Chapter 17

#78. Drill# is the process through which the teacher aims to assist the pupil in the acquisition of power and skill. The new truth, when first apprehended by the pupil, must be made so familiar to the learner that he can promptly and easily recall the new truth or knowledge. Drill is the agency that accomplishes this result. Note how often a boy or girl repeats some new sentence or word or game in order to fix its easy recall. Many teachers think repetition deadens interest. But without repetition Comenius rightly declares we do not know solidly. Repetition is nature's way of developing strength. It is of prime importance that every new truth be drilled until it is as familiar to the learner as old knowledge. Then it becomes easy of recall and ready for use. The wise teacher will avoid the abuse of the drill by so varying the exercise as to secure a maximum of interest, for interest is the basis of pleasure, and the soul does not easily retain knowledge that is not pleasurable.

#79. Examination# is the process through which the teacher aims to test the result of instruction and learning. Its value is twofold: it adds to the learner's knowledge by the preparation he makes for the examination, and it gives the teacher a means of measuring the results obtained through instruction and drill. If the examination tests only knowledge gained by direct teaching, it is of little value. If, on the contrary, the questions are so phrased as to cause the pupil to think his way out of things known into some newer and higher order of knowledge, it is a valuable exercise. Usually before examinations are given the teacher and pupils join in a _review_.

#80.# The #review# is an invaluable teaching agency when it results in such a reorganization of unrelated or partly related facts of knowledge as to give the pupil a clearer and surer grasp upon the relative value of the facts previously acquired. A drill fixes a given fact more securely or solidly in the soul; a review organizes these drilled facts into new systems and wider classifications. It is seeing the old once more, but seeing it from a new point of vantage; just as a man climbing a tower with windows at stated points sees in each case all that he saw before, but sees it in a new setting, sees it as part of a larger scene, and sees it finally as a part of a mighty whole. Wisely conducted, the review establishes proportion in the knowledge set in the soul and leads finally and directly to the fact that all truth is at last one truth; all life at last one life; all parts at last one great infinite unity, whose name is God.

Test Questions

1. What two processes are at work in every good recitation?

2. What four elements does teaching include?

3. What are the three phases of oral instruction?

4. Define each of these three phases.

5. What law underlies all oral teaching?

6. What is meant by drill?

7. Define examination. What is its twofold value?

8. When is a review valuable?

Lesson 10

What Will-training Leads To

#81.# The soul by #thinking, feeling, and willing# completes its round of activities. It is not a three-parted power, each part doing one and only one of these things; but it is a single power, capable of doing in turn all these things. The soul _thinking_ is at work in an intellectual process. The soul _feeling_ is at work in an emotional process. The soul _willing_ is at work in a volitional process. These three processes are so inter-related that it is not easy to separate them at any given time, and yet a bit of reflection upon how the soul does operate will make fairly clear these distinct processes. A child that has not been made unnatural by arbitrary training always follows its emotions and its thoughts by action. The inference from this is significant. The soul untrammeled always translates thought and feeling into action. This is only another way of saying that all intellectual and emotional products are under the direction of the will. _The will is the power of the soul that resolves to do, that causes us to act._ The will uses thought and feeling in much the same way that a sailor uses compass and rudder to guide a vessel in the right course.

#82. The First Step, Obedience.#--At the beginning the feeling and thought elements are so numerous and so complex that the will is unable rightly to organize all this data into guidance. Hence the child must be guided by a will that has, through experience, acquired this power. The will of the parent and of the teacher is at the outset the effective guide, and the one necessity for the welfare of the child is obedience. Gradually the child finds his way through the maze of things his intellect and his sensibilities have retained, and then he becomes self-directive. His own will has asserted itself. He is now able and should be free to direct his own actions. When he does this his difficulties will not disappear. At times, he will find his will at a loss to give the guidance he knows he should have. Then, by all means, it is important that he should willingly surrender his finite will to the infinite will, his imperfect guidance to the perfect guidance; and he shall thus find his complete freedom of action in full surrender to the will of Almighty God.

#83.# In this first stage, when parent and teacher are motive and will to him, the child needs to be guided with the utmost care. _There must be reasonableness in the guidance._ Caprice, anger, impatience, arbitrariness, and severity are the methods of weaklings and cowards. From all such the child should be freed. Consistency, kindness, patience, reasonableness, and moderation are the methods of strong, successful teachers. If you utter a command, see to it that the child obeys. Nothing is quite so deadly in the realm of the will as the fact that the pupil knows that his teacher threatens, commands, talks--but never acts. If you really do not intend to enforce obedience, do not utter the command. If you do not intend to compel obedience, do not assume the role of guide and teacher. How many children come into caprice instead of regulated conduct because they have from infancy lived in a realm of caprice, of confusion, and of disorder; a realm that moved by no law and hence set no law of guidance in the soul of the child.

#84. The Aim of Teaching is Right Living.#--We err when we assume that intellectual endeavor will inevitably lead to right conduct. Nothing is more obvious than the fact that our conduct is far below the plane of our thought. We _know_ vastly better than we _do_ the things that are right and true. Nor do we quite understand the function of good teaching if we neglect to cultivate the feeling powers of the soul. It is my conviction that we act more nearly in harmony with our feelings than our thoughts. If, then, conduct, right action, or character is the end of all true teaching; if, as Jesus taught, it is not what we know, nor yet what we feel, but what we do, that makes life worth while, it is of the utmost importance that we should so train the feeling life as well as the thought life as to prepossess the soul to right conduct. But the feelings are intensely concrete. Whence arises again the value of concrete teaching as a method in will training.

#85. Self-control.#--Aim to bring the pupil speedily into the exercise of his own will, into self-regulated conduct. Nothing will so surely negative good instruction as to deny to the pupil the freedom to exercise his own will as soon as that will has become sufficiently powerful and reasonable to be an adequate agency to direct the pupil's conduct. Many teachers and parents insist upon guiding the pupil long after he is capable of self-direction. Here, of course, is the critical moment in the pupil's life, and only the most careful study of the pupil and constant prayer for Divine assistance will insure the wisest procedure. When a boy has acquired self-control it is always a mistake to treat him as you would a small child. His self-respect is involved in his desire to do things in the way his own will determines. To ignore this fact is to predispose the boy to rebellion against his teacher; and perhaps against all constituted authority--human and divine.

#86. Teach What to do, Rather than What not to do.#--Above all, do not build a negative code in the soul of a child. It is not what he is restrained from doing, but what he is constantly encouraged to do that makes for right will training. The great power of Jesus as a teacher lies in his steadfast ability to teach the world what to do, how to act, right conduct in the midst of complex conditions. A negative code stops all endeavor, a positive code sets the soul aglow with the consciousness of things done, of processes initiated and completed, of struggles with wrong successfully ended, of progress from weakness to strength, from human error to Divine truth.

#87.# The end of all endeavor is to do the will of God, and the goal of all teaching is to equip a human soul to live in joyous accord with the infinite wisdom. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Test Questions

1. In what three ways does the soul round out its activities?

2. What is meant by the will?

3. What should be the effective guide for the child at first?

4. Name five elements that characterize the methods of strong teachers.

5. Why are some children capricious rather than obedient?

6. What is the aim of teaching?

7. What mistake will most surely negative good instruction?

8. What is Jesus' great power as a teacher?

9. What is the goal of all teaching?

Text Questions for Review

Lessons 6 to 10

1. What is meant by a law of the soul?

2. What is the first law as to the subject matter of teaching?

3. What is the earliest power that becomes educationally active?

4. What is meant by the inductive method?

5. Why is mere telling not teaching?

6. What is the gain, and what the danger, in using illustrations?

7. Illustrate what is meant by a concrete notion.

8. What are four tools at the teacher's disposal?

9. What constitutes a good story?

10. What two processes are at work in every good recitation?

11. What are the three phases of oral instruction?

12. When is a review valuable?

13. What is meant by the will?

14. Name five elements that characterize good teaching?

15. What is Jesus' great power as a teacher?

NOTE.--This entire subject has been more fully discussed by Dr. Brumbaugh in his book "The Making of a Teacher."

THE SCHOOL

MARION LAWRANCE

LESSON PAGE 1. The Sunday-school 219 2. The Sunday-school Equipped 224 3. The Sunday-school Organized 228 4. The Sunday-school Organized (concluded) 232 5. The Sunday-school in Session 236 6. The Sunday-school Teacher 240 7. The Workers' Meeting 244 8. Sunday-school Finance 248 9. The Sunday-school and Missions 251 10. Organized Adult Classes 255

Teaching Hints

Leaders of classes, and individuals pursuing these studies apart from classes, are urged to read the chapter entitled "Teaching Hints," on page 259, before beginning this section

Lesson 1

The Sunday-school

#1.# The Sunday-school is the Bible-studying and teaching service of the church. It is a _church service_. All the members of the church should be connected with it. It should be under the care and control of the church. Its purpose is to present the Word of God, by the hand of competent living teachers, to every man, woman and child, for the purpose of leading them to Christ, developing their Christian characters, and training them for service.

#2. The Earliest Schools.#[A]--Schools for the study of God's Word seem to have existed as far back as the time of Abraham. In Moses' day, schools were maintained for the religious training of the young. These schools were numerous also in Ezra's time. Jesus no doubt attended such a school in his boyhood days. The schools of his time resembled the modern Sunday-school in some of their methods. There were elementary schools for children, and senior schools for both children and adults. These latter schools were connected with the synagogue. It was through these schools, chiefly, that the Christian church was extended and built up.

#3. The Raikes Movement.#[A]--The first seventeen centuries of the Christian era witnessed, for the most part, a general decline in the church and in Christian activity. During all this period, the church's life increased or waned in proportion as it attended to or neglected the religious instruction of the young. The seventeenth century, and much of the eighteenth century were dark days for the church. It was toward the close of this period that God saw fit to connect the name of Robert Raikes with the Sunday-school movement of the world. While he was probably not the founder of the first Sunday-school, his name is nevertheless inseparably connected with the beginnings of the modern Sunday-school. In the city of Gloucester, England, July, 1780, this man--the editor and proprietor of the Gloucester Journal--started his first Sunday-school, in the kitchen of a dwelling-house. This room was eleven feet long, eight feet wide, six and a half feet high. "The children were to come soon after ten in the morning and stay till twelve. They were 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." Four women were employed as teachers in this school, at a shilling a day. The early Raikes schools were not connected with the church in any way.

[A] The statements in these paragraphs are taken in substance from "YALE LECTURES ON THE SUNDAY SCHOOL" (Trumbull).

#4. Sunday-school Extension.#--Sunday-schools soon became very popular, and spread over Great Britain and into Europe. Sunday-schools are known to have existed in the United States as early as 1786, and probably much earlier than that (even in 1674). They found congenial soil in the Western Hemisphere, and multiplied rapidly. There are now more than a quarter of a million Sunday-schools in the world, enrolling more than twenty-five millions of people. More than one-half of this vast army is in North America.

#5. The Sunday School Union of London.#--This organization was effected in 1803 in Surrey Chapel, London, and is the oldest expression of organized Sunday-school work. It is local only in name. Its auxiliaries are to be found in all parts of the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and the various dependencies of Great Britain. It holds valuable properties in London, conducts an extensive printing establishment, and maintains a large corps of workers as secretaries, colporteurs, etc., not only in Great Britain but on the Continent, in India and elsewhere.

#6. The American Sunday School Union.#--The earliest Sunday-school organizations in North America were a Sunday School Union in New York City in 1816, another in Boston the same year, and still another in Philadelphia in 1817. These were combined in 1824 into a national society known as The American Sunday School Union. This society, through its large corps of missionaries, plants new Sunday-schools, especially on the frontier. It conducts a large publishing establishment at its headquarters in Philadelphia, and has done and is doing a great work.

#7. The National Sunday School Convention.#--The first national interdenominational convention in the United States was held in the city of New York in 1832. Delegates were present from fourteen states and four territories. A second convention was held in the city of Philadelphia, the following year, 1833. Not until 1859 was the third convention held, and this one also in the city of Philadelphia. In 1869, in Newark, N. J., may be said to have begun the present series of great conventions in our country, for they have been held triennially from that time until the present. The fourth and last strictly national convention was held in the city of Indianapolis in 1872. Here the International System of Uniform Lessons had its birth. The International Lessons went into use January, 1873. They are selected by a committee appointed by the International Convention, co-operating with a similar committee appointed by the Sunday School Union of London. It was decided that the next convention should be international in character, and include the Dominion of Canada.

#8. International Sunday School Movement.#--International conventions have been held triennially since 1875.

The International Sunday School Association administers its affairs through an Executive Committee of nearly one hundred men, representing every state, province, territory and country in and belonging to North America. In its main Association, and through its auxiliaries, it employs a large number of Sunday-school workers in its various departments. It is supported by the voluntary offerings of Sunday-schools and individuals. Under its auspices are held annually about sixteen thousand Sunday-school conventions, the purpose of which is to give information, stimulation, and education along all lines of Sunday-school work.

#9. Auxiliary Associations.#--The various states, provinces, territories and countries of North America maintain associations auxiliary to the International Sunday School Association. The oldest existing organization is that of the Province of Quebec, which has been in continual operation since 1836. The states and provinces, for the most part, maintain annual conventions. Auxiliary to these auxiliaries are the associations of the counties or next smaller political divisions. In the thickly settled portions of the country, still smaller organizations are effected in the townships and cities.

#10. The World's Sunday School Association.#--The First World's Sunday School Convention was held in the city of London, England, in 1889, about two hundred and fifty delegates attending from North America. The Second World's Convention was held in connection with the Seventh International Convention at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1893. The Third World's Convention was held again in London in 1898. Three hundred delegates were present from North America. The Fourth World's Convention was held in Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1904. Over eight hundred delegates attended from North America, and nearly five hundred from Great Britain, traveling in chartered steamships. The World's Fifth Sunday School Convention was held in the city of Rome, Italy, in 1907, with over eleven hundred delegates. And there the World's Sunday School Association was organized, to hold conventions, gather statistics, and to co-operate with other organizations in increasing the efficiency of Sunday-schools throughout the world. The World's Sixth Sunday School Convention is to be held in Washington, D. C., 1910.

Test Questions

1. What is the Sunday-school?

2. Give instances of the earliest schools for the study of God's Word.

3. Describe what is known as the Raikes movement.

4. How early are Sunday-schools known to have existed on our continent?

5. How many Sunday-schools in the world to-day?

6. What proportion of these are in America?

7. What is the Sunday School Union of London?

8. What is the American Sunday School Union?

9. Where and when were the four National Sunday-school Conventions held?

10. When and where did the International Lessons have their origin? When put into use?

11. How many International Conventions have been held?

12. By whom are the International Lessons selected?

13. What is the work of the International Sunday School Association?

14. Describe its system of Auxiliary Associations.

15. What is the World's Sunday School Association?

Lesson 2

The Sunday-school Equipped

#11. Buildings.#--A discussion of Sunday-school buildings properly comes under the head of equipment, but as that is a large topic by itself, it is not our purpose to consider it here but to confine ourselves to those features of equipment which may be used in any building. The buildings should be made with the needs and conveniences of the Sunday-school in mind. The department rooms and class rooms are but expressions of this idea. The school deserves as good a room as the preaching service, and one as thoroughly adapted to its uses. Department rooms and class rooms can often be temporarily arranged by the use of curtains or screens, in a building where no regular partitions have been provided.

#12. Seating.#--Chairs are better than pews. They should be comfortable, and adapted to the size of the pupils who are to use them. No one can sit quietly very long unless his feet can rest squarely on the floor. If the room is not carpeted, the chair legs should have rubber tips.

#13. Tables.#--Such of the officers as need to use desks or tables should have tables of their own, so that all of their books, blanks, and supplies may be kept in proper order. Class tables are very desirable. They need not be very large. Each table should have a drawer or box in it for the song-books and other property of the class. This economizes time and saves confusion, as nothing will need to be distributed.

#14. Class Boxes.#--Where it is impossible to use class tables, a class box is next in value. It should contain the song-books and everything else belonging to the class, and should be kept in a given place where some member of the class can secure it before the school, and replace it after the school is closed.

#15. Blackboards.#--It is impossible to overestimate the value of blackboards in Sunday-school work when rightly used. There ought to be one in the main school, and one in every department room. It would be well, also, if there were a small blackboard in every class room. It can be used for so many purposes, such as reviewing the lesson, announcing hymns or displaying reports. The revolving blackboard is the best for general use, and the most ornamental. Square crayons of half an inch, or one inch, in size are better than the ordinary round school crayon. Simple work is better than elaborate work. Anybody can use a blackboard to advantage, whether he can draw or not.

#16. Maps.#--If a school can have but one map, let it be the map of Palestine. Then add the following maps, in the order named: Bible Lands; a second map of Palestine,--one for Old Testament and one for New Testament; Paul's missionary journeys; a missionary map of the world; a missionary map of the denomination. A sand map is good for use in the later elementary grades, but should not wholly displace the wall map.

#17. Charts.#--Many helpful charts are now prepared for Sunday-school use; charts of the life of Christ, charts for missionary purposes and temperance teaching, charts with choice passages of Scripture and hymns.

#18. Libraries.#--If possible, have two libraries, one for teachers, one for scholars. A teachers' library should contain Bible-study helps and books for Sunday-school workers, which treat of special phases of Sunday-school work. The scholars' library should be properly classified so that the members of all departments will feel an equal interest in it.

#19. Missionary Curios.#--Material aid in creating missionary interest will be secured by showing woods, stones, plants, flowers, clothing, and birds from the various foreign fields, and by the use of pictures and models of their buildings, which reveal the customs of the lands under consideration. These things are abundant, and are comparatively inexpensive.