An outline of a Bible-school curriculum

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Preface

That the Bible school has been an important factor in the moral and religious training of our children and young people is a fact freely admitted by the more discerning students of our national life. In spite of its neglect by professional educators, a neglect which is not easily accounted for, and the peculiarly difficult conditions under which it has had to do its work, much has been done for the formation of Christian character in the thousands who have come under its influence. That the work of the Bible school, judged from a teaching standpoint, has not been of a high character must be admitted even by its most ardent supporters; but that it has been one of the great moral influences in oui: land all must concede.

Within the last few years there has been a deepening interest in the Bible school, and in other institutions and agencies for moral and religious training, which has finally resulted in the formation of the Religious Education Association, whose object is " to promote religious and moral education." From this association much is hoped for, and the time seems not far distant when the problems connected with moral and religious education shall be clearly defined, and many of them satisfactorily solved.

vi Bible-School Curriculum

It is with one of these problems, that of a pedagogical curriculum for the Bible school, that this book deals, and the attempt is made to indicate the principles which should govern in the preparation of such a curriculum, and to outline courses of study for the various grades in the Bible school which shall be in harmony with those principles. A general outline of the curriculum here presented was published in the August, 1900, number of the Biblical World, together with a fuller development of the topics and lessons for Primary Grade C. In two later issues of the same periodical, November and December, 1903, two articles were published, giving in full the outline of work for the Kindergarten Grades A and B, together with suggestive lesson plans for each grade, and reference and supplemental literature for teacher and pupil. My thanks are due to the editors and publishers of the Biblical World for permission to use this material in practically an unchanged form. A number of students of the school, in connection with their work in pedagogy, have assisted in the selection and arrangement of material for a number of the lesson plans presented, and for such help my thanks are due to Miss Alice S. Browne, Miss Mary G. Cone, Mrs. Frank P. Lane, Miss Mary E. Merriam, Miss Martha J. Taylor, Mr. Robert Scott, and Rev. Adams D. Archibald.

Preface vii

The author hopes that what is here presented may be helpful to those earnest, intelligent superintendents who are alive to the radical defects of the present system, and who are willing to test by actual experiment whatever gives promise of better results; and, further, that it may be suggestive to other students and workers in this important educational field.

George W. Pease.

Hartford School of Religious Pedagogy.

Introduction

THE MODERN BIBLE SCHOOL

Its Place and Plan

The Course of Study

PAGB

§ I. Its Place and Plan • • • 3

§ 2. The Course of Study 11

§ 3. The Trained Teacher • • • 90

§ 4. A Suggested Plan of Organization • • • • • 24

Chapter II. A Course of Study for the Kindergarten

§ I. Outline of the Course for Grade A . . . • 48

§ 2. Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade A . . • 50

C. Song Material for Grades A and B . . 63 § 4. Outline of the Course for Grade B . . . . 64 § 5. Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade B . . . 66 § 6. Books Relating to the Work of Grade B . . . 76

Chapter IV. A Course of Study for the Primary

§ I. Outline of the Course for Grade C . . . . 92

§ 2. Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade C . . . 94

§3. Books Relating to the Work of Grade C . . . no

A. Reference Reading for the Teacher . . no

B. Supplemental Reading for the Pupil . . no § 4. Outline of the Course for Grade D . . ... in

§ 5. Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade D . § 6. Books Relating to the Work of Grade D

B. Supplemental Reading for the Pupil § 7. Outline of the Course for Grade £ . .

§ 8. Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade E . § 9. Books Relating to the Work of Grade E .

PACK

Chapter V. Some Characteristics and Needs of the Period 141

Chapter VL A Course of Study for the Junior Department

§ I. Outline of the Course for Grade A . Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade A . Books Relating to the Work of Grade A

B. Supplemental Reading for the Pupil Outline of the Course for Grade B .

Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade B . Books Relating to the Work of Grade B

B. Supplemental Reading for the Pupil Outline of the Course for Grade C .

Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade C . Books Relating to the Work of Grade C

B. Supplemental Reading for the Pupil Outline of the Course for Grade D . . Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade D . Books Relating to the Work of Grade D

§2. §3.

§4. §5. §6.

§7. §8. §9.

§ 10. §11. § 12.

Table of Contents

XI

Chapter VIII. A Course of Study for the Intermediate Department

§ I. Outline of the Course for Grade A . Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade A . Books Relating to the Work of Grade A

B. Reading and Reference Books for Pupil

Outline of the Course for Grade B . . Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade B . Books Relating to the Work of Grade B

B. Reading and Reference Books for Pupil

Outline of the Course for Grade C . . Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade C . Books Relating to the Work of Grade C

B. Reading and Reference Books for Pupil

Outline of the Course for Grade D .

Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade D . Books Relating to the Work of Grade D

B. Reading and Reference Books for Pupil

§2.

Id.

§4. §5. §6.

§7.

§8. §9.

§ 10.

§11.

§ 12, the the the pagb 219

344 244

245 345 248 277 277

378 278 280 289 289

290 290 292 300 300

PART IV the early MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD PERIOD AND THE SENIOR DEPARTMENT

Chapter IX. Some Characteristics and Needs of the Period 305

An Outline

of a

By

George William Pease

Professor of Pedagogy in the Hartford School or Riligioui Pxdagogt

QUDUA7E SCHOOL OF EDUPk1|^|

Copyright, 1904 By The University of Chicago

November, 1904

PREFACE

That the Bible school has been an important factor in the moral and religious training of our children and young people is a fact freely admitted by the more discerning students of our national life. In spite of its neglect by professional educators, a n^lect which is not easily accounted for, and the peculiarly difficult conditions under which it has had to do its work, much has been done for the formation of Christian character in the thousands who have come under its influence. That the work of the Bible school, judged from a teaching standpoint, has not been of a high character must be admitted even by its most ardent supporters; but that it has been one of the great moral influences in oui; land all must concede.

Within the last few years there has been a deepening interest in the Bible school, and in other institutions and agencies for moral and religious training, which has finally resulted in the formation of the Religious Education Association, whose object is " to promote religious and moral education." From this association much is hoped for, and the time seems not far distant when the problems connected with moral and religious education shall be clearly defined, and many of them satisfactorily solved.

PA6B 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE MODERN BIBLE SCHOOL

§ I. Its Place and Plan ,

§ 2, The Course of Study i x

§ 3. The Trained Teacher 20

§ 4. A Suggested Plan of Organization 24

Chapter II. A Course of Study for the Kindergarten

§ I. Outline of the Course for Grade A . . . . 48

Suggestive Lesson Flans for Grade A . . . 50

C. Song Material for Grades A and B . . 63 Outline of the Course for Grade B . . . . 64 Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade B . . . 66 Books Relating to the Work of Grade B . . . 76

Chapter IV. A Course of Study- for the Primary

§ I. Outline of the Course for Grade C . . . . 92

Suggestive Lesson Plans for Grade C . . . 94

Books Relating to the Work of Grade C . . . no

A. Reference Reading for the Teacher . . no

B. Supplemental Reading for the Pupil . . no Outline of the Course for Grade D . . ... iii

§2. §3.

§4. §5.

§2. §3.

§4.

been decided by the highest courts in several of our states that the present laws of the land do not admit of such instruction being given. There is needed, then, to make our educational system complete, an effective agency for securing to the child his religious inheritance, and for developing his religious instinct into clear religious insight and unwavering faith. The church in its Bible school seems to furnish this agency. Not the Bible school utterly lacking in system which we find in so many places; not even the so-called graded Bible school of the present, with its loose classification, its uniform-lesson system, and its untrained teachers; but the Bible school organized and conducted in accordance with those sound educational principles which have made our modem public schools so successful. But if this ideal is ever to be realized, the church must no longer regard its Bible school as "the nursery," nor as one of its missionary enterprises, but must consider it as a most important educational institution, and must adequately provide for it as such. The Bible school of the future which shall perform the distinctively educational functions of the church will be a carefully graded school. By this term " graded," now loosely applied to any school having more than one department, I mean a school in which four principles will be recognized and applied.

1. The pupils will be carefully classified with reference to general mental ability, the grade a pupil has reached in the public school being one of the criteria for determining his place in the Bible school. Although it will never be possible to classify in our Bible schools as thoroughly as we classify in our public schools, still, so far as possible, mental capacity should be the determining factor, and age, size^ and social position should be only secondary considerations. In such a school there will be a number of departments corresponding to the developmental periods of the pupils, each of these departments being divided into grades, in each of which the pupils remain one year; and the various grades will include a number of classes dependent upon the size of the school. In this way minds of the same general capacity, with the same general interests and needs, will be grouped together, and the work of the teacher from an educational standpoint will be made much more effective.

2. The lesson system will be one in which there is unity, but not uniformity. The matter will be carefully selected with reference to the mental powers, the fundamental interests, and the spiritual needs of the pupils in the different departments, and the lesson work of the various grades and departments will be so related that the lesson system, covering a period of seventeen years, from four to twenty-one years inclusive, will be a unit, progressively revealing the character and works of God to the expanding soul of the child. Modern pedagogy has thrown aside the method of Procrustes, and is now seeking a clear knowledge of the nature and needs of the child that the truth may be selected and fitted to him; and when our Bible schools become real schools^ working in harmony with recognized principles of teaching, this Procrustean method,, now so common in them, will also disappear.

3. The method of lesson presentation will be adapted to the intellectual development of the pupils. This will win and hold the attention of the pupils, enable them to assimilate the matter presented, and thus lay the foundation of an intelligent Christian life. One of the reasons why more of our young people are not in our Bible schools today is that the subject-matter is not presented in a way to secure their active mental co-operation; their interests are not aroused, the imagination is disregarded, the judgment is not called into play, little appeal is made to the reasoning powers. The religious inheritance is a part of our spiritual inheritance, in which all are deeply interested ; for man is above all else a religious being; and the treasures of this inheritance, if carefully selected and presented at the right stage and in the proper way, will surely call forth

Introductiox 9

the highest intellectual activity, arouse the strongest feelings of interest, and inspire to the noblest type of action. In the primary classes of our schools the results are somewhat better, for more attention has been given to this department, and the teaching has been more closely adapted to the child nature; but even here there is much room for improvement, which will be brought about only by a more thorough study of the child and the best methods of presenting truth to him.

4. There will be regular advancement or promotion from grade to grade through the various departments of the school. Such advancement will not only be an incentive to do satisfactory work in order to obtain the certificate indicating work done, but will bring the pupils from time to time under the inspiring influence of new teachers, who have become efficient by confining their study and work to that department for which their natural tastes and abilities seem to fit them. It is undoubtedly very delightful, from a purely sentimental point of view, to have a class from the kindergarten grade to the adult department, and to watch the pupil's growth in the Christian life ; but the wisdom of the plan may be seriously doubted when looked at from the educational standpoint. If it is best for the boy or girl, in passing from the kindergarten through the primar}', grammar, high school, and college to the lo Bible-School Curriculum

university, to be instructed by different teachers, each an expert in one department or subject, it certainly seems wise that this same boy or girl, while passing through the various grades of the Bible school, should come into personal touch with different types of Christian character, and be taught by those who are by nature, training, and experience efficient instructors in particular departments, that the life may be well rounded and all its possibilities brought to light. Until we have this advancement of pupils with change of teachers our Bible schools will be lacking in educational efficiency.

In thus indicating the principles involved in a graded Bible school, classification of minds, selection of instruction matter, adaptation of method and promotion of pupils, it must not be understood that they have not been recognized by students of Bible-school work in the past, and to a certain extent applied to existing schools; but if the church school of the future is to fill the place here indicated for it, these four principles must be much more generally recognized and more extensively applied.

Such a school, with its carefully organized departments and grades, its curriculum prepared by educational experts in accordance with the accepted principles of education, its methods closely adapted to the varying capacities of its

Introduction ii

members, with its pupils advancing annually from grade to grade, and taught in each grade by teachers trained for the special work of that grade — such a school is today an educational necessity. When the church is fully aroused to its duty and opportunity in this direction, and adequately equips and properly maintains its educational department, then the Bible school will become the complement of the public school, and together they will send forth into the work of the world the man of culture, the man of efficiency, the man of power.

§ 2. THE COURSE OF STUDY

One of the greatest present needs of the Bible school is a course of study constructed upon sound educational principles, which shall put the pupil in possession of the elements of his religious inheritance as he passes through the various departments of the school from the primary to the adult department; which shall win him to an acceptance of the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, and make of him a loyal disciple of the world's Savior, Jesus the Christ. The preparation of such a curriculum is a difficult task, and will require much time and experimentation ; but it is a task which must be undertaken by educators in behalf of the church. Speaking of the duty of students of pedagogy to the work of religious instruction. Dr. A. Caswell Ellis says:

The provisional arrangement growing out of the abuses of religion and the other necessities of the time, by which religious training has been divorced from the schools and considered beyond the pale of pedagogical science, must soon give place to the inevitable demand of nature. However useful such a separation has been in bridging over periods of retrogression and bigotry in both religion and pedagogy, pennanently to keep religious and secular education separated is doing violence to our souls and trying to tear apart what is by nature one. The old faculty psycholog3' is gone, a brighter era of religious toleration seems near, and now pedagogy must accept and own her whole field and face its problem of religious education squarely. To yield it longer to the theologians or to special providence is a criminal shirking of duty.*

Whether or not we agree with the writer's views concerning the relation of religious and secular education, we shall certainly agree with him in the emphasis which he has laid upon the obligation of pedagogical science to religious training, which obligation must be clearly seen and definitely accepted by educators at the present time.

The church, on the other hand, must not hesitate to call to her aid the skill and learning of Christian educators, for

This work is one that demands more of expert and highly trained intelligence than at present can be found within the ministry of the church. As in the creation of her cathedrals she calls to her aid those who have been trained as architects and builders, and in her worship those whom God has inspired with the gifts of music and song; so in

* Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. V, p. i95- the education of her children the church may well command the service of those whose lives have been consecrated to the ministry of education, and whose minds have been inspired with that gift of God's Spirit by which they are called to rightly divide the words of knowledge and truth. Indeed, it is by so doing that the church will prove herself faithful to that most sacred trust of guiding the youth into the truth and knowledge of God.'

In the preparation of a course of study for the Bible school which shall measure up to our pedagogical standards three factors must be constantly kept in mind: (i) the pupil, (2) the subject-matter, and (3) the ideal or ends sought.

I. The pupil. — In these modem times it is a pedagogical truism to say that the material of religious instruction should be selected with reference to the powers, interests, and needs of the pupil. The child passes through distinct stages of development from birth to adulthood, each stage being characterized by the dominance of certain mental powers and interests, and presenting certain moral and religious needs which must be supplied, or else the later life will lack in strength, in breadth, and in power. The planner of a lesson system, then, must know the nature of the pupils who will be found in the various departments of a school, and select his lesson material with reference to their mental powers, to insure the possi-

"Rev. Pascal Harrower in Principles of Religious Education, pp. 126, 127.

bility of a proper understanding of the lesson; with reference to their interests, to insure attention to and assimilation of the truths presented; and with reference to their moral and religious needs, that each stage may be lived out completely as a preparation for the next one.

2. The subject-matter. — As the pupil passes through the various stages of development, his interests widen and his needs become more complex. The curriculum, then, must be comprehensive, to touch him on all sides ; must meet his widening horizon^ must be rich in content, to supply fully every need, and not confined to any one aspect of divine revelation; else the life may become one-sided or narrow. For this reason we should not limit our choice of lesson material to biblical matter, as is done in most, if not all, of our present lesson systems (although this is the most important source), but should also select suitable material from the wonderful revelation of God in physical nature (phenomena of life and action) and in human nature (history and biography), especially from those portions of the latter which reveal most clearly the meaning and progress of God's kingdom on earth. But in thus selecting material from these various sources care must be taken that the whole is not made a mere patchwork. The complete course of study must be progressive and interrelated. It is the assimilated truth that has a value in character-building, and this assimilation of the new presentation is the function of the related old mental content The entirely new — i. e., that which is entirely unrelated to any part of our mental content — is unassimilable, and hence what is presented from week to week and month to month must be progressively presented to be readily assimilated. One of the greatest defects of our present system is the lack of this progression and interrelation. Fragments are taught with scarcely an attempt to tie them together. This results in loss to both the teacher's energy and the pupil's time. But even more important than this interrelation of the parts of a course of study is the relation of the various elements of such a course — geography, biography, history, poetry, prophecy, etc. — to vital truth in such a way as to give a setting and support to that truth. Unless we have such a relationship, our efforts will result simply in informing the intellect and not in developing a Christian character.

3. The ideal or ends sought — In the preparation of a Bible-school curriculum we must have more than a knowledge of the powers, interests, and needs of the developmental periods; more than a Icnowledge of the sources of revelation to serve as guides in the selection and arrangement of material. It is necessary that we have a clear view of the ends sought in religious training. These ends are four in number:

a) To give a knowledge of religious principles. Man is a religious being. Brinton in his Religions of Primitive Peoples says :

The religiosity of man is a part of his psychical being, lii the nature and laws of the human mind, in its intellect, sympathies, emotions, and passions, lie the well-springs of all religions, modem or ancient. Christian or- heathen. To these we must refer; by these we must explain whatever errors, falsehoods, bigotry, or cruelty have stained man's creeds or cults ; to them we must credit whatever of truth, beauty, piety, and love have glorified and hallowed his long

search for the perfect and the eternal The fact is that

there has not been a single tribe, no matter how rude, known in history or visited by travelers, which has been shown to be destitute of religion under some form.*

The religious conceptions and forms of worship of these primitive peoples are untrue, extremely crude, and even grotesque ; but as we rise in the scale of civilization we find a corresponding refinement in religious ideas and modes of expression. This religious instinct, or " religiosity " of nature as Brinton calls it, is a part of the child's inheritance from the race, and his early theological conceptions closely parallel in many respects those of primitive peoples. As this part of his nature develops, he needs help in forming right concep-

* Quoted by Butler in an article in Educational Review, December, 1899.

tions of God and His relations to man, and intelligent guidance to those vital principles, those living truths, which shall set him free and enable him to actuaUze completely his potential manhood. The matter of instruction, then, must be selected partly with reference to such right conceptions and vital trutlis.

b) To develop a keenness of ethical vision. It will not suffice that the great principles which should govern conduct are known ; there must be a direct connection between these known principles and the particular occasions calling for their application. In other words, a mere knowledge of governing principles will be of no value unless the pupil has that ethical insight which shall enable him to see clearly the application of those principles to actual concrete cases as they arise in his own experience. In the story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness we are impressed with this fact that Jesus not only knew the principles contained in the three verses which he quoted, but that he also had that keen insight which showed him that the three temptations were specific occasions for the application of those principles or truths. This ethical sense must be developed in the child by presenting to him concrete cases involving ethical problems, and guiding him to their solution ; i, e,, the child must be led to do his own moralizing. The matter of instruction, therij must be selected partly with reference to the ethical problems which it is desirable to present to the pupil.

c) To win the affectional nature to high ideals. It is possible for one to have knowledge of principles of right conduct, and insight into the application of those principles to daily life, and yet not to live in accordance with such. If living is to follow knowing, the feelings, the springs of action, must be enlisted on the side of the truth. Interest is the feeling side of voluntary attention ; we are interested in what we attend to ; we attend to what interests us. Ideas associated with strong feelings tend to discharge themselves in action. Therefore, if we would have righteous action follow righteous knowledge, we must associate in the pupil's mind strong feeling with the new ideas presented. The ideals which are presented, then, must be such as shall arouse the feelings, that the pupil may not only be attracted to these ideals as such, but also that he may be impelled to actualize them in his daily life. The ideals which appeal to the developing individual in the various stages of development are different for each period. The matter of instruction, then, must be selected partly with reference to the appeal which it will make to the feelings, and the method of presentation must be such as to win the affections to the truth.

d) There is yet another end in all religious training — the development of power. Power comes only through action, through service. Our Bible schools are weak in this respect, that they do not offer many opportunities for the development of power through service. This weakness is due partly to the system of organization, partly to the lack of co-operation between the school and the home, and partly to the unpedagogical selection of instructional material. The testimony of Josephus to the Mosaic plan is pertinent here. He says:

For there are two ways of coming at any sort of learning and a moral conduct of life ; the one is by instruction in words, the other by practical exercises. Now, other lawgivers have separated these two ways in their opinions, and, choosing one of those ways of instruction, or that which best pleased every one of them, neglected the other. .... But for our legislator [Moses] he very carefully joined these two methods of instruction together; for he neither left these practical exercises to go on without verbal instruction, nor did he permit the hearing of the law to proceed without the exercises for practice.^

Although the great need here is the co-operating home, the school must do what it can to bring about this development of power. One condition is in its power to fulfil : it can provide in its course of study a selection of such truths as have an active side, that can be put into immediate practice in the home and social life of the pupils. In the