Take boys home for meal and social time.
Promote musical and dramatic entertainments in settlements and
orphanages.
Visit sick boys in hospital.
Arrange outings for needy mothers, and children, crippled and
unfortunate boys.
Automobile party for above.
Play Santa Claus to poor families.
Lead in keeping school and shop morally clean.
Stand for clean thoughts, clean speech, clean sport.
Seek leadership in public school clubs.
Get interested in the boy life of the community.
Help boys to find employment.
Help enforce minor laws.
Take an interest in the delinquent boy.
_Mental Service._--
Secure speakers for practical talks.
Secure speakers for life-work talks.
Lead in some mental activity.
Promote an educational trip.
Teach elementary arts and crafts.
Conduct discussion of practical citizenship.
Lead discussion of current topics.
Lead younger boys as suggested under class activities--Mental.
Teach English to foreign-speaking boys.
Help wage-earning boys in elementary subjects, arithmetic, geography,
etc.
Encourage grade boys to stay at school by coaching them in studies.
Organize civic nights.
Organize debates.
Organize camera trips and photo study.
Organize Around-the-Fire and story nights.
Lend books and guide the reading of boys.
Edit class or school paper.
Be foreman in printing room of above paper.
Lead observation trips.
_Spiritual Service._--
Lead a Boys' Bible Class.
Take part in Boys' Conferences.
Lead Boys' Meetings.
Teach in extension Sunday school.
Serve on Sunday school Committees.
Serve on Church Committees.
Take an interest in every church organization.
Promote systematic giving among boys.
Lead a Mission Biography group.
Lead an inner circle for prayer and Bible study.
Promote a census of non-church boys.
Visit homes to invite fellows to church services.
Join a training class.
Lead campaign to increase Sunday school membership.
Promote inter-class relationships.
Lead prayer groups or circles.
Help in Home Department.
Serve on Reception Committee at Church or Sunday school.
Visit teen age Shut-ins.
Visit prisoners in jails.
Do chores for sick folks.
Help the aged to and from church services.
Support a bed in a hospital.
The Organized Class, its officers, teacher and committees ought to find
enough to do in the above long list. The service activities have been
listed without any idea of order or grading. They are also for
individuals and the class as a whole. They are merely suggestive. The
class and the teacher should do things as a real part of the class life.
[Illustration]
ORGANIZED CLASS ACTIVITIES
BOYS' BIBLE CLASSES
JOHN L. ALEXANDER,
Secondary Division Superintendent, International Sunday School
Association.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THROUGH-THE-WEEK ACTIVITIES
Adams.--Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys ($1.75).
Alexander.--Opportunity for Extension of Boys' Work to a Summer Camp
Headquarters (_American Youth_, June, 1911), (.20).
--Using Nature's Equipment--God's Out-of-Doors (_American Youth_,
August, 1911). Single copies out of print, but bound volume for 1911 may
be obtained for $1.50.
Baker.--Indoor Games and Socials for Boys (.75).
Bond.--Scientific American Boy at School ($2.00).
Boys' Handbook. (Boy Scouts of America) (.30).
Brunner.--Tracks and Tracking (.70).
Burr.--Around the Fire (.75).
Camp.--Fishing Kits and Equipment ($1.00).
Chesley.--Social Activities for Men and Boys ($1.00).
Clarke.--Astronomy from a Dipper (.60).
Corsan.--At Home in the Water (.75).
Cullens.--Reaching Boys in Small Groups Without Equipment. (_American
Youth_, February, 1911.) (.20).
Dana.--How to Know the Wild Flowers ($2.00).
Ditmars.--The Reptile Book ($4.00).
Fowler.--Starting in Life ($1.50).
Gibson.--Camping for Boys ($1.00).
Hasluck.--Bent Iron Work (.50).
--Clay Modeling (.50).
--Photography (.50).
--Taxidermy (.50).
Job.--How to Study Birds ($1.50).
Kenealy.--Boat Sailing ($1.00).
Lynch.--American Red Cross First Aid ($1.00).
Parsons.--How to Know the Ferns ($1.50).
Pyle.--Story of King Arthur and His Knights ($2.00).
Reed.--Bird Guide. In 2 volumes. (Vol I, $1.00, Vol. II,.75).
Reed.--Flower Guide (.50).
Scout Master's Handbook (.60).
Seton.--Book of Woodcraft ($1.75).
----Forester's Manual ($1.00).
Seven Hundred Things a Bright Boy Can Make ($1.00).
Warman.--Physical Training Simplified (.10).
White.--How to Make Baskets ($1.00).
XI
THE BOYS' DEPARTMENT IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL[6]
The Boys' Department in the Sunday school is the grouping together of
organized classes for the sake of unity and team work among the
adolescent boys. Investigation proves that boys work together best when
separated from men, women and girls. The Boys' Department contemplates a
change from the usual organization in the Sunday school, in that the
classes of boys between twelve and twenty years of age shall meet as a
separate department of the school and have their own closing and opening
services, and the natural activities that would spring from a separate
departmental life. The underlying idea of the Boys' Department is to
make the boys feel that they are a real part of the Sunday school, with
a real purpose and actual activities. Where it has been tried, not only
has the attendance been increased, but the enrollment in the department
has been doubled and trebled. The department also presents an
opportunity of interesting boys in all forms of church life through the
committee work which the department inaugurates. The criticism that the
Boys' Department may become a junior church is not borne out by the
experience of the men who have tried it. On the other hand, the
testimony is that the Boys' Department has increased the attendance at
the morning and evening services of the church, and has created a
general interest and enthusiasm for the entire church life. The Boys'
Department is not urged on any basis of sex segregation, although a good
many educators are urging the segregation of the sexes in public
education. The underlying idea of the Department is to group the boys
together for team work and cooperation, with a clear understanding of
the gang principle which clamors for a club or organization that
satisfies the social and fraternal need. In fact, it is the neglect of
the latter by the Sunday school that has brought the countless boys'
organizations into existence, and the well-conducted Boys' Department,
composed of well-organized, self-governing Bible classes, will mean much
to the general church life, as well as to the simplifying of the present
complicated scheme of work with boys. Nearly all of these auxiliary boy
organizations have had their birth in the Sunday school, through the
attempt to meet the boy need, which the Sunday school hitherto has not
seen its way clear to do.
When departmental organization, however, is mentioned, the genius of the
individual leader and teacher must come into play. The form of
organization that may be successful with one leader may be a failure
with another. This chance does not lie or inhere in the organization,
but in the leader; for the gifts, talents, equipment and adaptability of
leaders vary just as much in Sunday school organization as in the
so-called secular forms of activity. The best form of organization,
then, as well as the most successful form for the local school, is the
"kind that works."
_Three Proved Forms of Departmental Organization_
Successful organization is the result of experiment. None but the result
of experiment has a right to be exploited. Sunday school teen age
workers have tried, proved and found satisfactory to their own liking,
by its results, the following three kinds of teen age organization for
the local school:
_Intermediate and Senior Departments_
The first of these is known as the Intermediate and Senior Departmental
organization. Its characteristic is the dividing of the teen age into
two groups--Intermediate, 13 to 16 years, and Senior, 17 to 20 years. In
some schools these departments meet separately for Sunday school work.
Wherever this is done there should be at least a superintendent and
secretary for each. While the general principles of the work are the
same, the problems and details of the classes are sometimes different.
The department superintendent should have special charge of his
department and be responsible for building it up; also for department
teachers' meetings, and should be personally acquainted with every
scholar. The department secretary should keep an alphabetical and
birthday card index of scholars; send welcome letters to new scholars;
provide the superintendent with a list of new scholars, that they may be
properly presented to the department; send lists of absentees to
teachers; keep a record of correlated work accomplished by scholars,
quarterly lesson examinations, etc.
_Teen Age Department_
In some schools the custom is to combine the Intermediate and Senior
Departments into one and to regard the years, 13 to 20, as a series of
eight grades. Several large schools are enthusiastic about this plan,
and as the worship requirements are much the same in the teen years the
Opening and Closing Services are acceptable to all grades. This
arrangement also is adaptable to limited equipment, and affords a
certain amount of hero-worship to the younger boy on account of the
older boy being present. It also offers the older boy a field of service
through helpfulness to the younger members of the department. In some
schools this adaptation is known as the High School Department.
_Boys' Departments_
During the last few years separate Boys' Departments have come into
favor with some Sunday school workers. These departments should not be
attempted, however, until every class is organized (see chapter on The
Organized Sunday school Bible Class), and there is efficient leadership
to guide them. A premature start may be ineffective and prejudice
parents and boys.
=The Departmental Committees=
_Executive Committee_
The Executive Committee has direct oversight of the general affairs of
the department and acts officially between sessions on matters needing
prompt attention. It is made up of the officers, general superintendent
of the school, the pastor of the church, and the president and teacher
of each class.
_Inter-Class Committee_
The Inter-Class Committee has the direction and supervision, through
sub-committees, of all the activities of the department, such as:
Athletics
Outings
Camping
Socials
Entertainments
Lectures
Library
Vocational Talks
Practical Talks
Congress or Senate Debates
Current Topics
Practical Citizenship
Service Councils
Degrees and Initiations
Employment Bureau
Home Cooperation
School Cooperation
_Committee on Sunday school Life_
This Committee has a twofold function, the planning of the department
program for general school festivals and matters of general school
business. The diagram shows the activities of this committee.
COMMITTEE ON SUNDAY SCHOOL LIFE
FEAST DAYS GENERAL BUSINESS
Children's Day Sunday School Board Meetings[7]
Christmas Teachers' Meetings
New Year's School Elections
Easter Membership Campaigns for Entire School
Rally Day School Needs
Anniversary Picnics
Specials, Etc. Socials, Etc.
_Committee on Church Life_
The Church Life Committee also has a double task. Its activities along
the lines of church life are as follows:
=Committee on Church Life=
WORSHIP MEMBERSHIP AND BENEVOLENCES
Morning Preaching Service
Evening Preaching Service
Mid-week Prayer Service
Special Services
Invitation
Current Expenses
Extension Support
Social Life
Auxiliary Organizations
_Committee on Inter-Church Life_
The Inter-church Life Committee, through its representatives on the
Inter-Sunday school Councils and Committees, cares for its part of the
common teen age Sunday school life of the community. In this way the
Sunday school is made to loom large as the teen age organization in the
town or city. Some of its activities would be:
Inter-Church Council
Normal Institute
Training Classes
Athletic League
Church Census
Boys' Conferences
Girls' Conferences
Publicity
Special Cooperation.
SUNDAY SCHOOL SECONDARY DIVISION
THE TEEN AGE BOYS' DEPARTMENT
|(Every class organized)
|
ORGANIZATION
|
-----------------------------------------------
| | |
OFFICERS | COMMITTEES
| | |
Church Board [a] | ------------------------------------
Sunday School Board [a] | | | | | |
Sunday School | | | | | |
Superintendent[a] | Executive | Sunday School Life | Church Life
| | Inter-Class Inter-Church Life
Superintendent [b] | | |
Assistant Superintendent[b] | ------------- -------------
Treasurer [b] | | | | |
Advisory Superintendent[c] | Feast General Worship General
| Days Interest Church
| Life
DEPARTMENT ACTIVITY
|
------------------------------------------------
| |
SUNDAY SESSIONS MASS WEEK MEETINGS
| (Occasional when there is a motive)
Opening Service
Class Hour
Department Affairs
Closing Services
[a] Supervisory [b] Older Boy [c] Adult
Prepared by John L. Alexander, Superintendent Secondary Division
International Sunday School Association
POINTS OF CAUTION!
The promoters of a Boys' Department in the Sunday school should not be
too hasty in pushing the organization. There are certain facts to be
kept in mind in effecting a workable, durable department.
1. The Boys' Department is merely one of the departments of the school,
and nothing must be done that will cripple or weaken the remainder of
the school. Where possible it is best to promote separate departments
for teen age boys and girls at the same time. This will reduce
opposition and achieve efficiency.
2. There is no use in trying to organize a Boys' Department, where there
is no adequate meeting place. The value of a Boys' Department lies
almost entirely in the unity produced by the worship of the opening and
closing services and the discussion of departmental common affairs.
3. The Department cannot take the place of the Organized Class. Where it
does, it is temporary, hurrah-in-character, inefficient and harmful.
The Sunday school is educational in purpose. The Boys' Department must
be likewise.
4. Nothing should be advocated or promoted in the Boys' Department that
is not in accord with the Sunday school and Denominational policy. The
Boys' Department is part of the Church.
_Class Organization_
The classes of the teen years should all be organized before any scheme
for department organization is put in use. The Organized Class is based
on the so-called "gang instinct," and is the unit of all organization.
_Departmental Progressive Steps_
The steps in organizing a Teen Age Boys' or Secondary Division
Department should be:
1. Appointment of Teen Age Superintendent.
2. Every class organized according to Denominational and International
Standard.
3. Two-session-a-week classes--Sunday and week-day.
4. Trained teachers.
5. Departmental organization.
=Departmental Equipment=
_Separate Rooms_
There should be separate assembly rooms or divisions for these
departments where they meet apart from each other. There should also be
separate rooms or screened-off places for the classes to meet.
_Equipment_
The outfit for the department and classes should include Bibles, tables,
blackboards, charts, pictures, maps--including maps for mission study,
also relief maps, mission curios, etc.
_Promotions_
Much should be made of promotions to and from the grades within the
department. A certificate or diploma recognizing regular work should be
granted on Promotion Day. Special work done is recognized by placing a
seal upon the certificate. Promotion exercises should include some
statement of the work accomplished.
_Sunday School Spirit_
In order to maintain a genuine spirit of Sunday school unity it is
desirable to have the whole school meet together from time to time for
the common tie and uplift of worship in the mass. The exercises of
festival occasions also help to bring this about, and the common
gatherings, regular or special, of the school, tend to magnify the
united leadership of officers and teachers. These should never interfere
with the work of instruction, the main objective of the school, but
should supplement it. Departments should be made to feel their
partnership in the Sunday school enterprise, and this may be brought
about by the reading of the departmental and school minutes in each
department. Continued emphasis should be placed on the oneness of the
school--"All one body, we." Thus we may hope for Christian comradeship
and loyalty.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON BOYS' DEPARTMENT
Boys' Work Message.--(Men and Religion Movement) ($1.00).
Cope.--Efficiency in the Sunday School ($1.00).
Huse.--Boys' Department in Springvale, Maine (_American Youth_,
February, 1911) (.20).
Stanley.--The Boys' Department in the Sunday School (_American Youth_,
April, 1911) (.20).
Waite.--Boys' Department of the Sunday School (Free leaflet).
XII
INTER-SUNDAY SCHOOL EFFORT FOR BOYS
This volume so far has discussed nothing save the work among teen age
boys in the local Sunday school, in Organized Class or Boys' Department.
This is as it should be, "beginning at Jerusalem" and taking care first
of the local school. To magnify the church and church school, however,
in the eye of the boy and to make it his central interest or the center
of his interests, it is necessary to view Sunday school effort in a
larger way than the work of the local school. The Sunday school must
become city-wide in its scope and effort. Common town-wide activity,
such as outings, athletics, camps, entertainments, lectures, campaigns,
etc., must be promoted jointly. Not only this, but the Christian boys
of the community must be taught the democracy of Christianity and be led
to work together in Christian service for each other and with each other
for all the boys of the city. Something of this has been attempted in
some places, but always under adult rule. Adult supervision--not
rule--is always necessary. Thus city camps and Sunday school athletic
leagues have flourished as adult effort for boys. That which is
contemplated in the following two chapters is distinctly work _by_ boys
_for_ boys in the Sunday school field. The need of adult help to
organize and set things going is recognized as necessary, good and the
proper thing. The value of the work will consist in the enlistment of
the boys themselves and the participation in and direction of the
proposed work by the boys. Boys are not as exclusive, limited or
provincial as adults. Their interests are wider than the local church.
The task is to couple those interests with the local church as the
center of greater community-wide activity, and to direct them to
effective service.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON INTER-SUNDAY SCHOOL OR CHURCH WORK
Barbour (Editor).--Making Religion Efficient (Boys' Work Chapter)
($1.00). This volume also contains the Men and Religion Charts.
Boys' Work Message (Men and Religion Movement) ($1.00).
XIII
THE OLDER BOYS' CONFERENCE OR CONGRESS[8]
This is one of the best forms of Inter-Sunday school work for boys. If
it is rightly handled, it will add much to the Christian enthusiasm of
the older boys of the Sunday schools.
_It is to be noticed, however, that it is an Older Boys' Conference._
This means that the ages are to be confined to the stretch between
fifteen and twenty years. Do not spoil your effort by "running in" boys
under fifteen. Of course the younger boy is important, but the type of
work accomplished in these conferences is beyond him and his presence
will nearly neutralize your effort.
The aim of the conference should be, not merely to put new Christian
enthusiasm into the older fellow, but to get him to talk over the
problems of the Sunday school from his own point of view. Hundreds of
these conferences have been held throughout the Continent, and scores of
boys have been led into Christian service thereby. The discussion at
these conferences is also most intelligent, being often above the grade
of adult groups. The boy gets to know the Sunday school by talking about
it, sees its problems, his own needs and the way to meet them. He
likewise gets a new idea of his obligations.
It is to be noticed again that it is an Older Boys' Conference. _This
means that the boys themselves should direct the work of the Conference
as much as possible, and that the Conference should be officered by
boys._ I have no sympathy with the men who cannot trust boys to do this
work. It is largely due to a fear that the boy will grow conceited
because of his new-found opportunity. It is due more, however, to the
fear that the boy will act unwisely from an adult viewpoint. Both of
these fears come from adult conceit and the inability to trust the boy.
Such men should leave boys and boys' work severely alone.
It is to be noticed for the third time that it is an Older Boys'
Conference. _This means that the large part of the program and all the
discussion should be by the boys themselves._ No man should take part in
the discussion save the man who leads it, and the future may also
provide a boy for the leadership of the discussion. The writer in over a
hundred conferences would allow no man to take part, as the aim of the
conference was to make it a boys' conference. If men may dominate and
intimidate the boy, better settle the matter in an adult group.
The officers of the Older Boys' Conference should be President,
Vice-President (who in most cases should be Toast-Master at the
Conference Banquet) and Secretary. There should also be a committee of
three boys appointed by the President (who may be helped to this end) to
report at the banquet session on the papers and discussions. In this way
the summary of the conference is as the boy sees it. This is the aim of
the conference.
Two ways are open for the election of the officers: by a Nominating
Committee and in open conference from the floor. _If a Nominating
Committee is the method, no man should be present to suggest or
dictate._ The committee should, however, have the right to consult
whomever they please, in order to get the information they may wish.
_The writer prefers the Open Conference Nominations from the floor. In
over two hundred conferences he has never yet been disappointed in the
choice of the boys._
The program should be distinctly a Sunday school one. The conference is
in the interests of the Sunday school. Keep it to the purpose intended.
Hundreds of good causes might be discussed, but the objective of the
conference would be missed. Below are three different length programs
used at different places. They may prove suggestive to those intending
to conduct such meetings.
A. Afternoon and Evening Conference (One Day).
PROGRAM
TORONTO
BOYS' WORK CONFERENCE
=December= 31, 1912
_Conference Theme:_--_Training and Service_
=St. James' Square Presbyterian Church=, Gerrard St., between
Yonge and Church Sts.
2:00 P.M. Registration of Delegates.
2:30 Music, in charge of Mr. W.R. Young,
Choirmaster of St. John's Presbyterian
Church.
Devotional--Rev. E.W. Halpenny,
B.D., General Secretary, Ontario
Sunday School Association.
3:00 The Message of the Galt Conference,
N.W. Henderson, Robert Walker,
Gordon Galloway.
3:20 Address--"Organized Sunday School
Work," by John L. Alexander, Chicago,
Ill., Superintendent Secondary
Division, International Sunday School
Association.
4:15 Group Conferences, led by Taylor Statten,
Preston G. Orwig and A.W.
Forgie.
5:45 Recreation, Seymour Collings, Physical
Director, Toronto Central Young
Men's Christian Association.
7:00 Banquet to Delegates, on floor of Association
Hall, Central Young Men's
Christian Association Building, corner
Yonge and McGill Streets.
Chairman--John Gilchrist, President
Toronto Sunday School Association.
(a) Music.
(b) Toasts--The King,--The Chairman
"Our Country."
(c) Address--"The Crusade"--John
L. Alexander.
=St. James' Square Presbyterian Church=