Seven Graded Sunday Schools Part 3

THE INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT.

This grade should be made up of scholars promoted from the Primary Grade, and all between the ages of eight and twelve years, and should be divided into cla.s.ses of about seven scholars each. They should study the same lesson as the Junior and Senior Grades, and in addition to that the Catechism of the Church to which the school belongs. This may be taught by the teacher of the cla.s.s or by the superintendent of the department.

Promotion to the Junior Grade should be made when scholars are about twelve years of age, or upon a test of fifty questions in the Catechism, to be answered in writing, the scholars to pa.s.s if forty are answered correctly. This is the test we employ in this grade.

It is important that much should be done for these scholars. Special printed programs and reviews should be prepared for them, and they should receive much attention from the officers of the school. This department should also be a training school for teachers, who should be selected from the Seniors for their fitness for such work and after a pledge has been made that they will attend the weekly teachers' meeting for study and help in methods. These teachers should be promoted with their cla.s.ses when they show they can do more advanced work. Great care should be taken in the selection of a superintendent. One who is apt to teach will find abundant opportunity to a.s.sist both teachers and scholars.

THE JUNIOR DEPARTMENT.

All scholars between the ages of twelve and sixteen should be placed in this grade. In most schools this will be the largest department. The wisest and best teachers should be selected for it, as the scholars are of that age in which we find them restless and difficult to interest. As a rule it will be in the same room with the Seniors, and should be recognized as a grade as frequently as Seniors. It may be done in many ways, but should be especially in the opening and closing exercises of the school. They may be called upon to read responsively with the Seniors, or to sing the solo part of a hymn while all join in the chorus. Special work may be given them in connection with the school, but not jointly with any other department. If you can keep the Junior Grade busy you can both educate and benefit them. They have great pride in being recognized as a separate organization. The members of this grade should be promoted at the age of sixteen to the Senior Grade. It may be on some examination, but I believe it not best, for this is the point where the boy and girl have gone away from school because they thought they were no longer children and a child's school was not the place for them. Recognize the fact that they are young people as soon as they do, and promote them because they are, into an element that is congenial. At once they are bound to the school by personal pride and by social influences that they are not quick to abandon. Use these elements wisely, and the school has won a victory. The superintendent of this department should be a person whom all the boys and girls like because he is one of them, and while he is "one of them" he should not forget above all things that he is their superintendent, with a responsibility resting upon him to secure their salvation.

THE SENIOR DEPARTMENT.

This most important grade will have in it all persons over sixteen years of age, and all cla.s.ses should be on an equal footing; that is, that all should be called Senior Cla.s.ses, whether the members are sixteen or sixty. There should be no "Bible cla.s.ses."

In the formation of Senior Cla.s.ses great care should be taken so to adjust them that there shall be no friction. The social idea must be considered, although the scholar should not know that it is being thought of. Scholars who would have no sympathy with each other, and who would never harmonize, should never be placed in the same cla.s.s; if they are, one or the other will leave the cla.s.s or school. In the selection of teachers for the Senior Cla.s.ses great care should be taken. These scholars must be taught, not entertained; so men and women must, if possible, be found who are well informed, apt to teach, consecrated to their work, and who will give to their lesson and cla.s.s such attention as is required to insure successful work. It is far better in this grade to have a few good teachers with large cla.s.ses than many teachers, some of whom are incompetent to instruct, and smaller cla.s.ses. Special instruction should be given in the way of courses of consecutive lessons, lectures, and anything that will supply the intellectual wants of these young people. Never allow the methods of instruction to get into ruts. Teachers should be helped by pastor and superintendent, and nothing should be left undone which would interest and attract the young people. The social element should be employed under careful supervision, but always with the Senior Grade alone. Never allow the children of lower grades to have a part in a social gathering with the Seniors unless by special invitation of the young people. This is the point where they are sensitive, and it must be well guarded.

Employ the young people in every possible way. Let the ruling members of the church recognize them and give them all the church work possible, and they will do it, not only well, but with a spirit that will be inspiring to the church.

Many years of experience convince me that from this department must come the best material for teachers for the school, and will help to settle the vexed question as to where we can get teachers. Take them from the Senior Grade and give them such Normal training as will fit them for teachers and officers. The knowledge that the superintendent is looking among the Seniors for competent persons to fill all places of responsibility is a great inspiration to them, and exalts their idea of the character and usefulness of the Sunday school.

The members of this grade are at an age when they are ready to enter upon some business, and the question as to what it shall be and where they shall get a situation is a very serious one to them. There is no way in which officers and teachers can bind the young people more closely to themselves and the school than by taking a personal interest in their business, and helping them to secure such employment as they need, and securing situations where they will be under good influences.

SUGGESTIONS.

In the Primary Grade a great effort should be made by the teachers to secure a personal acquaintance with the mothers of the children. If possible call at their homes and thereby learn something of their home life, always making a memorandum of such things as impress the teacher as having an influence upon the character of the scholar.

A Sat.u.r.day afternoon reception for the mothers, who, if possible, are to bring their children, is an excellent method. It should be very informal.

Avoid in this grade, as in all others, the idea of paying scholars by prizes, or in any other way, for efforts made to learn or do what is right, but always keep before them the idea that they are to do well because it is right. This gives the little ones a self-respect which is powerful in its influence.

In making promotions from one grade to another it is not best to have ironclad rules. If a cla.s.s is to be promoted it is not best to leave one or more out because they have not quite reached the age required.

Neither is it wise to insist upon a scholar being promoted because he has reached the proper age, unless he is willing to leave the cla.s.s he is in.

Promotion may be made once or twice a year. I think once is best, and then it should be at a special service in which all the school should take part.

If a teacher is a misfit in a cla.s.s the time for promotions is the time to put that teacher where he can work without friction, without giving any publicity to the change. It is also an excellent time to place a scholar not easily controlled with a teacher who is especially fitted to handle him. The scholar should never know why the change was made.

Every Sunday school should have a Normal Cla.s.s. Courses of study have been prepared which can be handled by any good teacher or pastor who will make an effort. This course will give not only teachers but scholars an exalted idea of the Bible as a book, and prepare them to expound the lessons as they could not without such a course of study. If there is not a cla.s.s individuals may take the course alone and pa.s.s examinations, which will ent.i.tle them to the diploma of some of the Sunday school a.s.semblies.

Many superintendents say they cannot grade their schools because they have not separate rooms for the departments. It is desirable to have separate rooms, but if you do not have them you should grade the school, putting each grade by itself in some part of the room, if you have but the one. An aisle or a curtain may be the dividing line. Most excellent results have been realized where the whole school was in one room.

The Home Department is for the benefit of persons who cannot attend Sunday school. The conditions upon which membership is secured are that they shall study the lesson for the day one half hour on the Sabbath; all members to report quarterly whether they have kept the pledge. Those who join this department are members of the school and ent.i.tled to all its privileges, such as lesson helps, the use of library, and all other things that other members enjoy. This department should include persons who are distant from the school, the aged, the sick, and may include persons who reside hundreds of miles away, especially those who have been members of the school in other days. This department should have a superintendent who will give it attention and look after all who become members.

THE ERIE PLAN.

BY H. A. STRONG.

THE query often arises whether the modern Sunday school is now at its maximum of efficiency in the line of its development. Wonderful is the progress already attained. The introduction of the International Lesson System marks an epoch. Before that separate schools and even teachers were a law unto themselves. Now schools are in touch one with another; sectarian barriers have been broken down; the unity of the cause is recognized. The Church is one; so are her schools. The culture and the spirituality of the Church catholic everywhere are now the teacher of the teachers. Helps to Bible study are so multiplied and improved that it is difficult to see how an advance step could be taken here. The testimony is well-nigh uncontradicted that the Bible is studied as never before in the light of modern research and science. Teachers, as a body, are measuring up to these privileges and responsibilities.

The advance movement in Sunday school work may not be in its literature, nor in the efficiency or the enthusiasm of its corps of teachers.

Elsewhere must we look for the necessity for improvement.

The Sunday school is a school. The expression sounds trite and tautological; but it needs emphasis. Bishop Vincent in his latest book, "The Modern Sunday School," discusses the proposition that the "Sunday school is and must be a school." Out of the fullness of his knowledge and experience proof is there given that the organization, system of teaching, and methods of the public schools must be appropriated by the Sunday school of the day. The modern Sunday school must stand or fall as it is contrasted with the modern public school. By such a comparison alone can excellencies or deficiencies be revealed.

Wonderful has been the development of the public school system in the present generation. Great teachers have appeared in all ages and schools have gathered about them. But this age is remarkable in this, that it has adopted a system of instruction for youth and has trained teachers for that system. The combination of these two elements makes the modern common school system. Let the adults of to-day state the case of their day. Such a comparison would show the value of the present. The great boon from the State to the youth of to-day is an educational system based on scientific principles.

In that system two essentials must be emphasized: first, departments; and, second, the place of the pupil. These departments form a series that are mutually related and dependent. They each mark a step in the development of the mind of the pupil. Again, the pupil has his proper place in that system, a.s.signed not by caprice but by a principle. That principle is the attainment of the pupil in the studies of the system. A competent instructor could find by examination the true place of any pupil in any city public school. Such a statement is so self-evident that it excites no surprise. It is as it should be. The method of a.s.signment and promotion is the public school system. Without it that system would not be what it is.

Apply now these essentials as tests to the Sunday schools. How are pupils there a.s.signed and promoted? The answer must be that such a.s.signment and promotions are there unknown. Here we touch a radical defect and weakness. The statement of that weakness hardly needs elaboration.

As we study further the public school system we find there a course of study. That course of study, comprehensive and complete, the work of educators, is the glory of the system. It is this curriculum that makes its pupils students. In these points also compare the Sunday school.

A summary of these conclusions may be made. The modern Sunday school is not the peer of the modern public school. The Sunday school has a defective system of unrelated, independent departments. The modern public school has a perfect system of correlated dependent departments.

The Sunday school has no system of promotions, no training school for teachers, and no course of study. Do its pupils study? Why, they are not required, nor examined.

Is there a remedy for such defects? Could its department be perfected?

Yes; but the disease is deeper than that. Could a system of promotions be devised? Undoubtedly. Could a teachers' cla.s.s be formed? Many schools have that. To treat these symptoms separately is not to reach the source of the disease. It is but to tamper with difficulties.

The solution lies in a "Course of Study." In the public school the system rallied around a common center--its course of study. All the agencies employed were to render that course effective. Out of a supplemental lesson system will arise conditions that will crystallize into correlation of departments, methods of promotion, a Normal Department with its commencement day, and, best of all, by the help of the home and the church, an atmosphere of study for the scholar without which a school cannot be.

It is believed that such a course of study is practicable. Is it not thus that the modern Sunday school as a school must be improved?

It is evident that the course of instruction in the Sunday school will be different from that of the day school. There, mental culture is sought; here, spiritual culture is the end in view. There, many are the text-books on diverse themes; here, one book and one theme. The Bible and its revelation must be the book and the theme of any supplemental lesson system. It may be taken as an axiom that that system will be the most efficient and acceptable which has the most of the Bible in it and whose teachings best mirror the Bible.

The writer has prepared a series of text-books to be used as a supplemental course of study in the Sunday school. These books have been compiled in connection with his work as superintendent; and as they were completed they were tested in the Sunday school at Erie, Pa. The first one was written five years ago, and since then they have been continuously used.

This school, as now graded, consists of the following departments: Primary, Junior, Senior, Normal, Reserve, and a.s.sembly. The Primary Department has a four years' course and cla.s.ses to correspond. The Normal Department has adopted the two years' course of study of the Chautauqua Normal Union. The course of study to which attention is directed is an eight years' course--four years for the Junior Department and four for the Senior Department. This course receives pupils from the Primary room at the age of about ten, and, after it is finished, pa.s.ses them on to the Normal Department.

THE BOOKS OF THE COURSE:[A]

_Junior Department:_ First Year--Catechism.

Second Year--Catechism.

Third Year--Life of Christ.

Fourth Year--Church History.

_Senior Department:_ First Year--Jewish History.

Second Year--Jewish History and the Bible.

Third Year--Christian Evidences.

Fourth Year--Christian Evidences.