THE AIM
OUTLINE--CHAPTER XVII
Two illustrations of the value of an aim.--Significance of the aim
in religious training.--Inadequacy of eleventh-hour
preparation.--The teacher's obligation to see through facts to
truths that lie beyond.
What an aim is.--Illustration.--How to determine the aim.--How to
express it.
The late Jacob Riis, noted author and lecturer, used to tell a very
inspirational story on the force of having something to focus attention
upon. According to his story, certain men who lived just outside of
Chicago, in its early history, had great difficulty walking to and from
work during stormy weather, because of the almost impassably muddy
conditions of the sidewalks. After trudging through mud and slush for a
long time, they conceived the idea of laying a plank walk through the
worst sections. And so they laid two six-inch planks side by side. The
scheme helped wonderfully, except on short winter days when the men had
to go to work in the darkness of early morning and return in the
darkness of evening. It often was so dark that they would step off the
planks, and once off they were about as muddy as if there had been no
walk at all. Finally someone suggested the idea that if a lantern were
hung up at each end of the walk it would then be easy to fix the eye
upon the lantern and keep on the walk. The suggestion was acted upon,
and thereafter the light of the lantern did hold them to the plank.
Jacob Riis argued that the lantern of an ideal held aloft would
similarly hold young men in life's path of righteousness.
A similar story is told of a farmer who experienced great difficulty in
keeping a particular hen inside the run which he had built outside the
hen house. He had put up a wire fence high enough, as he thought, to
keep in the most ambitious chicken. In fact, he argued that no hen could
fly over it. One hen persisted in getting out regularly, though the
farmer could never discover how she did it. Finally he decided to lay
for her (she laid for him regularly). To his great surprise, he watched
her walk around the run carefully surveying it as she proceeded. At
length she caught sight of a beam running along the top of the wire just
above the gate. With her eye fixed upon it she made one mighty effort
and was over.
The moral of the two stories is self-evident. Both hens and men can "go
over" if they have something to aim at. It is so in life generally, and
what is true of life generally is particularly true in the matter of
teaching. The aim is one of the most significant features in the
teaching process.
The teacher who knows where he is going can always get followers.
Important as is the aim in all educational endeavor, it is doubly so in
religious training. We teach religiously not merely to build up facts or
make for mental power; we teach to mold character. We should see through
facts, therefore, to the fundamental truth lying behind and beyond them.
Such a truth constitutes an aim in religious instruction.
One of the most regrettable facts connected with some of our teaching is
that teachers leave the preparation of their lessons until the few
minutes just preceding their recitation hour. They then hurry through a
mass of facts, rush into class and mull over these dry husks, unable in
the rush even to see the kernel of truth lying within. Little wonder
pupils tire of such rations. It is the teacher's obligation to "see
through" and discover the gems that really make lessons worth while.
Forty-five minutes once a week is so meagre an allotment of time for the
teaching of the greatest principles of life! Surely every one of those
minutes should be sacredly guarded for the consideration of vital
truths. The aim, coupled with careful organization, is one of the best
safeguards possible.
The aim is the great focus for a lesson's thought. It is the center
about which all else revolves. It specifies what shall be included and
what excluded out of the great mass of available material. A single
chapter of scripture may contain truths enough for a dozen lessons, only
one of which can be treated in any one recitation. The aim singles out
what can be appropriately grouped under one unified discussion.
If we turn, for instance, to the ninth chapter of Matthew, we find at
least eight different major incidents, each one deserving a lesson in
itself. There is the case of:
The palsy.
The charge of blasphemy.
The glorifying of God by the multitude.
The calling of Matthew.
The statement that only the sick need the physician.
The case of new cloth and the old garment.
The raising of the daughter of Jairus.
The healing of the two blind men.
It is perfectly clear that all of these incidents could not be
adequately considered in any one lesson. Assuming that the teacher is
free to handle this ninth chapter as he pleases, we are forced to the
conclusion that knowing his class, as he does, he must choose that
incident or that combination of incidents which will mean most in the
lives of his pupils. In other words, he centers his attention upon one
major central truth--his aim. By so doing he guards against wandering
and inadequacy of treatment and makes for the unified presentation of
one forceful thought.
It ought to be pointed out here that every teacher must be the judge as
to what constitutes for him the best aim. It is quite clear that any one
teacher could find in this ninth chapter of Matthew at least four or
five worthy aims. Three different teachers could possibly find as many
more, each equally worthy of development. All other things being equal,
that aim is best which most completely and forcefully covers the chapter
or passage in question. To illustrate: Suppose we are asked to teach a
lesson on the Prodigal Son. One aim that could be chosen clearly is that
of _jealousy_ on the part of the prodigal's brother. A second one might
be repentance, as typified in the action of the prodigal. Still a third
might be the compassion and forgiveness of the father, as typical of
those same qualities in our heavenly Father. Which, to you, is the most
forceful and significant? That one to you is _your_ best aim.
The wording of the aim is a matter that gives rise to a good bit of
disagreement. There are those who maintain that if the aim announces the
subject as a sort of heading that is sufficient. Others contend that the
aim should crystallize into axiomatic form the thought of the lesson. Of
course, the real force of the aim lies in its serving as the focus of
thought. The wording of it is of secondary importance. And yet it is
very excellent practice to reduce to formal statement the truth to be
presented. It is helpful to adopt the ruling that the aim should express
both a cause and a result. Perhaps an illustration would indicate the
difference between the aim stated as a mere heading, and stated fully
and formally. Take the case of the daughter of Jairus already referred
to,
_Mere Headings_:
Daughter of Jairus restored, or
The power of faith.
_Formal Aim_:
Implicit faith in God wins His choicest blessings.
Surely the latter is a more significant expression and offers better
training to the teacher than the setting down of mere headings.
The ability thus to crystallize out of a great variety of facts a single
focusing statement, coupled with the ability then to build about that
statement a clearly organized amplification, is the sign of a real
teacher. Instead of generalizing further, let us turn to the questions
on this lesson where some laboratory exercises are set down calling for
actual practice in the selection and justification of a number of aims.
* * * * *
QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS--CHAPTER XVII
1. What is an aim?
2. Why is it particularly essential to good religious teaching?
3. What are the objections to "eleventh-hour" preparation?
4. To what extent is a teacher handicapped in deciding upon an aim for
another teacher to follow?
5. Turn to the following references and determine what possible aims
might be developed under each. Is any aim adequate for the whole
reference? In each case which do you consider your best aim? Why? How
much of the reference would you include in a single lesson?
John, Chapter I; Isaiah, Chapter II; III Nephi, Chapter X; Doctrine &
Covenants, Section 87.
HELPFUL REFERENCES
Colgrove, _The Teacher and the School_; Betts, _How to Teach Religion_;
Driggs, _The Art of Teaching_; Strayer and Norsworthy, _How to Teach_.