SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING AS APPLIED TO THE suNdayschool EDGAR W. KNIGHT. A MPuT). SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING AS APPLIED TO THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING AS APPLIED TO THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL vrti-* i6 191? BY "^oeicALsy^ EDGAR W. KNIGHT, A.M., Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Education, Trinity College (North Carolina) With an Introduction by PROFESSOR FRANKLIN N. PARKER, D.D. Professor of Biblical Literature, Trinity College THE PILGRIM PRESS Boston New York Chicago Copyright 1915 By the congregational SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY THE PILGRIM PRZ68 BOSTOH PREFACE One of the most hopeful signs of improvement in the work of the Sunday-school is the noticeable increase in recent years in books and pamphlets on the training of Sunday-school teachers. The scope of work which is now regarded as essential for teachers in the Sunday- school has gradually enlarged. Knowledge of the Bible alone is no longer regarded as the only qualifi- cation for those who instruct the youth of the church in morals and religion. Not only must they be familiar with the Scriptures, the subject-matter to be taught, but Sunday-school teachers should also be familiar with the best and most practicable principles of teach- ing and with certain facts about child life and child development. A thorough knowledge of the Bible, and how to teach it, and a familiarity with pedagogy and with child psychology, are some of the needs of the teacher in the Sunday-school today. This little book is the result of some work which the author did, as leader of a training class of Sunday- school teachers in Durham, North Carolina, in the winter and spring of 1914, and was suggested by an outline prepared for the New York Sunday-school Association by Professor George A. Coe, of Union Theological Seminary, New York City. The book is meant to be a practical aid to those who have had little or no opportunity to acquaint themselves with certain principles of teaching and certain facts of child psy- chology which may be used to advantage in Sunday- school teaching. The author believes that any in- [v] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING telligent man or woman, of consecration, industry, and average ability will find suggestions here which, if followed, will eventually improve his or her work in the Sunday-school. The book lays no claim to being anything more than suggestive of what may be done for this great ally and support of the church; and it is given to Sunday-school teachers in the hope that it may be of some practical service in their work. E. w. K. Trinity College, Durham, North Carolina, September, 1914. VI CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Preface v Introduction ix I. Historical 1 II. The Need FOR Trained Teachers 16 III. Successful Sunday-school Teaching. 26 IV. The Qualifications and Prepara- tion OF THE Teacher 40 V. Planning the Lesson 59 VI. Teaching the Lesson 68 VII. Attention and Interest 88 VIII. The Art OF Questioning 107 IX. Using the Pupil's Memory 118 X. The Teacher's Personality • 136 XI. Jesus as a Teacher 146 vii INTRODUCTION Since the inauguration of the International Lesson System for Sunday-schools, the Sunday-school move- ment has taken on larger and larger proportions. The fact that a very large percentage of church members comes from the Sunday-school has emphasized the importance of that branch of the church's activity. Modern study of the child and the adolescent has confirmed with startling emphasis the fact that these stages are of crucial importance in determining the moral and spiritual character of the future man and woman. The development of the common school, especially along the lines of scientific pedagogy, has had a marked reflex influence upon Sunday-school practice. Increased knowledge of need and of opportunity has increased responsibility. The matter of efficiency in doing the work of the Sunday-school has become a live question. On all hands it is admitted that the vital thing in any school is the teacher. It is often difficult to get teachers at all, and still more difficult to get competent ones. Many who do volunteer are pain- fully conscious of their incompetence. This book has been prepared specifically to meet the need for trained teachers. The author, Dr. Edgar W. Knight, of the Department of Education in Trinity College, is a specialist in the history and science of education, and is personally deeply interested in the work of teacher-training for Sunday-schools. I have examined the book with pleasure and found it both [ix] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING stimulating and suggestive. It is not merely theo- retical; it is a workable book, and one that can be used in teacher-training classes or by individual workers. A specially valuable feature is the list of questions and subjects for investigation appended to each chapter. Franklin N. Parker. Trinity College, Durham, North Carolina, September, 1914. W CHAPTER I Historical^ Religious Education Found among All Peoples A historical study of religious and moral education shows that some form of religious education is found among all peoples, whether primitive or civilized. It is found in the earliest history of Egypt, when the priest class was dominant; it is found among the Assyrians, the Indians, and the Chinese, and among the educational ideals of the Greeks and the Romans. Early Hebrew life well illustrates the purposes and uses of religious education. Even during the nomadic period in the development of this people, when the patriarch gathered his household around him for the purpose of religious instruction, a great importance was attached to this form of education. Religious education began at the father's knee and formed one of the best examples of the earliest and most effective moral and religious teaching. Note the following:^ " For I know him [Abraham], that he will command his children and his household after him, and that they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." And the following exhortation to obedience suggests a custom which helps to explain the religious character ^ This brief discussion of the historical development of the Sunday- school movement is based largely on Cope's excellent study of the same subject, The Evolution of the Sunday-school, published by The Pilgrim Press, Boston, and on other books referred to in this chapter. 2 Genesis 18': 19. [1] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING of the Hebrew race, and how the law became such a guiding force in all phases of their life:^ " And thou shalt teach them [the words of the law] dili- gently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou riseth up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." All the way from the prominence of the Hebrew scribe and interpreter of the law, through the beginnings and the development of the synagogue, where the law was read and explained at stated times, certain features of religious education and its methods may be traced. Instruction in the synagogue may not have been altogether verbal or similar to the instruction found in our Bible schools and other forms of religious education today; but it is important for Sunday-school workers to know that the synagogue became the center of the educational life of those people and that all phases of their life were, more or less, religious. Early Sunday-Schools It has become customary and rather popular in descriptions of the origin and early development of the modern Sunday-school movement to begin with these early peoples, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Hebrews, and the Greeks and Romans. Attempts have been made to trace certain features of the modern Sunday-school from them through the early monastic practices and customs, and through the practices of the early Christian Church. Such passages as those cited above are frequently given as proof that the Sunday-school, in its essentials, goes back to these * Deuteronomy 6 : 7-9. [2] HISTORICAL early patriarchal days or to even earlier times. These injunctions, however, do not describe the Sunday- school, but rather indicate, the "normal educational activities which were usually religious either in content of study or in intent." The Sunday-school as we know it is a special institution, connected with and fostered by individual churcheS', and designed to give systematic and regular instruction in morals and religion, a part of training for which public educational agencies make little or no provision. It may be defined as " an institution organized by a religious body for the education of youth in the religious life and holding its principal periods of instruction on the day of rest." It is an outgrowth of the period of popular education when a new attention was given to child life and child needs, near the end of the eighteenth century. In this respect it is something of a modern institution. Robert Raikes Not the Founder In the early history of the Sunday-school, Robert Raikes, who is sometimes called the "father of the Sunday-school," is a most prominent figure, and marks a very advanced stage in the development of religious education. Raikes, however, is not altogether en- titled to the distinction which he has enjoyed. Men like Erasmus, Luther, Francis Xavier, Carlo Borromeo, Count Zinzendorf, and others emphasized religious education in their teachings, and in a form similar to that which Raikes himself advocated, and some of them as early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Several years before Raikes' interest in work of this kind began. Miss Hannah Ball was working in England in the interest of religious education. She organized children into groups and taught them the Bible and catechism immediately before the church service on [3] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING Sunday morning. And the work of John Frederick Oberlin, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, is similar to that done by Miss Ball. It seems safe to say, therefore, that Raikes "Neither invented the religious instruction of children nor originated the present day Sunday-school, ..." Moreover, it is interesting to note that the schools which Raikes founded and encouraged and those which flourished under his influence were very unlike present day Sun- day-schools. They were, first of all, designed and intended for poor people who had no other educational opportunity; and so exclusive was their attention to the poor and destitute that they soon came to be called the "ragged schools." They attempted to teach reading and writing, and in some instances, probably, the elements of arithmetic were taught. They were entirely separate from the church and met with more or less opposition from the clergy, and were maintained largely as private enterprises and regarded as charitable efi"orts at general education. Not until after the middle of the nineteenth century were they, in England, regarded as an integral part of the church organization and equipment. Compare this descrip- tion with a description of the modern Sunday-school. The latter is open to all alike, rich and poor, young and old, learned and ignorant. It emphasizes the teaching of the Bible, religion and morals. It is a vital part of the organization of the church, and is fostered entirely by the church. The Work of Raikes Robert Raikes was born in Gloucester, England, in 1736. He received a fairly good education, lived in comfortable circumstances, and early interested himself in philanthropic efforts. He was a "practical-minded [4] HISTORICAL Christian." His interest in the poor children in the pin factories of Gloucester led him to establish schools for their training in reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic, the Bible and the catechism, and religious truths. The children came to his schools "soon after ten in the morning and stay until twelve; they were then to go home and stay till one; and after reading a lesson they were to be conducted to church. After church they were to be employed in repeating the catechism till half past five, and then to be dismissed, with an injunction to go home without making a noise; and by no means to play in the street.'"^ Teach- ing in these schools was at first not voluntary; the teachers were paid for their services. Mr. Raikes "inquired if there were any decent, well-disposed women in the neighborhood who kept schools for teaching to read. I presently was directed to four: to those I applied and made an agreement with them to receive as many children as I should send them upon the Sundays, whom they were to instruct in reading and the Church Catechism. For this I engaged to pay them each a shilling for their day's employment.'*^ Later on, however, voluntary teachers were secured. It is said that "ladies of fashion undertook the work of Sunday-school teaching." Certain it is that the work which Raikes was doing was received with some favor and the impetus which he gave the movement caused it to expand and to extend its influence. At the time of his death, there were many schools in England which were doing work similar to that which Raikes was doing. Raikes was much in earnest and seemed "swayed with passion for the children"; and ^Turner's Sunday School Recommended (Appendix), p. 41. See also Trumbull's Yale Lectures on the Sunday School, p. 110. 2 From the Gentleman's Magazine; quoted in Trumbull, p. 110, [5] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING his interest in the work hastened the development of wholesome opinion on the subject of public education. It is true that the Sunday-school movement has a distinct place in the history of English public education. Green^ specifically says: "The Sunday-Schools estab- lished by Mr. Raikes were the beginnings of popular education." Raikes was "a prophet of the modern system of public education, and the school on Sunday was the first expression of his vision." The Beginnings in the United States Sunday-school work began in this country near the close of the eighteenth century when Raikes' plan was brought to America. Here, however, two conditions were found in striking contrast to the conditions which surrounded the movement in England. First, the opportunities and facilities for general elementary education were, even at that early time, more extensive in the United States than in England, and there was less need for separate schools for the poor and destitute children. Second, the feeling which some of the churches had against the Sunday-school movement perhaps "increased the sense of responsibility on the part of the churches and helped to bring about a dis- tinctive type of organization in the United States, namely, Sunday-schools created and maintained by the churches as well as meeting in church buildings. "^ But little is known about the earlier Sunday-schools in this country. Bishop Asbury, it appears, estab- lished one in Virginia as early as 1786, but little is known of the school except its beginning. A Methodist Conference in session in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1790, ordered the establishment of Sunday-schools, » Short History of the English People, Vol. II, p. 359. ■^ ^Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. V. Article, "^unday-^choqU.'* .[6J HISTORICAL in or near the church or place of worship, and provision was to be made for securing persons "to teach gratis all who will attend and have capacity to learn, from six o'clock in the morning till ten, and from two o'clock in the afternoon till six, when it does not interfere with public worship." However, "No record is found of Sunday-schools organized in consequence of this minute."^ In December of the same year a meeting was called in Philadelphia to consider the importance of the Sunday-school work, and the result was the formation, early in January, 1791, of "The First- Day or Sunday-school Society." One of its principal purposes was to secure religious instruction for the poor children of the city. The organization is another proof of the missionary spirit which was so much in evidence in all Christendom during this period. A Sunday-school was begun in Boston in 1791, one in New York in 1793, one in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1794, one in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1797, and in 1800 one was begun in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the year 1803 and the years immediately following, several schools were started in New York City by Mr. and Mrs. Divie Bethune; in 1803 one was started in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and in 1804 one was started in Baltimore, Maryland. Systematic efforts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, resulted in an organization for Sunday-school work which seems to have been successful; and in 1811 a new impetus was given the movement in Philadelphia. A local organization for combining efforts in Sunday-school work was formed in New York in 1816, and a similar organization was formed in Boston the same year, and one in Phila- delphia in 1817. From these Sunday-school "unions" ^Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, p. \23\ also Brown, Sunday School Movements in America, p. 23.. m SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING grew the American Sunday-school Union, which was organized in 1824. This organization gave attention to the pubHcation of Sunday-school literature, the selection of scriptural lesson materials, and the planting of schools in communities where they were needed. In 1832 Cincinnati was made the headquarters of this organization, and a systematic campaign for planning schools in the Mississippi Valley began. In two years, more than twenty-eight hundred schools were established in that region.^ Adoption by the Church It has already been pointed out that, in England particularly, there was opposition, on the part of the church and the clergy, to the Sunday-school move- ment. There was first of all, objection to educational activities on the Sabbath; and any effort, outside the church, to carry on any form of religious education, the clergy regarded as an invasion of their rights. But the church soon became interested in the move- ment in this country, adopted the Sunday-school, and recognized it as a vital agency for training the youth of the church. This marks a great advance in the development of the Sunday-school; it has been called the "American Sunday-school Idea. It meant that this school became, not a temporary expedient to rescue poor and ignorant children, but a permanent institution, discharging a definite function in the life of the church. . . The school met a real need in the life of the church, — the need of a specific agency or form of organization for the nurture of the young in the religious life. It also became a definite department of the church, suited to the life and needs of the child." 1 Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school^ p. 123. [8] HISTORICAL Denominational Development The Methodist Church has been given credit for being the first denomination to recognize the import- ance of, and to make official provision for, Sunday- school work. As early as 1824, the General Conference of that denomination passed resolutions providing for Sunday-schools and for teaching the catechism in them. Three years later the Church organized a Sunday-school Union which, after 1840 and until the present time, has had a very successful and efficient career. In recent years "it has led in the campaign for the effective gradation of Sunday-school material and for all that has made for the thorough adoption of educational methods in the schools." A Sunday- school Society was organized by the Unitarians in 1827 which has had a useful life. In 1830 the Lutheran Church organized a Sunday-school Union. The work of the Congregational Church in developing Sunday- school interests became very active in 1832. The Baptists early recognized the importance of Sunday- school work and "were the pioneers in the preparation of advanced texts for teachers." They have also been very active in promoting the training of teachers for work in the Sunday-school. The Presbyterians have always been interested in the Sunday-school movement and have actively promoted the educational interests of the church. The Episcopalians have also developed considerable interest in this phase of church work. In fact all of the greater Protestant denominations now regard the Sunday-school as a vital part of the organi- zation and work of the church. In recent years especially, nearly all the churches are turning attention to the educational part of their work, for which they recognize the need of trained experts. And the har- mony that exists in the combined efforts of the various [9] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING denominations, as shown by the International Sunday- school Association, is a most encouraging sign. Some Suggestions of Its Growth This brief description of the origin and early de- velopment of the Sunday-school movement is intended merely as a guide to those teachers who should like to pursue a study of it more in detail. It is meant to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. It does serve to show, however, that the Sunday-school has had a steady growth; and a consideration of present day interests in Sunday-school work and religious education in general suggests possibilities of this great agency of the church which have not yet been realized. A more detailed description of the movement cannot be under- taken here. Enough has been given to show how the Sunday-school has grown from a more or less sporadic, unorganized institution, operating independently of the church, to a highly organized institution connected with the church and forming one of the most important parts of its organization. It also shows marvelous internal developments: formerly the children were grouped together without reference to their age, their sex, their previous training or capacities, or any of those factors which so effectively condition the teaching and training processes in the public schools. Today the children are grouped in graded classes; and if the Sunday-school is well organized and properly managed, all the factors which have to do with successful teach- ing in the Sunday-school are carefully considered. Formerly, the Sunday-school was regarded as a charitable attempt at general elementary education for the poor and destitute children; attention was given to reading, writing, and probably to some arithmetic. Today emphasis is placed on moral and [10] HISTORICAL religious instruction alone, with the Bible as the principal textbook. This steady development in the United States is said to be due to: 1. The adoption of the Sunday-school by the church and the church's recognition of it as a vital part of its organization, and the decreasing attention paid to religious education by public educational agencies. 2. The voluntary-teaching policy which has pre- vailed in the United States. Unpaid workers in the Sunday-school seem more normal to the general life of the American people. 3. The increasing need for a more efficient organi- zation and for better trained workers. The Sunday- school has been severely criticized for its loose edu- cational methods, and its organization and manage- ment. "Its peculiar function in the United States, especially its unusual position as a voluntary institution brought about a higher type of efficiency and a closer approximation, markedly in recent years, to edu- cational ideals."^ Some Suggestions of Further Improvement In spite of its steady growth in organization and its advancement to a real place in the life of the church, the Sunday-school needs to make certain reforms and improvements in its curriculum, its methods, and in other features of its work. 1. The curriculum has grown and developed very slowly. In addition to the original subject matter taught in the Sunday-school, occasional lessons on temperance and similar subjects have been introduced, and missionary lessons have now and then been brought in also. But it was not until 1908 that the * Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. V. Article, "Sunday-schools." [11] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING International Sunday-school Association gave its lesson committee authority to prepare a graded course of lessons for use in the Sunday-schools throughout the country. Before this was done, however, many schools had adopted graded lessons of their own. The Religious Education Association, an organization which was formed in 1903, seems to have had consider- able influence in getting the International Sunday- school Association to take this important and advanced step. More attention is needed today in this direction. The lesson material needs to be so graded, arranged and adapted to the varying needs, interests and capacities of the children in the Sunday-school that it will more effectively promote their religious growth. The present interests of the child and his religious capacities must control the course of study used in the Sunday-school. The pupils must be graded, and the course of study must be graded to fit their needs and capacities. 2. More attention must be given to teacher-train- ing. Just as no sound progress can be had in secular education without trained and well equipped teachers, religious education cannot longer afford to be left to chance method. It cannot go forward except by those who are trained in sound educational theory and other- wise qualified to guide practice in religious educational work. Moreover, religion should be given advantage of these essential principles which have so much increased the efficiency of nearly every phase of our public educational agencies. The Sunday-school can- not afford to neglect the aid that is sure to come from knowledge and practice of the best educational theory of the day. 3. Some reforms are also needed in the matter of financial support of the Sunday-school. The method [12] HISTORICAL of supporting the Sunday-school by soliciting con- tributions from the children every Sunday is being objected to from many quarters. The children should indeed be early taught the valuable lesson of giving. But they should be taught what they are giving for. The Sunday-school should be a "church school," and included in the regular running expenses of the church. The church must learn to spend more money on this phase of its work, in equipment, libraries for teachers and pupils, and in otherwise providing for facilities for greater service to the church and the community. The Sunday-school is a church school, — "it is the church engaged in certain of its functions of instruction." 4. The teaching time should be increased. The average time given to instruction is about thirty minutes a week. This is entirely too brief a period to be devoted to such an important subject as that which is taught in the Sunday-school. At this rate of teaching, it would require a child nearly twenty-five years to com- plete the English, mathematics, or Latin course in any well-organized city high school, or nearly fifty years to do the work in English or mathematics in any well-organized city school system. It has been proposed, in order to remedy this weakness, that we adopt the method used in France, where pupils, whose parents want them to be placed under religious in- struction, are excused from public schools on one afternoon each week. Another suggestion is that the time already available for religious instruction on Sunday morning be made more fruitful by adopting correct and scientific methods of teaching, by shorten- ing the opening and closing exercises, or by lengthening the Sunday-school session. Sunday-schools need not expect the public school authorities, however, to grant [13] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING any such concessions as may be had under the French system until the churches are better equipped and better qualified in point of well organized lesson material and properly trained teachers, for more effective teaching service.^ SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books Candler, The History of the Sunday-school, Phillips and Hunt, New York. Coe and Cope, Article " Sunday-schools " in Cyclopedia of Education, edited by Paul Monroe, The Macmillan Com- pany, New York. Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday-school, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Cope, The Modern Sunday-school in Principle and Prac- tice, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Cunnyngham, The History of the Sunday-school, Smith and Lamar, Nashville. Graves, A History of Education before the Middle Ages, The Macmillan Company, New York. Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell Company, New York. Mead, Modern Methods in Sunday-school Work, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York. Monroe, Textbook in the History of Education, The Mac- millan Company, New York. Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Exercises 1. How may a knowledge of the history of the Sunday- school movement help the Sunday-school teacher,? 2. How did the service in the early synagogue resemble a modern Sunday-school service.'' 3. What is the difference between teaching and preaching.? 4. What is the advantage of the opening and closing exercises in the Sunday-school.? * Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. V. Article, " Sunday-schools." [14] HISTORICAL 5. What were the catechetical schools? The catechu- menal schools? 6. Why should Sunday-school pupils be graded in classes as they are in the public school? 7. What is the advantage of the graded lesson materials in the Sunday-school? 8. Make out a year's course of study in the Sunday-school for a group of children eight or ten years of age. 9. Give the principal facts connected with the organiza- tion and development of the International Sunday-school Association. 10. What is the purpose of the Religious Education Associa- tion ? 11. Give the principal facts in the life of Robert Raikes and his interest in the Sunday-school. 12. Outline the development of (1) the Sunday-school curriculum (course of study), and (2) teacher-training in the Sunday-school. 13. How do the Catholics care for the religious education of their youth? How do the Jews care for the religious educa- tion of their children ? 14. In what country are Sunday-schools most numerous? Why? [15] CHAPTER II The Need for Trained Teachers The Problem The Sunday-school has been called the "noblest development of the nineteenth century." The past one hundred years have seen the origin and develop- ment of more agencies for human betterment and human progress than any preceding centuries since the Christian era. In the long list of these worthy or- ganizations and institutions the modern Sunday-school occupies imperial rank, and as an agency for far-reach- ing reformation and effective training, it has possi- bilities which have not yet been realized. Born of a movement which gave unusual attention to child life and child development, and which has emphasized an extension of elementary education, and encouraged by the religious revival, which found a part of its best expression in the Wesleyan movement, the Sunday- school has had rapid growth. But its advance in a career of usefulness is met by the same difficulty which has encountered and which still encounters public educational work. This difficulty is the task of securing, training, and maintaining a body of com- petent teachers for the work of all departments, who have a proper appreciation of the work in which they are engaged. In the Sunday-school this problem is particularly persistent and appears to be growing more difficult. How the Problem is Being Solved This problem of teacher-training is being met in two ways. In some instances effort is being made to train [16] NEED FOR TRAINED TEACHERS the teachers; In other cases professionally trained teachers in the public schools are paid for their services in the Sunday-schools, and it has been predicted that more churches will seek a solution of the difficulty in this direction. But most of us are opposed to this plan, and it is useless to think of abandoning the traditional, voluntary, unpaid teaching service in the Sunday-school. This voluntary service has its weak- ness, but it also has its strength; and the great need for the modern Sunday-school is to train these volunteers for teaching service. Unless they be trained properly and speedily, this great part of the church work will sooner or later lose its power in the church, and the future will account the work of the present in this enterprise a failure. Public Education has Lessons for the Sunday- School The Sunday-school can learn much from the ex- perience through which secular education has passed. The growing tendency to close and careful supervision of instruction in our public schools; the increasing activity for training prospective teachers; and the attention that is being given to training and making more skilful those already in service, are wholesome signs, and illustrate a rapidly increasing ideal for all secular teachers. This same need is intense in the Sunday-school; and the ideal is worthy of religious instruction as well as of secular education. Here, as nowhere else in our entire educational scheme, is not only an obvious lack of skilful teaching, which is hampering the power and effect of the Sunday-school, but there is evident a lack of purpose of this form of education, on the part, too frequently, of pastors, officers and teachers. Sometime ago a list of questions [17] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING on the Sunday-school and other organizations in the church was sent to one hundred pastors of churches whose membership ranged all the way from thirty to more than twenty-seven hundred, representing ten different Protestant denominations. One of the ques- tions was: "What is the main purpose of each organi- zation in your church scheme?" Ptirpose of Sunday-School Little Understood The answers to this question form another basis for the statement that there is a sore lack of purpose for the various organizations of the church. Many of the pastors failed to answer the question; others gave a "general purpose" for the organization of their churches. When interviewed later, some of these pastors "frankly admitted that they had no definite purpose in mind, and others seemed to search their mind for what they had read from the founders or promoters of such movements." Whatever the answer, the majority of these pastors showed that in too many instances there was no aim definite enough to be easily stated. When there is no goal to be reached in any enterprise or activity no difficulties appear, and success of course cannot be determined because there is then no measure of success. The Real Purpose What is the purpose of the Sunday-school.^ What should it seek to do.^ Whether we realize it or not, the Sunday-school is the result of a constantly growing demand for some definite, organized form of religious instruction and training. It illustrates the supreme need for training for right and useful living. It is [18] NEED FOR TRAINED TEACHERS rooted in the idea that religion is growth. All Jewish history and all New Testament ideas illustrate this truth. The teaching of Jesus himself abounds in such metaphors and comparisons as the increase of the leaven, the gradual growth of the mustard seed. The idea of growth, therefore, should be fundamental to all Sunday-school teaching. The aim of this part of the church work is spiritual and its one function and purpose is to develop intelligent and effective Christian lives and to train intelligent and useful leaders for the work of the church. That church which neglects to make suitable provision for this very important work must necessarily call into service teachers and leaders whose preparation is not equal to the demand of the duties which they are to perform. This accounts for the large number of Sunday-schools whose purpose is vague and the still larger number of Sunday-school teachers who work earnestly, no doubt, but blindly, and whose aim is not definite. How It Can Be Realized The purpose of the Sunday-school, however, can never be properly realized until the need for trained teachers in it has been met. Most of the teachers and officers who every year enlist in Sunday-school work, volunteer or are urged into service with little infor- mation and less training for the peculiar duties await- ing them there. If we believe that moral worth and spiritual growth depend on religious convictions and ideals, which are the result of training, the opportunity which the Sunday-school has today is unparalleled in history. But this opportunity can never be taken advantage of until we have trained teachers to achieve these possibilities. There are indeed among the men and women who work in the Sunday-school those [19] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING whose earnestness and zeal challenge favorable com- parison with workers in any realm. But here as nowhere else, the waste from inefficiency is too great. Most superintendents are very grateful to get almost anybody to teach classes on Sundays. Fully seventy- five per cent of "our teachers," declared one superin- tendent, "are not the ones we should choose, but we must take whom we can get." Teaching in the Sunday-school has too long been regarded largely as a matter of conscience and duty; and too often it is looked at as a duty to be assumed or neglected by anybody. Zeal and devotion are often taken as ability to teach. These are indeed qualities which are indis- pensable in any successful teacher, but they are insufficient in themselves. Preparation and inspira- tion, rather than inspiration alone, are needed. Inefficient Teaching Inefficient teaching in the Sunday-school is, in a large measure, responsible for the prevalent criticism that this part of the work of the church is losing ground. Three-fourths of the boys who enter the Sunday-school leave it before they are eighteen years of age, and practically everyone of them is able to give good reasons for leaving: "Nothing vital in the teaching," "never an inspiration," "monotonous," "disconnected knowledge of Bible stories," "they don't show us anything to do," "not enough practical study," "nothing to do with practical life." These and others are the reasons they give for preferring some other place to the Sunday-school on Sunday morning. The good teacher, whether in the church school or secular school, makes her teaching vital and inspiring, and she does it at any cost; she has never been charged with being monotonous; she connects the apparently dis- [20] NEED FOR TRAINED TEACHERS connected Bible stones, and by skilful comparisons and rich illustrations makes biblical knowledge real and living; she gives each child in her group something to do and relates the work of her class to the every day life of the children in it. When all of our Sunday- school teachers are able to do these things, charges against inefficiency in the instruction of the Sunday- school will no longer be made, the so called "teen age" will be less a problem there, attendance will increase, and this part of the work of the church will bring in rich returns. The Problem Important Already the church depends upon the Sunday-school for fully eighty per cent of its membership. In many cases the percentage is greater perhaps. The expendi- tures for equipment and maintenance of the church are usually divided ninety and one-half percent on the church and nine and one-half percent on the Sunday-school. Protestantism needs, as never before, to know the importance of its educational work; the Sunday-school should be made a more vital part of the church organization, receiving its fair share of the financial support. Definite and systematic plans for training its teachers should be provided and more attention should be given to training leaders for. its educational activities. But the zeal and devotion of amateurs on which the church has so long depended for its educational work, have resulted in a certain loss of respect for lay religious teaching. The Sunday-school has come to be regarded as an unimportant part of the work of the church; the loose and easy methods of the Sunday-school have come also to be objects of disgust and derision; the venerable function of the lay religious teacher has fallen somewhat into a neglect, [21] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING a condition which seems to threaten the very life source of much that the church hopes to accomplish. The Problem Complex Where a people are homogeneous and where religion is not separated from education, problems of religious instruction are very simple. Among such a people religion permeates all life. But the separation of religious and secular education among us, and the growing complex conditions in our social life, have thrown new responsibilities on the church and the home, for which neither is adequately prepared. There has been a gradual transfer to the school of obligations and responsibilities which were once primarily lodged in the home. With all these changes, however, certain fundamental issues have remained unchanged. The one issue in society today, for example, is the moral issue, and we must look to the church or Bible school to meet this. To give moral and religious instruction a new dignity, a new im- portance, and a more vital aim is today our most urgent need, a need which implies a new emphasis on teaching. To meet the new demands which are being or will be made on the teachers, provision must be made for properly training them. Then and then only will we realize the possibilities of this new form of education. We Must Train Leaders Safe and sound progress in religious education must not be left to chance method; it must depend on trained leadership, those who are qualified to guide practice. Why not give religious education the advantages of those essential educational principles which have increased the efficiency of practically every form of [22] NEED FOR TRAINED TEACHERS our public educational system? Why should not pastors and superintendents Insist that their teachers know at least some of the elementary principles of teaching? Why should we In teaching the most important subject In the whole range of our educational scheme, be satisfied with anything less than the best in sound educational theory? Why should we as Sunday-school workers not use any and all legitimate devices which have been helpful in the public schools? The laws of pedagogy and the principles of teaching are the same everywhere, whether they be applied to the teaching of arithmetic and geography, or the story of Samuel, Daniel or the Good Samaritan. Why should not Sunday-school teachers and officers know, for example, something definite about developing child life, the child's native equipment, his impulses, instincts, capacities, and all other native tendencies, so as to use these In the teaching process? Child study has revo- lutionized elementary teaching in public schools. The "doctrine of growth" should be as heartily received in one form of education as in another; and the church school, of all schools, can 111 afford to refuse the aid that the best educational theory and practice of the day can give. False Notion of Functions of Sunday-School The objection and indifference to systematic teacher- training, based on sound educational principles, are based on the violent assumption that the aim of the Sunday-school is to impress and to convert rather than to Instruct and to train. This objection frequently comes from unexpected sources, — from pastors and Sunday-school workers who hold, with many others, that skilful teaching Is less important than "warm appeals to the feelings and earnest exhortations" to the [23] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING of the pupils. Such appeals and exhorta- tions have their places in all forms of education, whether religious or secular. But there is no basis for the belief that a study of the principles of teaching and their application to religious education, will replace warmth and enthusiasm and feeling with coldness and indifference. The Sunday-school teaching, above all others, needs both skill and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm does not mean lack of skill — in fact the skilled teacher is often the enthusiastic one — and skill never kills enthusiasm and warmth for the work. Give the church enthusiastic and well-trained men and women as teachers in the Sunday-school and its progress will be unprecedented. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books Athearn, The Church School, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday-school, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York. Hamlll, Sunday-school Teacher-training, Smith and Lamar, Nashville. Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell Company, New York. McElfresh, The Training of Sunday-school Teachers and Officers, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Slattery, A Guide for Teachers of Training Classes, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. The Sunday-school Teacher's Pedagogy, Griffith and Row- land Press, Philadelphia. Wells, the Teacher that Teaches, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Exercises \. Why Is the Sunday-school necessary.'' 2. Why should teachers in the Sunday-school have special preparation for their work.-* [24] NEED FOR TRAINED TEACHERS 3. Name three laws of teaching which you use in your work as a teacher in the Sunday-school. 4. What is the difference between instruction and training? 5. Is teaching an art or a science? 6. How much training have the teachers in your school had for their work? 7. What is your school doing to train the teachers already in service and to equip promising young people in the church for teaching in the Sunday-school? What can it do? 8. How often do the teachers in your school hold teachers' meetings ? 9. What effort are you making to improve your teaching in the Sunday-school? 10. Does your school have a library for its teachers? 12S] CHAPTER III Successful Sunday-School Teaching Some Questions and Answers Suppose we begin a consideration of this topic by a few simple but suggestive questions. What is the Sunday-school? What is its aim? What is a Sunday- school class? What is its aim? What is a Sun- day-school lesson? What is its aim? When is a Sunday-school teacher successful? What is successful Sunday-school teaching? A group of Sunday-school teachers in a teacher- training class were recently asked the following ques- tions: 1. How do you know that the class you teach is a successful one? 2. How can you tell whether or not the lesson is taught well in your class? 3. What do you regard as the principal business of the teacher of a Sunday-school class? Some of the answers given to the first question were: "The interest which my pupils take in my class is evidence to me that the class is a success." "The enthusiasm which my pupils have for the work convinces me that my class is a successful one." "When the indifference of my students turns to interest I consider my class successful." "When the members of my class attend without * enticement' I think the class a success." "The interest which my pupils take in the discussion of the lesson is usually a measure of success in my class." [26] SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING "When the lesson Is properly prepared and properly- taught I regard my class as a successful one." These answers came from teachers in a large city church. They were urged to consider the questions carefully before attempting to answer them so that random answers might be avoided. The instructor was anxious to see what, in the minds of most of the teachers, constituted successful Sunday-school teach- ing. Note the answers given above, compare with your own idea of a successful class, and then try to formulate a statement of the difference between successful and unsuccessful teaching in the Sunday- school. In other words, what would you mean if you were to say: "I have a successful Sunday-school class?" Is your idea of successful teaching in the Sunday-school different from the ideas expressed in the answers above? The second question, "How can you tell whether or not the lesson is taught well in your class?" seemed easier to answer than the first. Some of the answers are included in the following: "My class is well taught when I follow a plan." "My class is well taught when I have an aim and keep it." "My class is well taught when I have in mind the personal experience and interests of the members of the class and try to adapt the lesson to their individual needs." "I know the lesson is being taught well when every member of the class is interested in the lesson." (Note this answer carefully. What did this teacher probably mean by being "interested in the lesson"?) "The lesson is well taught when I can hold the attention of the class." (Note this also. How can a teacher tell when she is holding the attention of the class?) [27] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING *'I consider the lesson taughtwellwhentheboys discuss the questions spontaneously and ask questions freely." One teacher said that the "interest of the pupils, the questions they ask, and their discussions" were signs to her that she was teaching the lesson well. Another teacher stated that "the response of a pupil who is well taught can be felt rather than described. I do not always get this response; when I do, it is the greatest inspiration to work harder for it next time." (Note this answer. What did the teacher mean by "response".?) "I do not think the lesson is taught well when the teacher does all the talking and thinking." "The lesson is taught well when the teacher knows the lesson and the pupils are all familiar with it." (What is wrong with an answer such as this.?) "If the lesson is being taught well, one can tell that the whole class is pleased and benefited." (What mistaken notions of teaching are here implied.?) Some of the answers named the following features of a Sunday-school class and its activities as evidences that a class was generally well taught: good attendance, good order, well-prepared lessons, the questions which the pupils ask, promptness, increase in attendance, the contributions which the pupils make, the interest taken in sick and absent members, and the desire to help those in need. The answers to the third question, that of the principal business of the teacher in the Sunday-school, revealed in the main an inadequate notion of the function of the Sunday-school teacher. They made the business of the teacher range all the way from a detail, such as that of encouraging attendance or liberal contributions, to that of leading every "member in the class to Christ." The ultimate aim of all Sunday- [28] SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING school teaching is, of course, religious and moral, and on the salvation of souls the emphasis of all such teaching should be placed. We are also well agreed that well-prepared lessons, prompt attendance, interest in worthy causes, as sometimes shown by liberal contributions, are some means to the great end of all religious teaching. All these things should be encour- aged by every teacher. But the failure to analyze the real business of the teacher of the Sunday-school, as the answers to the third questions show, is but another evidence that too often Sunday-school teachers mistake means for ends in this service. Note the following answers to this question, "What do you regard as the principal business of a teacher of a Sunday-school class.'*": "The business of the teacher in the Sunday-school is to encourage the pupils to study the lesson, to attend class regularly and to be prompt." "The business of the Sunday-school teacher is to arouse an interest in spiritual things." "The business of the teacher in the Sunday-school is to pay personal attention to each pupil in his class and to keep in touch with him." "The business of the teacher in the Sunday-school is to encourage regular and systematic Bible study." "The business of the teacher is to lead every member in his class to Christ." "The principal business of the teacher in the Sunday- school is to teach reverence for holy things." "To make clear the truth of the lesson and to adapt it to the needs of his pupils, is the principal business of the Sunday-school teacher." Indefiniteness of the Teacher^s Business These quotations are sufficient to indicate how [29] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING uncertain we are of our real business as Sunday-school teachers. Only one out of more than a score of such answers as those given above, mentioned the intelligent use of the lesson material as the principal business of the teacher. Most of the teachers seemed not to understand thoroughly that the business of the teacher is to help the pupils to a clear understanding of the truth contained in the lesson and to inspire them to apply that truth to their own actual living. This is indeed a creditable ideal for all teachers in the Sunday- school to have. The proper interpretation of the lesson material and the correct adaptation of it to the needs of her pupils constitute the real function of every teacher in the Sunday-school. Some Definitions : The Sunday-School Now let us turn to the question asked at the beginning of this chapter. First, What is the Sunday-school.? What is its aim? Suppose we say that the Sunday-school or Bible school is a church school, whose primary aim is to instruct and train for Christian maturity. This should mean that the school belongs to the church to be used for re-enforcing and strengthening the church, through additions to its membership of intelligent religious leaders and workers. The aim of the Sunday- school, then, is to instruct and to train its members to become active Christian workers for the church and for the community. Instruction should be given in religion and morals, with the Bible as the principal basis, and provision should also be made for actual training in the principles of Christianity. Just how much of this training will be furnished will depend in large measure on the earnestness and activity of the teachers and on their ability to make provision for the [30] SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING pupils to apply the truth of the lesson material to their own immediate needs. The Class Second, What is the Sunday-school class? A simple definition of a class for Bible study or religious in- struction is a particular group of pupils, young or old, of a given age, whose aim is to acquire biblical knowl- edge and Christian ideals in a systematic and pro- gressive fashion and to put such knowledge and ideals into practice. The class may be young or old, few or many. But whatever its age or number, its ideal aim should be to receive instruction and practice or training in the fundamental issues of life. The Lesson Third, What is the Sunday-school lesson? The Sunday-school lesson may be defined as a particular idea or truth. It may be the story of the Good Samaritan, the parable of the talents, the Sermon on the Mount, or the story of David and Jonathan. Whatever the story, whatever the idea, or the truth, the ideal aim of the lesson is always the intelligent solution of some present practical problem of those who are being taught. The first care of the teacher in the Sunday-school is to apply the truth of the lesson to the needs of her pupils. Successful Teaching If we accept the definitions given of the Sunday- school, of the class, and of the lesson, we may say that successful Sunday-school teaching is that which applies definite and practical ideas to the immediate solution [31] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING of definite problems of a particular group of people. This application should be made in such a way as to promote the growth and development of the pupils into useful and intelligent Christian service. The aim of the Sunday-school is to instruct and to train for Christian maturity; and the means which the Sunday- school makes use of are these particular ideas and truths which we call lessons. Good attention, excellent attendance, promptness, liberal contributions, well- prepared lessons, interest in discussions, the questions asked, are all good signs, and are seen in successful classes. But they are not alone measures of success in Sunday-school teaching. Each one may, too, be explained by something that is not fundamental to good teaching. They are only means to an end; and that end is providing for some practical reaction on the everyday duties of life of the pupils who are taught. Unless the teacher is making such provisions for each member of her class she cannot be pronounced a suc- cessful teacher. The story of the Good Samaritan must, for example, mean to the class more than a story; it must appear more than a good deed done many years ago to an unfortunate traveler. The principle must be brought to the needs of each member of the class which is studying it today. The Teacher's Knowledge of Her Pupils In order to be successful the teacher in the Sunday- school must know a great deal about her pupils. Before she can adapt and apply the principles and the truths or ideas in the lessons to the needs of her pupils, she must know what those needs are. If she would be successful she must begin early to start or to confirm a habit of approaching every Sunday-school problem [32] SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING from the standpoint of the needs and interests of her pupils. She must also be familiar with the various factors which condition the teaching process, if she would achieve as she hopes to do. She should know of the Sunday-school itself, its points of strength, its places of weakness, and its persistent ideal. She should know the home life of the children whom she is teaching. But the thing she should probably know best of all is the child himself, his natural tendencies, impulses, instincts, abilities, and capacities. We are just now beginning to see, as never before, that effective religious education and moral training not only has its beginning in, but is largely influenced by, the life of the children away from the Sunday-school class-room. And much of the progress which is being made in Sunday-school work is rightly attributed to a greater sympathy for children which a better understanding of them has produced. Some Reasons There are several reasons why teachers should make a special eifort to study and understand children. 1. Children are first of all very much unlike grown people, and they must therefore be dealt with differently. 2. Grown people, as a rule, are so far removed from their own youth that they may be somewhat out of sympathy with children, and the result is a tendency, prevalent too often in Sunday-school teaching, to measure children by the same standards by which grown people themselves are measured. 3. There is a traditional gulf between the teacher and the pupil, seen even in the Sunday-school where free play between them is supposed to be. Moreover, the formal side of teaching seems to widen this gulf and prevent a nearness of the teacher to the child [33] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING necessary for a thorough understanding of each other. This is an unwholesome condition to have in any school, particularly the Sunday-school. 4. The failure to understand children results in a failure to judge them correctly, which In turn means mistakes In teaching and directing them. 5. A study and knowledge of children are necessary in order that the teacher may so understand and interpret their traits and characteristics that their needs are clear to her. This implies the necessity of knowing how to interpret their conduct and behavior. 6. The teacher's ignorance of child life and child development makes it impossible for her to respect the rights and privileges of children. 7. The physical weaknesses and defects of children are an Important subject of study among secular teachers. Spiritual and mental growth are so de- pendent on physical health that the teacher In the Sunday-school should know considerable about each one of her pupils. This means that successful Sunday- school teaching requires more time than the teaching period on Sunday calls for. 8. A knowledge of children's natural habits, their modes of helping and Influencing one another, their antagonisms, their dispositions and peculiarities. Is a valuable asset to any teacher in the Sunday-school. 9. Such Information as is likely to come to the careful observer and student of children is absolutely necessary before the teacher In the Sunday-school is able to do her best work. 10. Unless the teacher have this Information and knowledge of children, she cannot adapt the lesson material to their needs and Interest. Moreover, she will be unable to Interpret, clarify, and enlarge the children's experience and to give it meaning. [34] SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING Learning Child Life To know the experiences and the native equipment of those we teach is not so hard as would at first appear. We cannot, to be sure, see what goes on in the minds of the children; and most of us are so far removed from our own childhood that what we remember of it is fragmentary and distorted. There are, however, reliable and trustworthy books on the subject of child study which teachers in the Sunday-school may study with great profit. In them the various mental traits which characterize the various stages of child develop- ment may be learned. But this method of learning children and child life is not so workable as we need, though it is very helpful. Sunday-school teachers need to study the outward acts of children and the relations of children in general; to study as a whole each child in their group, to know the characteristic stages through which he passes and relate his outside life with the work of the Sunday-school and church. The playground and the home, and frequent conferences with parents, oflter favorable opportunity for this kind of study. Child Needs A knowledge of the child and skill in using what he knows and what he is, are necessary for eyery Sunday-school teacher. And there is probably no body of men or women anywhere who should be more thoroughly acquainted with child needs and child life than teachers in the Sunday-school. Their work is so largely conditioned by the life of the pupils outside the Sunday-school, that an ignorance of the pupils' home life and of other facts, sometimes makes work in the Sunday-school fruitless. There is a decided tendency among Sunday-school teachers to think of [35] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING their pupils in terms of their spiritual poverty and their spiritual needs. This tendency revealed itself recently in some answers received from a number of Sunday- school teachers who were asked to report on the following: "1. The class I teach is composed of boys and girls from — to — years of age. " 2. Some of their needs seem to me to be ." From the answers received the following are given as representative: A class of girls from 12 to 16 years of age needed "Thorough understanding of the Word of God per- sonally applied," and "the seeds of a life purpose implanted in their hearts." A group of boys from 14 to 20 were believed to need a "Deeper interest in spiritual things, a more earnest desire to know the Bible, and a more thorough con- secration to definite Christian service." A number of girls from 1 1 to 14 needed " a deeper inter- est in spiritual things, and more feeling for one another." A class of boys from 9 to 12 were believed by their teacher to need "More reverence and love for the church and sacred things, and greater interest in spiritual things." A class of girls from 6 to 10 were thought to need a "Knowledge of God's word; deeper appreciation of the truths of Sabbath observances." A class of boys from 11 to 13 needed, according to their teacher, "more sympathy for each other, and more profound reverence for the Church." A group of boys from 12 to 13 needed to "Study the lesson more before coming to class." And the same teacher added: "A few are not reasonably well edu- cated." [36] SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING This last answer Is the only one which suggested other than spiritual needs of the various groups described. Nothing was said about the physical needs of these young people, whether they could see distinctly, hear clearly, and talk freely and intelligently, or whether they could read and write. None of the teachers mentioned the games and amusements of their pupils, their home environment, their occupations, their temptations, limitations or difficulties. The tendency to treat sacred things lightly may not always be a lack of reverence for sacred and holy things; it would depend entirely on whether the sacredness and the holiness of things had been made clear and were thoroughly understood. A teacher should indeed know that this or that boy treats sacred things lightly; but the same teacher should know that children whose eyesight is bad, or who are hard of hearing, or whose bodies are not properly fed, or whose home surroundings are not wholesome, cannot be ideal students in the Sunday-school any more than they can in the public school. Why should not a Sunday-school teacher know the forces of immorality which surround for six days in the week the boys whom she seeks to instruct in moral principles a short time on Sunday.^ And who should know better than a teacher that a child who is surrounded by unwholesome conditions six days in the week cannot be alert and take a lively interest in spiritual and intellectual things on Sunday? In such a case inattention may be called irreverence by the teacher who could better serve the needs of the boy if she knew him better. The acquaintance we get on Sunday with the boys in our class is not sufficient to make us successful teachers in the Sunday-school. If we are able to teach at all we will make better teachers if we know our pupils better. 137] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING How to Consider the Child After we know the children in our class our duty- then is to consider them from the standpoint of their interests, needs, and future conduct. The task of the teacher is essentially in training her pupils to behavior, "taking behavior, not in the narrow sense of his manners," as WilHam James has so well put it, *'but in the very widest possible sense, as including every possible sort of fit reaction on the circumstances into which he may find himself brought by the vicissitudes of life." Successful Sunday-school teaching then is that which so influences the conduct and behavior (taken in the broad sense) of the pupils as to train for intelligent Christian service. To attain this success teachers must not only know the subject matter which they teach, but they must also know the children whom they teach, and know them well. A knowledge of children in general, sufficient to allow the teacher to utilize their native tendencies in the teaching process, and a thorough acquaintance with the particular group with which the teacher is now working, will make many obstacles in the Sunday-school disappear. Until the teacher is thoroughly acquainted with her pupils she is not able to plan the lesson properly, and to adapt it to the needs of her pupils. And until this is done, there can be no success in Sunday-school teaching. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books Angus, Ideals in Sunday-school Teaching, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Bagley and Colvin, Human Behavior, The Macmillan Company, New York. Gregory, The Seven Laws of Teaching, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. [38] SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING Hamlll, The Sunday-school Teacher, Smith and Lamar, Nashville. Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell Company, New York. James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, New York. Kirkpatrick, The Fundamentals of Child Study, The Mac- millan Company, New York. St. John, Child Nature and Child Nurture, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, The Macmillan Company, New York. Wells, Sunday-school Success, F. H. Revell Company, New York. Weigle, The Pupil and The Teacher, George H. Doran Company, New York. Exercises \. Why should a Sunday-school teacher know child life and the characteristic stages through which children pass.? 2. What are some of the plays and games of boys eight years of age.'* 3. How does acquaintance with the home life of the boys in your class help you in teaching.'* 4. Is the responsibility of the Sunday-school greater or less than it was twenty-five years ago? Why.'* 5. Would you advocate longer periods for teaching the lesson in the Sunday-school.? Why.? 6. What should a Sunday-school teacher know about a group of fifteen-year old boys in order to teach them suc- cessfully.? 7. Name two important qualifications for a successful teacher of girls fifteen years of age. 8. What evidence have you that your class is a successful one? [39] CHAPTER IV The Qualifications and Preparation of the Teacher The Supply of Teachers An Important idea of the Sunday-school or the Bible school as an effective church agency is that the classes shall be small enough to allow to the members specific individual attention by a competent, well-trained teacher. This feature of the Sunday-school is abso- lutely necessary if results in moral and religious training are to be had. Large classes, especially for young children are, therefore, undesirable. Classes for adults may be larger, but for children, the ideal number never exceeds eight or ten. The supply of teachers in any Sunday-school, therefore, becomes an important factor in the work. And the efficient, alert, progressive superintendent will provide for an increase in his supply of teachers as his Sunday-school membership increases. A Pressing Problem The task of securing, training, and maintaining a supply of competent teachers sufficient to this demand is the most persistent problem in all Sunday-school work. When we consider the claims of the Sunday- school and the varying needs of its membership, the seriousness of this problem appears at once. In settling the question there are many things to be considered. What are the essential qualifications of the competent teacher.^ Who are available for this [40] QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION important work? What method can be used to Im- prove those already in service? What plans can be made for equipping promising young people within reach of the church for teaching service in the Sunday- school? The Teacher's Qualifications 1. The aim of all Sunday-school teaching is spiritual. This form of service in the church offers the greatest opportunity for men and women to express their own religious convictions. "It is not so much a matter of what Ideals a teacher teaches as of what ideals are in his heart." The spiritual success of any class, therefore, depends on the spirituality and consecration of the teacher. These are of the first importance in the teacher's qualifications. 2. The next qualification is a thorough knowledge of the subject matter which she is to teach; the teacher should know the Bible thoroughly. This does not mean a knowledge merely of the lesson for the next Sunday, but a connected and organized knowledge of the entire Book and the relation of its parts. This is as essential to the success of the Sunday-school teacher as a knowledge of any subject in the secular curriculum is to the teacher in the public school. Systematic and painstaking study of the Bible will in time qualify a teacher in this respect. 3. The Sunday-school teacher also needs a knowl- edge of the fundamental principles of teaching. She should know what the teaching process is and how good teaching Is done. This knowledge, however, does not mean a sentimental idea of so-called "soft peda- gogics," which has tended to decrease the dignity of, and to emasculate, the teaching profession. The good teacher observes correct principles of teaching, even [41] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING though she may never have heard the word "pedagogy" or read a book on the subject. Young teachers will do well to study a few books dealing with the essential laws of the teaching process. There are scores of such books, easily available, and Sunday-school teachers should be acquainted with the best of them. 4. A knowledge of child life and child psychology is a necessary part of the equipment of every Sunday- school teacher who would render the best service in the work. The problem of properly interpreting children's acts is a complex one. The true value of child psychology, however, does not rest in a knowledge of this or that isolated fact about children, but rather in a knowledge of how human growth proceeds. Children are not miniature adults; the child of six must be considered as different from the child of twelve; and the Sunday-school teacher needs to know the various characteristics of the different stages through which the child passes in order to guide him into the best channels and through the most serious dangers from childhood to maturity. A book or two studied on this important equipment of the teacher, and the valuable practice of observing child life, will add greatly to one's success in teaching in the Sunday- school. 5. Sympathy for and interest in the work are also important for the teacher. This interest, however, does not mean a visionary zeal which amateurs so often display, but a big faith in the work and in the oppor- tunity to promote Christian growth and to mould genuine Christian character, — "a passion for souls." Where this passion is found there is no place for in- difference, and Sunday-school work is then taken seriously. [42] QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION Training Class Needed The demand is not for trained theologians and professors for Sunday-school teaching; everything else being equal, godly young laymen are always preferable to young clergymen In this work. What is most needed in the Sunday-school is the taking of the available material, men and women of faith and ability, and training this material for teaching service there. If young people are otherwise qualified for Sunday-school teaching, the professional side of their training, outlined above, may be had by Independent study. But the ideal condition Is a training class, meeting regularly, under competent leadership, with instruction In the Bible, the principles of teaching, child psychology, and the more technical side of school-room practice. Training the Teachers Already in Service A class for the professional training of those who are already teaching Is recognized by every live superin- tendent and pastor as a pressing need of their Sunday- school. It Is one of their biggest problems. Seventy- five percent of our Sunday-schools are said to be rural or in small towns, and fifty percent of the Sunday- schools have less than a dozen officers and teachers. Here Is one feature of the problem which Is hard to solve. Interdenominational, community, or city train- ing classes are, as a rule, more likely to thrive and succeed than a class connected with a single church. But the suggestions made In this chapter are intended particularly for the single church, but may be used, with enlarging and Improving, for the town or com- munity. The best methods of modern Sunday-school work may be adapted and applied to the small school. [43] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING Beginning the Work The pastor and superintendent should concentrate their efforts in launching the enterprise of organizing a teacher training class. Most of us have yet to learn the real meaning of the Sunday-school, its place in the church organization, and its proper function in moral training. The church membership might have the importance of training religious leaders brought to its attention through a sermon by the pastor. This could be followed up by personal appeals from the pastor and superintendent to the teachers in an effort to enlist them in teacher training work. A public meeting should then be held, even though not more than a dozen people attended. Some efforts to begin such training as we have in mind would be a revelation to most teachers in rural and village churches where teachers' meetings of any sort are almost unknown. Interest has been known to develop in this significant movement when it was the least expected. When the importance of a training class is properly brought to the attention of the teachers, their responses are usually most gratifying. In these meetings com- parisons should be made of the work of the Sunday- school and the public school, the preparation of teachers in each, and the importance of the subject matter taught in each. This will call attention to the apparent neglect in the Sunday-school of teacher training and competent supervision of the teacher's work. Who Shall Teach the Class? After the teachers have been seen and the meeting has been held and plans discussed, a teacher competent to direct the work should be selected. If possible, a professionally trained teacher in the public schools in the town or community should be chosen. The pastor [44] QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION or superintendent is usually selected for this place, but a man who is qualified to instruct in the Bible, in the principles of teaching and other allied subjects is more desirable. It is well, also, to select someone who is not connected with the Sunday-school as officer or teacher, but who, of course, is heartily in sympathy with the work. Moreover, if an outsider is secured as leader of the class, attendance is likely to be more regular and punctual. The Time of Meeting The evening of the midweek service has been found to be a very good time for the meeting of the training class. As a rule, teachers in the Sunday-school are very busy, and they are also usually attendants on the mid-week service. If the teachers' meeting is placed on the same evening with the mid-week prayer service, interest may be created in both. The danger of "crowding," however, is obvious. But if care is taken at this point, so that the prayer service is not made too long, this problem will solve itself. In some cases the teacher training class meets before, in some cases after, the prayer service. In some cases the practice of meeting late in the afternoon, having the teacher training class, and then serving a light, inexpensive supper, has been found to be a most excellent plan. This gives a recess before the usual time for prayer service. Moreover, the social feature of such a plan is worth while. The Course of Lessons Lessons on various topics and subjects connected with Sunday-school work should be planned. Such topics and subjects could be selected by the leader who should be acquainted with the professional needs of [45] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING the members of the class. Such a course as is here spoken of assumes that the teachers already know the Bible, and in point of consecration are qualified for teaching service in the Sunday-school. One or more meetings should be spent on each topic, and no topic should be left until something definite and workable is reached as a guiding principle. The following is a suggested list of subjects which have been discussed and studied to great advantage in teacher-training classes: " The Qualifications of the Sunday-school Teacher." *' Successful and Unsuccessful Sunday-school Teaching." " What Should the Teacher Know about Her Pupils?" " Planning the Sunday-school Lesson." " Teaching the Sunday-school Lesson." " Asking Questions in the Sunday-school Class." " Securing and Holding the Attention of the Pupils." " Relating the Lesson to the Life of the Children." " The Personality of the Teacher." " Jesus as a Teacher." " Examination and Review." Such a course should extend over at least ten weeks. Other topics, dealing with the more technical side of school-room practice, could be added and could be discussed with great profit. Such subjects would suggest others and soon the course would formulate itself. On such a list of topics there is an abundance of material, a sufficient amount of which can be had in a few books at a small cost. The books can be kept in the school library and used for reference by the members of the group. The Books The following books have been found of much help to teachers in the Sunday-school and have been used to decided advantage in teacher training classes. They [46] QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION should be bought, if possible, by the Sunday-school, and placed where the members of the class can have easy access to them: Brown, How to Plan a Lesson, F. H. Revell Company, New York. Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, The Macmillan Company, New York. DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York. Fitch, The Art of Securing and Holding Attention, A. Flanagan and Company, Chicago. Fitch, The Art of Questioning, A. Flanagan and Com- pany, Chicago. Gregory, The Seven Laws of Teaching, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Home, The Art of Questioning, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, New York. Kirkpatrick, The Individual in the Making, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. McElfresh, The Training of Sunday-school Teachers and Officers, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. McMurry, The Method of The Recitation, The Macmillan Company, New York. Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, The Mac- millan Company, New York. Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran Company, New York. The Plan and Method of the Work The leader should so plan the work as to review the preceding topic and to prepare the mind of the members of the class for the material of the new topic to be discussed at the approaching meeting. This new topic, which should be thoroughly prepared by the leader, should be presented by him and discussed by the members of the class. Readings on the new topic should then be assigned. The members of the class [47] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING should keep notebooks in which should be placed notes on the readings which are assigned on the various topics from week to week and on the discussions in the class. Reports on these readings and on questions asked by the leader should be required of the class, and every effort should be made to make the work of the class as cooperative as possible. Lessons could be planned and demonstrated by members of the group; discussions should be free and easy; experiments should be reported, and the one aim of the class should be to develop effective teaching in the Sunday-school. How Such a Course May Help Teachers If such a course is properly taught and thoroughly studied the result will reveal itself in more competent teaching. The members of the class, however, should at the outset pledge faithful and prompt attendance during the ten or twelve weeks in which the work is to be given. They should make an effort to do the assigned readings, to observe their classes more closely from Sunday to Sunday, to study the topics to be presented at the meeting of the class, and to make their contribution to the interest of the class dis- cussion, — to give the class the benefit of their ex- perience and observation and experiments. They should make notes of the main points brought out by the discussion of the topics; they should ask and answer questions as freely as possible; they should tell frankly the difficulties they have in their classes; they should set aside a definite time for reading and for studying in an effort to improve their teaching; they should plan to work with a specific aim in every lesson. The Examination There should be given at the end of the work a simple [48] QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION but practical examination of the course. Just as classes in the Sunday-school should have some form of review and examination as a basis for promotion, so also should classes for training teachers have ex- aminations. Of course the Sunday-school cannot adopt all the methods which are practicable in the public schools for securing regular and faithful work. But some form of examination is especially needed in a course such as that described above. Organization and perspective of a series of such lessons demand some final review and examination. The leader of the course should explain early in the work that the review will be practical, so that those who are not In the habit of studying and who do not like written reports, may have no particular fear of the approaching ex- amination. The examination, too, like questions In any class discussion, should teach as well as test; and the leader should consider the place it should occupy in his plan with the class. A Suggested Examination The following list of questions proved helpful and useful at the end of a ten-weeks' course on topics similar to those described above: 1. Give the age and sex of your pupils. 2. What are some of their plays, games, recreations and amusements? 3. Do you always have an aim in teaching this particular class.'* State the aim briefly. 4. Write out in a brief paragraph what you regard as the essential features of a lesson plan. 5. How often have you followed a definite lesson plan In your class.'' 6. What are some of the needs of your pupils ? 7. How can you tell when your class fails to understand the meaning of the lesson.'' What do you do when the class does not understand? [49] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 8. Do your students know how to study? What effort have you made to teach them? 9. How many questions did you ask in your class last Sunday? How many did your class ask? 10. What habits are your pupils forming? What habits are you seeking to form in them? 11. What are the essentials of a good story? 12. Criticize this: " John, must I ask you to stop looking out the window and to pay attention to what I am saying? " 13. Criticize the practice of rapping on the table or desk for order. 14. Criticize and revise any of the following questions on the story of the Good Samaritan: " (a) James, what did the man who went from Jerusalem to Jericho fall among?" (b) "What happened to him?" (c) " Who passed by and saw him wounded and half dead? " (d) " Who had compassion on the wounded man, Robert? " (e) " What does this story teach, Harry? " 15. How can you tell when you have taught a lesson well? Preparing New Teachers Not only must those who are already teaching be given specific and definite training, but provision should be made In every Sunday-school for training those who have never taught. Such provision Is absolutely necessary If the church Is to make herself secure for the future. Until a plan for training new recruits Is Inaugurated and executed, the Sunday-school cannot possibly occupy Its proper place In the life of the church. The Instructing part of the Sunday-school work must be taken with more seriousness. The promising young men and women who are available In the church should, therefore, be encouraged to Interest themselves in preparation for this form of religious service. It Is Imperative that every church and Sunday-school make provision for preparing and training new teachers. Beginning the Work Interest in the work of preparing new teachers may [SO] QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION be awakened in a variety of ways. The pastor, superin- tendent, officers, and teachers should unite their efforts in inviting the younger Christians, who show promise of making competent and useful teachers, to join the class for Instruction in teaching. There should be a class in every school, even though less than a half dozen students enroll in it. The only hope of securing an adequate supply of competent teachers for the Sunday-school rests at this point, and the young and the hopeful must be secured to forward this important work. Young people below the age of twenty years, thinks Professor McElfresh, are the ones to be selected. "They have not yet felt the heavy burdens of life upon their shoulders, nor have they become so entangled in the many Interests or pleasures that they are distracted from important study of this character." Such young people should be talked with personally by the pastor, the superintendent, or some other officer of the Sunday- school; emphasis should be placed on the importance and the honor of being trained by the church for leadership in religious education. And only those who are earnest and who feel free to assist in promoting the work of the class should be enrolled as members. When such young people have been secured, even though the number be small, definite organization should be made of the class, and notice of organization, with the names of the members and the leader, should be sent to the central denominational office or to the state interdenominational office, or to both if necessary. The Teacher The best equipped teacher the church or community affords should be selected as the leader of the class. He or she should be consecrated and Inspired and capable of inspiring others. The teacher should have [51] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING a thorough knowledge of the Bible, be In earnest sym- pathy with youth, be trained professionally, if possible, for teaching, and have the proper idea of the responsi- bility of training young men and women for teaching service in the Sunday-school. If a teacher cannot be found who is trained In the best educational methods, the best available one should be taken and encouraged to prepare, by Independent study, for the work of instructing the class. Knowledge of the Bible, of teaching, of what teaching is and how to do it, is necessary for such work. Above everything else, however, the one chosen should be a teacher and not a lecturer. Lecturing to a class In training for teaching is the quickest way to destroy interest in the work and eventually to kill the class. Delay beginning the work until a good teacher has been secured. The Time and the Place of Meeting Sunday morning at the hour of the regular Sunday- school session Is a good time for the class to meet, and the church is a good place. Local conditions, however, may determine the time and the place of meeting. Some classes have met an hour just before the preach- ing service, when the Sunday-school met In the after- noon, in order that its members might continue In their regular Sunday-school class work. If a separate room cannot be secured at the church, sufficient space should be curtained or screened off from the other part of the Sunday-school, or the class should meet at some other place. The class should meet at the same place always, and not allow the practice of meeting at one place or home one time and at another place another time. Whatever the time and place, more time should be given to the study in the training class than is ordinarily allowed to the study of the regular Sunday-school [52] QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION lesson. At least an hour should be devoted to the regular class work at every meeting. Training Class Equipment A separate room, if possible, is a necessary part of the equipment of the class. This room should^ be supplied with accurate biblical maps, a convenient blackboard, Bible dictionary, English dictionary, and a dozen or more books for reference and study in connection with the work. The books should be in charge of some member of the class and should always be in easy access to all the members. This reference library is an important part of the class equipment. The Student's Equipment Each student should have his own Bible, and a copy of the textbook to be used as a guide for the course, and the more of the reference books that each student himself owns the better it will be for him. He should also have a good notebook of convenient size, which should be used regularly in taking notes on the class discussions, the readings in the reference books, and on observation work which he may later do. The Course A course of lessons covering one or more years of work should be planned and outlined by the teacher, or, if such a course can be found already outlined, it is better to secure it. These lessons should deal with the Bible, child development and child psychology, the principles of teaching, and the history, organization, methods and management of the Sunday-school. Half of the lesson periods should be devoted to a study of the Bible, Bible history and geography, ancient [53] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING customs and manners; and one half of the remaining periods should be given to a study of the child and the principles of teaching, and the other half to the study of the Sunday-school and its management. If the course is to be two years in length instead of one year, practically the same kind of division may be made in the periods. The Pilgrim Preparatory Course, pre- pared by The Pilgrim Press, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass., is especially adapted to the class in the small church. Information concerning this course, the text- books used in it, and other information, may be had by writing to the above address. Method of Conducting the Class If an efficient teacher can be secured who can enlist the proper support of the church and the class, there will be little danger of failure. As has already been pointed out, the lecture method is not suited to the needs of a teacher-training class, though there may be less of discussion than will be found in a class for those already in service. Assignments of the lessons on the various parts of the course should be made with as much care and definiteness as assignments on any subject in the public schools. For a recitation or lesson of one hour, an assignment should be given which will require as much as two hours' preparation. The amount of additional readings in the reference books should be given so as not to burden the class unduly with this part of the work, though an effort should be made to do a great deal of this kind of study. Care should be taken to see that all assignments in outside readings be on the point or topic under con- sideration at the time the assignments are given. All of this, of course, means definite planning by the teacher. And in addition to this part of the work, [54] QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION provision should be made for a great deal of illustrative and blackboard work, and the drawing of maps. Not only are the members of the group to gain information which they are to teach, but they should study and discuss specific problems in teaching, should have their attention directed to a study of the child, and should also be introduced to the more troublesome problems of Sunday-school management, and be shown what is being done to solve these problems. All of such topics as these should be studied and discussed thoroughly. But it should be kept in mind constantly that facts of the Bible and matters concerning personal influence of the religious teacher are of vital importance in the preparation of the teacher in the Sunday-school. This should always be in the mind of the leader of the class. Observation and Practice Teaching No training-school for teachers in the public school system or in the university is regarded as complete that does not make provision for observation of teach- ing and also for practice teaching. Provision for similar work is no less important for the training of teachers in the Sunday-school; in fact, it ought to be regarded as an important part of the equipment of every well- organized Sunday-school. After these young students of the Bible, of principles and methods of teaching, and of Sunday-school organization and management, have advanced sufficiently in these subjects, they should then be allowed to observe the work of the best teachers in their Sunday-school, or in any other school in the community. This observation work should extend over at least four or five Sundays. The obser- vations should be carefully recorded in the notebook and brought to class where they should be considered and discussed by all the members. This proves a [55] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING most helpful practice in schools of methods for public school teachers. Later, the members of the class should be given the opportunity to teach classes in their Sunday-school or in any other Sunday-school in which they can secure the privilege. This teaching should be done under the supervision of the regular teacher of the class, the teacher of the training-class, the superintendent of the Sunday-school, department supervisor, or under the direction of some person who is capable of offering helpful suggestions. Young teachers usually object to such supervision, or hesitate to do practice teaching because of this supervision. The leader of the class, however, should make it clear that some form of sympathetic supervision is of vital advantage to the young man or woman who is inex- perienced in teaching, but who really wishes to learn how to teach. Examination At the end of the course, whether it be a course of one or two years, a review and examination should be given. Frequent reviews and written tests on the work should also be given throughout the course. The final examination should be simple and practical; such an examination will add dignity to the work and increase its importance in the opinion of the mem- bers of the class and the community. The questions should be made out by the teacher on the textbook used, outside reading, observation or practice teaching, and on any other additional work which the class may have done. The papers should be carefully graded and a record of the marks kept. If the class has been properly enrolled with the central denominational committee or with the state interdenominational committee, a record of its work should be sent to this [56] QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION committee and the usual certificates procured. Some form of service recognizing the Importance of the period of training and the completion of the course should be arranged by the church when a class has completed Its work. More Efficient Teaching the Solution When classes for those who are already teaching are organized and properly taught, and classes are main- tained for supplying the Sunday-school each year with additional teachers, consecrated, well-trained and inspired, the educational work of the church will go forward as never before. And there Is evidence that the church Is awakening to this new responsibility, and is preparing to answer the demand for more efficient lay religious teaching. A return to teaching seems indeed to be the only solution for the great moral and religious problem facing the church today. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books Athearn, The Church School, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday-school, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Hyde, The Teacher's Philosophy, Houghton Mifflin Com- pany, New York. Hyde, The College Man and the College Woman (Chapter on The Personality of the Teacher), Houghton Mifflin Com- pany, New York. Palmer, The Ideal Teacher, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. Slattery, A Guide for Teachers of Training Classes, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Slattery, Talks with the Training Class, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Wells, Sunday-school Success, F. H. Revell Company, New York. [57] SOMEiPRINCIPLES OF TEACHING Wells, The Teacher that Teaches, F. H. Revell Company, New York. See also the list of books mentioned on page 47. Exercises 1. Read Kirkpatrick's The Individual in the Making and see if you change your notions of child nature. 2. Give a brief description of the qualities of the Sunday- school teacher who taught and helped you most in your youth. How do you explain the success of that teacher? 3. Give instances from the teachings of Jesus of (a) his knowledge of human nature; (b) his ability to adapt the truth he was teaching to the immediate needs of the group which he was teaching; (c) his ability to make clear the lesson he was teaching. 4. Study Chapter VII of James' Talks to Teachers and note how many " native tendencies " a child has which the teacher can make use of in the Sunday-school. 5. Read pages 247 to 274 in Hyde's College Man and College Woman and compare the qualities described there with your own. 6. What Sunday-school weekly or monthly paper or magazine does your school take for its teachers.'* 7. What advantages naturally come from teachers' meetings in the Sunday-school? [S8] CHAPTER V Planning the Lesson Knowing the Pupils First If the teacher knows her class thoroughly she is then ready to plan each lesson in such a way as to meet the needs of her pupils. And no lesson can be well taught that is not planned with reference to the immediate needs of the class. Teaching children in the Sunday- school, or indeed in any school, is not a mysterious process. It is a natural process; and the art of teaching a ten-year old is not unlike that of teaching an adult, though the method may not always be the same. Preparation to teach the young class need not be essentially different, in fact probably will not be different, from the preparation needed to teach the older class. In each case the essentials of the plan are the same. Preparing the Lesson Assuming that the teacher knows her group of boys or girls well enough to understand their needs, limi- tations and difficulties, the next step in getting ready to teach her class is preparation of the lesson material. However long or short the lesson may be, the chief element in planning to teach it to a given class is thoroughness. Not only must the teacher know this particular lesson well, but she must know connections between this lesson and other lessons so that the teaching may be more effective. Not only must the central truth of the lesson be familiar to her, but the teacher must have at her service a wealth of detail and [59] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING illustration which will help to make the lesson vivid. The Sunday-school lesson that is "crammed" — that is, studied hurriedly and superficially, late Saturday evening or early Sunday morning, without the proper relations being made — can never be taught with any degree of success. One of the most disastrous habits teachers in the Sunday-school have formed is this hurried preparation of the lesson. It has been re- sponsible for a large loss of interest in instruction in the Sunday-school. Thorough Preparation Thoroughness of preparation means many things. The business of the teacher is to teach, to instruct, to train, to test, to guide, to correct mistakes of fact or of ideas or conceptions, and to help the pupil build right and useful habits and to develop toward Christian maturity. These things are accomplished by the process of teaching. This entire process consists of the teacher's preparation of the lesson, the preparation by the teacher of the mind of the child for the lesson material, the presentation by the teacher of the subject matter, its explanation, and its application, or leading the child to reflect on the subject-matter. Preparation is not thorough on the part of the teacher unless all these features of the teaching process be provided for in every lesson. Thorough preparation of the subject matter by the teacher means knowing what the lesson is and what it teaches. The lesson may be the story of the sale of Joseph by his brothers, or of ^Daniel and the lions, or the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. But the effect of it on the group of boys and girls in her class depends altogether on the teacher's knowledge of her pupil's needs and her ability to adapt the truth of the lesson to those needs. [60] PLANNING THE LESSON Becoming entirely familiar with the lesson should be done first of all without the use of commentaries, atlases, Bible dictionaries, concordances or other helps. No helps should be consulted until the teacher has learned all she can directly from the Bible. Then she is ready for helps and additional materials. No method of teaching can take the place of a thorough knowledge of every bit of material which bears on the subject to be taught. The good teacher goes outside of the lesson itself for any helps she can find, any knowledge in biblical geography, or any acquaintance with the interests of her pupils and the possible relations of those interests to the lesson to be taught. Organizing the Lesson Material When the lesson and supplementary material have been studied thoroughly, organizing that material and putting it into form to be taught, is the next step in planning the lesson. The teacher who would be effec- tive will cultivate the habit of organization; it is one of the most important elements in the whole lesson- planning process. The importance of this part of the lesson plan is found in the fact that the proper organi- zation of any lesson material must be made with reference to the needs of the children for whose teaching the plan is being made. This is the only natural method of lesson preparation. The point of view of the class to be taught, their interests and needs, are the rightful starting-point in the separation of the non-essentials from the essentials in the materials of the lesson. Facts differ in value, and Sunday-school teachers make a mistake when they treat them as equal. Facts usually depend for their value on their relations to one another; so, effectiveness in the presentation of facts depends altogether on their [61] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING organization. And the basis of their organization is properly the relation of the facts to the interests of the class to whom they are to be taught. From a proper organization the central thought of the lesson will naturally reveal itself, and this becomes the natural basis on which the teacher formulates the aim of teaching that thought. From the Standpoint of the Child All this preparation should be done through the eyes of the children who are to be taught. Put yourself, if you can, in their places for the time. Note the questions which would probably arise in their minds. Write these questions down. They may seem simple, but they are clues to the lesson, and unless you take account of them many perplexities will assail you. Many of these questions may not be used in the class, but they will help clarify the lesson and produce other questions which will be of service when you come to teach it. Prepare ** Pivotal " Questions Another important step in the planning of a Sunday- school lesson is the formulation of several "pivotal" questions which will call for the central thought of the lesson. It would, of course, be difficult to prepare many workable questions ahead of time. But a few well-prepared, intelligent questions may suggest other questions to fit situations which may arise after the teaching of the lesson has begun. These prepared questions should be those which would naturally provoke thought and stimulate the pupils to a lively interest in the central thought of the lesson. Such questions are easily formulated if the lesson material has been thoroughly studied and properly organized. [62] PLANNING THE LESSON Illustrative Material The plan of any Sunday-school lesson will not be complete unless It Include a wealth of Illustrative material. Variety of statement Is essential to all good teaching. Prepare to tell the same thing In different ways, to make a fact more vivid by the use of a story which the children can understand, or by variety of Illustration, Such methods are always the marks of good teaching. But this sort of thing never comes, especially to young teachers, except by thought- ful preparation and planning. "Teacher and children are often disappointed because of the lack of materials which could have been at hand had the teacher only thought about the lesson before teaching It." The Teacher's Aim The teacher's aim forms also a very Important part of the plan of any lesson. She Is not In her proper place if the teacher goes before her class on Sunday without knowing definitely what she wants to do with the lesson and how she is to do It. "What particular Christian characteristics should this lesson strengthen In my pupils.?" "Is this lesson to make my class more generous, more truthful, more reverent, and more ambitious to render human service.?" "How are these things to be done.?" are questions which every teacher who believes In the nobility of her service is asking of every lesson she undertakes to teach. What- ever may be the thought to be emphasized or the truth to be taught, about it should cluster questions, Illustrations and explanations which help In "driving it home." Assignment a Part of the Plan No Sunday-school lesson period Is well used which does not Include time for some assignment of the next [63] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING lesson. No lesson plan, therefore, which leaves out assignment, is well made. The Sunday-school teacher should keep several lessons ahead of her class. Not only should she know the lesson she is to teach today, but she should know today the lesson for next Sunday, and know it so thoroughly that two or three minutes taken near the end of the lesson period to give the pupils an idea of the next lesson, will be an immediate means of stimulating interest in that lesson. Any group of intelligent boys and girls will take a more lively interest in the work if something is said about next Sunday's lesson. In making the assignment, give the class something to do. Good assignments always provide real stimulus for study in preparation of the lesson for next Sunday. Make it a point to give the inattentive boy something definite to do for the following Sunday's work. To look for some bit of information concerning the geography of the country in which the scene of the lesson appears, or a fact in biblical history, or some similar task, has been known to stimulate immediate interest in the work for the following Sunday. This can be done, in some form or other, in practically all classes in the school, except those of the youngest children. Time and Patience Needed All this will take time. The mastery of the lesson material, its organization, the formulation of important pivotal questions, the study and comparison of lesson helps, and the planning how to reaUze the aim of the lesson, will consume more time than is ordinarily given to Sunday-school teaching. But genuine Sunday- school success cannot be had without it. If the work is done thoroughly, and if the lesson plans are saved from month to month, the teacher who follows such a [64] PLANNING THE LESSON plan as that outlined here, and follows it with every lesson she teaches, will early develop into a ^ mag- nificently trained teacher. If she has enlisted in the work for the good she can do for as long as she is able to do it, then she owes it to herself as well as to the cause for which she is working to give time and thought to preparation of the lessons she is to teach. More- over, this thoroughgoing method of work is economical; the more it is done the easier it is to do. The returns from such systematic preparation are great. In a short time the teacher who gives herself such training will find her mind stocked with memory verses; she will be familiar with the geography of the Bible, and with Bible customs, and the interpretation and appli- cation of biblical truths will become easier and easier for her. Efficiency Demands It This thorough training which the teacher gets is not alone the motive which genuine teachers in the Sunday- school have in undertaking to do their work well. The work may be hard. But no noble work was ever easy; and the call for improvement in Sunday-school teaching comes to strong men and women. Incom- petence in teaching in the Sunday-school has brought disastrous and woeful results. And if by painstak- ing effort and thoughtful preparation Sunday-school teachers can increase the eflliciency in this important work, then the result will be worth all the time and toil which it requires. Driving the Spiritual Thought Home The aim in Sunday-school teaching is to give spiritual thoughts and spiritual truths. The selection of the central thought of the lesson, planning the method of [65] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING approach, seeking to adapt the truth of the lesson to the interests and needs of the pupils, planning questions and illustrations and explanations, — all these things are means to one end, which is to quicken the spiritual life and insight of those who are to be taught. Deciding on the spiritual thought and how it can be given must form an important part of the lesson plan. And the lesson will be taught with more effect and will be stronger if only one thought is selected and plans made to drive that thought home to the thoughts and lives of the members of the class. Fundamentally Religious in Its Purpose The fact that the Sunday-school is essentially re- ligious in its ultimate purpose should be so thoroughly realized and understood by the teacher that she will never lose an opportunity to make her teaching re- ligiously eifective. The conversion of the boys and the girls who are being taught, and their development and growth in intelligent Christian character, are, therefore, the ends for which the institution exists. The Sunday-school teacher is, for this reason, more than a teacher: the religious purpose must pervade all of her earnest effort. This purpose should never be left out of a lesson plan. " Strong, clear, religious teaching, serious appeal to the conscience based on fair exposition of the Scripture, is not repugnant to the pupils of our Sunday-school. They need it, and they will welcome it. It is not this, but feeble and oft- repeated exhortations based on nothing in particular, that repels them and drives them from the school as soon as they get beyond the years of childhood." [66] PLANNING THE LESSON SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books Hamilton, The Recitation, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell Company, New York. James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, New York. McMurry, How to Study and Teaching How to Study, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, The Mac- millan Company, New York. Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran Company, New York. Wells, Sunday-school Success, F. H. Revell Company, New York. Exercises 1. What are the essentials of every lesson plan? 2. How do you usually get ready for teaching a given lesson.'* 3. What do you mean by " studying the lesson.? " 4. Why is it not enough merely to study and to know the lesson in order to teach it successfully.? What else must the teacher know.? 5. Why is it necessary to plan the lesson before going to class.? 6. What do you do when you make an " assignment " for the next lesson .? 7. What is the purpose of the " assignment.? " Why is it necessary .? 8. Suppose you were teaching the story of the Good Samaritan to a class of boys twelve years of age. What " pivotal " questions would you ask them .? 9. Name several things you ought to know in addition to the lesson text in order to teach the story of Joseph and his brothers to a class of boys fourteen years of age. 10. Do you plan your questions before you go to class? Do the planned questions work better then those asked on the spur of the moment.? Why.? [67] CHAPTER VI Teaching the Lesson Preparation to Teach the Lesson When all necessary preparation has been made for the actual teaching, then comes the task of putting into operation the plan which the teacher has made. This necessary preparation means: knowing the lesson, knowing those who are to be taught, and knowing the plan which has been made to teach the particular lesson to a particular group of children. Familiarity with the lesson means a thorough knowledge of it and a certainty of its central truth and thought; familiarity with the pupils means knowing them so well that their immediate needs are clear to the teacher; knowing the plan of the lesson means knowing how to adapt the central truth and thought of the lesson to the immediate needs of the class to be taught. Assigning or Giving the Lesson All good Sunday-school teaching includes the assign- ing or the giving of the lesson for the following Sunday. Just a minute or two before the recitation period has closed, the good teacher will tell her class something definite about the lesson for next Sunday. With very young people the assignment may best be made at the close of the recitation or teaching period; but with advanced pupils the beginning of the recitation period is a good time for assigning the lesson to be studied the next time. This assignment helps to create interest in the next lesson and gives the class something definite to do in preparation for it. In making this assignment [68] TEACHING THE LESSON the teacher should give that Instruction or help which will prepare the mind of her class for the new lesson material. This instruction or help may be in the form of a story, a question to be answered in the study of the lesson, an illustration, or an explanation, or any other device or method which will direct the mind of the class to the new lesson in such a way that they will be anxious to study the lesson, to grasp and interpret it. Creating in the class an intense desire to know and to understand the lesson for the next time is largely the purpose of the assignment. This is one of the most important parts of the whole teaching process. By it the self-activities of the child may be excited and directed, the mind is awakened, the pupils are set to thinking, and they become curious, if the assignment has been properly made, to discover the truth the next lesson is expected to teach. The skilful teacher will use the assignment to get the members of her class to use what they have and what they know in getting what she wants them to have and what she wants them to know. She must remember, however, that "To assign the lesson in accordance with the ability of the class to acquire, requires judgment, knowledge, and a large share of common sense." Good assignments give definite aims to the pupils, save time, encourage the children, and give them a much needed training in the art of studying. Reviewing the Previous Lesson A brief review, by means of questions and suggestions, of the last lesson is very helpful. It helps to fasten in the minds of the children the truth reached by the previous lesson and to link that lesson with the present lesson. This form of review is as necessary as the more extended review at the end of a series of lessons; [69] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING it is needed not merely to refresh the memory of the pupils, but to help them to organize, connect and associate the lesson materials. It helps to complete the work which the teacher is trying to do, — to organize the lesson truth in the life of the pupils, and by repetition of that truth, make it a part of the equipment of the pupils. All Sunday-school teachers should learn how to make use of this part of the recitation to greater advantage. Teaching the New Lesson The method of teaching the lesson varies with the purpose, the particular lesson to be taught, the pupils, and other conditions. But there are general principles which may be followed. If the assignment of the lesson for today was properly made last Sunday, and if the teacher this morning reviewed briefly with the class the lesson studied last Sunday, the next thing is to begin "teaching" the lesson for today. Good teaching is the same everywhere whether it be in one subject or another. The Sunday-school is suffering from the false notion that, because it is a purely religious school it must teach by methods other than those used in other schools, — by methods peculiar to a purely religious institution. It makes a mistake not to use those essential laws of teaching which are successfully used in secular schools. Some of these laws have been conveniently classified in natural and logical forms. A very popular and much used form for teaching the lesson, which may be of help to young and inexperienced teachers, is known as the Herbartian Plan,^ or the so-called Five Formal Steps. The steps ^ Named from the German philosopher and educator who lived from 1776 to 1841. He was a close student of the process of edu- cation and from an elaboration of his work we have what we fre- [70] TEACHING THE LESSON are known as Preparation, Presentation, Comparison, Generalization, and Application. They will be dis- cussed briefly in their order, and their use shown. I. Preparation By this term we do not mean the same kind of preparation we talked about in the chapter on Planning the Lesson. The word here is used to mean the preparation of the minds of the pupils for the reception of the new lesson material. The lesson has already been properly assigned, let us assume. The children were given something definite and specific to look for and to do in preparation of the new lesson. This was the aim given the pupils. The teacher also has an aim in teaching the lesson. The aim of the pupils and that of the teacher may not be the same, probably are not the same. The aim of the pupils was, let us say, to discover the various steps by which Absalom came to his destruction; the teacher may have as her aim the teaching of the lesson that disloyalty to one's parents will bring ruin. To realize this aim the teacher must prepare the minds of her class for the reception of the new lesson material. This may be done by a question, by a story, a novel statement, an illustration, or any other way which will help to prepare the pupils' minds which must be fitted for the new truth. The teacher calls up in their mind whatever they may already know about the new lesson or anything that is related to it. "Appropriate preparation thus calls up the closely related truth formerly learned, and quently speak of as the Five Formal Steps in teaching. A full dis- cussion of these steps and of the recitation may be found in Hamilton's The Recitation (Lippincott and Company, Philadelphia), DeGarmo's Essentials of Method (D. C. Heath and Company, Boston), and McMurry's The Method of the Recitation (The Macmillan Company, New York), from which the present explanation is largely taken. [71] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING brings It forward in the mind to grasp, interpret and assimilate the new matter. The similar old facts are aroused from their slumber and rush forward into consciousness, eager and ready to receive the new fact, which, ever afterward, is to be associated with them in the most intimate family relationship." So, the teacher must call up past experiences, but only those which are "necessary for a mastery of the new matter." In other words, get the class curious and anxious at the very beginning of the new lesson to see the very thing you intend to bring to them. II. Presentation Presentation of the subject matter of a lesson is a very important part of the teaching process. The minds of the pupils may be properly prepared for the new material by the "assignment," and by the "prepa- ration" when the new lesson is taken up in class; but proper presentation of the new material is absolutely necessary before the new lesson can be acquired by the pupils. Method of Presentation In presenting the new material several methods may be used. The question method may be used, by which the pupils are asked questions on the lesson in such a way as to make its meaning clear; or the lecture method, by which the teacher talks to the class, trying to explain the meaning of the lesson. The question method, with suitable discussion, is always preferable to the lecture method. Whether the new lesson is presented by questions, by story telling, by the lecture method and discussion, the purpose is always the same: to bring the lesson to the minds of the members of the class so clearly that they will get and hold the [72] TEACHING THE LESSON thought that is being taught. It is here that the art of the genuine teacher reveals itself, in unfolding the lesson material to the minds of the pupils so as to direct them to the climax of the lesson in which the main point stands out clearly. Whatever the lesson, the skilful teacher will direct the discussion, or ask the questions on the lesson, so as to bring to the understanding of the pupils the important part of the lesson material. Good Presentation When the Sunday-school lesson is properly taught, its presentation will be clear and definite, it will be logical, it will follow a plan which the teacher has already made, and it will be complete. 1. By clearness of presentation we mean the bring- ing of the important thoughts of the lesson from the mass of detail which surrounds it and holding these thoughts clearly before the minds of the members of the class. To do this, however, the teacher must herself see the very thing she wishes to teach, — the thought or idea of the lesson; her own thought must be clear and direct; and the language which she em- ploys in her questions, stories, illustrations, and ex- planations, must be simple enough for her class to understand. These requirements show how necessary it is for the teacher to plan the lesson before she goes to class. 2. The natural and logical relation of the different parts of the lesson must be considered by the teacher in her presentation. The proper relation of the details of the lesson story to the main thought of the lesson, and the proper adaptation of this thought to the ability of the children in her class, practically assure their mental progress. The influence of the logical, 173] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING natural method of presentation on the growing mind Is also to be considered. Pupils who are fortunate enough to have instructors who are clear and logical in their presentation will naturally acquire the very best habits of mind and of study. 3. The good teacher follows a plan in presenting the lesson to her pupils. She knows the lesson, she knows her pupils and their needs, and she plans, in her presentation, to adapt the truth of the lesson to their needs. The teacher who goes before her class on Sunday without a definite plan at this point is sure to fail. It is dangerous to trust to the inspiration of the moment in presenting the lesson. The aim which the teacher formulated for herself when the lesson was planned must, while she is presenting the lesson, be kept constantly in view; and in seeking to realize this aim she must follow a clear, definite plan. 4. Every Sunday-school lesson must be so skilfully presented as to show completeness. In any lesson there are essentials and non-essentials in the details. The good teacher separates the important from the unimportant, picks out the big truth to be taught, sees it as a complete truth, and plans to present it so as to make the important fact of the lesson stand out as a complete thought. The wise teacher disregards the unimportant details and keeps her eyes and mind ever on those points which are essential to the unity or wholeness of the lesson. This requires definite plan- ning in advance, however. III. Comparison The third step in the recitation is known as com- parison, or, as it is sometimes called, association. Every mental act of whatever kind includes some form of comparison; comparison is a natural and important [74] TEACHING THE LESSON part of the mental process. "And in judgment and reasoning, the highest forms of thought, It Is the dominant factor, the very pivot upon which thought turns." The ability to suggest comparisons to and to direct the minds of her pupils In making comparisons is another test of the good teacher. "How does the ministry of John the Baptist compare with that of Jesus.?" "How do the epistles of Peter resemble the epistle of John.?" "In what respects are the epistles to Timothy similar to the epistle to Titus,?" "What points of resemblance are found in the life of Samuel and the life of David.?" are questions which suggest the use of comparison in the recitation. To answer any of these questions the pupils would require a knowledge of the point under Immediate consideration and have at their disposal and use an abundance of similar facts as those which they are now discussing. Much of our teaching is done by comparison; and the necessity for giving to our students fixed and definite standards of comparison is at once evident. To give such standards and to train children to use them, form, in large meas- ure, the business of the Sunday-school teacher. For example: To answer the questions, "Did his brothers treat Joseph unkindly.?" "Was the conduct of the older brother right when his younger, prodigal brother, returned home to his father.?" "Was Pilate honest?" "Was Peter cowardly?" "Was Jacob de- ceitful.?" requires standards of comparison. Before the child can answer either of these questions he must apply his standards of measurement which separate kind from unkind treatment, right from wrong conduct, honesty from dishonesty, deceit from frankness. Ac- curacy of reasoning, clearness of thinking, and sound- ness of judgment, in the end, depend on comparison. It is here that the teacher in the Sunday-school can [75] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING make her efforts count for good: to give a knowledge of the principles of living and of the rules of conduct, and training to apply these principles and rules to actual life conditions, are the aim of genuine Sunday- school teaching; and to teach this knowledge and use of fixed standards is the first great care of the Sunday- school teacher. Association This is the name of the process by which one thought or idea suggests another. It also occupies an important place in teaching. The mind is nothing if it is not associative. The laws of association control practically all our thinking; associating one experience in the mind suggests another, that one suggests another, and so on. This action of the mind seems to follow at least three primary laws: the law of similarity, the law of contrast, and the law of contiguity. 1. The law of similarity shows itself when one idea suggests another like it. I think of Absalom and his conspiracy against his father, David. This may suggest the plan of Jacob to deceive his father. From this I may think of the ordinary relationships between father and son, and soon I may be thinking of "Honor thy father and thy mother . . ."; "A wise son maketh a glad father . . ."; "A foolish son is the calamity of his father . . ."; "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." 2. The law of contrast operates as effectively as the law of similarity. Goodness may suggest its opposite, badness; an act of justice may cause me to think, in contrast, of an act that is unjust; unselfishness may cause me to think of a very selfish man; the thought of a truthful man may remind me of a man who has a reputation for not telling the truth, and so on. I [76] TEACHING THE LESSON think of Jonathan's love for David, and I am reminded of Saul's jealousy and hatred and attempts to kill David. 3. The law of contiguity shows that ideas and thoughts which are associated in time, place, or cir- cumstances, may suggest one another. The law is very far-reaching and is of great help to the memory in efforts to recall. A passage of scripture or a song may remind me of the last time I heard the passage read or preached from or the song sung; I think of the reader or singer, and later of many of the circum- stances connected with hearing him. I read or hear read the first verse of the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews and I immediately think of a sermon I once heard from the text. I think of the illustrations used in the sermon, of the audience of several hundred college men, and of the effect on them. The value of this law in the mental process is easily seen. Value of Association A knowledge of these laws of association is, after all, of little value to the teacher except to explain to her how certain objects or ideas arrange themselves in consciousness. It is rather the fact of association that concerns the teacher in a practical way. "Your pupils," says James, " whatever else they are, are at any rate little pieces of associative machinery. Their education consists in the organizing within them of determinate tendencies to associate one thing with another, — impressions with consequences, these with reactions, those with results, and so on indefinitely. The more copious the associative systems, the com- pleter the individual's adaptations to the world." For us as teachers in the Sunday-school the only very useful practical lesson which comes from the fact of [77] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING association is that the teacher should "impress the class through as many sensible channels as he can." The principle of multiple impressions is important in Sunday-school work. This is the reason Sunday-school teachers should do more than talk. There should be much blackboard work, map work, writing and draw- ing, the pupils should be permitted to talk freely and to discuss the lesson, so that a variety of impressions may be possible while the lesson is being taught. This helps the pupils to remember and also to understand. Variety of impression is the principle the Sunday-school teacher should follow. IV. Generalization This is the process of reaching general truths or principles, laws or definitions, from a study and dis- cussion of the lesson material. Whatever the truth, principle, law or definition, it should be clearly formu- lated and definitely stated, not by the teacher, how- ever, but by the pupils under the skilful leadership and direction of the teacher. The teacher should direct the questions, illustrations and discussions of the class in preparing the mind of the class for the new lesson, in presenting it, and in working over this new lesson material in the minds of the members of the class when it is compared and associated with other material. To teach truths, principles, laws and definitions is the aim of all Sunday-school teaching; but the end of this teaching is the application of those truths, principles, laws, and definitions to the immediate needs of the pupils in such a way that their conduct and behavior (taken in a broad sense) may be influenced and con- trolled. The use of generalizations, that is, laws of conduct, rules of action, and principles of correct living, is as important as knowing them. [78] TEACHING THE LESSON The Teacher*s Business The forming or reaching of truths, principles, laws, and definitions must follow presentation and com- parison. After the teacher has properly presented the lesson and led the discussion on it, these generalizations should be formulated and stated. By these steps the pupils should be led to define and name the main point of the lesson. The conclusion of the class or their statement of the point of the lesson, if the lesson has been properly taught, will be their statement of the same idea or thought which the teacher chose as her aim. The teacher should remember, however, that the pupil should find the truth, principle, law, or defini- tion which the teacher wishes the lesson to teach, rather than to be told by the teacher what the generali- zation is. Of course she must direct and lead the pupil to the conclusion, correct his wrong impressions, or reconstruct misleading ideas. This is the teacher's business. But the pupil must himself see and state the principle. V. Application "Whosoever acquires knowledge and does not prac- tice it, resembles him who ploughs but does not sow." "It is not a question of what a man knows, but what use he can make of what he knows." Generalization, the step which we have just considered, gives truths, principles, laws, or definitions. Application is the effort by which these truths, principles, and laws are used; it is the end of Sunday-school teaching; and the teacher's business, again, is to lead her pupils to use in their own lives and experiences the new moral and religious ideas and truths which they get from Sunday to Sunday. It is here, however, that we probably find the weakest part of our Sunday-school teaching, in [79] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING the failure to make this provision for the application of the truths learned in the Sunday-school. We teach "Honesty is the best policy," truthfulness, charity, and kindness, but we do not always show our pupils how, in the everyday details of their lives, it pays to be honest, to tell the truth, to be charitable and kind. We, as teachers in the Sunday-school, need to bring to the attention of our pupils, cases in which the truth of the individual lessons taught applies in their own lives. And unless this be done, Sunday-school teach- ing will continue to be more or less ineffective. Moral and religious knowledge is not a mere possession; it is rather an instrument which we are to use. Such knowledge, put to proper use, helps to build Christian character. Practical Suggestions 1. Sunday-school teaching should emphasize the actual practice of the truths, principles, laws and definitions which are being taught in the Sunday- school, rather than a mere knowledge of them. This implies the necessity for constant, systematic reviewing and drilling in the application of the new truths learned. The Sunday-school teacher who is able to lead her pupils to use what they know and to practice what they have learned there, is doing real service. It is more of this kind of teaching that is needed in the Sunday-school. 2. The teaching and the illustration of the truths learned in the Sunday-school should be as concrete as possible. The idea of "doing good for evil," of bearing "one another's burdens," of "Blessed are the peace- makers," should be illustrated to the mind of the pupils in a definite, simple, concrete fashion, and in terms which they understand. Cases from the actual life of [80] TEACHING THE LESSON the pupils should be selected for these applications. This implies the necessity of the teacher being familiar with her pupils, and of knowing their strength and their weakness, their temptations and their limitations. This knowledge of the child is most important in the proper application of the lesson truths. 3. The teacher should provide for the practical reaction in' feeling and conduct of her pupils. This can be done by bringing to the attention of her class conditions, circumstances, and cases in which the truth of the lesson can be applied. If the child is to gain from a knowledge of a new moral or religious truth, — if he is to grow morally and religiously — he must do something himself, or think about the new truth as applied to his own life. This practical instruction is, after all, the kind that tells for right living. The pupils must be given something to do: they must use, as far as they are able, the information they gain. Without this practical application, Sunday-school teaching will not be successful. Sunday-school teachers need especially to show their pupils how they can use the information and the knowledge which they gain there. Lesson Plans Must be Adaptable The steps of the recitation which we have just considered, preparation, presentation, comparison, generalization, and application, are not always appli- cable to every Sunday-school lesson. Neither will teachers always consciously follow these steps in teaching a given lesson. However, they are important, and young teachers, or teachers who have had little or no experience, will find them a valuable guide. The young or inexperienced teacher will profit by planning her lessons with reference to these or some other [81] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING logical steps, not, to be sure, for the purpose merely of using such steps, but rather because they help the teacher understand the teaching process. Every well- taught lesson has definite parts with different purposes, though the teacher and the student may not always be conscious of the part and the purpose. Some such plan as that described above, whether it be known by this or some other name, should be used by the Sunday- school teacher. To follow such a plan, however, she must give to the preparation of the lesson more time and thought than it now receives. The Review It has been said that there are certain methods and features of the public school which cannot be used in the Sunday-school, and the review or examination is given as one of these features. But when the real purpose of the review or examination is known, and when all Sunday-schools and Sunday-school teachers know how to use it, it will be found to fill a real need and serve a vital purpose in this form of education. No time in teaching can be spent more profitably than the time that is given to the review. Kinds of Review The review in the Sunday-school should be of two kinds. There should be at the beginning of each lesson a brief review of the previous lesson, and at the end of each lesson there should be a brief summary of the lesson just taught, in order to make clear, by repetition, the important points of the lesson. In view of the short teaching period in the Sunday-school, this kind of review is particularly important. There should also be a review every two or three months on [82] TEACHING THE LESSON the work covered during that time. Such a review should be thorough but simple and practical, and should not be made a mere test of memory. It should become a regular part of the work of the Sunday- school so that the pupils will not become frightened at its approach, and should be required of all except the very young pupils. The examination papers should be read and carefully graded and returned to the pupils. Some form of recognition should be given those who do creditable work. This may be done by an announce- ment by the pastor or superintendent; by posting a list of the names of those who are to be promoted, or by giving a certificate or diploma at the end of a number of years' work. Such methods, if properly administered, will be productive of wholesome results. All returns of results, such as grades and marks of any kind, where reviews and examinations are customary, should not be concealed from the pupils. The an- nouncement of grades or promotion of pupils, however, can be made harmful: the children may learn to work for grades and promotion rather than for the work itself. But their eagerness to know how successful they have been is perfectly natural and is a good sign. Purpose of the Review The examination in the Sunday-school may bejusti- fied in a number of ways. Many of the reasons given for having reviews or examinations in the Sunday- school are the same as those advanced for the reviews or examinations in the public school. Education is education, and teaching is teaching, wherever it is found. The purpose of the examination is the same everywhere. 1. For the Sake of Organization. Whether it be with reference to one lesson or a series of lessons, some [83] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING review or examination is needed in order to help the pupil to an organization of his knowledge and infor- mation. Without such an organization he will not be able to see, in its proper relation, the material which he has been studying. But a mere parrot-like recital of the subject of the lesson, of the golden text, and of one or two "main points" in each lesson, will not give this organization. The teacher must plan for the examination or review which will give a connectedness to the lesson or lessons, just as she would plan for the teaching of any one lesson. If the pupils have been taught how to study, such a review will be particularly helpful to them. It may take the form of an outline on the particular lesson which is being reviewed, out- lines on the lessons covered by the examination, the writing out of answers to questions suggested by the teacher on a lesson or a series of lessons, or the teacher may assign topics to the pupils to be studied and discussed in class. Any method by which the lesson or a series of lessons may appear well organized and properly put together may be used by the teacher. The pupil needs to be given a proper perspective of the work, whether it be of one lesson or of a number of lessons. 2. For the Sake of Memory. The examination will help to furnish a stimulus for thorough work. We have already seen the importance of "association" in learning. The secret of a good memory is the secret of forming many associations with each fact studied or learned. This formation of many associations may be made by frequent repetition, — thinking as much as possible about the fact that has been studied or learned. The task of the teacher is to furnish her pupils with stocks of ideas and thoughts. The more her pupils are taught to "think over" these ideas and thoughts, [84] TEACHING THE LESSON weaving them together in a connected fashion, the better will be their memory. The review, therefore, is not to be made a mere repetition in order to "re- fresh" the minds of the pupils; but the good teacher will use it to strengthen their minds. There is at this point a very close relation between reviews and the formation of mental habits. The proper repetition of a fact until it is learned, makes that fact vivid, arouses interest in it, and secures attention to it. One motto of the teacher should be; "Arouse interest, secure attention, repeat." 3. Test of the Teacher's Work. Nothing shows the success or failure of a teacher so much as an examination of her pupils. If an examination of normal children shows that they remember little and understand less of what they have been taught, this is suihcient proof that the work of the teacher has not been well done. There is a close relation between this reason for the examination and another reason so often given, that it tests the knowledge of the pupils. The examination is necessary in order to test the knowledge of the pupils and the ability of the teacher to teach. We need in the Sunday-school as well as in the public school to know how well a thing is taught and how much of it is learned. 4. Test of the Pupil's Work. Of course the ex- amination should test the pupil's knowledge, although this is not its primary importance. It is the more important, however, where emphasis is placed on the completion or the perfection of information on a certain subject, and on the ability to use that infor- mation readily. On the other hand, however, the examination is not given for the teacher's sake but for the sake of the pupils; and as "incentives for keeping in mind the work that has been pursued over an ex- [85] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING tended period," it should be emphasized in the Sunday- school more than it is today. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books Angus, Ideals in Sunday-school Teaching, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Bagley, The Educative Process, The Macmillan Company, New York. Brown, How to Plan a Lesson, F. H. Revell Company, New York. DeGarmo, Essentials of Method, D. C. Heath and Com- pany, New York. DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, Dodd, Mead and Company New York. Gregory, Seven Laws of Teaching, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Hamilton, The Recitation, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran Company, New York. Exercises \. Suppose you were going to teach the story of the Good Samaritan to a group of ten-year-old boys, (a) What aim would you have.'' (b) What aim would you give the class. ^ (c) How would you " assign " the lesson the Sunday before you were to teach it.'* (d) Tell how you would prepare their minds for the lesson material when you come to teach the lesson, what questions you would ask, what story or stories you would tell, what illustrations you would use. (e) How could you provide for them to apply the truth of the lesson.'* (These questions assume the teacher's thorough familiarity with her pupils.) 2. What are some of the advantages of the question method in teaching in the Sunday-school.'* The lecture method.? What objections are there to the lecture method.'' 3. Suppose you had to teach to a class of boys or girls 15 to 17 years of age the story of the merchant seeking goodly pearls (Matthew 13 : 45-46). What existing ideas or no- tions of theirs would you seek to change? What general [86] TEACHING THE LESSON truth (generalization) would you try to reach with them? What " comparisons " could you use? What kind of asso- ciations would you probably use? 4. Outline the lesson for next Sunday, giving (a) the sub- ject of the lesson; (b) the aim you gave your class last Sun- day to aid them in preparing the lesson; (c) the aim you will have in teaching the lesson; (d) and indicate briefly the steps you will try to follow in realizing that aim. 5. Why should the teacher not have more than one aim for each lesson ? 6. Why is it better to have a class conclude after a study of the lesson that, for instance, " Honesty is the best policy," than for the teacher to tell this to the class at the beginning of the lesson? [87] CHAPTER VII Attention and Interest Importance It is very important for the Sunday-school teacher to know the principles which underlie attention and interest on the part of the pupils, the "application of the mind to any object of sense, representation, or thought," and the excitement of feeling which may accompany that application. The relation between them is so close that we cannot understand the one without a knowledge of the other. We always attend to those objects, representations, or thoughts, in which we have interest, those things which concern us. These principles apply as much to Sunday-school teaching as to the teaching of any subject in the public schools. There are good reasons, however, why the teacher in the Sunday-school should understand the principles of interest and attention in instruction. The prevailing practice of voluntary teaching and voluntary attendance in the Sunday-school has had a tendency to produce easy-going methods there; and the common belief that because the subject taught there is the Bible, the children will, in some mysterious manner, understand it, has made ideals of method and a knowledge of the principles of teaching seem rather unnecessary for the Sunday-school teacher. A brief consideration of the basis of interest and attention is, therefore, in order at this point. The Point of Contact Mr. DuBois has an excellent little book called "The Point of Contact in Teaching," which every teacher [88] ATTENTION AND INTEREST in the Sunday-school should read.^ It deals with the natural way of approach to the child's mind, which "is a castle that can be taken neither by stealth nor by storm." It emphasizes the necessity of teaching young children from the standpoint of their own immediate interests; and it shows that "the ideal point at which a child's intelligent attention" is to be gained, or his instruction to begin, is the child's experience or contact with life. Getting a point of contact, then, means Hnking the life interests of the child to the thing which he is being taught. No instruction can begin until this is done. Every normal child has certain interests which the teacher may enlarge or enrich; "starting with something which the child knows through experience, and is therefore personally interested in," the teacher may introduce him to the subject which is being taught, — even though that subject may at first appear remote, — so that there will be a natural development of his interest in the subject itself. This is a simple ele- mentary law of teaching which applies as much to the teaching of a moral truth as to the teaching of a fact in history or a law in physics. Start with what the child already knows or is interested in; go from the known to the unknown with him; connect his present interests with the lesson you are teaching. This is getting a point of contact. A Defect in Sunday- School Teaching One great fault in much of our Sunday-school teach- ing is found in the failure to seek points of contact with our pupils. The materials and methods used in teach- ing grown-ups have too often also been used in teaching young children. We have sought to instruct them not 1 Published by Dodd, Mead and Company, New York. Seventy- five cents. [89] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING only in adult Ideas but also by adult methods. But children are in no respects miniature adults; they live on a plane of experience that arises from their activities and their contact with the outside world; their ex- periences are all concrete, simple, and immediate. Real, active, living things are their teachers and educators; and the great principle for the Sunday- school teacher to observe is that the instruction of children must begin where they come in contact with these real, living, active things, as they see and under- stand them. Teaching young children spiritual ideas in terms and words which we sometimes hear used in the Sunday-school is a hopeless task and can but result in producing erroneous notions of religion. The Sunday-school should accept the results of scientific studies of children which have improved methods in secular education. It is ridiculous to assume that, because ideas are religious and spiritual, they will, in some magical and mysterious fashion, make themselves clear to young minds, however much beyond the plane of the experience of the children the passages selected for instruction may be. The natural way is the safest way in Sunday-school teaching. Mistaken Notions about Children This defect in our teaching is due in large measure to our mistaken notions about child life. Children fail to understand many of the truths which we undertake to teach in the Sunday-school because these truths are not presented in an order consistent with the mental ability of those who are being taught. Although they have learned a great many things by that time, six- year-old children know much less than we suppose they do about things we try to teach them. There are, to be sure, many points of contact with most [90] ATTENTION AND INTEREST children, many ways of approach to their minds. But false notions of their plane of experience have been responsible for much that has been accounted a failure in the Sunday-school. Sunday-school teachers need to know the main principle by which children receive things into their minds. Apperception This is the word which psychology uses to define and name a very simple matter. The word means nothing more than the manner or process by which the mind receives new things. The rule is simple: children learn new things in terms of old things, things which they already know. No more important principle was ever laid down for the teacher in any school than the one which says to her: "Bring your instruction down to the apperceptive basis of the child, down to the plane on which he can understand what you are trying to teach him." The teaching of any new knowledge then rightly becomes a development of knowledge which the child already has. His knowledge of facts of any kind and his way of looking at things must be understood, if the teacher expects to widen, expand and enrich the child's information and to control and influence his action and conduct. It is here that we find the danger of "shooting over the heads" of our pupils. Importance of this Law for the Teacher It is very important that every teacher in the Sunday- school keep this principle in mind. Her lesson plans should always be made with reference to the operation of this law. If it were possible for the teacher to know the mental content of her pupils, if she knew what they [91] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING know and what they do not know, it would prove of great help to her. This knowledge would enable her to learn the direction of their interests, their ability to use and understand words, ^ to name objects correctly, the manner by which they classify and arrange the materials or objects they are already familiar with. In this way the teacher would know what she has to work with, and what she may or may not assume of her pupils. She would know the defects of the experiences of the children she teaches, and with what materials the instruction which she wishes to give them is directly or even indirectly connected. What Do Children Know? It is possible for the teacher to learn in a general way what her pupils know. Careful and scientific investi- gations of the content of the minds of children have been made and are easily accessible. Such a contri- bution to a knowledge of child life and child develop- ment has done much to improve methods of teaching in the secular school. The following paragraphs will serve to show how little certain American children, six years of age and entering school, knew about certain common, ordinary things. Of the number examined Fifty-four per cent, did not know what a sheep was, sixty-one per cent, had never seen potatoes growing, thirty-five per cent, did not know what clouds were, ^ It has been shown that the ability of children to use words which they understand varies greatly. "The vocabulary of a slum child of five did not extend beyond two or three dozen words; on the other hand, it was found that an average child of five from a good middle- class home had command of, or understood, not less than a thousand English words, while bright children carried the number to one thousand five hundred or even to two thousand." Rusk, Introduction to Experimental Education, Longmans, Green and Company, p. 74. [92] ATTENTION AND INTEREST forty-eight per cent, did not know what a river was, thirty-five per cent, did not know what a circle was, sixty-two per cent, did not know what a spade was, and fifty per cent, did not know where butter comes from.^ Thirty-five per cent, of city children six years of age had never been in the country; twenty per cent, did not know where milk comes from; forty-seven per cent, had never seen a pig; from thirteen to eighteen per cent, "did not know where their cheek, forehead, or throat was, and fewer yet knew elbow, wrist, ribs, etc."^ Some of the misconceptions in the minds of children, disclosed by similar Investigations, were: "Butterflies make butter, butter Is said to come from buttercups; grasshoppers give grass; kittens grow on pussy-willow; all honey Is from honey-suckles; and even a poplin dress Is made of poplar-trees."^ A number of children from six to ten years of age were asked: " Why should we be good.? " "What is Sunday for.?" " Where is heaven.? " " What do children do in heaven.? " " What do angels do.? " and some of the answers to the questions were: "Angels wear plain white clothes, and don't look stylish." "Have nice hair and wear nice gowns." "Angels come down and tell men when they burn sheep what to do."4 ^ Rusk, Introduction to Experimental Education, p. 75. 2 DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, p. 26. 3 Rusk, Introduction to Experimental Education, p. 77. * DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, p. 27. [93] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING The Significance of These Facts Such facts as these show how poorly furnished is the mind of the average child for many of the lessons we try to teach him in the Sunday-school and for most of the methods used there. How much meaning for most children is there in the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the Twenty-Third Psalm, or such verses as "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted"; "My son, give me thine heart"; "In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin"; "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God"; "Keep the door of my lips"; "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life"? Consider how hard it is to get "points of con- tact" with a great deal that we have to teach in the Sunday-school, and how difficult it often is even for us adults to understand. Few children can be made to feel adequate and safe meanings of such figures as "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee"; "My soul doth magnify the Lord"; "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." These facts also emphasize the necessity for knowing the pupils we teach, and making preparation for teaching them, — planning to make and keep "points of contact." Inattention What is the first thing you plan to do in teaching a lesson.? Are your pupils ever inattentive.? The first thing every good teacher in the Sunday-school should do in planning to teach a lesson is to get a point of contact: to bring the lesson thought to the attention of her pupils through their present interests. Inattention means the failure to secure this point of contact. The habit of using their present interests, of [94] ATTENTION AND INTEREST securing at the outset and maintaining points of contact throughout the entire lesson, is one of the first habits Sunday-school teachers should seek to form. When the pupils fail to attend to the lesson, the teacher has failed to connect their immediate interests and the lesson she is teaching. Kinds of Attention There are two kinds of attention: voluntary, or that which requires will power, and spontaneous or natural. 1. Voluntary attention is very uncertain and un- stable, is given with effort and is directed by the will, and can sustain itself for only a short time. It is the kind of attention which a teacher gets when she commands It in a loud or unusual voice, or when she begs her pupils "to be quiet and pay attention to the lesson," or when she threatens, or when she snaps her finger for attention. If the subject for which the teacher seeks the attention of her class is not naturally interesting to them, their minds will soon be wandering again after she has for the moment secured this kind of attention. They will be pulled to other things than the lesson. It is here that the teacher reveals ability or lack of ability to teach. If she has a thorough knowledge of child life In general, and a more particular knowledge of the children she is teaching, she will know how to get points of contact between their Interests and the lesson she is teaching. If a variety of move- ment be given the subject matter, "if the subject be made to show new aspects of itself, to prompt new questions; in a word, to change," the pupils will "take an interest" and give attention. But voluntary attention is not sufficient. 2. Spontaneous or natural attention is that which children show when they are drawn naturally and [95] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING without effort to some object, idea or thought. It depends on the interests of the children. Children give attention to things in order that they may under- stand them; they concentrate or place their mind on an object or sensation in order to get some meaning out of it. That object or idea which gets their atten- tion at once has in it something they want to under- stand, something that has an interest for them. New things to look at, or new sounds to hear, the sudden opening of the door, a noise on the outside, and a number of other sensations, provoke spontaneous attention and may keep it. Those things which show life and movement are the things naturally interesting to children. This law in child life suggests the need for making the instruction of children as objective and as concrete as possible: the blackboard should be used and there should be much story-telling. The native interests of children may be connected with the interests which the teacher has in mind: "Any object not interesting in itself may become interesting through becoming associated with an object in which an interest already exists." Here is the task for the teacher again. Using the Child's Native Interests Some of the native interests and tendencies which may be of help to teachers in the Sunday-school are: Curiosity This tendency is very closely associated with interest and attention: curiosity causes attention, and attention arouses or produces interest. The mind of the child naturally likes to be active and curious. The puzzlitig questions which children ask illustrate this tendency. Curiosity is the tendency to discover merely for the sake of finding out; and the business of the teacher is [96] ATTENTION AND INTEREST to guide it into desirable channels and on useful things. It should be stimulated by all legitimate means. Young children give attention to every new impression that reaches them. The advantage of object-teaching, of illustration, and of blackboard work, appears here. Some of the most beneficial appeals that the teacher can make can be through objects shown or by acts described or performed. If properly directed curiosity can be made to serve a good purpose to the teacher. She should remember, too, that it is nearly as easy to direct the curiosity of children to really useful things and the worthy interests of life as to the worthless and trifling things. The criticism is now and then made that children satisfy their curiosity with unworthy and ignoble things because their curiosity is frequently denied the worthy and noble ones. Fear Fear is an instinct which has largely lost its educative importance by the time children reach the sixth or seventh year. It seems to be universal in children, however, and was appealed to more in the past than it is at present. It is the mother of superstition and in its primitive form breeds selfishness and weakness. Those fears which fill the mind with dread accomplish no lasting good, but it is well to remember that there are rational fears. The problem of the teacher is to detach fear from the objects which once aroused it, — fear of the unknown, of the dark, of certain strange animals, of the "bogey-man" — and to attach it to other objects, — fear of failure, of sin, of the disapproval of the teacher, or of parents, or pastor, or of one's companions and classmates. Imitation Invention and imitation are the two legs .says James, [97] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING on which the human race historically has walked. Imitation may be conscious or unconscious; it is the copying of another's conduct or behavior, or the reproduction of something seen. The tendency shows itself in a number of ways, and is closely akin to the tendency of emulation and rivalry described below. A smiling teacher can have a smiling, cheerful class; a sour, petulant, captious word or action may reproduce itself in the class. Although this tendency is most pronounced during the earlier years of the child, its power persists in most individuals for a long time. By it most children learn, by it they are mentally influenced, their mental states being determined largely by those with whom they associate most freely. It is a tendency which the teacher in the Sunday-school can use to great advantage if she understands child nature sufficiently. Emulation This is the tendency to imitate the behavior, con- duct, or action of another so as not to appear inferior. It is perfectly natural for all of us to wish not to be so very unlike others about us: "we wish not to be lonely or eccentric, and we wish not to be cpt off from our share in things which to our neighbors seem desirable privileges." The Sunday-school teacher can use this tendency to great advantage. "To get to Sunday- school as early as John," "to give as good attention to the lesson as Henry gives," "to know my lesson as well as Mary knows her lesson," "to recite my verse as well as Sarah recites her verse," — these are motives which are perfectly wholesome in Sunday-school teaching and may be legitimately appealed to by the teacher. The sight of effort in another may awaken and keep effort in ourselves: the teacher approves John's conduct, his [98] ATTENTION AND INTEREST recitation of a verse of scripture, his answer to a question, or his general conduct, and immediately others in the class crave the same approval and strive for it. Not only will children emulate others, but they can be taught to emulate themselves, that is, their former selves, to make improvement in their work over a former time. The tendency is so powerful an ally for the teacher that she can ill afford not to use it. It is at this point, too, that the argument in favor of some form of recognition of superior work in the Sunday-school, such as prizes, and distinctions, may be made. Pugnacity and Pride Although these tendencies have been called unworthy passions, there are refined forms of them which may be used in all teaching, In the Sunday-school as well as the public school. But by pugnacity and pride we do not mean physical combativeness, but an unwilling- ness to be defeated by difficulty. It is foolish to suppose that every lesson in the Sunday-school can be interesting to the pupils; there are times when the fighting element in the children must be used. The child may be led to be ashamed of being late, of not knowing his lesson, of not giving reverent attention to the lesson story that is being told, of not having his lesson book; "rouse his pugnacity and pride, and he will rush at the difficult places with a sort of inner wrath at himself that is one of the best moral faculties. A victory scored under such conditions becomes a turning-point and crisis of his character. It represents the high-water mark of his powers, and serves there- after as an Ideal pattern for his self-imitation. The teacher who never rouses this sort of pugnacious excite- [99] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING ment In his pupils falls short of one of the best forms of usefulness."^ Other Tendencies The foregoing list of a few of the more useful tenden- cies, impulses, capacities, or reactions found in children, may be sufficient to indicate their use to teachers in the Sunday-school. There are others, however, which may be briefly mentioned at this point, which serve as a means of indirect instruction. Ownership, the Collecting Tendency Nearly all children collect something, and the instinct of ownership seems to appear early. Objects which may not be very interesting in themselves may be the means of acquiring interest in more worthy objects. A collector of stamps, of coupons, of pictures, of shells, etc., may later become a collector of important facts, of verses of scripture, of information concerning Bible customs or Bible geography, which may prove to be very useful. The tactful teacher will use this tendency to get the pupils to learn Bible verses, to keep neat lesson books, and to acquire an interest in much that is historical and geographical in the lesson material. Play This is a tendency or an activity which is followed for the pleasure or satisfaction which the tendency or activity itself affords. Normal children are instinc- tively active; and when the vitality characteristic of young children disappears, the value of play as an educative agency will also disappear. There are some very natural objections to play as an ally or help in the ^ James, Talks to Teachers, p. 55. [100] ATTENTION AND INTEREST Sunday-school or even the public school. It is not altogether true, however, that the child should not be forced to do something which he does not want to do. Yet the play spirit does have a place, with very young children, even in the Sunday-school room. And if properly controlled and properly used there is not the slightest danger of cultivating habits of irreverence or carelessness. Dramatization, for example, under a careful and skilful teacher, can be used to advantage in classes of very young children in the Sunday-school, just as instruction, in a play form, is often given in the public school. Tendency to Repeat There seems to be a natural tendency in children to repeat, — to repeat actions, to do things over and over. And because repetition is an important means to learning, it is possible by this tendency for the teacher to establish in children certain forms of very beneficial behavior. When properly utilized as a means of imparting knowledge and of forming useful habits it becomes very serviceable to Sunday-school work. The Teacher's Working Capital These native interests of children which have been described in the foregoing pages are practically all the teacher has to begin with. Her task then, as has already been pointed out, is to appeal to these present interests. When they are properly appealed to, attention in the class will most likely take care of itself. Making the lesson material interesting does not mean amusing or entertaining the pupil; efforts to make the lesson "interesting" or "entertaining" may awaken interest in the wrong thing. Stories which do not lead away from the point of the lesson may be used; [101] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING and illustrations, properly used, are helpful. But if the lesson material has been properly selected, it already has some inherent, natural interest for the child. The teacher should remember that she does not have to create interest, but to develop that which already exists in those she is teaching. The pupils are already interested in something: this is the place for the teacher to start. Interesting the pupil and getting him to understand the lesson are one and the same thing; and an object, a lesson, or an idea, which in itself is not interesting, may, if the teacher is skilful, be made interesting by associating it with an object, a lesson, or an idea in which there is interest. The teacher in the Sunday-school should learn to set desirable copies for imitation; to give the curious tendency in children something worthy and noble to pry into and to explore; and to give the fighting element in boys something worth while to defeat. A fighter of boys may later become a fighter of wrongs ! Practical Suggestions There are certain external ways of arousing and keeping attention which may be regarded as perfectly legitimate and wholesome. Children are naturally interested, we have learned, in new things, active and moving things, new ways of doing and saying things, and this principle finds its proof in certain methods and devices which have become well established in good Sunday-school teaching. 1. First of all the teacher must herself be alert and active; she must take the lesson, just like a story, from point to point, until it reaches the climax or the thought which it seeks to teach. She must change her way and method of asking questions, for example, seeking out the listless ones and giving them something to do. [102] ATTENTION AND INTEREST Activity is the thing the teacher should seek: put the old in the new, the new in terms of old, introducing a subject which may seem remote from the child's interests in terms with which he is already familiar, mentioning concrete and definite examples in which the child may have an interest. 2. Remember that interest is a condition to and attention a result of good teaching. Attention in the class is usually fair proof that good teaching goes on there. 3. Remember also that you are having a great deal to do with helping your pupils form mental habits. If not habits of attention then habits of inattention are being formed in your class. If, therefore, you cannot have attention. It Is better not to try to teach. "At- tention is the one habit of the mind which perhaps more than any other, forms a safeguard for intellectual progress; . . . Every time a child comes into your class, this habit is either strengthened or weakened." 4. See that all distractions to attention are removed. If your class cannot have a room to itself, then separate It from the other classes if by nothing more than a curtain or a screen. Get rid, first of all, of all those distractions to attention which lie within your power to remove. 5. The physical conditions of the room may have something to do with attention in your class. If the seats are not comfortable, if the air is not good, if the light and heat of the room are not wholesome, you need not expect the best results from your work. 6. The children should be seated, if possible. In a semicircle, so that the teacher can see and be near to each of them. When they are seated in a straight row those at either end and furthest away from the teacher may feel neglected. This is a dangerous state of mind for young children to get in. [103] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 7. See that the administrative part of the school does not interrupt your teaching. The class should not be disturbed by the secretary of the school or any assistant in collecting the contribution or report of the class. Send your report and contribution to the secretary at the end of the teaching period or before you begin your teaching. This is very important. 8. Every class should have a blackboard if possible; it is a valuable aid to teaching and a great help in keeping attention. Both young and old like active, moving things. Small, movable blackboards, either on standards or on the wall, will answer your purpose, though if you have a room of your own, the blackboard should be built into one side of the room. The smaller, movable one can be secured at small expense from dealers in school furniture. 9. Learn to use effective illustrations and to tell stories to your children. The practice that is necessary to acquire proficiency in this part of teaching will serve you well. Be sure, however, that your illustrations and stories are within the range of your pupils' ex- perience, and more familiar to them than the thought which you are trying to teach. Study some good book on story-telling.^ Some of the most effective lessons we teach or learn are not always in the form of a lesson but in the form of illustrations and stories. 10. Make use of pictures which will help to make Bible lessons real and vivid; masterpieces of religious art, such as Hofman's "Christ and the Rich Young Ruler," "Christ Among the Doctors," Plockhorst's "The Good Shepherd," Raphael's "The Sistine Ma- donna," and others; maps of various kinds; and use any other helps that may be of service in creating real interest in the usual work of the class. ^ See list of books at end of this chapter. [104] ATTENTION AND INTEREST SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books Adams, Primer on Teaching, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Athearn, The Church School, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Bagley and Colvin, Human Behavior, The Macmillan Company, New York. Bryan, How to Tell Stories to Children, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. Coe, Education in Religion and Morals, F. H. Revell Company, New York. DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York. Fitch, The Art of Securing and Holding Attention, A. Flanagan Company, Chicago. Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell Com- pany, New York. Hervey, Picture Work, F. H. Revell Company, New York. Houghton, Telling Bible Stories, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, New York. King, The Psychology of Child Development, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. Smith, Games and Plays for Children, A. Flanagan Com- pany, Chicago. Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, The Macmillan Company, New York. Wells, Sunday-school Success, F. H. Revell Company, New York. Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran Company, New York. Wyche, Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them, New- som and Company, New York. Exercises 1. What are some of the distractions to attention in your class that you can remove.'' 2. Is interest an end or a means to education .'* [105] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 3. Why will pupils usually pay better attention to what a teacher does than to what the same teacher says ? 4. What are the principal features of a good story? 5. What do you understand by " indirect teaching" ? 6. What is the objection to popping the finger in order to get the attention of the class? 7. What is your criticism of this: A teacher said to a little boy who was inattentive and inclined to be troublesome in class, " John, I cannot love little boys who don't pay at- tention to the teaching of the word of God. Now, will you please be quiet? " 8. How would you get a " point of contact " with a class of fifteen-year old girls in teaching the parable of the Wedding Guests (Luke 14: 7-14)? 9. In what way do the instincts (natural tendencies) furnish a basis for moral and religious instruction? 10. How can you use the instinct of imitation in your class? 11. What are the arguments for and against a system of awards, prizes, and distinctions in Sunday-school work? 12. Can you name any troublesome things which children do in Sunday-school classes which may be explained by bad health, or by bad conditions in their homes or in the class- room? [106] CHAPTER VIII The Art of Questioning Teaching Defined Teaching may be defined as the art of stimulating mental growth, or the art of communicating knowledge. This knowledge may be fact, a truth, a religious prin- ciple, or the process of an activity. The process of teaching may take place by the use of words, signs, symbols, actions, or by examples. Whatever the things taught, the aim of teaching, or the method used in the teaching, the process Is practically the same. It is the reproduction In the mind of the pupil of something that is in the mind of the teacher. And the value of the lesson, whether it be a lesson in the catechism, the Lord's Prayer, or a lesson in geography or swimming, depends upon the degree in which it Is actually received and appropriated by the learner. The Importance of the Question One of the most Important Instruments of Instruction is the question; and of the two methods most used in teaching, the lecture method and the question method, the latter, in the Sunday-school particularly. Is most effective. Because the time for actual teaching is so short ^ in the Sunday-school the Importance of the question is at once evident. As was pointed out in Chapter V, the wise planning of "pivotal" questions on every lesson is a vital part of the teacher's prepara- tion. Good questions reduce the difficulty of class management and mean better teaching. Nothing can awaken and keep awake a listless class so well as [107] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING definite, concise, stimulating questions. They are one of the most powerful devices in the entire teaching process, and proficiency in their use may be obtained by any patient, thoughtful teacher who is willing to work at the art. The Abuse of the Question The use of the question in teaching has often been misunderstood, as may be shown by a study of the question often heard in both the Sunday-school and the secular school. Its purpose is not always to test the pupil's knowledge; skilful teachers use it to stir the emotions of their pupils to stimulate and to guide them, and to keep their minds actively on the lesson material. Questions which can be answered by mere appeals to the memory are valueless, except for examination and review purposes. Unless they stimulate thought and mental exercise, — unless they provoke thought, — questions lose their intended effect. This information or knowledge-testing question is a type too often used in the Sunday-school. Yes and No Questions Another type no better than the testing type is the so-called direct question, one which may usually be answered by "yes" or "no." "Was Jesus crucified between two thieves.?" and "Did Peter deny his Lord three times.?" are of this kind. For the young and inexperienced teacher, such questions as these are dangerous to experiment with, because they do not help carry on the work of instruction in a vital way. Such questions are almost always a mark of poor teaching. The inflection of the teacher's voice is usually all that a pupil needs in order to answer such a question with considerable credit. [108] ART OF QUESTIONING Answer-Suggesting Questions The question which suggests the answer is also very poor. This kind of question is the result of an attempt to develop with the pupils a principle for which they have no sufficient knowledge or experience. The teacher is merely trying to obtain the answer she is seeking, without leading the pupil to think, and her ambition to get the correct answer leads her to put the question in such a form as to suggest its answer. This, however, does not stimulate the pupil to any mental exercise; and unless a question does do this it is not a good one. No reflection is necessary to answer the following questions: "What should we do if an enemy hunger.^" or "What did Jesus cast out.?" or "What did Joshua command to stand still.?" Such questions as these not only suggest their own answers, but the answers come as a result of little but mere mechanical laws of association. They do not demand a reorganization of the experience or of the information or knowledge of the pupils in order properly to be answered. Fewer of this kind, and more questions which will stimulate the pupils to thought, are a great need of SuAday-school instruction. The Value of Good Questions It has already been stated that the asking of "good questions requires careful thought, and that a few should be previously planned for every lesson. A few well-planned questions will often enliven and make more vivid and interesting an otherwise uninteresting lesson and lesson period. The awakening power of a really live question is found largely in the principle of shock; a live question will startle the intelligence of the class and challenge attention to the topic the teacher wishes to consider. Unless we have at least [109] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING a few such questions in the Sunday-school, lessons there will continue to be *' heard" by the teacher, and there will be too much reciting what the book says and too little genuine teaching. The element of the unexpected and of the unfamiliar produces valuable effects in teaching. The right kind of questions will "surprise the mind with some fresh and novel view" of the topic and will demand new thought. May Be Used to Test the :^|^ Knowledge These thought-stimulating^PRtions may also be used as questions to test the pupil's knowledge or information. If the teacher in the Sunday-school is trying to discover whether or not her pupils have prepared their lessons, she may have a tendency to use the examination question almost entirely. In this practice is found another common error in teaching. Questions which are really stimulating to thought not only demand the information called for by the purely test question, but they demand the ability to use that information. If the lesson has been properly assigned, the children will have had specific problems to solve from information iiT that lesson. And^Mthe recita- tion, the skilful teacher calls for the s(^^on of those same problems or asks those same questions she asked when she assigned the lesson a week before. The Preparation Question There are usually three kinds of questions used in the ordinary recitation, — the preparation or prelimi- nary question, the instructive question, and the examination or testing question. Preparation ques- tions are those which put the teacher in touch with her pupils' ideas concerning the topic under consideration and which are largely intended to get the class curious [110] ART OF QUESTIONING and anxious to see the teacher's method of handling the topic. By such questions the teacher undertakes to prepare the class for a proper understanding of the new material. The Instructive Question This kind of question is employed in actual teaching, in instructing the pupils, in stimulating them to thought, and in compelling them, by the very nature of the case, to reflect on the lesson material. The good teacher employs this question more than any other kind, and if properly used it reveals the art of the real teacher. The Examination or Testing Question As its name implies, the proper place for this question is in the review or in testing to discover whether or not the work has been thoroughly done. The value of such questions is in the necessity for a general view of the entire subject, or the work of a certain period, which has been studied. Such questions as these are used in the public schools as the basis of promotion from one grade to another, and some such basis for promotion is needed in the Sunday-school. Sunday- school work and Sunday-school teaching would then be dignified as never before. Concerning Questioning Not only does the good teacher consider the form of her questions, but she also gives thought to the manner of asking questions. Although smaller classes are found in the Sunday-school than In the public school, a mistake of questioning so prevalent In the latter institution has also found its way into the [111] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING Sunday-school. This Is the practice of questioning the brightest pupils to the neglect and exclusion of the less alert and capable ones. Such an unequal dis- tribution of questions often explains an apparent lack of interest on the part of some pupils, and may result in a certain unwholesome sensitiveness which some- times appears in students of all kinds, young and old. Repeated Questions Teachers in the Sunday-school need to know that the children they teach are, even during the too brief period of thirty or forty minutes' instruction every Sunday, forming mental habits. If these habits are not habits of attention, they are habits of inattention. To one who has observed Sunday-school teaching, an evident lack of Interest is traceable to the habit teachers have of repeating their questions to the class. A boy Is asked a question, and appears not to have heard it, and the teacher unhesitatingly repeats the question. In a class where this custom prevails the children inevitably form the worst kind of mental habit: they soon become accustomed to waiting until the question Is repeated before they give attention. Repeated Answers Repeating the answers for the class is equally as bad as repeating the questions. Not a few teachers are weak at this point. It is the worst sort of pedagogical habit, and shows how prevalent among teachers is the belief that the chief business of the question Is to test the pupil's knowledge of facts. Talk and conversation concerning the lesson material and the lesson thought in the Sunday-school should take place under as natural and normal conditions as serious conversation else- where. Sunday-school pupils should be taught and [112] ART OF QUESTIONING encouraged to talk among themselves about the lesson and other questions which may arise in Sunday-school instruction, rather than to talk to the teacher. ^ Only then will actual life conditions be duplicated in the work of the Sunday-school. When a child addresses his answer to the teacher, who gives it in turn back to the class, the social value of the recitation is lost. Repetition by the teacher of answers given by the pupils is an unwise and harmful practice. Questioning the Pupils in Order In small classes such as are found in the Sunday- school, the danger of a methodical and mechanical order of questioning is not so great as in the public school. But to question the pupils from one end of the row to the other in a systematic and regular order is not a good practice for Sunday-school teachers to form. It is better to ask the questions in such an order as to prevent the pupils from knowing who will be called next. This method will insure activity and alertness, which are ideal conditions in the recitation. If the question is given in regular order the teniptation for the boy or the girl who has just answered is to let the mind relax and wander perhaps until his or her time again arrives. The Pupil's Questions Thoughtful, well-prepared, and properly asked ques- tions almost always provoke pertinent and significant questions from the pupils themselves. The questions which a class asks are usually an index of their interest. Children who think in the recitation and who have problems of their own, which the lesson material should suggest, will ask intelligent questions. Good teaching will provoke such questions. Here is another [113] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING point at which good habits or bad ones, — depending on the ability of the teacher — may be seen. Children should be taught to address their questions to the class and not to the teacher. The teacher should act, a part of the time at least, as "chairman of discussion." The questions which a class has to ask are a good test of the teacher's ability to do genuine teaching. It has been found advantageous to have the children bring in and to propose to each other questions on the subject matter of the lesson. This is a very helpful form of mental exercise and can be used to good effect with older children. Wrong Answers A fundamental law in psychology is here evident. Foolish answers to serious questions in the Sunday- school class indicate bad discipline; and such conduct should be treated as an offense of disrespect, careless- ness, and irreverence. But mistakes from children who are earnest and respectful should be treated with extreme tact. If the teacher does not show tact in dealing with a child whose answer to a question is wrong, the pupil making the mistake may grow dis- couraged and await with little spirit the teacher's next question. His feeling of incompleteness and uncertainty baffles and subdues him. Tact in handling an answer wide of the mark, on the other hand, may impel the child to additional effort in the preparation and study of the lesson next time. The love of approval and the fear of disapproval are deep in all of us. Characteristics of Good Questions We have seen that a good question kindles curiosity, sets and keeps the mind in action, and keeps it in action towards the central thought of the lesson. [114] ART OF QUESTIONING Good questions, therefore, are always planned with reference to the logical steps of the lesson plan. They reveal a problem which the pupils will desire to solve; they enable the pupils to contribute all their Informa- tion to the solution of this problem, and they lead the pupils finally to discover for themselves how the central thought of the lesson bears on their everyday living. The Language of a Good Question The good question Is always clear and definite and always set in the simplest language. It contains but a few words, and Is adapted to the age and experience of the class to which it is directed. "It Is a great point In questioning to say as little as possible." The best questions are those which attract the least attention to the teacher; plainness of language, therefore, is a good rule for teachers to use in making questions for their classes. Announcing the Question First The good questioner will always announce the question and then after a short pause will designate the pupil to answer. The wait between the announce- ment of the question and the naming of the pupil to answer, allows the class to become active and to reflect and to adjust their Information to the point made by the question. If the child Is designated by the teacher and the question then asked, practically every member of the group, except the one answering, may become temporarily inattentive. And no thought is In this way stimulated. The Need in This Part of Teaching We have already seen that the function of the question Is to set the pupils to thinking. Good [115] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING questions promote mental activity, arouse a vital interest in the lesson material, suggest vital problems for the pupils to solve, and tend to develop their highest intellectual powers. It is possible for every teacher in the Sunday-school to improve at this point. There is no aspect of the teacher's entire preparation of any lesson which promises greater reward than systematic preparation for asking intelligent and thought-provok- ing questions. Conscientious and thoughtful prepara- tion here means superior teaching ability, and good teachers always go to their classes with such preparation. To depend on the inspiration of the moment in this important part of teaching is wasteful and dangerous. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books DeGarmo, Interest and Education, The Macmillan Com- pany, New York. Fitch, The Art of Questioning, A. Flanagan Company, Chicago. Home, The Art of Questioning, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, The Macmillan Company, New York. Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran Company, New York. Exercises 1. What is the chief business of the question in the Sunday- school.'' 2. What objection is there to the so-called leading or suggesting questions.'' 3. How many questions did you ask your class last Sunday.'' 4. Mention one or more questions which you used last Sunday which worked well. Why did they work well.'' 5. How can you attract the attention of every member of your class to the central thought of the lesson by the ques- tions which you ask.'' [1161 ART OF QUESTIONING 6. What part does the question occupy in your usual lesson plan? 7. What is the objection to repeating the answer which one of your pupils gives ? 8. Do your pupils ask questions in the class? To whom? 9. Criticize the following questions and tell their weak- nesses: " John, don't you think it was magnanimous in Abram to concede the best of the territory to his relative? " (John is twelve years of age.) Revise the question. " Henry, will you sum up the points in to-day's lesson? " " Of whom was Saul jealous and why? " " Who killed a thousand men with what strange weapon? " " What did Samuel offer when he went up to Jesse's home?" 10. What is the advantage of having the class ask questions? 11. How can you use the question to good advantage in the assignment of the lesson? Illustrate with the lesson of the Good Samaritan. 12. Write out two or three good questions you would ask a group of boys twelve or fourteen years of age on the lesson of the merchant seeking goodly pearls (Matthew 13:45,46). 13. Study the questions which Jesus asked and note their characteristics. [117] CHAPTER IX Using the Pupil's Memory The Place of Memory in Sunday-School Work Of the first fourteen or fifteen years of the child's life, which are the years for training the memory, the years from six to fifteen seem to be the best for this training. Memory work, then, should become a very vital part of the work of the Sunday-school, and should not be regarded as something apart from the regular study and life of the school. And the teacher there should see to It that a vital and not a mechanical use be made of the memory, so that Ideas may be made more usable when they are needed. If the statement of William James Is true, that "No truth, however abstract, Is ever perceived that will not probably at some time Influence our earthly action," the Importance of this part of Instruction Is evident at once. Careful studies of the memory have led to certain conclusions which the Sunday-school teacher should bear In mind In her work:^ 1. Memory does not Increase In power very much after the fourteenth or fifteenth year; childhood, then, is the time for memorizing those things which are worth while. 2. Children should be taught to study so that things may be learned In the most economical fashion. Sunday-school teachers should study with their classes a few times In order to show them how to use their Bible and any helps which they may have for Bible ^ See Sandiford, Mental and Physical Life of School Children, Chapter XI. Longmans, Green and Company, New York. [118] USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY study, such as concordances, encyclopedias, maps and outlines. 3. Memories of children are much more efficient than teachers usually believe and most children from nine to fifteen years of age are probably capable of committing to memory, without unnecessary strain, between two thousand and three thousand one-line passages and verses every year, a large part of which will remain as "permanent possessions for life." Uses of the PupiPs Memory What should the teacher In the Sunday-school expect of the memory of her pupils, — what should she expect them to do besides answering the questions she asks.? There are several things she has a right to expect of them: 1. First of all, she expects the memory of the pupils to be of service to them when reciting the lesson. She relies on their memory to help her develop the lesson story and the thought of the lesson in their own minds. By memory we mean the associative processes by which a pupil goes from one idea to another. 2. In the second place, the teacher in the Sunday- school can use the memory of her pupils In reviewing, organizing and putting together the important parts of a given lesson, or of a series of two or more lessons. This is an important use of the memory In all forms of teaching. 3. The practice of having children memorize certain passages and verses from the scriptures leads the teacher in the Sunday-school to expect her pupils to say things "by heart." A great deal of that which Is learned by heart by children may not, while it is being learned, be thoroughly understood by them. But the value of this practice will be pointed out later. [119] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 4. Many things which the children may not learn to quote verbatim may remain as ideals for them. They may not remember how or exactly when they learned them, but the teacher may expect them to stay with the children as ideals for their conduct. 5. The teacher in the Sunday-school has no right to expect her pupils to remember everything she teaches them. But there is a distinct value in knowing hymns, passages and verses of scripture, references to Biblical history and geography. They will become ''permanent possessions," and, if properly learned will come to the aid of the children when needed in later years. These uses in the Sunday-school of the memory of the pupils will be taken up in the following consideration of the general subject of memory and memorizing. Some Aspects of Memory Two things are involved in the ideal mentioned at the outset of this chapter, that memory should be used to make ideas of more practical use. These things are retentiveness and recall, the ability to keep in mind a thing, a fact, or a passage of scripture; and the ability to call it up when needed. In other words, the idea must not fade away, and it must come when it is needed. A good memory is one which serves its owner well, and its goodness depends on the persistence of the impressions made when the thing to be learned is presented to the mind, and on the number of associations formed with it. The Basal Elements The two principal and important elements in memory, then, are impression and association. A very large part of effective memory depends on association, the manner [120] USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY in which the thing to be remembered is linked up with other things. The task of the Sunday-school teacher, therefore, is to see in all her teaching first, that the impressions are properly made, — that when a thing is presented to the child it must be made clear and must be understood; and second, that as many helpful associations as possible must be formed with the thing which has been presented. Unless the fact, event, verse of scripture, or whatever is to be learned, makes an impression when it is presented, and unless, further, it is linked up with as many associations as possible, recall of that fact, thing, event, verse of scripture, or whatever is to be learned, is not assured. The principle of multiplying these varying associations and appeals is an important one, not only for teaching pupils in the Sunday-school how to remember, but for teaching them to understand that which they remember. The Sunday-school teacher should also keep in mind that in actual life "our memory is always used in the service of some interest: we remember things which we care for or which are associated with things we care for. . . ." The Law Illustrated Try to call to mind something taught you as a child that has faded away from memory now, and something taught you at that time which remains with you and which is vivid. What is the difference.? The difference is probably found in the difference between something experienced faintly and something experienced vividly; something associated with only a few things and something associated with many things; and something that you have not used and something that you have made active use of since your childhood. A simple law of memory, then, the teacher in the Sunday-school should remember: we retain best that [121] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING which Impresses us most deeply, — that which we experience most vividly; that which is linked up with many other things, ideas, and objects, — that which is associated in a great number of ways; and that which we have had a chance to use. The teacher's task at this point is to see that the lessons which she teaches are "retained," and are easily called up when needed. And this is really the problem of seeing that the lesson is well learned. Making Use of Ideas When is a lesson well learned.? What is the object of all Sunday-school teaching.'' Discussion of these two questions will reveal these answers: a child has learned a lesson when he is able to use the thought that the lesson teaches, or to profit by it; and the proper use of the moral and religious knowledge is the object of all correct Sunday-school teaching. Knowledge without the ability to use it, to apply it to his own problems, leaves the pupil theoretical only; and a study of any subject which does not, in the end, affect conduct and behavior, is unsuccessful. We should be careful here, however, not to give false meanings to the word "use." One uses knowledge and information of any kind which he has learned when he is inspired or made hopeful by it, or by an ideal which he has gathered in the past; he uses it when he helps others by it; he uses it when it helps him perform his duty to his family, to his neighbor, or to God; he uses it whenever he turns it to accomplish any specific purpose in his daily life. The Tendency of Children to Use Ideas Living is about the same with young children as it is with older people. They live under similar condi- [122] USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY tions, are Introduced to the same subjects of study, and the object of study Is finally the same with one as it is with the other. Children should, therefore, be taught that to use the lessons and Ideals learned Is the object and aim of their study; and in the Sunday- school, the hope of applying these lessons and these ideals to their everyday needs can easily be made a motive. Children have a natural tendency to do something, and it is because they are frequently not allowed the opportunity to do this "something" that they become discouraged and grow discontented and restless. An explanation is probably found here of the fact that so many young people leave the Sunday- school before they are eighteen years of age. "They don't show us anything to do" is not a rare criticism made by boys and girls of their Sunday-school teachers. The youth is intensely practical; he demands reality. The Sunday-school teacher who connects the lessons that she teaches with the actual living of her pupils and with their dreams of usefulness, is making pro- vision for a very prominent and natural tendency of the child to express and satisfy Itself. She will thus be helping to meet the natural demand for reality on the part of her pupils. She needs first to get her pupils to see and feel the problems which are to be solved and then she should study to give her pupils definite use of the lessons they have learned. The Importance of Drill Although waste may result from too much drill In the Sunday-school, certain parts of the work there call for drill. Those portions of the lesson which are likely to be of daily use to the pupils should become second nature to them. The influence of maxims, proverbs, verses of scripture, comes from the readiness with which [123] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING they may be recalled, and the power of recalling this kind of material comes only through intelligent repeti- tion. Good memorizing is a form of good thinking; by it children in the Sunday-school, as well as in the public school, may acquire valuable habits of study. Not only should the words themselves be memorized, but the meaning of the passages to be memorized should be within the range of the experience and ability of the children. This, however, does not mean that children should memorize only those things which they understand; much material which children may memorize is especially suitable for inspiration and for the awakening of the feelings. If children in the Sunday-school are taught to memorize intelligently, and to drill the memorized portions intelligently, they will acquire valuable mental habits which will continue with them, and truths and feelings will be gradually brought into consciousness in a powerful and helpful manner. With children from nine to twelve years of age, the so-called Junior Department in the Sunday- school, drill work is most important. What Should be Memorized By "memorizing" we do not here mean an artificial, parrot-like use of the memory; the principles which underlie memory, discussed above, are rarely ever seen to apply in artificial memorizing. But they do apply when intelligent memorizing is carried on, and when the materials to be memorized are carefully selected. Certain principles, therefore, should be observed in the selection of passages, verses, or materials of any kind to be memorized in the Sunday-school. 1. Passages should be chosen which express that which is already more or less real to the children. Passages with reality should come first and those which [124] USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY are more or less symbolic follow. Those which have real meaning are more desirable, especially for children from nine to twelve years of age. 2. Passages which have reference or connection with the situation or condition to which attention is being drawn should be memorized. For example, there are certain Psalms of thanksgiving which could be emphasized, which the children could memorize during the thanksgiving season. And similar passages which have a great deal of value could be selected with reference to the Christmas and Easter seasons. The kind of lesson, the season of the year, the presence of certain church festivals, etc., should govern the selec- tion of this kind of memory material.^ 3. Those passages which the teacher selects for her pupils to memorize should be used. Unless they are used they lose much of their meaning; if they are used, they become more real and the pupils can see some purpose in the work of memorizing. They may be used in recitation or declamation work, Bible drill, dramatization, or in some form of the church worship. By this means the pupils will see that memorized verses and passages serve a present purpose, and fill a real need. 4. Those materials which have a permanent literary, religious or spiritual value should be selected to be memorized. The experience of those who have memo- rized considerably is sufficient testimony that this is a vital part of good teaching. 5. Meaningless materials should not be selected for memorizing: the spelling of long lists of unrelated words in biblical history and geography, doctrinal ^ Song of Solomon 2 : 11-12; 7 : 13; 2 Samuel 23 : 4; Leviticus 26 : 4 represent what is meant by material selected with reference to some season, or some particular kind of lesson. [125] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING catechisms, and unrelated facts of all kinds. And children should not be allowed to learn cheap poetry or silly, trashy music in the work of the Sunday-school. 6. There is certain technical material which the child should know, and most of it will probably come only through memorizing. For instance, he should know the books of the Bible, the number of books in the Old Testament, certain facts about biblical geog- raphy, the names and number of the apostles, certain facts in the life of Christ, certain facts about Old Testa- ment history, and such other technical material which seems more or less unrelated, but which is, after all, valuable for the child to know. Unless he learn this during the age for verbal memory, he will probably go through life without it. It is perfectly easy to teach such material to children without deadening their interest or distorting their conceptions of religion. Some Suggestions for Memory Work. The active and alert teacher will not depend on a few isolated "golden texts" given in the uniform lessons for the passages for her pupils to memorize. She will select those passages which will serve her particular pupils best, adapting the passage to the child, the seasons, the purposes of the worship, etc. The principles suggested above will help her in making this selection. There are some materials which are not altogether full of meaning for children from eight to fourteen years of age, but which they will understand sufficiently to receive considerable help from: Bible Passages The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 : 1-17); The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6 : 9-13); The Beatitudes (Matthew 5 : 3-12); [126] USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY The Parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10 : 1-11); The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25:1-15); The Thirteenth Chapter of First Corinthians; The First Psalm; The Fifteenth Psalm; The Nineteenth Psalm; especially verses one to eleven; The Twenty-third Psalm; The One Hundred-third Psalm; The One Hundred-seventeenth Psalm; The One Hundred-twenty-first Psalm. The teacher could also select from the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and other portions of the Bible, brief passages which her pupils could memorize with profit. Hymns There are certain songs and hymns which touch and appeal especially to child life and which should be taught in the Sunday-school. The list suggested below should be memorized by children from nine to fourteen years of age. The teacher should select other songs and poems which the children of this age would naturally like. This list is merely suggestive. My Faith Looks up to Thee, Palmer; Savior, Like a Shepherd, Lead Us, Thrupp; Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun, Watts; Lead, Kindly Light, Newman; Jesus, Lover of My Soul, Wesley; Nearer, My God, to Thee, Adams; Abide With Me, Lyte; Come, Thou Almighty King, Wesley; Holy, Holy, Holy, Heber; Faith of Our Fathers, Faber. The Doctrinal Catechism in the Sunday-School Although the teaching of the doctrinal catechism is not so prevalent a custom in the Sunday-school as it [127] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING once was, no consideration of the place and uses of the child's memory in Sunday-school work would be complete without a word on this subject. The chief value that can come to a child from statements of truths or of doctrines depends almost entirely on the extent to which he understands those truths and doctrines. They must, like any other material which he studies, be related in the mind of the child to other facts and knowledge there. If this condition does not exist, the end which the teacher seeks, that of getting the child to accept a certain doctrine, will naturally be defeated. The plasticity of the mind of the child is the basis for the argument sometimes heard, that whatever is introduced to it will continue with him until maturity. Here is found the basis for the doc- trinal catechetical work of the Sunday-school, and the memorization of points of doctrine and catechism. The mind of the child, however, is not a reservoir into which may be poured the facts or information of whatever kind, to be drawn on when needed. More- over, the injury that may result from too much memo- rizing of doctrinal catechism is to be considered: the child's interest may be deadened, his development may be arrested, he may not get the proper con- ceptions of religion, and there may be produced in him an aversion to religious life. Formal memorization of creeds and catechism, until he is able to understand them, cannot make of a child an active Christian. There must be something more than the formal memory work; catechetical and formal memory lessons cannot take the place of real, effective teaching. Among the arguments in favor of using doctrinal catechisms and purely memory lessons in the Sunday- school are the following:^ ^ See Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, Chapter XII. [128] USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 1. They furnish definite and concise statements of Christian belief. 2. A body of formulated truth, necessary to guide the administration of any church or organization of believers, is convenient and practical. 3. The mind of the child can get these truths and he can call them into service when he needs them and when he has developed sufficiently to understand them. 4. There is a natural objection in the church to allowing its children to grow up in ignorance of the doctrines and belief of the church and of the Christian faith. Some of the objections to formal memory work in doctrinal catechism are:^ 1. This method of instruction does not aid the individual towards Christian maturity, and makes little or no provision for real growth in religious character. 2. It tends to hinder later thoughtful study of the Bible in its various aspects, a practice which is growing less and less prevalent among young people, but which is needed more than ever. This suggests the need of teaching the Bible rather than something vague about it. 3. The doctrinal catechetical method is directly opposed to the best educational theory. It is the "cramming" method of teaching which is universally recognized as disreputable because it is positively harmful to the mind; it violates the law of interest, the law of adaptation, the law of apperception, the law of self-activity and other laws of mental development, — fundamental laws by which mental progress of children in secular schools is secured. 4. There is not only no biblical warrant for such methods of teaching, but the methods used by Christ, ^ See Haslett, above, and the Biblical World for September, 1900. [129] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING who is unquestionably the Ideal Teacher, were very much unlike the purely doctrinal method. When Jesus taught adults, he illustrated in a concrete way the principle he sought to teach; and when he taught little children, he gave them no abstract doctrine or truth to learn. He got "on a plane" with them, blessed them and made them feel his sympathy and his love. Here is a supreme illustration of Jesus's knowledge of child life and child needs. 5. This form of instruction is no longer necessary as a means to an end. It grew out of a mediaeval method of Bible and religious teaching which should be regarded as useless today. The lengthy reign of worldly Romanism produced corruptions in doctrines and belief, and Protestantism undertook to restate the Christian doctrine. Supreme care had to be exercised in the teaching of this restated doctrine; and the teacher had no helps such as the modern Sunday-school teacher has. Not only has the Sunday-school teacher abundant helps today, but she has much of her method outlined and prepared for her. The very formal method of questions and answers sometimes found in the Sunday- school is a degenerate survival of the formal catechism. Such methods of teaching may produce the spirit of denominationalism and churchmen, but it will not create Christians. Teaching the Pupils How to Study Children in the Sunday-school do not know how to study because they have not been taught the art. They have not been taught because their teachers and their parents who supervise their studies have not themselves learned the art, and cannot, therefore, teach others. But there are several things which the teacher can do which will be of great help to the pupils [130] USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY in the Sunday-school in teaching them how to study economically and with effect. And this part of the teacher's task is as imperative in the Sunday-school as in the public school, where the need for teaching children how to study is being so greatly felt and con- cerning which so much is now being said. The char- acter of teaching done in the Sunday-school or public school has, first of all, much to do with determining the habits of study of the pupils there. In addition to this, the teacher may make specific effort to develop helpful habits of study in those whom she teaches. 1. Children should first of all be taught to set up definite purposes for their study. The example must, however, always be set by the teacher: the setting of some definite problem for them to solve in the prepa- ration of their next lesson; suggesting chances for them to use what they may learn from this or that lesson; pointing out a story which may be memorized for the purpose of reciting it, or learned for the purpose of telling it to some friend; and other means of setting up specific purposes for study will soon develop this excellent habit in children. Showing a child in a Sunday-school how he can use a lesson which he should learn, is one of the best ways to get him to study it with a certain degree of intelligence. 2. Children should also be taught how to make' use of the Bible, their concordance, map, and any other helps which they may have, in preparing their lesson. The teacher can also show them how to "supplement" the lesson material in other ways. There is no objec- tion to allowing the children to use their imagination in supplementing the material found in the lesson. Suppose the class is studying the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. Let the class tell of the probable conversation between father and son as they journeyed [131] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING to the place of sacrifice. Or, in studying the story of Joseph and the hatred of his brothers for him, the class could describe an evening meal in Jacob's house and the conversation that probably took place there. Other lessons might offer such opportunities as these for similar supplementing. And the children could also be taught to illustrate stories of this kind from their reading outside the Bible. 3. The teacher can also help her children to develop powers of independent judgment. This means direct- ing rather than controlling their mental efforts. If children are taught the free use of their Bibles; the reproduction of lesson stories, and allowed to tell the stories in their own way and to comment naturally on them; if they are allowed to read freely in class; in short, if as much responsibility as possible is placed on them, their independence of judgment will soon begin to develop. There is a great need that this kind of mental habit be developed not only in the Sunday- school, but in the public school. 4. Memorizing is another factor in study which is recognized as valuable. Children can be taught how to memorize if, as was pointed out above, they are given some motive for memorizing. The teacher can also rely on the judgment of the children to select passages which have some value to them, provided they have been given some training in this part of their study. 5. The ability to use the ideas which they have learned is another important factor in study. One great advantage which should come from good teaching in the Sunday-school is the making over into experience and habit that which is taught there. All moral and religious truths should be thus translated into habit and become usable. The pupils should be taught, [132] USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY therefore, for their own rather than for the sake of the teacher or to please her. If the teacher can make the recitation real rather than artificial, and can make It as nearly as possible like real life, then the recitation can furnish occasion for a ready use of knowledge. Encourage your pupils to discuss things among them- selves and to talk, not "before the teacher" merely, but with her, to question and to answer each other In a natural way. In this manner they will not only "learn polntedness In thinking, but they Increase and test their knowledge by using It." The recitation in the Sunday-school, therefore, should be "a social meet- ing place: it Is to the school what the spontaneous conversation Is at home, except that It is more or- ganized, following definite lines. The recitation be- comes the social clearing house, where experience and ideas are exchanged and subjected to criticism, where misconceptions are corrected, and new lines of thought and inquiry are set up." This Consideration of Memory Only Suggestive The suggestions which have been made in this chapter are by no means exhaustive; and the considera- tion here given to memory and its place In the Sunday- school work is meant to be very elementary. The use of the memory In the Sunday-school work, however, is entitled to more attention from the teacher, the superintendent, the pastor and the parent. It is hoped that the suggestions made here may prove of help to those teachers who are trying to put the memory of their pupils to great use. The active and resourceful teacher can make It a means of more interest in her teaching. To do this, however, requires some thought of the plans for memory work, for Bible drill, for [133] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING dramatization, and for the worship in the Sunday- school and church. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books Athearn, The Church School, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Baldwin, The Story of the Mind, D. Appleton and Com- pany, New York. Chamberlain, Introduction to the Bible for Teachers of Children, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Colvin, The Learning Process, The Macmillan Company, New York. Dewey, The School and Society, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Earhart, Teaching Children to Study, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. James, Psychology, Chapter on Memory, Henry Holt and Company, New York. James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, New York. King, The Psychology of Child Development, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Kirkpatrick, The Fundamentals of Child Study, The Mac- millan Company, New York. Koons, The Child's Religious Life, Methodist Book Con- cern, New York. McMurry, How to Study and Teaching How to Study, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York Rusk, Introduction to Experimental Education, Longmans, Green and Company, New York. Exercises \. Show the distinction between impression and associa- tion. 2. Can you tell which one of your pupils has the best memory.^ How? 3. What makes one man's or one child's memory better than that of another.^ 4. How can one improve his memory.^ 5. What evidence have you that your pupils like to put to use the ideas they get in your class. ^ [134] USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 6. How much memorizing have you had your pupils do this year? 7. What motive could you give a class of boys ten years of age for memorizing the Twenty-third Psalm? 8. Which is better for a child nine or ten years of age to memorize, a portion of doctrinal catechism, or the Ten Commandments ? 9. What do you understand by " drill "? What use do you make of it in your class? 10. Do your pupils know how to study their Sunday-school lessons? What do you do to help them in learning how to study ? 11. How many hymns has your class memorized this year? 12. Make up a list of twenty-five passages which you think children should be able to quote, or recognize and locate. 13. What ideals have remained with you as a result of memorizing when a child ? [135] CHAPTER X The Teacher's Personality Other Parts of Teaching So far we have been considering certain rules, laws, and principles of teaching, a knowledge of which is essential to success in Sunday-school teaching. But there are other parts of teaching that cannot be reduced to rules and principles. A teacher may know the subject which she is to teach; she may be thoroughly familiar with her pupils and their varying needs; she may know how to adapt the lessons which she teaches to their needs; she may have great sympathy with her work, and be skilled in the technical side of schoolroom practice. She may know and be all this and still be unsuccessful. In fact these things alone will give her no guarantee to teaching success. Her most successful work may be that which does not go by rule. It is this part of teaching that is frequently spoken of as "personality," a word used to name a quality or qualities which condition the teaching process and its results. A brief consideration of this part of teaching may now be worth while. The Personality of the Teacher Probably the greatest factor in all teaching success is known as the personality of the teacher, a word which is hard to define. It is that mysterious "some- thing" which is powerful in its influence and far- reaching in its eifects. Sometimes it is called "personal attraction," "personal magnetism," or other terms which poorly describe it. It is more than character: [136] THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY it is character with power to reproduce itself in others; that power which some people have which enables them to influence others. It includes all those peculiar powers, in fact, and all those characteristics, which make one person different from another. It is physical, spiritual, moral and mental, and includes many- qualities. 1. Health is usually given as a very important element in the personality of the teacher. Children in the Sunday-school, as elsewhere, need and respond to the stimulus which naturally comes from contact with teachers whose physical vitality challenges admiration. This is true of children in every part of the Sunday-school, but particularly true of boys and girls from twelve to eighteen years of age. Physical health and strength are necessary for mental freshness and vigor, and for the ability to stimulate, direct and control the class, even though the work of the class may not exceed thirty or forty minutes. In teaching of any kind, the teacher's health is a great asset. It is absolutely necessary for successful work and for wholesome influence on the pupils. 2. Of the mental or spiritual qualities which go to make up the personality of the teacher none is probably more important than that which is known as sympathy. The Sunday-school teacher should cultivate a. liberal mental attitude towards her pupils, a vigorous senti- ment which will enable her to "feel with" rather than to "feel for" her pupils in all that they do, that she may understand their impulses and their tendencies. "The consciousness on the part of the pupil that the teacher possesses such sympathy or understanding, is itself a powerful influence to deter him from wrong- doing and to enlist his active co-operation in profitable effort." This ability to put yourself in another's place [137] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING and to appreciate his point of view, is especially valuable for the Sunday-school teacher. It is a native endow- ment in many people, but it is a quality which can be cultivated and developed by a love for and an interest in children. "It is the key that unlocks the door to youthful confidence, enthusiasm, restraint and effort." 3. Sincerity or frankness in the teacher's conduct and dealings with her pupils is another quality which should be found in Sunday-school work. It is a form of honesty. There is probably nothing that children admire so much in their elders and teachers as frank- ness. The teacher in the Sunday-school must have it, or her work there will count for nothing. 4. Self-control is another quality which teachers in the Sunday-school should seek to cultivate and develop in themselves. Unless they have this quality, they need not expect their pupils to acquire it. Self- control is largely a matter of health, of nerves, and of temperament. It goes by a number of names such as steadiness, stability, self-possession and the like. It is that thing which prevents the teacher from "going to pieces" or "losing her head" in crises or emergencies. 5. Personal appearance is also Implied in personality. One may be otherwise qualified to teach and yet be handicapped and at a serious disadvantage because of certain personal habits or a lack of them. Good taste and neatness in dress have a remarkably whole- some effect on children, and good manners and suitable dress, and correct personal habits are important for the Sunday-school teacher. There is perhaps less ground for criticism of the Sunday-school teacher at this point, however, than there is of the public school teacher. 6. Personality also implies tact, the ability to deal safely and wisely with individual children or with the [138] THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY entire class; it implies reserve and dignity; enthusiasm; a keen sense of humor; firmness; cheerfulness of manner; reasonableness, and other qualities. To be successful the teacher must have these and many other qualities, and they must be combined in her makeup in a very vital way. 7. For the Sunday-school teacher, consecration and spirituality are of primary importance. She is a teacher of the most important subject in the entire curriculum. Religion is a matter of the heart and of life; the Sunday-school teacher's personality and her success are dependent largely on the depth of her spirituality and the strength of her conviction. She must be abounding in the richness of soul. She must be exemplary without affectation; she must illustrate in her conduct and life what she hopes to realize in those whom she teaches. Then and then only will she teach when she seems not to be doing anything at all. Without these supreme qualities and powers she will lack the ability to reach and to stimulate the deepest impulses of the race. Without them she cannot be an ideal teacher. Unconscious Teaching It is just this thing of personality, or these qualities which we have been considering, which make it possible for one to teach without realizing that he is teaching. The ultimate aim of the teaching profession is more than a mere communication of knowledge and infor- mation. Teaching appeals to faith, to hopes, to feelings of whatever kind, to the will; it deals with the affections, with the emotions and with the intellect. What Phillips Brooks said of preaching may also be said of teaching. It "is the communication of truth . . . it has in it two essential elements, truth and personality. [139] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING Neither of these can it spare . . . The truth must come through the person, not merely over his Hps . . It must come through his character, his affections, his whole intellectual and moral being." It is, therefore, not always the subject, nor the method used in teaching it, that is of primary importance; but it is the "uplift which comes from the heart contact with a great per- sonality." The deepest and most lasting impressions are often made in our minds independently of language. It may be by influence, by associations, by motives that lie outside the realm of language. This kind of teaching has been called the very highest kind, "most charged with moral power, most apt to go down among the secret springs of conduct, most effectual for vital issues, for the very reason that it is spiritual in its character, noiseless in its pretensions, and constant in its operation." Some Practical Suggestions Such impressions and influences spoken of here come in a variety of manners and through many channels. Certain practical suggestions for the Sunday-school teacher appear at once. 1. Avoid all forms of nervousness, restlessness, and anxiety. Ability to control temper and nerves here means reliability. Steadiness is a healthy influence wherever it appears, and is a quality which excites admiration. The temper reveals the real teacher. 2. The face and voice are also great media for expressing nervousness and anxiety, as well as for expressing calmness and peace. Make a special effort, therefore, to control the pitch and inflection of the voice and the expression of the face. It is worth the time and effort required to learn what a great power is in the voice, and to learn to use it properly in teach- [140] THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY ing. Listen to great story tellers; notice the effect of a high-keyed voice on a group of children; notice the effect of a low voice on yourself as well as on others. The poorly controlled voice brings weariness and fatigue to the teacher and a state of irritability to the pupils. A gentle voice indicates self control and is a great power in the classroom. 3. Avoid spasmodic, jerky motions, which indicate a lack of poise and of self-control, and which have a very bad effect on the pupils. 4. Commend virtues in your pupils rather than condemn their faults. This is the positive way of teaching. Emphasize "do" rather than "don't," "Walk on the walk" signs rather than "Keep off the grass" signs. 5. Show faith in your pupils, respect for their opinions, be frank, make it easy for them to talk to you and to ask you questions and to consult you; cultivate the sense of humor. This is a great bond of union between the teacher and the pupil. Unconscious Learning Just as a teacher may teach without realizing that she is teaching, so also may a pupil learn without realizing that he is learning. The primal instinct of imitation is ever at work and lays hold on specific acts in the Sunday-school room as elsewhere. It catches hold of acts of expressions of feeling. A cheerful teacher is likely to have a cheerful class; pupils imitate their teacher as well as their fellow pupils. Moreover, lessons of reverence, of loyalty, of gracious manners, of promptness, of courtesy, and many of the lessons which are worth while to teach and to learn, are frequently taught and learned in the Sunday-school in an unconscious manner. This is the reason that per- [141] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING sonality should be an object of such supreme interest and attention to the Sunday-school teacher. The Pupil's Personality The wise, thoughtful, and sympathetic teacher respects the personality of each of her pupils, his likes, and his dislikes, his opinions, and his possibilities. It is in her power to repress his personality or to prevent it, or to aid its natural development and growth. To stimulate it, to guide it, to direct and help it, all, perhaps, without appearing to do so, is the teacher's task. And this, we have seen, she is doing in a variety of ways. To achieve real success in Sunday-school teaching one must make it and keep it an interesting business, in which the powers of the teacher and the impulses of the pupil are so united and intermingled that useful and vital things may be successfully ac- complished. Such teaching should be morally and religiously useful and personally pleasant. This, how- ever, is an ideal that is not for the careless and indifferent. Only the man or woman who has the qualities which have been mentioned, or who is able to cultivate and develop such qualities, should enter the service of Sunday-school teaching. To Be More than Teachers We have repeatedly emphasized the fact that the ultimate purpose of Sunday-school work is spiritual and religious. It has also been said that the best and most successful teachers in the Sunday-school are more than instructors. They must be friends and pastors to the pupils whom they teach. It is, finally, in this latter relation that teachers in the Sunday-school have the excellent opportunity for exerting a purely religious influence, a part of teaching which is of such vital [142] THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY importance. Fundamental conditions, as has already- been suggested, for exerting religious influence through the work of the Sunday-school are: genuine consecration on the part of the teacher, and a sincere personal interest in the religious welfare of those she teaches. Decision and *' Decision Day " Rules which will apply universally by which teachers can influence their pupils religiously cannot be made. In nearly all cases, however, the problem is purely personal, and the good teacher will discover and use her own individual ways. However, the idea and the principle which underlie the so-called "Decision Day" can be used with gratifying results. This day should be preceded by private conversation with the pupils, by special personal invitation to participate in some form of the church service, or by other means which may suggest themselves, in addition to the usual work of the class. But this is not all; there must be some response from those who are being taught. One of the most important problems connected with all forms of teaching concerns the value that should be attached to the effective life. Facts as such can have but little value in the control of conduct. The great value of all emotional experiences is in the fact that new modes of behavior, new trains of thought which finally result in new actions, are made possible through the turmoil which the emotional experience causes. Sometimes nothing short of a mental cataclysm or shock will break up old ways of doing things and set up new and more useful forms of behavior and conduct. No better example can be given of the function of an emotional experience in making way for new adjustments than the religious experience seen in conversion. This experience is always personal and individual; and the [143] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING teacher should by all legitimate means try to get her pupils to express their newly aroused emotional or religious feelings in some definite act, for without this there can be no permanent moral effect. And one sure test of the Sunday-school teacher's success is her ability to lift and to help sustain her pupils on a higher moral plane. In certain stages of their growth young people are especially susceptible to religious impulses when they may be won to an active intelligent Christian life or as easily alienated from it. The intelligent teacher will avoid the merely conventional and the trite religious exhortation which has been known at this time to deaden the youthful religious sensibilities. Real decision on the pupil's part, the deep emotional change which forms such a great epoch in his life, must not be forced. "The wise teacher will not only be patient, but will be quick to seize upon the moment thus made strategic by nature itself." SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books Angus, Ideals in Sunday-school Teaching, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Huntington, Unconscious Tuition, A. Flanagan Company, Chicago. Hyde, The Teacher's Philosophy, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, New York. McMurry, Handbook of Practice for Teachers, The Mac- millan Company, New York. Palmer, The Ideal Teacher, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, Charles Scrlbner's Sons, New York. [144] THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran Company, New York. Wells, Sunday-school Success, F. H. Revell Company, New York. Exercises 1. What rules must a teacher follow in order to be an " ideal teacher" ? 2. Should a teacher in the Sunday-school seek to be imitated by her pupils? 3. What part of your experience as a pupil in the Sunday- school had the greatest influence on your life? 4. Give examples of imitation in the Sunday-school which have come under your observation. 5. What do you mean by the " personality of the teacher" ? 6. The qualities mentioned below are said to be implied In the term " personality "; Sympathy, Enthusiasm, Personal appearance, Scholarship, Address, Vitality, Sincerity, Fairness, Optimism, Reserve and dignity. After you have studied these qualities, tell which in your opinion are the most Important, and which the teacher in the Sunday-school needs most to cultivate. Would you add to the list? If so, what? 7. What effect does a moody teacher have on her pupils? A teacher of violent temper? 8. What Is the objection to saying " Don't " to young children ? What Is a better way to teach them ? 9. What is the first lesson in religion that a child should be taught? [145] CHAPTER XI Jesus as a Teacher A Master of the Art Almost every principle of teaching which has been considered in the preceding chapters may be illustrated from the teachings of Jesus. His method of teaching was natural, easily adapted to the circumstances and conditions under which he taught, and his teaching was "universal in its truth and eternal in its appeal." Moreover, his method was ideal, ideal because it was natural. The manner by which he prepared the minds of his hearers for the truth which he sought to teach, and by which he sought to get his hearers curious and anxious at the beginning to see the very thing which he sought to convey to them, is characteristic of all great teachers. Jesus always got "a point of contact," whether he taught the multitudes, the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well, or the young man who had great possessions. He knew how to stir the emotions of his hearers and to get their minds active. In doing this he always presented some concrete fact or situation which involved an issue. His Method Illustrated Notice the story of the creditor and his two debtors, and the story of the Good Samaritan. When Jesus was in the house of Simon the Pharisee, a sinful woman came and bathed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. Simon seemed as- tonished and questioned the prophetic powers of Jesus, who said to him: [146] JESUS AS A TEACHER " Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee . . . There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most.? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, thou hast rightly judged." Continuing to make clear the principle involved, Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon: " Seest thou this woman.? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." The story of the Good Samaritan reveals many excellent principles of teaching: " And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life.? He said unto him, what is written in the law.? how readest thou.? And he answering said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor.? " And Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where [147] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, take care of him: and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves.^ And he said, he that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, go, and do thou likewise." The first story shows how well Jesus used concrete illustrations to convey meanings to the man whom he wished to teach a lesson. It is also to be noticed that the story and lesson are well in range of the experience of his pupil. But when Jesus had finished telling the brief, simple, but pointed story, he gives it an appli- cation which was far from moralizing: "Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." Further illustrations of the principles of teaching are seen in the story of the Good Samaritan. It shows the form of a good story; it shows how Jesus got a "point of contact" with his pupil, the lawyer; it illustrates the steps of "preparation" of the mind of the pupil for the lesson material, the "presentation" of the lesson, and the "generalization" or conclusion of the lesson. Several good questions are found in the story also. 1. Jesus's ability as a story-teller is splendidly illustrated here. In fact the Gospels are full of this excellent method of teaching, a method which cannot be excelled with children from four to fourteen, and which is very eiTective with older people. The present one, like all the stories which Jesus told, is simple, [148] JESUS AS A TEACHER short, full of action, and to the point. Granted a point of contact, a good story, wherever found, is one which deals with action, has unity and continuity, embodies a moral or spiritual truth which is to be taught, and develops gradually from point to point until it reaches a climax. It does not carry a moral "tacked" on at the end, because moralizing spoils any story. The present one meets all the requirements of a good story: it develops gradually, takes account only of the essen- tials, and instead of putting a moral at the end, Jesus says: "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves.^ . . . Go, and do thou likewise." This is not a moral "tacked" on. Compare the strength of this story and the method used in telling it with stories and their application which we often hear. 2. The principle of preparation of the mind of the pupil is also seen here. The mind of the lawyer-pupil appears immediately awakened and his emotions seem stirred by the questions "What is written in the law.^ how readest thou.^" which Jesus asked of him who wished to know how to inherit eternal life. This is Jesus's method in this particular case of "getting a point of contact" necessary to teach the needed lesson. It will be seen that Jesus did not have to create interest: the lawyer is already interested in something." The teacher does not have to create but to develop interest. Jesus begins, therefore, with his pupil's present in- terests, and through these he seeks to teach. Notice also that Jesus did not attempt to give his pupil any new ideas; a working over of his old ones is what the lawyer here needs, and in getting this done, Jesus finally provoked from his pupil the vital, "pivotal" question, "And who is my neighbor.^" Ability to make the pupil name and define the very thing which [149] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING the teacher wishes the pupil to see is a primary mark of good teaching. And this is just what Jesus does in his "preparation" of the pupil's mind for the lesson material. 3. The method which Jesus here uses in presenting the lesson to his pupil is known as the story-telling method. Jesus was not a lecturer. He told stories, used illustrations, cited concrete cases of the principles he wished to teach, and sought to illustrate the principal thought of the lesson. His teaching in the present case is simple, direct, and easy to understand. He unfolds the lesson material to the mind of the lawyer in lan- guage so simple that a child could understand: "A man was one day traveling along a lonely road when he was attacked by thieves who left him wounded and half dead. A priest came by, glanced at the un- fortunate man, but passed on without helping him. A Levite did the same thing. But a Samaritan passing by had compassion on the traveler and showed him mercy. Which one of these men was kind enough to be called the traveler's neighbor.^" The pupil is thus led to see the central truth of the lesson he is learning. 4. The "generalization" or conclusion stands out as the climax of the moral truth in the story. But Jesus lets his pupil reach it for himself; the lawyer is led to name and define the very truth to which Jesus wishes to draw attention. It has already been pointed out that the conclusion of a pupil, or his statement of the point of the lesson, if the lesson has been properly taught, will be the same idea or truth which the teacher wishes to teach, or the aim which she chose for herself. In this case Jesus wishes to teach neighborliness. "Who is my neighbor.^" is the central thought, and this the pupil and not the teacher asks. The generali- [150] JESUS AS A TEACHER zation or conclusion follows naturally: "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? . . . Go, and do thou likewise." And this is not a moral. 5. It has already been shown that Jesus does not in the present lesson ask the "pivotal" question himself but that the pupil does it: "And who is my neighbor.^" Ability to stimulate and provoke a question of this kind, around which the entire lesson material clusters, is evidence of genuine teaching ability. Notice how Jesus does it. He seems about ready to conclude with "This do, and thou shalt live," when the lawyer-pupil, whose emotions have been stirred and whose mind is now fully awakened, asks "And who is my neighbor?" Another splendid question in the lesson is the one which Jesus asked when he had concluded his story: "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?" Both of these questions meet the requirements of good questions discussed in Chapter VHI. Further Illustrations from His Parables The following parables are further illustrations of the principles which we have been considering. Note the absence of the abstract, the presence of the concrete, and how Jesus appealed to both the eye and the ear, thus making a double impression. The teacher in the Sunday-school, especially the teacher of children from four to fourteen years of age, could profit by a thorough study of the parables of Jesus, with a view to learning something of his excellent method of teaching: " And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude [151] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING sat on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, behold a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up: some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: and when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them. But some fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold . . . " Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed in stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, and dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word: and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. " Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then ap- peared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field .^ from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, an enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them up.? But he said, nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. " Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a [152] JESUS AS A TEACHER man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. " Another parable spake he unto them; the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. . . . " Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. " Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. " Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to the shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." These stories show his method as a teacher. His teaching here moves, as it does in every case, upon the plane of the experience of those who listened to him. His illustrations, too, are taken from the common life of the people; they were those things which were happening every day. How much more definite and concrete could teaching be than this is.^ The symbols and objects here used illustrate the ideas and the truths which Jesus sought to teach. He spoke freely of the field, of the ground, of the seed, the wheat, the thorns, the trees, the vineyard, the laborers, the sea, the fishermen, the net, the fishes, the merchant's goods, the habits of the house-wife, and of many other things which helped to convey the meaning which he sought to give to his lessons. [153] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING Notice how vivid is the following: " If a son shall ask bread of any that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?" Jesus as a Questioner Several of the principles of teaching have already been illustrated from the parables and teachings of Jesus. Many others might be found. His ability as a questioner, already mentioned, may be further illustrated. We found in Chapter VIII that a good question is one which stirs the emotions, provokes thought, and stimulates mental activity. This is a striking characteristic of practically all of Jesus's questions. Study the following: "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He said unto them, but whom say ye that I am? " " What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? " " What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilder- ness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? " When the lawyers and Pharisees to whom Jesus directed the question, " Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? " " held their peace " and answered nothing, Jesus said: "Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? " A popular method of Jesus was to ask a question in answer to one put to him: "Tell us by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority? And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer [154] JESUS AS A TEACHER me: the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? . And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was. And Jesus said unto them, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. Then began he to speak to the people this parable." " Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or no.? But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, why tempt ye me.? Show me a penny. Whose image and superscrip- tion hath it.? They answered and said, Caesar's. And he said unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's." The Secret of His Ability as a Teacher In a short chapter like this it is well nigh impossible to give an adequate treatment of the methods which Jesus used as a teacher. And an attempted explanation of this ability is not here necessary. Sunday-school teachers do not need descriptions of his methods of teaching so much as they need a knowledge of first- hand acquaintance with the methods themselves, which will come through a systematic and thorough study of those methods. A knowledge of his personality and character is also a great asset to the Sunday- school teacher, and this can be had in no other way. It is in this character and personality that we find an explanation of his secret as a great teacher. Every- where he is represented as a teacher of truth. When he was in Jerusalem at the feast of the tabernacles "he went up into the temple and taught." The Jews seemed astonished and said, "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me." This is explanation enough of his ability to teach; he knew the truth which he was to teach; he knew men, human nature in all its aspects, and the needs of all classes. This knowledge of human nature, his ability to see its needs and to adapt the truth [155] SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING which he was teaching to these needs, are some of the things which help to explain his teaching ability. But this is not all. The great secret of his ability lay in his personality. He was the very embodiment of all that he taught; he was the ideal which he taught to his disciples, to the multitudes, or to the man who sought him in secret. Moreover, Jesus had faith in his mission as a teacher and as a leader of men. He had faith in the work which he was doing. He had faith in men, in their eternal worth and the possibility of their improvement, and through this improvement the advancement and establishment of the Kingdom of God. The lessons which the teacher in the Sunday- school can learn from his life and teachings are now obvious. A teacher must know the truth which she is to teach; she must know whom she is to teach, their needs, the fundamental differences in their tempera- ments, and how to adapt the truth to their needs. She must be consecrated, full of faith in her work, and in those whom she teaches. Without these qualifications and qualities there can be no teaching success. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books Bruce, The Parabolic Teaching of Christ, Armstrong and Son, New York. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, Armstrong and Son, New York. Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell Company, New York. Hinsdale, Jesus As a Teacher, Christian Publishing Com- pany, St. Louis. Huntington, Unconscious Tuition, A. Flanagan Company, Chicago. Taylor, The Parables of Our Savior, Armstrong and Son, New York. The Teachings of Jesus in the Gospels. [156] JESUS AS A TEACHER Trumbull, Teaching and Teachers, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Exercises 1. Select from the teachings of Jesus other examples of good questions. 2. Study the teachings of Jesus for examples of his knowl- edge of children. 3. Make a thorough study of the life of Jesus from the point of view taken in this chapter, that of the Ideal Teacher. 4. Make a study of the parables of Jesus and show how they meet the requirements of good stories. 5. Study the illustrations which Jesus used and note the great variety of them and how they were taken from the common happenings of life. 6. Study the Gospels with a view to finding evidence of Jesus's knowledge of human nature and of human needs. 7. Find evidences from the same source of Jesus's faith in human nature. 8. What substitute for " moralizing " did Jesus use when he had finished a story or parable.? [1S7] Date Due wmm f) eton Theological Seminary Spee 1 1012 01040 3196 ■■ c ' til - -xm- > v^,y^r^'f :i|f i m$ i>, ■^ «■■