Training the Teacher Part 45

_Leader._--What does the first period tell about? (Write _First Period_.)

_Answer._--The creation of _Adam_ (write).

_Leader._--What "beginnings" do we see in this period?

_Answer._--_The beginning of the human race, sin, and redemption_ (write).

_Leader._--Where is this told about?

_Answer._--_Genesis 3_ (write).

_Leader._--Who is the leading person of the second period? (Write _Second Period_.)

_Answer._--_Noah_ (write).

_Leader._--What event is chronicled in connection with Noah?

_Answer._--_The flood_ (write).

_Leader._--What great structure was built in this period?

_Answer._--_The tower of Babel_ (write).

_Leader._--What punishment came to the people for building this tower?

_Answer._--_Confusion of tongues_ (write)

_Leader._--Where do we read about this period?

_Answer._--_Genesis 6-11_ (write).

This method may be followed in the case of each of the Bible lessons.

The blackboard outline for the entire first lesson would appear about as follows, after being built up step by step:

The Old Testament Division

_Prelude._--Story of Creation (Genesis 1, 2)

_First Period_--Adam {Human race The beginning of {Sin {Redemption

_Second Period_--Noah--the flood Tower of Babel--confusion of tongues (Genesis 6-11)

_Third Period_--Abraham--chosen family Egypt--prosperity--oppression Moses--Exodus Journeys Canaan Judges (Genesis 12 to Judges 1:21)

_Fourth Period_--Saul--David--Solomon (1 Sam. 10 to 1 Kings 12)

_Fifth Period_--Captivity--return Ezra, Nehemiah (2 Kings 25)

Each leader will thus be enabled to use the blackboard in his own way, basing the drill on the outline material at the beginning of each chapter; this blackboard review will be brought to the students with a freshness not secured when suggested outlines are printed with each lesson.

#Familiarity with maps# should be encouraged at every point. The leader may accustom the cla.s.s to the question, "Where is that place?"

nearly every time a town or locality is named. The average beginner in Bible study is afraid of a map; the more familiar he becomes with these maps, the more confidence he will have in his own Bible knowledge.

#The New Testament Section.#--In the several chapters beginning on page 71 the historical outline consists of a harmony of the Gospels.

It is not intended that the student shall memorize this harmony; but the ability to reproduce from memory the journey map published in connection with each section of the harmony would give the student a very helpful grasp on the order of events in the life of Christ. The use of a journey map as a basis for telling the story of a chosen period will fix events and geographical location in mind at the same time.

The Pupil

The lessons on The Pupil enter a field of study with which the average teacher is perhaps less familiar than with the Bible section. Hence the leader will do well to begin slowly and to allow plenty of time for discussion in the cla.s.s. Professional teachers who have studied the science of psychology may be very helpful in occasional talks to the cla.s.s, provided you are a.s.sured in advance that they will not confuse the students by the use of technical terms. Such talks from outsiders should be brief, and confined to one phase of the subject, and time should be allowed for questions by the students and informal discussion.

Students should be encouraged to find their own ill.u.s.trations for certain well-defined statements. Take, for instance, the paragraph _Imitation_ under numbered paragraph 6, on page 144. One or more students may be asked to bring ill.u.s.trations of this statement from their own home or Sunday-school experience in a given week. One will tell how he saw a neighbor's boy try to keep step with his father while on a walk. Another will describe the actions of a little girl she saw dressed in her mother's skirt--actions plainly imitative of the mother herself. Ill.u.s.trations like these observed and reported by the students themselves will greatly aid in the study of the section, and will be much more valuable than ill.u.s.trations ordinarily furnished in the text. The leader is urged, however, to challenge any ill.u.s.tration which misses the point or gives a wrong impression.

#Bringing the Teaching to a Focus.#--In some cases the superintendent of the department which includes the age under discussion (as, for instance, The Beginners Department), whether a member of the cla.s.s or not, may be invited to tell in from five to ten minutes how far he or she is able to meet the _opportunities_, supply the _needs_, overcome the _difficulties_, and realize the _results_ so clearly stated by Mrs. Lamoreaux in the closing paragraphs of each chapter. This would give the whole lesson a local setting and application.

The Teacher

The remarks in the first paragraph of the section under The Pupil, just preceding, apply equally here. Outside help is desirable, but simplicity in treatment must be maintained. Profound knowledge of a subject does not insure ability to restate that knowledge in simple terms. Better not have the profound knowledge displayed if it is going to leave the students in confusion.

The principle of home-made ill.u.s.trations referred to above applies equally well to the section on The Teacher.

It is safe to say that each adult student in the cla.s.s will remember teachers who have excelled in the points enumerated by Dr. Brumbaugh.

The student should be encouraged to take a statement like that found in paragraph 4, page 182, and say to himself: "Which of my teachers was notably enthusiastic? How did this enthusiasm impress me? How did it help him in teaching great truths?" These observations may frequently need to be made quietly to the student's self. But they will greatly help him to master the laws of teaching.

The School

Here is a section dealing with a concrete subject, and ill.u.s.trations will be within the range of vision of every one who is a.s.sociated with Sunday-school work. At the very outset there may be found those who will take exception to many of the suggestions made, because they are deemed to be impracticable in "our school." This att.i.tude should be firmly but patiently overcome. If discussion proves that the thing suggested is undesirable, or that a better method may prevail, that is a point worth making. But the argument that a thing is desirable but "impossible" should have no footing in a teacher-training cla.s.s. Let the motto be, "If it ought to be, it can be."

The teacher may be inclined to skip a paragraph like that on The Secretary. "Of what interest is that to me?" she may ask. The answer is simple: No one is equipped to be a teacher who doesn't know the school as a whole; and no one knows the school as a whole who doesn't know it in its several essential parts. Only when the teacher knows the secretary's duties, for instance, is that teacher prepared to see how careful he should be in meeting his obligations to the secretary in the line of the latter's official work. Each teacher should be encouraged to study executive problems, such as those relating to the superintendent and other officers, as if they were his own; and at least he should discover his part as a teacher in helping the executive officers to make the school a success.

In many localities sections of the cla.s.s may visit other schools and report back to the cla.s.s upon the features in which these schools excel. This offers a practical laboratory method for the concrete teaching of these lessons. Of course, such visits should be made with the knowledge and consent of the superintendent of the school visited; and at such times and in such manner that the work of the school will not be disturbed. Teachers of regular cla.s.ses will greatly profit by an occasional trip to another school; it is time gained rather than lost.

Teacher-training superintendents find a marked tendency in some cla.s.ses to discontinue the work after the section on The Bible has been covered. It is a false notion that a knowledge of the Bible is the only thing necessary for Sunday-school teachers. Leaders should enthusiastically carry their cla.s.ses past this common "dead-point"

over into the sections on The Pupil, The Teacher, and The School; this special effort to arouse enthusiastic interest in what is to come after the Bible course will often prevent students from dropping out of the cla.s.s.

In all the work "make haste slowly." It is more important to get the work done well than it is to get it done in a given time.

Charts of Paul's Journeyings

From "A Chart of Paul's Journeyings," Arnold, Published by The Sunday School Times Co.