prevent his receiving any benefit from the instruction, or it may be
the most effective means for fastening impressions. It is such a
constant and prominent factor in the problem of the hour's work that
the teacher must plan beforehand just how it shall be directed. In
addition to opportunities for general movement, such as rising for
songs, or marching, every thought given to the child should have some
action immediately connected with it as far as possible, both to help
him remember it and make it easier for succeeding actions to follow.
For example if the lesson is upon helpfulness, each child should be
led into doing something for his neighbor before he leaves. A prayer
attitude should accompany prayer. As this is the rhythmic period,
motions which the children themselves suggest may accompany the songs.
The results of directing the activity into helpful channels will be
found in better memory of the lesson and in the starting of right
habits of action.
(4) _An imitable activity in the lesson._ In simplest facts set forth
in a story of a person, not in exhortation, the lesson must make vivid
and attractive an activity which the child can imitate. The more
realistic the portrayal, the more surely will the child attempt to
reproduce it.
#9. Difficulties in the Beginners Age.#--The difficulties of this
period arise largely from the child's immaturity and are to be
overcome by adaptation of methods and instruction.
(1) _Restlessness and lack of self-control, making sustained attention
impossible._ A program consisting of brief exercises, varied in
character, full of interest, and permitting frequent movement, will
meet this condition.
(2) _Limited experience and scanty store of ideas._ This necessitates
careful selection of teaching material, that spiritual truth outside
the child's comprehension be not forced upon him, since he can grasp
only that which is like something that he knows.
(3) _A limited vocabulary._ This calls for watchful care in language,
particularly lest a familiar word be used in a sense unfamiliar to the
child.
(4) _A conflicting home atmosphere._ When the child absorbs influences
that lack Jesus Christ during seven days in the week, only a teacher
filled with Divine life and power can effect counter-conditions more
powerful in the brief time of her contact.
#10. Results to be Expected in the Beginners Age.#--Summing up the
results already suggested, the work in the Beginners department will
make its impress upon the feelings of the child, primarily. He will
have learned some truths about the Heavenly Father, and his Son Jesus
Christ, and there is an intellectual value in these. But this value
cannot compare with that of the love and trust which come
unconsciously, yet really, into his soul, if the teacher has done her
work with God.
Test Questions
1. In what two ways may life be touched?
2. Give illustrations of what is known as "unconscious influence."
3. What methods accomplish more than precepts with Beginners?
4. What spiritual truths can be taught in this period?
5. Name four needs of the Beginners Age.
6. What is meant by "atmosphere"? How utilized?
7. How may the child's activity be given the right direction?
8. Name four difficulties in the Beginners period.
9. How may restlessness be overcome?
10. What special care is needed in the teacher's choice of words?
11. What are some of the results to be expected in the Beginners Age?
Lesson 4
The Primary Age--Six to Nine
#11. General Characteristics of the Primary Age.#--The Beginner is
easily traced in the Primary child, but more developed and stronger.
Two general characteristics may be specially mentioned:
(1) _Broader interests._ Curiosity is increasingly active concerning
things with which the senses come in contact, yet the child in the
Primary period is able to reach beyond that which he can see or
handle. He cares nothing for abstractions like missions, or
patriotism, or temperance, but his interest is genuine in the people
and actions back of the abstraction. It is a law of the soul that
interest in a certain thing will extend to other things related to it.
This makes it possible for the teacher to take the child far into the
field of knowledge, provided the starting-point be something in which
the child is naturally interested.
(2) _Greater mental power._ While the child does not reason as an
adult, he enjoys thinking for himself. The Primary teacher who gives
him predigested lessons, tells him everything in the picture, asks no
questions, and does not lead him on to arrive at any conclusions for
himself, not only fails to obtain results that are possible, but
really retards the child's development. Personal effort must precede
increase of strength in soul as well as body.
#12. Special Characteristics of the Primary Age.#
(1) _Physical activity._ In place of the restlessness of the preceding
period, activity directed toward more definite ends appears. It is
very important that the activity be expended rightly, since its use in
every action strengthens some one of the rapidly forming habits.
(2) _Power of perception._ This is the ability of the mind to
understand the sensations which senses and nerves send to the brain,
or to interpret their meaning; as, for example, to know that the round
yellow ball is an orange, or to recognize the different details in a
picture. Perception grows constantly more quick and active as the
child's store of knowledge increases. Two things must be remembered:
(_a_) the teacher must be sure that the first idea of anything is the
correct one, for it will be eradicated with difficulty, and upon it
all future thinking in that line will be based; (_b_) since each
sensation produces an idea embodying itself, and it is on these ideas
that the soul is nourished, character must grow in quality like its
food. "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are."
(3) _Memory._ The mind has greater power to retain that which is given
to it than in the preceding period, though it holds these facts
disconnectedly rather than related into systematic knowledge, as they
will be later. But this power of retention must not be abused through
storing memory with a quantity of useless material. That which is
impressed upon the plastic, non-resisting cells of the child's brain
ought to have some immediate meaning and value for the life at a time
when the intellectual and spiritual needs are so many.
(4) _Imagination._ This is the power of the mind to make living and
real that which is not present to the senses. It is one of the most
striking characteristics of the Primary period and one of the most
important as well. The imagination works only with concrete things in
childhood, making new objects out of the old, making the story and the
mental picture as real as the tangible experience, making Jesus an
actual present Helper and Friend. Later it will work with abstract
ideas and ideals of life formed from the pictures it has cherished.
#13. Opportunities of the Primary Age.#
(1) _Character building through the mental picture._ Abstract ideas
about which the mind reasons do not have power over the soul of the
child. It is the vivid picture which imagination holds that arouses
the feeling and impels the action. So great is the power of the
picture that the teacher need not exhort and admonish concerning what
ought to be done. She only need set forth the action in a story that
appeals, and imagination will do the rest. While very many of these
pictures come unconsciously to the child from his environment, it is
the privilege of the teacher definitely and carefully to provide the
highest type of mental picture through the well-selected story, in
order to secure the finest action.
(2) _Increased knowledge of Bible facts._ The lesson may contain more
than in the earlier period, because the child's interest in details
has increased and he has greater power of attention. It is important
to note, however, in what the increase may consist. It is not in the
number of truths presented in the lesson, but in the number of details
concerning the one truth for which the lesson stands. Since the mind
has developed new power to hold the impressions which are made upon
it, Scripture verses containing fundamental truths, like God's love
and care, the duty of love toward him and others, and the necessity of
obedience may be given, with explanation, for memorizing.
(3) _Service prompted through imitation and personal influence._ The
activity should even now be tracing pathways in the brain that shall
mean life habits of loving service for others. There is this
difference, however, between service in childhood and later. The
motives must now be supplied and strengthened by others; later the
promptings will come from within.
#14. Needs of the Primary Age.#--In addition to the needs mentioned in
the Beginners period, and which still obtain, there are two to be
especially borne in mind.
(1) _The absolute necessity of knowing how to make spiritual truth
live in story form._ The child can receive it in no other way, and
there is therefore no substitute for a rightly prepared story given by
a spiritually prepared teacher.
(2) _The necessity for the child to learn obedience in the use of his
activity._ This is to be secured not by force, but because the one to
whom it is to be rendered wins it through love and the power of
personality.
#15. Difficulties in the Primary Age.#--There will still be
difficulties in attention and in confining the instruction to that
which the child can really grasp, but the greatest difficulty will
center about the activity. Yet the whole problem will be solved with
no harsh question of discipline if the child is kept constantly busy
with that in which he is interested.
#16. Results to be Expected in the Primary Age.#--If the teacher has
met her opportunity, there will be growing love to Jesus Christ, the
beginning of service for him, and deep down in the soul of the child
an increasing store of material out of which life ideals are to be
fashioned in the days to come.
Test Questions
1. Name two general characteristics of the Primary Age. What years are
included?
2. How are the child's broader interests shown?
3. What method of teaching can hinder the child's growing mental
power?
4. Name four special characteristics of the Primary Age.
5. What is meant by power of perception? Illustrate it.
6. How may memory be abused?
7. What is imagination?
8. Name three opportunities of the Primary Age.
9. What does a well-defined mental picture lead to in the child's
mind?
10. Why may a lesson contain more than in the Beginners period?
11. How does the source of motives toward service differ in childhood
as compared with later life?
12. Name two needs of the Primary Age.
13. Name some of the difficulties.
14. What results may be expected?
Lesson 5
Junior Age--Nine to Twelve
#17. General Characteristics.#--A broad survey of this period reveals
the fact that in a peculiar way God is preparing life for entrance
upon the larger opportunities and responsibilities of maturity. There
is new physical strength, new intellectual vigor, greater power of
absorption and assimilation, a wider diffusion of interest. The
curiosity of earlier years becomes a real spirit of investigation
along lines of interest, and questioning, not alone to find out facts,
but also foundations of belief begins to appear. The individuality of
each child stands out more distinctly and emphasizes itself in two
marked ways--first, the desire for prominence, and, second, an
independence of spirit and action. Yet, with all this independence,
the boys and girls are easily dealt with if authority is administered
by one whose personality has commanded respect and love.
#18. Specific Characteristics.#
(1) _Energy,--physical and mental._ Though this has already been
referred to in a general way, it must have special mention as one of
the most marked and important features of the Junior period. Physical
vigor is apparent in the force of bodily movements so trying to
sensitive nerves--God's provision for the excess of nervous activity.
It also appears in the type of games belonging to this period and the
intensity with which they are played. The new mental power is evident
in the ability to perform more difficult and complex mental tasks, to
reason more clearly, and to attend more closely.
(2) _Development of the social instinct._ These years mark the rapid
development of insistent and insatiable desire for close companionship
with others. There are no standards of attainment nor social
distinctions according to which friends are chosen. The "gang" or the
club is based entirely on kinship of spirit among those of the same
age and sex. Often geographical lines enter in, and the boys of a
certain street or district will band together, and not uncommonly be
the sworn enemies of other gangs for no more valid reason than love
of contest, growing out of the instinct of rivalry. But this martial
aspect of gang life is not a characteristic of all the social tendency
of the period. There is a drawing of child to child for peaceable
purposes, the joy of common sympathies and interests and the fun of
expeditions and good times together. This social awakening is God's
plan for leading the life into larger relationships preparatory to
taking its place in the world. What the companionship is in its
influence upon character and ideals is the serious question for the
home and the Sunday-school teacher.
(3) _Hero-worship._ This is pre-eminently the hero-worshiping period,
with all that means in incentive to effort, in patterns of life, in
imitation, in character-building. In mature years, the ideal of life
is either a composite from many lives or, if it be one individual, a
dissected individual, certain qualities picked out for admiration and
emulation,--and over the rest, a mantle of charity. This analysis of
character and discrimination is possible only to an intelligent and
developed life. The child accepts his hero in his entirety. Whatever
he does is right and is the goal of effort in imitation.
The physical element enters largely into the ideal of this period
because of the prominence of the physical in the child's life, and,
unhappily, physical and moral strength are not always balanced. Too
much of the literature written to supply the ravenous desire of this
age for reading portrays physical strength in criminal and in
daredevil molds, and the moral side of the ideal is not only unfed,
but perverted. The Sunday-school teacher must help the home at this
point to supply the boys and girls, through books and living
personality, with all the elements of worthy and imitable ideals,
since the task of finally shaping these ideals lies in the years just
beyond.
(4) _Memory in the height of its power._ The broader the
responsibilities to be assumed, the greater the demand upon the soul's
resources to meet them. Just at the threshold of a larger life, the
mind comes into its greatest power of retention. During the years from
about nine to fifteen, conditions never to return so favorably make
possible the fullest, broadest, and more accurate storing of the mind.
The exact wording of a passage of Scripture is as easy to secure as
the general sense of its meaning. Whole chapters do not tax the pupil
beyond his mental ability. The mechanical, literal side of
instruction, which deals with maps and names and facts about the Word,
written and incarnate, should now be given. Held tenaciously and
exactly in memory, they will reveal the spiritual treasure they
contain to the larger spiritual vision of the next period. The careful
selection and explanation of that which is to be memorized, so
necessary in the preceding period, is not as necessary during these
years. The enlarged experience of the child will make some meaning
inhere in everything which is brought to him, so that it is not the
dead weight it would have been earlier. Yet an abundant supply of
food, intellectual and spiritual, for the present needs of an active,
investigating, and tempted life must not be overlooked in eagerness to
store for the future.
(5) _Habit formation._ The two physical conditions necessary for habit
formation, easily impressed brain cells, and activity making these
impressions, are at their best during this period. Every time an act
is performed, a nervous force passes through the brain, stimulating
nerves and muscles to action, and leaving the trace of its passage.
Each repetition of the action deepens the tracing, until little
pathways are established, and the nervous force follows these
naturally and involuntarily. Sooner than is realized the pathway is so
deep that only by effort can a given thought or nervous stimulus
express itself in any other way than by passing through the accustomed
channels out into the old action,--and this is habit.
The early stages are easy, usually unconscious, but any change when
the path is deep and the cells hardened means greatest effort, and
often unavailing struggle with self. The drunkard who in his sober
moments implores the saloon-keeper to refuse him liquor, no matter how
he may plead for it later, reveals the fact that habit or the tendency
to follow the old brain paths may become stronger than desire and will
and all outer human influence and incentives combined. Therefore the
habit-forming period, when pathways may be traced in any direction,
becomes one of the most responsible and wonderful of the life.
Test Questions
1. What are some of the general characteristics of the Junior Age? The
years included?
2. Name five specific characteristics of the Junior Age.
3. How does energy show itself at this time?
4. What are some of the signs of the social instinct?
5. What is the great purpose of that instinct?
6. How may hero-worship be used by the teachers?
7. What teaching material is peculiarly well suited to the
memory-activity of this period?
8. What is the process by which habit is created?
Test Questions for Review
Lessons 1 to 5
1. Give several reasons why it is important for the Sunday-school
teacher to know the pupil.
2. How may the teacher best come to know the pupil?
3. What are the special characteristics of children of the Beginners
age?
4. How would you develop true faith in a child?
5. What is the difference between influence and precept? Illustrate
both.
6. How would you guide a child's activity in the right direction?
7. What results may properly be looked for in the Beginners age?
8. What general difference is there between children of the Beginners
and the Primary age?
9. Describe and illustrate perception, memory, and imagination.
10. What is the difference between children's and grown people's
motives for service?
11. Mention several characteristics of the Junior age.
12. What is the social instinct, and how does it show itself?
13. What sort of teaching material is well adapted to the Junior age?
Lesson 6
Junior Age (Concluded)
#19. Opportunities of the Junior Age.#--No period offers opportunities
bearing more directly and openly upon the formation of character than
the Junior period, when manhood- and womanhood-to-be are so rapidly
determining. Out of these opportunities five may be selected as most
significant:
(1) _The opportunity to gain spiritual ends through social means._ The
more a teacher can enter into the fun-loving, companionship-craving
side of the pupil's heart, the greater his power over that life for
distinctly spiritual things. It is after the party or the picnic or
the tramp together that the personal message can be spoken.
(2) _The opportunity to arouse and to guide the pupil's effort through
heroic ideals._ Sermonizing on what they should do is practically
valueless with boys and girls of this age, for considerations of duty
weigh little until the larger moral consciousness of the next period.
Furthermore, they live but for the day, and do not appreciate the
relationship between present action and future character. What they
may do later as a result of their own convictions and understanding,
they may be inspired to do now through the hero who has aroused their
admiration and desire of imitation.
(3) _The opportunity to establish right habits of life._ The pathways
of service through which the Christian life ought to express itself
must be definitely and painstakingly traced in this period and the
next. Motives for the action may not be the highest, and must often be
supplied by another. For example, the daily Bible reading that ought
to be prompted by real love for the Word later may now be done for
love of the teacher--or because the promise was given, but in any
event it is leaving its indelible impress--and making the "Quiet Hour"
more assured in the future.
(4) _The opportunity to build Bible knowledge into character._
Impressions are necessary and effective in their place, but something
more definite is needed for stability of character. The opportunity
of supplementing impressions with facts is the one offered by this
Golden Memory period. Two points should be noted:
/#
(_a_) The mind is growing in its power to associate facts.
The association of events around a person or a place is
easily made now, and toward the end of the period sequences
of time and cause and effect are grasped.
(_b_) The Holy Spirit can bring to the remembrance only that
which has been in the mind. Therefore the teacher who stores
the memory at this time with Scripture passages makes it
possible for God to speak to the heart in later years.
#/
(5) _The opportunity to lead to open confession of Jesus Christ._ This
is not to force, it is not to play upon the child's emotions, and lead
him to do that which has no foundation in a consciousness of his own
relation to Christ, but something is radically wrong in the home and
something lacking in the teacher's work, if the boys and girls do not
really love the Lord Jesus in this period. They do not understand it
all, but the essentials of a Christian life they may have,--love,
faith, penitence for wrongdoing, and the desire to serve Christ. Their
experience cannot be that of an adult, for they have not his insight.
But just as surely as the love and caress of the child is precious and
acceptable to a mother even before there can be any comprehension on
his part of the sacrificial character of mother-love, so is child-love
precious and accepted with the Master even before the child grasps the
great spiritual contents.
#20. Needs of the Junior Age.#
(1) _The presentation of Christianity as something to do rather than
to be._ The boys and girls do not live in inner experiences in these
years, but in outward, energetic action; therefore, what they may do
for Jesus Christ and others needs emphasis. This presentation also
includes a Christ who appeals to boyhood and girlhood, the
wonder-worker of Mark, the God-Man of Matthew and Luke, and the
victorious King of Revelation.
(2) _Opportunities for service._ These must be carefully devised by
the teacher, with the twofold purpose of giving immediate expression
to the desire to do something and leading to the formation of habits
of Christian activity.
(3) _Christian heroes._ The teacher ought to be a Christian hero
himself. Out of missionary literature, out of the lives of great men
who have lived, out of Bible characters, heroes must be multiplied.
The Sunday-school lessons ought to be hero studies, not sermons.
Heroic literature ought to be put into the hands of the
children--either directly or through indirect suggestion in some
curiosity-arousing reference to the story. This means the most
effective type of instruction during all the week as well as Sunday.
(4) _A lesson requiring work on the part of the pupil._ Telling a
Junior class primary stories will deplete it in numbers and weaken it
in strength. Assigned work to be prepared at home, questions,
note-books, map-making, anything to stimulate and utilize the activity
of mind and body through interest, not compulsion, is the great
necessity of the lesson hour.
#21. Difficulties of the Junior Age.#--Three difficulties may be
encountered.
(1) _A misdirected energy._ Energy means finest growth and development
if it is under direction and control, but devastation otherwise. The
key to the situation is in the teacher's personality, plus a plan for
the hour's work, appealing to interest and calling for constant
activity, either mental or physical, on the part of the pupil.