build a negative code in the soul of a child. It is not what he is
restrained from doing, but what he is constantly encouraged to do that
makes for right will training. The great power of Jesus as a teacher
lies in his steadfast ability to teach the world what to do, how to
act, right conduct in the midst of complex conditions. A negative code
stops all endeavor, a positive code sets the soul aglow with the
consciousness of things done, of processes initiated and completed, of
struggles with wrong successfully ended, of progress from weakness to
strength, from human error to Divine truth.
#87.# The end of all endeavor is to do the will of God, and the goal
of all teaching is to equip a human soul to live in joyous accord with
the infinite wisdom. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free."
Test Questions
1. In what three ways does the soul round out its activities?
2. What is meant by the will?
3. What should be the effective guide for the child at first?
4. Name five elements that characterize the methods of strong
teachers.
5. Why are some children capricious rather than obedient?
6. What is the aim of teaching?
7. What mistake will most surely negative good instruction?
8. What is Jesus' great power as a teacher?
9. What is the goal of all teaching?
Text Questions for Review
Lessons 6 to 10
1. What is meant by a law of the soul?
2. What is the first law as to the subject matter of teaching?
3. What is the earliest power that becomes educationally active?
4. What is meant by the inductive method?
5. Why is mere telling not teaching?
6. What is the gain, and what the danger, in using illustrations?
7. Illustrate what is meant by a concrete notion.
8. What are four tools at the teacher's disposal?
9. What constitutes a good story?
10. What two processes are at work in every good recitation?
11. What are the three phases of oral instruction?
12. When is a review valuable?
13. What is meant by the will?
14. Name five elements that characterize good teaching?
15. What is Jesus' great power as a teacher?
NOTE.--This entire subject has been more fully discussed by Dr.
Brumbaugh in his book "The Making of a Teacher."
THE SCHOOL
MARION LAWRANCE
LESSON PAGE
1. The Sunday-school 219
2. The Sunday-school Equipped 224
3. The Sunday-school Organized 228
4. The Sunday-school Organized (concluded) 232
5. The Sunday-school in Session 236
6. The Sunday-school Teacher 240
7. The Workers' Meeting 244
8. Sunday-school Finance 248
9. The Sunday-school and Missions 251
10. Organized Adult Classes 255
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
The Sunday-school
#1.# The Sunday-school is the Bible-studying and teaching service of
the church. It is a _church service_. All the members of the church
should be connected with it. It should be under the care and control
of the church. Its purpose is to present the Word of God, by the hand
of competent living teachers, to every man, woman and child, for the
purpose of leading them to Christ, developing their Christian
characters, and training them for service.
#2. The Earliest Schools.#[A]--Schools for the study of God's Word
seem to have existed as far back as the time of Abraham. In Moses'
day, schools were maintained for the religious training of the young.
These schools were numerous also in Ezra's time. Jesus no doubt
attended such a school in his boyhood days. The schools of his time
resembled the modern Sunday-school in some of their methods. There
were elementary schools for children, and senior schools for both
children and adults. These latter schools were connected with the
synagogue. It was through these schools, chiefly, that the Christian
church was extended and built up.
#3. The Raikes Movement.#[A]--The first seventeen centuries of the
Christian era witnessed, for the most part, a general decline in the
church and in Christian activity. During all this period, the church's
life increased or waned in proportion as it attended to or neglected
the religious instruction of the young. The seventeenth century, and
much of the eighteenth century were dark days for the church. It was
toward the close of this period that God saw fit to connect the name
of Robert Raikes with the Sunday-school movement of the world. While
he was probably not the founder of the first Sunday-school, his name
is nevertheless inseparably connected with the beginnings of the
modern Sunday-school. In the city of Gloucester, England, July, 1780,
this man--the editor and proprietor of the Gloucester Journal--started
his first Sunday-school, in the kitchen of a dwelling-house. This room
was eleven feet long, eight feet wide, six and a half feet high. "The
children were to come soon after ten in the morning and stay till
twelve. They were to go home and stay till one, and after reading a
lesson, they were to be conducted to church. After church, they were
to be employed in repeating the catechism till half past five, and
then to be dismissed with an injunction to go home without making a
noise; and by no means to play in the street." Four women were
employed as teachers in this school, at a shilling a day. The early
Raikes schools were not connected with the church in any way.
[A] The statements in these paragraphs are taken in
substance from "YALE LECTURES ON THE SUNDAY SCHOOL"
(Trumbull).
#4. Sunday-school Extension.#--Sunday-schools soon became very
popular, and spread over Great Britain and into Europe. Sunday-schools
are known to have existed in the United States as early as 1786, and
probably much earlier than that (even in 1674). They found congenial
soil in the Western Hemisphere, and multiplied rapidly. There are now
more than a quarter of a million Sunday-schools in the world,
enrolling more than twenty-five millions of people. More than one-half
of this vast army is in North America.
#5. The Sunday School Union of London.#--This organization was
effected in 1803 in Surrey Chapel, London, and is the oldest
expression of organized Sunday-school work. It is local only in name.
Its auxiliaries are to be found in all parts of the United Kingdom,
Continental Europe and the various dependencies of Great Britain. It
holds valuable properties in London, conducts an extensive printing
establishment, and maintains a large corps of workers as secretaries,
colporteurs, etc., not only in Great Britain but on the Continent, in
India and elsewhere.
#6. The American Sunday School Union.#--The earliest Sunday-school
organizations in North America were a Sunday School Union in New York
City in 1816, another in Boston the same year, and still another in
Philadelphia in 1817. These were combined in 1824 into a national
society known as The American Sunday School Union. This society,
through its large corps of missionaries, plants new Sunday-schools,
especially on the frontier. It conducts a large publishing
establishment at its headquarters in Philadelphia, and has done and is
doing a great work.
#7. The National Sunday School Convention.#--The first national
interdenominational convention in the United States was held in the
city of New York in 1832. Delegates were present from fourteen states
and four territories. A second convention was held in the city of
Philadelphia, the following year, 1833. Not until 1859 was the third
convention held, and this one also in the city of Philadelphia. In
1869, in Newark, N. J., may be said to have begun the present series
of great conventions in our country, for they have been held
triennially from that time until the present. The fourth and last
strictly national convention was held in the city of Indianapolis in
1872. Here the International System of Uniform Lessons had its birth.
The International Lessons went into use January, 1873. They are
selected by a committee appointed by the International Convention,
co-operating with a similar committee appointed by the Sunday School
Union of London. It was decided that the next convention should be
international in character, and include the Dominion of Canada.
#8. International Sunday School Movement.#--International conventions
have been held triennially since 1875.
The International Sunday School Association administers its affairs
through an Executive Committee of nearly one hundred men, representing
every state, province, territory and country in and belonging to North
America. In its main Association, and through its auxiliaries, it
employs a large number of Sunday-school workers in its various
departments. It is supported by the voluntary offerings of
Sunday-schools and individuals. Under its auspices are held annually
about sixteen thousand Sunday-school conventions, the purpose of which
is to give information, stimulation, and education along all lines of
Sunday-school work.
#9. Auxiliary Associations.#--The various states, provinces,
territories and countries of North America maintain associations
auxiliary to the International Sunday School Association. The oldest
existing organization is that of the Province of Quebec, which has
been in continual operation since 1836. The states and provinces, for
the most part, maintain annual conventions. Auxiliary to these
auxiliaries are the associations of the counties or next smaller
political divisions. In the thickly settled portions of the country,
still smaller organizations are effected in the townships and cities.
#10. The World's Sunday School Association.#--The First World's Sunday
School Convention was held in the city of London, England, in 1889,
about two hundred and fifty delegates attending from North America.
The Second World's Convention was held in connection with the Seventh
International Convention at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1893. The Third
World's Convention was held again in London in 1898. Three hundred
delegates were present from North America. The Fourth World's
Convention was held in Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1904. Over eight
hundred delegates attended from North America, and nearly five hundred
from Great Britain, traveling in chartered steamships. The World's
Fifth Sunday School Convention was held in the city of Rome, Italy, in
1907, with over eleven hundred delegates. And there the World's Sunday
School Association was organized, to hold conventions, gather
statistics, and to co-operate with other organizations in increasing
the efficiency of Sunday-schools throughout the world. The World's
Sixth Sunday School Convention is to be held in Washington, D. C.,
1910.
Test Questions
1. What is the Sunday-school?
2. Give instances of the earliest schools for the study of God's Word.
3. Describe what is known as the Raikes movement.
4. How early are Sunday-schools known to have existed on our
continent?
5. How many Sunday-schools in the world to-day?
6. What proportion of these are in America?
7. What is the Sunday School Union of London?
8. What is the American Sunday School Union?
9. Where and when were the four National Sunday-school Conventions
held?
10. When and where did the International Lessons have their origin?
When put into use?
11. How many International Conventions have been held?
12. By whom are the International Lessons selected?
13. What is the work of the International Sunday School Association?
14. Describe its system of Auxiliary Associations.
15. What is the World's Sunday School Association?
Lesson 2
The Sunday-school Equipped
#11. Buildings.#--A discussion of Sunday-school buildings properly
comes under the head of equipment, but as that is a large topic by
itself, it is not our purpose to consider it here but to confine
ourselves to those features of equipment which may be used in any
building. The buildings should be made with the needs and conveniences
of the Sunday-school in mind. The department rooms and class rooms are
but expressions of this idea. The school deserves as good a room as
the preaching service, and one as thoroughly adapted to its uses.
Department rooms and class rooms can often be temporarily arranged by
the use of curtains or screens, in a building where no regular
partitions have been provided.
#12. Seating.#--Chairs are better than pews. They should be
comfortable, and adapted to the size of the pupils who are to use
them. No one can sit quietly very long unless his feet can rest
squarely on the floor. If the room is not carpeted, the chair legs
should have rubber tips.
#13. Tables.#--Such of the officers as need to use desks or tables
should have tables of their own, so that all of their books, blanks,
and supplies may be kept in proper order. Class tables are very
desirable. They need not be very large. Each table should have a
drawer or box in it for the song-books and other property of the
class. This economizes time and saves confusion, as nothing will need
to be distributed.
#14. Class Boxes.#--Where it is impossible to use class tables, a
class box is next in value. It should contain the song-books and
everything else belonging to the class, and should be kept in a given
place where some member of the class can secure it before the school,
and replace it after the school is closed.
#15. Blackboards.#--It is impossible to overestimate the value of
blackboards in Sunday-school work when rightly used. There ought to be
one in the main school, and one in every department room. It would be
well, also, if there were a small blackboard in every class room. It
can be used for so many purposes, such as reviewing the lesson,
announcing hymns or displaying reports. The revolving blackboard is
the best for general use, and the most ornamental. Square crayons of
half an inch, or one inch, in size are better than the ordinary round
school crayon. Simple work is better than elaborate work. Anybody can
use a blackboard to advantage, whether he can draw or not.
#16. Maps.#--If a school can have but one map, let it be the map of
Palestine. Then add the following maps, in the order named: Bible
Lands; a second map of Palestine,--one for Old Testament and one for
New Testament; Paul's missionary journeys; a missionary map of the
world; a missionary map of the denomination. A sand map is good for
use in the later elementary grades, but should not wholly displace the
wall map.
#17. Charts.#--Many helpful charts are now prepared for Sunday-school
use; charts of the life of Christ, charts for missionary purposes and
temperance teaching, charts with choice passages of Scripture and
hymns.
#18. Libraries.#--If possible, have two libraries, one for teachers,
one for scholars. A teachers' library should contain Bible-study helps
and books for Sunday-school workers, which treat of special phases of
Sunday-school work. The scholars' library should be properly
classified so that the members of all departments will feel an equal
interest in it.
#19. Missionary Curios.#--Material aid in creating missionary interest
will be secured by showing woods, stones, plants, flowers, clothing,
and birds from the various foreign fields, and by the use of pictures
and models of their buildings, which reveal the customs of the lands
under consideration. These things are abundant, and are comparatively
inexpensive.
#20. Flags and Banners.#--Every school should have the flag of the
nation displayed at each session. Many schools use the Christian flag,
also, made of white silk with a blue field and red cross. The
"Conquest Flag" is also popular. Banners for Star Classes, Excelsior
Classes, Honor Classes, etc., are desirable if properly used.
Considerable school spirit may be cultivated by having school colors
embodied in a pennant, which is always displayed when the school is in
session.
#21. Objects.#--Many objects are now prepared that are valuable in
Sunday-school work, such as building blocks, models of the Tabernacle,
globes, and birthday banks.
#22. Bibles and Music Books.#--Every member of the school who is old
enough to read should bring his own Bible. Nevertheless, it is well to
have a supply of school Bibles, as they should be used in the school
instead of lesson helps. Select a good music book, and get plenty of
copies. If every member has a book, the singing and the order will be
better. Hymn banners and song rolls are useful adjuncts.
#23. Pictures.#--Choice pictures are not only beautiful, but valuable
in many ways. The walls of the Sunday-school room, and especially of
the elementary departments, should be well decorated with choice
inexpensive pictures, illustrating various Bible scenes; there may
also be miscellaneous pictures of an equally elevating and refining
character.
#24. Stereopticon.#--Here and there a school is able to have a
stereopticon or magic lantern. This instrument is becoming more
popular every day. If properly used, a stereopticon is very helpful in
Sunday-school work.
#25. Lesson Helps.#--Supply yourselves with plenty of lesson helps for
officers, teachers, and scholars. Get the very best, but _leave them
at home on Sunday_.
#26. Records and Printing.#--Records that are worth keeping, at all,
are worth keeping well, and in well-made books. All printing should be
well done or not done at all. Business houses are judged by their
printing; Sunday-schools likewise. Use good paper, occasionally
colored inks, and let all the printing be neat and tasteful.
#27. Bells.#--Bells are useful, if not used too much. Do not use a
gong. A small tea bell is large enough for an ordinary room. The less
noise the superintendent makes, the less noise the scholars will make.
#28. Equipment for Hand-Work.#--This comparatively new feature of
Sunday-school work is rapidly gaining favor. It is usually the most
successful in the Junior Department, though it is used extensively in
both the Primary and Intermediate departments. In this brief
paragraph, we can but mention some of the phases of hand-work, as
follows:--The sand map; the pulp map; map drawing; written lesson
outlines; cutting and pasting pictures in blank books (with or without
writing), treating of the current lessons, or missionary lands and
themes; sewing; modeling Oriental objects in clay, pulp, etc., etc.
Test Questions
1. When there are no separate rooms for departments, what may be done?
2. Name some of the requisites in the most satisfactory seating.
3. Name two important articles of class promotion.
4. What are some of the uses of a blackboard?
5. State what maps are needed in the school.
6. What kind of books should a teacher's library contain?
7. Suggest ways of creating missionary interest.
8. What banners and objects would be valuable?
9. Who should bring Bibles to the school?
10. What is the proper place for lesson helps on Sunday?
11. What are some of the things needed for hand-work in the school?
Lesson 3
The Sunday-school Organized
#29.# A Sunday-school is organized for work when (1) the official
positions are filled; (2) there are teachers for all the classes; (3)
the scholars are properly enrolled and classified; (4) and it has
intelligently set itself thoroughly to accomplish, in a definite way,
that for which a Sunday-school stands.
#30. Enrolment.#--The name of every member of the school should be
enrolled either in a book or by the card system. The enrolment should
show not only name and address, but date of entry, birthday, date of
promotion from one department to another, date of uniting with the
church, date and cause of leaving the school; date of death, if
necessary.
#31. Classification (or Grading).#--Classification consists in placing
the scholars in such departments and classes as will secure for them
and for the whole school the best results in the best manner. This
will require that the scholars be advanced from one department to
another at proper intervals, in order to meet their changing needs.
#32. Departments.#--Every Sunday-school should be divided into
departments. Three or four departments are possible in the smallest
schools, and more are desirable in larger ones. It is usually possible
to maintain the following departments in an ordinary school:
(1) _The Cradle Roll_, for children too small to attend the
regular sessions. These are usually under three years of age.
(2) _The Beginners_, for children from three to six.
(3) _The Primary_, for children from six to nine.
(4) _The Junior_, for children from nine to eleven or twelve.
(5) _The Intermediate_, for boys and girls from twelve to
fifteen or sixteen. (In some schools, a Senior Department,
coming between the Intermediate and the Adult, is
recognized.)
(6) _Adult_, for all over fifteen or sixteen.
(7) _The Home Department_, for those who cannot attend, but
who will study the lessons each week.
(8) _The Teacher-Training Department_, for those who are
preparing to become teachers.
In many schools of several hundred or more, the Adult Department
indicated above is divided into a Young Men's Department, a Young
Women's Department, and a Senior Department of classes of either sex.
An educational test may be required for promotion with honors from one
department to the other; but transfer (without honors) may be made
upon the age basis. Without departments there can be no thorough
grading.
#33. Departmental Organization.#--Each department should have some
organization within itself, at least a superintendent in general
charge. The superintendent of the department determines in what
classes new scholars shall be enrolled, and carries into effect the
plans of work outlined by the cabinet or the superintendent of the
Sunday-school. The teachers should be especially adapted to the work
of the department, and should remain in that department as long as
they can do their best work there.
#34. Classification (or Grading.)#--Proper classification cannot be
maintained unless some one especially appointed for this purpose gives
it careful attention every Sunday. Neither teachers nor scholars
should be allowed to bring new members into their classes without the
consent of the officer in charge of the classification, nor should new
scholars be permitted to join whatever class they wish, regardless of
proper classification. Eternal vigilance is the price of grading. The
superintendent of classification will determine to what department the
new scholar belongs, and his word should be final.
#35. Promotions.#--There comes a time when a scholar ceases to belong
in one department, and belongs in another. Promotions should be made
regularly, and at a public service. All members of the school up to
and including the intermediate scholars should be promoted at the same
time, changing seats, as far as possible.
#36. Records.#--The general records of the school should be well kept,
in ink, in a good book adapted to the purpose. There should be annual,
quarterly, and weekly reports which should be comparative and
complete.
Officers and their Duties
#37.# The officers will vary in number and work, according to the size
of the school and the character of its organization. Certain officers,
however, are needed, no matter how large or small the school may be.
Many schools are under-officered; it is oftener so than otherwise. Not
all of the officers we shall name here could be profitably used in a
small school, and yet each of them is important.
#38. The Pastor.#--Since the Sunday-school is a church service, the
pastor not only has privileges there, but has responsibilities as
well. His chief responsibility lies in the directing of the teaching,
for the pastor of a church is as responsible for the teaching that is
done in his Sunday-school as for the teaching that is done from his
pulpit. This determines largely his place of greatest opportunity--the
selecting of material for the teacher-training class, and helping to
select and appoint the teachers in all departments of the school. He
should not act as superintendent, if it can be avoided, neither should
he usually teach a class, except as a substitute teacher. He should
attend the school regularly, and have a vital part in the program of
every session.