than that designed for the reading and recreation of the scholars is now
arising to notice in many advanced Sunday schools, and is destined to
become the Sunday-school library of the future, either supplementing the
library of the past or taking its place. It is the library which is to
the Sunday school what the college library is to the college, a workshop
equipped with tools for the use of the teacher and the scholar. It will
be at once a reference library, containing the best Bible dictionaries,
cyclopedias, expository works, and gospel harmonies, open at certain
times for the use of students; and also a lending library of books upon
the Bible, upon the Sunday school, upon teaching, upon religion, upon
character, and upon the varied forms of social service which are now
calling for workers, and will call yet more imperatively in the coming
years. The books for this library must be chosen with wisdom; for they
should represent the results of the best scholarship, yet be expressed
in language that the nonprofessional reader can understand; and many of
them must be for the scholars, who are of all ages and all degrees of
intelligence. Those of the Primary Department should be able to find in
such a library the stories of the Bible told in such a fascinating
manner that a child too young to read them may listen to them with
interest, and picture-books illustrating the events, the people, the
dress, and the landscape of the Bible. It should be planned to meet the
needs of every grade in the Sunday school, and to aid every teacher and
every scholar; and when established it should be made effective in the
educational work of the school. Just as in the secular school and the
college students are sent to the library with directions as to the books
they will need, so in the Sunday school teachers will be able to counsel
their scholars and to give them week-day work, so that the teaching will
be more than the talk of the teacher; it will embrace the results of
searching on the part of the scholar. Under the system of uniform
lessons the use of such a library was well-nigh impracticable, because
every class would need the same books at one time. But the uniform
lessons are being rapidly displaced by the graded system, giving to each
grade its own series of lessons; and this method, requiring different
books for each age in the school, will open the way for reference work
and study in the library. The time is at hand when such a working
library will become a necessity in every well-organized school.
7. =The Public Library and the Sunday School.= It would seem that
wherever the public library is free, available, and well conducted some
arrangement might be effected whereby the Sunday-school libraries could
be united with the public library. This would lessen expense and
difficulty in management, would avoid the unnecessary reduplication of
copies of the same books, and would give to the scholars at once a wider
selection and the advantage of the open shelf. In more than one town
this has been accomplished. The Sunday schools have transferred all
their libraries to the public library, to its enlargement, and with no
loss of members to the schools. Some Sunday schools in cities have been
recognized as branch stations of the public library, giving them the
benefit of frequent changes in the equipment of books, which at regular
intervals are selected from the store of the public library by the
library committee of the school. The working library for teachers and
scholars, proposed in the last paragraph, in many places might be
established in the public library, wherever the schools in the community
will unite to show that it is needed, to name the books required, and to
make it practically useful.
FOOTNOTE:
[10] R. L. Stevenson's Treasure Island.
XII
THE MANAGEMENT OF THE LIBRARY
1. =Library Committee.= For the selection of books, whether in the
reading library for scholars or the working library for teachers and
scholars, a wise, intelligent, and careful committee should be chosen,
and should be maintained in permanent service. The pastor and the
superintendent should be ex-officio members of this committee, but it
should also include some other persons sufficiently acquainted with
books to pass upon their merits, and willing to give time, inquiry, and
thought to the library. There may be schools fortunate in possessing
librarians who devote themselves to the selection of books, as well as
to the care of them; and in such schools the library committees will
find their labors lessened. No book should be admitted to the library
without examination and approval by the committee.
(1) _Purchase of Books._ The simplest method for finding books is far
from being the best method. It is to have a quantity of books--a hundred
or more at one time--sent by booksellers on approval. This method
involves hasty examination, and generally results in obtaining many
useless, worthless books intermixed with a few good ones. The better
plan is for the committee, first of all, to be supplied with catalogues
from reputable publishers of books for children and young people, and
also books on religious and biblical education; next to read carefully
the reviews of books in these departments as given in the best literary
and religious periodicals; then, to send only for such books as they
judge will be desirable, receiving them on approval. Every book should
not only be looked at, but read; and if at all doubtful read by more
than one member of the committee. In some Sunday schools there is placed
at the door a library box, in which may be deposited the names of books
desired by members of the school. Lists of approved books are published
by various houses and societies; and the catalogues of a few good
Sunday-school libraries will aid committees. The library committee must
scrutinize closely all donations of books offered to the library, and
resolutely decline every book that is unsuitable, even at the risk of
offending the donor. The Sunday-school library room must not be turned
into a mausoleum for dead volumes. The committee must also beware of
bargains offered by some booksellers who would unload upon Sunday
schools their left-over and unsalable stock. That which costs little is
generally worth less. The Sunday school must obtain only books that will
be read and are worth reading.
(2) _Frequent Additions._ The usual method is to use the old library
until its best books are either worn out or lost, and then to make a
strenuous effort at raising money for the purchase of an entirely new
collection. But the better plan is to add a few carefully selected books
each month to the library. To examine at one time two hundred volumes is
an impossibility, and in so large a purchase many undesirable books are
sure to be included. It is not difficult to select after careful
examination ten books each month, and thereby keep the library always at
a high grade of excellence. With each purchase a slip describing the new
books might be printed, and distributed to the school, thus keeping the
library constantly before its patrons.
2. =The Librarian.= There is a close analogy between the work of the
librarian in the public library and that in the Sunday school. For the
public library everywhere a specialist is sought, one who knows books,
can select them wisely, and can aid seekers after literature in their
reading. The Sunday school needs just such a librarian, and all the more
because the scholars cannot select from the open shelf, but must guess
at the quality of a book from its title in the catalogue. It has been
noticed that wherever a Sunday-school library is successful in holding
the interest of the scholars there is found with it a librarian adapted
to his work and devoting himself to it. We notice the characteristics of
a good librarian in the Sunday school:
(1) _A Bookman._ He is a lover of books, acquainted with them, and
interested in good literature. His work is more than to distribute
books: he should aid, sometimes supervise, their collection.
(2) _A Business Man._ He is practical, orderly, and systematic in his
ways of working; with a plan for his task, and fidelity in accomplishing
it.
(3) _Gentle in Manner._ Opportunities will be frequent for the librarian
to clash with the scholars on the one hand, or with the superintendent
upon the other. With one he may appear arbitrary, with the other
disorderly, his work sometimes breaking into the program of exercises.
He should be pleasant toward all, uniform in his dealings, and attentive
to the general order of the school.
3. =His Assistants.= In most schools one assistant, in large schools
several assistants, will be required by the librarian. He should
nominate them, subject to the approval of the governing board of the
school; and should require of them regular and prompt attendance, and
attention to their work in the library. It is very desirable that the
business should be so arranged as to allow the librarians to take part
in the opening devotional service with the school, and not to be at work
arranging books while others are at prayer.
4. =The Management of the Library.= This involves four processes: the
collection, the assignment, the distribution, and the return of the
books.
(1) _The Collection._ The books can easily be collected without
interfering with the order of the school, if the library window is near
the entrance to the building, and the scholars as they enter leave their
books at the library. This is the method employed in most schools.
(2) _The Assignment._ How to enable each scholar to choose his book
introduces one of the three problems in library management. The plan
generally followed is to supply each scholar with a card bearing a
number which represents the scholar. He selects from the catalogue a
large assortment of books, and writes their numbers upon his card: the
librarian assigns the scholar any one of the books selected, crosses it
from his list, and upon another list marks the number of the book
opposite the number of the scholar. The weakness of the plan is in the
fact that the scholar has no means of learning from the catalogue what
books are desirable; and a book desired by one may be entirely
undesirable to another. Theoretically the scholar has the whole
catalogue from which to choose; practically he has no choice, except the
suggestion in the titles of the books. The open-shelf plan cannot be
established in the Sunday school, for the room is usually too small, the
time of the session is too brief, and the work of the school too
important to allow interruption.
In some graded Sunday schools another plan is pursued, taking from the
scholar all choice, but assigning to each grade books of certain
numbers, all printed upon the card of the scholar, any one of which
books he may receive at any time during his stay in the grade, but each
of which will fall to his lot but once. This plan demands a library of
books carefully selected, and as carefully fitted to each grade in the
school. But this method is apt to be unsatisfactory to the scholars, who
have their own preferences among the books. The difficulties in
assigning books, and disappointments of scholars in failing to obtain
the books desired, is a frequent cause for the disuse of the library;
and this problem has not as yet been fully solved.
(3) _The Distribution._ This takes place at the close of the school, and
brings in the second problem of library management. The books may be
brought to the classes by the librarians, and distributed by the
teachers; each scholar's book being indicated by his card placed within
it. This method often causes confusion; scholars being dissatisfied
with their books and leaving their classes press around the library.
Sometimes they exchange books with each other. This is a simple plan as
far as the two scholars exchanging are concerned, but sure to make
trouble in the record of the librarian. Or each class may be dismissed
in turn, and obtain its books at the library window while passing out.
But this plan causes a congestion of scholars at the library, and also
requires much time. To manage the distribution of books demands a strong
will, coupled with a gentle manner in maintaining the library rules.
(4) _The Return._ The theory of the Sunday-school library is that each
scholar will bring his book back after a week or two weeks. But boys and
girls--sometimes older scholars also--are apt to be careless. Books are
exchanged between scholars, are loaned from one home to another, are
forgotten, and are lost. And the books lost most readily are frequently
those that are most sought for by the scholars. How to induce scholars
invariably to return their books constitutes the third problem of
library management. In many schools the percentage of lost books is
exceedingly large. The librarian should do his utmost to reduce the loss
to a minimum. To this end a few suggestions may be given:
(a) Record of Scholars. Every scholar's name and address, with his
library number, should be kept on record in the library; and every
effort should be made to make the record conform to all changes in
residence.
(b) Record Sheet. The library should contain a record sheet, showing
the number of every book issued, and the number of the scholar receiving
it; to be canceled when the book is returned. This will show who is
responsible for every book out of its place from the library.
(c) Fines. A fine should be assessed upon the scholar for every book
kept over time; and notice sent to the scholar at his home when a fine
has become due.
(d) Rewards. Scholars should be paid a reward, perhaps of ten cents for
each book, if they can succeed in tracing and finding any book which has
been out of the library two months or more. These plans, or others, may
lessen, but no plan will entirely remove, the evil of books lost to the
library through neglect or a worse crime.
XIII
THE TEACHER'S QUALIFICATIONS AND NEED OF TRAINING
While the superintendent in the school is the moving and guiding
intelligence, the pulse of the machine, the teacher in the class is the
worker at the anvil, or the loom, or the lathe, for whom all the plans
are made, and upon whom all the success depends. In the warfare for
souls he is on the picket line and at close range, fighting face to face
and hand to hand. The sphere of his effort is small, that group gathered
around him for an hour on Sunday, but in that little field his is the
work that counts for the final victory. His task requires peculiar
adaptedness, supplemented by special training.
1. =His Qualifications.= There are on the American continent not less
than a million and a half Sunday-school teachers, who give to the gospel
their free-will offering of time, and toil, and thought. They are not
like civil engineers or the majority of public-school teachers,
graduates of schools that have given them training for a special
vocation. In every respect they are laymen, engaged for six days in
secular work, and on one day finding an avocation in the Sunday school.
Yet there are certain traits, partly natural and partly acquired, which
they must possess, if they are to find success in their Sabbath-day
service.
(1) _A Sincere Disciple._ The Sunday-school teacher must be a follower
of Christ, not merely in profession but in spirit. He is one who has met
his Lord, has heard and has obeyed the call, "Follow me." He enlisted in
the grand army of which Christ is the Commander, before he received his
assignment to the army corps of the Sunday school, and his fidelity to
the department is inspired by his deeper loyalty to his Lord. It is
eminently desirable that the Sunday-school teacher should be a member of
the church; but it is imperative that he should be a disciple of Christ.
(2) _A Lover of Youth._ By far the largest proportion of scholars in the
Sunday school, perhaps nine tenths, are under twenty-five years of age.
Therefore, with few exceptions, the teachers must deal with young
people; and youth at all its stages is not easy to understand and to
manage. Moreover, the fact that not only the teachers, but to a large
extent the scholars, are volunteers enters into the problem. Pupils
attend the week-day school and submit to a teacher's rule because they
must, whether their teachers are acceptable or are disliked. But the
rule in the Sunday school is not the law of authority; it is the law of
persuasion. The teacher who cannot draw his scholars, but repels them,
soon finds himself without a class. In all teaching sympathy, or the
coordination between the interest of the teacher in the pupil and of the
pupil in the teacher, is a strong factor in success; but in the Sunday
school it is an absolute necessity by reason of the voluntary element in
the constitution of the Sunday school. That mystic power which will
combine uncongenial spirits, and fuse the hearts of teacher and scholar
into one, is love. Let the teacher love his scholars, let him see in
each pupil some quality to inspire love, and the battle is half won.
Love will quicken tact, and love and tact together will win the complete
victory.
(3) _A Lover of the Scriptures._ Whatever the Sunday school of to-morrow
may become, the Sunday school of to-day is preeminently a Bible school.
There are tendencies in our time which may in another generation render
the Bible less prominent, and introduce into the Sunday school studies
in church history, in social science, in moral reform, in missions,
perhaps in comparative religion, or in some other departments of
knowledge. But as yet the great text-book of the school is the Holy
Scriptures. The volume should be in the hand of every teacher and of
every scholar during the school session; and the teacher, especially,
must study it during the week. If all of the Bible that he knows is
contained in the paragraphs assigned for the coming lesson, and the rest
of the book is sealed to his eyes, he will be a very poor teacher. He
needs to have his mind stored with a thousand facts, and to have these
facts systematized, in order to teach ten; and the nine hundred and
ninety which he knows will add all their weight to the ten which he
tells.
(4) _A Willing Worker._ The teacher's love for Christ, for his scholars,
and for his Bible is not to expend itself in emotion or even in study;
it is to find expression in efficient service. A task is laid upon him
which will demand much of his time and his power of body, mind, and
spirit. He must be ready to meet his class fifty-two Sundays in the
year: on days of sunshine and days of storm; when he is eager for the
work, and when he is weary in it; when his scholars are responsive, and
when they are careless; when his fellow workers are congenial, and when
they are anti-pathetic; when his lesson is easy to teach, and when it is
hard. He must be regular in his service, not turned aside by
opportunities of enjoyment elsewhere; and he must give to it all his
powers and all his skill. Work such as this can be sustained only by an
enduring enthusiasm, a devotion to the cause; and therefore the teacher
must have his heart enlisted as well as his will.
As a Sunday-school teacher, then, four harmonious objects will claim a
share in his love: his Lord, his scholars, his Bible, and his work.
2. =His Need of Training.= For two generations it was supposed that any
person fairly intelligent, without special equipment, was fitted to be a
Sunday-school teacher. There are found no records of training classes in
Sunday-school work earlier than 1855, when the Rev. John H. Vincent
began to gather young people and train them for service in his Sunday
school at Irvington, New Jersey. The seed of his "Palestine Class" grew
into the "Normal Class"; and by 1869 there were in a few places classes
for the teaching of teachers in the Bible and Sunday-school work. It is
not remarkable that Sunday-school teacher-training should be delayed so
long after the organization of the first Sunday school, when it is
remembered that in America the first Normal School for secular teachers
was not founded until 1839. The Chautauqua movement, begun in 1874, gave
a strong impetus to Sunday-school teacher-training; the state
associations and denominational organizations took up the work; and now
teacher-training classes are to be found in every state and province on
the American continent. The thoroughly graded school includes in its
system a class for the training of young people who are to be teachers.
It is late in the day to inquire why the Sunday-school teacher needs
training; but the question is often asked, and the answers are ready:
(1) _The General Principle._ All good work involves the prerequisite of
training. Especially is this true of teaching; and there is a reason why
the principle holds with regard to the Sunday-school teacher even more
directly than with the secular teacher. While the subjects of teaching
are vitally important, relating to character and efficient service, the
time for teaching is short, less than an hour each week, in contrast to
the twenty or twenty-five hours in the week-day school. To make an
impression in so short a teaching period, with such long intervals
between the lessons, demands that the teacher be one who possesses
exceptional fitness for his work, and this superior fitness cannot be
obtained without special and thorough training.
(2) _The Teacher's Responsibility._ All-important as is the work of
religious teaching, for which the Bible is the chief text-book in the
church, there is but one institution in our time charged with that
mighty duty, and that is the Sunday school. The Bible is rarely taught
in the home, which should be the first place for teaching it; it is only
incidentally taught in the pulpit, of which the aim is not so much
instruction as inspiration. Practically all the teaching of the Bible
now devolves upon the Sunday school, and the Sunday school only. If the
Sunday schools of the world for one generation should fail to teach the
word of life, the knowledge of that word would well-nigh cease. And the
one person charged with that task, the one on whom the responsibility
rests, is the Sunday-school teacher. He who is intrusted with so great a
work, and upon whose fidelity the work depends, must have a proper
equipment; and that equipment presupposes training.
(3) _The Demand of the Age._ We are living in an intellectual age,
unparalleled in the history of the world. The boundaries of knowledge in
every direction have widened, and in each realm the search is deeper and
more thorough. Such wealth has been added through recent investigations
to the store of Bible knowledge that most commentaries, expositions, and
introductions of the past have now but slight value. Another exceedingly
important realm that has been added to the domain of knowledge is that
of child study, but recently an unexplored field, now open to every
reader. In such a time as this the teacher who would impart the contents
of the Bible to the young must have eyes and mind opened. He must know
the results of modern investigation in the Scriptures and in the nature
of those whom he teaches. His pupils are under the care of trained and
alert specialists through the week; they must receive instruction from
well-taught minds in the Sunday school.