study have supplied something to give, mental discipline and
unimpaired physical strength supply the power for service, the broad
outlook reveals the need and place of service, and the soul's
awakening toward God and the neighbor have supplied the motives for
service.
(2) _Physical and mental power at the height._ Waste and repair in
bodily tissues are balanced during the prime of life. If development
has been normal, the will is resolute, and judgment and reason are
dominating and wise, for experience has given large data from which to
draw conclusions. While the "Golden Age of Memory" is far in the past,
the power of retaining new knowledge through the old is strong. To
enter upon unfamiliar lines of thought, however, at this time and
achieve any mastery is a mark of genius at least for hard work. The
soul has capacity now for the highest feelings that can stir the heart
of man, yet the character of those it really experiences is determined
by what life has been feeding upon. The love, joy, and peace which
give glory to maturity and old age grow alone out of thought upon true
and pure and lovely things and those of good report.
(3) _Development specialized, not general._ Out of the many calls and
lines of interest, each life has made choice of one or more, according
to taste and circumstances. Along these lines growth and development
proceed. It is not that life could not continue the many-sided
expansion of adolescence, but growth demands nourishment, development
demands activity. The need for the expert, the multiplicity of cares
and the force of habit make it difficult to "keep up" along many
avenues.
(4) _Time of achievement._ Achievement may or may not be that service
which manhood owes. The purpose in the task determines that. To souls
especially endowed and favorably environed come the riches of
intellectual research, of creation in the arts, of successes in the
business world. To the many, achievement means only struggle here, but
waiting treasures laid up with God.
(5) _Time of soul hunger._ The teacher of men and women always faces
hungry hearts. If the soul has not found satisfaction in God, the
pangs of starvation are inevitably there. If the soul does know God,
there is unspeakable longing for a clearer revelation and a deeper
consciousness that in the midst of life's weakness and aspiring
"God's goodness flows around our incompleteness,
Round our restlessness His rest."
#37. Opportunities Presented in Maturity.#--But three great
opportunities out of the many can be suggested:
(1) _The opportunity to be somebody's ideal._ Every successful life is
the pattern for some eager, ambitious boy or girl. Did not Paul's
exhortation to Timothy look toward this as well, when he besought him
to "be an ensample in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in
purity"?
(2) _The opportunity to count for the kingdom._ There are two lines of
Christian work which call loudly to-day to men and women--personal
evangelism and the missionary enterprise. These are the doors most
imperative for the soul in possession of power, experience, and
resources to enter. Beyond these doors lies the solution of every one
of the world's problems.
(3) _The opportunity to grasp the doctrines of Christianity._ The
relation of truth to truth cannot come until the mind can deal with
the abstract. The little child grasps some of the facts of
Christianity, but the adult mind has the power to deal with infinite
reaches of truth, interdependent and self-illuminating. This is the
"solid food for full-grown men."
#38. Needs of Maturity.#--(1) _Adequate spiritual nourishment._
The time of disillusionment has come, much of the optimism and
buoyancy of youth have gone. Life is found to be a struggle even with
its victories, and responsibilities and sorrows weigh. The teaching
must present a Saviour and a salvation sufficient for great heart
needs. It is for the deep things of God that life's experiences have
made mature souls hungry, and there is pathos in the superficial dole
meted out by so many teachers--superficial because they themselves
have never lived "down deep."
(2) _The broad outlook._ To busy men and burdened women, the class
ought to be a place of vision. Absorbed in one's tiny corner through
six toiling days, the seventh should give opportunity to lift up the
eyes and look on fields glorious in their incoming harvest. There is
refreshment and inspiration and incentive now in the news from China
and Japan and the islands of the sea. The teacher must bring the
world-view to the class if he believes that world service is God's
thought for manhood.
(3) _Emphasis on personal responsibility._ This is the pivotal point
upon which a life of service turns, and it ought to be the focal point
of teaching. Long enough has stress been laid on the conditions in the
world and what ought to be done. The need now is for a prophet to say,
"Thou art the man!"
#39. Difficulties.#
(1) _Pre-occupied soil._ "The cares of the world and the deceitfulness
of riches choke the word and it becomes unfruitful."
(2) _Fixedness of habit._ Life's attitude is settled in thought,
feeling, and will, and a change is possible only through the Spirit
who can make all things new.
(3) _The sin of idolatry._ Every life that has not put God first now
worships at the shrine of a self-elevated idol, the tangible
expression of its ideal. To dethrone it from love and substitute Jesus
Christ shakes to the foundations.
(4) _Weakness of spiritual aspirations._ It is a law of the feelings
that repression instead of expression weakens a feeling and tends to
its destruction. If the life has refused to act upon its impulses
toward God through the years, the task of making the feeling strong
enough to lead into action now is one beyond the power of the teacher.
It must be done by God, who "is able to raise up even from the dead."
#40. Results to be Expected.#--As life nears its meridian and the west
grows clearer, it ought to be with unveiled face and character
changing into His likeness in beauty, love, and self-surrendered
service.
Test Questions
1. What is the keyword of maturity?
2. Name four characteristics.
3. For what has the soul special capacity at this time?
4. What special opportunities are presented by maturity?
5. What are three needs of maturity?
6. What must definitely mark the teaching?
7. What three difficulties appear?
8. What results are to be expected?
Test Questions for Review
Lessons 6 to 10
1. What essentials of the Christian life may a Junior readily have?
2. How may we stimulate a Junior's efforts in right-doing?
3. What results may we look for in this age?
4. Explain the period of adolescence.
5. What are the signs of personal consciousness at this time?
6. What affects the adolescent's relation to God?
7. What important opportunities has the Intermediate age?
8. What must be guarded against in urging decision at this time?
9. What years are included in the Senior age?
10. Why are doubts to be expected in this age?
11. What results should be aimed at with Seniors?
12. What is meant by "maturity"?
13. What is the goal for this age?
NOTE.--A helpful treatment of the whole subject of child nature is
found in Mrs. Lamoreaux's book "The Unfolding Life."
THE TEACHER
MARTIN G. BRUMBAUGH, Ph.D., LL.D.
LESSON PAGE
1. What the Teacher Should Be 181
2. What the Teacher Should Know 184
3. What the Teacher Should Do 187
4. What the Pupil Should Do 190
5. What Teaching Is 193
6. What an Educational Principle Is 198
7. What an Educational Method Is 201
8. What the Concrete Means in Teaching 205
9. What Instruction, Drill, and Examination Can Do 209
10. What Will-Training Leads To 212
Teaching Hints
Leaders of classes, and individuals pursuing these studies
apart from classes, are urged to read the chapter entitled
"Teaching Hints," on page 259, before beginning this section
Lesson 1
What the Teacher Should Be
#1. The Value of Character.#--We teach more by what we are than by
what we know. Emerson once said, "What you are thunders so loud I
cannot hear what you say." Everywhere the character of the teacher is
counted a vital part of his equipment. Even in secular schools the
teacher is required to possess a good moral character. How much more
should we demand high moral and spiritual standards of the teacher in
the Sunday-school! But mere goodness is not enough. We must demand, in
addition to personal worth, certain other salient qualities in the
person who stands before childhood as a teacher of God's truth.
#2. Training Always Needed.#--There is a common notion that teachers
like poets are born, not made. This is fallacious for two reasons: (a)
we do not know till we try whether or not we can teach; (b) we do know
now that the greater number of teachers are made by training and not
by inherited qualities. Then, too, we are told that born teachers need
no training, that they can teach without preparation. This notion is
false, because the best native power may be made better by proper
training. We call a doctor who has had no training in medicine a
"quack," and it is not too much to say the same of untrained teachers.
Hence all of us will be the better fitted for our work in the
Sunday-school if we have in addition to our native powers such added
power as prayer and training assuredly give.
#3. A Living Example.#--The teacher should be not only a professing
Christian, but a living example of the kind of life we want every
child to live. It is unfortunate to place the destiny of a human soul
in the care and under the directing thought of a teacher who neither
believes nor lives a consistent Christian life. The teacher should be
_kindly considerate_ of his pupils[.] No amount of fine teaching power
can compensate for the lack of such kindly concern for the welfare of
his pupils as will best lead them to crave in their own lives the same
courteous and considerate qualities. He should also be perfectly
_sincere_ and _frank_. There can be no such thing as "playing a part"
in the presence of children. They discern with an intuition that is as
certain as logic the sincerity or insincerity of the teacher. It is a
mistake to flatter, to scold, to threaten or to cajole pupils. These
are the marks of poor teaching. A perfectly frank teacher will never
cheapen his sacred opportunity by any trick or device that has the
ring of insincerity.
#4. Enthusiasm.#--The teacher should be an _enthusiast_. I had the
good fortune to hear Bishop Phillips Brooks speak to a great body of
men in Boston. There was in his whole manner such sincerity and
enthusiasm as to carry conviction to each one in his audience. He had
a good thing. He believed in it with his whole heart. He was
enthusiastic in its praise. He had tested it and found it good. He
wanted others to share the same splendid good. His address left an
impression that years cannot dim. His enthusiasm made him a great
teacher. This does not mean that one should speak in a loud tone, in
high-pitched voice, with vehement manner and gesture. These are marks
of weakness, not of strength. But it does mean that one should be
confident of the worth of his message and anxious to impress its worth
upon others. Enthusiasm is born of sincere conviction in the
correctness of the thing one aims to teach.
#5. Directness.#--Much of all that is best in teaching is the result
of a mastery of the theme in such way as to make all the statements
and questions of the teacher _clear and direct_. One must consider his
language carefully. To the child in the class words may mean quite a
different thing from what they mean to the teacher. One must have the
pupils' point of view, and then make all his teaching so pointed, so
specific, that the meaning must be clear.
#6. Alert Insight.#--The teacher must be _alert_ and _aggressive_,
discerning the favorable moment to say great truths; with his thoughts
more upon his pupils than upon his text. Otherwise his power to govern
is weakened and the interest of his pupils is lessened if not wholly
lost. To accomplish the best things one must know in advance the scope
and purpose of the lesson, and watch for the moment when, with
interest at its height, he will best succeed in reaching the deepest
fountains of purpose in the soul of the pupil. This quality of
insight in the teacher's equipment will put the class upon a basis of
work. The pupils will quickly realize that the teacher is imbued with
a purpose; that he proceeds in a business-like way to accomplish a
result which is seen to be of value. The very directness of the
teacher is an asset of great significance. This always appeals to
young persons. They like a lesson that is full of snap and action.
They will not long abide a dull and dreary dragging over a subject--be
it ever so fruitful in guidance.
#7. Love.#--The teacher must be a sincere _lover of childhood_ and _of
the Master_. In the final chapter of the great Gospel by John, Jesus
examines Peter and indicates the basis of great teaching power. It is
well to study this narrative carefully. Picture Peter, at the dawn,
weary and disheartened, coming from his fishless quest. The Master
meets him and asks him but one question, but he asks that question
three times, and each time he follows Peter's reply with the command
"Feed." The lesson is plain--he that loves most feeds best, and the
measure of one's power to teach the truth of God to his children is
the measure of one's love for the Master Teacher. Where there is no
love there can be no great teaching.
Test Questions
1. What should be counted a vital part of the teacher's equipment?
2. Is it true that teachers are "born," not "made"? Give two reasons
for your answer.
3. Name two ways in which a teacher can be a living example.
4. What are some of the evidences of a teacher's enthusiasm?
5. Whose point of view must the teacher take?
6. What manner and method in teaching do pupils like?
7. What is the measure of one's power to teach the truth of God to His
children?
Lesson 2
What the Teacher Should Know
#8. He Must Have, before He Can Give.#--We can give only what we
possess. This law holds throughout. Peter understood this when he made
the memorable reply to the beggar's request for alms: "Silver and gold
have I none; but such as I have give I thee." It follows that whatever
we wish the pupil to know the teacher should also know, and he should
know more than he can hope to teach.
#9. He Should Know His Bible.#--What do we wish the pupil to learn?
Answering this will answer in part the question, What should the
teacher know? Manifestly, then, the teacher should be familiar with
the Bible. How very fragmentary and unsatisfactory our knowledge of
the great Book is until we have studied it in a definite and
systematic way--in the way we study our history or our geography. The
teacher should at least know the salient features of the incomparable
Text and should have well fixed in memory many of the great utterances
that lie like flecks of gold upon its sunny pages.
#10. Clear and Related Knowledge.#--But the teacher should know in a
more connected and also in a more detailed way the truths of the Book.
The pupil's knowledge should be _clear_, by which one means that he
should know a thing and not some other thing in its stead; and a
teacher's knowledge should be not only clear but _related_, by which
one means that he should know a thing in its relation to all other
things with which it is vitally connected. This makes for system in
knowledge, and gives the teacher the power to teach each fact with its
due emphasis, no more and no less. Some writers on education call this
kind of knowing _apperception_, by which they mean seeing a thing in
its proper system and in its due relations. To say that Jesus was born
in Bethlehem, that he lived in Nazareth, that he was crucified on
Calvary, and that he arose from the dead on the third day, as he said
he would, is clear knowledge. To see Jesus as the fulfilment of
prophecy, as the promised King, as the leader of his people, as a
teacher with more than human insight, as the founder of a church, and
as the pattern and perfection of all endeavor, is _related_ knowledge;
it is seeing Jesus as part of a great system of purpose that swept
into time by the will of God.
#11.# It is well also for the teacher to possess #adequate# knowledge;
he should be able to separate a fact into its parts; that is, analyze
it. This analytic power makes for vivid teaching but it is a power
that the pupil in his early years cannot acquire. Only the mature mind
is analytic, and the teacher who knows how to analyze a fact or a
lesson knows the secret of proportion in teaching, the power to know
what to make emphatic, what to make subordinate. It is a poor teacher
who is unable to distinguish between a vital element and a non-vital
element.
#12. Related Subjects.#--The teacher should also know such related
subjects as will best enable him to make clear each point under
treatment in the lesson. A teacher should have a working knowledge of
biblical geography and of sacred antiquities. He should know how to
use a concordance, how to work up cross-references, how to interpret
peculiar idioms, and in general how to use the text of the Bible in
the most effective manner. He should know the general principles of
organization pursued in a modern Sunday-school, together with the
outlines of the history of the church, and should have a general
knowledge of the translations of the Bible into the English language.
#13. Thinking Principles.#--In addition to the subject-matter, the
teacher should know something of the laws of thought, and the best way
to use knowledge as an agency in _forming_ these laws of thought. All
these laws are scheduled in any elementary treatise on psychology, and
the best method of using knowledge to train the soul is set forth in
any good treatise on pedagogy. Thus to a knowledge of the
subject-matter the teacher must add a knowledge of psychology and of
pedagogy. Scholarship alone is not the test of a good teacher.
#14.# If one reflects for a time upon his own methods of acquiring
knowledge, he will begin to understand the operations of the human
soul. When one reads that knowledge enters the soul only through the
special senses, or that ideas may be recalled by memory, it is of the
utmost importance that he should ask himself the question: What do
these statements mean? An illustration will help to answer this
question: I know that fire will burn my hand; the knowledge of this
fact entered my consciousness through the sense of touch, and my
memory recalls it.
#15. Teaching Principles.#--When the laws of soul growth are fairly
well understood, it is time to investigate the principles of pedagogy,
the laws that govern the teacher in the act of using knowledge to
occasion activity in the soul of a learner. For the laws of teaching
rest upon the laws of the soul. We cannot know how to proceed in the
teaching process until we know how the soul acts under given
conditions.
#16.# This act of teaching is a vastly significant one. It results in
changing the viewpoint of the pupil's life. It should produce in his
soul new knowledge, or power, or skill, or all of these combined.
Consider well, teacher, what this means. How the child is taught
determines in no small way how he will in the years to come regard his
fellow-man, his country, his church, his own duty, and his loyalty to
all that makes for progress in the life that is hid with Christ in
God.
#17.# There are certain educational principles of great value to the
teacher. Consider what it means to adapt knowledge to the capacity of
the learner, or what it means to secure interest in the learner, or
what it means to proceed from the simple to the complex in teaching,
and you will begin to understand something of the power of right
activities in the recitation.
Test Questions
1. What is the pre-requisite for giving?
2. What is the least the teacher must know about the Bible?
3. In what way should the teacher's knowledge of the Book be superior
to the pupil's?
4. What does _apperception_ mean? Illustrate the word.
5. Give instances of the kind of _related_ knowledge that the teacher
should have.
6. By what means does knowledge enter the soul?
7. What should the act of teaching produce in the soul of the pupil?
Lesson 3
What the Teacher Should Do
#18.# The teacher must have a #purpose#, must see the end of the
teaching process, and the way to that end. Then he should endeavor in
the best way to reach that goal. The goal is to _achieve in the pupil
the highest type of religious conduct_: not a religious feeling nor a
religious thought system; but feeling and thought crystallized into
character, the standard coin of the soul. All the efforts of the
teacher must be directed to the attainment of this purpose. Otherwise
the recitation will be aimless and the result failure.
#19.# The teacher must have a #plan# of procedure in advance of the
recitation. This plan he should map out carefully, and then on his
knees ask God if it is the best plan. To plan carefully and then to
execute skilfully is the prime test of teaching. This plan must
include a study of each pupil as well as a study of each lesson. It is
at this point that so many teachers go wrong. They seem to think that
a knowledge of the lesson is the only preparation required. They
overlook the fact that it is vastly more important _to know the pupil
than it is to know the lesson_. Those that know the subject-matter
only are scholars, not teachers. Those that add to their knowledge of
the subject-matter a clear insight into the operations of their
pupils' minds and also comprehend the fine art of fitting knowledge to
the capacity of the learner, are the only real teachers.
#20.# The teacher must be #ready to change his plan# if it does not
meet the conditions that arise in the class; but this is a critical
procedure, and only the wise teacher may follow it with success. The
teacher must not allow pupils to lead him into by-paths. Here tact and
skill are of use in leading the class to the teacher's will and to the
teacher's plan. The teacher's will must be supreme in it all. I have
seen great opportunities lost absolutely because a weak teacher
allowed the lesson to drift at the caprice of a pupil instead of
following a well-conceived plan. A group of boys once told me that
they did not need to prepare the Sunday-school lesson because they
always asked the teacher some questions at the opening of the
recitation, and the teacher took the entire time to discuss the
questions. The pupils, the while, sat in their places smiling at the
weakness of a teacher who lacked the discernment necessary to be
master of the situation. The time given to the legitimate work of
instruction is all too brief to be wasted in any such senseless ways.
#21.# The teacher must be alert and #lead the recitation#. This
quality of leadership challenges interest and carries the pupil with a
sweep of enthusiasm to the end. To lead most wisely is so to direct
the current of thought as if it were not directed. The highest art in
teaching is to conceal that art, to guide by suggestion and not by
command.
#22.# The teacher will strive to secure a major part of the
#discussion from the pupil#. He will know when not to talk. It must
not be forgotten that it is the thing the teacher causes the pupil to
do, not the thing the teacher does in the presence of the pupil, that
is most significant. Many a class is talked into mental stupor and
spiritual indifference. A garrulous teacher is an abomination.
#23.# A wise teacher will #work for his pupils#. His aim will be
steadily to aid them out of class as well as in class. I know a
teacher who meets his class occasionally for a social hour in an
informal way. The boys of that class are enthusiastic believers in
their teacher and in the power of practical Christian fellowship. Look
into the Elder Brother movement, the value of an organized class, and
kindred movements that give the teacher the power to direct conduct in
the pupil. Here you will find the key to many successful avenues of
usefulness to the pupil. The significance of all this lies in the
general value of a teacher who by word and by deed makes easy the way
of the pupil to the Master.