interest. Some boys will be mutually interested in collecting stamps,
riding a bicycle, forming a mounted patrol, working with wireless, in
music and orchestra work, etc., and boys grouping together according to
such kindred interests as they manifest has proven most satisfactory in
general boys' work.
=Problems of Boy-handling Simplified by Natural Standard
Grouping=
Grouping the boys according to natural standards makes the problem of
handling them much simpler. Boys between twelve and fourteen are in the
age of authority, and the word of the Teacher will settle most
difficulties that arise. Boys between fourteen and sixteen are in the
age of experience, and an opportunity must be given them to check up
what they are told by what they are experiencing. Between twelve and
fourteen authority may be rigid. Between fourteen and sixteen it must be
giving way to reason. Authority will still continue to settle the boys'
disputes, but it will be the authority that gives reasons for its
action. Boys between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years can only be
handled on the basis of cooperation. They have passed from the stage of
blindly following what they are told. They have experience enough to
know that they are able to do things themselves, and they have
discovered enough things to give them a basis of doing things on their
own account. The way to handle boys rightly in this group will be by
tactful suggestion and cooperation on the part of the teacher. There
will be very little difficulty with the groupings if the Sunday school
superintendent or teacher respects the natural, group "ganging" of the
boys. The boys themselves group, not according to mental efficiency
tests, but according to physiological development. Thus we find boys of
various chronological ages in the same gang. A little common sense will
prevent many blunders.
=Securing Teen Age Teachers=
As soon as Sunday school teaching becomes a dignified, worth-while job,
men will be attracted to the task and privilege. The unemployed male
members of the church will then be led to see that there is something
real to be achieved. The vision of a symmetrically developed boy is all
that is needed to get most men. Of course, they demand a plan, and the
organized Sunday school class with through-the-week activities will
supply that.
Sometimes it is a good thing to send the boys themselves after the
teachers. This has been found to be of great profit in several places.
The request coming from the boys means a lot more than coming from the
superintendent. The following extracts from two letters of a teen age
superintendent give point to this idea.
"On Sunday a bunch of the younger boys came to Mr. Ball, and said, 'We
have no teacher; will you get one for us?' Mr. Ball looked at them, and
said, 'Who do you want, fellows?' They looked at each other--this was
something new. 'Who do we want?' and the leader turned around and said
to the fellows, 'Say, fellows, who _do_ we want?' A hurried consultation
revealed the fact that they wanted, of course, one of the prominent men
of the church. Mr. Ball said, 'All right; get hold of my coat-tail'; and
the crew got hold, and formed a snake line, and out of the school they
went, upstairs to one of the class-rooms, in search of Mr. B. They found
that he had left for home, and the boys looked at Mr. Ball and said,
'Now, what shall we do?' Mr. Ball said, 'Well, fellows, you know where
he lives. I can't go with you, but you fellows go to his home and camp
there until he says yes.' Off they started. Several men were telling me
this story, and one is a neighbor of Mr. B's. He said that when he got
home from Sunday school last Sunday--a bitter cold day--he went out into
his back yard, and, glancing over the fences, he saw a bunch of twelve
boys lined up on Mr. B's back porch, stamping their feet. He called
across to them, 'Say, fellows, what's the matter?' 'We're looking for a
Sunday school teacher,' they yelled back. He said he thought he'd drop.
"The next morning Mr. Ball met Mr. B. in the street car, and he grinned
across at him and said, 'Did a group of boys call on you yesterday, Mr.
B.?' 'They certainly did,' he replied, with a broad grin. 'Well, did
they get you?' 'Did they get me? Yes, they sure got me, and from now on
I'm going to teach their class; there was nothing else for me to do.'"
The story of another teacher acquired in this way reads as follows:
"Before the boys got to his house the man was getting ready for bed. He
had fixed the furnace, and had his bath robe on when the door-bell rang.
He had just said to his wife that he did not think any one would call
that night, and it was then about nine-thirty. When the bell rang his
wife snickered,' as he put it. He went down stairs, turned the gas on
low, and opened the door. Three older fellows stood on the porch. He
looked at them and they at him and then he asked them in. They filed
in--fellows 17 and 18 years of age. He led the way into the library,
like a monk in flowing robes, and the three fellows followed. Seating
themselves solemnly they stated the cause of their visit, and he started
to remonstrate, etc. They settled themselves comfortably in their
chairs, and said they had come to camp there until he 'saw it.' This is
the man's own story. He said that when he saw they were in earnest he
told them he would like to teach a class of fellows such as they, and
that he would take the class if they would get on the job."
=The Teen Age Older Boy as Teacher=
Increasing attention is being given in some places to the training of
older boys for the teaching of younger groups in the Sunday school. On
"Decision Day" volunteers are being asked to enter a Training Class, and
choice Christian boys are in this way being interested in the teaching
work of the school. In other places older boys are being put in charge
of younger boys' classes, and are meeting, either on Sunday or on a
week-night, for training. This latter plan affords real laboratory work,
without which teacher-training courses are pure theory. We learn by
doing.
The teen age boy as teacher will ultimately solve the problem of the
teen age teaching force. As Japan, Corea, India and China must
eventually be Christianized by native Christian forces, so the teen age
in the Sunday school will, of necessity, in principle and practice, be
led by the teen age. The duty of the missionary in non-christian lands
is to train the native forces for the task of Christianizing these
lands; likewise, the men of this Sunday school generation must lead and
train the older adolescent in the Secondary Division of the school for
the leading of the teen age into the service of the church.
PREPARATION FOR TEACHING
The really great task of the Christian adult and older boy in the Sunday
school is a real training for service. Stopping the leak from the teen
age in the Sunday school will never be accomplished until workers are
willing to prepare and equip themselves to a point where their wisdom,
ability and consecration will attract the active minds of the teen boys.
Every teacher should be an International Standard Teacher Training
graduate. Information concerning this course can be obtained from any
Sunday School Association.
PATIENCE NECESSARY IN THE TEACHER
Things cannot happen in a day. Christianity itself is a growing,
developing thing. "First the seed, then the blade, then the ear, then
the full corn in the ear." Have patience! Maybe you will have to win the
boys yourself first, before you can win them for Him. Read this letter
from a man who has the vision, the plan and a lot of common-sense
patience, and think it over:
"Very recently I came across your card, and it brought to mind the
promise I made to report progress with my class of boys.
"You see so many people in the course of a week, to say nothing of a
couple of months, that it may be well to remind you that I am the chap
who came to your room in ----, and afterward stuck to you all the way
to ---- when you were leaving town.
"When I saw you I was having an average attendance of three, if one is
allowed to stretch a fraction of a boy into a whole one, and a
membership in the class of four. These boys had lost all interest in the
Sunday school, and it was only that 'Dad said you must' that any of them
came at all to the service.
"Today I have done as well as the faithful servants, and behold my four
talents have gained other four. There is no longer a membership and
average attendance, for they all come when they are not sick or out of
town; and one thing which is a wonder to me is that a good many of the
boys from other schools come to us whenever there is no service in their
own churches.
"I have not said 'now boys' to this class once, but we have gone hunting
caves and are going again next Thursday, and we are all going camping if
we can arrange a time during the summer.
"These boys, who used to come to the church with a lurching walk and
underlip stuck out, now come in like men. They have covered the class
room walls with pictures from magazines, have brought rocking chairs
from home and use their room as the place to plan the fun for the
following week. They have, after some pretty violent pushing from the
teacher, petitioned the powers to give the basement of the church over
to them and the other classes of intermediate grade for the purpose of
having a social evening once each week. The petition has been granted
and we will probably open up about May 16th.
"None of my class show any violent signs of getting converted yet, but
when one considers that this is a class who could not keep a teacher
over three or four Sundays; who used to start a rough-house on all
proper and improper occasions, and who had been known to throw books or
any other handy article when they got sick of hearing any more Bible, I
think I can report progress.
"The most of my boys were arrested a couple of months ago for breaking
into summer camps and looking around. Today three of them came to my
office with one of their friends who had cut his foot and told me all
about their trouble, owning up to the whole business and ending by
saying that if I would take their Boy Scout society they would cut all
that kind of business out. I wish to God I had the time to take up this
Boy Scout job, but I have not; but I will do the next best thing by
taking them hiking on Thursday, which is my day of rest.
"One can't teach boys like these the beauties of religion any more than
he can teach Greek to a puppy. They are not up to this kind of thing, so
I am trying to teach them to be men, and when we get that lesson we
will try the higher one. Of course, I give them the moral side of every
lesson and point out how God has worked through some mighty mean
material.
"We still have a fight once in a while during class hours, and I call
time when they get too near the stove, but this is to be expected in a
class which is entirely self-governing. I never have said one word about
anything they have done in the class, except to impress upon them that
they should be men and the lesson is working slowly.
"Now, my good sir, don't try to reply to this letter. I know you get a
good many just like it, and I am writing just to give you my experience
in the hope that it may help some one else; also because I promised to
let you know what progress the class was making.
"_If you will drop into ---- in a year from now I hope to be able to point
to a much larger class than the first six months has shown and to show
you the majority in the church_.
"Thanking you for reading this far and
with kindest wishes, I am
"Very truly yours."
=The Boy the Main Issue=
The idea that must continually be kept in mind is the boy's good and the
boy. A lot of our teachers in the public schools are trying to teach the
subject-matter of the book when they ought to be teaching the boy. They
employ static methods. You can get up a goal for attainment and the boy
will reach the goal. Generally, however, he will go no higher than you
point. Your teaching should be dynamic rather than static.
Aim to secure balanced, symmetrical activities for your class. Remember
your boy is four-sided, that he is physical, mental, social and
religious in his nature. Do not neglect any one side of him, but get the
proper agencies to cooperate with you for these ends. _Let the boys do
whatever they can. Merely insist on adequate adult supervision_. Above
all be patient, practical and business-like and remember that old heads
never grow on young shoulders. _The Sunday school Teacher should take
his place in the community by the side of the teacher of secular
instruction. He is an educator, and is dealing with the most plastic and
most valuable asset in the community--boyhood_. Let him take his task
seriously, look upon his privilege with a desire to accomplish great
things, and always remember that the good of the boy is his ultimate
aim.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE TEEN AGE TEACHER
Brumbaugh.--The Making of a Teacher ($1.00).
Foster.--Starting to Teach (.40).
James.--Talks to Teachers ($1.50).
Kirkpatrick.--Individual in the Making ($1.25).
McElfresh.--Training of Sunday-school Teachers (_in preparation_).
Schauffler.--Lamoreaux-Brumbaugh-Lawrance. Training the Teacher ($1.00).
XX
DANGER POINTS
A real danger lies in boys' groups which are seemingly organized, yet
which really have no organization. A few Bible classes have officers,
such as president, secretary, and treasurer, and a few standing
committees, all of whom take no real part in the class life, the teacher
doing everything himself and attempting to deceive the boys by giving
them a show of organization. Such classes are detrimental to the spirit
of boys' work, and should not be tolerated.
The teacher who cannot retire his leadership to the rear of the class,
instead of posing at the front, is another serious damper to organized
work with boys in the Sunday school. A leader should have a strong
Christian character, have the quality of commanding the respect of
boys, have the ability to direct boys in doing things, be keen in his
sympathy, have patience and persistence, and be absolutely natural in
his bearing. He encourages freedom of thought on the part of the boys,
believes that a boy has brains enough of his own to think on any point
that may be discussed, is open and above-board in his teaching, has a
strong grip upon the practical truths of life, and tries to lead his
boys out of doubt and difficulty by the path of service.
If dangers such as these be eliminated from boys' work in connection
with the Sunday school, and if the spirit of sincerity and earnestness
pervades the work of the leaders, there should be little difficulty in
raising the boy through the physical, social and mental to the larger
spiritual expression for which the church stands. Every week hundreds of
boys of the adolescent years are lining up for Christian service all
over our land, and if the ideas and directions given these boys are of
the right sort, within one generation there will be no boy problem, for
the boy problem of this generation is not the problem of the boys, but
the problem of the men who are leading boys.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON DANGER POINTS
The Older Boy Sunday School Superintendent (_American Youth_, October,
1912). (.20).
Robinson.--The Adolescent Boy in the Sunday School (_American Youth_,
April, 1911). Single copies out of print but bound volume for 1911 may
be obtained for $1.50.
Statten.--Danger Lines in Using Boys (_American Youth_, June, 1912)
(.20).
XXI
THE RURAL SUNDAY SCHOOL
The problem of the rural Sunday school is its size and equipment. The
average number in the school is around eighty, and the building is
nearly always a single room. Some very small villages, near great
cities, and even some struggling mission Sunday schools in these cities
have to contend with the same problem. Some of this volume will apply to
the rural Sunday school, and some will not. It is the province of this
chapter to point out the parts that apply.
Everything that has to deal with the Organized Class or group is
applicable. The Organized Class is the unit and beginning of all
organization. The boy gang, or group, is common to both city and rural
district. There is no problem in either place, if there is no group of
boys. The Departmental groupings may not be feasible. Usually they are
not. There may not be enough groups of boys to form a club or Boy Scout
Troop or a chapter of a boy order. Generally this is true. And, after
all, it is a distinct gain to the Sunday school, as the grouping that is
made by force of compulsion is the Organized Class or group. The chapter
on the Organized Sunday School Bible Class will apply itself to the
rural school, wherever there is a half dozen boys and it is given a
chance.
The chapter on Bible Study will likewise fit into the rural situation.
No matter whether the boys be urban or rural, they demand Bible Study
that will fit into their religious, developing needs. Perhaps Bible
Study courses with rural application need to be arranged, and I am led
to believe that the illustrative material should be vastly different
from that used for city boys, and of a rural character. However, there
has been too much written and spoken of the difference between rural and
urban boys. The differences discovered by the writer seem to be all in
favor of the country boy--more wholesome surroundings, more quiet and
less nerve-destroying interests, and more time, because of fewer
commercial amusements to really discover things for themselves. The
average rural boy has read more and knows more about current events than
the city-bred lad. The country boy should not be provincialized by his
Bible Study, or anything else. He should be given as large a touch with
the world of men and letters as any one else. The illustrations used in
Lesson Helps, etc., should have some bearing on the life he leads, that
the application of the study may germinate in his daily life, else the
study will have little meaning, but he needs no separate, distinct
courses. It is not a different selection of material, but a different
treatment that is needed. The Denominational Leaders will sooner or
later be forced to heed this cry from the largest section of the Sunday
school field. Until they do Graded Lessons will not gain materially in
the open country.
On the other hand, where there is only one group of adolescent boys in
the Sunday school, Graded Lessons are practicable, as well as necessary
to the best religious development of boyhood. The grading is cut down to
a minimum, and it merely means fewer classes studying the same lesson.
It would mean just the one group, with a new course each year. The
difficulty is not with the lessons, but with the school officials and
the teacher.
The chapter on Through-the-Week Activities is very applicable. The gang
will get together some time, on Saturday night, if not at another time.
The Young Men's Christian Association County Work Secretaries are
getting the boys of the open country together for week-night meetings
without trouble. "Get something doing" and see how quickly the rural
boys will get together. These activities again will differ greatly from
those of city boys. There will be great emphasis on the Social and
Mental as against the Out-of-Door doings of the urban adolescents. The
principle already laid down, to let the boys themselves decide the
activity, will settle this difficulty at the start.
So as to the chapter on the Teen Age Teacher! Boys and men are the same
pretty much, wherever they live. They may be more deliberate, less
showy, and steadier in some places than others, but we cannot admit
inferiority or lack of interest on the part of the splendid rural boy.
He is filling the big jobs in our cities today, and will as long as the
cities last. The teen age teacher in the rural school needs to master
himself for his task. He is doing a bigger piece of work than his
brother of the city school. He is preparing men for urban leadership.
To make a long story short, the parts of this book that deal with the
small group are applicable to the rural Sunday school. The teen age
teacher in the rural school should begin with these, and maybe after a
while he will see opportunities for larger groupings. The Young Men's
Christian Association County Work Secretary certainly is. Inter-Sunday
school work is possible by the Sunday school forces themselves.
A fitting close to this chapter is the challenge to the teen age
teachers of the rural schools, which Mr. Preston G. Orwig has hurled at
North America:
"Every rural school has its quota of workers who are, perhaps
unconsciously, limiting their own usefulness, as well as retarding the
progress of the school, by meeting every new plan of work proposed with
the statement that, 'That plan is all right for the city, but it won't
work here because we have so few members and our people live so far
apart.' With the exception of the man who constantly reminds us that 'we
did not do it this way thirty years ago,' and who, in some cases, is
really a menace to the work, there is no greater obstacle confronting
workers in rural schools.
"In a recent conference of Secondary Division workers in rural Sunday
schools, a speaker was advocating the necessity of recognizing the
fourfold--physical, mental, social and spiritual--life of the scholars,
in planning for the work of the class. The tremendous opportunity of
teachers for reaching adolescent boys for Jesus Christ, through their
physical and social instincts, was emphasized. Luke 2:52 was quoted to
clinch the argument. In the discussion that followed everybody seemed
satisfied that a broader policy of work should be pursued. At this
juncture a man in the audience arose, and, in a most uncompromising
manner, attempted to show that it was useless to promote such methods
for rural schools, as the scattered population and limited membership
made it impossible to develop the work along the lines proposed.
"Later in the day, two of the members in this man's own class were
interviewed, and, in answer to direct questions concerning the above two
points, stated that during the winter months older boys and girls, many
of whom attended that very school, went as often as three nights a week
to a small pond in the community to skate, some of them traveling from
three to four miles to get there. Other sports were indulged in,
according to the season, and, according to these boys, they seldom
experienced great difficulty in getting 'a crowd' together. Frequently
their games wound up in a grand free-for-all fight.
"Now, had this teacher recognized the educative value of supervised play
and planned to meet his fellows on the ice, as a class, he would have
formed contacts there which he could never hope to form by simply
meeting them in the Sunday afternoon session. In addition to that he
would have an opportunity to help the class to apply practically the
truths of the Sunday lesson in the activities of everyday life.
"It would be well for such workers to remember that in some of our
larger cities one must oftentimes travel from one to two hours on
crowded trolley cars, in distance, perhaps, eight or ten miles, in order
to meet with his class. Again, in some sections of the city, populated
mostly by foreigners, the Sunday schools are often smaller, in point of
membership, than many of the rural schools.
"It matters not whether the boy or girl lives in the city or country,
the needs are the same. What is needed is 'Visioned Leadership.'
"It is, in a sense, pathetic, to note that these objections are always
of adult origin and are not the verdict of the boys. They, however, must
suffer in a handicapped development, through the shortsightedness of
their leaders. Where there's a will, there's a way."
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE RURAL SUNDAY SCHOOL
Cope.--Efficiency in the Sunday School ($1.00).
Fiske.--The Challenge of the Country (.75).
The Rural Church Message--Men and Religion Movement ($1.00).
XXII
THE RELATION OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TO COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS