Organizing and Building Up the Sunday School Part 2

(7) _Leakage Period._ The young people between fifteen and twenty years of age const.i.tute the "leakage period,"[5] when they are in great danger of drifting away from the school. They will be held to the school far more firmly if they have before them the prospect of membership in large cla.s.ses of young people, with social opportunities, and club life, so popular with youth at the early adolescent age. It has been clearly shown by practical experience that an organized Senior Department, with large cla.s.ses kept full by regular reinforcement from the Intermediate Department, will maintain itself and hold its members, while skeleton cla.s.ses of the young people constantly tend to disintegration.

The well-organized, completely graded Sunday school possesses such evident and great advantages that it is certain to be established wherever thorough and efficient religious instruction is sought. The sooner it comes, and the more faithfully it is maintained, the better it will be for the church of to-day and to-morrow, and the more quickly and effectually will the grave problems of our modern civilization be solved.

FOOTNOTE:

[5] Dr. A. H. McKinney, in After the Primary--What?

V

THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE GRADED SUNDAY SCHOOL

=General Scheme.= The four departments essential to a graded Sunday school, whether large or small, have already been named by antic.i.p.ation.

But it is necessary to give to the subject a closer consideration, and to add the names of other departments which are needed either as departments or subdivisions in the school. Following the a.n.a.logy of the secular schools, the great divisions of a Sunday school may be named as Elementary, Secondary, and Advanced or Adult. The Elementary Division will include the Cradle Roll, Beginners, Primary, and Junior, taking the scholar up to twelve years of age. The Secondary Division will include the Intermediate and Senior Departments, also the Teacher-training Cla.s.s, and will embrace the scholars between twelve and twenty years of age. The Advanced or Adult Division will include all the cla.s.ses wherein the average age is above twenty years, including the Home Department.

Beginning with the youngest children, the departments of a thoroughly organized school are the following:

1. =The Cradle Roll.=[6] This should include all the little ones in the families of the congregation who are too young to attend the school.

Their names, in large lettering, in plain print rather than script, should be recorded upon a list, framed and hung upon the wall in the Primary room. A separate card catalogue should be kept of the names alphabetically arranged, with ages, birthdays, parents' names, and the street address of each family. Every effort should be made to keep the list complete; children should inform their teachers of new little brothers and sisters for the Cradle Roll; the pastor in his visitation should take their names and report them; and the teacher or conductor in charge of the Cradle Roll should occasionally visit every family on the list. Whenever gifts are made to the pupils of the school, as at Christmas or on birthdays, toys and dolls for the little ones of the Cradle Roll should not be forgotten. In a small school the care of the roll and the visiting of the families may be a.s.signed to the Primary superintendent; but in a large Sunday school it will call for a special conductor, and recognition as a separate department. Let no one suppose that this is an unimportant, sentimental matter. The Cradle Roll, maintained as it should be, will awaken interest in every family having a name inscribed upon it, and in due time will lead many little feet to the Sunday school.

2. =The Beginners Department.= At about three years of age the little children should be brought to the school, and be regularly enrolled as attending members, their names being now taken from the Cradle Roll.

They should remain in the Beginners Department from the age of three to that of six years--the Kindergarten period in the public school. Here they should be told simple Bible and nature stories, without effort to place the stories in chronological order; for children of this age have only a faint conception of the sequence of events. They may be taught simple songs, marching exercises, etc. It is a mistake, however, to give them much, if any lessons, to tax the memory, beyond a few short sentences of the Bible and verses of children's songs. If they can meet in a room by themselves, with their own teacher, it will be better than to have them in the Primary room; for the work in this grade should be constantly varied, and the stories very brief, in order not to weary the little ones. If they must meet in the room with the Primary children, they should sit by themselves as a separate section, and not with their older brothers and sisters.

3. =The Primary Department.= This department should be the home of little children between six and eight or nine years of age. They should remain in it until in the day school they have begun to read. Boys and girls may be placed in the same cla.s.ses, which should be for those six years old, seven years old, and eight years old, respectively. With each year their seats should be changed, indicating their promotion from the lower to the higher cla.s.ses. In this department the simpler stories of the Bible and other helpful stories adapted to the grade should not only be told but taught, and the children expected not only to learn but also to tell them. The Twenty-third Psalm, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, a few other selected pa.s.sages of Scripture, and some standard hymns of the Church should be memorized.

In many well-organized Sunday schools both the Cradle Roll and the Beginners cla.s.s are recognized as subdivisions of the Primary Department, and are under the direction of the Primary superintendent.

4. =The Junior Department.= This department will care for the children from the ages of eight or nine until the full age of twelve; except that boys or girls who are especially advanced in intelligence may be promoted upon examination at eleven years. In a very small Sunday school all the pupils of this department may form one cla.s.s, provided they can have a room by themselves. If they must meet with the rest of the school, they may be organized either in two cla.s.ses, one of boys, the other of girls. If, however, the number of scholars will admit, it is far better to place the pupils in separate cla.s.ses for boys and girls, with different cla.s.ses for each year of the period. To scholars of the Junior grade the great characters and events of Bible history should be taught in their order; also the most important facts about the Bible, and in a simple form the lands and localities of the Bible. In churches which use a catechism this should const.i.tute a part of the teaching in the Junior Department, for at this period the child's verbal memory attains its greatest strength.

5. =The Intermediate Department.= Here the pupils are from twelve to sixteen years of age. The cla.s.ses should be small, generally of six boys or girls, never more than eight. This period in life is known as early adolescence, and calls for careful direction by wise teachers. In the Intermediate Department the great biographies of the Bible should be studied, either as the regular or the supplemental lessons; also the heroic lives of leaders in the history of the Church, of foreign missionaries, and of men and women who have labored in the home fields.

Boys and girls in this stage of life are instinctively hero-worshipers, and before them should be set high ideals of character and service.

Special effort should be made in leading the scholars to personal consecration to Christ and to union with the Church; for if the great decision be not made before the age of sixteen is reached, there is great danger that it will never be reached. But that decision should include more than a formal profession. It should embrace a full surrender to the will of Christ, an inward, conscious spiritual life, an aim for completeness of Christian character, and especially a willingness to work for G.o.d and humanity. Youth is a season of ardor and of energy, a period of lofty ideals and n.o.ble endeavor. All those active powers of the youthful nature should be guided into channels of usefulness. The true twentieth century disciple of Christ is not one who lives alone feasting his soul on G.o.d, but one who stands among his fellow-men, eager to aid in the world's betterment.

6. =The Senior Department.= This is the preferable t.i.tle, although some organized schools call it the Young People's Department, and restrict the word Senior to the cla.s.ses of fully adult age. Still others call it the a.s.sembly, and give it an organization independent of the Sunday school.[7] The age of entrance should be sixteen, except with some who in stature and mind are mature beyond their years. It is imperative, as we have already seen, that at the door of this department the young people should leave their former teachers, and should not form new Senior cla.s.ses, but as individuals enter cla.s.ses already established.

This department includes the members of the school between sixteen and twenty years of age; not that members of cla.s.ses must necessarily leave them at twenty, but that men or women above that age entering the school should rather join the Adult Department. The cla.s.ses may be as large as the arrangement of rooms will allow; larger where each cla.s.s can have a separate room, which is the ideal plan. Generally, young men and young women should be in separate cla.s.ses. The teacher of a young men's cla.s.s should be a man whose character will inspire the respect and win the fellowship of his cla.s.s. The teacher of the young women's cla.s.s will generally be a lady, although often men have been successful teachers of young women.

In this department the cla.s.ses should be organized, each with its own officers, chosen by the members; and the cla.s.s should be consulted when a teacher is to be appointed, although the voice of the cla.s.s in the decision should be advisory and not mandatory. Especial attention should be given to the social activities of this department. Each cla.s.s should have its own gatherings, cla.s.ses of young men and women should meet together occasionally, and a Senior Reception should be held at least annually to promote acquaintance among the members. The interest of the young people should also be enlisted in some definite form of service for the church or the community.

7. =The Teacher-Training Department.= The most promising young people, both men and women, should be selected at sixteen years of age--the time of promotion into the Senior Department--and should be organized as the Teacher-training or Normal Cla.s.s. The best teacher obtainable should be a.s.signed to this department. Often in the high school or some near-by college, a scholarly, Bible-loving instructor may be found who is willing to give a part of his time to the equipment of teachers for the coming generation. A text-book should be chosen from among those approved by the International Teacher-training Committee. No person should be admitted to this cla.s.s who is not willing to give some time during the week to the study of the course. While the rest of the school may be studying the regular lessons, whether graded or uniform, this cla.s.s should be at work with the teacher-training text-books. There should be thorough instruction with examinations looking toward a certificate of work done, such as the International Teacher-training diploma.[8] The course may cover two, three, or four years; and new members may be placed in the cla.s.s at the opening of each year, to begin at the point where the cla.s.s is studying, and to remain until they shall have completed the entire course. In a properly graded school after a few years there will be a cla.s.s graduating from and a cla.s.s entering the Teacher-training Department each year.

This department should also include a Reserve Cla.s.s, consisting of those who are ready to act as subst.i.tutes for absent teachers. If the uniform lessons are followed, the Reserve Cla.s.s should study the lesson a week in advance of the school. Into this cla.s.s the graduates of the Teacher-training Cla.s.s should be placed, to remain until cla.s.ses are ready for them in the school.

In some schools the Teacher-training and Reserve Cla.s.ses do not form a separate department, but are two cla.s.ses in the Senior Department. But it is the better plan in a large school to establish the Teacher-training Department, with its own officers, thereby adding to its prestige in the school.

8. =The Adult Department.= This will include all who are above the age of twenty years. It is the judgment of advanced leaders in Sunday-school work that at twenty years those who have belonged to Young People's cla.s.ses in the Senior Department should leave them for the Adult Department. Otherwise, the Senior Department in a few years will cease to be a place where young people of sixteen and eighteen years feel at home. In the Adult Department men and women may meet together as members of the same cla.s.s, unless there arise a demand for separate cla.s.ses and the numbers enrolled justify the division. In conducting these cla.s.ses two forms of instruction have been found to be successful: (1) the colloquial method of teaching, the cla.s.s studying and discussing the lesson together under the guidance of the leader; and (2) the lecture method, the teacher being the princ.i.p.al speaker, but always admitting questions and answers on the subject suggested by the lesson. Cla.s.ses in this department may be allowed to choose their own courses of study, provided (1) that the subjects and methods are in line with the general aim of religious education, and not merely secular science or history; (2) that the courses of successive years have some sequence, and are not chosen in a haphazard, accidental manner. The Adult Department under wise direction should promote a large, intelligent, broad-minded, philanthropic type of Christian character in the church and the community.

9. =The Home Department.= This department, like the Cradle Roll at the other extreme of the Sunday-school const.i.tuency, is composed of people, both young and old, who cannot be present at its sessions, but are interested in its work, and willing to give some time to its studies. In every community there are such people--aged or infirm men and women, invalids, mothers unable to leave their offspring, commercial travelers, and people who live too far from the school to attend it. These are organized into the Home Department, furnished with the literature of the school, study its text-books, make their report of work done, and send their contributions to its support through the Home Department superintendent or visitor.[9]

FOOTNOTES:

[6] This department is now named in Sunday schools of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and some others, the Font Roll, or Baptismal Roll.

[7] Suggested by Dr. J. H. Vincent.

[8] For full information concerning Teacher-training, courses, examinations, and diplomas, write to the State Secretary of Sunday School Work, or to the office of the International Sunday School a.s.sociation, No. 140 Dearborn Street, Chicago.

[9] For plans of the Home Department, address the Secretary of the State Sunday School a.s.sociation, or Dr. W. A. Duncan, Syracuse, New York, who is recognized as the founder of this system.

VI

THE SUPERINTENDENT

1. =His Importance.= Several years ago, the president of the New York Central Railway was called upon by a legislative committee to explain the system of signals employed upon the railroad for the protection of pa.s.sengers. He gave a detailed statement, answered every question, and then made this remark: "However perfect the system may seem to be, there must always be a man to work it; and in the final a.n.a.lysis more depends on the man than on the plan."

That which is true in every human organization is especially true in the Sunday school: its success depends not on a const.i.tution, whether written or unwritten, but upon a man. In the Sunday school that man is the superintendent, who not only works the plan, but also generally plans the work. Given an efficient superintendent, an efficient school will usually be developed; for the able man will call forth or will train up able workers. Hence the first and greatest requisite for a successful Sunday school is that the right man be chosen as superintendent.

2. =His Appointment.= The selection of the superintendent should be the task not only of the officers and teachers in the Sunday school, but of the entire church, for every family in the congregation has an interest in his appointment. The pastor should be consulted, and should give diligent attention and time to the search for a superintendent, not merely because he may be presumed to know his const.i.tuency, but more especially because out of all the church the superintendent is to be his most important helper. The election of the superintendent should be made by the workers in the school, its board of teachers and officers, and its action should be formally confirmed by the ruling board of the local church. No man should hold the office of a superintendent who fails to receive the approval of the church of which the school is a part. He should know that in his appointment the school, the church, and the pastor all unite.

3. =His Term of Office.= He should be chosen for a term of one year; but may be reelected for as many terms as appear expedient. Frequent changes in the management of the school will tend to destroy the efficiency of its work. But whenever the great interests involved in the religious education of an entire church or community require a new superintendent the change should be made, even though sympathy be felt for the one set aside. The inst.i.tution must not be sacrificed to save the feelings of the man.

4. =His Qualifications.= It is important to consider the qualifications of an ideal superintendent, remembering, however, that all these qualities are rarely to be found in one man. We must set before us high ideals, not expecting that they will always be fully realized, yet ever seeking to attain them as far as may be possible in this imperfect world. The following are the most important qualifications for a superintendent; some of them are essential, all are desirable:

(1) _Moral Character._ The Sunday school undertakes to train the young in character; therefore he who stands as its responsible head must possess a character worthy of admiration and imitation. His life must honor, and not dishonor, his profession. It is possible for a man whose work for an hour on Sunday is in behalf of the gospel so to live in his family, in business, and in society as to work for six days against the gospel, and more than undo all his efforts for good. The leader in such an uplifting movement as the Sunday school must have clean hands and a pure heart. What Saint Paul wrote of a bishop he would have written of a Sunday school superintendent: he must have "a good report." In the well-known painting of the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation may be seen standing at the right hand of President Lincoln the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, who once said, "A man in my position must not only seem right, but be right; and not only be right, but seem right."

So will every one say of the Sunday-school superintendent.

(2) _A Devout Believer._ The superintendent's character should be irradiated with the fine glow of a Christian faith. He should be one who has seen the heavenly vision and unto it has not been disobedient; one whose spirit has been kindled by the Divine Spirit burning like a fire within; one who is himself a Christian man, longing to lead other men into fellowship with the Father through Jesus Christ the Son.

(3) _A Working Church Member._ We have already learned that the Sunday school is not a society or an inst.i.tution standing alone. It is a branch of the church, and one of the most important branches. The normal growth of the church depends in large measure upon the Sunday school, and the support of the Sunday school comes, or should come, from the church. The superintendent who endeavors to do his duty to his scholars will strive to lead them to Christ and into active membership and service in the church. Therefore, he himself must be a professed, loyal, and effective member of the church. His name should not only stand upon its roll, but his heart should also be enlisted in its behalf.

(4) _A Bible Student._ The Sunday school is the school with one preeminent text-book; and of that Book the superintendent should be a diligent student. His work is executive and not instructional; yet he must supervise the teaching, and this supervision he cannot rightly give unless he is familiar with the course of study. He should study the lesson of each department, perhaps not as thoroughly as the teachers in the department, but sufficiently to maintain acquaintance with their work. And he should master not only the specific lessons of the immediate course before his school, but also the Book as a whole.

One successful superintendent gave as a secret of his power to make his school, both teachers and scholars, willing to do whatever he asked, "I never expect my teachers or scholars to do anything that I am not ready to do myself. Before I ask them to bring their Bibles I bring mine. When I asked my school to be ready on the following Sunday to repeat in concert the Nineteenth Psalm, I committed it to memory during the week, and when the time came spoke the words with the school." Only that superintendent who himself loves the Bible, and studies it, can have a true Bible school.

(5) _An Able Executive._ The Sunday school is like that vision seen by the prophet Ezekiel, a system of wheels within wheels, all endowed with life; and the master of the mechanism directing its motion is the superintendent. Moreover, each of these living wheels in the Sunday-school machine is a volunteer worker, who may at any moment drop out of his...o...b..t. To hold together these varied elements, to combine their movements, to guide each in his own sphere, to compa.s.s the common purpose through all the forces working as one, requires a wise brain and a skillful hand. The superintendent should have a plan for the school, with details throughout for every emergency; he should be ready to a.s.sign to every worker the task for which he is best fitted; he should be able to work with others, not merely to command others; and he should be a leader whom others will follow, not by the might of an overmastering will, but by the magnetism of an attractive personality.

He should never forget that with others as well as with himself service in the Sunday school is not compulsory but voluntary, that his a.s.sociates lay on the altar their free-hearted, unpaid labor; and that such workers cannot be commanded, although by tact and wise generalship they may be led to accomplish the most difficult tasks.

(6) _Sympathy with Youth._ The superintendent's office will bring him into relations with youth during all its stages, from early childhood through the entire adolescent period. He must be able to see life and the world through the eyes of a little child, of a growing boy, and of a young man. The sympathy which he needs is not a compa.s.sionate feeling _for_ youth, but a feeling _with_ youth, an ability to put himself in its place; to feel as young people feel, and to understand why they act as they sometimes do. This sympathy will impart a love for young people, such a love as will enable him to be patient with their foibles and faults, to exert a powerful influence over them, and to keep before them n.o.ble ideals of character and service.

(7) _Teachable Spirit._ No matter how much the superintendent knows, or thinks he knows, he should hold his mind open to new knowledge. He should be on the alert for new ideas, from the periodicals, from books, and from his fellow workers, in conversation, at conventions and inst.i.tutes; not that he may inflict every new method upon his school, but that out of many methods he may select the best. When Michael Angelo was past eighty-five years old, and almost blind, he was found one day beside an antique torso which had recently been dug out of the ground, bending over it, and carefully pressing his fingers upon its surface.

When asked what he was doing, he answered, "I am learning"! The masters in every department of work are never too wise nor too old to learn.

If a man can be found who possesses all these seven traits of character and temperament, the school which can secure him for its superintendent will be fortunate indeed. And the superintendent who thoughtfully reads the catalogue of qualifications, and feels that in some of them he is lacking, may by divine grace and his own will working together make progress toward the goal of becoming an ideal superintendent.