its work.</em> This is needed to motivate effort and + insure right impressions.</p> + +<p> 2. <em>The development of a far-reaching set of attitudes that will + carry out from the classroom into the present and future life of + the pupil.</em> This is needed as a guide and stimulus to spiritual + growth, and as a foundation for character.</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>ATTITUDES TOWARD THE SCHOOL AND ITS WORK</h4> + +<p>The older view of education sought to drive the child to effort and +secure results through pain and compulsion. It was believed that the +pathway to learning must of necessity be dreary and strewn with +hardships, if, indeed, not freely watered with the tears of childhood.</p> + +<p>Now we know better. A knowledge of child psychology and a more +sympathetic insight into child nature have shown us that instead of +external compulsion we must get hold of the inner springs of action. No +mind can exert its full power unless the driving force comes from +<em>within</em>. The capacities implanted in the child at his birth do not +reach full fruition except when freely and gladly used because their use +is a pleasure and satisfaction. If worthy results are to be secured, the +<em>whole self</em> must be called into action under the stimulus of +willingness, desire, and complete assent of the inner self to the tasks +imposed. There must be no lagging, nor holding back, nor partial use of +powers.</p> + +<p>Religious education is, therefore, not simply a question <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>of getting our +children into the church schools. That is easy. Parents who themselves +do not attend feel that they have more fully done their duty by their +children if they send them to the Sunday school. After securing the +attendance of the children the great question still remains—that of the +<em>response</em>, their attitude toward the activities of the school, the +completeness with which they give themselves to its work.</p> + +<p>A friend who is a State inspector of public schools tells me that the +first thing he looks for when he visits a school is the <em>school spirit</em>, +the attitude of the pupils toward their teachers and the work of the +school. If this is good, there is a foundation upon which to build +fruitful work; if the spirit is bad, there is no possibility that the +work of the school can be up to standard. For it is out of the +schoolroom spirit, the classroom attitudes, that the effort necessary to +growth and achievement must come.</p> + +<p><strong>The spirit of the classroom.</strong>—<em>Do the children enjoy the lesson hour?</em> +The first of the motivating conditions to seek for our classroom is a +prevailing attitude of happiness, good cheer, enjoyment. These are the +natural attributes and attitudes of childhood. Unhappiness is an +abnormal state for the child. The child's nature unfolds and his mind +expands normally only when in an atmosphere of sympathy, kindness, and +good feeling. Our pupils must enjoy what they are doing, if they are to +give themselves whole-heartedly to it. If loyalty to the school and the +church is to result, they must not feel that the Sunday school hour is a +drag and a bore. If such is the case, they cannot be expected to carry +away lasting impressions for good. They must not look upon attendance as +an imposition, nor wait with eager impatience for the closing gong.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>While loyalty should be permeated by a sense of duty and obligation, and +even of self-sacrifice, it cannot rest on this alone. Most children and +youth are loyal to their homes; but this loyalty rests chiefly on a +sentiment formed from day to day and year to year out of the satisfying +experiences connected with the love, care, protection, and associations +of the home. Let these happy, satisfying home experiences be lacking, +and loyalty to the home fails or loses its fine quality.</p> + +<p>In similar way, if the experiences in the Sunday school and the church +continuously yield satisfaction, enjoyment, and good feeling, the +child's loyalty and devotion are assured; if, on the other hand, these +experiences come to be associated with dislike, reluctance, and +aversion, loyalty is in danger of breaking under the strain.</p> + +<p><strong>The response of interest.</strong>—<em>Are the children interested?</em> While, as we +have seen, the atmosphere or spirit of the classroom supplies the +condition necessary to successful work, interest supplies the motive +force. For interest is the mainspring of action. A child may politely +listen, or from a sense of courtesy or good will sit quietly passive and +not disturb others, but this does not meet the requirement. His thought, +interest, and enthusiasm must be centered on the matter in hand. He must +withdraw his attention from all wandering thoughts, passing fancies, +distracting surroundings, and concentrate upon the lesson itself. There +is no substitute for this. There is no possibility of making lasting +impressions on a mind with its energies dispersed through lack of +attention. And there is no possibility of securing fruitful attention +without interest.</p> + +<p>Interest therefore becomes a primary consideration in our teaching of +religion. The teacher must constantly <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>ask himself: "What is the state +of my pupils' interest? How completely am I commanding their enthusiasm? +Suppose I were to grade them on a scale with <em>complete-indifference</em> as +the interest zero, and with the <em>'exploding-point'-of-enthusiasm</em> as the +highest interest mark, where would the score mark of my class stand? And +if I cannot reasonably hope to keep my class at the high-water mark of +interest at all times, what shall I call an attainable standard? If one +hundred per cent is to represent the supreme achievement of interest, +shall I be satisfied with fifty per cent, with twenty-five per cent, or +with complete indifference? If the minds of my pupils can receive and +retain lasting impressions only under the stimulus of the higher range +of interest, in how far am I now making lasting impressions on my class? +In short, <em>is the interest attitude of my class as good as I can make +it?</em>"</p> + +<p><strong>The sense of victory.</strong>—<em>Is there a feeling of confidence and mastery?</em> +Do the children <em>understand</em> what they are asked to learn? Without this +the attitude toward the class hour cannot be good, for the mind is +always ill at ease when forced to work upon matter it cannot grasp nor +assimilate. Nor is it possible to secure full effort without a +reasonable degree of mastery. The feeling of confidence and assurance +that comes from successful achievement increases the amount of power +available. The victorious army or the winning football team is always +more formidable than the same organization when oppressed and +disheartened by continued defeat.</p> + +<p>If the task is interesting, children do not ask that it shall be easy. +Once catch their enthusiasm and they will exert their powers to the +full, and take joy in the effort. But the effort must be accompanied by +a sense <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>of victory and achievement. There must always be immediately +ahead the possibility of winning over the difficulties of their lessons. +Except in rare moments of emotional exaltation the most heroic of us are +not capable of hurling our best strength against obstacles upon whose +resistance we make no impression. And the child possesses almost none of +this quality. Without a measurable degree of success in what he attempts +to learn his <em>morale</em> suffers, enthusiasm fails, and discouragement +creeps in to sap his powers.</p> + +<p>Kept in the presence of mental tasks he cannot master nor understand, +the child will soon lose interest and anticipation in his work. Without +mastery intellectual defeat comes to be accepted and expected, and the +child forms the fatal habit of submission and giving up. Because he +expects defeat from the lesson before him, the learner is already +defeated; because he has not learned to look for victory in his study, +he will never find it.</p> + +<p><strong>Preventing the habit of defeat.</strong>—This is all to say that in teaching +the child religion we must not constantly confront him with matter that +is beyond his grasp and understanding. That we are doing this in some of +our lesson systems there can be no doubt. The result is seen in the +child's hazy and indefinite ideas about religion; in a later astonishing +lack of interest in the problems of religion on the part of adults; in +the child's unwillingness to undertake the study of his lessons for the +Sunday school; in the fact that to many children the Sunday school +lesson hour is a task and a bore; and in the fact that the Sunday school +does not in a large degree continue to hold the loyalty of its members +after they have reached the age of deciding for themselves whether they +will attend. <em>Fundamental<a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a> to all successful classroom results with +children are enjoyment, interest, and mastery.</em> How these are to be +secured will be developed further as the text proceeds.</p> + + +<h4>ATTITUDES THAT CARRY INTO LIFE BEYOND THE SCHOOL</h4> + +<p>The great problem of every teacher is to make sure that the effects of +his instruction reach beyond the classroom. While the immediate +attitudes of the classroom are the first great care, they are but the +beginning. Growing out of the work of the church school must be a more +permanent set of attitudes that underlie life itself, give foundation to +character, and in large degree determine the trend and outcome of +achievement. <em>The cultivation of moral and religious attitudes is +probably the most important aim for the Sunday school.</em> As already +explained, the word "attitudes" is used to cover a considerable number +of qualities and attributes.</p> + +<p><strong>A continuing interest in the Bible and religion.</strong>—On the whole, people +do not concern themselves about what they are not interested in. They do +not read the books, study the pictures, go to hear the speakers, or busy +themselves with problems to which their interest does not directly and +immediately lead them. A fine sense of duty and obligation is all very +well, but it never can take the place of interest as a dynamic force in +life.</p> + +<p>The number of Bibles sold every year would lead one to suppose that our +people are great students of the Scriptures. Yet the almost universal +ignorance of the Bible proves that it is one thing to own a Bible, and +quite another thing to read it. We may buy the Bible because other +people own Bibles, because we believe in its principles, and because it +seems altogether <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>desirable to have the Bible among our collection of +books. But the extent to which we <em>read</em> the Bible depends on our +interest in it and the truths with which it deals.</p> + +<p>Nor should we forget that, while the United States is rightly counted as +one of the great Christian nations, only about two out of five of our +people are members of Christian churches. It is true that this +proportion would be considerably increased if all churches admitted the +younger children to membership; but even making allowance for this fact, +it is evident that a great task still confronts the church in +interesting our own millions in religion in such a way that they shall +take part in its organized activities.</p> + +<p>Let each teacher of religion therefore ask himself: "To what extent am I +grounding in my pupils a <em>permanent and continuing interest</em> in the +Bible and in the Christian religion? Growing out of lessons I teach +these children are they coming to <em>like</em> the Bible? will they want to +know more about it? will they turn to it naturally as a matter of course +because they have found it interesting and helpful? will they care +enough for it through the years to search for its deeper meanings and +for its hidden beauties? and because of this will they build the +strength and inspiration of the Bible increasingly into their lives?"</p> + +<p>And, further: "Are my pupils developing a <em>growing</em> interest in +religion? Do they increasingly find it attractive and inspiring, or is +religion to them chiefly a set of restraints and prohibitions? Do they +look upon religion as a means to a happier and fuller life, or as a +limitation and check upon life. Is religion being revealed to them as +the pearl of great price, or does it possess but little value in their +standard of what is <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>worth while?" These questions are of supreme +significance, for in their right answers are the very issues of +spiritual life for those we teach.</p> + +<p><strong>Spiritual responsiveness.</strong>—The teacher must accept responsibility for +the spiritual growth as well as the intellectual training of his pupils. +There is no escape from this. We must be satisfied with nothing less +than a constantly increasing consciousness of God's presence and reality +in the lives of those we teach.</p> + +<p>As the child's knowledge grows and his concept of God, develops, this +should naturally and inevitably lead to an increasing warmth of attitude +toward God and a tendency to turn to him constantly for guidance, +strength, comradeship, and forgiveness. Indeed, the cultivation of this +trend of the life toward God is the supreme aim in our religious +leadership of children. Without this result, whatever may have been the +facts learned or the knowledge gleaned, there has been no worthy +progress made in spiritual growth and development.</p> + +<p><strong>The evolution of spiritual responsiveness.</strong>—The realization of this +new spiritual consciousness in the child's life may not involve any +special nor abrupt upheaval. If the child is wisely led, and if he +develops normally in his religion, it almost certainly will not. +Countless thousands of those who are living lives very full of spiritual +values have come into the rich consciousness of divine relationship so +gradually that the separate steps cannot be distinguished. "First the +blade, then the ear, and then the full grain in the ear" is the natural +law of spiritual growth.</p> + +<p>The bearing of this truth upon our teaching is that we must seek for the +unfolding of the child's spiritual nature and for the turning of his +thought and affec<a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>tions toward God from the first. We must not point to +some distant day ahead when the child will "accept Jesus" or become "a +child of God." We must ourselves think of the child, and lead the child +to think of himself, as a member of God's family.</p> + +<p>This does not mean that the child, as he grows from childhood into youth +and adulthood, will not need to make a personal and definite decision to +give God and the Christ first place in his life; he will need to do this +not once, but many times. It only means that from his earliest years the +child is to be made to feel that he belongs to God, and should turn to +him as Father and Friend. Day by day and week by week the child should +be growing more vitally conscious of God's place in his life, and more +responsive to this relationship. Only by this steady and continuous +process of growth will the spiritual nature take on the depth and +quality which the Christian ideal sets for its attainment.</p> + +<p><strong>Ideals and ambitions.</strong>—In order that religion may be a helpful reality +to the child it must extend to his developing ideals and ambitions. For +even children have ideals and ambitions, however crude they may be, or +however much they may lack the serious and practical nature they later +take on. Probably no child reaches his teens without having many times +secretly determined that he would do this or become that, which he has +admired in some hero of his own choosing from actual acquaintance or +from books or stories. There is no normal child but who has his own +notions of greatness and importance, of success and fame, and who wishes +and longs for certain things ahead upon which he has set his heart, and +which he purposes to attain. The things that he thus values are his +ideals, goals to be reached. Ideals are, there<a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>fore, guides to action +and effort, something to be striven after and sacrificed for. They are +the things most worth while, for which we can afford to forego other +things of lesser value. It was the force of a great ideal which led Paul +to say, "This one thing I do"; and to the attainment of that ideal he +gave all his purpose and effort.</p> + +<p>To form true ideals requires a trained sense of values; one must develop +a power of spiritual perspective, and be able to see things in their +true proportions. He must know what things rightly come first if he is +to "put first things first;" He must have some training in recognizing +the value of "pearls" if he is to see that it is a good exchange to +"sell all that he has" in order to "buy the pearl of great price."</p> + +<p>This all suggests that one of the responsibilities resting upon us as +teachers of religion is to guide the child in the forming of his ideals. +We must help him form his notion of what is worthy and admirable in +character. We must see that he develops high standards of truth, +honesty, obedience, and the other moral virtues which lie at the +foundation of all vital religion. We must make certain that his ideals +of success and achievement include a large measure of service to his +fellows. We must ground him in right personal ideals and standards of +purity and clean living. We must make him feel a deep sense of +responsibility for the full development and fruitful use of his own +powers and abilities. In short, we must with all the wisdom and devotion +we possess <em>bring him to accept the life of Jesus as the ideal and +pattern for his own life</em>.</p> + +<p><strong>Fine appreciations.</strong>—What one admires is an index to his character. +More than this, the quality and tone of one's admirations finally build +themselves into his <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>nature and become a part of his very being. Life is +infinitely enriched and refined by responding to the beauty, the +goodness, and the gladness to be found around us. In Hawthorne's story +of The Great Stone Face, the boy Ernest dwelt upon and admired the +character revealed in the benignant lines of the great face outlined by +the hand of the Creator on the mountainside until the fine qualities +which the young boy daily idealized had grown into his own life, and +Ernest himself had become the "wise man" whose coming had long been +awaited by his people.</p> + +<p>It is not enough therefore to learn the <em>facts</em> about the lives of the +great men and women of the Bible or of other times. The story of their +lives must be presented in such a way that <em>admiration</em> is compelled +from the learner: for only the qualities the child appreciates and +admires are finally built into his own ideal. It is not enough that the +child shall be taught that God created the world and all that is +therein; he must also be brought to appreciate and admire the wonders +and beauties of nature as an evidence of God's wisdom, power, and +goodness. It is not enough that our pupils shall come to know the chief +events in the life of Jesus and the outline of his teachings; they must +also find themselves lost in admiration of the matchless qualities of +his great personality.</p> + +<p>And so also with music, art, architecture, with the fine in human life +and conduct, or with great and noble deeds. Inherent in them all are +spiritual stimulus and food for the young life, manna upon which the +growing soul should feed. But here again the law holds: in order to +assimilate them to his life the child <em>must appreciate, enjoy, admire</em>. +To bring this about is one part of our task as teacher.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a><strong>Worthy loyalties and devotions.</strong>—Every worthy character must have in +it a certain power of resistance, a quality that makes it able to +withstand hardship for the sake of an ideal or a cause. It is easy +enough to be heroic when it costs nothing of effort or sacrifice. There +is no trouble in securing supporters for a cause that is popular, or +workers when the work called for is interesting and attractive. We are +all willing to stand for the right if to stand is agreeable and +exhilarating, and does not bring us too much of unpleasantness, pain, or +suffering.</p> + +<p>But life at its best and noblest does involve some hardship. Much that +is best in human experience has come to us through hardship, toil, and +suffering cheerfully endured by heroic souls who counted their own lives +as naught so that the cause to which they gave themselves might win. The +comforts, freedom, and opportunities we enjoy some one paid for, bought +with endless effort and sacrifice. Our very religion, the symbol of +life, gladness, and salvation, has as its background tragedy, suffering, +death, the cross.</p> + +<p>The quality that makes us willing to endure and resist for the sake of a +cause or an ideal we call <em>loyalty</em>. The high value set upon it is seen +in the fact that loyalty is the first test of citizenship required; it +is a quality admired and praised among all peoples in all relations of +life; it is the quality we demand and prize in our friends and +associates. On the other hand, disloyalty to country, friends, or trust +is universally looked upon as despicable, and punished with contempt, +scorn, and hatred.</p> + +<p><strong>The appeal to the heroic.</strong>—One of the ends of religious teaching is to +cultivate in our youth the spirit of loyalty to worthy ideals and +causes. Loyalty rests <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>on a stratum of heroism, which is to be found +deep down in every normal human being. We must stimulate and appeal to +the heroic in the child's nature. We must make him see that the strong +and fine men and women are willing to meet much that is hard and +disagreeable, so that they may be loyal to their task. We must make him +realize that the greatest and most worthy thing one can do is to "endure +hardship" for a cause; that to be willing to suffer for an ideal is a +mark of strength and courage; and that "having done all to <em>stand</em>" is +often the best test of character.</p> + +<p>Nor must the thought of loyalty be presented to the child only in the +abstract. Concrete examples are worth much general explanation and +laudation. The loyalties of the great characters of biblical and other +times can be made the source of great inspiration; the supreme loyalty +of Jesus to his mission will exert a powerful appeal. But loyalty must +be made immediate, definite and concrete to the child in his own life; +he must not simply admire it afar off. Loyalty must be to him not +something to learn about and praise in others, but something he can make +use of himself each day without waiting to grow up or become famous. So +we will teach the child the loyalties due parents and the home; +loyalties to friends and comrades; loyalties to school, community, and +country; loyalties to Sunday school, church, and the cause of religion; +loyalties to self; loyalties to duty wherever found; and, above all, +<em>loyalties to the Christ and his ideals</em>.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. Do your pupils enjoy the church school, and like to come? Do + they enjoy the lesson hour? By what means do you tell? Is the + spirit of the class good toward the school and toward the class? + How do you judge this?</p> + +<p> 2. Do your pupils come to the lesson hour full of ex<a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>pectancy? Or + is there an indifference and lack of interest with which you have + to contend? If the class fails in some degree to manifest + expectancy and interest, where do you judge the trouble to lie? + What is the remedy?</p> + +<p> 3. To what degree do you think your pupils are comprehending and + mastering what you are teaching them? How does their mastery + compare with that secured in the public schools? Have you plans for + making their mastery more complete?</p> + +<p> 4. Do you judge that your pupils are developing such an attitude + toward the Bible that their interest will carry on beyond the time + they are in your class? Do you think they have an increasing + interest in religion? Are you making these questions one of the + problems of your teaching?</p> + +<p> 5. Are your pupils developing through the work you are doing a + growing consciousness of God in their lives? Do they count + themselves as children of God? Just what do you believe is the + status of your children spiritually? Do they need conservation or + conversion? What difference will your answer make in your teaching?</p> + +<p> 6. To what degree are your pupils loyal to the church school? To + their particular class? To the church? What are the tests of + loyalty? Do they come regularly? Do they seek to promote the + interests of the class and the school? Do they do their part? What + can be done to increase loyalty?</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Wilber, A Child's Religion.</p> + +<p>Bushnell, Christian Nurture (Revised Ed.).</p> + +<p>Betts, The Mind and Its Education, chapter on "Interest."</p> + +<p>Fisk, Boy Life and Self-Government.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>CONNECTING RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION WITH LIFE AND CONDUCT</h3> + + +<p>We have now come to the third of the great trio of aims in religious +education—<em>right living</em>. This, of course, is <em>the</em> aim to which the +gathering of religious knowledge and the setting up of religious +attitudes are but secondary; or, rather, fruitful religious knowledge, +and right religious attitudes are the <em>means</em> by which to lead to skill +in right living as the <em>end</em>.</p> + +<p>In the last analysis the child does not come to us that he may learn +this or that set of facts, nor that he may develop such and such a group +of feelings, but that through these he may live better. The final test +of our teaching, therefore, is just this: Because of our instruction, +does the child <em>live</em> differently here and now, as a child, in all his +multiform relations in the home, the school, the church, the community, +and in his own personal life? Are the lessons we teach translated +continuously into better conduct, finer acts, and stronger character as +shown in the daily run of the learner's experience?</p> + +<p>It is true that the full fruits of our teaching and of the child's +learning must wait for time and experience to bring the individual to +fuller development. But it is also true that it is impossible for the +child to lay up a store of unused knowledge and have it remain against a +later time of need in a distant future. The only knowledge that forms a +vital part of our equipment is knowledge that is in active service, +guiding <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>our thought and decisions from day to day. Unused knowledge +quickly vanishes away, leaving little more permanent impression on the +life than that left on the wave when we plunge our hand into the water +and take it out again. In similar way the interests, ideals, and +emotions which are aroused without at the same time affording a natural +outlet for expression in deeds and conduct soon fade away without having +fulfilled the purpose for which they exist. The great thing in religious +education is to find <em>immediate and natural outlet in expression</em>, a way +for the child to <em>use</em> what he learns; to get the child to <em>do</em> those +things pointed out by the lessons we teach him.</p> + +<p><strong>Religion drawing closer to life.</strong>—This is the only method of religious +education that will meet the requirements of these times upon the +Christian religion. The unmistakable trend of modern Christianity is to +connect religion more closely and vitally with life itself—to make it a +<em>mode of living</em> in a deeper sense than has obtained since the days of +Christ upon earth. This is a very hopeful sign, for it accords +completely with the spirit and message of Jesus. When he said, "By their +fruit ye shall know them," what did he mean but that the quality and +value of a man's religion is to be known by its outcome in, deeds and +action? When he said, "Not everyone that saith. Lord! Lord! but he that +doeth..."; and again, "He that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth +them...," was he not again emphasizing the great; truth that one's +religion is tested only by the extent to which it is tied up with his +daily living?</p> + +<p>The teacher will, therefore, say to himself, The religious knowledge I +am putting into the minds of my pupils is of supreme importance—if it +makes them <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>live better and act more nobly; the religious attitudes and +emotions I am cultivating in my class are full of value and +significance—<em>if</em> they cause their possessors to live more broadly, +sympathetically, usefully, and happily. The true teacher will then add, +And it is my task <em>to see that this result follows without fail!</em></p> + +<h4>RELIGIOUS HABITS AS AN AIM</h4> + +<p>Indirectly all this is to say that our first care in teaching the young +child religion should be to lead him to form <em>religious habits</em>. For our +lives are controlled by a great network of habits which come to us as +the result of acts often repeated, until they have become as second +nature. There are many things about the child's religion that should +become second nature; that is, should become habit—and which are not +certain and secure until they have grown into habits. For example, it is +wholly desirable to have the habit of attending church, of personal +devotions, and of resisting temptation, so well fixed that the acts +required for each take care of themselves with a minimum of struggle and +decision each time the occasion arises. Not only will this method +require less strain and compulsion on our part, but it will result in +more uniform churchgoing, attention to devotions, and the overcoming of +temptation.</p> + +<p><strong>The age for habit forming.</strong>—The principle, then, is simple and clear. +At the beginning of the child's contact with the church school he cannot +grasp the broader and deeper meanings of religion; but he can during +this period be led into the doing of right acts and deeds, and thus have +his religious habits started. At a time when his brain is yet unripe, +and hence unready for the more difficult truths or the more exalted +emotions <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>of religion, the child is at his best in the matter of +habit-forming. For habits grounded in early childhood are more easily +formed and more deeply imbedded than those acquired at any later time, +and they exert a stronger control over the life.</p> + +<p><strong>How habits grow.</strong>—But habits do not come of their own accord; they +must be gradually acquired. Immediately back of every habit lies a chain +of acts out of which the habit grows. Given the acts, and the habit is +as sure to follow as night the day. Hence the great thing in religious +instruction of the young is to afford opportunity for our teaching to be +carried as immediately as may be over into deeds.</p> + +<p>As we make the desired impressions upon the minds of our pupils, we must +see that the way is reasonably open for <em>expression</em>. The lessons should +be so direct, simple, and clear that there is no difficulty in +connecting them immediately with the daily life, and then we should do +our best to see <em>that the connection is made</em>.</p> + +<p>As we teach we should have in mind the week that lies ahead in the +child's life—in the home, the school, on the playground, in the +community, and in whatever personal situations and problems we may know +are being met. Then we should use every power as a teacher to make sure +that we help the child meet the challenge of his daily life with the +finest acts, best deeds, and noblest conduct possible for him to +command.</p> + + +<h4>APPLICATION OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION TO THE DAILY LIFE</h4> + +<p>One great purpose, then, in religious instruction is to attach the +stimulus and appeal of religion to the common round of daily life and +experience of the child.<a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a> As Christ came that we might have life, not a +future life alone, but a full, happy, and worthy life in the present as +well, so we come to the child as a teacher to help him in his <em>life</em> +here and now. Our task at this point is to lead him to practice the +great fundamental virtues whose value has been proved through ages of +human experience, to incorporate directly into his living the lessons +learned slowly and with great sacrifice by generations which have +preceded him. Our aim will be to lead our pupils, out of their own +choice and conviction, to adopt and follow a <em>code of action</em> such as +the following:</p> + +<p><em>I will respect and care for my body.</em> I will keep my body clean and +pure. I will try to avoid sickness and disease. I will breathe good air +day and night, and live out of doors all I can. Because I shall need all +my strength and endurance at their best, I will pay no toll to the +poisons of alcohol and nicotine. I will be temperate in my food, and eat +such foods as will favor growth, health, and strength. I will bathe +often, play and work hard, and get plenty of sleep and rest. My +character will be judged by my poise and carriage; therefore I will try +to walk, stand, and sit well, and not allow my manner to show +slouchiness and carelessness. Both because of my own self-respect and +because I owe it to others, I will strive to make myself neat and +attractive in dress and person. I will treat my body right so far as I +can know what is best for it, and will do nothing to defile or injure +any part of it. I will try to keep my body a fit dwelling place for my +soul, for God gave them both to me. And I will do all I can to make my +home, school, and community a beautiful and healthful place for others +to live.</p> + +<p><em>I will keep good-natured, cheerful, and responsive.</em><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a> Tasks grow easier +and loads lighter when one is cheerful. I will therefore guard against +gloomy and sullen moods, which not only make me unhappy, but cause +unhappiness to those about me. I will watch that I may not be cross and +irritable at home, and shall do my part to make home the bright and +happy place I wish it to be. I will be careful not to grumble nor whine +when things go wrong, or when I cannot have my own way. I will remember +that troubles flee when we refuse to think about them. I will refuse to +give way to ill temper, for I would not become its slave; rather will I +learn to laugh at small troubles and annoyances that cannot be cured. If +I am feeling sad or unhappy, I will stop to speak a kind word or do a +fine deed, and the gloom will disappear.</p> + +<p><em>I will take pride in work and thrift.</em> The world has no place for the +one who shirks. Some one toiled for every comfort I enjoy; some one +worked for the clothing, shelter, food, and all the other good things +that come to me. I must do my part, work, help others, and especially +help in the home. I will not slight my tasks, but say; "I can!" and go +at my work with a will. What though the task be hard—if it is mine, +I'll do it! What though the lesson be long—if it is to be learned, I'll +master it! If I can stand at the head of my class, I will, but only when +I have earned the right by honest effort. Because the world contains so +many who must go hungry for want of food, and who lack other necessities +and comforts, I will not needlessly spend nor waste anything of value. I +will take pride in thrift and saving, and do all I can to encourage this +spirit in others. I will respect and honor all worthy toil. I will thank +the good God every day that he allows me to take part in the work round +about me, and ask him <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>to help me to do my share well in each seen or +unseen part of every task.</p> + +<p><em>I will be honest and speak the truth.</em> Only one who is honest is worthy +of trust, and he who tells a lie confesses that he is a coward and +afraid to let the truth be known. I will be honest even in little +things, and will have no "white lies." Though it may seem a trifle to +cheat in school or not play fair in a game, I will be above all trickery +and deceit. Both in play and in work my fight must be clean and fair; I +shall ask but for an even chance. I will give full value for whatever I +receive; if I work for wages, I must make sure to earn them; if I secure +honors or grades at school, I must win them. I will let alone all games +of chance, for gambling takes what one has not earned, and is therefore +stealing.</p> + +<p><em>I will be obedient to the rules of my home and school and to the laws +of my country.</em> The rules of home and school and the laws of state and +nation are made for the good of all; and wherever freedom rules there +laws must be obeyed. I will not quibble nor seek to evade, but give +prompt and cheerful obedience wherever my duty is to obey. I will honor +the law and respect those in authority over me. I will not be one of +those who must needs be watched, and narrowly held to right paths. I +will obey not because of fear or compulsion, but gladly, because I +choose to do the right. I will not tempt others to disobedience, nor to +the violation of the law. I will be a loyal member of my home and school +and a patriotic citizen of my country, doing all in my power to advance +their welfare and interests.</p> + +<p><em>I will be courteous and kind.</em> The men and women whom people love and +admire are courteous and kind. The strong and the brave are never cruel, +they do not <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>willingly injure others nor hurt their feelings. I will +strive each day to be courteous at home, kind to those who are nearest +to me, and helpful to my friends and companions. I will not knowingly +cause pain or suffering to any person. I will extend my protection and +kindness to all animals and every dumb and helpless thing, remembering +that pain is pain wherever felt, in a worm as well as in a man. +Especially will I show my best courtesy to aged and infirm persons, and +to all such as may need help. It will be my high privilege to render +service to any who are unfortunate, crippled, or in distress, I will do +unto others what I would have them do unto me.</p> + +<p><em>I will show courage and self-control.</em> I should not want to be a +coward, for cowardice always brings pity and contempt. I know that all +must at times meet pain and suffering; and when the time comes to me I +must not lose my courage and self-control; I will not shrink nor cringe, +but find strength in remembering that many have suffered and endured +without complaint. I will avoid danger and unnecessary risk whenever +possible, but if accident or duty puts me in a place of danger, I must +try to keep a cool head and to show my mettle by doing my full duty +bravely. When sometimes things go wrong, and I cannot have my own way, I +shall show my courage and self-command by keeping my temper and tongue +under control; I will be a good sportsman and not complain, nag, nor +find fault. I will make it a rule, if I feel my anger rising, to think +twice before I speak or act. If I have wronged or offended anyone, I +will be strong enough to go and make it right, confessing my fault. When +I am tempted to think or do or say what I know to be wrong, I will ask +my heavenly Father for strength to overcome the <a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>temptation. It will be +my constant purpose and care to keep myself pure in thought, word, and +deed.</p> + +<p><em>I will be dependable and do my duty.</em> The world needs men and women on +whom it can depend, and who are not afraid to do their duty at whatever +cost. I must learn to face hardship and to meet the disagreeable without +giving way before it. I must not ask what road is easy, but what way is +right—and then do my duty. When I know I <em>ought</em> I must be able to say +<em>I will</em>, even if the choice brings me pain and trouble. If I have +undertaken any trust or task, I must not lag nor weaken nor grow +careless, but faithfully see it through to the end. When my country +calls, or the world needs my services, I must not consult my own wishes +or convenience, but unfalteringly follow where duty leads. Whenever I +can with justice and self-respect, I will avoid a quarrel; but I will +not sit idly by and see injustice and oppression brought on the weak and +helpless if I can prevent.</p> + +<p><em>I will love and enjoy nature.</em> The birds, the flowers, the trees and +the brooks make the best of friends. I will study the great book of +nature around me, and seek to learn the secrets of its many forms. I +will live as much as I can in the great out-of-doors, finding in its +beauty and freshness new evidences of God's wisdom and goodness. I will +never injure nor destroy, but do all I can to protect the beautiful +living and growing things about me. I will find joy in the storm, the +rain, and the snow, and then no day will seem dreary or dull to me. I +will seek for some good purpose in all harmless created things, making +comrades of my animal playmates, and taking an interest in all such +things as creep or crawl or fly; and need then never be lonely nor lack +good company. I will look <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>upon the glory of the sunset, the wonder of a +starlit night, the sparkle of the dew, and then reverently thank God +that he has made the great world so beautiful and good.</p> + +<p><em>I will each day turn to my heavenly Father for help, strength, and +forgiveness.</em> I know I cannot live my life as I should live it without +God's help and counsel. I will therefore turn to him in prayer that he +will guide me when I am puzzled or uncertain, that he will give me +victory when I am tempted to do wrong, that he will give me courage when +I falter or am afraid, that he will forgive me when I have sinned or +failed in my duty. I will take for my standard of life and action the +example of Jesus, and show my love and appreciation by living as fully +as I can the kind of life he lived. I know that I cannot have God's +presence in my life unless I keep my heart pure and my conduct right; I +will therefore, with his help, as nearly as I can, live from day to day +as I think God would have me live, I will take time morning and evening +of each day for a few moments of prayer, quiet thought, and for the +study of the Bible. I will do my best to be a worthy Christian.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The teacher, of course, will need to adapt the application of such +principles as those we have been discussing to the age and the needs of +his pupils. Such lessons cannot be presented as so much abstract truth. +The purpose, as we have already seen, is to lead the child to make such +high ideals his habit of life and action, so that at last they may +govern his conduct and become an inseparable part of his character. To +do this, such ideals must be made desirable and attainable.</p> + + +<h4><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>PARTICIPATION IN THE WORK OF THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE</h4> + +<p>The forming of religious social habits is as important as the forming of +religious personal habits. From his earliest years the child should come +to look on his church, his Sunday school, and the class to which he +belongs as a responsibility in which he has a personal share. His +experience in connection with these organizations should be so +interesting and satisfying that his attendance does not have to be +compelled, but so that his loyalty, affection, and pride naturally lead +him to them.</p> + +<p>When this is accomplished, the basis of good attendance is secured, and +the foundation laid for later participation in all forms of church work. +Once the right spirit is created and right habits developed, unpleasant +weather, bad roads or streets, getting up late on Sunday mornings, nor +any other obstacles will stand in the way of regular church and Sunday +school attendance any more than of day-school attendance. And until the +church has its children (and their homes) so trained that attendance on +the church school is regular throughout the year, our instruction must +of necessity fail to reach its full aim.</p> + +<p><strong>Learning to take responsibility for others.</strong>—One of the greatest +lessons a child can learn from his lessons in religion is that he is his +brother's keeper. The instincts of childhood are naturally selfish and +self-centered; the sense of responsibility for others must be gradually +trained and developed. A double purpose can therefore be served by +enlisting the children of our classes as recruiting officers to secure +new members, and to look up any who may have dropped <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>out or whose +attendance is irregular. The sense of pride and emulation in such work, +and the feeling on the part of our pupils that they are actually +accomplishing something definite for their class or school will do much +to cement loyalty and train the children to assume responsibility for +their comrades.</p> + +<p>This <em>pride of the group</em> is a strong force during later childhood and +adolescence, and can be fruitfully used in religious training. The boy +or the girl Scout takes great pride in doing acts of kindness and +service without personal reward, just <em>because that is one of the things +that scouting stands for</em>. "Scouts are expected to do this," or "Scouts +are not expected to do that," has all the force of law to the loyal +Scout.</p> + +<p>The Sunday school class can command the same spirit if the proper appeal +is made. In its neighborhood work and on many special occasions the +church and the Sunday school will have need of messenger service. +Errands will have to be run, articles will have to be gathered and +distributed, calls will have to be made, funds will have to be +collected, and a hundred other things done which children can do as well +or better than anyone else. And it is precisely in these practical acts +of homely service that the child gets his best training in the social +side of religion.</p> + +<p><strong>Laboratory work in religion.</strong>—The wise teacher will therefore seize +upon every opportunity to find something worth while for his pupils <em>to +do</em>. He will have them help with the distribution of supplies in the +classroom; he will see that they volunteer to help the super-intendent +or other officials who may need assistance; he will give them +responsibility in decorating the church or classroom for special +occasions; he will leave to their cooperation as large a measure as +possible of the <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>work to be done in arranging and carrying out class or +school picnics, excursions, social gatherings, and the like; he will +arrange for special groups to visit the aged, sick, or shut-in for the +purpose of singing gospel songs, and will open the way for those who are +qualified to do so to read the Bible or other matter to the blind or +those whose sight is failing. In short, the devoted teacher who +understands the laws of childhood will make his instruction as nearly as +possible a <em>laboratory course</em> in religion, finding the material and the +occasion in the human needs and the opportunities for loving service +which lie closest at hand.</p> + +<p><strong>Assuming personal responsibility.</strong>—The sense of the child's +responsibility for his class and school must also carry into the +exercise of the school itself. The boy should be led to prepare his +lesson because of the truth it contains; but also because a recitation +cannot be a success unless the pupils know their lesson and do their +part. He should pay his share toward the running of the school and +church because it is our duty to give, but also because he feels a +personal responsibility for his church and his class. He should take +part in public prayer or the leadership of meetings, when asked to do, +because it is right and proper to do these things, but also because he +realizes that each member of the class and school owes it to the +organization to do his share.</p> + +<p>Nothing can take the place of whole-hearted, joyous participation in the +real activities of the Sunday school as a means of catching the interest +of the members and securing their loyalty; for interest and loyalty +finally attach to those activities in which we have a share. The school +in which the child finds a chance to <em>express</em> the lessons and <em>put into +practice</em> the maxims <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>he is taught is the school which is building +Christian character and providing for future religious leadership.</p> + +<p><strong>Participation in singing.</strong>—Especially should we develop in our +children the ability and will to engage in religious singing. Almost +every child can sing, and all children respond to the appeal of music +adapted to their understanding. The most expert and inspiring leadership +which the church can command should be placed in charge of the +children's singing in the Sunday school.</p> + +<p>If it comes to the question of selecting between a director for the +adult choir and a soloist for the general congregation on the one hand, +or an efficient organizer and director of children's music on the other +hand, there should not be a moment's hesitation on the part of any +church to supply the needs of the children first. The aim should then be +to have <em>all</em> the children sing, and allow none to form the habit of +depending on the older members or on a few leaders to supply the singing +for the entire school. Those who possess special ability in music should +be formed into choruses, orchestras, school bands, or similar +organizations. Not only will all this add to the interest and +effectiveness of the school itself, but, not less important, will be +helping to <em>form the music habit</em> in connection with sacred music.</p> + +<p><strong>Training in giving.</strong>—The missionary enterprises of the church afford +one of the best opportunities for giving the child practical training in +the social aspect of religion. It is not enough that the children shall +be told the stories of the missionary heroes and given the picture of +the needs of the people in far-away lands. Once the imagination is +stirred and the emotions wanned by this instruction, an immediate and +natural outlet <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>in expression must be found if these lessons are to +fulfill their end.</p> + +<p>Children should early be led into giving money for missionary purposes, +and this as far as possible should be their <em>own</em> money which they +themselves have earned. For the child to go to his father on a Sunday +morning for money for the missionary collection does not answer the need +on the educational side; it is the child's real <em>sharing</em> that leaves +the impression and teaches the lesson.</p> + +<p>There is also real educational value in leading children to give +clothing, food, or other necessities for the use of the needy. Here, +again, the giving should involve something of real sacrifice and +sharing, and not consist merely in giving away that for which the child +himself no longer cares. The joint giving by a class or the entire +school for the support of a missionary worker whose name is known, and a +somewhat detailed report of whose work is received, lends immediateness +and reality to the participation of the pupils. A strong appeal can be +made to the spirit of giving by the adoption by the class of some needy +boy or girl whose Christian education is provided for by the efforts of +the class, and to whom personal letters can be written and from whom +replies may be received.</p> + +<p><strong>Social service.</strong>—The children of our Sunday schools should be given an +active and prominent part in all forms of community welfare service. The +successful enlistment of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts in many +valuable forms of community enterprises contains a vital suggestion and +lesson for the church school. Wherever good deeds need to be done, +wherever help needs to be rendered, wherever kindness and service are +necessary, there the children should be called upon <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>to do their part. +If the tasks and responsibilities are suited to the various ages, there +will be no trouble about securing response. Nor, on the other hand, will +there be any doubt but that the lessons learned will be entirely vital +and will serve to connect the religious motive with everyday life and +its activities.</p> + +<p><strong>Religion finding expression in the home.</strong>—No system or method of +religious instruction is effective the results of which do not find +expression in the life of the home. It is here in the intimate relations +of children with each other and with their parents that the moral and +religious lessons of forbearance, good will, and mutual service find +most frequent and vital opportunity for application.</p> + +<p>Children need early to be made to see their individual and joint +responsibility for the happiness, cheerfulness, good nature, and general +social tone of their home; and to help at these points should become a +part of their religion. They should be stimulated to share in the care +of the home, and not to shirk their part of its work. They should be +interested in the home's finances, and come to feel a personal +responsibility for saving or earning as the situation may require. They +should have a definite part in the hospitality which the home extends to +its friends and neighbors, and come by experience to sense the true +meaning of the word "neighborliness."</p> + +<p>The appearance and attractiveness of their home should be a matter of +pride with children, and this feeling should cause them to be careful in +their own habits of neatness, cleanliness, and order about the home. All +these things have a bearing on the foundations of character and are +therefore a legitimate concern in religious instruction.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a><strong>The final tests of our instruction.</strong>—In such things as we have been +discussing, then, we find one of the surest tests of the outcome of our +teaching the child religion—<em>Are the lessons carrying over</em>? Is the +child, because of our contact with him, growing in attractiveness and +strength of personality and character? Is he developing a habit of +prayer, devotion, spiritual turning to God? Is he doing a reasonable +amount of reading and study of the Bible and the lesson material of the +school? Is he taking such personal part in the various social and +religious activities of the church and the community that he is "getting +his hand in," and developing the attachments and loyalties which can +come only through participation? In short, is the child given a chance +to apply, and does he daily put into practice and thus into character, +the content and spirit of what we teach him?</p> + +<p><em>The answers we must return to these questions will measure our success +as teachers and determine the value coming to the child from our +instruction.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. To what extent do you believe your pupils are living differently + in their daily lives for the instruction you are giving them? Do + you definitely plan your teaching to accomplish this aim? For + example, what <em>definite</em> results are you seeking from the next + lesson?</p> + +<p> 2. Can you think your class over pupil by pupil and decide which of + these points in the <em>code of action</em> most needs be stressed in + individual cases? Do the topics in this code suggest points of + emphasis which might serve for many different lessons? Is there + danger of loss in efficiency if we try to stress too many of the + points at one time?</p> + +<p> 3. Are the children of your class interested in keeping up the + membership and attendance? What specific part and responsibility do + you give the members in this matter?<a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a> Is it possible that you could + plan to use their help more fully and effectively?</p> + +<p> 4. Suppose you try making a list of all the different lines of + participation in religious activities directly opened up to the + pupils of your class by the church and the church school. Is the + list as long as it should be? What further provision could be made + for the children to have definite responsibility and activity?</p> + +<p> 5. Do you think that your pupils are becoming increasingly inclined + to look upon religion as a <em>mode of living?</em> For example, will your + children be more agreeable, responsive, obedient, and helpful in + the home next week for the lessons you have been teaching them? + Will they have higher standards of conduct in the school and on the + playground?</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Dewey, Moral Principles in Education.</p> + +<p>Sharp, Education for Character.</p> + +<p>Partridge, Genetic Philosophy of Education, chapters on "Moral and +Religious Education."</p> + +<p>Mumford, The Dawn of Character.</p> + +<p>Richardson, The Religious Education of Adolescents.</p> + +<p>Alexander, Boy Training.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE SUBJECT MATTER OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION</h3> + + +<p>We have seen in an earlier chapter how the subject matter of religious +education must be selected in accordance with the <em>aims</em> we would have +it accomplish in the lives of our pupils. We have also considered in +separate chapters the religious <em>knowledge</em> required, the religious +<em>attitudes</em> demanded and the practical <em>applications</em> of religious +instruction to be made or the <em>expression </em> to be sought in the everyday +life. Let us now examine somewhat more completely the particular phases +of subject matter which should be used to attain these ends—To what +sources shall we go for the material for the religious instruction of +our children? What subject matter shall we put into the curriculum of +religious education? This is a question of supreme importance to the +individual, to the church, and to civilization.</p> + + +<h4>SOURCES OF MATERIAL</h4> + +<p>First of all we must realize that the sources of religious material are +almost infinitely broad and rich. They are much broader than the Bible. +I would not be misunderstood on this point. I conceive the Bible as the +matchless textbook of religion, the great repository of spiritual wisdom +through the ages. It is the primary source to which we must go for +material for religious instruction, not just because it is the Bible, +<a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>but because its truths are the surest guide ever formulated for +spiritual development.</p> + +<p>Yet human experience and human problems are broader than the Bible. New +ages bring new conditions and new needs. Eternal truths may take on new +forms to meet new problems. God inspired the writers of his Word, but he +also inspires other writers, whose works are not included in the canon. +He echoed in the voice of Isaiah and Jeremiah, but he also touches with +the flame of eloquence other lips than those of the prophets. He spoke +to the child Samuel, but he also speaks to-day to every heart that will +hear his voice. He flamed from the burning bush for Moses, but in like +manner he shines from every glowing sunset for those whose eyes can +there behold his glory.</p> + +<p><strong>Breadth and richness of religious material.</strong>—The sources of material +available for the religious education of childhood are therefore as +broad as the multiform ways in which God speaks to men, and as rich as +all the great experiences of men which have left their impress upon +civilization. Besides the beautiful story of God creating the earth, we +have the wonderful miracle of constant re-creation going on before our +eyes in the succession of generations of all living things.</p> + +<p>Besides the deathless accounts of the heroism of such men as Elijah, +Daniel, and Paul, we have the immortal deeds of Livingstone, Taylor, and +Luther. Besides the womanly courage and strength of Esther and Ruth, we +have the matchless devotion of Florence Nightingale, Frances Willard, +Alice Freeman Palmer, and Jane Addams. Besides the stirring poetry of +the Bible, and its appealing stories, myths and parables, we have the +marvelous treasure house of religious literary wealth found in the +writings of Tennyson,<a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a> Whittier, Bryant, Phillips Brooks, and many other +writers.</p> + +<p><strong>Material to be drawn from many sources.</strong>—The material for religious +teaching lying ready to our hand is measureless in amount, and must be +wisely chosen. In addition to material from the Bible, which always must +be the center and foundation of the religious curriculum, should be +taken other material from nature; from biography, history, and life +itself; from literature and story; from science and the great world of +objects about us; from music, and from art. All of this multiform +subject matter must be welded together with a common purpose, and so +permeated with the religious motive and application that it will touch +the child's spiritual thought and feeling at many points of his +experience.</p> + +<p>At no moment, however, must we forget that our primary purpose is not +simply to teach the child stories, literature, history, or science, but +<em>religion</em>. By the proper use of this broader field of material religion +may be given a new and more practical significance, and the Bible itself +take on a deeper meaning from finding its setting among realities +closely related to the child's daily life.</p> + + +<h4>MATERIAL FROM THE BIBLE</h4> + +<p>The very nature of the Bible requires that we make the most careful +selections from it in choosing the material for religious instruction of +children. Not all parts of the Bible are of equal value as educational +material, and some parts of it have no place in the course of study +before full mental development has been reached.</p> + +<p><strong>How we came by the Bible.</strong>—It will help us to <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>understand and apply +these principles if we remember how we came by the Bible. First of all +is the fact that the Bible grew out of religion and the life of the +church, and not religion and the church out of the Bible. The Bible is +not one book, as many think of it, but a collection of sixty-six books, +which happen to be bound together. In fact, all sixty-six of these books +are now printed and bound separately by the American Bible Society, and +sold at a penny each. These sixty-six books were centuries in the +making, and they came from widely separated regions. Different ones of +them were originally written in different tongues—Hebrew, Greek, and +Aramaic.</p> + +<p>The earlier Christians had, of course, only the scriptures of the Old +Testament. It was nearly four hundred years after Christ had lived on +earth before we had a list of the New Testament books such as our Bible +now contains. In the middle of the second century only about half of the +present New Testament was in use as a part of the Scriptures. Some of +the books which we now include were at one time or another omitted by +the Christian scholars, and several books were at one time accorded a +place which are not now accepted as a part of the Bible. The authorship +of a considerable number of the books of the Bible is unknown, and even +the exact period to which they belong is uncertain.</p> + +<p>The different writers wrote with different purposes—one was a +historian; another a poet; another, as Paul, a theologian; another a +preacher; another a teller of stories and myths, or a user of parables. +Paul wrote his letters to local churches or to individuals, to answer +immediate questions or meet definite conditions and needs. Jesus left no +written word, so far as we know, <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>and the first written accounts we have +of his life and work were begun forty or fifty years after his death.</p> + +<p><strong>The problem of selecting Bible material adapted to children.</strong>—The +Bible was therefore a slow growth. It did not take its form in +accordance with any particular or definite plan. It never was meant as a +connected, organized textbook, to be studied in the same serial and +continuous order as other books. It was not written originally for +children, but for adults to read.</p> + +<p>Its enduring quality proves that the writers of the Bible lived close to +the heart and thought of God, and were therefore inspired of him. But we +can grant this and still feel free to select from its lessons and truths +the ones that are most directly fitted to meet the needs of our children +as we train them in religion. We can love and prize the Bible for all +that it means and has meant to the world, and yet treat it as a <em>means</em> +and not an <em>end</em> in itself. We can believe in its truth and inspiration, +and still leave out of the lessons we give our children the sections +which contain little of interest or significance for the child's life, +or matter which is beyond his grasp and understanding.</p> + +<p><strong>Material which may be omitted.</strong>—This point of view implies the +omission, at least from the earlier part of the child's religious +education, of much material from different parts of the Bible; these +irrelevant sections or material not suited to the understanding of +childhood may remain for adult study.</p> + +<p>For example, we may leave out such matter as the following: The detailed +account of the old Hebrew law as given in Leviticus; much of the Hebrew +history which has no direct bearing on the understanding of their +religion; details of the institution of the passover, and other +ecclesiastical arrangements; the philosophy <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>of the book of Job; +genealogies which have no especial significance nor interest; the +succession of judges and kings; dates and chronological sequences of no +particular importance; any stories or matter clearly meant to be +understood as allegory or myth, but which the child would misunderstand, +or take as literal and so get a mistaken point of view which later would +have to be corrected; the theology of Paul as set forth in his letters; +matter which shows a lower state of morality than that on which we live; +and <em>such other matter as does not have some direct and discoverable +relation to the religious knowledge, attitudes, and applications which +should result from the study</em>.</p> + +<p>After all such material of doubtful value to the child has been omitted, +there still remains an abundance of rich, inspiring, and helpful subject +matter.</p> + +<p>The principle on which to select material from the Bible is clear: Know +what the child <em>is ready for</em> in his grasp and understanding; know <em>what +he needs</em> to stimulate his religious imagination and feeling and further +his moral and religious development. Then choose the material +accordingly.</p> + +<p><strong>Bible material for earlier childhood.</strong>—For the period of <em>earlier +childhood</em> (ages three or four to eight or nine) we shall need to omit +all such material as deals with the broader and deeper theory of +religion. This is not the time to teach the child the significance of +the atonement, the mystery of regeneration, the power of faith, nor the +doctrine of the Trinity. Those sections of the Bible which deal with +such far-reaching concepts as these must wait for later age and fuller +development.</p> + +<p>The child is now ready to understand about God as the Creator of the +earth and of man; he is ready to comprehend God as Father and Friend, +and Jesus as<a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a> Brother and Helper; he is ready to learn lessons of +obedience to God, and of being sorry when he has done wrong; he is +therefore ready to understand forgiveness; he is ready to learn all +lessons of kindliness, truthfulness, and honesty, and of courage; he is +ready to learn to pray, and to thank God for his care and kindliness. +The Bible material taught the child should therefore center upon these +things. The simple, beautiful story of the creation; stories of God's +love, provision, and protection and of Christ's care for children; +incidents of heroic obedience and of God's punishment of disobedience; +stories of forgiveness following wrongdoing and repentance; stories of +courage and strength under temptation to do wrong; lessons upon prayer +and praise and thanksgiving—this is the kind of material from the Bible +which we should give our children of this younger age.</p> + +<p>The greater part of the material for this stage of instruction will come +from the Old Testament, and will make the child familiar with the +childhood of Moses, Samuel, Joseph, David, and other such characters as +possess an especial appeal to the child's sympathy and imagination. The +New Testament must be drawn upon for the material bearing upon the birth +and childhood of Jesus.</p> + +<p><strong>Material for later childhood.</strong>—In the period of <em>later childhood</em> +(ages eight or nine to twelve or thirteen) the child is still unready +for the more difficult and doctrinal parts of the Scriptures. Most of +the impulses of earlier childhood still continue, even if in modified +form. Types of Bible material adapted to the earlier years, therefore, +still can be used to advantage.</p> + +<p>A marked characteristic of this period, however, is the tendency to hero +worship and to be influenced by <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>the ideals found in those who are loved +and admired. This is the time, therefore, to bring to the child the +splendid example and inspiration of the great Bible characters. The life +and work of Moses, the story of Joseph and his triumph over +discouragements and difficulties, the stern integrity and courage of +Elijah and the other prophets, the beautiful stories of Ruth, Esther, +Miriam, and Rachel, but above all the story of Jesus—the account of +these lives will minister to the child's impulse to hero worship and at +the same time teach him some of the most valuable lessons in religion.</p> + +<p>During later childhood, the sense of personal responsibility for conduct +is developing, and the comprehension of the meaning of wrongdoing and +sin. This is the time, therefore, to bring in lessons from the Bible +showing the results of sin and disobedience to God, and the necessity +for repentance and prayer for forgiveness. During this period also, +while the social interests are not yet at their highest, the narrow +selfishness of earlier childhood should be giving way to a more generous +and social attitude, and a sense of responsibility for the welfare and +happiness of others.</p> + +<p>To meet the needs of the growing nature at this point many lessons +should be provided containing suggestions and inspiration from high +examples of self-forgetfulness, sacrifice, and service as found in the +life of Jesus, Paul, and many others from the Old and the New Testament. +The child's growing acquaintance with the world about him and his study +of nature in the day schools prepare him for still further deepening his +realization of God beneficently at work in the material universe. +Abundant material may be found in the Bible to deepen and strengthen the +learner's love <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>and appreciation of the beautiful and good in the +physical world.</p> + +<p><strong>Material for adolescence.</strong>—The <em>adolescent</em> period (ages twelve or +thirteen to twenty or twenty-two) is the transition stage from childhood +to maturity. The broader, deeper, and more permanent interests are now +developing, and character is taking its permanent trend. Conduct, +choice, and decision are becoming more personal and less dependent on +others. A new sense of self is developing, and deeper recognition of +individual responsibility is growing.</p> + +<p>It is all-important that at this time the Bible material should furnish +the most of inspiration and guidance possible. The life and service of +Jesus will now exert its fullest appeal, and should be studied in +detail. The work and service of Paul and of the apostles in founding the +early church will fire the imagination and quicken the sense of the +world's need of great lives. The ethical teachings of the Bible should +now be made prominent, and should be made effective in shaping the +ideals of personal and of social conduct which are crystallizing. The +development of the Hebrew religion, with its ethical teaching, and the +moral quality of the Christian religion are now fruitful matter for +study.</p> + +<p>During the later part of adolescence the youth is ready to consider +biblical matter that throws light on the deeper meaning of sin, of +redemption, of repentance, of forgiveness, of regeneration, and other +such vital concepts from our religion. The simplest and least +controversial interpretations—that is, the broader and more significant +meanings—should be presented, and not the overspeculative and disputed +interpretations, which are almost certain to lead to mental and perhaps +spiritual disturbance and even doubt.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a><strong>The guiding principle.</strong>—For whatever age or stage of the child's +development we are responsible, we will follow the same principle. +Because we want to cultivate in the child a deep and continuing interest +in the Bible and the things for which it stands, we will seek always to +bring to him such material as will appeal to his interest, stir his +imagination, and quicken his sense of spiritual values. Since we desire +to influence the learner's deeds and shape his conduct through our +teaching, we will present to him those lessons from the Bible which are +most naturally and inevitably translated into daily living. First we +will know what impression we seek to make or what application we hope to +secure, and then wisely choose from the rich Bible sources the material +which will most surely accomplish this end.</p> + + +<h4>STORY MATERIAL</h4> + +<p>The story is the chief and most effective means of teaching the younger +child religion, nor does the appeal of the story form of expressing +truth lose its charm for those of older years. Lessons incomprehensible +if put into formal precept can be readily understood by the child if +made a part of life and action, and the story does just this. It shows +virtue being lived; goodness proving itself; strength, courage, and +gentleness expressing themselves in practice; and selfishness, ugliness, +and wrong revealing their unlovely quality. Taught in the story way, the +lesson is so plain that even the child cannot miss it.</p> + +<p>The story also appeals to the child's imagination, which is so ready for +use and so vivid, and which it is so necessary to employ upon good +material in order to safeguard its possessor from using it in harmful +<a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>ways. Long before the child has come to the age of understanding +reasoned truth, therefore, he may well have implanted in his mind many +of the deepest and most beautiful religious truths which will ever come +to him.</p> + +<p><strong>The Old Testament rich in story material.</strong>—The wonderful religious and +ethical teachings of the Old Testament belong to a child-nation, and +were written by men who were in freshness of heart and in +picturesqueness and simplicity of thought essentially child-men; hence +these teachings are in large part written in the form of story, of +legend, of allegory, of myth, of vivid picture and of unrimed poetry. It +is this quality which makes the material so suitable to the child. The +deeper meanings of the story do not have to be explained, even to the +young child; he grasps them, not all at once, but slowly and surely as +the story is told and retold to him. If the story is properly told, the +child does not have to be taught that the Bible myth or legend <em>is</em> myth +or legend; he accepts it as such, not troubling to analyze or explain, +but unconsciously appropriating such inner meaning as his experience +makes possible, and building the lesson into the structure of his +growing nature.</p> + +<p>If full advantage is taken of the story as a means of religious +teaching, the grounding of the child in the fundamental concepts and +attitudes of religion can be accomplished with certainty and +effectiveness almost before the age for really formal instruction has +come.</p> + +<p><strong>The ethical quality alone not enough in stories.</strong>—Many stories of +highest religious value are available from other sources than the Bible, +yet no other stories can ever wholly take the place of the Bible +stories. For the Bible stories possess one essential quality lacking in +stories from other sources; the Bible stories<a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a> <em>are saturated with God</em>. +And this is an element wholly vital to the child's instruction in +religion.</p> + +<p>We cannot teach the child religion on the basis of ethics alone, +necessary as morality is to life. We cannot help the child to spiritual +growth and the consciousness of God in his life without having the +matter we teach him permeated and made alive with the spirit and +presence of God in it. Nor is there the least difficulty for the child +to understand God in the stories. The child, like the Hebrews +themselves, does not feel any necessity of explaining or accounting for +God, but readily and naturally accepts him and the part he plays in our +affairs as a matter of course.</p> + +<p><strong>Stories from other than Bible sources.</strong>—But once a sufficient +proportion of Bible stories is provided for, stories should be freely +drawn from other fields. An abundance of rich material possessing true +religious worth can be found in the myths, legends, folk lore, and +heroic tales of many literatures. These are a treasure house with which +every teacher of children should be familiar; nor is the task a +burdensome one, for much of this material holds a value and charm even +for the older ones of us.</p> + +<p>Later writers have enriched the fund of material available for children +by treating many of the aspects of nature in story form, thereby opening +up to the mind and heart of the child something of the meaning and +beauty of the physical world, and showing God as the giver of many good +gifts in this realm of our lives. There are also available the stories +of history, and of the real men and women whose lives have blessed our +own or other times, and whose deeds and achievements will appeal to the +imagination and stir the ideals of youth.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a><strong>The teacher as a story teller.</strong>—The successful teacher of religion +must therefore possess the art which will enable him to use the story as +one of the chief forms of material in his instruction. He must <em>know</em> +the stories. He must be able to tell them interestingly. The story loses +half of its effectiveness if it must be <em>read</em> to the child, but it may +lose in similar proportion if it is haltingly or ineffectively told. It +is not necessary, at least for the younger children, to use a large +number of stories. In fact, there is positive disadvantage in attempting +to employ so many stories that the child does not become wholly familiar +with each separate one. Children do not tire of the stories they like; +indeed, their love for a story increases as they come to know it well, +and they will demand to have the same story told over and over in +preference to a new one.</p> + +<p><strong>The use of the story with older children.</strong>—A mistake has been made in +not a few of the Sunday school lesson series in sharply reducing the +story material for all ages above the primary grades. It must be +remembered that while the older child has more power to grasp and +understand abstract lessons than the younger child, there is no age or +stage of development at which the story and the concrete illustration +are not an attractive and effective mode of teaching. Surely, all +through the junior and intermediate grades the story should be one of +the chief forms of material for religious instruction, while for +adolescents stories will still be far from negligible.</p> + +<p>The principles of story-using, then, are clear in the teaching of +religion: <em>Make the story one of the chief instruments of instruction; +see that it is charged with religious and moral value; make sure it is +adapted to the age of the learner, and that it is well told; for younger +<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>children use few stories frequently repeated until they are well known; +do not insist that the child shall at first grasp the deeper meanings of +the story, make sure of interest and enjoyment, and the meaning will +come later.</em></p> + + +<h4>MATERIAL FROM NATURE</h4> + +<p>The child's spontaneous love of nature and ready response to the world +of objects about him open up rich sources of material for religious +instruction. God who creates the beautiful flowers, who causes the +breezes to blow, who carpets the earth with green, who paints the autumn +hillside with glowing color, who directs the coming and going of the +seasons, who tells the buds when to swell and the leaves to unfold, who +directs the sparrow in its flight and the bee in its search, who is in +the song of the birds and the whisper of the leaves, who sends his rain +and makes the thunder roll—this God can be brought, through the medium +of nature's forms, very near to the child. And the love and appreciation +which the child lavishes on the dear and beautiful things about him will +extend naturally and without trouble of comprehension to their Creator.</p> + +<p><strong>Nature material useful for all ages.</strong>—Most of the lesson material now +supplied for our Sunday schools use a considerable amount of nature +material in the earlier grades, but some important lesson series omit +most or all nature material from the junior department on. This is a +serious mistake. All through childhood and youth the pupil is continuing +in the public school his study of nature and its laws. Along with this +broadening of knowledge of the natural world should be the deepening of +appreciation of its spiritual meaning, and the inspiration to praise and +worship which comes from it. One does not, or at least should not, <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>at +any age outgrow his response to the wonders and beauties which nature +unfolds before him who has eyes to see its inner meaning. None can +afford to lose the simple, untutored awe with which children and +primitive men look out upon the world.</p> + +<p>Carlyle, recognizing this truth, exclaims: "This green, flowery, +rock-built earth, the trees, the mountains, rivers, many-sounding seas; +that great deep sea of azure that swims overhead; the winds sweeping +through it; the black cloud fashioning itself together, now pouring out +fire, now hail and rain; what <em>is</em> it? Aye, what?... An unspeakable, +godlike thing, toward which the best attitude for us, after never so +much science, is awe, devout prostration, and humility of soul; worship, +if not in words, then in silence."</p> + +<p>In the same spirit Max Müller exhorts us: "Look at the dawn, and forget +for a moment your astronomy; and I ask you whether, when the dark veil +of night is slowly lifted, and the air becomes transparent and alive, +and light streams forth you know not whence, you would not feel that +your eye were looking into the very eye of the Infinite?" And Emerson +reminds us: "If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, +how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the +remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night +come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their +admonishing smile."</p> + +<p>When, then, shall we have become too far removed from childhood to be +beyond the appeal of nature to our souls? When shall we cease to "hold +communion with her visible forms," and to find in them one of the many +avenues which God has left open for us to use in approaching him! What +teacher of us will dare to <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>leave out of his instruction at any stage of +the child's development the beneficent and wonder-working God of nature +as he smiles his benediction upon us from the myriad common things +around us!</p> + + +<h4>MATERIAL FROM HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY</h4> + +<p>God is to be found in the lives of nations and of men not less than in +nature, and the evidences and effects of his presence there should be +taught our children. The spirit which Jesus revealed in his life upon +earth is exemplified in the lives of many of his followers who joyously +spend themselves in the service of others. Men who set the standard for +manliness, and women whose character and lives are the best definition +of womanliness, are as much a revelation of God's work and power as a +constellation of stars or the bloom of the rose.</p> + +<p><strong>The example of great lives.</strong>—So, along with the great Bible characters +we will bring to the child the men, and women of other generations. We +will bring to him the great souls who, as missionaries, have carried the +Light to those who sit in darkness; those who in honesty and integrity +of purpose have served as leaders of nations or armies or movements to +the blessing of humanity; those who, with the love of God in their +hearts, have gone out as ministers, teachers, writers of books, singers +of songs, makers of pictures, healers of sickness; or those who, in any +field, of toil or service, have given the cup of cold water in the name +of the Master.</p> + +<p>And we will bring to the child the story of the nations, showing him one +people growing in strength, power, and happiness while following God's +plan of human justice, mercy, and kindness; and another going down <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>to +destruction, its very name and speech forgotten, because it became +arrogant and perverse and forgot the ways of righteousness. At the +proper time in their development we will bring to our pupils the life +and problems of the present—the wrongs that need to be righted, the +causes that need to be defended and carried through to victory, the evil +that needs to be suppressed, the work of Christ and the church which is, +awaiting workers. Thus shall we seek to bring the challenge of life +itself to those we teach.</p> + + +<h4>PICTURE MATERIAL</h4> + +<p>No discussion of the curriculum can ignore the use of <em>pictures</em> as +teaching material. Teachers of religion have long recognized the value +of visual instruction, and every lesson series now has its full quota of +picture cards and other forms of pictorial material.</p> + +<p>In this picture material may roughly be distinguished three great types: +(1) the <em>symbolical</em> picture; (2) the rather <em>formal</em> picture, often +badly conceived and executed, always dealing with biblical characters or +incidents; and (3) the more universalized type drawn from every field of +pictorial art, representing not only biblical personages and events, but +also typifying æsthetic and moral values of every range adapted to the +understanding and appreciation of the child.</p> + +<p><strong>Types of pictures.</strong>—Representative of the first, or symbolical, +pictorial type are found the more or less crude pen drawings of such +things as the <em>heart</em> with a key, an open <em>Bible with a torch</em> beside +it, tombstone-like drawings representing the <em>Tables of the Law</em> or +three <em>interlocking circles representing the Trinity, etc.</em></p> + +<p>Not only are all these abstract concepts beyond the grasp or need of the +child at the age when the pictures <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>are represented, but the symbols are +in no degree suggestive to the child of the lesson intended; they are +devoid of meaning, without interest, possess no artistic value, and lack +all teaching significance. Such material should be discarded, and better +pictures provided.</p> + +<p>The second type of pictures, or those dealing with Bible topics, contain +teaching power, but should be merged with the third, or true art, type. +That is to say, biblical subjects, moral lessons, and inspiring ideals +should be treated by <em>true artists</em> and made a part of the religious +curriculum for childhood. Wherever suitable masterpieces executed by +great artists can be found, copies should be made available for teaching +religion. Hundreds of such pictures hang in our art galleries, and not a +few of them have already been incorporated into several excellent series +for the Sunday school.</p> + +<p>Further, the pictures offered children should be as carefully selected +with reference to <em>what they are to teach</em>, and should be as carefully +graded to meet the age, interests, and appreciations of the child as are +other forms of curriculum material. Some otherwise excellent picture +sets of recent publication lose the greater part of their usefulness as +teaching helps through the lack of this adaptation.</p> + + +<h4>MUSIC IN THE CURRICULUM</h4> + +<p>Music as a part of the curriculum of religious education offers a +peculiarly difficult problem. No other form of expression can take the +place of music in creating a spirit of reverence and devotion, or in +inducing an attitude of worship and inspiring religious feeling and +emotion. Children ought to sing much both in the church school and in +their worship at home.</p> + +<p>Yet most of our hymns have been written for adults, <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>and most of the +music is better adapted to adult singing than to the singing of +children. The ragtime hymns which find a place in many Sunday school +exercises need only to be mentioned to be condemned. On the other hand, +many of the finest hymns of the church are beyond the grasp of the child +in sentiment and beyond his ability in music. The church seriously needs +a revival of religious hymnology for children. In the meantime the +greatest care should be used to select hymns for children's singing +which possess as fully as may be three requisites: (1) music adapted to +the child's capacity, (2) music that is worthy, interesting and +devotional, and (3) words within the child's understanding and interest, +and suitable in sentiment.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. Many persons think that teaching the child religion and teaching + him the Bible are precisely the same thing. Do you think it is + possible to teach the child parts of the Bible without securing for + him spiritual development from the process? Is it possible to make + the Bible itself mean more to the child by supplementing it with + material from other sources?</p> + +<p> 2. Do you ever find lessons provided for your class which are not + adapted to their age and understanding? If so, do you feel free to + supplement or substitute with material which meets their needs? Do + you have sufficient command of the material of the Bible and other + sources so that you can do this successfully?</p> + +<p> 3. Do you know a considerable number of stories adapted to the age + of your pupils? Are you constantly adding to your list? Are you a + good story teller? Are you studying to improve in this line? Even + if your lesson material does not provide stories, do you bring such + material in for your class?</p> + +<p> 4. What use do you make of nature in the teaching of religion? + President Hall thinks that nature material is one <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>of the best + sources of religious instruction. Do you agree with him? Are you + sufficiently in love with nature yourself, and sufficiently + acquainted with nature so that you can successfully use the nature + motive in your teaching?</p> + +<p> 5. Do you constantly make use of stories and illustrations from the + lives of great men and women in your teaching? Do you take a + reasonable proportion of these from contemporary life? Do you bring + in stories of fine actions by boys and girls? What use have you + been making of events in the lives of nations in your teaching? Are + you reading and studying to become more fully prepared to use this + type of material?</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Houghton, Telling Bible Stories.</p> + +<p>Raymont, The Use of the Bible in the Education of the Young.</p> + +<p>Brace, The Training of the Twelve.</p> + +<p>Drake, Problems of Religion, chapter IX.</p> + +<p>Athearn, The Church School.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL</h3> + + +<p>The organization of material to adapt it to the learner's mind and +arrange it for the teacher's use in instruction is hardly less important +than choosing the subject matter itself. By organization is meant the +plan, order, or arrangement by which the different sections of material +are made ready for presentation to the child. The problems of +organization may apply either (1) to the <em>curriculum as a whole</em>, or (2) +to any particular section of it used for <em>a day's lesson</em>.</p> + +<p>It is possible to distinguish four different types of organization +commonly used in preparing material for religious instruction:</p> + +<p>1. The <em>haphazard</em>, in which there is no definite plan or order, no +thread of purpose or relationship uniting the parts, no guiding +principle determining the order and sequence.</p> + +<p>2. The <em>logical</em>, in which the nature and relationships of the material +itself determine the plan and order, the question of ease and +effectiveness in learning being secondary or not considered.</p> + +<p>3. The <em>chronological</em>, applicable especially to historical material, in +which the events, characters, and facts are taken up in the order of the +time of their appearance and their sequence in the entire situation or +account.</p> + +<p>4. The <em>psychological</em>, in which the first and most important question +is the most natural and favorable mode of approach for the learner—how +the material <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>shall be planned and arranged to suit his power and grasp, +appeal to his interest, and relate itself to his actual needs and +experience.</p> + + +<h4>TYPES OF ORGANIZATION</h4> + +<p><strong>Haphazard organization.</strong>—The <em>haphazard</em> plan, which is really no plan +at all, is, of course, wholly indefensible. No teacher has a right to go +before his class with his material in so nebulous a state that it lacks +coordination and purpose. It is this that results in chance and +unrelated questions, irrelevant discussions, and fruitless wanderings +without definite purpose over the field of the lesson, such as may +sometimes be seen in church classes.</p> + +<p>The outcome of such instruction hardly can be more than occasional, +disconnected scraps of information, or fragmentary impressions which are +never gathered up and bound together into completed ideals and +convictions. The haphazard type of organization may result from +incompetence, indifference, and failure to prepare, or from taking a +ready-made and poorly prepared plan from the "lesson helps" which is not +adapted to our class. Pity the child assigned to a class presided over +by a teacher who esteems his privilege so lightly as not to make ready +for his task by careful planning.</p> + +<p><strong>Logical organization.</strong>—In the <em>logical</em> arrangement of material, the +first care is not given to planning it in the most favorable way for the +one who studies and learns it, but, rather, to fit together the +different parts of the subject matter in the way best suited to its +logical relationships. The child is pedagogically ignored; the material +receives primary consideration. The logical order of material fits the +mind of the adult, the scholar, the expert, the master in his field of +knowl<a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>edge; it begins with the most general and abstract truths. But the +child naturally starts with the particular and the concrete. It gives +rules, principles, definitions, while the child asks for illustrations, +applications, real instances, and actual cases.</p> + +<p>The logical method is adapted to the trained explorer in the fields of +learning, to one who has been over the ground and knows all of its +details, and not to the young novice just starting his discoveries in +regions that are strange to him. The logical plan will teach the young +child the general plan of salvation, man's fall and need of redemption, +the wonder and significance of the atonement, and gracious effects of +divine regeneration working in the heart—all of which he needs finally +to know—but <em>not as a child just beginning the study of religion</em>. The +child must arrive at the general plan of salvation through realizing the +saving power at work in his own life; he must come to understand the +fall of man and his need of redemption through meeting his own childhood +temptations and through seeing the effects of sin at work around him; he +must understand the atonement and regeneration through the present and +growing consciousness of a living Christ daily strengthening and +redeeming his life.</p> + +<p><strong>Chronological organization.</strong>—The <em>chronological</em> order of material is +desirable at the later stages of the child's growth and development. But +in earlier years the time sequence is not the chief consideration. This +is because the child's historical sense is not yet ready for the concept +of cause and effect at work to produce certain inevitable results in the +lives of men or nations.</p> + +<p>The sequence in which certain kings reigned, or the order in which +certain events took place, or in which certain books of the Bible were +written is not the im<a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>portant thing for early childhood. At this time +the great object is to seize upon the event, the character or the +incident, and make it real <em>and vital</em>; it is to bring the meaning of +the lesson out of its past setting and attach it to the child's +immediate present.</p> + +<p><strong>Psychological organization.</strong>—It is the <em>psychological</em> organization of +material that should obtain both in the curriculum as a whole and in the +planning of the individual lessons. We must not think, however, that a +psychological order of material necessarily makes it illogical. On the +other hand, the arrangement of material that takes into account the +child's needs is certain to make it more logical <em>to him</em> than any adult +scheme or plan could do. That is most logical to any person which most +completely fits into his particular system of thought and understanding. +If we succeed in making our plan of presenting material to the child +wholly psychological, therefore, we need not be concerned; all other +questions of organization will take care of themselves, and <em>the +psychological will constantly tend to become logical</em>.</p> + +<p>What is meant by a psychological method of arranging material for +presentation has already been discussed (<a href="#Page_42">Chapter III</a>). Suffice it to say +here that it is simply <em>planning the subject matter to fit the mind and +needs of the child</em>—arranging for the easiest and most natural mode of +approach, securing the most immediate points of contact for interest and +application, remembering all the time that the child speaks as a child, +thinks as a child, understands as a child.</p> + +<p><strong>Jesus' use of the psychological plan.</strong>—The teacher who seeks to master +the spirit of the psychological presentation of religious material +should study the teaching-method of Jesus. Always he came close to the +life and experience of those he would impress; <a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>always he proceeds from +the plane of the learner's experiences, understanding, and interests. +Did he want to teach a great lesson about the different ways in which +men receive truth into their lives?—"Behold a sower went forth to sow." +Did he seek to explain the stupendous meaning and significance of the +new kingdom of the spirit which he came to reveal?—"The kingdom of +heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed," or, "The kingdom of heaven +is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of +meal," or, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good +seed in his field."</p> + +<p>And with this simple, direct, psychological, homely mode of approach to +great themes Jesus made his hearers understand vital lessons, and at the +same time showed them how to apply the lessons to their own lives. So +throughout all his teaching and preaching; the lesson of the talents, +the prodigal son, the workers in the vineyard, the wedding feast, +placing a little child in the midst of them—all these and many other +concrete points of departure illustrate the highest degree of skill in +the psychological use of material.</p> + + +<h4>ORGANIZATION OF THE CURRICULUM AS A WHOLE</h4> + +<p>The material offered in the curriculum of our church schools is not, +taking it in all its parts, as well organized as that in our public day +schools. This is in part because the material of religion is somewhat +more difficult to grade and arrange for the child than the material of +arithmetic, geography, and other school subjects. But it is also because +the church school has not fully kept pace with the progress in education +of recent times.</p> + +<p>A century or two ago the day-school texts were not <a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>well graded and +adapted to children; now, we have carefully graded systems of texts in +all school subjects. While the logical and the chronological method of +organization still holds a place in many of the public school texts, the +psychological point of view, which considers the needs of the child +first, is characteristic of all the better schoolbooks of the present. +Just because religion is more difficult to teach than grammar or history +or arithmetic, we should plan with all the insight and skill at our +command to prepare the religious material for our children so that its +arrangement will not suffer by comparison with day-school material.</p> + +<p><strong>Three types of lesson material.</strong>—Material representing three different +types of organization and content of curriculum material is now +available and being used in our church schools:</p> + +<p>1. The <em>Uniform Lessons</em>, which are ungraded, and which give (with few +minor exceptions) the same topics and material to all ages of pupils +from the youngest children to adults.</p> + +<p>2. The <em>Graded Lessons</em>, which seek to adapt the topics and subject +matter to the age and needs of the child, and which therefore present +different material for the various grades or divisions of the school. +These are usually printed in leaflet or pamphlet form.</p> + +<p>3. Real <em>textbooks of religion</em> which are based on the principles used +in making day-school texts. The material is divided into chapters, each +dealing with some theme or topic adapted to the age of the child, the +lessons not being dated nor arranged to cover a certain cycle of subject +matter as in the case of the regular lesson series. The books are +printed and bound much the same as day-school texts.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a><strong>The uniform lessons.</strong>—Although many churches still employ the <em>Uniform +Lessons</em>, we shall not hesitate to say that no church school is +justified in this day of educational enlightenment in using a system of +ungraded lessons. Such lessons are planned for adults. They ignore the +needs of the child, and force upon him material for which he is in no +sense ready, while at the same time omitting matter that he needs and is +capable of understanding and using. For example, some of the topics +which primary children, juniors, and all alike find in their ungraded +lessons of current date are, <em>man's fall</em>, the <em>atonement, +regeneration</em>, the <em>city of God, faith</em>—splendid topics all, but too +strong meat for babes.</p> + +<p>Why should we thus ignore the educational progress of the age, starve +our children spiritually, and hamper them in their religious development +by this obsolete system of education which has been long since outgrown +in the public schools? Why should we not ignore tradition, prejudice, +and personal preference, where these are in the way, and <em>let the needs +of the child decide</em>? Why should thousands of church schools to-day be +using the Uniform Lessons?</p> + +<p>Some use them because they are cheaper; others because they always have +used them and do not like the trouble and disarrangement of a change; +others because of the doubtful theory of the inspiration that comes from +having all the members of the family studying the same lesson at the +same time (we do not expect all the family to read or study the same +material in other lines); and perhaps others because they have not been +accustomed to thinking of religious education following the same +principles and laws as other education. But whatever the explanation of +the use of <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>the Uniform Lessons in our church schools in the past, let +us now see to it that they give way to better material. Let us not be +satisfied, even, when the ungraded uniform lessons are "improved"; they +should not be improved, but discarded.</p> + +<p><strong>Graded lessons.</strong>—A large and increasing number of our best church +schools are now using some form of graded lesson material based on the +topics supplied by the International Lesson Committee. Each great +denomination has its own lesson writers, who take these topics and +elaborate them into the graded lessons such as we know in the Berean +Series, the Keystone Series, the Pilgrim Series, the Westminster Series, +etc. All such lesson material, which seeks to adapt the material to the +needs of the child as he progresses year by year from infancy to +adulthood, is infinitely superior to any form of ungraded material. It +is easier and more interesting for the child to learn, less difficult +for the teacher to present; and its value in guiding spiritual +development immeasurably greater.</p> + +<p>Some form of closely <em>graded lessons</em> is the only kind of material which +should be used in our church schools; the children have the same need +and the same right to material graded and prepared to meet their +understanding in religion as in language or in science. But when we +employ graded lessons we must make sure that <em>the child, and not the +subject matter; is the basis of the grading</em>. We must make certain that +the writer of the lessons knows the mental grasp, the type of interests, +the characteristic attitudes, and the social activities of the child at +the different stages, and then arranges the material to meet these +needs. We must not simply aim to cover so much biblical material, even +if we select it as well as we may to come within the child's <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>grasp; we +must have his real religious needs, his religious growth, and his +spiritual development in mind, and provide for these.</p> + +<p><strong>Adapting graded lessons to young children.</strong>—In the graded series of +lessons now most commonly used in the church schools the material is, on +the whole, fairly well selected to meet the needs of the <em>beginners</em> and +the <em>primary section</em>. Interesting stories are told, and much nature +material presented. The work is, of course, all presented to the pupils +by the teacher, as the children cannot yet read. In some cases the +stories used are undoubtedly too difficult, and not a few of them lack +the elements of good story-telling.</p> + +<p>Yet the instruction usually centers about the topics most needed by the +child at this time—the love and care of God both for our lives and in +the world of nature about us; the Christ-child and his care for +children; lessons of kindness, obedience and love in the home, etc. +Because of this directness of appeal the child responds to the material +and the teacher finds her task much easier and more fruitful than with +the difficult topics of the ungraded lessons.</p> + +<p><strong>Graded lessons not all well adapted to ages.</strong>—As the graded lessons +pass on into the <em>junior</em> age, the adaptation of material is generally +less successful than for the primary grades. The topics are based less +on the interests and spiritual needs of the child, and more on the +material. The lessons for the greater part consist of biblical material +only, and are often too difficult for the child to be interested in them +or to understand them. No coordinating principle relates the topics to +each other, and the material consequently comes to the child in rather +disconnected scraps. Too frequently this material, because it belongs to +a later stage of <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>development, is without any particular or direct +bearing on the learner's experience, and hence not assimilated into his +life.</p> + +<p>The remedy here is to use a larger proportion of story material, of +biography, of lessons from nature, and of such gems of literature as +carry a spiritual message suited to the child. The caution is to avoid +over-intellectualizing the child's religious instruction, and to make +sure that we do not outrun his rate of development in the material we +give him. The same principles should carry over into the intermediate, +or preadolescence, age. The hero-worship stage is then, at hand, and the +lesson material should be arranged to meet the natural demand of the +child for action and adventure.</p> + +<p>In planning a graded series of lessons it is not less important to meet +the needs of the <em>seniors</em>, or adolescents, than of the younger pupils. +This has not always been accomplished. Here again, as in the earlier +years, the immediate interests and needs of the learner are to be the +key to the planning of material. A series of unrelated topics dealing +with a distant time and civilization, with little or no application to +the problems and interests that are now thronging upon the youth, will +make small appeal to him. The youth's growing consciousness of social +problems, his interest in a vocation, his increasing feeling of personal +responsibility as a member of the family, the community, the church and +the brotherhood of men are suggestions of the nature of the topics that +should now form the foundation of religious study and instruction.</p> + +<p>It is possible that the forgetting of this simple fact in the planning +of material for adolescent pupils is one chief reason for the tragic +loss of interest in the Sunday school which so often occurs at the +adolescent stage.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a><strong>Text books of religious material.</strong>—The <em>text book</em> type of religious +material differs more in the organization and arrangement of material +than in the subject matter itself. The lessons are not based on a set +cycle of biblical material, though, of course, such material is freely +used. Usually one topic or theme is followed throughout the text, the +number of lessons or chapters provided being intended for one year's +work. The following titles of texts now in use suggest the nature of the +subject matter: "God's Wonder World," "Heroes of Israel," "Heroic +Lives," "The Story of Jesus," "The Making of a Nation," "Our Part in the +World," "The Story of a Book," "The Manhood of the Master," "Problems of +Boyhood," "Social Duties," "The Testing of a Nation's Ideals."</p> + +<p>Beyond question, the material we teach our children in religion should +be organized and published as real <em>books</em> and not as paper-covered or +unbound serial pamphlets. There is really no more reason why we should +divide religious material up into lessons to be dated, and issued month +by month, than why we should thus divide and issue material in +geography, history, reading, or any other school subject. Children who +are accustomed in day schools to well-made, well-bound books, with good +paper and clear, readable print, cannot be expected to respond favorably +to the ordinary lesson pamphlet. The child should be encouraged and +helped in the building of his own library of religious books, but this +can hardly be done as long as his church-school material comes to him in +temporary form, much of it less attractive on the mechanical side than +the average advertising leaflet which so freely finds its unread way to +the waste basket.</p> + +<p>Many of the Sunday school leaflets carry at the top<a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a> (or the bottom) of +the page an advertisement of the denominational lesson series—matter in +which the child is not concerned, which injures the appearance of the +page, and which lowers the dignity and value of the publication. And +some lesson pamphlets are even disfigured with commercial +advertisements, sometimes of articles of doubtful value, and always with +the effect of lowering the tone of the subject matter to which it is +attached. Religious material printed in worthy book form escapes these +indignities. That textbooks in religion will cost more than the present +cheap form of material is possible. But what matter! We are willing to +supply our children with the texts needed in their day-school work; +shall we not supply them with the books required for their training in +religion? If the texts prove too much of a financial burden for the +children or their parents, there is no reason why the church should not +follow the example of the public school district and itself own the +books, lending them for free use to the pupils.</p> + +<p><strong>Guiding principles.</strong>—The principles for the organization of the +church-school curriculum, are, then, clear. Its lessons should start +with matter adapted to the youngest child. It should present a +continuous series of steps providing material of broadening scope +adapted to each age or stage from childhood to full maturity. Its order +and arrangement should at all times be decided by the needs and +development of the learner, and should make constant point of contact +with his life and experience. It should be printed in attractive +textbook form, the paper, type, illustrations, and binding being equal +to the best standards prevailing in public-school texts. In short, we +should apply the same scientific and educational knowledge, and the +<a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>same business ability in preparing and issuing our religious material +that we devote to this phase of general education.</p> + + +<h4>ORGANIZING THE DAILY LESSON MATERIAL</h4> + +<p>The teacher's plan or organization of each lesson for presentation to +the class in the recitation is a matter of supreme importance. Even the +best and most experienced teachers never reach the point where they do +not need to prepare specifically for each recitation. No matter how +complete the knowledge of the subject, nor how often one has taught it, +there is always the necessity of fitting it directly to the needs and +interests of the particular class before us. This preparation should +result in a definitely worked out <em>lesson plan</em> which, though it may +finally be modified to fit situations as they arise in the class +discussion, will nevertheless serve as an outline of procedure for the +recitation. Even the teachers' manual supplied with most of the lesson +series cannot take the place of this definite, individual plan prepared +by the teacher himself for his immediate class.</p> + +<p><strong>The lesson plan.</strong>—The first step in arranging a lesson plan is to +determine the range and amount of material which is to be presented to +accomplish the aim of the class hour. This will include the lesson or +story from the Bible, nature material, memory work, music, pictures or +any other subject matter to be considered. In determining this point the +age of the children, the time available, and the nature of the subject +must all be taken into account. It is a mistake to attempt more than can +be done well, or to try to do so many things that the recitation is too +much hurried to be interesting or profitable.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>The lesson plan should provide for a few chief points or topics, with +the smaller points and the illustrations grouped under these. To have +many topics receiving the same amount of emphasis in a lesson indicates +poor organization. For example, in teaching the lesson of <em>obedience</em> +from the Garden of Eden story the material may well be grouped under the +following topics: 1. The many good and beautiful things God had given +Adam and Eve, 2. There was one thing only which they might not have. 3. +Their disobedience in desiring and taking this one thing, 4. Their +feeling of guilt and unhappiness which made them hide from God. Under +these four general heads will come all the stories, illustrations, and +applications necessary to make the lesson very real to children.</p> + +<p><strong>Small matters of large import.</strong>—Of course the particular questions to +be asked and the more immediate applications to be made must await the +unfolding of the lesson discussion with the class. Good planning +requires, however, that we have a set of pivotal questions thought out +and set down for our guidance; and also suggestions for illustrations +and applications under the various topics. If expression work is to be +used, this should be noted in its proper place, and provision made for +carrying it out. In planning for older classes, reference should be made +in the plan to special assignments to be made in books, magazines or any +other material.</p> + +<p>Provision should be made in the plan for a summary at the end of the +lesson period, and for the making of the final impression which the +class are to carry away with them. Nor must the assignment of the next +lesson be forgotten. Probably no small proportion of the characteristic +failure of pupils to prepare <a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>their lessons comes from lack of definite +assignments showing the child just what he is expected to do, and how to +do it.</p> + +<p><strong>Details of a typical lesson plan.</strong>—Let us suppose that we are to teach +the lesson of obedience from the story of Adam and Eve to children of +early primary age. Our <em>Lesson Plan</em> might be something as follows:</p> + +<ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman;"> + <li><em>The Aim or Purpose of the Lesson</em>—OBEDIENCE. + <ol> + <li>Knowledge or information to be given the class— + <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> + <li>Of the Bible story itself.</li> + <li>Of the fact that God requires obedience.</li> + <li>That disobedience brings sorrow and punishment.</li> + <li>That children owe obedience to parents and teachers.</li> + </ol> + </li> + <li> Attitudes, and feeling response to be sought. + <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> + <li>Interest in and liking for the Bible story.</li> + <li>Appreciation of God's many gifts to his children.</li> + <li>Desire to please God with obedience.</li> + <li>Sorrow for acts of disobedience.</li> + <li>Respect for authority of home, school and law.</li> + </ol> + </li> + <li> Applications to the child's life and conduct. + <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> + <li>Acts of obedience to God in being kind, cheerful, and helpful to others.</li> + <li>Cheerful obedience in home and school with no lagging nor ill nature.</li> + <li>Prayer for forgiveness for any act of disobedience.</li> + </ol> + </li> + </ol> + </li> + <li><em>Material or Subject Matter to be Presented.</em> + <ol> + <li>The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden. + <p>The version of the story is important. The + original from the Bible is too difficult. + If the lesson material does not offer the + <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>story in satisfactory form, go to one of the + many books of Bible stories and find a + rendering suited to your class. Be able + to tell the story well.</p> + </li> + <li>Pictures of Adam and Eve in the Garden. + <p>Be sure the picture is interesting, well executed, + and that it shows attractive and + beautiful things.</p> + </li> + <li>Prayer on obedience. + <p>The prayer to be brief and simple, asking + God to help each one to obey him and to + obey father and mother, and to forgive us + when we do not obey.</p> + </li> + <li>Music. + <p>If possible, the music may correlate with + the thought of the lesson. If not, let it be + devotional and adapted to the children in + words and melody.</p> + </li> + <li>Handwork or other form of expression material. + <p>Cutting and pasting pictures in notebooks; + coloring, or other such work, to be done + either in the classroom or at home.</p> + </li> + </ol> + </li> + <li><em>Mode of Procedure—the Presentation, or Instruction.</em> + <ol> + <li>Greetings to the class—opening prayer and + song. + </li> + <li>Introduction of the lesson and telling of the + story. + </li> + <li>Discussion, questions and illustrations to reveal: + <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> + <li>The many beautiful gifts which God had given Adam and Eve, and which he gives us.</li> + <li>How Adam and Eve were allowed to have everything except just <em>one</em> thing among many. Application of this thought to child's life at home, etc.</li> + <li><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>How Adam and Eve yielded to temptation and disobeyed. Practical application to child's life.</li> + <li>How Adam and Eve felt ashamed and guilty after they had disobeyed God, and how they tried to hide from him. This can be made very real to children.</li> + <li>How punishment follows disobedience.</li> + <li>Why we must ask for forgiveness when we have been disobedient.</li> + </ol> + </li> + <li>Summary, or brief restatement of chief impressions + to carry away, and of applications + to be made in the week ahead by the children + themselves. + </li> + <li>Closing prayer and song. + </li> + </ol> + </li> +</ol> + +<p><strong>Adapting the lesson plan to its uses.</strong>—It is, of course, evident that +lesson plans can be made of all degrees of complexity and completeness. +With a little practice the teacher can easily decide the kind of plan +that best suits himself and his particular grade of work. On the one +hand, the plan should not be so detailed as to become burdensome to +follow in the lesson hour. On the other hand, it should not be so brief +and sketchy as not to bring out the significant elements of the lesson.</p> + +<p>Different grades of pupils and different subjects will require different +lesson plans. It is probable, however, that the three major heads of +"Aims," "Material," and "Mode of Procedure" will prove serviceable in +all plan making. While the teacher should have his <em>plan book</em> at hand +in the recitation, he must not become its slave, nor allow its use to +kill spontaneity and responsiveness in his teaching. Both the subject +matter and the day's plan should be so well mastered that no more than +an occasional glance at the details in the <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>plan book will be required. +Nothing must be allowed to come between the teacher's best personality +and his class.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. Have you heard lectures, sermons, or lessons which were + constructed after the haphazard plan? Were they easy to follow and + to remember? Did they develop a line of thought in a successful + way? Do you think that the haphazard type of organization indicates + either lack of preparation or lack of ability?</p> + +<p> 2. Do you definitely try to organize your daily lesson material on + a psychological plan? How can you tell whether you have succeeded? + Are you close enough to the minds and hearts of your pupils so that + you are able to judge quite accurately the best mode of approach in + planning a lesson?</p> + +<p> 3. Do you study the lesson helps provided with your lesson + material? Do you find them helpful? If you find that they are not + well adapted to your particular class, have you the ability to make + the suggestions over to fit your class?</p> + +<p> 4. Do you make a reasonably complete and wholly definite lesson + plan for each lesson? Do you keep a plan book, so that you may be + able to look back at any time and see just what devices you have + used? If you have not done this, will you not start the practice + now?</p> + +<p> 5. What type of lesson material do you use, uniform, graded, or + textbook? Are you acquainted with other series or material for the + same grades? Would it not be worth your while to secure + supplemental material of such kinds?</p> + +<p> 6. Do you read a journal of Sunday school method dealing with + problems of your grade of teaching? If day-school teachers find it + worth while to read professional journals, do not church-school + teachers need their help as much? If you do not know what journals + to secure, your pastor can advise you.</p></blockquote> + + +<h4><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, chapter XVI.</p> + +<p>Betts, Class Room Method and Management, chapter VIII.</p> + +<p>Earhart, Types of Teaching.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE TECHNIQUE OF TEACHING</h3> + + +<p>Our teaching must be made to stick. None but lasting impressions possess +permanent value. The sermons, the lectures, the lessons that we remember +and later dwell upon are the ones that finally are built into our lives +and that shape our thinking and acting. Impressions that touch only the +outer surfaces of the mind are no more lasting than writing traced on +the sand. Truths that are but dimly felt or but partially grasped soon +fade away, leaving little more effect than the shadows which are thrown +on the picture screen.</p> + +<p>Especially do these facts hold for the teacher in the church-school +class. For the impressions made in the church-school lesson hour bear a +larger proportion to the entire result than in the public school. This +is because of the nature of the subject we teach, and also because of +the fact that most of our pupils come to the class with little or no +previous study on the lesson material. This leaves them almost +completely dependent on the recitation itself for the actual results of +their church-school attendance. The responsibility thus placed upon the +teacher is correspondingly great, and requires unusual devotion and +skill.</p> + + +<h4>ATTENTION TO KEY</h4> + +<p>The things that impress us, the things that we remember and apply, are +the things to which we have attended wholly and completely. The mind may +be thought of as a stream of energy. There is only so much <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>volume, so +much force that can be brought to bear upon the work in hand. In +attention the mind's energy is piled up in a "wave" on the problem +occupying our thought, and results follow as they cannot if the stream +of mental energy flows at a dead level from lack of concentration.</p> + +<p>Or, again, the mind's energy may be likened to the energy of sunlight as +it falls in a flood through the window upon our desk. This diffuse +sunlight will brighten the desk top and slightly increase its +temperature, but no striking effects are seen. But now take this same +amount of sun energy and, passing it through a lens, focus it on a small +spot on the desk top—and the wood bursts almost at once into flame. +What <em>diffuse</em> energy coming from the sun could never do, <em>concentrated</em> +energy easily and quickly accomplished. Attention is to the mind's +energy what the lens is to the sun's energy. It gathers the mental power +into a focus on the lesson to be learned or the truth to be mastered, +and the concentrated energy of the mind readily accomplishes results +that would be impossible with the mental energy scattered or not +directed to the one thing under consideration. The teacher's first and +most persistent problem in the recitation is, therefore, to gain and +hold the highest possible degree of attention.</p> + +<p><strong>Three types of appeal to attention.</strong>—We are told that there are three +kinds of attention, though this is not strictly true. There is really +only one <em>kind</em> of attention, for attention is but the <em>concentration of +the mind's energy on one object or thought</em>. What is meant is that there +are three different <em>ways of securing</em> or appealing to attention. Each +type of attention is named in accordance with the kind of compulsion or +appeal necessary to command it, as follows:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>1. <em>Involuntary</em> attention, or attention that is demanded of us by some +sudden or startling stimulus, as the stroke of a bell, the whistle of a +train, an aching tooth, the teacher rapping on the desk with a ruler.</p> + +<p>2. <em>Nonvoluntary</em>, or spontaneous, attention that we give easily and +naturally, with no effort of self-compulsion. This kind of attention is +compelled by <em>interest</em>, and, when left unhindered, will be guided by +the nature of our interest.</p> + +<p>3. <em>Voluntary</em> attention, or attention that is compelled by effort and +power of will, and thereby required to concern itself with some +particular object of thought when the mind's pull or desire is in +another direction.</p> + +<p><strong>How each type of attention works.</strong>—The first of these types of +attention, the <em>involuntary</em>, has so little place in education that we +shall not need to discuss it here. The teacher who raps the desk, or +taps the bell to secure attention which should come from interest must +remember that in such case the attention is given to the <em>stimulus</em>, +that is, to the signal, and not to the lesson, and this very fact makes +all such efforts to secure attention a distraction in themselves.</p> + +<p>The <em>spontaneous</em>, or nonvoluntary, attention that arises from interest +is the basis on which all true education and training must be founded. +The mind, and especially the child's mind, is so constituted that its +full power is not brought to bear except under the stimulus and +compulsion of interest. It is the story which is so entrancing that we +cannot tear ourself away from it, the game which is so exciting as to +cause us to forget all else in watching it, the lecture or sermon which +is so interesting that we are absorbed in listening to it, that claims +our best thought and comprehension. It is when our mind's powers are +thus driven <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>by a tidal wave of interest that we are at our best, and +that we receive and register the lasting impressions which become a part +of our mental equipment and character.</p> + +<p>This does not mean, however, that there is no place for <em>voluntary</em> +attention in the child's training. For not everything can be made so +inviting that the appeal will at all times bring about the concentration +necessary. And in any case a part of the child's education is to learn +self-direction, self-compulsion, and self-control. There are many +occasions when the interest is not sufficient to hold attention steady +to the task in hand; it is at this point that voluntary attention should +come in to add its help to provide the required effort and +concentration. There are many circumstances under which interest will +secure a moderate amount of application of mental energy to the task, +but where the will should step in and command an additional supply of +effort, and so attain full instead of partial results.</p> + +<p>Children should, therefore, be trained to <em>give</em> attention. They should +be taught to take and maintain the attitude of attention throughout the +lesson period, and not be allowed to become listless or troublesome the +moment their interest is not held to the highest pitch.</p> + + +<h4>THE APPEAL TO INTEREST</h4> + +<p>Sometimes we speak of "arousing the child's interest," or of "creating +an interest" in a topic we are teaching. Strictly speaking, this is +incorrect. The child's interest, when rightly appealed to, does not have +to be "aroused," nor does interest have to be "created."</p> + +<p>Every normal child is naturally alert, curious, <em>interested</em> in what +concerns him. Who has not taken a <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>child for a walk or gone with a group +of children on an excursion, and been amazed at their capacity for +interest in every object about them and for attention to an endless +chain of impressions from their varied environment? Who has not observed +children in a game, and noted their complete absorption in its changing +aspects? Who has not called a child from an interesting tale in a book +he was reading, and found that it required the combined force of our +authority and the child's will to break the spell of his interest and +separate him from his book? Interest is always ready to flow in +resistless current if we can but find the right channel and a way to set +it free. When we find our class uninterested, therefore, we must first +of all seek the explanation not in the children, but in ourselves, our +methods, or the matter we teach.</p> + +<p><strong>Interest depends on comprehension.</strong>—First of all we must remember that +<em>interest never attaches to what the mind does not grasp</em>. Go yourself +and listen to the technical lecture you do not understand, or try to +read the book that deals with matters concerning which you have no +information; then apply the results of your experience to the case of +the child. The matter we teach the child must have sufficient connection +with his own experience, be sufficiently close to the things he knows +and cares about, so that he has a basis on which to comprehend them. The +<em>new</em> must be related to something <em>old and familiar</em> in the mind to +meet a warm welcome.</p> + +<p>If we would secure the child's interest, we must make certain of a +"point of contact" in his own life and meet him on the plane of his own +experience. God smiling in the sunshine, making the flowers grow or +whispering in the breeze is closer to the child than God <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>as "Creator." +God protecting and watching over the child timid and afraid in the dark +is more real than God in his heaven as "protector." We must remember +that not what <em>we</em> feel is of value, but <em>what the child feels is of +value</em> is what will appeal to his interest and attention. And no +exertion or agonizing on our part will create interest in the child in +matters for which his own understanding and experience have not fitted +him. For example, probably no child is ever interested in learning the +church catechism or Bible verses which we prize so highly, but which he +can not understand nor apply; he may be interested in a prize to be had +at the end of the learning, but in this case the interest is in the +reward and not in the matter learned. <em>Empty words devoid of meaning +never fire interest nor kindle enthusiasm.</em></p> + +<p><strong>Interest attaches to action.</strong>—Children are interested more in action, +deeds, and events than in motives, reasons, and explanations. They care +more for the uses to which objects are to be put than for the objects +themselves.</p> + +<p>No boy is interested in a bicycle chiefly as an example of mechanical +skill, but, rather, as a means of locomotion. No girl is interested in +dolls just as dolls, nor as a product of the toy maker's skill, but to +play with. It is this quality that makes children respond to the story, +for the story deals with action instead of with explanation and +description. In the story there is life and movement, and not reasoning +and mere assertion. The story presents the lesson in terms of deeds and +events, instead of by means of abstract statement and formal conclusion.</p> + +<p>This principle carries over to the child's own participation. Everyone +is most interested in that in <a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>which he has an active part. The meeting +in which we presided or made a speech or presented a report is to us a +more interesting meeting than one in which we were a silent auditor. To +the child, personal response is even more necessary. No small part of +the reason why the child "learns by doing" is that he is interested in +doing as he is not interested in mere listening. All good teaching will +therefore appeal to interest through providing the fullest possible +opportunity for the child to have an important share in the lesson. And +this part must be something which <em>to the child</em> is worth doing, and +not, for example, an oral memory drill on words meaningless to the +pupil, nor "expression" work of a kind that lacks purpose and action. +There are always real things to be done if the lesson is vital—personal +experiences to be recounted, special assignments to be reported upon, +maps to be drawn or remodeled, specimens of flowers or plants to be +secured, character parts to be represented in the story, a bit of +history to be looked up, prayers to be said, songs to be sung, or a +hundred other things done which will appeal to the interest and at the +same time fix the points of the lesson.</p> + +<p><strong>Interest requires variety and change.</strong>—Interest attaches to the <em>new</em>, +provided the new is sufficiently related to the fund of experience +already on hand so that it is fully grasped and understood. While there +are certain matters, such as marching, handling supplies, etc., in the +recitation which should be done the same way each time so that they may +become habit and routine, yet there is a wide range of variety possible +in much of the procedure.</p> + +<p>The lessons should not be conducted always in the same way. One +recitation may consist chiefly of dis<a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>cussion, with question and answer +between teacher and class. Another may be given largely to reports on +special assignments, with the teacher's comments to broaden and apply +the points. Another may take the form of stories told and illustrations +given by the teacher, or of stories retold by the class from former +lessons. The great thing is to secure change and variety without losing +sight of the real aims of the lesson, and to plan for a pleasant +surprise now and then without lowering the value of the instruction.</p> + +<p><strong>Interest is contagious.</strong>—Every observing teacher has learned that +interest is contagious. An interested and enthusiastic teacher is seldom +troubled by lack of interest and attention on the part of the class. +Nor, on the other hand, will interest and attention continue on the part +of the class if confronted by a mechanical and lifeless teacher. The +teacher is the model unconsciously accepted and responded to by his +class. He leads the way in interest and enthusiasm. Nor will any sham or +pretense serve. The interest must be real and deep. Even young children +quickly sense any make-believe enthusiasm or vivacity on the part of the +teacher, and their ardor immediately cools.</p> + +<p>Children's typical interests have their birth, ripen to full strength, +and fade away by certain broad stages. What will appeal to the child of +five will not appeal to the child of ten, and will secure no response +from the youth of fifteen. Space will not permit even an outline of +these interest-stages here, but genetic psychology has carefully mapped +them out and their nature and order of development should be studied by +every teacher.</p> + + +<h4>FREEDOM FROM DISTRACTIONS</h4> + +<p>There is no possibility of securing good results from <a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>a lesson period +constantly broken in upon by distractions. The mind cannot do its best +work if the attention is diverted every few moments from the train of +thought, requiring a new start every now and then. Every teacher has had +the experience of the sudden drop in interest and concentration that has +come from some interruption, and the impossibility of bringing the class +back to the former level after the break. The loss in a recitation +disturbed by distractions is comparable to the loss of power and +efficiency in stopping a train of cars every half mile throughout its +run instead of allowing it an unbroken trip. Careful planning and good +management can eliminate many of the distractions common to the church +school lesson hour.</p> + +<p><strong>Distractions from classes reciting together.</strong>—The class should have a +room or space for its own sole use, and not be compelled to recite in a +large room occupied by several other classes. The older Chinese method +of education was to have each pupil study his lesson aloud, each seeking +to drown out the confusion by the force of his voice. Many of our church +schools of the present day remind one of this ancient method. The church +building being planned primarily for adults, not enough classrooms are +provided for the children, and it is a common thing to find half a dozen +classes grouped in the one room, each constantly distracted by the +sights and sounds that so insistently appeal to the senses. It is wholly +impossible to do really good teaching under such conditions.</p> + +<p>Every church building should provide classrooms for teaching its +children. If these cannot be had in the original edifice, an addition +should be made of a special school building. As a last resort, a system +of curtains or movable partitions should be provided which will <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>isolate +each class from every other class, and thereby save at least the visual +distractions and perhaps a part of the auditory distractions. To fail to +do this is to cultivate in the child a habit of inattention to the +lesson, and to kill his interest in the church school and its work +because of its failure to impress him or attract his loyalty.</p> + +<p><strong>Planning routine to prevent distractions.</strong>—Not infrequently a wholly +unnecessary distraction is caused by a poorly planned method of handling +certain routine matters. The writer recently observed a junior class get +under way in what promised to be a very interesting and profitable +lesson. They had an attractive lesson theme, a good teacher, a separate +classroom, and seemed to be mentally alert. Soon after the lesson had +got well started an officer appeared at the door with an envelope for +the collection, and the story was stopped to pass the envelope around +the class. It was not possible after this interruption to pick up the +thread of the lesson without some loss of interest, but the teacher was +skillful and did her best. She soon had the attention of the class again +and the lesson was moving along toward its most interesting part and the +practical application. But just at the most critical moment another +interruption occurred; the secretary came in with the papers for the +class and counted out the necessary supply while the class looked on. It +was impossible now to catch up the current of interest again, but the +teacher tried. Once more she was interrupted, however, this time by a +note containing some announcement that had been overlooked in the +opening exercises!</p> + +<p>All such interruptions as these indicate mismanagement and a serious +lack of foresight. The fault is not wholly with the teacher, but also +with the policy and <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>organization of the school as a whole. The remedy +is for both officers and teachers to use the same business sense and +ability in running the church school that they would apply to any other +concern. The collection can be taken at the beginning of the lesson +period. The papers and lesson material can be in the classroom or in the +teacher's hands before the class assembles, and not require distribution +during the lesson period. In short, all matters of routine can be so +carefully foreseen and provided for that the class will be wholly free +from all unnecessary distractions from such sources.</p> + +<p><strong>Mischief and disorder.</strong>—An especially difficult kind of distraction to +control is the tendency to restlessness, mischief, and misbehavior which +prevails in certain classes or on the part of an occasional pupil. +Pupils sometimes feel that the teacher in the church school does not +possess the same authority as that exercised by the public-school +teacher, and so take advantage of this fact. The first safeguard against +disorder in the class is, of course, to secure the interest and loyalty +of the members. The ideal is for the children to be attentive, +respectful, and well behaved, not because they are required to, but +because their sense of duty and pride and their interest in the work +leads them to this kind of conduct. It is not possible, however, +continuously to reach this ideal with all children. There will be +occasional cases of tendency to disorder, and the spirit of mischief +will sometimes take possession of a class whose conduct is otherwise +good.</p> + +<p>Whenever it becomes necessary, the teacher should not hesitate to take a +positive stand for order and quiet in the class. All inattention is +contagious. A small center of disturbance can easily spread until it +results in a whole storm of disorder. Mischief grows through <a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>the power +of suggestion, and a small beginning may soon involve a whole class. +There is no place for a spirit of irreverence and boisterousness in the +church school, and the teacher must have for one of his first principles +the maintenance of good conduct in his classroom. No one can tell any +teacher just how this is to be achieved in individual cases, but it must +be done. And the teacher who cannot win control over his class would +better surrender it to another who has more of the quality of leadership +or mastery in his make-up, for no worthy, lasting religious impressions +can be given to noisy, boisterous, and inattentive children.</p> + +<p><strong>Distractions by the teacher.</strong>—Strange as it may seem, the teacher may +himself be a distraction in the classroom. Any striking mannerism, any +peculiarity of manner or carriage, extreme types of dress, or any +personal quality that attracts attention to itself is a distraction to +the class. One teacher may have a very loud or ill-modulated voice; +another may speak too low to be heard without too much effort; another +may fail to articulate clearly. Whatever attracts attention to the +speech itself draws attention away from the thought back of the speech +and hinders the listener from giving his full powers to the lesson.</p> + +<p>A distracting habit on the part of some teachers is to walk back and +forth before the class, or to assume awkward postures in standing or +sitting before the class, or nervously to finger a book or some object +held in the hands. All these may seem like small things, but success or +failure often depends upon a conjunction of many small things, each of +which in itself may seem unimportant. It is often "the little foxes that +spoil the vines."</p> + +<p><strong>Avoiding physical distractions.</strong>—In the church <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>school, as in the +public school, the physical conditions surrounding the recitation should +be made as favorable as possible. Not infrequently the children are +placed for their lesson hour in seats that were intended for adults, and +which are extremely uncomfortable for smaller persons. The children's +feet do not touch the floor, and their backs can not secure a support; +weariness, wriggling and unrest are sure to follow. Sometimes the +ventilation of the classroom is bad, and the foul air breathed on one +Sunday is carefully shut in for use the next. Basement rooms are not +seldom damp, or they have a bad odor, or the lighting is unsatisfactory, +or the walls are streaked, dim and uninviting. If such things seem +relatively unimportant, we must remember that the child's spiritual life +is closely tied up with the whole range of his experiences, and that +such things as lack of oxygen in the classroom, tired legs whose feet +can not touch the floor, eyes offended by unloveliness, or nostrils +assailed by unpleasant odors may get in the way of the soul's +development. Our churches should not rest satisfied until children in +the church schools work under as hygienic and as pleasant conditions as +obtain in the best of our public schools.</p> + + +<h4>DANGER POINTS IN INSTRUCTION</h4> + +<p>It is a well-known law in pedagogy that negatives are not often +inspiring, and that to hold before one his mistakes is not always the +best way of helping him avoid them. Along with the positive principles +which show what we should do, however, it is well occasionally to note a +few of the danger points most commonly met in the classroom.</p> + +<p><strong>Lack of definiteness.</strong>—This may take the form of lack of definiteness +of aim or purpose. We may merely<a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a> "hear" the recitation, or ask the +stock questions furnished in the lesson helps, or allow the discussion +to wander where it will, or permit aimless arguing or disputing on +questions that cannot be decided and that in any case possess no real +significance.</p> + +<p>Indefiniteness may take the direction of failure to carry the thoughts +of the lesson through to their final meaning and application, so that +there is no vital connection made between the lesson truths and the +lives of those we teach. Or we may be indefinite in our interpretation +of the moral and religious values inherent in the lesson, and so fail to +make a sharp and definite impression of understanding and conviction on +our pupils. Our teaching must be clear-cut and positive without being +narrowly dogmatic or opinionated. The truth we present must have an +edge, so that it may cleave its way into the heart and mind of the +learner.</p> + +<p><strong>Dead levels.</strong>—We need to avoid <em>dead levels</em> in our teaching. This +danger arises from lack of mental perspective. It comes from presenting +all the points of a lesson on the same <em>plane of emphasis</em>, with a +failure to distinguish between the important and the unimportant. Minor +details and incidental aspects of the topic often receive the same +degree of stress that is given to more important points. This results in +a state of monotonous plodding through so much material without +responding to its varying shades of meaning and value. Not only does +this type of teaching fail to lodge in the mind of the pupil the larger +and more important truths which ought to become a permanent part of his +mental equipment, but it also fails to train pupils how themselves to +pick out and appropriate the significant parts of the lesson material. +It <a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>does not develop the sense of value for lesson truths which should +be trained through the work of the lesson hour. Each lesson should seek +to impress and apply a few important truths, and everything else should +be made to work to this end. The points we would have our pupils +remember, think about and act upon we must be able to make stand out +above all other aspects of the lesson; they must not, for want of +emphasis, be lost in a mass of irrelevant or monotonous material of +little value.</p> + +<p><strong>Lack of movement in recitation.</strong>—Some recitations suffer from +<em>slowness of movement</em> of the thought and plan of the lesson. We +sometimes say of a book or a play or a sermon that it was "slow." This +is equivalent to saying that the book or play or sermon lacks movement; +it dallies by the way, and has unnecessary breaks in its continuity, or +is slow in its action. The same principle applies in the recitation. +Pauses that are occupied with thought or meditation are not, of course, +wasted; they may even be the very best part of the lesson period. But +the rather empty lapses which occur for no reason except that the +teacher lacks readiness and preparation, and does not quite know at +every moment just what he is to do next, or what topic should at this +moment come in—it is such awkward and meaningless breaks as these that +spoil the continuity of thought and interest and result in boredom. We +must remember that every pause or interval of mere empty waiting without +expectancy, or without some worthy thought occupying the mind, is a +waste of energy, time, and opportunity, and also a training in +inattention.</p> + +<p><strong>Low standards.</strong>—The acceptance of <em>low standards</em> of preparation and +response in the recitation is fatal to <a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>high-grade work and results. If +it comes to be expected and taken as a matter of course both by teacher +and pupils that children shall come to the class from week to week with +no previous study on the lesson, then this is precisely what they will +do. The standards of the class should make it impossible that continual +failure to prepare or recite shall be accepted as the natural and +expected thing, or treated with a spirit of levity. The lesson hour is +the very heart and center of the school work, and failure here means a +breakdown of the whole system. The standards of teacher and class should +be such that probable failure to do one's part in the recitation shall +be looked forward to by the child with some apprehension and looked back +upon with some regret if not humiliation. In order to maintain high +standards of preparation the cooperation of the home must be secured, at +least for the younger children, and parents must help the child wisely +and sympathetically in the study of the lesson.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. To what extent are you able to hold the attention of your pupils + in the recitation? Is their attention ready, or do you have to work + hard to get it? Are there any particular ones who are less + attentive than the rest? If so, can you discover the reason? The + remedy?</p> + +<p> 2. To what extent do you find it necessary to appeal to involuntary + attention? If you have to make such an appeal do you seek at once + to make interest take hold to retain the attention?</p> + +<p> 3. What measures are you using to train your pupils in the giving + of voluntary attention when this type is required? When <em>is</em> + voluntary attention required?</p> + +<p> 4. How completely are your pupils usually interested in the + lessons? As the interest varies from time to time, are you studying + the matter to discover the secret of interest on their part. In so + far as interest fails, which of the fac<a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>tors discussed in the + section on interest in this chapter are related to the failure? Are + there still other causes not mentioned in this chapter?</p> + +<p> 5. What distractions are most common in your class? Can you discover + the cause? The remedy? Do you have any unruly pupils? If so, have + you done your best to win to attention and interest? Have you the + force and decision necessary to bring the class well under control?</p> + +<p> 6. What do you consider your chief danger points in teaching? Would + it be worth while for you to have some sympathetic teacher friend + visit your class while you teach, and then later talk over with you + the points in which you could improve?</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Bagley, Class Room Management.</p> + +<p>Betts, The Recitation.</p> + +<p>Maxwell, The Observation of Teaching.</p> + +<p>Strayer and Norsworthy, How to Teach.</p> + +<p>Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>MAKING TRUTH VIVID</h3> + + +<p>Life is a great unbreakable unity. Thought, feeling, and action belong +together, and to leave out one destroys the quality and significance of +all. Religious growth and development involve the same mental powers +that are used in the other affairs of life. The child's training in +religion can advance no faster than the expansion of his grasp of +thought and comprehension, the deepening of his emotions, and the +strengthening of his will.</p> + +<p>It follows from this that religious instruction must call for and use +the same activities of mind that are called for in other phases of +education. Not only must the feelings be reached and the emotions +stirred, but the child must be taught to <em>think</em> in his religion. Not +only must trust and faith be grounded, but these must be made +<em>intelligent</em>. Not only must the spirit of worship be cultivated, but +the child must know Whom and why he worships. Not only must loyalties be +secured, but these must grow out of a <em>realization of the cost and +worth</em> of the cause or object to which loyalty attaches. Religious +teaching must therefore appeal to the <em>whole</em> mind. Besides appealing to +the emotions and will it must make use of and train the power of +<em>thought</em>, of <em>imagination</em>, of <em>memory</em>; it must through their agency +make truth vivid, real, and lasting, and so lay the foundation for +spiritual feeling and devotion.</p> + + +<h4>LEARNING TO THINK IN RELIGION</h4> + +<p>Much has been gained in teaching religion when we <a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>have brought the +child to see that <em>understanding</em>, <em>reason</em>, and <em>common sense</em> are as +necessary and as possible here as in other fields of learning. This does +not mean that there are not many things in religion that are beyond the +grasp and comprehension of even the greatest minds, to say nothing of +the undeveloped mind of the child. It means, rather, that where we fail +to grasp or understand it is because of the bigness of the problem, or +because of its unknowableness, and not because its solution violates the +laws of thought and reason.</p> + +<p>The reign of law, the inexorable working of cause and effect, and the +application of reason to religious matters should be conveyed to the +child in his earliest impressions of religion. For example, the child +has learned a valuable lesson when he has comprehended that God asks +obedience of his children, not just for the sake of compelling +obedience, but because obedience to God's law is the only way to happy +and successful living. The youth has grasped a great truth when it +becomes clear to his understanding that Jesus said, "To him that hath +shall be given," not from any failure to sympathize with the one who +might be short in his share, but <em>because this is the great and +fundamental law of being</em> to which even Jesus himself was subject; and +that when Paul said, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," +he was not exacting an arbitrary penalty, but expressing the inevitable +working of a great law. The boy who defined faith as "believing +something you know can't be true" had been badly taught concerning +faith.</p> + +<p><strong>Religious truth does not contradict reason.</strong>—To begin with, while all +of us come to believe many things that we cannot fully understand, not +even the child should be asked to believe what plainly <a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>contradicts +common sense and so puts too great a strain on credulity. In a certain +Sunday school class the lesson was about Peter going up on the housetop +to pray, and the vision that befell him there. This class of boys, +living in a small village, had had no experience with any kind of +housetop except that formed of a sharply sloping roof. Therefore the +story looked improbable to them, and one boy asked how Peter could sleep +up on the roof and keep from falling off. The teacher, also uninformed +concerning the flat roofs of Oriental houses, answered, "John, you must +remember that with God all things are possible." And John had that day +had the seeds of skepticism planted in his inquiring mind. Another +teacher, thinking to allay any tendency on the part of his class to +question the literal accuracy of the story of Jonah and the whale, said, +"This story is in the Bible, and we must believe it, for whatever is in +the Bible is true; and if the Bible were to say that Jonah swallowed the +whale that would be true, and we would have to believe that also." But +who can doubt that, with boys and girls trained in the schools and by +their contact with life itself to think, such an invitation to lay aside +all reason and common sense can do other in the long run than to weaken +confidence in the Bible, and so lessen the significance of many of its +beautiful lessons?</p> + +<p><strong>True thinking about Bible truths.</strong>—What, then, shall we teach the +child about the literalness of the Bible? Nothing. This is not a +question for childhood. The Bible should be brought to the child in the +same spirit as any other book, except with a deep spirit of reverence +and appreciation not due other books. Parts of the Bible are plainly +history, and as accurate as <a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>history of other kinds is. Other parts are +accounts of the lives of people, and the descriptions are wonderfully +vivid and true to life. Other parts are plainly poetry, and should be +read and interpreted as poetry. Other parts are clearly the stories and +legends current in the days when the accounts were written, and should +be read as other stories and legends are read. The great question is not +the problem of the literal or the figurative nature of the truth, but +the problem of discovering for the child the <em>rich nugget of spiritual +wisdom which is always there</em>.</p> + +<p>When the young child first hears the entrancing Bible stories he does +not think anything about their literalness; he only enjoys, and perhaps +dimly senses the hidden lesson or truth they contain. This is as it +should be. Later, when thought, judgment, and discrimination are +developing and beginning to play their part in the expanding mind, +questions are sure to arise at certain points. This is also as it should +be.</p> + +<p>When such questions arise let us meet them frankly and wisely. Let us +have the spiritual vision and the reverence for truth that will enable +us, for example, to show the child how the servants of God in those +ancient times used the bold, picturesque figure of "feathers" and +"wings" to express the brooding love and care of God; how they told the +wonderful story of God's creation of the world in the most beautiful +account they could conceive; how they showed forth God's care for his +children, his companionship with them, and man's tendency to sin and +disobedience by one of the most beautiful stories ever written, this +story having its scene laid in the garden of Eden; how these writers +always set down what they believed to be true, and how, though they +might sometimes have <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>been mistaken as to the actual facts, they never +missed presenting the great lesson or deep spiritual truth that God +would have us know.</p> + +<p><strong>Protecting the child against intellectual difficulties.</strong>—Children +taught the Bible in this reasonable but reverent way will be saved many +intellectual difficulties as they grow older. Their reverence and +respect for the Bible will never suffer from the necessity of attempting +to force their faith to accept what their intellect contradicts. They +will not be troubled by the grave doubts and misgivings which attack so +many adolescents during the time when they are working out their mental +and spiritual adjustment to the new world of individual responsibility +which they have discovered. They will, without strain or questioning, +come to accept the Bible for what it is—the great <em>Source Book of +spiritual wisdom</em>, its pages bearing the imprint of divine inspiration +and guidance, and also of human imperfections and greatness.</p> + +<p>The developing child should, therefore, be encouraged to use his reason, +his thought, his judgment and discrimination in his study of religion +precisely as in other things. His questions should never be ignored, nor +suppressed, nor treated as something unworthy and sinful. The doubts, +even, which are somewhat characteristic of a stage of adolescent +reconstruction, may be made the stepping-stone to higher reaches of +faith and understanding.</p> + +<p>The youth who went to his pastor with certain questionings and doubts, +and who was told that these were "the promptings of Satan," and that +they "must not be dwelt upon, but resolutely be put out of the mind," +was not fairly nor honestly treated by one from whom he had a right to +expect wiser guidance. He returned <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>from the interview rebellious and +bitter, and it was with much spiritual agony and sweating of blood that +he fought his own way through to a solution which ought to have been +made easy for him by wise enlightenment and sympathetic counsel.</p> + +<p><strong>Reverent seekers after truth.</strong>—Religion requires the mind at its best. +There is nothing about religion that will not bear full thought and +investigation. We are not asked to lay aside any part of our powers, can +not lay any part of them aside, if we would attain to full religious +growth and stature. Let us therefore train our children to <em>think</em> as +they study religion. Let us lead them to ask and inquire. Let us train +them to investigate and test. Let us teach them that they never need be +afraid of truth, since no bit of truth ever conflicts with, or +contradicts any other truth; let us rather encourage them reverently and +with open hearts and minds diligently to seek the truth, and then <em>dare +to follow where it leads</em>.</p> + + +<h4>THE APPEAL TO IMAGINATION</h4> + +<p>Imagination, the power of the mind that pictures and makes real, is a +key to vivid and lasting impressions. Unless the imagination recreates +the scenes described in the story, or vivifies the events of the lesson, +they will have little meaning to the child and appeal but little to his +interest.</p> + +<p>It is imagination that enables its possessor to take the images +suggested in the account of a battle and build them together into the +mass of struggling soldiers, roaring cannon, whistling bullets, and +bursting shells. It is imagination that makes it possible while reading +the words of the poem to construct the picture which was in the mind of +the author as he wrote "The Village<a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a> Blacksmith," the twenty-third +psalm, or "Snowbound," and thereby enables the reader himself to take +part in the throbbing scenes of life and action. Without imagination one +may repeat the words which describe an act or an event, may even commit +them to memory or pass an examination upon them, but the living reality +will forever escape him. It is imagination that will save the beautiful +stories and narratives of the Bible from being so many dead words, +without appeal to the child.</p> + +<p><strong>Imagination required in the study of religion.</strong>—In the teaching of +religion we are especially dependent on the child's use of his +imagination. With younger children the instruction largely takes the +form of stories, which must be appropriated and understood through the +imagination or not at all. The whole Bible account deals with people, +places, and events distant in time and strange to the child in manner of +life and customs. The Bible itself abounds in pictorial descriptions. +The missionary enterprises of the church lead into strange lands and +introduce strange people. The study of the lives and characters of great +men and women and their deeds of service in our own land takes the child +out of the range of his own immediate observation and experience. The +understanding of God and of Jesus—all of these things lose in +significance or are in large degree incomprehensible unless approached +with a vivid and glowing imagination.</p> + +<p>Many older persons confess that the Bible times, places, and people were +all very unreal to them while in the Sunday school, and that it hardly +occurred to them that these descriptions and narratives were truly about +men and women like ourselves. Hence the most valuable part of their +instruction was lost.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a><strong>Limitations of imagination.</strong>—Since childhood is the age of +imagination, we might naturally expect that it would be no trouble to +secure ready response from the child's imagination. But we must not +assume too much about the early power of imagination. It is true that +the child's imagination is <em>ready and active</em>; but it is not yet ready +for the more difficult and complex picturing we sometimes require of it, +for imagination depends for its material on the store of <em>images</em> +accumulated from former experience; and images are the result of past +observation, of percepts, and sensory experiences. The imagination can +build no mental structures without the stuff with which to build; it is +limited to the material on hand. The Indians never dreamed of a heaven +with streets of gold and a great white throne; for their experiences had +given them no knowledge of such things. They therefore made their heaven +out of the "Happy Hunting Grounds," of which they had many images.</p> + +<p>Many Chicago school children who were asked to compare the height of a +mountain with that of a tall factory chimney said that the chimney was +higher, because the mountain "does not go straight up" like the chimney. +These children had learned and recited that a mountain "is an elevation +of land a thousand or more than a thousand feet in height," but their +imagination failed to picture the mountain, since not even the smallest +mountain nor a high hill had ever been actually present to their +observation. Small wonder, then, that Sunday school children have some +trouble, living as they do in these modern times, to picture ancient +times and peoples who were so different from any with which their +experience has had to deal!</p> + +<p><strong>Guiding principles.</strong>—The skillful teacher knows how <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>to help the child +use his imagination. The following laws or principles will aid in such +training:</p> + +<p>1. <em>Relate the new scene or picture with something similar in the +child's experience.</em> The desert is like the sandy waste or the barren +and stony hillside with which the children are acquainted. The square, +flat-topped houses of eastern lands have their approximate counterpart +in occasional buildings to be found in almost any modern community. The +rivers and lakes of Bible lands may be compared with rivers and lakes +near at hand. The manner of cooking and serving food under primitive +conditions was not so different from our own method on picnics and +excursion days. While the life and work of the shepherd have changed, we +still have the sheep. The walls of the ancient city can be seen in +miniature in stone and concrete embankments, or even the stone fences +common in some sections.</p> + +<p>The main thing is to get some <em>starting point</em> in actual observation +from which the child can proceed. The teacher must then help the child +to modify from the actual in such a way as to picture the object or +place described as nearly true to reality as possible. The child who +said, "A mountain is a mound of earth with brush growing on it" had been +shown a hillock covered with growing brush and had been told that the +mountain was like this, only bigger. The imagination had not been +sufficiently stimulated to realize the significant differences and to +picture the real mountain from the miniature suggestion.</p> + +<p>2. <em>Articles and objects from ancient times or from other lands may +occasionally be secured to show the children.</em> Even if such objects may +not date back to Bible times, they are still useful as a vantage point +for the <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>imagination. A modern copy of the old-time Oriental lamp, a +candelabrum, a pair of sandals, a turban, a robe, or garment such as the +ancients wore—these accompanied by intelligent description of the times +and places to which they belonged are all a stimulus to the child's +imagination which should not be overlooked. The very fact that they +suggest other peoples and other modes of living than our own is an +invitation and incentive to the mind to reach out beyond the immediate +and the familiar to the new and the strange.</p> + +<p>3. <em>Pictures can be made a great help to the imagination.</em> In the better +type of our church schools we are now making free use of pictures as +teaching material. It is not always enough, however, merely to place the +picture before the child. It requires a certain fund of information and +interest in order to see in a picture what it is intended to convey. The +child cannot get from the picture more than he brings to it. The teacher +may therefore need to give the picture its proper setting by describing +the kind of life or the type of action or event with which it deals. He +may need to ask questions, and make suggestions in order to be sure that +the child sees in the picture the interesting and important things, and +that his imagination carries out beyond what is actually presented in +the picture itself to what it suggests. While the first response of the +child to a picture, as to a story, should be that of enjoyment and +interest, this does not mean that the picture, like the story, may not +reach much deeper than the immediate interest and enjoyment. The picture +which has failed to stimulate the child's imagination to see much more +than the picture contains has failed of one of its chief objects.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>4. <em>Stimulate the imagination by use of vivid descriptions and +thought-provoking questions.</em> Every teacher, whether of young children +or of older ones, should strive to be a good teller of stories and a +good user of illustrations. This requires study and practice, but it is +worth the cost—even outside of the classroom. The good story-teller +must be able to speak freely, easily, and naturally. He must have a +sense of the important and significant in a story or illustration, and +be able to work to a climax. He must know just how much of detail to use +to appeal to the imagination to supply the remainder, and not employ so +great an amount of detail as to leave nothing to the imagination of the +listener. He must himself enter fully into the spirit and enthusiasm of +the story, and must have his own imagination filled with the pictures he +would create in his pupils' minds. He must himself enjoy the story or +the illustration, and thus be able in his expression and manner to +suggest the response he desires from the children. Well told stories +that have in them the dramatic quality can hardly fail to stir the most +sluggish imagination and prepare it for the important part it must play +in the child's religious development.</p> + +<p>Skillfully used questions and suggestions can be made an important means +of stimulating the imagination. Such helps as: Do you think the sea of +Galilee looked like the lake (here name one near at hand) which you +know? How did it differ? What tree have you in mind which is about the +same size as the fig tree in the lesson? How does it differ in +appearance? Close your eyes and try to see in your mind just how the +river looked where the baby Moses was found. Have you ever seen a man +who you think looks much <a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>as Elijah must have looked? Describe him. If +you were going to make a coat like the one Joseph wore, what colors +would you select? What kind of cloth? What would be the cut or shape of +it?—Hardly a lesson period will pass without many opportunities for +wise questions whose chief purpose is to make real and vivid to the +child the persons or places described, and so add to their significance +to him.</p> + +<p>5. <em>Dramatic representation can be used as an incentive to the +imagination.</em> Children easily and naturally imagine themselves to be +some other person, and often play at being nurse or school teacher or +doctor or preacher. Nearly every child possesses a large measure of the +dramatic impulse, and is something of an actor. It is great fun for +children to "tog up" and to "show off" in their play. And not only is +all this an expression of imagination actively at work, but such +activities are themselves a great stimulus to the imagination. The child +who has dressed up as George Washington and impersonated him in some +ceremonial or on a public occasion will ever after feel a closer reality +in the life and work of Washington than would come from mere reading +about him. A group of children who have acted out the story of the good +Samaritan will get a little closer to its inner meaning than merely to +hear the story told. The girl who has taken the part of Esther appearing +before the king in behalf of her people will realize a little more fully +from that experience what devotion and courage were required from the +real Esther. A class who have participated in a pageant of the Nativity +will always be a little nearer to the original event than if their +imaginations had not been called upon to make real the characters and +incidents.</p> + + +<h4><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>USING THE MEMORY</h4> + +<p>The memory should play an important part in religion. Gems from the +Bible, stories, characters, and events, inspiring thoughts and maxims, +and many other such things should become a permanent part of the +furnishing of the mind, recorded and faithfully preserved by the memory.</p> + +<p><strong>Laws of use of memory.</strong>—The laws by which the memory works have been +thoroughly studied and carefully described, and should be fully +understood by every teacher. Further than this, <em>they should be +faithfully observed in all memory work</em>. These laws may be stated as +follows:</p> + +<p>1. The law of <em>complete registration</em>. The first act in the memory +process is fully and completely to register, or <em>learn</em>, the matter to +be retained. The retention can never be better than the registration of +the facts given into the memory's keeping. Half-learned matter easily +slips away, never having been completely impressed on the mind. It is +possible to lose both effort and efficiency by committing a verse of a +poem barely up to the point where it can doubtfully be repeated instead +of giving it the relatively small amount of additional study and +practice which would register it firmly and completely. Whatever is +worth committing to memory should therefore be carried past the barely +known stage and committed fully and completely.</p> + +<p>2. The law of <em>multiple association</em>. This only means that the new facts +learned shall be related as closely as may be to matter already in the +mind. And this is equivalent to saying that the material learned shall +be <em>understood</em>, its meaning grasped and its significance comprehended. +To understand for yourself the value of association, make this +experiment: Have some one <a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>write down a list of ten unrelated words in a +column, and hold the list before you while you have time to read it over +just once slowly and carefully. Now try repeating the words in order +from memory. Next, have your friend write ten other words which this +time form a connected sentence. After reading these words over once as +you did the first list, try repeating them in order. You find that you +have much trouble to memorize the first list, while the second presents +no difficulty at all. The difference lies in the fact that the words of +the first list were unrelated, lacking all associative connections with +each other, while those of the second list formed a connected chain of +associations.</p> + +<p>It is possible to give the child biblical or other matter to memorize +that has little more meaning to him than the list of unrelated words +have to us. For example, this text is required of primary and junior +children in a lesson series: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth +shall make you free." And this: "Let us therefore draw near with +boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may +find grace to help us in time of need." It is evident that younger +children could by no possibility understand either of these beautiful +passages, and hence in committing them will only be learning so many +unrelated words.</p> + +<p>The same is true of church catechisms. The memorizing of such material +will be difficult and unpleasant, and no value will come from it. The +most likely outcome of such ill-advised requirements is to discourage +the child and make him dislike the church school and all its work. It is +not to be expected that the child will understand the <em>full</em> meaning of +every bit of matter suitable for him to memorize; this will have to +await <a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>broader experience and fuller development. The material should, +however, be sufficiently comprehended that its general meaning is clear +and its significance understood.</p> + +<p>3. The law of <em>vividness of impression</em>. The relation of vividness of +impression to learning has already been discussed in another chapter. In +no one of the mind's activities is vividness a more important factor +than in memorizing. Matter committed under the stimulus of high interest +and keen attention is relatively secure, while matter committed under +slack concentration is sure to fade quickly from the memory. Songs can +therefore best be committed under the elation of the interesting singing +of the words; a verse of poetry, when the mind is alert and the feelings +aroused by a story in which the sentiment of the verse fits; a prayer +when the spirit of devotion has been quickened by worship. To insure +full vividness the imagination must also be called upon to picture and +make real such parts of memory material as contain imagery.</p> + +<p>4. The law of <em>repetition</em>. For most minds memory depends on repetition. +The impressions must be deepened and made lasting by being stamped again +and again on the mind. The neurons of the brain which do the work of +retaining and recalling must be made to repeat the process over and over +until their action is secure. It is therefore not enough to make sure +that the child has his memory material committed for this particular +Sunday. If the matter was worth committing in the first place, it is +worth keeping permanently. If it is to be kept permanently, it must be +frequently reviewed; for otherwise it will surely be forgotten. It is to +be feared that much, if not most, of the matter memorized by the pupils +in many church schools lasts <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>only long enough to show the teacher that +it has once been learned, and that not many children know in any +permanent sense the Bible passages they have committed. In so far as +this is true it would be much better to select a smaller amount of the +choicest and best adapted material to be found, and then so thoroughly +teach this that it is permanently retained.</p> + +<p>5. The law of <em>wholes instead of parts</em>. Many persons in setting at work +to commit a poem, a Bible passage, a psalm have a tendency to learn it +first by verses or sections and then, put the parts together to form the +whole. Tests upon the memory have shown, that this is a less economical +and efficient method than from the first to commit the material as a +whole. This method requires that we go over all of it completely from +beginning to end, then over it again, and so on until we can repeat much +of it without reference to the text. We then refer to the text for what +the memory has not yet grasped, requiring the memory to repeat all that +has been committed, until the whole is in this manner fully learned. The +method of learning by wholes not only requires less time and effort, but +gives a better sense of unity in the matter committed.</p> + +<p>6. The law of <em>divided practice</em>. If to learn a certain piece of +material the child must go over it, say, fifteen times, the results are +much better if the whole number of repetitions are not carried out at +one time. Time seems necessary to give the associations an opportunity +to set up their relationships; also, the interval between repetitions +allows the parts that are hardest to commit to begin fading out, and +thereby reveal where further practice is demanded. Where songs, Bible +verses, or other material are committed in the lesson hour, provision +ought to be made for the children <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>to continue study and practice on the +material at home during the week. The so-called cramming process of +learning will not work any better in the church school than in the +day-school lessons.</p> + +<p>7. The law of <em>motivation</em>. Like other activities of the mind, memory +works best under the stimulus of some appealing motive. The very best +possible motive is, of course, an interest in and love for the matter +committed. This kind of response can hardly be expected, however, in all +of the material children are asked to commit. It is necessary to use +additional motives to secure full effort. The approval of the teacher +and parents, the child's standing in the class, and his own sense of +achievement are some of the motives that should be employed.</p> + +<p>A very powerful motive not always sufficiently made use of is the wider +<em>social motive</em> that comes from working in groups for a particular end. +For example, a school or class pageant based on some biblical story or +religious event has the effect of centralizing effort and stimulating +endeavor to a degree impossible in individual work. Hymns and songs are +committed, Bible passages or other religious material learned, stories +mastered, characters studied and their words committed under the stress +of an immediate need for them in order to take one's part in a social +group and prove one's mastery before an audience of interested +listeners. The church school can with great advantage centralize more of +its religious memory work in preparation for such special occasions as +Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, or other church celebrations or +pageants.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. What reasons can you give why children should be taught to think + in their study of religion just as in the study of any other + subject? Do you find a thoughtful attitude on <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>the part of your + class? What methods do you use to encourage reverent thinking in + religion?</p> + +<p> 2. One thinks best in connection with some question or problem + which he wishes to have answered. Do you plan in connection with + your preparation of the lesson to bring out some definite problem + suited to the age of your class and help your pupils think it + through to a solution?</p> + +<p> 3. What evidences can you suggest from your class work which show + that children readily think upon any problem that interests them? + Have your pupils asked questions showing that they are thinking? + When such questions are asked, how do you treat them?</p> + +<p> 4. What lessons of recent date in your work have you in mind which + especially required the use of imagination? Can you judge the + degree to which the descriptive parts of the lessons appeal to your + pupils as real?</p> + +<p> 5. How successfully do you feel that you are applying the + principles for the use of the imagination? Do you definitely seek + to apply these principles in your lessons? Which of these is + probably the hardest to apply? What is your method of seeking its + application?</p> + +<p> 6. Are your pupils good in memory work? Do you ever give them + material to memorize the meaning of which is not wholly clear to + them? What help do you give the children when you assign them + memory work? Do you instruct them how to memorize what you assign? + To what extent are you following the laws of memory as stated in + the chapter?</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Betts, The Mind and Its Education.</p> + +<p>Dewey, How We Think.</p> + +<p>Coe, Education in Religion and Morals.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>TYPES OF TEACHING</h3> + + +<p>One of the surest tests of the skillful teacher is his ability to adapt +his instruction to the child, to the subject matter, and to the +occasion—that is, to the <em>aim</em>. Teaching must differ in its type with +the age; the primary child and the older youth require different +methods. It must differ with the kind of material to be presented; a +lesson whose chief aim is to give information must be differently +presented from a lesson whose aim is to enforce some moral or religious +truth. It must differ with the occasion; a lesson taught a group of +children who have had no previous study or preparation on it will demand +different treatment from a lesson which has had careful study.</p> + +<p><strong>Types of lessons.</strong>—Several clearly recognized types of lessons are +commonly employed by teachers in both school and church-school classes. +No one of these lesson types can be said to be best in the sense that it +should be used to the exclusion of the others. All are required. Several +may even be employed in the same recitation period. The teacher should, +however, know which type he is employing at any given stage of his +instruction, and why he is using this type in preference to another type +of teaching. The following are the chief lesson types that will be found +serviceable in most church school classes:</p> + +<p>1. The <em>informational</em> lesson; in which the immediate aim is to supply +the mind with new knowledge or facts needed as a part of the equipment +of thought and understanding.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>2. The <em>developmental</em> (or inductive) lesson; in which the aim is to +lead the child through his own investigation and thinking to use the +information already in his possession as a basis for discovering new +truth or meaning.</p> + +<p>3. The <em>application</em> (or deductive) lesson; in which the aim is to make +application of some general truth or lesson already known to particular +problems or cases.</p> + +<p>4. The <em>drill</em> lesson; in which the aim is to give readiness and skill +in fundamental facts or material that should be so well known as to be +practically automatic in thought or memory.</p> + +<p>5. The <em>appreciation</em> lesson; in which the aim is to create a response +of warmth and interest toward, or appreciation of, a person, object, +situation, or the material studied.</p> + +<p>6. The <em>review</em> lesson; in, which the aim is to gather up, relate, and +fix more permanently in the mind the lessons or facts that have been +studied.</p> + +<p>7. The <em>assignment</em> lesson; in which help is rendered and interest +inspired, for study of the next lesson.</p> + + +<h4>THE INFORMATIONAL LESSON</h4> + +<p>The child at the beginning is devoid of all knowledge of and information +about the many objects, activities, and relationships that fill his +world. He must come to know these. His mind can develop no faster than +it has the materials for thoughts, memories, ideas, and whatever else is +to occupy his stream of thought. He must therefore be supplied with +information. He must be given a fund of impressions, of facts, of +knowledge to use in his thinking, feeling, and understanding.</p> + +<p>To undertake to teach the child the deeper meanings and relationships of +God to our lives without this necessary background of information is to +confuse him and <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>to fail ourselves as teachers. For example, a certain +primary lesson leaflet tells the children that the Egyptians made slaves +out of the Israelites and that God led the Israelites out of this +slavery. But there had previously been no adequate preparation of the +learners' minds to understand who the Israelites or the Egyptians were, +nor what slavery is. The children lacked all basis of information to +understand the situation described, and it could by no possibility +possess meaning for them.</p> + +<p><strong>The use of the information lesson.</strong>—It is not meant, of course, that +when the chief purpose of a lesson is to give information no +applications should be made or no interpretations given of the matter +presented. Yet the fact is that often the chief emphasis must be placed +on information, and that for the moment other aims are secondary. To +illustrate: When young children are first told the story of God creating +the world the main purpose of the lesson is <em>just to give them the +story</em>, and not to attempt instruction as to the power and wonder of +creative wisdom, nor even at this time to stress the seventh day as a +day of rest. When the story of Moses bringing his people out of Egypt is +told young children, the providence of God will be made evident, but the +facts of the story itself and its enjoyment just as a story should not +in early childhood be overshadowed by attempting to force the moral and +religious applications too closely.</p> + +<p>It even happens that the indirect lesson, in which the child is left to +see for himself the application and meaning, is often the most effective +to teaching. The same principle holds when, later in the course, the +youth is first studying in its entirety the life of Jesus. The main +thing is to get a sympathetic, reverent, con<a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>nected view of Jesus's life +as a whole. There will, of course, be a thousand lessons to be learned +and applications to be made from his teachings, but these should rest on +a fund of <em>accurate information about Jesus himself and what he taught</em>.</p> + +<p><strong>Danger of neglecting information.</strong>—It should be clear, then, that in +advocating the informational lesson there is no thought of asking that +we should teach our children <em>mere</em> facts, or fill their heads with +<em>mere</em> information. The intention is, rather, to stress the important +truth often seemingly forgotten, that to be intelligent in one's +religion there are certain, fundamental <em>things which must be known</em>; +that to be a worthy Christian there are certain facts, stories, +personages, and events with a knowledge of which the mind must be well +furnished. There can be little doubt that the common run of teaching in +our church schools has failed to give our children a <em>sufficient basis</em> +of information upon which to build their religious experience.</p> + +<p>Informational instruction may be combined with other types of lessons, +or may be given as separate lessons which stress almost entirely the +informational aspect of the material. In the younger classes the +information will come to the children chiefly in the form of stories, +and the accounts of lives of great men and women. Later in the course, +Bible narrative, history, and biography will supply the chief sources of +informational material.</p> + + +<h4>THE DEVELOPMENTAL LESSON</h4> + +<p>It is a safe principle in teaching not to give ready-made to children a +fact or conclusion which they can easily be led by questions and +suggestions to discover for themselves. Truths which one has found out +for <a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>himself always mean more than matter that is dogmatically forced +upon him. The pupil who has watched the bees sucking honey from clover +blossoms and then going with pollen-laden feet to another blossom, or +one who has observed the drifting pollen from orchard or corn field, is +better able to understand the fertilization of plants than he would be +from any mere description of the process.</p> + +<p>On the same principle, the child will get a deeper and more lasting +impression of the effects of disobedience if led to see the effect of +the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the shame and sorrow and feeling of +guilt that came to them, than he will through listening to ever so many +impressive assertions on the sin of disobedience. If the concrete lesson +is carried over to his own personal experience and his observation of +the results of disobedience, and the unhappiness it has brought, the +effect is all the greater.</p> + +<p><strong>Purpose of the inductive lesson.</strong>—The developmental, or inductive, +lesson, therefore, seeks to lead the child to <em>observe, discover, think, +find out for himself</em>. It begins with concrete and particular instances, +but it does not stop with them. It does not at the start force upon the +child any rules or general conclusions, but it does seek to arrive at +conclusions and rules in the end. For example, the purpose in having the +child watch particular bees carrying pollen to blossoms, and in having +him observe particular pollen drifting in the wind, is to teach in the +end the general truth that <em>certain plants are dependent on insects and +others on currents of air for their pollenization</em>.</p> + +<p>In similar fashion, the purpose in having the child understand the +effects of disobedience in the case of Adam and Eve and in any +particular instance in his <a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>own experience is to teach the general +conclusion that <em>disobedience commonly brings sorrow and trouble</em>. The +aim, then, is to arrive at a universal truth of wide application, but to +<em>reach it through appealing to the child's own knowledge, experience, +and observation</em>. In this way the lesson learned will have more vital +meaning and it will be more readily accepted because not forced upon the +learner.</p> + +<p><strong>Two principles.</strong>—Two important principles must be kept in mind in +teaching an inductive lesson:</p> + +<p>1. A basis or starting point must be found in knowledge or experience +already in the learner's possession.</p> + +<p>2. The child must have in his mind the question or problem which demands +solution.</p> + +<p>The first of these principles means that in order for the child to +observe, think, discover for himself, he must have a sufficient basis of +information from which to proceed. The inductive lesson, therefore, +rests upon and starts from the informational lesson. To illustrate, in +order to understand and be interested in the work of the bees as +pollen-bearers, the child must first <em>know the fact</em> that the blossoming +and fruiting of the common plants depend on pollen. The ear of corn +which did not properly fill with grains because something happened to +prevent pollen grains from reaching the tips of the silks at the right +time, or the apple tree barren because it failed from some adverse cause +to receive a supply of pollen for its blossoms may properly be the +starting point. The <em>problem</em> or question then arising is how pollen +grains are carried. With this basis of fact and of question, the child +is ready to begin the interesting task of observation and discovery +under the direction of the teacher; he is then ready for the inductive +lesson, in which he will discover new <a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>knowledge by using the +information already in his mind.</p> + +<p><strong>Conducting the inductive lesson.</strong>—In conducting the inductive lesson +the teacher must from the beginning have a very clear idea of the goal +or conclusion to be reached by the learners. Suppose the purpose is to +impress on the children the fact of Jesus's love and care for children. +The lesson might start with questions and illustrations dealing with the +father's and mother's care and love for each child in the home, and the +way these are shown.</p> + +<p>Following this would come the story of Jesus rebuking his disciples for +trying to send the children away, and his own kindness to the children. +Then such questions as these: How did the disciples feel about having +the children around Jesus? Why did they tell the children to keep away? +Perhaps they were afraid the children would annoy or trouble Jesus. Have +you ever known anyone who did not seem to like to have children around +him? Does your mother like to have you come and be beside her? What did +Jesus say about letting the children come to him? Why do you think Jesus +liked to have the children around him? How did Jesus show his love for +children? Why do you think the children liked to be with Jesus? Do you +think that Jesus loves children as much to-day as when he was upon +earth? Do you think he wants children to be good and happy now as he did +then? In what ways does Jesus show his love and kindness to children? +The impression or conclusion to grow out of these questions and the +story is that <em>Jesus loved and cared for children when he was upon +earth, and that he loves and cares for them now just as he did then</em>. +This will be the goal in the teacher's mind from the beginning of the +lesson.</p> + + +<h4><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a>THE DEDUCTIVE, OR APPLICATION, LESSON</h4> + +<p>Not all teaching can be of the inductive, or discovery, type. It is +necessary now and then to start with general truths, rules, or +principles and apply them to concrete individual cases. Rules and maxims +once understood are often serviceable in working out new problems. The +conclusions reached from a study of one set of circumstances can +frequently be used in meeting similar situations another time.</p> + +<p>For example, the child learns by a study of particular instances the +results of disobedience, and finally arrives at the great general truth +that <em>disobedience to the laws of nature or of God is followed by +punishment and suffering</em>. This fact becomes to him a rule, a principle, +a maxim, which has universal application. Once this is understood and +accepted, the child is armed with a weapon against disobedience. With +this equipment he can say when he confronts temptation: This means +disobedience to God's law and the laws of nature; but <em>disobedience to +the laws of God and of nature brings punishment and suffering</em>; +therefore if I do this thing, I shall be punished, and shall suffer—<em>I +will refrain from doing it</em>.</p> + +<p><strong>Making the application.</strong>—A large part of our instruction in religion +must be of the deductive kind. It is impossible, even if it were +desirable, to rediscover and develop inductively out of observation and +experience all the great moral and religious laws which should govern +the life. Many of these come to us ready-made, the result of the +aggregate experience of generations of religious living, or the product +of God's revelation to men. Consider, for example, such great +generalizations as: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be +also;" "Blessed are the merciful, for <a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>they shall obtain mercy"; "No man +can serve two masters"; "With what measure ye mete it shall be measured +unto you"; "The wages of sin is death."</p> + +<p>These are illustrations of the concentrated wisdom of the finest hearts +and minds the world has seen, words spoken by Inspiration, but true to +the experience of every person. It is our part as teachers to make the +great fundamental moral and religious laws which underlie our lives +living truths to our pupils. To do this we must not teach such truths as +mere abstractions, but show them at work in the lives of men and women +and of boys and girls. We must find illustrations, we must make +applications, and discover examples of proof and verification.</p> + +<p><strong>Teaching that fails from lack of applying truth.</strong>—The object, then, of +the <em>inductive</em> lesson is to lead the learner to <em>discover</em> truth; the +object of the <em>deductive</em> lesson is to lead him to <em>apply</em> truth. There +can be little doubt that much of our teaching of religion suffers from +failure to make immediate and vital application of the truths we teach. +When we teach the youth that no man can serve two masters, we should not +be satisfied until we have shown him the proof of this truth at work in +the everyday experience of men. When we teach him that the wages of sin +is death, we must not stop with the mere statement of fact, but lead him +to recognize the effects of sin's work in broken lives and ruined +careers.</p> + +<p>Nor should we confine our proofs and illustrations to examples taken +from the Bible, valuable as these are. Too many, perhaps half +unconsciously to themselves, carry the impression that religion belongs +rather more to Bible times and peoples than to ourselves. Too many +assent to the general truth of religion and <a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>the demands it puts on our +lives, but fail to make a sufficiently immediate and definite +application of its requirements to their own round of daily living. Too +many think of the divine law as revealed in the Scriptures as having a +historical significance rather than a present application. One of the +tasks of deductive teaching is to cure this fatal weakness in the study +of religion.</p> + + +<h4>THE DRILL LESSON</h4> + +<p>Teaching religion does not require as large a proportion of drill as +many other subjects. This is because the purpose of drill is to make +certain matter automatic in the mind, or to train definite acts to a +high degree of skill. For example, the child must come to know his +multiplication table readily, "without thinking"; he must come to be +able to write or spell or count or manipulate the keys of a typewriter +without directing his attention to the acts required. Wherever automatic +action or ready skill is required, there drill is demanded. Drill +provides for the repetition of the mental or physical act until habit +has made it second nature and it goes on practically doing itself. There +is no way to get a high degree of skill without drill, for the simple +reason that the brain requires a certain amount of repeated action +before it can carry out the necessary operations without error and +without the application of conscious thought.</p> + +<p><strong>Drill lessons in the church school.</strong>—While the church-school teacher +will not require so much use of drill as the day-school teacher, it is +highly essential that drill shall not be omitted at points where it is +needed. There are some things which the child should learn very +thoroughly and completely in his study of religion. He should know a few +prayers by heart, so that their <a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>words come to him naturally and easily +when he desires to use them. He should know the words and music of +certain songs and hymns suited to his age. He should learn certain Bible +passages of rare beauty, and other sentiments, verses, and poems found +outside the Bible. He should come, as a matter of convenience and skill, +to know the names and order of the books of the Bible. In some churches +he is required to know the catechism. Whatever of such material is to be +mastered fully and completely must receive careful drill.</p> + +<p><strong>Principles for conducting the drill.</strong>—The first step in a successful +drill lesson is to <em>supply a motive</em> for the drill. This is necessary in +order to secure alertness and effort. <em>Mere</em> repetition is not drill. +Monotonous going over the words of a poem or the list of books of the +Bible with wandering or slack attention will fail of results. The +learner must be keyed up, and give himself whole-heartedly to the work. +Let the child come to feel a real <em>need</em> of mastery, and one great +motive is supplied. Let him desire the words of the song because he is +to sing in the chorus, or desire the words of the poem because he is to +take part in a pageant, and there will be little trouble about +willingness to drill.</p> + +<p>Again, the competitive impulse can often be used to motivate drill. The +child is ambitious to stand at the head of his class, or to beat his own +record of performance, or to win the appreciation or praise of teacher +or parents, or he has a pride in personal achievement—these are all +worthy motives, and can be made of great service in conducting classroom +or individual drills. The posting of a piece of good work done by a +pupil, or calling attention to the good performance <a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>of a member of the +class can often be made an incentive to the whole number.</p> + +<p>Drill, in order to be effective, must not stop short of thorough +mastery. The matter which is barely learned, or the verse which can be +but doubtfully repeated is sure to escape if not fixed by further drill. +It is probable, as suggested in an earlier chapter, that we attempt to +have our children memorize too much Bible material which is beyond their +understanding and too difficult for them. On the other hand, there can +be no doubt that we fail to teach them sufficiently well the smaller +amount of beautiful sentiments, verses, poems, songs, and prayers which +should be a part of the mental and spiritual possession of every child. +Our weekly lessons provide for the memorizing of Bible matter week by +week, yet surprisingly few children can repeat any sensible amount of +such material. Better results would follow if we should require less +material, select it more wisely, and then <em>drill upon it until it is +firmly fixed in the mind as a permanent and familiar possession</em>.</p> + + +<h4>THE APPRECIATION LESSON</h4> + +<p>It is quite as essential that the child shall come to enjoy and admire +right things as that he shall know right things. To cultivate +appreciation for the beautiful, the good, the fine, and the true is one +of the great aims of our teaching. One who is able to analyze a flower +and technically describe its botanical parts, but who fails to respond +to its beauty has still much to learn about flowers. One who learns the +facts about the life of Paul, Elijah, or Jesus but who does not feel and +admire the strength, gentleness, and goodness of their characters has +missed one of the essential points <a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>in his study. One who masters the +details about a poem or a picture but who misses the thrill of enjoyment +and appreciation which it holds for him has gathered but the husks and +misses the right kernel of meaning.</p> + +<p><strong>How to teach appreciation.</strong>—Appreciation can never be taught directly. +The best we can do is to bring to the child the thing of beauty or +goodness which we desire him to enjoy and admire, making sure that he +comprehends its meaning as fully as may be, and then leave it to exert +its own appeal. We may by ill-advised comment or insistence even hinder +appreciation. The teacher who constantly asks the children, "Do you not +think the poem is beautiful?" or, "Is not this a lovely song?" not only +fails to help toward appreciation, but is in danger of creating a false +attitude in the child by causing him to express admiration where none is +felt.</p> + +<p>There is also grave doubt whether it is not a mistake to urge too much +on the child that he "ought" to love God, or that it is his "duty" to +love the church. The fact is that love, admiration and appreciation +<em>cannot be compelled</em> by any act of the will or sense of duty. They must +arise spontaneously from a realization of some lovable or beautiful +quality which exerts an appeal that will not be denied.</p> + +<p>The part of the teacher at this point, therefore, is to act as +interpreter, to help the learner to grasp the meaning of the poem, the +picture, the song, or the character he is studying. The admirable +qualities are to be brought out, the beautiful aspects set forth, and +the lovable traits placed in high light. The teacher may even express +his own admiration and appreciation, though without sentimentality or +effusiveness. Nor is it likely that a teacher will be able to excite +admiration in his class for any object of study which he does not +<a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>himself admire. If his own soul does not rise to the beauty of the +twenty-third psalm or to the inimitable grandeur and strength of the +Christ-life, he is hardly the one to hold these subjects of study before +children.</p> + + +<h4>THE REVIEW LESSON</h4> + +<p>Reviews and tests fulfill a double purpose for the learner: they help to +organize and make more usable the matter that has been learned, and they +reveal success or failure in mastery. They also serve the teacher as a +measure of his success in teaching. The review lesson should not be, as +it often is, a mere repetition of as many facts from, previous lessons +as time will permit to be covered. It should present a <em>new view</em> of the +subject. It should deal with the great essential points, and so relate +and organize them that the threefold aim of <em>fruitful knowledge</em>, <em>right +attitudes</em>, and <em>practical applications</em> shall be stressed and made +secure.</p> + +<p><strong>Guiding principles.</strong>—If the section of matter under review deals with +a series of events, such as the story of the migration of the Israelites +from Egypt or the account of the ministry of Jesus, then the review +lesson must pick out and emphasize those incidents and applications +which should become a part of the permanent possession of the child's +mind from the study of this material. These related points should be so +linked together and so reimpressed that they will form a continuous view +of the period or topic studied. There is no place for the incidental nor +for minute and unrelated detail in the review.</p> + +<p>The teacher will need most careful preparation and planning to conduct a +review. He must have the entire field to be reviewed fully mastered and +in his own mind <a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>as a unit, else he cannot lead the child back over it +successfully. He must work out a lesson plan which will secure interest +and response on the part of his pupils. Many review lessons drag, and +are but endured by the class. This may be accounted for by the fact that +the review recitation often fails to do more than repeat old material. +It may also come from the fact that the children are asked details which +they have forgotten or never knew, so that they are unable to take their +part. It may in some cases arise from the fact that the teacher is +himself not ready for the review, and does not like review days. +Whatever may be the cause, the review that fails to catch interest or +call forth enthusiasm has in so far failed of its purpose. The minds of +teacher and pupils should be at their best and concentration at its +keenest for the review lesson.</p> + + +<h4>ASSIGNMENT OF LESSON</h4> + +<p>No small part of the success of instruction depends on faithfulness and +skill in assigning lessons. Too often this is left for the very last +moment of the class hour, when there is no time left for proper +assignment and the teacher can give only the most hurried and incomplete +directions. Or, it may be that the only direction that is given is the +exhortation to "be sure to prepare the lesson for next week." But this +will not suffice. We must not forget that children, especially the +younger children, may not know just how to go to work upon the lesson, +nor what to do in getting it. It is hard for any young child to gather +thought from the printed page, even after he has attained fair skill in +reading; and it is doubly hard if the matter is difficult or unfamiliar, +as is much of the material found in the church-school lessons.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a><strong>How to make the assignment.</strong>—In order to assign the lesson properly +the teacher must, of course, be perfectly familiar with the coming +lesson. This means that he must keep a week ahead in his preparation, +which is in the end no loss, but even a gain. The teacher must also have +the plan of the lesson sufficiently in mind that he knows just what +points are to be stressed, what will present the most difficulty to the +class, what will most appeal to their interest, and what will need to be +especially assigned for study or investigation. In lessons which +children are to prepare at home it is usually well to go over the +material briefly with the class in making the assignment, giving hints +for study, calling attention to interesting points, and stating very +definitely just what the class is expected to do.</p> + +<p>If there is to be written work, this should be fully understood: if +handwork or drawing or coloring, it should be made perfectly clear what +is required; if memory material is asked for, it should be gone over, +the meaning made clear to every child, and directions given as to how +best to commit the matter. If outside references are assigned in books +or magazines, the reference should be written down in the notebook or +given the child on a slip of paper so that no mistake may be made. The +purpose and requirement in all these matters is to be as definite and +clear as would be required in any business concern, leaving no chance +for failure or mistake because of lack of understanding. Less than this +is an evidence of carelessness or incompetence in the teacher.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. In order better to understand and to review the several types of + lessons listed in the chapter it will be well for you to look + through the lessons for the current quarter or year and determine + to which type each separate lesson <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>belongs. How many do you find + of each type? Are there many lessons that will involve several of + the types?</p> + +<p> 2. Which type of these lessons do you best like to teach? Is there + any particular type that you have been neglecting? Any in which you + feel that you are not very successful? What will you need to do to + increase your efficiency on this type of lesson?</p> + +<p> 3. Do you feel that you are reasonably skillful in leading children + to discover truths for themselves through the use of questions? If + you find when questioning that the children lack the information + necessary to arriving at the truth desired, what must you then do? + What do you consider your greatest weakness in conducting the + developmental lesson?</p> + +<p> 4. Does your class like review lessons? If not, can you discover + the reason? Have your reviews been largely repetitions of matter + already covered, or have they used such devices as to bring the + matter up in new guise? Do you believe that review day can be made + the most interesting of the lessons? Some teachers say it can, How + will you go at it to make it so?</p> + +<p> 5. What application, or deductive, lesson have you taught your + class recently? Was it a success? Have you ever discovered a + tendency in your teaching to have your class commit to memory some + great truth, but fail in its application to real problems in their + own lives? What applications of religious truths have you recently + made successfully in your class?</p> + +<p> 6. What is your method or plan of assigning lessons? Do you think + that any part of the children's failure to prepare their lessons + may be due to imperfect assignments? Will you make the assignment + of the lessons that lie ahead one of your chief problems?</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Earhart, Types of Teaching.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process.</p> + +<p>Hayward, The Lesson in Appreciation.</p> + +<p>Knight, Some Principles of Teaching as Applied to the Sunday School.</p> + +<p>Maxwell, The Observation of Teaching.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>METHODS USED IN THE RECITATION</h3> + + +<p>The particular mode of procedure used in recitation will depend on the +nature of the material, the age of the pupils, and the aim of the +lesson. For the church-school recitation period four different methods +are chiefly used. These are:</p> + +<p>1. The <em>topical</em> method, in which the teacher suggests a topic of the +lesson or asks a question and requires the pupil to go on in his own way +and tell what he can about the point under discussion.</p> + +<p>2. The <em>lecture</em> method, in which the teacher himself discusses the +topic of the lesson, presenting the facts, offering explanations or +making applications as he judges the case may require.</p> + +<p>3. The <em>question-and-answer</em>, or discussion, method, in which the +teacher leads in a half-formal conversation, asking questions and +receiving answers either to test the pupil's preparation or to develop +the facts and meanings of the lesson.</p> + +<p>4. The <em>story</em> method, in which the teacher uses a story, told either in +the words of the writer or in his own words, to convey the lesson. The +story method differs from the lecture method in that the story recounts +some real or fancied situation or occurrence to convey the lesson, while +the lecture depends more on explanation and analysis.</p> + +<p>It may sometimes happen that an entire recitation will employ but one of +these methods, the whole time being given either to reciting upon +topics, to a lecture <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>or discussion by the teacher, or to a series of +questions and answers. More commonly, however, the three methods are +best when combined to supplement each other or to give variety to the +instruction.</p> + + +<h4>THE TOPICAL METHOD</h4> + +<p>There is really no absolute line of demarkation between the topical and +the question-and-answer method. The chief difference lies in the fact +that the <em>question</em> deals with some one specific fact or point, while +the <em>topic</em> requires the pupil to decide on what facts or points should +come into the discussion, and, so make his own plan for the discussion.</p> + +<p><strong>The plan of the topical method.</strong>—It is evident that the topical method +of reciting will require more independence of thought than the +question-and-answer method. To ask the child to "give the account of +Noah's building of the Ark," or to "tell about Joseph being sold by his +brothers" is to demand more of him than to answer a series of questions +on, these events. The topical method will, therefore, find its greatest +usefulness in the higher grades rather than with the younger children. +This does not mean, however, that children in the earlier grades are to +be given no opportunity to formulate their thought for themselves and to +express their thought without the help of direct questions.</p> + +<p>This power, like all others, is developed through its use, and is not +acquired at a certain age without practice. Even young children may be +encouraged to retell stories in their own words, or to tell what they +think about any problem that interests them; and all such exercises are +the best of preliminary training in the use of the topical method.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a><strong>Narrative topics.</strong>—The easiest form of the topical method is that +dealing with <em>narration</em>. Children are much more adept at telling <em>what +happened</em>—recounting a series of events in a game, a trip, an incident, +or an accident—than in giving a <em>description</em> of persons, places, or +objects. The Bible narratives will therefore afford good starting places +for topical recitations in the younger grades. Older pupils may be +called upon to discuss problems of conduct, or to make applications of +lessons to concrete conditions, or carry on any other form of analysis +that calls for individual thought and ability in expression.</p> + +<p><strong>Report topics.</strong>—A modified form of the topical method is sometimes +called the <em>report</em> method, or the <em>research</em> method. In this use of the +topical method some special and definite topic or problem is assigned a +pupil to be prepared by special study, and reported upon before the +class. This plan, at least above the elementary grades, has great +possibilities if wisely used. The topics, if interesting, and if adapted +to the children, will usually receive careful preparation. Especially is +this true if well-prepared pupils are allowed in the recitation to make +a brief report to an interested audience of classmates.</p> + +<p>Care must be taken in the use of this method not to permit the time of +the class to be taken with uninteresting and poorly prepared reports by +pupils, for this will kill the interest of the class, set a low standard +of preparation and mastery, and render the method useless. When a topic +of special study is assigned to a pupil, care must be taken to see that +the exact references for study are known and that the necessary material +is available. The devoted teacher will also try to find time and +opportunity to help his pupil organ<a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>ize the material of his report to +insure its interest and value to the class.</p> + +<p><strong>Avoiding a danger.</strong>—A danger to be avoided in the use of the topical +method is that of accepting incomplete and unenlightening discussions +from pupils who are poorly prepared. To say to a child, "Tell what you +can about David and Goliath," and then to pass on to something else +after a poorly given account of the interesting story is to fail in the +best use of the topical method. After the child has finished his +recitation the teacher should then supplement with facts or suggestions, +or ask questions to bring out further information, or do whatever else +is necessary to enrich and make more vivid the impression gained. This +must all be done, however, without making an earnest child feel that his +effort has been useless, or that what he has given, was unimportant.</p> + + +<h4>THE LECTURE METHOD</h4> + +<p>The lecture method, if followed continuously, is a poor way of teaching. +Even in telling stories to the younger children, the skillful teacher +leads the pupils to tell the stories back to her and the class. Mere +listening gets to be dull work, and the teacher who does all the +reciting himself must expect lack of interest and inattention.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that many teachers talk too much themselves +compared with the part taken by their pupils. It is much easier for the +teacher to go over the lesson himself, bringing out its incidents, +explaining its meanings, and applying its lessons, than to lead the +class, by means of well-directed questions, to accomplish these things +by their own answers and discussions. Yet it is a common experience, +especially <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>with children, that we like best any program, recitation, or +exercise, in which we ourselves have had an active part. And it is also +from the lesson in which we have really participated that we carry away +the most vivid and lasting impressions.</p> + +<p><strong>The lecture method not for general use.</strong>—Every teacher should +therefore consider, when making his lesson plan, just what his own part +is to be in the presentation of material. Some latitude must be allowed, +of course, for circumstances which may arise in the recitation bringing +up points which may need elaboration or explanation. But he should know +in a general way what material he is to bring in, what applications he +will emphasize, and what illustrations he will use. He should not trust +to the inspiration of the moment, nor allow himself to be led off into a +discussion that monopolizes all the time and deprives the class of +participation. More than one church-school class has failed to hold the +interest, if not the attendance, of its members because the teacher +mistook his function and formed the habit of turning expositor or +preacher before his class. The overtalkative teacher should learn to +curb this tendency, or else give way to one who brings less of himself +and more of his pupils to bear upon the lesson.</p> + +<p>This does not mean that the teacher shall never lecture or talk to his +class. Indeed, the teacher who does not have a message now and then for +his pupils is not qualified to guide their spiritual development. It +means, rather, that lecturing must not become a habit, and that on the +whole it should be used sparingly with all classes of children. It means +also that all matter presented to the class by the teacher himself +should be well prepared; that it should be carefully <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>organized and +planned, so that its meaning will be clear and its lesson plain, and so +that time will not be wasted in its presentation. It will be a safe rule +for the teacher to set for himself not to come before his class with a +talk that is not as well prepared as he expects his minister to have his +sermon. And why not! The recitation hour should mean at least as much to +the church class as the sermon hour means to the congregation.</p> + + +<h4>THE QUESTION-AND-ANSWER METHOD</h4> + +<p>Skill in questioning lies at the basis of most good teaching of +children. Good questioning stimulates thought, brings out new meanings, +and leads the mind to right conclusions. Poor questioning leaves the +thought unawakened, fails to arouse interest and attention, and results +in poor mastery and faulty understanding. To the uninitiated it appears +easy to ask questions for others to answer. But when we become teachers +and undertake to use the question as an instrument of instruction we +find that it is much harder to ask questions than to answer them, for +not only must the questioner know the subject and the answer to each +question better than his pupils, but he must be able constantly to +interpret the minds of his pupils in order to discover their +understanding of the problem and to know what questions next to ask.</p> + +<p><strong>Questions slavishly dependent on the text.</strong>—Not infrequently one finds +a teacher who uses questioning solely to test the knowledge of the +pupils on the lesson text. Probably the worst form of this kind of +questioning is that of following the printed questions of the lesson +quarterly, the pupils having their lesson sheets open before them and +looking up the answer to each question as it is asked.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>The following questions are taken from a widely used junior quarterly, +the Bible text being Luke 10. 25-37: "Who wanted to try Jesus? What did +he ask? What did Jesus say? What reply was made? What questions did the +lawyer ask? How did Jesus answer him? What is such a story called? What +is the name of this parable? Where was the man going? Who met him? How +did they treat him? What did they take from him? Where did they leave +him?" No one of these questions appeals to thought or imagination. All +are questions of sheer fact, with none of the deeper and more +interesting meanings brought. All of them may be answered correctly, and +the child be little the wiser religiously. Such a method of teaching +cannot do other than deaden the child's interest in the Bible, create in +him an aversion to the lesson hour of the church school, and fail of the +whole purpose of religious education. The teacher must <em>be able to use +living questions, and not be dependent on a dead list of faulty +questions embalmed in print</em>.</p> + +<p><strong>Questions arising spontaneously from the topic.</strong>—One who does not know +his lesson well enough so that he can ask the necessary questions +practically without reference even to the text, let alone referring to +the printed questions, or asking questions in the words of the text, is +not yet ready to teach the lesson. In order to successful teaching there +must be a constant interchange of response between teacher and class at +every moment throughout the recitation. This is impossible if the +teacher must stop to read the text of the lesson, or take her eyes and +attention away from the class to look up the question which is to come +next. All such breaks of thought are fatal to interest and attention on +the part of the class.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>As suggested in an earlier chapter, the teacher should have prepared a +list of pivotal questions as a part of her lesson plan. With these at +hand there should be no necessity for reference to the printed lesson to +find questions during the recitation period. Let the teacher who is +accustomed to slavish dependence on the lesson text for his questions +really master his lesson, and then declare his independence of +tread-mill questioning; he will be surprised at the added satisfaction +and efficiency that come to his teaching.</p> + +<p><strong>The principle of unity.</strong>—Questions that really teach must follow some +plan of <em>unity</em> or continuity. Each succeeding question must grow out of +the preceding question and its answer, and all put together must lead in +a definite direction toward a clear aim or goal which the teacher has in +mind. One of the serious faults of the questions quoted above from the +lesson quarterly is that they lack unity and purpose. Each question is +separate from all the others. No question leads to the ones which +follow, nor does the whole list point to any lesson or conclusion at the +end. Such questioning can result only in isolated scraps of information. +A series of questions lacking unity and purpose resembles a broom ending +in many straws, instead of being like a bayonet ending in a point: and +who would not prefer a bayonet to a broom as a weapon of offense!</p> + +<p><strong>The principle of clearness.</strong>—The good questioner makes his questions +<em>clear and definite</em> so that they can not be misunderstood. That this is +not always accomplished is proved by the fact that a child who is unable +to answer a question when it is put in one form may answer it perfectly +when it is asked in different phrasing. The teacher always needs to make +certain that the question is fully comprehended, for it is evident <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>that +an answer cannot exceed the understanding of the question in clearness.</p> + +<p>To be clear, a question must be free from obscure wording. One primary +teacher, seeking to show how each animal is adapted to the life it must +live, asked the class, "Why has a cat fur and a duck feathers?" Just +what did she mean for the child to answer? Did she mean to inquire why a +cat has fur instead of feathers, and a duck feathers instead of fur, or +did she mean to ask why each has its own particular coating regardless +of the other? Another teacher asked, "Why did Jesus's parents go up to +Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve years old?" Did he mean to ask why they +went when Jesus was just at this age, or did he mean to ask why they +went at all, the age of Jesus being incidental? One can only guess at +his meaning, hence the answer could at best be but a guess.</p> + +<p><strong>Questions to be within the learner's grasp.</strong>—If questions are to be +clear to the child they must deal with matter within his grasp. These +questions are taken from an <em>intermediate</em> quarterly: "Why was the New +Testament written? What was the purpose of the book of Revelation? Fit +the epistle of Paul into the story of his life. What is meant by +inspiration? What are the reasons for calling the Bible the most +wonderful book in the world?" These questions are all clear enough so +far as their wording is concerned, but they belong to the college or +theological seminary age instead of to the intermediate age. While our +questions should make our pupils think, they must not go over their +heads, for one does not commonly think on a question whose very meaning +is beyond his grasp!</p> + +<p>Some questions lack definiteness because several correct answers could +be given to the question. Here are <a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>a few such: What did Paul claim +concerning one of his epistles? What did Moses do when he came down from +the mountain? What were the priests of the temple required to have? What +happened when Jesus was crucified? What of John the Baptist? What about +Ruth and Naomi? What did Judas become? No one of these questions asks +any definite thing. To answer any of them the pupil must guess at the +particular thing the teacher has in mind. Many answers may be given to +each question which are as correct and which answer the question as well +as the answer the teacher seeks from the pupil. Such questioning comes +either from lack of clearness and definiteness in the teacher's +thinking, with a consequent uncertainty as what he really does mean to +ask, or else from a mental laziness which shrinks from the effort +necessary to formulate the question definitely.</p> + +<p><strong>Questions should stimulate thought.</strong>—Questions should be +thought-provoking. Usually it is a mistake to ask questions that can be +answered, by a simple <em>Yes</em> or <em>No</em>, though there are occasions when +this may be done. For example, children will not be required to think +when asked such questions as, Was Moses leader of the Israelites? or Did +Jesus want his disciples to keep children away from him? But they will +require thought to answer Yes or No to such questions as, Should Esther +have asked that Haman be hanged? or, Can God forgive us for a wrong act +if we are not penitent?</p> + +<p><em>Leading questions</em>, or questions that suggest the answer, do not +encourage thought. To ask, Do you not think that God is pained when we +do wrong? or What ought you to say in return when some one has done you +a favor? is to leave the child himself too little to <a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>do in answering. +The <em>alternative</em> question, or the question that simply allows the +choice between two suggested possibilities is also fruitless so far as +demanding thought is concerned. In a question like, Was Paul a Gentile +or was he a Jew? the bright child can usually tell from the teacher's +inflection how to answer. In any case he will run an even chance of +giving the right answer from sheer guessing.</p> + +<p><strong>The order of questioning.</strong>—It is a mistake to ask questions in serial +order, so that each child knows just when he is to be called upon. This +method invites carelessness and inattention. There should be no set +order, nor should a child who has just been called upon feel that he is +now safe from further questioning. The element of uncertainty as to when +the next question will come is a good incentive to alertness. The pupil +who shows signs of mischief or inattention may well become the immediate +mark for a question, and thereby be tided past the danger point.</p> + +<p>Usually the question should be addressed to the entire class, and then a +pause of a few seconds ensue before the one who is to answer is +designated. Care must be taken, however, not to wait too long between +asking the question and calling the name of the one expected to answer, +for attention and curiosity quickly fall away, and time and interest are +lost and the recitation becomes slow.</p> + +<p><strong>The reception of answers.</strong>—The teacher's reception of the child's +answer is almost as important as the manner of asking the question. +First of all, the teacher must be interested in the answer. This +interest must be real, and must show in the manner. Not to look into the +eyes of the child who is answering is to fail to pay the courtesy due +one who is conversing with us; <a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>it is not only bad manners but worse +pedagogy. The interested, sympathetic eye of the teacher has a wonderful +power of encouragement and stimulus to the child, while an attitude of +indifference on the part of the teacher is at once fatal to his +enthusiasm. One of the besetting sins of many teachers is to repeat the +pupils' answers after them. This habit probably has its rise in mental +unreadiness on the part of the teacher, who repeats what the child has +just said while getting ready to ask the next question. Besides being a +great waste of time, the repeating of answers is discourteous, and is a +source of distraction, and annoyance to pupils.</p> + +<p>Finally, we may say that good questioning on the part of the teacher +leads to questions on the part of the pupils. The relations between +teacher and class always should be such, that the children, feel free to +ask questions on any points of the lesson, and they should be encouraged +to do so. The teacher must have the tact and skill, however, not to be +led away from the topic by irrelevant questions nor to be required to +waste time by discussing unimportant points which may be brought in. It +is to be feared that valuable time is sometimes lost in adult classes in +discussing controversial questions that ought not to have been asked.</p> + + +<h4>THE STORY METHOD</h4> + +<p>The use of the story method of instruction has been mentioned many times +in the course of our discussion. It will still be worth while, however, +to note a few of the principles upon which the successful telling of +stories depends.</p> + +<p>First of all, a story is—just a story! It is not an argument, nor an +explanation, not a description, nor <a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>a lecture in disguise. A story is a +narrative of a series of events, which may be either real or imaginary. +These events are so related as to form a closely connected unity from +beginning to end, and they are of such nature as to appeal to +imagination, interest, and emotion more than to the intellect. The +successful handling of the story depends on two chief factors: (1) <em>the +plan or arrangement</em> of the story itself, and (2) skill in telling the +story.</p> + +<p><strong>The story itself.</strong>—The story must not be too long, or interest will +weaken and attention will flag. It must have an interesting beginning, +so that attention and anticipation are aroused from the very first +sentence. "Once upon a time..." "A long time ago when the fairies..." +"There once lived a king who..."—these all contain a hint of mystery +or of interesting possibilities certain to invite response from +children. The commonplace beginning is illustrated in a story in a +primary leaflet which starts, "There was once a mother, who loved her +child as all mothers do." There is no invitation here to imagination or +anticipation, and the evident attempt to enforce a moral truth in the +opening sentence detracts from its effectiveness.</p> + +<p>The major characters of the story should be introduced in the opening +sentences. The story should possess a close-knit unity, and not admit +incidental or supplemental characters or events that play no direct part +in the sequel. It must be so planned as to proceed to a <em>climax</em>, and +this climax should be reached without unnecessary deviations and +wanderings. We all know that type of story in which the main point is +all but lost in a multiplicity of unnecessary details. On the other +hand, points necessary to the climax must not be omitted. The climax may +be the end of the story, <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>or an ending may be provided following the +climax. In either case the ending should leave the mind of the listener +at rest as to the outcome. That is to say, there should remain no +mystery or uncertainty or unpleasant feeling of incompleteness. The +ending of a story should be as carefully phrased as its beginning. Even +if the story has a sad ending, which is usually not best in children's +stories, it should have some element in it which makes such a conclusion +inevitable, and so leaves the mind in a sense satisfied.</p> + +<p><strong>Guiding principles.</strong>—The rules to guide in planning the story itself +may, then, be stated as follows:</p> + +<p>1. Decide on the <em>truth to be conveyed</em>, and make the story lead up to +this.</p> + +<p>2. Use great care to compel interest and anticipation through an +<em>effective beginning</em>.</p> + +<p>3. Plan to have the body of the story reasonably brief, and to make the +main truth <em>stand out in a climax</em>. Eliminate all complications or +irrelevant matter that does not aid in leading up to the climax. +Elaborate and stress all features that help in making the impression to +be attained in the climax.</p> + +<p>4. Make the ending such as to leave in the mind a feeling that the story +was <em>satisfactory and complete</em>.</p> + +<p><strong>Telling the story.</strong>—The effective story must be <em>told</em>. It cannot be +read without losing something of spontaneity and attractiveness. It +cannot even be committed to memory and repeated; for here also is +lacking something of the living glow and appeal that come from having +the words spring fresh and warm from the mind that is actually thinking +and feeling them. Most story-tellers find that it pays to work out +carefully and commit to memory the opening and closing sentences of a +story; the phrasing is so important here that it <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>should not be left to +chance. But the body of the story is better given extemporaneously even +if the wording is not as perfect as it could be made by reading or +reciting the matter.</p> + +<p>Before trying to tell a story before his class, the teacher should +rehearse it several times. Nothing but practice will give the ease, +certainty, and spontaneity necessary to good story-telling. Even +professional story-tellers realize that they do not tell a new story +well until they have told it a number of times. Perhaps this is in part +because one never enjoys telling a story until he is sure he can tell it +well, and so get a response from his listeners. And one never tells a +story really well unless he himself enjoys both the story and its +telling. One never brings the full effectiveness of a story to bear on +his hearers unless he himself enters fully into its appreciation, and +moves himself while stirring the emotions of those who listen.</p> + +<p><strong>The right atmosphere required.</strong>—Second in importance only to preparing +himself for the telling of the story is the preparing of the class to +listen. The right atmosphere of thought, attitude and feeling should be +created for the story before it is begun. A primary teacher was about to +begin a story whose purpose was to show how God cares for the birds by +giving them feathers to keep them warm, wings for swift flying, and cozy +nests for their homes, when suddenly a little bird flew in through the +classroom window and was killed before the class by dashing against the +wall. Of course the right atmosphere for her story was then impossible, +and she wisely left it for another time.</p> + +<p>The approach to the story can be made by some question or suggestion +relating to the pupils' own experience, by a sentence or two of +explanation, or by <a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>an illustration dealing with matters familiar to the +class. But whatever device is used, the introduction should prepare the +minds of the class to receive the story by turning their thought in the +direction which the story is to take. It is also important that any new +terms or unfamiliar situations which are to be used in the story, and +which might not be understood by the class, shall be cleared up before +the story is begun.</p> + +<p><strong>Arts and devices of the story-teller.</strong>—The skillful story-teller will +soon learn to use certain arts and devices to make the telling more +effective. One such device is the use of direct discourse; that is, +instead of telling <em>about</em> the giants, the fairies, the animals, give +them human speech and let them speak for themselves, like the bear in +Little Red Riding Hood. Another effective device is that of repeating in +the course of the story certain important words or phrases until from +this repetition they stand out and become emphasized. Some of the best +story-tellers make effective use of pauses, thus creating a situation of +curiosity and suspense in the minds of the listeners. The pause must be +neither too long nor too short, nor can any tell just how long it ought +to be except from the response of the children themselves, which the +teacher must be able to sense accurately and unfailingly. Much may be +added to the effect of stories by skillful use of the various arts of +expression, such as facial expression, voice tone, quality, and +inflection, and gesture. The use of mimicry, imitation, and +impersonation is also very effective if this ability comes naturally to +the one who attempts to use it, but these would better be omitted than +poorly done.</p> + +<p>Good stories sometimes lose much of their effectiveness by having the +moral stated at the end, or by having <a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>an attempt at moralizing too +evident in the telling of the story. A story which has a lesson inherent +in the story itself will teach its own moral if it is well told. If the +truth to be conveyed is not clear to the child from the story, it will +hardly appeal to him by having it tacked on at the end.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We have, then, come to the end of our brief study of the teaching of +religion. We have seen some of its principles and methods, and have +discovered these at work in various illustrations and applications. It +now remains to realize that these are all to be found in brief epitome +in the work of the Great Teacher. For Jesus was first of all a +<em>teacher</em>, rather than a preacher. And as a teacher he supplied the +model which anticipated all modern psychology and scientific pedagogy, +and gave us in his concrete example and method a standard which the most +skillful among us never wholly attain. While we may love Jesus as a +friend, come to him as a comforter and helper, seek to follow him as a +guide, and worship him as a Saviour, it will be well for us now and then +momentarily to place these relations in the background and study him +just as a <em>teacher</em>.</p> + +<p>Jesus possessed an attractive, inspiring, compelling personality. People +naturally came to him with their questions and problems. His quick +sympathy, ready understanding, and unerring insight invited friendship, +confidence, and devotion. He was ever sure of his "great objective," and +whether he was teaching his disciples stupendous truths about the +kingdom of God, or whether he was pointing the wayward woman the way to +a reconstructed life, the welfare of the <em>living soul before him</em> was +his controlling thought. Jesus <a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>had a true sense of the value of a life, +and no life was too humble or too unpromising for him to lavish upon it +all the wealth of his interest and all the power of his sympathy and +helpfulness. He did not feel that his time was poorly spent when he was +teaching small groups, and many of the choicest gems of his teaching +were given to a mere handful of earnest listeners seated at his feet.</p> + +<p>In all his teaching Jesus manifested a deep reverence for vital <em>truth</em>. +He told his disciples, "The truth shall make you free." He was never +afraid of truth, but accepted it reverently, even when it ran counter to +accepted authority. Nor did Jesus ever lose time or opportunity in +teaching trivial and unessential matters to his hearers; the knowledge +he gave them was always of such fruitful nature that they could at once +apply it to their living, Jesus's teaching carried over; it showed its +effect in changed attitudes of life, in new purposes, compelling ideals, +and great loyalties and devotions. Out of a band of commonplace +fishermen and ordinary men he made a company of evangelists and +reformers whose work and influence changed the course of civilization. +Every person who responded to his instruction felt the glow of a new +ambition and the desire to have a part in the great mission. Thus the +teaching of Jesus entered into the actual life and conduct of his +pupils. The truths he taught did not lie dormant as so much mere +attainment of knowledge. They took root and blossomed into action, into +transformed lives, and into heroic deeds of kindly service. The constant +keynote and demand of Jesus's teaching was shown forth in his, "He that +heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them"; he was never satisfied +without the doing.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>Much is to be learned from the technique of Jesus's teaching, imperfect +though the account is of his instruction. He always met his hearers on +the plane of their own lives. He would begin his instruction with some +common and familiar experience, and lead by questions or illustrations +to the truth he wished to present. In this way, without the use of +technical words or long phrases, he was able to teach deep and +significant truths even to relatively uninformed minds. Jesus appealed +to the imagination through picturesque illustrations and parables. He +made his hearers think for the truth they reached, and so presented each +truth that its application to some immediate problem or need could not +be escaped. He was always interesting in his lessons, for they did not +deal with unimportant matters nor with tiresome platitudes. He never +failed to have definite aim or conclusion toward which his teaching was +directed, and the words or questions he used in his instruction moved +without deviation toward the accomplishment of this aim. He was too +clear, too deeply in earnest, and too completely the master of what he +was teaching ever to wander, or be uncertain or to waste time and +opportunity. He felt too compelling a love for those he taught ever to +fail at his task.</p> + +<p>Finally, Jesus was himself the embodiment of the truths and ideals he +offered others. He lived the lessons he desired his pupils to learn. He +rendered concrete in himself the religion he would have his followers +adopt. His life was a lesson which all could learn and follow.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p>1. Which type of recitation method do you most commonly employ? + Which do you like best? Do you combine the several methods + occasionally in the same recita<a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>tion? Do you plan which is best for + each particular occasion?</p> + +<p> 2. To what extent do you use the topical method? Do your pupils + succeed in discussing the topics with fair completeness? Do you + always supplement with matter of your own, or expand the topics by + asking questions when the discussion has been incomplete?</p> + +<p> 3. Stenographic reports of various recitations have shown that + teachers often themselves use from two to three or four times as + many words in the lesson hour as all the pupils combined. Do you + believe that for young pupils this is good teaching? Have you any + accurate notion of the time you yourself take? Do you talk too + much?</p> + +<p> 4. Study your questioning in the recitation and determine as well + as you can which of the principles of good questioning you are most + successful in applying; which you are least successful in applying.</p> + +<p> 5. To what extent do you use the story as a method of instruction? + How do you judge you would rank as a story-teller? To what extent + have you studied the art of story-telling? Are you constantly + improving? What difference have you noted in the interest of a + class when a story is <em>told</em> and when it is <em>read</em>?</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>FOR FURTHER READING</h4> + +<p>Betts, The Recitation.</p> + +<p>Hamilton, The Recitation.</p> + +<p>Home, Story-Telling, Questioning and Studying.</p> + +<p>St. John, Stories and Story-Telling.</p> + +<p>Houghton, Telling Bible Stories.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>INDEX</h2> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Aim</span>, the +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>the child determining, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> +<li>of religious instruction, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> +<li>religious habits as, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Appreciation</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>as an aim of instruction, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> +<li>cultivating religious, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Approach</span>, psychological mode of, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Art</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>in religious teaching, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> +<li>types of in curriculum, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Assignment </span>of lesson, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Attitudes</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>religious as aim, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> +<li>to be cultivated, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> +<li>toward the school, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> +<li>the child's spiritual, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Bible</span>, the +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>the teacher's knowledge of, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> +<li>the child's knowledge of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> +<li>continuing interest in, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> +<li>as a source of material, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> +<li>and reason, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Conservation</span>, religious, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Child</span>, the +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>as a Christian, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> +<li>his concept of God, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> +<li>his concept of religion, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> +<li>the teacher's knowledge of, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> +<li>as the great objective, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> +<li>and his spiritual growth, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Christian</span>, the child, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Church</span>, the +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>the child's knowledge of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> +<li>participation in activities of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> +<li>loyalty to, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Danger Points</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>in instruction, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li> +<li>how avoided, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Deduction</span>, in religion, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Distractions</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>freedom from in recitation, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> +<li>avoiding unnecessary, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Dramatic</span>, the +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>children and, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li> +<li>use of in teaching, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Drill</span>, place of, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Duty</span>, as a virtue, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Expression</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>religious in the home, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> +<li>as a mode of learning, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> +<li>in social service, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Giving</span>, training in, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">God</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>the child's concept of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> +<li>harm from wrong concepts of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> +<li>made the daily counselor, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a><span class="smcap">Habit</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>preventing the, of defeat, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> +<li>religious, as aim, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> +<li>the growth of, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Heroes</span>, appeal of to child, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Home</span>, religious expression in, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Ideals</span>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Imagination</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>use of in religion, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li> +<li>how to appeal to, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Induction</span>, use of in religion, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Instruction</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>response as a test of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> +<li>various tests of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Interest</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>as a test of attitude, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> +<li>in the Bible, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> +<li>how to appeal to, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Jesus</span>, an ideal teacher, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Knowledge</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>religious as an aim, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> +<li>of most worth, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> +<li>of the Bible, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> +<li>of the church, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Laboratory</span>, work in religion, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Lessons</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>Uniform, the, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> +<li>Graded, the, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> +<li>in text book form, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> +<li>different types of, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Life</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>requirements of for religion, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> +<li>religious teaching and, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> +<li>a code for, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Loti, Pierre</span>, quoted, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Loyalty</span>, cultivation of, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Material</span>, for instruction +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>means instead of end, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> +<li>adapting to child, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> +<li>chapter on, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> +<li>sources of, in</li> +<li>in story form, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> +<li>organization of, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Measures</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>of success, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> +<li>of child's progress, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Memory</span>, the +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>laws of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> +<li>training of, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Method</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>of the recitation, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li> +<li>the topical, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> +<li>the lecture, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li> +<li>the question-and-answer, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> +<li>the story, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Music</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>in worship, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> +<li>in the curriculum, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Nature</span>, as a source of material, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Neglect</span>, and stress of subject matter, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Obedience</span>, as a virtue, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Objective</span>, the +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>chapter on, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> +<li>for the teacher, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> +<li>effect of on teaching, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li></ul></li> +<li><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a><span class="smcap">Organization</span>, of material +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>chapter on, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> +<li>different types of, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Personality</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>building of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> +<li>chart for, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Pictures</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>types of in use, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> +<li>appeal of to child, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Plan</span>, the lesson, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Presentation</span>, and response, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Principles</span>, foundation in teaching, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Question</span>, the, method, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Questioning</span>, principles of, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Recitation</span>, the, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Religion</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>the child's concept of, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> +<li>related to living, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> +<li>and art, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> +<li>influence of music in, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> +<li>laboratory work in, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li></ul></li> +<li>REVIEW, the, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">School</span>, the church +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>pupils' attitude toward, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> +<li>the spirit of, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Score Card</span>, for personality, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Service</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>social as expression, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> +<li>training in social, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Singing</span>, in worship, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Story</span>, the +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>as lesson material, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> +<li>other than Bible, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> +<li>method of, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li> +<li>principles of telling, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Stress</span>, and neglect of material, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Subject Matter</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>as means to end, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> +<li>selecting right, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> +<li>chapter on, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> +<li>sources of, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Teacher</span>, the +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>chapter on, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> +<li>types of, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> +<li>preparation of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> +<li>as a student, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Teaching</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>technique of, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> +<li>measures of effective, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li> +<li>types of, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li></ul></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Text Books</span>, of religion, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Thinking</span> +<ul class="IXSub"> +<li>required in religion, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li> +<li>and Bible study, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li></ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Uniform Lessons</span>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="smcap">Wells, H.G.</span>, quoted, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Worship</span>, in church school, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> +</ul> + +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> 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