mi^mmmmmmimtlmm* ;HE WORKER andWORK SERIES T ERINT JENT RANK L. BROWN JUL ^71922 *j A. — r-- %£fi/CAL St^ BV 1531 .B6 1922 Brown, Frank Llewellyn, 1863-1922. The superintendent THE WORKER AND WORK SERIES THE BEGINNERS' WORKER AND WORK. Frederica Beard THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK. Marion Thomas THE JUNIOR WORKER AND WORK. Josephine L. Baldwin LEADERS OF YOUTH (Intermediates and Seniors) . Hugh H. Harris LEADERS OF YOUNG PEOPLE. Frank Wade Smith THE ADULT WORKER AND WORK. Wade Crawford Barclay THE SUPERINTENDENT. Frank L. Brown THE WORKER AND HIS CHURCH. Eric M. North THE WORKER AND HIS BIBLE. Frederick C. Eiselen and Wade Crawford Barclay The Worker and Work Series HENRY H. MEYER, Editor The Superintendent FRANK L. BROWN le/CALSEU^^' THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1922, by PRANK L. BROWN Printed in the United States of America To My Friend JOHN WANAMAKER WHO, AS A SUPERINTENDENT FOR MORE THAN SIXTY YEARS OF THE BeTHANY PrESBYTERIAN SuNDAY School of Philadelphia, has been the inspirer of untold numbers of superintendents in this and other lands, this book is affectionately dedicated CONTENTS Editor's Introduction 9 Preface 11 I. The Institution 13 II. The Superintendent 27 III. The School Graded 39 IV. The School Equipped 47 V. The School Organized 57 VI. The Administrative Staff 74 VII. Department Management 92 VIII. The Educational Superintendent 118 IX. Program and Session 128 X. Platform Instruction 152 XL Sunday-School Music 168 XII. The Superintendent and His Teachers 182 XIII. The Workers' Conference 195 XIV. The Superintendent and the Pupil 207 XV. Recreation and Organizations 222 XVI. The Superintendent and the Home 240 XVII. The Week-Day Program 256 XVIII. Missions in the Sunday School 266 XIX. Temperance and Purity in the Sunday School 281 XX. Social Service in the Sunday School 291 XXI. Special Days in the School 300 XXII. Evangelism in the Sunday School 332 XXIII. The Country and Village School 347 XXIV. The School's Upbuilding 365 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION To THE Memory of Frank L. Brown The revision of The Superintendent, first written in 1910, was the last work of authorship of Dr. Frank L. Brown. The task was completed while he was at Clifton Springs, New York, under medical care, in the late summer of 1921. As this book is in process of manufacture, the report of the author's death brings a sense of deep per- sonal loss to thousands of Sunday-school workers through- out the world. For several years past Dr. Brown has been general sec- retary of the World's Sunday School Association, directing its affairs with efficiency and constantly increasing its in- fluence throughout world-wide Protestantism. To Meth- odists, however, he is best known as the superintendent of the Bushwick Avenue Central Sunday School in Brook- lyn, a school that he founded as a mission and of which he was superintendent to the day of his death. His spiritual devotion, ceaseless activity, and enterprise made Bushwick Avenue Sunday School everywhere known not only as one of the largest but also as one of the best Sunday schools in Methodism. For years scarcely a Sunday passed with- out visitors, from one to a score or more, coming many of them from distant places to observe and learn. No alert observer ever went away without carrying with him some fruitful suggestion for the improvement of his own work. Into Bushwick Avenue Sunday School Frank L. Brown built his life and personality. It is a living monument that will endure. The Superintendent reflects very largely his own experience as superintendent. As a member from the time of its organization of the Board of Sunday Schools, of the Board of Foreign Mis- sions, of important committees of these and other organ- izations, and of several General Conferences Dr. Brown made a large contribution to modern Methodism. With all his usefulness as a Christian layman he will be best re- 9 10 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION membered by those who knew him intimately as a friend and brother. He was a lover of men, rich in those quali- ties of character which stand forth preeminently as marks of the Christian man. The history of executive and administrative offices in ed- ucation is distinctively modern. The teaching function may be traced from an early period of civilization, but the function of educational management, as a distinct field, is of very recent development. In the case of our American public schools the city superintendency is so new an office that as late as 1870 there were only twenty-seven such officials in the United States. Within the last few years the field and responsibility of supervising and managing officials both in the public schools and the church schools have been very largely increased. Colleges, normal schools, training schools, and other institutions are recognizing the importance of training for this type of leadership. But religious education has been slow in making plans for training in administrative work. This was greatly regretted by the author. By tongue and pen he urged in season and out the importance of training for Sunday- school superintendents. The author recognized that the ideal condition of Sun- day-school affairs would involve a thorough professional preparation for every superintendent. Even to give our superintendents the lesser advantage of short-term train- ing courses would be very desirable. But the actual situa- tion necessitates the service of a large number of volunteer superintendents, most of whom approach their task with- out even an apprentice training for their work. It was for these that Dr. Brown wrote The Superintendent. It is not intended primarily as a textbook in either the theory or practice of Sunday-school administration. It is, rather, a handbook of method, a compendium for the guidance of superintendents in the multitude of greater and lesser problems that come to them for solution. The Editors. PREFACE The importance of the office of the Sunday-school super- intendent has grown with the expansion of the Sunday school, with advance in its educational ideals, and with its increasingly important relation to the church, its com- munity touch and world-wide reach. The nearly 200,000 Sunday schools of this country are superintended by men and women who are among the busiest in the church and community life, leaders sincerely anxious to make the most of their office and hungry for practical help, as much so as any of the office-bearers of the church. This book has been written out of the experience and ob- servation of thirty-five years of work as a superintendent, with the purpose of assisting my fellow superintendents, or those in training for service, in preparing for effective work. Not all the suggestions made or plans outlined may be applied in any one school. The ideals presented, how- ever, we trust, will not be found impracticable in any case. It takes most of us as superintendents many years to come to even an approximate completeness in results, for we are limited often as to equipment or helpers. The best superintendents are never satisfied with their work. The horizon is continually lifting and the vision broadening. The superintendent of the small school can have a school as complete and high in quality as the large city school, and usually more satisfactory in its results through the possibility of the individual touch. The supreme goal in Sunday-school work — the shaping of Christian character for the world's service — can be attained in the smallest school and under any limitations if there are atmosphere, love, prayer, patience, and persistent and tactful effort. Grateful acknowledgment for illustrative material in these pages is made to The Sunday School Journal, The Church School, and the Sunday School Executive, Frank L. Brown. 11 CHAPTER I THE INSTITUTION 1. Aim. and purpose of the Sunday school. Before the superintendent can know his task he should have clearly in mind the aim and purpose of the Sunday school and its place in relation to the home, the church, the community, the nation, and the world. He should know something of the Sunday-school movement and its important part in the shaping of individual and world character. Let us glance at a few of the great definitions of the Sun- day school in its aim and purpose: "The Sunday school is the world's greatest institution for popularizing the world's greatest Book." "The Sunday school is the Bible-teaching service of the church." "The Sunday school is an organ- ized and scientific effort for religious education." "The purpose of the Sunday school is to teach religious truth, chiefly through the Bible, for the formation and develop- ment of religious character."^ "What, then, is the end of Sunday-school work? Character training for service in the extension of the Kingdom." "The function of the Sunday school is to grow souls possessed by Christ's passion to win souls. It should be keyed to the purpose of giving the gospel to every creature." F. B. Meyer, former president of the World's Sunday School Association, has said: "I received at the World's Sunday School Convention at Rome a new vision. If the world is ever to be saved, it must be saved through its childhood." Said Moody, "If we can save one generation of children, the devil will be out of business." Gladstone said, "Talk about the questions of the time; there is but one question — how to bring the truth's of God's Word into vital 1 Cliftou Couference. 13 14 THE SUPERINTENDENT contact with the minds and hearts of all classes of people." The Sunday school is recognized as the only institution that is equipped for this great task by reason of its organization, its personnel, and its great objectives. The Sunday school is rising splendidly to its opportunity through the perfecting of its organization, the development of its literature, the Inclusion of all ages in its plans, the training of its workers, its use of a sane evangelism, its outreach into the community and the world. It is more and more commanding the respect of educators. It is en- listing in its voluntary service the fidelity, the intelligence, and the business genius of nearly two millions of Sunday- school officers and teachers in North America alone. It is rapidly increasing in numbers and efl^iciency. This will be the Sunday-school century. We are already in the swing of a Sunday-school movement that will lay a new moral foundation under the state, offset the influences that threaten our civilization, save the church from decay, bring religion back to the home, add a new vitality to Christian missions, and train leadership for service to the community, country, and world. 2. Religious instruction previous to modern times. One of the earliest schools of religious instruction was formed in Abraham's household. Under Jehoshaphat the Levites went throughout the land instructing the people in the law. In the book of Nehemiah there is the account of a great open-air Bible school, with Ezra as superinten- dent. The order of service and list of assistants are given. Eighty years before Christ, Josephus tells us of what are practically Sabbath schools with Primary, Junior, and Senior Departments and graded instruction. In 1527 Martin Luther conducted Sunday schools in Germany, and about 1550 Carlo Borromeo was promoting Sunday schools in Milan, 743 existing in Italy at the time of his death. For more than two hundred years Sunday chil- dren's services have been held in Germany under the name of "children's divine service." There is a popular idea that THE INSTITUTION 15 Robert Raikes started the first Sunday school in 1780; but Henry Clay Trumbull, in his Yale Lectures on the Sunday School, has pointed out that as early as 1560 a form of Sun- day school had been adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. There are instances of Sunday- school work between this date and Robert Raikes' time at points in Scotland, Wales, England, Ireland, and America. 3. The Raikes movement. Robert Raikes was born in Gloucester in 1736 and died in 1811. He started his first Sunday school in "Sooty" Alley, Gloucester, "and thereby began the creation of a new race out of the social waste" of his day. My grandmother frequently saw Raikes, a fine- looking Christian gentleman, and many times told me as a boy how he went about the streets of Gloucester talking with groups of children, smiling benevolently, and inviting them to his school, his hands lifting his coat tails mean- while. With Mrs. Bradburn, to whom, with three others, he paid a shilling a day, he would lead his groups of poor boys through the alleys, the street crowd shouting, "Bobby Wildgoose and his regiment." Owing to the character of the first pupils Raikes was called the "Founder of Ragged Schools," and because of this name and the social impli- cation involved, a prejudice has existed against the Sun- day school on the part of some in the church, especially in England, until comparatively recent times. These schools were not at first connected with the church. Raikes' plan was to assemble the children from ten to twelve in the forenoon. They assembled again at one, "and after reading a lesson they were conducted to church. After church they were employed in repeating the catechism till half-past five and then dismissed with the injunction to go home without making a noise and by no means to play in the street." The movement grew unexpectedly to great popularity. Within a few years 250,000 were en- rolled in the schools of Great Britain alone; and William Pitt, the premier of Great Britain, who was opposed to popular education, even threatened to suppress the Sunday 16 THE SUPERINTENDENT schools by a Parliamentary act, but was dissuaded by en- thusiastic friends of the new movement. The Religious Tract Society of London, the London and Church Mis- sionary Societies, and the British and Foreign Bible Society were inspired by the Raikes Sunday-school movement. John Wesley was quick to discover the value of the new movement and in 1784 wrote: "Perhaps God may have a deeper end therein than men are aware. Who knows but what some of these schools may become the nurseries for Christians?" The Sunday School Union of London, founded in 1803, is the oldest Sunday-school organization. Its helpful work has extended to all parts of the British Empire. 4. The Sunday-school movement in America. While to Bishop Francis Asbury is commonly given the credit of organizing the first Sunday school in America, in the house of Thomas Grenshaw, Hanover County, Virginia, in 1786, there are instances of much earlier efforts, even as far back as 1632, when John Eliot, the preacher to the In- dians, established in the First Church of Roxbury, Massa- chusetts, a "practice for training up youth," using the catechism and Bible. The American Sunday School Union, established in 1824, was a merger of unions at New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, which were organized somewhat earlier. One hun- dred and thirty-five thousand Sunday schools have been established through the work of its missionaries in 104 years of work, especially in the West and Far West; and its good work is still going on. The Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1827, reporting at the first annual meeting 251 auxiliary societies, 1,025 schools, 10,290 teach- ers, and 63,240 scholars. It passed through several stages of amalgamation with other unrelated church interests, finally emerging from the General Conference of 1908 as a separate organization known as the Board of Sunday Schools, with headquarters in Chicago. The Sunday-school THE INSTITUTION 17 membership reported at the General Conference of 1920 was 4,467,500. The Sunday-school work of other denominations is carried on through Sunday-school, educational, and pub- lication boards and societies, which in many cases use the profits on Sunday-school publications in extending the de- nominational Sunday-school work through field and area educational secretaries. The combined official denomina- tional Sunday-school editorial, secretarial, and publication interests are represented in the Sunday School Council of Evangelical Denominations. The International Sunday School Association grew out of interdenominational Sunday-school conventions, the first one of which was held in the city of New York in 1832. These conventions were held irregularly until 1869, from which time they have been held triennially. The Inter- national Uniform Lessons were adopted at the Indianapolis Convention, in 1872. The International Graded Lessons were adopted at the Louisville Convention in 1908. The In- ternational Association has promoted Sunday-school growth and improved methods through annual conventions, its secretarial force, its literature, and through its auxiliary associations in the States, provinces, and counties of North America, including adjacent islands. There are in North America, according to the report at the Buffalo Convention (1918), 195,343 schools, 1,874,705 officers and teachers, and 18,763,649 scholars. The World's Sunday School Association is a development of the various world's conventions, beginning with the one held in London in 1889, the succeeding conventions being held in Saint Louis, London, Jerusalem, Rome, Washing- ton, Zurich, and Tokyo. At the Rome Convention, with more than 1,100 delegates present, the World's Sunday School Association was organized to promote Sunday-school organization, conventions, and literature, gather statistics, and to cooperate with other associations in advancing Sun- day-school standards throughout the whole world. Its specific purpose is to give a Sunday-school vision to the 18 THE SUPERINTENDENT workers in foreign fields and to give a missionary vision to the schools in the home field. As the result of confer- ences with the denominational mission and Sunday-school boards representatives of these boards are officially ap- pointed upon the Executive Committee of the World's Sun- day School Association. The Foreign Mission Conference of North America appoints twelve of these representatives, and the Sunday School Council of Evangelical Denomina- tions six. 5. The relation of the Sunday school to the church. The Sunday school of to-day is the church of to-morrow. Church statesmanship and the wisest strategy will con- serve the mighty possibilities of the Sunday school. "What- ever you would have appear in the life of the church must first be put into the Sunday school." The Sunday school is not the nursery of the church. In the modern form, as the church school, the Bible-studying service of the entire church, it is entitled to and is receiving all ages into its membership. It is regrettable that the Sunday school was first started as an institution apart from the church, for this fact for some years divested the church of a direct responsibility for it, and there are not a few belated min- isters even in this day who persist in keeping the church and Sunday school apart and are rarely found at the Sun- day-school service. In many cases, even where the school has been recognized, it is still regarded as a children's affair. The tremendous national interest in religious edu- cation, the organized-adult-class movement, and the new interpretation of the Sunday school's value and mission have awakened a remarkable interest in the Sunday school on the part of the church. And with good reason. What are the facts? The dividends from the Sunday schools in- clude 95 per cent of the preachers, 85 per cent of the church converts, 95 per cent of the church workers, and 75 per cent of the churches organized. And this in the face of the fact that pastors and parents are not giving more than 10 per cent of their time to the Sunday school, and the church THE INSTITUTION 19 not more than 10 per cent of its income, and that the theo- logical seminaries have until recently put but trifling em- phasis upon Sunday-school training of pastors. In other words about 90 per cent of return has come from 10 per cent of investment. The Sunday school, of all religious agencies, includes the largest number of persons at a time of life easiest to reach, and when life, if consecrated, will tell the most and longest for God and the race. It has the largest number of trained workers. President Mullen has said, "The whole trend of my observation, study, and experience has shown me that in most cases the Sunday school is the most fundamental thing in church work." The startling fact is that the ad- ditions to the church membership, aside from the Sunday school and the direct influence of the Sunday school upon the homes, probably do not exceed 10 per cent of the total. And this despite expensive and strenuous revival efforts. If the church were wise and invested its energy and money in holding in the Sunday school and bringing to Christ its young people from twelve to twenty, its problems would be largely solved. For God speaks most certainly to the life during these strategic years, and young people can then be easily molded as workers. It is church folly akin to crime to permit these young people to slip from under the direct influence and training of the church by failing to use the Sunday-school opportunity of holding and reaching them. What should be the relation of the church to the Sunday school? It should regard the Sunday school as an essential part of itself and provide generously for its equipment and support. It should supervise its organization and charac- ter of work, through its own committee on religious edu- cation. In church construction first thought should be given to the proper housing of the Sunday school, with provision for departmental division and instruction and for recreation. Theological seminaries should plan that candidates for the ministry should have an adequate course in religious 20 THE SUPERINTENDENT pedagogy and church-school management, including labora- tory work in practice Sunday schools. The pastor and the church officials should be found in the Sunday school as workers or members. Provision should be made by the church for the week-day life of the young people to link their interest and preempt their whole life for Christ and the church. "Every member of the church a member of some department of the Sunday school" should be the objective of the church. The church may well provide for a paid superintendency where the conditions favor the investment of the superintendent's entire time. It should give an adequate opportunity to every pupil to enter the Christian life. The church should provide for the spiritual culture of the young in Christian life and service. It should plan for a leadership-training class in which young people shall be trained through special courses as church and Sunday-school oflficers, and as lead- ers in missions, social service, recreation, and evangelism. It should educate its young people in the spirit of giving. It is not fair to the Sunday school to tack its session of one hour or less to the end of the church session and expect it to make its needed religious and educational impress upon its members. Time is needed for this important work, and the day may not be far distant when the church will surrender one of its preaching services, making it the Bible- teaching service of the entire church. This would magnify the Sunday-school work, give the pastor opportunity for definite service in the Sunday school, and not oblige the faithful Sunday-school worker to attend three services on a Sabbath. It would solve the question, too, of adequate time; and while we may not be ready in a voluntary work for a three-hour Sunday-school session, as contended for by a contributor to the Educational Review, yet a longer session than the present average is obligatory for best work. Many schools are placing their sessions on Sunday after- noon as a solution of the time problem and to provide against the temptation to waste the afternoon of the Sab- THE INSTITUTION 21 bath in doubtful ways. The week-day religious school as supplemental to the Sunday session is discussed later and is the answer, in good measure, to the question of sufficient time for the educational program of the church. It is al- together probable that the fully developed Sunday school of the future will be an all-inclusive institution, the center of the church's Bible study and of all its social and other activities. 6. Sunday school and community. The Sunday school is the only institution supplying systematic religious edu- cation both to young and old. Its duty is therefore to reach the entire community with its invitation and message. This it should do through advertisement, systematic visita- tion, circularizing, and personal invitation, by meetings of parents, by providing for the social life of the community, and by organizing for benevolent work. "The Bible by the hands of the living teacher to every man, woman, and child in the State" is the motto of one State organization. This purpose crystallizes what should be the plan in every com- munity. The Sunday school saves the community by pro- moting right moral standards, by saving the young from becoming criminals, and by supplying the highest motives for wholesome community interest. Practical methods of community work will follow in Chapter XX. 7. Sunday school and home. The failure, in large part, of the home religiously to train the young is responsible for the evolution of the Sunday school. The Sunday school should not be a substitute for the home in matters of re- ligious instruction, but supplementary to it, as in the train- ing of Jewish children. Gradually, through the Home De- partment and the attendance of adults upon the Sunday school and church, a new religious vitality will come into the home life. The Sunday school will still have its place as the social center for the young and as a place for broader study of the Book in its relation to Christian training for service, the home and school acting and reacting upon each other in the promotion of the rounded character. This is 22 THE SUPERINTENDENT the ideal. The home must be educated to its rightful task, and through the child we have an open-sesame in the ac- complishment of this work. Plans of cooperation between school and home are suggested in Chapter XVI. 8. Sunday school and public school. "Education is not the training of an intelligence but the development and inspiration of a soul." J. P. Monroe says, "The question to be asked at the end of an educational step is not 'What has the child learned?' but 'What has the child become?'" Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, of Columbia University, has said, "Education is a gradual adjustment to the spiritual possessions of the race," and in the further discussion he states that the religious inheritance is one to which every child is entitled. Theoretically the public school aims to produce a rounded life equipped for service to the community and the state. But by the elimination of the Bible from the public school the dynamic in character making is gone, and the com- pletion of the educational process is thrown back upon the character of the teacher. And where there is no religious test applied in the selection of teachers, the results to the pupil are necessarily unsatisfactory in the production of character. "The teacher's life is the life of his teaching." America is committed, apparently irrevocably, for weal or woe, to exclusively secular education in the public schools. Professor Brumbaugh says, "Any country that fails to give the training religiously that it does mentally is on the way to ruin." As religious instruction is essential to the life of any nation, we are forced to the use of the Sunday school as the recognized channel of religious instruction or to denominational week-day schools, which are not likely to obtain favor in competition with the public-school system. In view of the fact, therefore, that the Sunday school and the public school are twin factors in the needed educa- tion of the child, the relation between the two should be sympathetic and cooperative. Each has something to learn of the other. In increasing numbers Christian public- THE INSTITUTION 23 school teachers and educators are in the Sunday school, as- sisting in the development of its curriculum and in its work. In a fair comparison of the work of the public school and Sunday school, taking into account the weight of public authority behind the public school and its paid teaching force, tests of work in each, the country over, will show that the Sunday school is doing proportionally efficient work. 9. Sunday school and national life. The morale of the forces in the Great War was kept at a high mark largely through the Christian character of so large a proportion of the number serving and the contacts afforded through the local Sunday school and church in the homeland. The nearly 200,000 Sunday schools in America were centers of Red Cross and other war activities. Senator Sherman of Illinois says, "No good government can be had, and especially popular government, unless the people shall live under the wholesome influence of spiritual forces." President Harding said: "The future of the na- tion cannot be trusted to the children unless their educa- tion includes their spiritual development. It is time, there- fore, that we give our attention to the religious instruction of the children of America, not in the spirit of intolerance, nor to emphasize distinctions or controversies between creeds or beliefs, but to extend religious teaching to all in such form that conscience is developed, and duty to one's neighbor and to God is understood and fulfilled." Other national leaders emphasize this same need and the Sunday school as essential to the national life. "1 chal- lenge the gentlemen present to name any institution that means so much for the safety and prosperity of our coun- try as does the Sunday school" (John W. Foster). "The Sunday school is one of the greatest institutions of to-day. As a school of religious instruction it is inestimable; as a civil institution it is priceless." (Daniel Webster.) "Our navy cannot save this country, our army cannot save this country, our public schools cannot save this country; but 24 THE SUPERINTENDENT Sunday schools can do it, sown thick as schoolhouses throughout the land" (General Rutherford). "Education in things spiritual and moral is most necessary to the making of the highest type of citizenship" (Theodore Roosevelt). "We shall maintain our liberties only by the religious edu- cation of our youth" (George Washington). "America has been practically saved to Protestant Christianity by the Sunday school" (Trumbull). To the influences generated by the Sunday school we are indebted for many of our strong national leaders — men whose names are household words. The prohibition victory in our land had its origin in the seed planted in the thou- sands of Sunday schools a generation ago. The children and grandchildren of immigrants obtain new ideals of personal and home life through their absorption of Sunday- school teaching. The Sunday school is the strongest bul- wark of our American Sabbath. Justice Brewer said: "This American nation, from its first settlement at Jamestown to the present hour, is based upon and permeated by the principles of the Bible. The one who is engaged in bringing this Bible to the people is a patriot. If it were possible for any organization or number of organizations so to take this Bible and send it through the land that its teachings and precepts could be brought home to the people, the results would be grander than all the victories won in all the wars since the begin- ning of time." The Sunday school lays a moral and re- ligious foundation under the home, and the home is the unit of a perfect national civilization. 10. Relation to missions and international aiFairs. "It is the whole business of the whole church to bring the gospel to the whole world as soon as possible," said Trum- bull; and, again, the purpose of the Sunday school is "character training for service in the extension of the King- dom." The missionary givers and the givers of to-morrow are in the Sunday school of to-day. It is the Sunday school's THE INSTITUTION 25 privilege to direct and cultivate the missionary passion through program, pageantry, music, information, mission- ary library, and direct appeal. It is significant of God's purpose that at the very time when missionary education in the American Sunday schools is being so earnestly promoted, the whole world is opening to missionary opportunity. This is due to the reaction to spiritual values from materialism and the bloodshed of the war; the separation of church and state in such fields as South America and Europe; the conviction in such highly educated countries as Japan that education does not of itself produce character; the breakdown of the old re- ligions under the test of education and science. The World's Sunday School Convention in Tokyo in October, 1920, gave a great impulse to the conviction of both national and missionary leaders that the Sunday school was essential to the future life of the church and state in the foreign field. The high valuation placed by Christ and his church upon the child was emphasized at that convention in pageantry, exhibit, and address. It was clearly seen that the strategy in world winning and recon- struction was along the pathway of the child and the Sun- day school. It is increasingly recognized that the Sunday school is a vital factor in international relations because of its inter- denominational, international, and interracial character. The task for Sunday-school leaders in all countries is to promote the world mind and the sense of close inter- relationship and interdependence. Leaders in both America and England are seeing that the Sunday school, highly de- veloped and organized, will be a most potent factor in driv- ing back the tide of bolshevism, which since the war has threatened Christianity and the stability of democratic in- stitutions. W. T. Ellis, the publicist, says, "The Sunday school should substitute Christian democracy for the non- Christian hatred which is sweeping over the face of the earth." 26 THE SUPERINTENDENT Benjamin Kidd, whose book The Science of Power has had such wide reading, says in the closing paragraphs of the last chapter: "0 you blind leaders who seek to convert the world by labored disputation! Step out of the way, or the world must fling you aside. Give us the young, give us the young, and we will create a new mind and a new earth in a single generation." Bibliography Sunday School Movement in America, M. C. Brown. Outline History of Religious Education, Meyer. Topics for Special Study 1. The advisability of substituting the Sunday-school service for one of the preaching services. 2. The Sunday school as an all-inclusive institution for Christian training and activity. Topics for Class Discussion 1. What are the aim and the purpose of the Sunday school? 2. Name the principal historical steps leading up to the Raikes movement. 3. When was the Raikes school founded? Give a few facts concerning that movement. 4. What is the origin and work of the International Sun- day School Association? 5. What has the Sunday school done for the church? 6. What should the church do for the Sunday school? 7. How can the Sunday school help the community? 8. What part has the home and what the Sunday school in religious education? 9. How can the Sunday school contribute to the national life? 10. How can the Sunday school and public school co- operate in attaining the real end of education? 11. What is its opportunity as an international factor? CHAPTER II THE SUPERINTENDENT 1. On the threshold of his task. He has been elected superintendent; it may be, thrust into olRce to fill a gap, persuaded by the pastor or the nominating committee, with- out training or special preparation. If this is his position, it is the experience of thousands of his brethren. It may be that this push is the divine call to him. He has probably been selected because he has done things; because of some grace of mind, or heart, or soul; because something of executive strength or professional or business or church success marks him out from his fellows. Surely the superintendent must needs feel that, as truly as prophet or pastor, he is divinely called to his work. From whatever source that call comes, he must know an inner response that recognizes the Shepherd's voice and moves out after the lambs and sheep of the fold and those not of the fold. His sense of a divine call will make him a man of prayer. He must pray for guidance and wisdom on the threshold of a task in which, by his personality, example, word, and work, he may become a powerful molding force in the lives of young people, when life is in the making. And the power of his life will consist in the clearness of the prayer atmos- phere. He will measure himself and his task. Perhaps he has overestimated himself because he has not rightly compre- hended his task. He may have taken the false measure- ments of the anxious nominators that "it would only take an hour on Sunday." But when he gets squarely in the saddle and surveys the field — the throbbing life, its far reach, the necessity of organizing and directing the school 27 28 THE SUPERINTENDENT and community, Sunday and week-day, for a pure home life, high citizenship, and a part in world conquest through the mighty weapon of the Word — he will either re- linquish his task or will steadily grow to his vision, dis- covering capacities, overcoming difficulties, determining to make his work the best as to quality and the largest possible as to quantity. His work involves devising and carrying forward satisfactory plans as to instruction, the training of teachers, the attachment of the pupil and the home to Christ and the church, the spiritual nurture of growing lives, provision for the week-day life of the pupil, and the ingathering of those without. This perspective of his work will give direction and point to his efforts. It will drive him to prayer. It will ally hini with Christ. The superintendent who has caught a vision of his task has a great chance to make his personality and plans count for large things. There is no other possible investment of his life where the results are so impressive, and where the present and future satisfaction is so great. "Where anything is growing, one former is worth a thousand re- formers." He who stands at the threshold of young life to put upon it the touch that will mold for all the years stands in a place of power. But he who would make this investment must first have a Christlike personality, what- ever his native gifts. For this he will strive and pray. This, after all, is the primary essential. Peculiarly is this true of the Sunday school, in which success depends so largely on spirit communicated from superintendent to teacher, pupil, home, and community. 2. His training. With the increasing importance of the Sunday school to the church and community there is a growing demand, especially from the larger churches in the cities, for paid superintendents and directors of religious education, who can give their entire time to the organiza- tion and direction of the school in its Sunday and week-day activities. And where a church has sufficient resources this is highly desirable; for a live superintendent can make his THE SUPERINTENDENT 29 worth felt in building up church membership and finances and in increasing the impact of the church upon the homes of the community. Besides theological seminaries that are giving courses for the specific preparation of such workers there are schools that give laymen the opportunity for a practical training for the work of the superintendency. We are asking for trained teachers: why not trained superin- tendents? We require that engineers who drive the cargoes of human freight shall be trained and licensed: why not those who so largely direct eternal destinies? The work is increasingly complex, and more and more superintendents who are experts will be demanded. True. it is not possible, owing to the limitations of family and business, for many of the nearly two hundred thousand superintendents who preside over the Sunday schools of our country to take special courses away from home. But every man can build up a little library of best books about him which will broaden his horizon. He can subscribe to a few superintendents' helps, he can attend conventions or local institutes to get inspiration and ideas, he can visit other schools to absorb new plans, he can grow bigger with every year. Courses for the training of Sunday-school ex- ecutives have been prepared, and information as to these courses can be obtained upon application to the Sunday- school board of your denomination or to the oflBce of the State or provincial Sunday-school association. When, thirty-five years ago, the writer was thrust out from the teaching of a class in a city Sunday school, where there were no special ideals of Sunday-school work, to or- ganize a mission in a new district and to take its superin- tendency, there were two books that started him thinking and planning. These were The Modern Sunday School, by John H. Vincent, and The Model Superintendent, which is the life story of Henry P. Havens. Every superintendent must at least know his workshop and something of the history, purpose, opportunity, and destiny of the Sunday school. 30 THE SUPERINTENDENT 3. His relation to the cliureli. In the Methodist Epis- copal Church the superintendent is nominated annually by the local Sunday-school board and confirmed by the quar- terly conference at its first session after the nomination. The pastor is ex officio chairman of the local Sunday-school board. He may prefer that the superintendent preside — and I find that most superintendents desire to preside. In either case there should be the fullest consultation between them as to matters to be proposed before the board for conference or action. In progressive denominations the present plan is to ap- point a church committee of religious education, of which the superintendent should be a member, to develop a com- prehensive plan of religious education, including all the church organizations. This committee should have mem- bership in the Sunday-school board and should supervise the curriculum, training work, and expresslonal activities of the school. As the representative of the church the superintendent is entitled to the cooperation and presence in the school of the official board. It has placed him in office through its confirmatory vote, and its members can bind the church and school in a vital way through their attendance. Few in- stances of school failure can be adduced where the mem- bers of the official board are all related to some part of the Sunday school. The church should dignify the office by publicly installing the superintendent. Such a service will give him wings for his work. The superintendent's report to the official board or church quarterly meeting is an opportunity to tie the church to the Sunday-school program. He should be free to nominate, in consultation with the pastor, his department superin- tendents, committees, and teachers, subject to confirmation by the Sunday-school board. If he is chargeable with re- sponsibility for results, he must be given a large voice in the selection of those upon whom he must rely for the pro- THE SUPERINTENDENT 31 duction of those results. The superintendent's relation to the pastor, pupil, teacher, home, and community is to be dealt with more fully in subsequent chapters. 4. His equipment. The superintendent should be su- premely a man of heart, a lover of children, a friend of everybody. He is a helper and guide and servant of all, not a boss. "I am in the midst of you as he that serveth." He prays daily for himself, his own home, the teachers, the pupils, the community, and the world, and as individually as possible. It is assumed that he is a Christian, not neces- sarily a perfect Christian. Few of us would care to lay claim to that. But he is a man with love for Christ and his fellows, who will grow bigger and better as he gets his shoulder under the load and puts his heart into his work. He should love his Bible. While it would be of great value if he were a Bible student, he may be highly successful through securing a better trained man or woman for the educatioiial work and devote his own energies to the de- velopment of the organization and the spirit of the in- stitution. He remembers that his Master was misunderstood, and that the world did not grow up to his ideals until after he had gone. And this gives him patience. He is a man of principle, not of expediency, and keeps his school running on this ideal. He is a Sunday-school optimist and enthusi- ast, and so things go, glow, and grow. "Enthusiasm is hope in action." He is not necessarily a good talker or a man of large teaching ability but has some executive ability and common sense, is cheery and courteous, reverent, tactful, prompt, persevering, and wins the cooperation of others. He is a man of system, of neatness in his work and in his personal appearance, and his school unconsciously takes its cue from him. He seeks to be what he desires his pupils and teachers to be. What we are daily sowing in self-discipline we shall reap in the failure or success of our work. What is in use will 32 THE SUPERINTENDENT out, in spite of tricks and masks. Genuine souls tell, and no hypocrisy can mock or circumvent them. If we mean to train disciples of Christ, we must march the whole road ourselves. If we would mold living sculpture, we must first fashion our implements out of purity and simplicity, love and trust. We are watched, we are studied, we are searched through and through, by those we undertake to lead. (Bishop Huntington.) If not a born superintendent he can be "born again" if he will insist upon it and will put faith in himself, in others, and in his task. "If you insist on being a worm, be a glow- worm and let your light shine." He is a believer in the "go ye" of Christ and therefore loves missions. He is an attendant at the church prayer meeting and encourages his teachers and pupils to go. He loves souls and hard work. Nothing can possibly take the place of these. Although a man of vision, his feet are on the earth. He sticks to his job in all weather. "Nowhere in the Bible are found the words *Be successful.' The Book only bids us 'Be faithful.' " (Lawrance.) He is constructed on the short-meter plan in prayer, notices, and review. He is snappy in the best sense, quick in emergencies, firm but kind. If a new superinten- dent he will have patience the first year, as others will need to have patience with him. Beyond the first year of adjustment lie the years of confidence, better understand- ing, and growth. He is a believer in his denomination and loyal to it; but gets a high enough vision of the re- lation of his denomination to the Kingdom to reduce fences to lines on the map. Dr. Joseph Clark has put some of the superintendent's qualities pithily as follows: Wanted: A high type, manly Christian man, one whom children love, girls admire, boys worship, women honor, young men revere, and men respect; a man of religion with- out cant, of piety without softness, of righteousness without hypocrisy; a man of pure thought, clean life, and unstained hands; a broad man with Kingdom vision, who keeps step with world-wide religious activities; a man to whom his THE SUPERINTENDENT 33 high calling is an avocation, not a task; who creates an epi- demic of sociability and good cheer wherever he goes; a man who is on the still hunt three hundred and sixty-five days of each year for the best things for his school; one who is ever quietly busy at soul saving and soul culturing; a man who would rather superintend a Sunday school than do anything else on earth; a man who prays to be re- tained in office while efficient and to be retired when no longer at his best; a man who will not make his retirement from the superintendency the springboard for a leap into the oblivion of religious inactivity; a man who after re- tirement takes his place in some subordinate position in the vineyard and sweetly exerts an influence of helpfulness toward his successor; a man for Sunday-school superin- tendent — not an angel but a man of whom his fellows will say, "Rabbi, thou art a leader sent from God." 5. The things he avoids. Our superintendent does not despair when some pet plan is vetoed but waits for folks to grow up to the plan, if a good one, and starts a system of personal education of others to its approval. He does not take responsibility if in doubt as to the wisdom of a course but shares by consultation with other officers or with the Sunday-school board. While he chases his ideal he does not in doing so lose touch with his constituency; does not lose his temper on the platform, because he knows he will lose his influence with it. Scolding and scalding are near relatives. He does not think he knows it all — unless he has just started in the superintendency. He will be harvesting Sunday-school information all his life. He does not work by the clock but by the beat of his heart. He never does anything himself that he can get another to do nearly as well. He does not give the notices out twice in exactly the same way but cultivates variety and surprise. He does not kill off the attendance of the older boys and girls by ad- dressing the school as "dear children." He does not sur- render to a chance visitor the precious closing moments of the school. In matters of doubtful habits or practices he asks, "What would Jesus do?" He does not ride hobbies, whether music, teacher training, or special days, but seeks 34 THE SUPERINTENDENT to develop the school symmetrically. Having signed his en- listment papers, he does not resign whenever his corns are stepped on. Said a prominent Sunday-school worker, "I have no feelings in Sunday-school work; I have a rhinoceros hide." Our superintendent does not expect ever to be satis- fied with attainment. If you have ideals, your horizon will keep lifting. "Never discouraged and never satisfied." Our superintendent does not keep in a rut until it becomes a grave. He does not scold others for going to sleep under his leadership but wakes himself up first. He does not get mad at honest criticism but grows under it. He learns something even from kickers. He does not usually teach a class. He can do more through observation and cooperation than through lesson teaching. He does not do it all, but, hav- ing committed the work to others, lets them finish the job and makes the most of their work. He does not allow teach- ers to be interrupted by anybody when launched upon the lessons. 6. The superintendent in action. Our superintendent has a notebook in which he registers new plans and sug- gestions; suggestions for special days; keeps a record of school attendance, teachers* names and addresses, and a list of prospective workers. While the lesson is being taught, he uses his feet and eyes, notes weak points, and makes lib- eral notes for later use. He refers cases of sick and stray- ing to proper committees. He advertises regularly school news, special days, and coming events through the school paper, the local press, and special printed matter. He has a night memorandum pad and pencil for some plan or thought that may come in wakeful hours. He gets another to absorb and propose his plan in the Sunday-school board rather than spring it himself. He knows that the best reducer of the ice of difficulty is a sunshiny smile. He knows the magnetic power of a handshake. He keeps ever- lastingly at it in summer and winter. He adopts some plans, adapts others. He views things from the standpoint of teachers and pupils. He gives his assistant superin- THE SUPERINTENDENT 35 tendents a chance at the platform for the sake of variety and training. He is open and keeps open for suggestion and criticism. He frequently meets his teachers in prayer before or after the school. He makes use on occasions of special teachers' and pupils' prayer gatherings. He makes of his Sunday-school work not an incident but a business. He knows, if it is worth doing at all, it is tremendously worth doing. He knows why his pupils leave the school. He anticipates trouble in the sense of preventing it. He keeps in view that he is training citizens for this world as well as for the world to come. He will give his pupils a world vision of the reach and opportunities of the Sunday school. He is on the lookout for pupils who may be de- veloped as workers for the local task and the broader field. He watches newcomers in the church for new teachers and new Sunday-school members. He builds up a substitute list. While chary of making promises he sees that every promise when made is faithfully kept. He makes the Chris- tian life appear wholesome to present-day boys and girls, as the supreme thing in character making and life success, and not a soft, effeminate something that wilts manhood and womanhood and shies off every full-blooded boy and girl. He avoids "holy tones." He expects order and re- sults. He creates atmosphere. He takes time to prepare. He has his program completed to the last dot before leav- ing home. He comes from his knees to the school. This preparation gives him confidence and power. He begins on time if he has to talk and sing to himself. He keeps in view that the great objective is to form character, and not to entertain, and makes lessons, songs, talk, and prayers all bear on that objective. His best work is ever ahead. Thorvaldsen, who sculptured the "Lion of Lucerne," when asked what was his greatest work, replied, "My next." When we lean on our past we cease to grow. Our super- intendent keeps his individuality in the work, but an in- dividuality trimmed of unpleasant angles, markedly cour- teous, and molded and fused on the divine plan of kindli- 36 THE SUPERINTENDENT ness and love. He plans for the training of his workers through correspondence study and other training courses. He knows that he touches his pupils best through the trained teacher. He keeps the bones of the work out of sight. In putting others at work he saves himself for points of special need. He sends a personal birthday greeting to his teachers and oflEicers. They are his class. He should keep close to them. He makes sure that the new pupil is welcomed and the home visited. He sees that his pupils are remembered through a birthday message. He knows that the devil is often in league with the sexton in matters of ventilation. He knows that "Do" is a bigger, better word than "Don't," and "Come" than "Go." He uses the lever of commendation to build up. He gets into some superintendents' union if possible, and exchanges plans. He knows that his Sunday school must stand foursquare on its spiritual, social, mental, and physical pillars, and plans for all these lines for his young people. He has a "sugges- tion box" for good Sunday-school ideas from pupils and teachers and gives credit for them. He lets people know that he is always accessible. He gives every pupil a square chance to acknowledge and follow Christ. He is forever at school himself, learning from Christ, from others, and from his own mistakes. He puts his best energies into the building up of the school at its weak points. He knows that the strong points will take care of themselves. He helps his teachers to a larger vision and brightens his teachers' meetings by having a chapter from some live Sunday-school book read at each gathering. He wins the cooperation of parents and plans for their visitation and ingathering. He spends an hour or more weekly with his records and learns much from them. He plans conferences with teachers, officers, and committees, and keeps them inspired through good literature. He gets his work on his heart and mind seven days a week and overtime on Sundays. He individual- izes the pupils as much as possible in work and recognition. THE SUPERINTENDENT 37 He knows that homemade appliances are often better than store goods, and that a blackboard, even if used but poorly, carries further than his speech. He dreams of a complete school, and little by little makes his vision real — ^such dreams as holding the boys and young men, supplemental drills, best teaching methods, a saved school inspired for service. He knows that there are no difficulties that are insuperable. "^Only Providence can stand in the way of a determined man." Our superintendent plans his work and works his plans. He does not happen on success. Above all, he puts love into his work and gets back what he gives. 7. His compensations. He will have the reverence and lasting respect of scores and hundreds of those into whose lives he has entered as a molding force never to be forgot- ten. He has the consciousness of knowing that he occu- pies week by week a forum of power, the platform. He lives in anticipation of having at last tJie Master's commen- dation: "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my breth- ren, even these least, ye did it unto me." The Bible becomes more of a personal treasure and Christ a greater reality as he seeks to apply both to the need of others. Some years ago a company of Sunday-school workers called upon John Wanamaker at his store in Philadelphia. In response to the words of earnest greeting from the visitors Mr. Wanarnaker said: "Brethren, if you will take this as my testimony — and I give it at the end of fifty years' experience with one Sunday school — if I were to live my life over I would begin just where I did, only I think I could do my work four times better' than I did. There is no better investment of life, no matter how rich or wise a man may become." Brother superintendent, a true estimate of our work will lead us to the viewpoint of Phillips Brooks: Oh, do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your task shall be 38 THE SUPERINTENDENT no miracle. But you shall be the miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God. Bibliography The Successful Sunday School Superintendent, Wells. Topics for Special Study 1. The paid superintendency. 2. The career of some especially successful superinten- dents. Topics for Class Discussion 1. What should constitute a superintendent's call? 2. How should he be elected? 3. What four qualifications are essential for his success? 4. Name four things he should not do. 5. Name four things he should do. 6. What are some of the rewards of his work? CHAPTER III THE SCHOOL GRADED 1. Why gi'ade the school? (1) God lias graded the child. — In grading the school we are seeking to adapt the material to the individual according to his age and devel- opment. Grading recognizes that there are distinct stages in the physical, mental, and spiritual growth of the pupil. At the earlier stage play is the dominating interest; at the junior age memory power is strong; in the early teens biography makes its appeal; in the later teens, altruism, "The aptitudes, the needs, the interests, of the different periods can only be met and taken advantage of by a graded system." (2) The Sunday school is a church school. — The superin- tendent is the principal of the school. The principles of religious teaching are not different from those of secular teaching. Full advantage should be taken of all well-ascer- tained results in the field of secular education and applied to the Sunday school, keeping in view the natural limita- tions imposed by a volunteer service and an often inade- quate equipment. (3) The first principle in modern teaching is to know the mind of the pupil. — "Scientific pedagogy has been coming more and more to hold that effective teaching must regard first the mind of the learner and consider the teaching ma- terial as a means of reaching desired ends" (Barclay). This viewpoint makes inevitable the grading of lesson ma- terial, of worship, and of the expressional life of the school. 2. How grade the school? In nearly every school there is some form of grading. The uniform lesson helps natu- rally grade schools into primary, junior, intermediate-senior, and young-people-adult groups. The primary graded les- 39 40 THE SUPERINTENDENT sons are in use in many small schools that otherwise may use the uniform lesson. Certain difficulties inherent in the closely graded lessons, which provide three different grade lessons in a given de- partment, are recognized in their application to the small school. While these closely graded lessons should be recog- nized and applied wherever possible as an educational ideal, the International Lesson Committee has endeavored to meet the conditions existing in the average and especially the small school by a proposal for a series of group lessons, which require but one lesson at the same time for an entire department or for a departmental class in the small school. These group lessons will likely gradually displace the uni- form lessons and will solve the problem of many a superin- tendent who wishes to regard the graded principle in his work but finds difficulty in using the closely graded lessons. These group lessons will help in the matter of substitutes, in harmonizing the departmental program for the day as to songs, prayer, and expressional plans with the group lesson, and will enable at least a departmental teachers' meeting dealing with the lesson. The general principle that must be recognized in grading is a due regard to age and to the physical, mental, and spiritual development of the pupil in the matters of curric- ulum, teaching methods, and promotions. We must re- gard the three normal divisions of human life — "childhood, the period of subjection, imitation, receptivity; youth, the period of awakening powers; manhood, the period of de- veloped powers." A careful study of these periods has made necessary some clear subdivisions of these periods with certain variations due to sex and retarded or rapid development. Any grading strictly on age lines must be more or less defective. The main consideration is to grade as closely as possible. The following plan of grading and organization, gen- erally approved by Sunday-school agencies and boards, is suggested : THE SCHOOL GRADED 41 CliildreiiVs Division: Ages Puhlic-school grade 1 Cradle Roll X 2 3 • Beginners' Department 4 . 5 1 Primary Department 6 7 8 1 2 3 Junior Department Young People's Division: Intermediate Department 9 10 11 12 13 14 4 5 6 7 8 9 Senior Department 15 16 17 10 11 12 Young People's Department 18 to 24 Adult Department : over 24, including, in close correlation, Home Department Parents' Department Organized adult classes. Teacfier Training Department 3. Extension of the graded principle. The principle of grading, when admitted as essential in any plan for the making of intelligent Christians, must carry us further than the matter of curriculum and departmental division. It must be applied to the whole sweep of our work — recrea- tion, evangelism, social service, special days, missions. For the same reason that we would not study the same lesson material at seven as at seventeen we would not heed the same evangelistic appeal, we would not be appealed to 42 THE SUPERINTENDENT by the same phases of missionary endeavor, we would not enjoy the same sports and games, the same songs and prayers would not equally impress, the same kinds of social service would not interest. Right here is the argument for separate rooms for each department, so that this principle of religious education can be applied to age groups the year through. It is an educational fallacy and an administrative mistake for the superintendent to attempt each Sunday to bring all of his departments into one session for general exercises. Every principle of successful teaching is violated when he at- tempts to adapt the opening or closing service of worship to the primary children, juniors, intermediates, seniors, young people, and adults. I am well aware that our defective provision of separate rooms or department equipment makes difficult and almost impossible any other plan. I know, too, that the one-room school prevails in the rural sections of our country and in many villages and towns, and that the best that can be done frequently is to separate the primary children and to apply the graded plan through the individ- ual teacher to the class group. But I am also aware that there are many superintendents, good men, who still har- bor the idea that a successful school consists in a general gathering, where he can see his flock and they can see him. The hurrah plan of the mass meeting does not mean that the best thing has been done for the teacher or the indi- vidual pupil. Personally I would rather never see my school in one assembly if by it a pupil would fail of the right educational impressions. And in my own school we adhere strictly to the plan of complete departmental separa- tion throughout the entire session. The interest of the pupil, as a matter of fact, is greater when his own age interests are appealed to by the separate session. The boy of sixteen resents being classed, intel- lectually or socially, with the boy of eleven, and one reason why we have not held the boy and girl in their teens in larger numbers is because of this very intermixture. THE SCHOOL GRADED 43 Little by little Sunday-school architecture is con- forming to these principles, and meanwhile the only thing to do is to make such separations and departmental recog- nitions as are possible where conditions are limited. In the chapters on equipment and organization this will be discussed. Where opportunity permits, therefore, and especially where the size of the school and the arrangement of rooms makes it possible, the plan of grading should be extended to all phases of the departmental life. By this I mean to the lessons, exercises, platform drill, library, missionary and other benevolences, socials and recreations, evangelistic appeal, special days, and general service expression. As an instance the plan would provide for a different character of Christmas exercises for each department — a Christmas tree, with its collateral interests for the younger children; a cantata for the juniors; a world missionary program with an altruistic appeal for the seniors; and Christ magnified in all. 4. Shall teachers be graded? The question whether teachers should stay with the department in a graded school or go forward with the class is frequently raised. In the departments up through the junior I think the teacher should stay with the department, if he or she shows special fitness for the graded work. My experience is that there are some junior teachers who are often fitted for the ad- vanced work of the teens and who, at the transitional age (physically) of the pupil, might well go forward with the class. Especially is this desirable where the school policy is to train its young people as teachers during the period of the later teens; for these young people are as a rule better fitted to teach pupils below the teen age, and plans must be made for them in the teaching work of junior or lower departments. In the transition, too, from the Intermediate to the Senior, and from the Senior to the Young People's Depart- ment the question of the personal fitness of the teacher to 44 THE SUPERINTENDENT advance with the pupil and the question of personal re- lationship to the pupil must enter into the decision as to holding or promoting the teacher. For this is an age when the teacher's personal grip on the big boy and girl is fre- quently the determining factor in inducing continued at- tendance upon the school and in launching the life for Christ, especially if there is not a strong young people's departmental interest to attract. I can well understand how many a superintendent, facing his own school conditions and limitations in the light of these principles, may have almost a sense of discourage- ment. The real and the ideal seem far apart. But I often think of that pithy statement of Marion Lawrance: "Do the best you can with what you have where you are to-day." And if we can work out these ideas, little by little, under present limitations, aiming constantly for some improve- ment, we have succeeded. The recognition of the graded principle in the adminis- tration of the church school is fundamental. The question of practical organization on the lines of this principle will be taken up under Chapters IV and V. In any such plan an educational superintendent, where the superintendent is not especially qualified, would seem to be necessary to supervise grading, promotions, curriculum, teacher train- ing, etc. And in the training of the teacher emphasis should be placed upon specialization reading and study for his de- partmental work. Bibliography The School in the Modern Church, Cope. The Graded Sunday School in Principle and PracticCy Meyer. Topics for Special Study 1. Graded lesson courses. 2. Some successful graded schools. TJHE SCHOOL GRADED 45 ORGANIZATION CHART AGE COURSE TITLES OF COURSES Dcpirbneotal Gro