and fill in during the week only enough for the next lesson; as a
schoolboy who fills his mind with facts and empties it on examination
day. The true teacher is independent of the "Quarterly." He uses it but
does not lean on it. For the facts there given are, as a rule,
isolated, and so half dead; the illustrations are at best warmed over.
Neither can give a strong head of steam. There is not enough, and what
there is is cold.
Other remedies for this condition are suggested elsewhere. Here it is
urged that the teacher must be a reader of books. The following are
given as types. They have been selected after searching the lists of
many publishers, and are recommended only after a personal examination:
_Books Telling the Story of the Bible._
There are many Bible stories for children, some of them good, but most
of them far from ideal when both the story and the pictures are
considered. Those with highly colored, gaudy pictures should be shunned
as they tend to give low ideals morally and spiritually as well as to
corrupt the child's artistic taste. To publish a story of the Bible
with illustrations taken only from great masters is a good work waiting
for some one who wishes to be of service to the world.
"The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation," by Charles Foster.
Charles Foster Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 75 cents.
Of the many Bible stories published this is the most complete and the
most popular. In the matter of pictures, however, it is poor.
"Children's Treasury of Bible Stories," by Mrs. Herman Gaskoin.
Macmillan & Co. Three parts, 18mo, 30 cents each.
The best Bible story we have found. It is most suggestive and
interesting, showing how to picture Bible scenes.
"Stories from the Bible," Rev. Alfred J. Church. Macmillan & Co. 256
pp., $1.25.
Excellent as giving a condensed account of the Bible narrative in Bible
language. The teacher who uses these stories will often find it
necessary to supplement them with suitable introductions and
side-lights.
"The Sweet Story of Old," by Mrs. Haskell. Dutton. 4to, 50 cents.
A small book of Bible stories for young children, with pictures which
are quite good.
"First Steps for Little Feet," by Charles Foster. Charles Foster
Publishing Co. 50 cents.
Bible stories told in simple language for the youngest children. Fair
outline pictures.
"The Story of Jesus," by Louisa T. Craigin. Illustrated with one
hundred full-page illustrations from the designs of Alexander Bida,
together with many other pictures of the Holy Land. Fords, Howard &
Hulbert. $10.00.
A beautiful and sympathetic account of the life of Jesus, especially
rich in descriptions of Palestine and in other materials for
word-pictures. The numerous pictures of landscapes and scenes from the
life of Christ are helpful.
The same in paper covers in 15 numbers, 50 cents each.
"From Olivet to Patmos." The First Christian Century in Picture and
Story. By Louisa Seymour Houghton. American Tract Society. $1.50.
"The Life of Christ in Picture and Story," by Louisa Seymour Houghton.
American Tract Society. $1.25.
The last two books contain some poorly executed but well-chosen
pictures of Bible lands, showing architecture, costumes, street scenes,
etc.
_Books About Palestine._
"The Land and the Book," by W. M. Thomson. Harper & Bros. $8.00, $6.00.
Recommended by a high authority as the best book on Palestine for a
teacher who can own only one.
"Boy Travelers in Egypt and the Holy Land," by T. W. Knox. Harper &
Bros. $3.00.
"Sinai and Palestine in Connection with their History," by Dean
Stanley. A. C. Armstrong. $2.50.
An excellent standard work.
"Pictured Palestine," by James Neill. Anson D. Randolph. $2.25.
Shows the contrast between eastern life and our own. Very good pictures
illustrating many phases of oriental life.
"In Scripture Lands." Scribner's. $3.50.
Beautiful pictures.
"Earthly Foot-Prints of the Man of Galilee," by Bishop John H. Vincent,
D.D., LL.D., Jas. W. Lee, D.D., Robert E. M. Bain. New York and St.
Louis: N. D. Thompson Publishing Co. $4.75.
Four hundred fine, large photographic views and descriptions of places
connected with the earthly life of our Lord and his apostles.
_Books on the Use of Stories and Illustrations._
"The Use of Stories in the Kindergarten," by Anna Buckland. Ginn & Co.
15 cents.
"The Place of the Story in Early Education," by Sara E. Wiltse. Ginn &
Co. 132 pp., 50 cents.
Two suggestive and helpful essays that every teacher should read.
"Yale Lectures on Preaching," by Henry Ward Beecher. Fords, Howard &
Hulbert. $2.00.
An inspiring book. The chapter on "Rhetorical Illustrations" is
especially applicable, but the entire work, although written for
preachers, has rich stores of instruction and guidance for teachers.
"The Art of Illustration," by C. H. Spurgeon. Wilbur B. Ketchum. $1.25.
A book by a master giving the secret of his art.
_Stories and Themes._
"Parables from Nature," by Margaret Gatty. Macmillan & Co. 2 vols.,
18mo, $1.50.
A wonderful book, in which nature is used to typify spiritual truths.
It should be owned by every mother and teacher.
"Parables. Laws of Nature and Life, or Science applied to Character,"
by Louisa Parsons Hopkins. Lee & Shepard. 15 cents.
Brief and suggestive.
"Stories of the Saints," by Mrs. C. Van D. Chenoweth. Houghton, Mifflin
& Co. $1.00.
Supplies a want which should be more "felt" than it is. Is it not as
important that our children should know the story of Christian saints
and martyrs as that of Greek gods and heroes?
"Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks," by Sara E. Wiltse. Ginn & Co.
212 pp., 75 cents.
"Stories for Kindergartens and Primary Schools," by Sara E. Wiltse.
Ginn & Co. 50 cents.
"A Brave Baby and Other Stories," by Sara E. Wiltse. Ginn & Co. 50
cents.
These three books are storehouses of inspiration and models of
story-telling.
"Child Stories from the Masters," by Maude Menefee. Kindergarten
Literature Co., Chicago. $1.00.
An excellent selection of themes from poets, dramatists, and the Bible.
The teacher will do well to study the originals and try to improve upon
the stories given.
"Child's Christ-Tales," by Andrea Hofer. Woman's Temple, Chicago.
$1.00.
Choice illustrations from the masters. Suggestive tales and parables.
"The Kindergarten Sunday-School," by Frederika Beard. Kindergarten
Publishing Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago.
An attempt to solve the infant class problem. Three series of lessons,
each having sequence and unity. Suggestive in its plan, and likely to
help teachers to improve upon the models given.
_Books to be Read for the Sake of a Better Understanding of Child
Nature._
"Study of Child Nature," by Elizabeth Harrison. Chicago Kindergarten
Training School. $1.00.
"Children's Rights," by Kate Douglas Wiggin. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
$1.00.
"A Boy's Town," by W. D. Howells. Harper & Bros., New York. $1.25.
"Being a Boy," by Charles Dudley Warner. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25.
"The Story of a Bad Boy," by T. B. Aldrich. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
$1.25.
"The Mill on the Floss," by George Eliot. Harper & Bros. Popular ed. 75
cents.
"Cuore, An Italian Schoolboy's Journal," by Edmondo de Amicis. N.Y.
Crowell. Illustrated edition. $1.50.
_Pictures and Books from which Pictures may be Culled._
"The Life of Christ as Treated in Art," by F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S.
Macmillan & Co. $8.00, $5.00.
"The Christ Child in Art," by Henry Van Dyke. Harper & Bros. $4.00.
"Sacred and Legendary Art," by Mrs. Anna Jameson. Longmans, Green & Co.
2 vols., 16mo. $2.50.
"The History of Our Lord as Exemplified in Works of Art," by Mrs. Anna
Jameson. Illustrated. 2 vols. Longmans, Green & Co. $8.00.
All the above are standard works and are excellent.
"The Earthly Footprints of Our Risen Lord," by Fleming H. Revell. 4to.
$1.50.
A continuous narrative of the four gospels according to the revised
version, illustrated by numerous half-tone pictures. The selection is
not so choice as one could wish, yet many of the pictures are by the
best artists, and present a consecutive pictorial story of the life of
Christ.
"The Photographs of the Holy Land." Globe Bible Publishing Co.,
Philadelphia. $3.00. The same in cheaper style in eight portfolios at
10 cents apiece.
Photographs of classic and modern pictures of the child Jesus and of
other Biblical subjects. Unmounted, card size, 3-3/4 cents each;
cabinet size, 7-1/2 cents each. A catalogue in German will be sent on
application. R. Tamme, Dresden, Germany.
There is no duty on pictures.
Blue print copies of pictures of Biblical scenes by the old masters and
by modern artists. Mr. Alfred A. Hart, 221 West 109th Street, New York
City. Card size, one cent each.
Clear, durable, excellent; of a kind likely to develop good taste. The
low price makes it possible to encourage children to make collections
of their own. A single secular school has used over twelve thousand of
these pictures.
The Christmas catalogues of publishers often contain serviceable
pictures.
The standard histories of art are full of illustrative material. The
teacher should be ever on the alert.
_Objective Helps; Blackboard Sketches._
Cards for children to prick and sew. Bible Study Publishing Co., 21
Bromfield Street, Boston, Mass.
Scroll of history. See "The Modern Sunday School," p. 297. John H.
Vincent.
Sunday-school Museum. Read description of one at Akron, in "The Modern
Sunday School," p. 301.
Illustrative Blackboard Sketching, by W. Bertha Hintz. E. L. Kellogg &
Co. 53 pp. 30 cents.
A helpful guide designed for those entirely ignorant of the art of
drawing, who nevertheless like to work out their own way of putting a
lesson, for the eye as well as for the ear, in preference to ready-made
blackboard exercises and "pictured truth" at second hand.
IX.
FALSE PICTURE-WORK.
A book on helps, to be truly helpful, must deal with negative as well
as with positive matters--those things which we ought to leave undone
as well as those we ought to do. Any treatment of true picture-work is
lacking in completeness, not to say in candor, which does not say a
word about false picture-work.
If there were only some way of crawling into the inside of the
children's brains, and marking the effect of the alliterations,
juxtapositions, and symbolisms of what goes by the name of
picture-work! Can't we devise a meter for estimating the precise
emotional and spiritual value of a board filled with marks in various
colors in the form of anchors, hearts, keys, crosses, not to mention
other less sacred things?
I once saw a "chalk talk" given to two hundred Sunday-school children.
_Dramatis personæ_: three parrots; one unrecognizable, it was so badly
drawn; a second, indifferent; the third, capital, a speaking likeness.
The last was perched on S. T. Moral: "Honesty is the best policy." The
children were as delighted as if the text had been taken from the Bible
and as interested in the display as if it had possessed the slightest
value.
"But," it is urged, "the children are always interested in such things."
Yes, and they would be more interested still if you showed them a monkey
or displayed red, green, and blue lights. The law of interest tells us
what shall _not_ be placed before the children--"Nothing that is not
interesting"--but as a guide to what we _shall_ give them it tells but
half the story. The other half is, "_Not everything that is interesting,
and not anything just because it is interesting_."
Let this caution not be misunderstood. The children must use their
eyes. To expect children to follow your stories by ear, and make up
their mind-pictures out of whole cloth or from the few objects and
pictures that can be shown them, or to remember texts and lesson points
out of hand, is to suppose them ready to graduate into the senior
department. Let us have more blackboards. An individual board for every
pupil, if possible, and the more use--wise use--of blackboards the
better. But many "blackboardists" have yet to learn that it is possible
to be apt without being alliterative, that one may be extravagant
without being effective, sensational without being spiritual. In short,
they seem not to understand that common sense applies even to
blackboard work.
What are the points in good blackboard work? To be quite dogmatic, for
the sake of brevity, good blackboard work is:
1. Simple. "Blackboard ingenuities, dissolving from acrostic into
enigma, and from enigma into rhyme are not necessary" and they are
harmful besides. They distract, distort, make dizzy. The best
blackboard work has the fewest lines, the most unity in its variety,
the least approach to anything like a maze.
2. Clear. The best blackboard work is that which is easiest to follow,
hardest to forget.
3. Varied. Our stock symbols are worked to death. Is it _right_ to
use the cross as commonly as you would a letter of the alphabet? Find
something new or give the blackboard a vacation. It is not necessary
that there be a quarter hour on every day's program for blackboard
work. Who has not spent a "bad quarter of an hour" when the "exercise"
was perfunctory?
4. Descriptive. All maps and plans, sketches of roads and rooms, of
mountains and rivers, are good, because they help us to form for
ourselves the picture which we must see in order to grasp the meaning
of the story. For example, we may illustrate the Mount of
Transfiguration; first with four figures, then six, then four; the
winding road to Emmaus, two figures--straight lines, merely--and a
little farther on, a third; the upper room, its occupants represented
by marks or initial letters. Anything is helpful that gives a notion of
position, number, form, contrast, sequence, change.
5. Free, living, personal. The best blackboard work is that which is
freest. Children are impressionists. For them the broad side of the
crayon is better than the point; two strokes better than twenty.
The best blackboard work is that which grows before the children's
eyes, which is made, not unveiled. Two minutes of rough sketching in
the lesson hour is better than two hours of patient putting in of
finishing touches beforehand.
The best blackboard work is that which is original, personal. That
which is given in the "lesson helps" is just what you should not use.
It is not yours. If it does not help you to find your own way, it is
useless--and worse than useless, because it tempts you to borrow
without inspiring you to create.
6. In fine, the mission of the blackboard, as of all picture-work, is
to help us to see the truth in the world or the truth in our own selves
by showing us a truth that is easier to see or that is nearer at hand
than that which we would learn.
Like all picture-work, it fulfills its mission when it serves as a
scaffolding, when it is kept subordinate. It fails when it obscures the
truth, not helps to build it. False picture-work is anything that
stands in the way of our seeing truth; as when we cannot see the woods
for the trees--cannot see the Sunday-school lesson for the bizarre
exhibitions on the blackboard.
X.
A COÖPERATIVE STUDY.
In order to find out what Sunday-school teachers are doing in the
matter of stories, illustrations, and picture-work generally, the
writer prepared and distributed to a thousand teachers the following
blank:
_One response NOW is worth twenty a month hence._
STORY-TELLING.
_To Sunday-school Teachers:_
For the purpose of devising means for the better preparation of
Sunday-school teachers, the President of the Teachers College, New
York, requests the teachers in your Sunday-school to answer the
following questions.
To save time and trouble use both sides of this sheet.
Whenever possible answer by crossing out the term that does not
apply.
In every case where the answer is based on experience with
children, state the age of the children.
Please do not hesitate to return this blank, even if you have
answered but a few questions.
_Sources._--To illustrate the lesson do you use Bible stories,
stories from good literature, or stories invented by yourself?
_Subject._--Do you find your children more interested in stories
of people or of nature?
_Kind._--Which of the stories have you found more effective, modern
or classic? Stories told or read? True or fictitious? Those based
on poetry or prose? Stories in which the moral is set forth or
hidden?
_Experience._--What stories are you going to use in the
Sunday-school lesson for next Sunday?
_Precept._--If you do not use stories, what other means do you
employ to enforce religious and moral lessons? Do you "moralize,"
and if so, with what obvious result?
_Environment._--What means do you use of making the dress,
customs, etc., of Bible people seem real to children?
_Picture-work._--Do you use blackboard illustrations? What
other objective helps?
_Examples._--What stories have you found especially helpful?
_Purpose._--What is your purpose in using stories in the
Sunday-school?
_Principles._--Do you succeed in having such unity in the lesson
that the stories all contribute to one main thought? Mention five
requisites for a good story-teller.
Mention five qualities in a good story.
To these questions fifty-eight replies were received. Very few,
however, gave the ages of the children, and the smallness of the number
of replies--which after all is by no means discouraging--tends to
vitiate the data as bases for generalization.
Space forbids giving more than a single group of typical answers. Some
of the most helpful of the suggestions have been embodied in the
foregoing. Further replies from thoughtful teachers will be welcome.
_Question_--Mention five requisites for a good story-teller.
_Answers:_
Sympathetic voice, manner, and face.
More knowledge of the subject than one wants to use.
The teacher must be interested, bright, imaginative, clear in
thought and expression.
Clear apprehension of the point to be made, clear knowledge of the
subject, understanding of the peculiarities of his hearers, tact in
making application, and dramatic power.
Power in word-painting--with a sense of perspective.
Unconsciousness of self.
A gift for mimicry.
Graphic description.
Sympathy with children.
Power to hold attention and keep to the main thought.
Animation, personal magnetism, originality, wit.
Conciseness, force.
Pleasant manner.
Ability to repeat a story without hesitation.
Power to put one's self into the time, circumstances, etc., of the
story.
Love of story-telling.
Quiet manners.
Gestures, good voice.
Small [easy?] words.
Ability to make the children help tell the story, by making them
gesture, point, express sorrow, surprise, etc., and answer
questions.
A good story-teller asks intensely interesting questions at exactly
the right point.
A passage from Herbart forms a fitting close to this study:
"The intent to teach spoils children's books at once; it is
forgotten that every one, the child included, selects what suits
him from what he reads, and judges the writing as well as the
writer after his own fashion. Show the bad to children plainly, but
not as an object of desire, and they will recognize that it is bad.
Interrupt a narrative with moral precepts, and they will find you a
wearisome narrator. Relate only what is good, and they will feel it
monotonous, and the mere charm of variety will make the bad
welcome. Remember your own feelings on seeing a purely moral play.
But give to them an interesting story, rich in incidents,
relationships, characters, strictly in accordance with
psychological truth, and not beyond the feelings and ideas of
children; make no effort to depict the worst or the best, only let
a faint, half-conscious moral tact secure that the interest of the
action tends away from the bad toward the good, the just, the
right; then you will see how the child's attention is fixed upon
it, how it seeks to discover the truth and think over all sides of
the matter, how the many-sided material calls forth a many-sided
judgment, how the charm of change ends in preference for the best,
so that the boy who perhaps feels himself a step or two higher in
moral judgment than the hero or the author, will cling to his view
with inner self-approbation, and so guard himself from a coarseness
he already feels beneath him. The story must have one more
characteristic, if its effect is to be lasting and emphatic; it
must carry on its face the strongest and clearest stamp of human
greatness. For a boy distinguishes the common and ordinary from the
praiseworthy as well as we; he even has this distinction more at
heart than we have, for he does not like to feel himself small, he
wishes to be a man. The whole look of a well-trained boy is
directed above himself, and when eight years old his entire line of
vision extends beyond all histories of children. Present to the boy
therefore such men as he himself would like to be."
Printed in the United States of America.
_THE PRIMARY DEPARTMENT_
~Old Testament Stories~ For Little Children. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth,
net $1.25.
~By LAURA ELLA CRAGIN~
More "Kindergarten Stories" from the Old Testament in language
little tots can take in. The value of the book apart from the
excellence of the manner of telling the stories, lies in the fact
that Miss Cragin has made these stories follow closely the events
of the Old Testament.
~Experimental Object Lessons~ Bible Truths Simply Taught. 12mo, cloth,
net 75c.
~By CHARLOTTE E. GRAY~
"The simple and instructive character of this book including its
adaptation to young minds and hearts, makes it the "very thing"
for Sunday school scholars and teachers."--_Religious Telescope._
~Object Lessons for Children~ Or Hooks and Eyes, Truth Linked to Sight.
Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00.
~By C. H. TYNDALL, Ph.D.~
"For busy Sunday-school workers and others, we know no better
work of its kind."--_Cumberland Presbyterian._
~Talks to Children~ 12mo, cloth, net 50c.
~By T. T. EATON: D.D.~
"It Reproduces Scripture History in the terms of modern life, and
gives it both a vivid setting before the youthful imagination and
a firm grip on the youthful conscience."--_Independent._
~The Shepherd Psalm for Children~ With half-tone Frontispiece and 13
outline Illustrations, 16mo, cloth, net 35c.
~By JOSEPHINE L. BALDWIN~
"Equally adapted to teach the teacher how to teach, to teach the
child how to learn, and to teach what ought to be
learned."--_Christian Advocate._
~The Lord's Prayer for Children~ Illustrated. 12mo, cloth, net 50c.
~By MARTHA K. LAWSON~
"Miss Lawson is a specialist in the science of child study. The
book is invaluable to Primary teachers and leaders of Junior
classes."--_N.Y. Observer._
~Seed for Spring-time Sowing~ A Wall Roll for the use of Primary,
Sabbath School and Kindergarten Teachers. Compiled by MRS. ROBERT
PRATT, 75c.
~Practical Primary Plans~ Illustrated with diagrams. Revised and
enlarged. 16mo, cloth, net $1.00.
~By ISRAEL P. BLACK~
"The author goes through all the material, physical and spiritual
requirements for successful primary teaching."--_Christian
Advocate._
~Our Children for Christ~ A Series of Catechetical Lessons on the
Religion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. _New Improved Edition._ 16mo,
paper, net 10c.
~By REV. DOREMUS SCUDDER~
~The Conversion of Children~ 12mo, paper, net 25c.
~By E. PAYSON HAMMOND, M.A.~
_FOR THE SUPERINTENDENT_
~The Sunday School of To-day~ A Compendium of Hints for Superintendents
and Pastors, with Suggestions and Plans for Sunday-School Architecture
by C. W. STOUGHTON, A.I.A. Graphically illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net
$1.25.
~By WM. WALTER SMITH, A.B., A.N.~
"A veritable mine of information and inspiration. It is not too
much to say that no pastor, superintendent, officer, or teacher
of the Sunday-school, can afford to neglect this
volume."--_Standard._
~Secrets of Sunday School Teaching~ 12mo, cloth, net $1.00.
~By EDWARD LEIGH PELL, D.D.~
The key-note of this book is given by the author in his Preface,
where he says: "I have tried not to lay too much stress on
methods." While he puts "motives" first, however, he does not
ignore "methods," but presents those which modern practice has
proved to be effective.
~How to Conduct a Sunday School~ 12mo, cloth, net $1.25.
~By MARION LAWRANCE~, _General Secretary of the International
S. S. Association._