From a Superintendent's Notebook
An egotist is foredoomed to failure in the Sunday-school. The worker
that hopes for success must cast to the winds any foolish pride in
originality, and seek far and wide for the wisest ideas and the
freshest methods. A superintendent or a teacher without a notebook is
only half a superintendent or teacher. Its pages should rapidly grow
rich with plunder. The little white friend must be at hand when he
attends conventions, when he reads, when he talks with other workers,
when he thinks and prays over his sacred tasks.
The two chapters that follow are merely specimen pages of such
notebooks. While I have utilized them to gather up various plans and
experiences that could not fittingly find place elsewhere in the book,
their chief purpose is to illustrate the wide-awake catholicity that
must animate every successful worker in Sunday-schools.
It is right to say--though this is a matter of course--that a large
majority of these paragraphs are condensed from that great storehouse
of Sunday-school lore, the "Sunday-school Times."
* * * * *
_Their Own Review._--Scholars are likely to answer with special zest
the questions prepared by other scholars. One school asks its classes
in turn to furnish three questions on each lesson, which are proposed
to the entire school at the close of the lesson hour. From these
questions are selected a number for the quarterly review. They are
"manifolded," and written answers are expected from all present.
_Out of Order._--An excellent review scheme was arranged by a
superintendent who gave his school a list of twenty-six events in the
life of Christ, all jumbled up, and asked them to come next Sunday
prepared to arrange them in chronological order.
_A School Review._--For reviewing the lesson before the entire school,
select one class a week beforehand and give it ten or twelve
comprehensive questions, from the quarterly or original. At the close
of the lesson ask this class to rise and answer the questions as
another class, also rising, asks them. Let all the classes take turns
in this service.
_School Reviews._--For a change, it is well to incorporate the entire
school in a general review,--omitting, of course, the younger classes.
One person may conduct the review, or the questions on each lesson may
be asked by a different teacher. Different classes may be assigned
special lessons to illustrate by the concert repetition of Bible
verses, or by a stanza of some song. One lesson of the quarter may be
assigned to each class, and the questions that will be asked may be
given to that class a week or two beforehand. In this case, general
questions for the entire school should occasionally be interspersed.
_A Teachers' Supper._--Once a year, at least, bring together all the
teachers and officers around a well-filled table. After-dinner
speeches, cheery and merry, may follow, and then a pleasant evening's
entertainment.
_The Annual Meeting._--Make this an event. A supper with bright
speeches, the business meeting to follow; a brisk literary and musical
entertainment; an introductory talk by some practical worker from
abroad,--these are some of the ways of distinguishing the occasion.
_Badges._--Any Sunday-school festival will be given eclat by the use
of badges. The children will be proud to wear them, and will treasure
them as souvenirs. They may be made almost without cost if you will
use bright-colored cambric, and print upon them with a hand-stamp.
_A Sunday-School Day._--If not once a year, at least once every few
years, it is well worth while to make the Sunday-school the theme of
all the exercises on the Lord's day,--both morning and evening
services, and the Christian Endeavor meeting. The subject has so many
practical aspects that much good will be done in addition to the
quickening of the Sunday-school.
_The Home Department._--Simply a promise to study the lesson at home
for half an hour each week--that is the scheme of the home department.
You may add visitors, records, reports, _ad libitum_, but the home
department may be complete and satisfactory without these. The plan is
so simple that any school can use it, and so fruitful of blessed
results that no school dare neglect it. A thorough canvass for members
of the home department seldom fails to bring new members into the main
school at once, and as the home study arouses interest, new scholars
are continually added from this source, besides the scores of aged and
shut-ins whose lives are thus led into the green pastures of the Word.
_Home Department Day._--On this occasion a special effort is made to
bring to the Sunday-school the entire home department. They sit
together, and special services are held in their honor and for their
benefit.
_Parents' Day._--Make a special effort once a year to bring out all
the parents of the scholars. Issue special printed invitations. Have a
printed programme. Let the exercises be the regular working of the
school, with merely one short address to the parents in addition.
_A Parents' Social._--Parents and teacher should know one another, and
there is no more gracious way to bring this about than by an evening
spent together at the teacher's house.
_Purpose Cards._--To stimulate the school in needed ways, have a
"purpose card" printed. It will read, in tabular form, "I will
endeavor to attend more faithfully, to prepare my lesson better, to
get a new scholar," etc. Each member of the school signs his card,
marks with crosses the "purposes" he makes his own, and returns the
card to the superintendent.
_Installing the New Officers._--This should be done with some
ceremony, including a very short address by the pastor, another by the
outgoing superintendent or prominent officer, another by a
representative of the incoming group, and an earnest prayer,--all to
occupy no more than ten minutes. The scholars will have more respect
for leaders thus honored, and the officers themselves will be more
likely to magnify their office.
_The Old Superintendent._--Some schools elevate the assistant
superintendent regularly to the superintendency. Other schools adopt the
opposite course, and make the superintendent of one year the assistant
superintendent of the next. Either plan secures continuity of method.
_A True Assistant._--The assistant superintendent should be prepared
to do, in the superintendent's absence, everything the superintendent
ordinarily does. How can he be prepared to do this unless the
superintendent regularly shares all kinds of work with his assistant?
_Help from the Public School._--In most communities a very inspiring
series of lectures might be obtained from Christian teachers in the
secular schools and colleges, the purpose of each lecture being to
show how, according to the best pedagogical methods, a certain lesson
might be taught, or Sunday-school teaching in general be carried on.
_Flowers at Home._--You will delight your school, and teach them many
lessons, if you give each scholar--or get the teachers to do this--a
bulb, a package of seeds, or a small potted plant like a rose. Hold an
exhibition to show the results, and then have the flowers given to the
sick, the hospitals, the poor, or sold for missions.
_Easter Lilies._--A few cents invested in lily bulbs will make a
beautiful Easter for your school. Give one to each scholar for him to
raise, or, possibly, one to each class. The flowers, after Easter
Sunday, are to be sent to the aged, the sick, and the poor.
_An Easter Gift._--Some Sunday-schools give each scholar, on Easter
day, a little rosebush or a package of seeds, that they may be tended
and urged to bloom by Children's Day, when they are all brought in.
_Vacation Transfers._--Some schools, when their scholars leave for a
vacation, give them letters to schools where they will visit. These
are printed forms, and include a detachable blank report, which, when
filled out and returned, will show the scholar's attendance on the
other school during his absence.
_Planned Prayer-Meetings._--It will greatly promote the devotional
character of your school if you take twenty minutes each month for a
prayer-meeting. Select four or five to offer prayer, and have them
sit on the platform. A brief, tender talk from the superintendent and
bright singing will complete a memorable meeting.
_A Carryall._--I have heard of Sunday-schools that maintained omnibuses
or large carriages, to gather up and carry to the school children whose
homes were so far away that they could not otherwise attend.
_Neighborhood Schools._--Distant groups of farmers' families, and
others that cannot reach the school, should be organized in
neighborhood Sunday-schools.
_A New Object Each Month._--The scholars' offerings should be an
education not only in the instinct of giving, but also in the
intelligent choice of objects for giving. Every Sunday-school should
have a benevolence committee, which carefully selects for each month a
new object of beneficence. On the last Sabbath of each month a word
should be said about the object that appeals for the gifts of the next
month. This brief account should, of course, be supplemented by the
teachers in their classes.
_The Envelope System._--This plan of giving, which has done so much
for our churches, should be used everywhere in the Sunday-school. Give
each class a number and each scholar a set of dated envelopes, one for
each Sunday, bearing his class number. Call for a contribution from
each scholar each Sunday. Urge that all absent scholars send their
contributions, or bring them the next Sunday. From this _systematic_
giving you may go on to _proportionate_ giving by impressing on the
scholars their duty to set apart for God some regular proportion, say
one tenth, of all the money they receive. If the school takes up
monthly collections for special benevolent objects, the envelopes for
these Sundays may be of a different color. If, as should always be the
case, the expenses of the school are met by the church, leaving the
entire school collections to be devoted to missions and charitable
causes, the school committee on benevolences may select a different
object of giving for each month. This object should then be written on
each envelope for that month.
_A Jug-Breaking._--One of the best ways of teaching children the value
of little gifts and the importance of weekly savings for Christ's
cause is by the collection of money in jugs. Set before them at the
start some object for their gifts, that they may think and talk about
it while they are saving; otherwise their minds are lifted no higher
than their money. And how they will enjoy the jug-breaking!
_Class-Books._--Not records of class attendance, but books for the
library, paid for by the various classes, selected by these so far as
their choice seems wise, and each of them bearing an inscription telling
what class presented it to the school. Such gifts give the scholars a
personal interest in the library they have helped to create.
_Loan Libraries._--Instead of giving away the books your school has
thoroughly read, loan them, in groups of fifty or so, to poorer schools.
They will return them in good condition, and by that time there will be
many new scholars in your own school to whom the books will be fresh.
_Exchange Libraries._--There is no reason why neighboring schools, if
their library funds are low, should not arrange to buy different
books, and then exchange them after the original purchasers have used
them for a year. All the schools in a town or township might well
combine in an arrangement so economical.
_Receiving the New Books._--The library will be advertised if the
reception of new books is made an event. They may be put in a public
place, all at one time, and formally presented to the school by pastor
or superintendent, with a word about each. This may be done at
Christmas, Easter, Children's Day, Thanksgiving, at any one or all of
these holiday seasons.
_Honor the Donors._--A special and attractive label for books presented
to the library, with a space for the name of the person that makes the
gift, will greatly increase the number of books received in this way.
_Their Own Paper._--A large Sunday-school may publish a little weekly
or monthly paper, the advertisements paying the bills. The older
scholars will be interested in doing the work. The notes about the
various classes, the library, the contributions, the school work, will
all prove stimulating.
_Sunday-School Calendars._--A good standing advertisement of the
school in any home would be a neat calendar of the year, bordered with
facts about the school, invitations, pictures of church, pastor,
Sunday-school officers, and the like.
_A Bulletin Board._--A conspicuous bulletin board, placed at the
entrance, will save giving out many a notice.
_The Notices._--The wise superintendent will plan every word he is to
say before the school, even--yea, especially!--the giving of the
notices. These notices will be the fewest possible; don't let the
Sunday-school be used as a bill-board. Announce only what you want the
scholars to remember, and in such a bright way that they can't forget
it. And don't discredit your perspicuity and their attention by
announcing it more than once.
_Protect the Teacher._--One of the most important of the
superintendent's duties is to protect the teacher from interruption
during the recitation hour. A similar duty is to see that the time for
the recitation suffers no diminution through the tardiness or
prolixity of himself or any one else.
_Substitute Groups._--The work of "substituting" may well be divided
up. Ask a set of older scholars to be ready to substitute on the first
Sunday of each month, another set on the second Sunday, and so on.
_The Pastor as Substitute._--Certainly the pastor should not take a
Sunday-school class of his own. That would be unfair to the rest of
the school and the church. But he would get into helpful contact with
a large number of people, young and old, if he should act every Sunday
as a substitute teacher, now in this class and now in that.
_A Five-Minute Meeting._--A few minutes of conference, immediately
after the session of the school, will be a great help and stimulus to
the teachers. One will ask help in a difficulty, another will report a
method just proved successful. Everything will come fresh and vital
from living experience.
_How Many Absent?_--Often let the secretary, in his report to the
school, state only the number _absent_ from each class and department.
He will thus change the emphasis, and arouse a new and profitable
interest.
_A Roll-Call._--It takes time, but at long intervals a public
roll-call of the entire school is worth while. Of course it should be
well advertised beforehand, and the entire membership will wish to be
present. Then make the hour so delightful that they will not think of
staying away thereafter.
_Honor Rolls._--Hang a large sheet of paper in a conspicuous position,
and announce that you will print upon it the name of every one that
brings in a new scholar. A red paper star after the name signifies one
new scholar, a blue star a second scholar, and so on. A similar roll
may be used to honor perfect attendance, stars of different colors
being used for the different quarters.
_Gold and Silver Stars._--There are well-based objections to any
distinction of one class above another, but a plan that will be found
very valuable, at least as a temporary stimulus, is this: Honor with a
large silver star every class that has all its members present, and
with a gold star each class that reports all its members bringing
Bibles, and that all have studied the lesson at least twenty minutes.
_An Asterisk._--If by banners or in other ways you honor regular
attendance, there will be a tendency to drop absent scholars from the
rolls too quickly, because they lower the standard of their classes.
An excellent way of getting around this difficulty is to "star" the
name of every scholar that has been absent a month. This asterisk
means that the name is not to be counted in making up the report, but
the presence of the name on the list means that the scholar is not to
be forgotten or neglected.
_To Console Him._--One bright superintendent scorns to give a reward
or prize for new scholars, but presents a nice leather-bound Bible, by
way of compensation, to each scholar that for any cause is luckless
enough to _leave_ his school!
_A Spur._--Enforce punctuality by a large placard hung in front of the
school, and reading, "You are early." When the school opens the card
is turned, and now reads, in staring letters, "You are late!"
_A Question Drill._--This is a good plan for teachers' meetings. The
teachers should ask questions on each verse, turn about, and the
leader should criticise the questions.
_Teachers'-Meeting Roll-Call._--To insure previous study of the
lesson, and to accustom the teachers to take part in the meeting, let
the roll be called every week, and require each teacher to respond
with some thought concerning the lesson, usually a comment on some
particular verse.
_Attendance on the Teachers' Meeting._--It will prove a helpful spur
if this attendance is recorded regularly, and incorporated in all the
reports made by the secretary to the school.
_Union Teachers' Meetings._--If you cannot have a teachers' meeting
for your Sunday-school alone, because you have no good leader, you can
probably find a good leader in some neighboring church, and can give
him and yourselves the stimulus of a large union gathering. This plan
has many advantages, notably the opportunity for the comparison of
methods. It has one great disadvantage: the work cannot apply so
particularly to your individual school.
_A Reception Class._--New scholars may all be placed in a "reception
class," until their ability, knowledge, and character can be learned.
_A Visitors' Register._--This is for the names and home addresses of
all visitors. The little attention required to obtain these autographs
pleases them and their friends, and breaks the ice for further
acquaintance. The register should be kept open on some table in a
central spot, with pen and ink always at hand.
_An Address-Book._--This should contain, under proper and convenient
classifications, the addresses of all scholars, teachers, and
officers, past and present. It should always be kept in the church,
and many will be the references to it.
_A Cradle Roll._--This contains the names of the babies of the church,
for each of whom his mother is given a certificate of membership. This
roll is read once in a while before the primary class.
_Individual Histories._--At least one school has enough personal
interest in its scholars to keep a history of each, in a book properly
arranged for that purpose. This history includes the date of the
scholar's joining the school and of his promotion to the various higher
departments thereof, his birthday and the names of his parents, their
church-membership, where the scholar lived when he joined the church,
whom he married and when, his business, the date of his removal and the
city to which he went, together with other and special facts.
_District Reporters._--Appoint one scholar or teacher to watch each
street in town,--preferably, of course, the street on which he
resides,--and report promptly all newcomers, that they may be invited
to the Sunday-school.
_The Opening Prayer._--Let the ushers admit no one till it is over. Do
not begin, or permit any one else to begin this prayer, till every
head is bowed. Do not ask any one to offer this prayer without giving
long notice; no haphazard prayer will answer.
_Their Own Bibles._--A Bible in the hands of every scholar,--this
alone makes possible variety and zest in the opening of the school.
_Lesson Introductions._--In small schools it has often been found
profitable for the superintendent to spend ten or fifteen minutes
teaching to the entire school (with the exception of the primary
department) the historical and similar details of the lesson. The
teachers then add the lesson truths, teaching their individual classes.
_Varying Programmes._--If the opening exercises of the school get into
a rut, it is hard for the teachers to lift the school out of it. Some
wise superintendents plan these exercises for weeks ahead, keeping
careful record, and thus avoid monotony.
_An Impressive Close._--One school closes its service with the Lord's
Prayer, repeated by all as they stand. Then the school is seated, and
waits in silence while the ushers, walking slowly up the aisles,
dismiss each class in turn.
_A Closing Prayer._--Here is a beautiful prayer to be repeated in
concert at the close of school: "May the light of thy Word, O Lord,
dwell in us richly, and guide us day by day. Amen."
_Scripture in Closing._--To incite to Scripture memorizing, close the
school with Bible verses repeated by all the scholars. Let each class
in turn select the subject, such as "temperance," "obedience," "love,"
and announce it a week in advance.
_The Teachers before the School._--Now and then ask some teacher to
say a few words to the entire school at the close of the session,
summing up the most important teachings of the hour. This gives the
whole school a bit of inspiration from each teacher in turn, and gives
to each teacher the inspiration of talking to the whole school.