Seven Graded Sunday Schools Part 5

| | | Church.

| | | 17 | IX | Teachings of lesson bearing | Doctrine and rules | | directly upon practical | of the M. E.

| | Christianity. | Church.

| | | 18 | X | Same as Grade IX. | Government of M.

| | | E. Church.

Some explanation of the above is needed:

1. The study of the International Lessons. In all the grades the first things to be learned in each lesson are the t.i.tle, the Golden Text, and the lesson story, and after these are learned the teachers take up the specific grade instruction as above. The lesson thought, which appears first in Grade III, is carried through all the remaining grades as the central thought for the session. These thoughts are selected by the superintendent, and by him indicated to the teachers at the beginning of each quarter. To ill.u.s.trate: Take the lesson for September 11, 1892, the t.i.tle of which was Philip and the Ethiopian. After learning the t.i.tle, Golden Text, and lesson story the different grades will study as follows:

Grades I and II. Learn the memory verses: 35-38.

Grade III. Learn the memory verses and study thought: "Philip preached Jesus."

Grade IV. Study about the persons: Philip, Candace, the eunuch, and Esaias, and also the same thought as in Grade III.

Grade V. Study about the places: Jerusalem, Gaza, Ethiopia, Azotus, and Cesarea, and the two thoughts: "Philip preached Jesus," and "Prompt response to call of duty."

Grade VI. Study customs: going to Jerusalem to worship, ceremony of baptism, riding in chariot, and the same two thoughts as in Grade V.

Grades VII and VIII. Thoughts-- "Philip preached Jesus."

"Prompt response to call of duty."

"Habit of reading."

"Understand as you read."

"Act up to your knowledge."

Grades IX and X. Thoughts-- "Philip preached Jesus. I can do the same."

"Prompt response to call of duty. How these calls come."

"Fulfillment of prophecy."

"Immediate conversion and baptism."

"The new-found joy."

2. The Supplemental Lessons. The aim of these lessons is to furnish systematic instruction upon the subjects indicated, which are matters that every well-informed person ought to know, but which cannot be taught from the International Lessons. Each year contains thirty-six lessons which can easily be memorized and recited in the twenty minutes usually allowed for this study. The t.i.tles readily suggest the nature of the lessons.

A weekly teachers' meeting is held under the direction of the superintendent for the purpose of a.s.sisting the teachers in the right understanding of the things required to be taught on the succeeding Sunday, and instructing them in methods of teaching that particular lesson. It is a sort of teachers' meeting and normal cla.s.s combined.

EXAMINATIONS AND MARKS.

Written examinations upon the International Lessons are held at the end of each quarter, and one upon the Supplemental Lessons is held near the close of the year, upon each of which the scholars are marked. Each scholar is also marked at each session of the school upon a scale of five credits, as follows: one for attendance at the opening of the school, one for attention during school time, one for attendance at closing the school, one for attendance upon preaching service, and one for lesson study at home. These marks, taken in connection with the examination marks and the knowledge of the general work of the scholar during the year, determine his promotion at the end of the year. The scholar who completes the course satisfactorily is awarded the diploma of graduation and admitted to the Senior Department of the school. No special work other than that usually taken up in Bible cla.s.ses has been attempted in any of the cla.s.ses of the Senior Department.

SPIRITUAL WORK.

Although great stress is laid upon the work of instruction in the school, it must not be concluded that the spiritual work is overlooked.

This is attended to in two ways: first, in the lesson thoughts in connection with the International Lessons, which are selected, as far as possible, to enable the teachers to ill.u.s.trate and enforce spiritual truths; and, secondly, each teacher is expected to do all she can in the way of personal example and influence to bring the members of her cla.s.s to Christ. Of course, if any special religious interest at any time in the church seems to call for it, the work of the school is suspended and all the energy is brought to bear upon the evangelistic part of the work.

RESULTS.

The actual working of this plan has demonstrated that many things which might seem to be objections have been only imaginary. At the start the scholars were cla.s.sified according to their ages, with occasional modifications with reference to their places in the public schools, and the teachers were placed in the different grades with reference to their relative abilities, and they were asked to teach certain specific things, which of course they cheerfully did. The scholars, who are accustomed to this method in the public schools, at once caught the idea, and their parents became interested to see that their lessons were learned before coming to the school. The attendance of teachers became more regular, for each teacher, having his own specific work to do, very soon realized that if he were absent his work could not be fully done by a subst.i.tute, and the attendance of the scholars was much improved, for they could see actual advancement from Sunday to Sunday.

The attendance of scholars in the Intermediate Department averages fully twenty per cent more than in any other department. Of course, the adoption of any system of graded work means considerable work for a superintendent at the start, and this to a busy man is a serious matter; but after the system is fairly started it works easier and with less friction to annoy than any other plan, and the cause is worthy of the effort required.

Two reasons why schools should be graded may be given: 1. Children will be interested in what they can understand, and if the instruction both as to form and substance is adapted to their growing intellectual abilities it will easily be received and taken care of, while, on the other hand, if it is not comprehended it excites no interest in the mind of the child, and he is glad to get out of the school as soon as he can.

2. The teachers do not go on with their cla.s.ses from year to year indefinitely, and by this means it is possible to bring ten succeeding cla.s.ses under the teaching of the ablest teacher you can get in a particular grade, instead of confining that able teacher to only one cla.s.s for ten years. There can surely be no question as to which is the better course.

FOOTNOTE:

[B] These Supplemental Lessons have been published by Hunt & Eaton, New York, as "The Ten Minute Series."

THE LYNCHBURG PLAN.

BY IRVINE GARLAND PENN.

IT was early in the year of 1890 when it became a positive fact, to the superintendent who is now leading our Sunday school, that we had accomplished practically nothing as a school during the twenty years of our existence. In this school our superintendent was entered when but a lad of five years. He had shifted from cla.s.s to cla.s.s, not by reason of any promotion by the superintendent, teacher, or any other officer of the school, but as he advanced in age from five to eight, eight to ten, and ten to fifteen years he correspondingly grew in size, and of his own free will and accord he moved from cla.s.s to cla.s.s, with no other recommendation for promotion but age and size. At the age of fifteen he was made secretary, and in that official capacity he took account of the pennies collected, disbursing them as the board might order.

Our future superintendent was then promoted to be the teacher of Bible Cla.s.s No. 3. It was not Cla.s.s "Three" because its members knew more or less than Cla.s.s 1 and 2, but because its members were a cla.s.s of misses, while Cla.s.ses 1 and 2 were masters and young men. In fact, Cla.s.s 3 was as much ent.i.tled to be Cla.s.s 1 as Cla.s.s 1 was to be Cla.s.s 1. He was then promoted to his present position. His career is related in order that it may be shown that the conclusion which he had reached was founded upon personal experience and observation, which he took no account of then, but which served to demonstrate more forcibly to him that the Sunday school was accomplishing nothing save the one fact that it met on Sunday mornings ostensibly for religious instruction. It must be said, however, in justice to other superintendents, that, whatever inclination he had to seek and ascertain the defects and best needs of the school, he was led slightly in that direction by those who had shown that something was needed, and who knew that a change must take place if our Sunday school would maintain her standing as a large and growing one in the community. We numbered four hundred, in round figures, and while during the boyhood of our superintendent the corps of teachers were not efficient, by reason of the lack of advantages necessary to proper qualification, yet when he came into office he found himself surrounded by a corps of teachers nearly all of whom were prepared by intellectual and divine strength to teach anything that could possibly be put into a Sunday school course with propriety.

No longer were there "blind leaders of the blind" in the school, but intelligent leaders in mind and heart. It was a proposition that needed no demonstration to our superintendent that he now had the opportunity to present the one thing needful in the school, namely, method and system in instruction and the adaptiveness of work to the susceptibility of the pupil, which is the essence of the grade idea. As soon, then, as this idea was clear, our superintendent at once began inquiry and to hunt literature bearing on this subject.

"The Modern Sunday School," by Bishop J. H. Vincent, was the first book consulted, and the first sentence of Chapter XII, on Gradation, gave the idea which settled the conviction. The sentence reads: "The Sunday school is a school." Nothing is truer than this one sentence, and the sooner our superintendents and teachers get this one idea ineradicably fixed in their minds the better it will be for our Sunday school interests. Most a.s.suredly the "Sunday school is a school" to teach the things of G.o.d, to instill his truths and impress his good deeds and loving favors to the children of men upon the mind and hearts of those who must grow up in the admonition of the Lord, if they would make valiant soldiers and good citizens. It was evident that our Sunday school was a school, though poor in order, poor in work, and poor in everything but singing and the giving of picnics. Dr. Vincent's book was further consulted, with others, and our superintendent reserved several months to mature his plans and present them.

In the meantime several articles in the "Sunday School Journal" of May and September, 1890, greatly helped him. A plan of action was finally decided upon; first a new registration, giving name, age, educational fitness, and some minor matters, was gotten of each pupil as accurately as possible. In the meantime our plan had by this time been told the school, and the taking of a new registration, preparatory to the gradation, created a genuine revival of interest in the work. And, too, when the fact was known that the school was undergoing a change which would give larger and better opportunities to the children, fathers and mothers who could not themselves read, but who knew what it was to have John and Mary to go from Catechism to Catechism, from cla.s.s to cla.s.s, every time higher and higher, gave vent to their feelings in many "Amens" and "G.o.d-bless-yous." To these expressions of approval and the prayers of this cla.s.s the success of our system may be greatly attributed.

The registration having been taken, our superintendent was intrusted with the gradation of the school. On the one hand the burden was light; on the other heavy. The labor was light, for no amount of it could seem a burden, so great was the interest in the four hundred souls who were now for once to be put into the shape of an ideal Sunday school.

On the other hand, it was for once a burden to do duty as he saw it, because there were large boys and girls who had been hitherto neglected in this ghost of a school, and now had to suffer the worry of doing a thing over when it might have been done well at first. But our superintendent had no time now to indulge in sentimentality; the work was to be done, it was given him to do, and he knew it was for the best good of the school; hence he went at the work in the fear of the Lord.

During three weeks of incessant prayer and labor the work was done, submitted to and approved by our board. What a change to be made during the next Sunday! John, who could not read, used to be in Bible Cla.s.s No.

1; now he is to study the Catechism.

During the next Sunday the grading was done, cla.s.ses rearranged, teachers replaced to suit the departments; and after all was done we looked calmly upon the scene, and never in all the history of our Sunday school did it look so well, and never have we seen children with such bright and happy faces as were in that school on that morning. It will never be forgotten even by the smallest pupil. As I have said, they were always good singers, but with new life in them they sang the praises of G.o.d on that morning until it seemed we were all tasting of the riches of G.o.d as never before. The three departments arranged were Primary, Intermediate, and Normal, with provision for a Normal Training Cla.s.s. It may be said here that we have seen the necessity very clearly for the introduction of a Junior Department or Course on account of the length of our now existing departments. This will be done on "Promotion Sunday"

after our January examination.

A course of study was carefully arranged to cover the three departments, consisting of seven years: Primary Course (provided child entered at the age of three), ages from three to ten years; five years' Intermediate Course, ages from ten to fifteen years; five years in the Senior Course, ages from fifteen to twenty years. These departments, and the years in each, will be slightly modified by the introduction of the Junior Course.

The course embraces in our Primary Department the International Lessons in the form of the "Picture Lesson Paper." The Lesson Paper is, however, not taken up until the pupil has been in this department for four years, presuming that he enters at three years of age. The lessons during the first four years are orally taught, and consist of selected verses of the Bible, Lord's Prayer, Beat.i.tudes, and selected portions of Catechism No. 1. Since the day school system only admits pupils at six and seven years, it is presumed that they are not prepared to be cla.s.sified in any way as students of the International System on account of their inability to read.

Thus all of the pupils from three to six years are put into one cla.s.s and taught orally, as explained above. There are sometimes exceptions to this general rule in the case of children who may have had early training around the fireside.

The pupils in the Primary Department, having received the Lesson Paper at seven or eight years, have only from two to three years to remain there before the proper age is reached, all other things being equal, for their transfer to the next department. During the last two or three years of the Primary Course the pupils have for supplemental lessons selected Psalms and verses, Catechism No. 1 to Question 25, inclusive.

It has been demonstrated to our board in our promotions that this Primary Course is well conceived and serves admirably well the purpose intended, which is to lay a foundation upon which a structure might be reared without fear of tottering.

In our Intermediate Course the International study begins the first year with the "Beginner's Leaf" and is used during three years of the five years' course. In the remaining two years the "Berean Lesson Leaf" is used. In the use of the Beginner's and Berean Leaves the course of teaching is laid down by the Examining Board, and the teacher directs her talk and instruction in that direction. This is to avoid what may be termed "splatterdash" teaching--the teaching of everything with special reference to no one particular thing, the teaching of what is understood and not understood. The supplemental lessons for the Intermediate Course include the Ten Commandments, Catechisms Nos. 1, 2, and 3, and the Old Testament read and thoroughly considered from Genesis to Numbers, inclusive. In this department special effort is made to impress the Baptismal Covenant, the Ten Doctrines of Grace, Ten Points of Church Economy, etc.