A Teacher with a Schedule
The weak point in the preparation most Sunday-school teachers make is
their failure to prepare a schedule for their teaching--the order,
that is, in which they shall take up and discuss the facts and lessons
of the day's Scripture. Probably the majority of teachers begin with
verse 1 and go stolidly through to verse 13, or as near it as the
superintendent will permit them to get. This is teaching with a
shovel, and not with a sieve.
Wise teaching selects, marshals, brings to a focus. It excels
haphazard teaching as far as a painting by Rembrandt excels a
whitewashed fence. It does not permit ideas to neutralize each other.
It has a purpose, clearly and determinedly held in view, and to this
purpose it subordinates everything else. It knows that the
effectiveness of the lesson depends quite as much on what is left out
as on what is put in.
Now the more ideas a teacher has, the greater need has he of a
schedule, just as the railroad that runs most trains is in most need
of a good time-table. Indeed, the performance of a teacher without a
plan bears a strong resemblance to a railway collision. Ideas,
illustrations, exhortations, bump into one another front and rear,
telescope each other, and form at the end of the hour a disheartening
mass of splintered fragments, with here and there a jet of steam or a
puff of smoke. If the teacher has no schedule, the scholars on his
lesson train will grow confused and get nowhere. Small blame to them!
Imitating Paul, the wise teacher will take for his motto, "This _one_
thing I teach." He will teach as much more as is possible, but first he
will make absolutely sure of one thing. My own plan in connection with
every lesson is to lay down one principal, and two or three
subordinates. It is best to write these down on the margin of the
quarterly, in precisely the order in which they are to be taken up. Ask
yourself most earnestly, "What is the main lesson this Scripture is to
teach my scholars?" Having decided on that, consider your teaching a
success, whatever happens, if it has impressed this one truth. Leap to
this task as swiftly as may be, even if to reach the chosen point you
must pass hastily over the first portion of the lesson.
After driving home this truth, and making sure of it, take up in turn
your subordinates. This will require a new view of the lesson story
that will compensate for your previous haste. And reserve some time at
the end of the lesson for a few parting words on your main truth.
Save for this time your most telling illustration, your most ardent
pleading. In preparation for this get all questions and difficulties
out of the way. Be sure, before you begin, that your watch is with the
superintendent's, and do not permit yourself to be caught by the
closing bell with your lesson only half way to the terminus.
Some teachers are proud thus to be caught, but they should be ashamed.
If their neighbor admits that he got over the lesson with his class,
they are filled with amazed pity at his lack of brains. "Why, how
_could_ you? There was so much in the lesson that I scarcely made a
beginning."
Teachers, it is a disgrace to any workman to leave behind him an
improperly finished job; and we are, or should be, just as thorough
workmen as any carpenter. _Select!_ One truth a Sunday means fifty-two
truths a year, while fifty-two truths a Sunday would not mean one
truth a year. _Plan!_ Definite results do not come from haphazard
methods. _Finish!_ One goal reached is greater triumph than fifty
goals started for. _Form a schedule, and carry it out!_