Training the Teacher Part 41

7. Name the princ.i.p.al departments into which a school may be divided.

8. When and where did the International Lessons have their origin?

9. By whom are the International Lessons selected?

10. What is the work of the International Sunday School a.s.sociation?

11. What is the World's Sunday School a.s.sociation?

12. How may subst.i.tute teachers be secured?

13. What is meant by Messenger Cadets?

14. What are special points to look out for in beginning a session?

15. How would you plan to secure good singing?

Lesson 6

The Sunday-school Teacher

#72. The Teacher's Office.#--Next to the minister of the gospel, the Sunday-school teacher occupies the highest office in Christian service. The central and most important feature of every Sunday-school session is the Bible-teaching period. All the other exercises of the school should be so arranged as to make the teaching period as effective as possible. The teachers do the teaching; hence the importance of the office. The character of the teacher and the efficiency of the teaching usually determine the efficiency of the school; like teacher, like school.

#73. The Teacher in Prospect.#--Probably the greatest problem in Sunday-school work, at present, is that of securing a sufficient number of good teachers. The only solution of this problem is for every school to have at least one teacher-training cla.s.s each year.

Any school which sets itself definitely to the task of training its own teachers, from its own ranks, for its own cla.s.ses, will reduce the teacher problem to a minimum. Such a cla.s.s should be composed of young men and women between the ages of sixteen and thirty, specially chosen by the pastor and superintendent because of their interest in the work and apparent fitness for it. The cla.s.s should be taught by the best teacher obtainable, though he need not be an expert. It should meet at the church, at the regular Sunday-school hour, thus solving the difficulty as to time and place. Subst.i.tute teachers should never be drawn from this cla.s.s. A teacher's diploma should be issued to each student completing the course and pa.s.sing the required examination.

#74. The Teacher Trained.#--Many who are now teaching desire to take a teacher-training course. Difficult though it is to maintain a cla.s.s for such workers, it can be done. Evidently it cannot meet at the Sunday-school hour, as the teachers are already occupied. A full week-night is preferable, if it can be had; if not, it may come before or after the Workers' Meeting or prayer-meeting, though this arrangement is always more or less detrimental to both meetings.

Interdenominational training-cla.s.ses are much better than none, but the training-cla.s.s in the local church is the ideal, and should be maintained wherever it is possible. When it is impossible to attend a teacher-training cla.s.s, or there is none, individuals may take a course alone, and this is often done.

#75. The Teacher Chosen.#--The teacher should be chosen and appointed by the proper authority representing the church and the Sunday-school.

The committee for appointing teachers should be composed of three persons: the pastor of the church, the superintendent of the Sunday-school, and the superintendent of the department where the teacher is to teach. If there is a separate superintendent of teachers in the Sunday-school, he may represent the superintendent of the school in this capacity. No one should be set over any cla.s.s as teacher whose appointment is not satisfactory to the three persons named above.

#76. The Teacher Installed.#--The Sunday-school is a church service, hence the teacher should be properly recognized by the church. It is desirable that all the officers and teachers should be a.s.sembled and installed in their offices for the coming year with fitting exercises, at a regular service of the church. Such a service as this dignifies the office of the Sunday-school teacher, places upon him the approbation of the church, and makes him feel that his work is appreciated. The installation service should be in charge of the pastor of the church, and the officers and teachers should be seated in a body. Appropriate exercises for such a service have been arranged, and may be easily secured from the denominational publishing houses.

#77. The Teacher Protected.#--During the general opening and closing exercises of the Sunday-school session the superintendent is in charge. But during the teaching period the teacher outranks everybody else, and is ent.i.tled to the full time set apart for teaching without any interruption. The officers of the school should not be allowed to disturb the cla.s.ses in any way. The making of the cla.s.s reports, gathering of the offering, and similar matters, should be attended to before the recitation begins, and in such a manner as to make the least interference with the cla.s.s work. It is a sin to disturb a cla.s.s unnecessarily after the teaching has begun.

#78. The Teacher Between Sundays.#--The wise teacher will regard the intervening week between two sessions of the school as the time of his greatest opportunity. He will review in his mind the experiences of the previous Sunday, endeavoring to learn therefrom how to improve his work in the future. He will give himself diligently to the preparation of his lesson and to the visiting of the absent, and will be especially careful to call upon the sick members of his cla.s.s. He will attend the Workers' Meeting, and avail himself of every opportunity for improvement. He will seek personal interviews with those of his scholars who have been troublesome in the matter of discipline, and will talk individually with all the members of his cla.s.s in order to win them to Christ. He will identify himself with the International Reading Circle, as a member of which he pledges to read at least one good Sunday-school book each year, and thus keep in touch with the Sunday-school movements of the world.

#79. The Teacher's Aim.#--The teacher should aim, first of all, to win the confidence and esteem of his scholars. Until this is done little else is possible, because there can be no effective teaching without co-operation. He should give his scholars faithful and efficient instruction in the Word of G.o.d. The lesson itself should be taught each Sunday, and not allowed to be brushed aside by the discussion of any other topic, though other topics may be used to introduce or ill.u.s.trate the lesson. He should endeavor to lead his scholars to an acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. This is oftener accomplished by a personal interview than in the cla.s.s. He should aim to lead his scholars into membership in the local church. He should aim, by careful training and instruction, to build his scholars up into strong Christian characters, and to fit them for the duties of civic and religious life. Let him remember that his work is for eternity.

#80. The Teacher's Reward.#--The teacher receives much of his reward as he goes along, but not all of it. The privilege of being a.s.sociated with the Great Teacher, and laboring in obedience to his command; the joy of leading souls to Jesus Christ, and sending them out into the world as witnesses for him; the consciousness of growing power in service because of work well done; the companionship of kindred spirits engaged in the same great work--these are surely rewards enough. But there is another reward when the work is done. It is G.o.d's "Well done" to the faithful.

Test Questions

1. What should be the most important feature of every Sunday-school session?

2. What is the solution of the problem of getting teachers?

3. Who should be in a teacher-training cla.s.s?

4. Who should choose the teachers?

5. In what special way may the teacher be recognized by the church?

6. What may the teacher accomplish between Sundays?

7. What do you regard as the teacher's proper aims?

8. What is the teacher's reward?

Lesson 7

The Workers' Meeting

#81.# The meeting which is commonly called the Teachers'-Meeting we prefer to call the Workers' Meeting, because it should be as helpful to the officers as to the teachers. It is impossible to overestimate the value of a properly conducted Workers' Meeting, and yet it is difficult to maintain one. A Sunday-school without a Workers' Meeting is a collection of cla.s.ses, and not a school at all, strictly speaking. A helpful Workers' Meeting maintained regularly every week guarantees a good Sunday-school. It is a thermometer accurately indicating the true condition of the school. To the tired worker it is a refreshing port-of-call between the two continents of Sunday; to the discouraged, it is a heart stimulant; to the over-busy, it is a storehouse filled with what they need, and ready for their use. To all who are willing to pay the price of the best work, it is a necessity.

#82. Leadership.#--The superintendent should preside. It is his meeting. The program should be in his hands, and of his making. He should not teach the lesson unless he is the best qualified person to do it. He should have a special message for the workers at each meeting, bearing upon some phase of the work.

#83. Equipment.#--All who attend should have their own Bibles. Tablets and pencils should either be brought from home or be furnished by the school. There should be a good blackboard at hand, also the necessary maps and charts for lesson study. A teachers' library is very important, and the librarian should be present, so that the workers may take home the books if they desire. Models of the tabernacle with its furniture, the temple, an Oriental house, etc., will be helpful.

Leaflets on various phases of the work, for distribution, may profitably be used from time to time.

#84. Who Should Attend.#--Certainly the pastor. The teachers are his best helpers; the Sunday-school is the whitest part of his great field. He cannot afford not to be in vital touch with the workers of the Sunday-school. He may or may not be the best person to teach the lesson. All the officers of the school should be there, for the details of their official duties will be discussed from time to time.

Of course the teachers will be there, and the subst.i.tute teachers who are to act on the following Sunday. It would be well also for the prospective teachers or the members of the training cla.s.s to be present, if possible. Some schools require the attendance of the teachers upon this meeting.

#85.# #The purpose of the meeting# is to study the school, to plan for the school work, to create Sunday-school enthusiasm; to disseminate Sunday-school intelligence; to maintain a vital relation to the great Sunday-school movements of the day; to show how to teach the lesson for the following Sunday. It is to help, instruct, encourage, and equip the officers and teachers at every point, and in every way.

#86. Time and Place.#--If possible, devote an evening to it, late in the week and at the church. Settle upon one night and stick to it.

Those who are absent will always know exactly when and where the next meeting will be held. No more important meeting is ever held at the church than this, and it ought to have the right of way one night in the week. It is a short-sighted policy on the part of any church to deny this.

#87. Methods of Lesson Work.#--The Workers' Meeting is not a Bible cla.s.s. To conduct it as one will usually kill it. A good Workers'

Meeting presupposes previous preparation of the lesson on the part of the teachers. They do not come there to study the lesson. Other things being equal, that Workers' Meeting is the best which, under wise leadership, has the largest number of partic.i.p.ants. It should be conducted on the catechetical rather than the lecture plan. The method of presenting the lesson should have more consideration than the subject-matter. The "Angle Method" of conducting the lesson periods of a Workers' Meeting is very popular, and is explained by the following, which may be printed on cards, and handed a week in advance to ten persons, each of whom is asked to be prepared on a given "Angle."

#Angle No. 1--Approach.#

Give subject of last lesson, brief intervening history, time, place, and circ.u.mstances leading to this lesson.

Let the lesson text be read at this point.

#Angle No. 2--The Lesson Story.#