The teaching of Bible classes, principles and methods; with special reference to classes of young men and boys

Contents

PAET ONE

THE TEACHER: HIS WORK, QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION.

PAGE

Part Three The Lesson: The Teacher's Approach To The Student

PAGE

XIII. Adaptation 83

XIV. Method 90

XV. Reviews 96

XVI. The Art of Questioning 102

XVII. The Art of Questioning (Concluded) 109

XVIII. The Art of Illustrating 115

XIX. The Art of Illustrating (Concluded) 124

XX. The Lesson Study 130

XXI. The Teaching Plan 137

Part Four Final Survey

XXII. The Teacher's Relation to the Individual

Student 145

XXIII. The Teacher's Mistakes 152

XXIV. Jesus as a Teacher 160

XXV. Examination 170

INTEODUCTION ,

In this book are presented the notes of a course of study pursued by classes of young men under the leadership of the writer for several seasons. The leaders of over fifty other classes in different parts of the United States and Canada have used these notes in manuscript or pamphlet form, and from them now comes the request for their publication.

No claim for originality is set up for the contents of this book. An effort has been made to assemble from a somewhat wide field of reading material on the principles and methods of teaching which seems to be within the range of the average teacher of Bible classes for men and boys.

These notes are intended then for the average teacher upon whom, under our present economy, dependence must be placed for the leadership of the largest number of our Bible classes. It is the purpose of this book to make a simple statement of the elementary principles of teaching in so far as they are applicable to biblical instruction. The writer has assumed to be a middleman between some of the writers of the extensive literature of the subject and some of those busy people who are charged with the important duty of teaching biblical truth to our young men and boys. For this reason a considerable number of Illustrative Quotations have been introduced, and while full references are made to the sources of the material here presented for the use of those who can and will take the time to read widely on the subject, these quotations are offered for those who have not the time to read them in their original setting. The writer hopes that he will not be regarded as reflecting too

Vii

Viii INTRODUCTION

severely on his own work in stating that he regards these quotations as the best part of the book.

The needs of teachers of Bible classes for young men and boys have been especially borne in mind. The emphasis has been naturally laid in books concerning religious instruction on the characteristics of childhood and early adolescence. This is the time of character forming, and attention to religious culture during this period is in the nature both of wise construction and prevention. Attempts to make up in later life for deficiencies of education at this period must be in the nature of the case more or less pathological and corrective. And yet there must be a psychology of later adolescence to which a larger degree of attention should be given than has been bestowed upon it for the sake of those who have not had wise training in earlier years. In the selection of material for this book, this need has been kept in the foreground.

One of the crying necessities of the Church and its allied organizations to-day is for trained Bible teachers. The training has a twofold aspect, looking towards a larger grasp of the subject and a better method. Such training should be marked by an endeavor to furnish comprehensive, historic, biblical knowledge, and by an endeavor to inculcate approved methods of conveying this knowledge to others. These two elements by the plan here proposed are carried along at the same time in a training class of teachers who devote a portion of the lesson period to a study of the principles and methods of teaching as outlined in these pages, and another portion to the study of a common Bible lesson which is to be taught by them during the ensuing week to classes of which they themselves are teachers. By this method the members of the training class are not only prepared to teach an individual lesson, but are familiarized with the principles which will help them in the instruction of any lesson.

PAET ONE

THE TEACHER: HIS WORK, QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION

I. WHAT IS TEACHING?

Teaching has three principal objects : The communication of knowledge, the stimulating of the activity of the student, and the development of character. As applied to the instruction of Bible classes therefore teaching has for its objects the impartation of scriptural truth, the awakening of the mental and spiritual activities of the student, and the rounding out of his life.

1. The communication of knowledge. This is the primary object of teaching, and whatever stress may be laid on the other two objects must not be construed as detracting from the importance of this aspect of teaching. Nothing can take the place of the information that comes through the process of teaching. No amount of enthusiasm or exhortation can make up for the absence of the knowledge that must be the foundation of all true character. Especially is this true of the knowledge that comes to the student through the Bible. This has an inherent value that does not belong to any other subject of instruction. "Ye shall know the truth/' says Jesus, "and the truth shall make you free."

2. Stimulating the activity of the student. The communication of knowledge, however, is only a part of the teaching process. The imparting of items of information like the passing of tangible commodities from one hand to another does not constitute instruction. "Teaching is not telling." The self -activities of the student must be aroused. The work of learning is an unfolding process. There is that in the student which awakened and quickened by the act of teaching develops the truth from within. This is the meaning of such definitions as these:

"Teaching is simply helping the mind to perform its function of knowing and growing." — Laurie.

"Teaching is the process hy which one mind from set purpose produces the life-unfolding process in another." — Tompkins.

"Teaching is enabling another to re-state the truth in the terms of his own life." — DuBois.

"To teach is to cause to learn." — Jacotot.

"Teaching is causing another to know." — Hart.

One of the best definitions of teaching is found in the prayer of the Psalmist, "Open thou my understanding." In this view of teaching the teacher is a wise guide of the active processes going on within the student. There is much that the student may and does learn without a teacher. Think of all the knowledge that comes to one without the active co-operation of any teacher. One of the most important duties of the teacher, therefore, is to stand guard over the activities of the student and give them wise direction. Dr. John Dewey says, "I believe that the teacher's business is simply to determine on the basis of larger experience and riper wisdom how the discipline of life shall come to the child."

The value of this process of self-activity is very great. Dr. Thomas Arnold of Rugby said that "the effort a boy makes is a hundred times more valuable to him than the knowledge acquired as the result of the effort." Dean Stanley says of the teaching method of Dr. Arnold that it "was founded on the principle of awakening the intellect of every individual boy." Two advantages will result from this method of teaching: First, the knowledge secured by it will make a more vivid impression and will be longer retained in the memory. When a boy was shown a globe and manifested surprise that the earth was round, he was

WHAT IS TEACHING? 3

asked : "Did you not learn that in school ?" "Yes," he replied, "I learned it but I never knew it." Second, the pro^ cess implies a mental and spiritual training, a development of the powers of the student, which could not be secured through the mere communication of knowledge.

The teaching of students in the Bible contemplates the awakening, not only of their intellectual activities, but of their spiritual activities as well, the quickening of spiritual processes, the stirring of spiritual faculties, which will enable the student to grasp and appreciate spiritual truth.

3. The development of character. Teaching has for its object, not only the communication of knowledge, and the stirring of the mental and spiritual activities of the student, but the development of character as well. Teaching eventuates in education. It may be well, therefore, to glance at a few definitions of education :

"The adaptation of a person, a self-conscious being, to environment and the development of capacity in a person to modify or control that environment." — Butler.

"Education has to do with the development of power, or faculty, and aims at a full, harmonious realization of the normal capacities of man." — Sully.

"Education is any process or act which results in knowledge or power or skill. Education is a more comprehensive term than teaching, and teaching more comprehensive than instruction." — White.

"Education is such a preparation of the individual in physical, intellectual and moral capacities as will enable him to secure the highest enjoyment from their use here and hereafter." — Eoark.

"Education cannot be better described than by calling it the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behaviour." — James.

"Education is the process of development or drawing out the faculties of the individual man and training for the various functions of life." — Wickersham.

"Education is not the training of the mind but the training of the man." — Huntington.

"The object of education is the realization of a faithful, pure, inviolate and hence holy life." — Froebel.

The significance of that teaching which results in education is apparent in these definitions. Teaching is regarded as having to do with the life of the student, and with his whole life. Knowledge is communicated, the mental and spiritual faculties are awakened, not for the value that the knowledge or the awakening have in themselves, but for their reflex influence on the daily life of the student. When asked what Oxford could do for its students, Prof. Jowett replied, "Oxford can teach an English gentleman to he an English gentleman."

Especially is this true of the teaching of the student in the Bible. That teaching of the Bible class which results only in intellectual knowledge of the contents of the Bible, or in awakening the curiosity of the student concerning its statements, has fallen far short of its greatest efficiency. "Thy word have I hidden in my heart." "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ? By taking heed thereto according to thy word/' These are the legitimate uses of the knowledge that comes to the Bible student. The chief object of Bible teaching is the molding of character. Burton and Mathews have truly said that "it cannot be too strongly or too often affirmed that a merely intellectual, non-religious study of the Scriptures is not only spiritually unfruitful but unscientific."

REFERENCES FOR READING.f

*The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp 2-3; 81-94. *TeacMng and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 5-34. Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 29-32.

Psychology in Education. Roark, pp. 13-15.

tSee appendix.

WHAT IS TEACHING? 5

Elements of Pedagogy. White, pp. 133-136. Principles of Religious Education. Butler, pp. 3-7. Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton and Matthews, pp. 3-9.

My Educational Creed. John Dewey, pp. 3-9. (15 cents.) Unconscious Tuition. F. D. Huntington, pp. 3-4. (15 cents.)

ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS.

What argument and appeal and exhortation wholly fail to accomplish, can, with some minds — perhaps to a certain extent with all minds — be accomplished little by little through instruction, conveyed either in the exposition of teachings or in the study of history, and especially of biography. And, in the second place, it must certainly be acknowledged that the most solid results in character cannot be obtained except upon a broad foundation of knowledge. Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton and Mathews, p. 7.

Knowledge cannot be passed from mind to mind like apples from one basket to another, but must in every case be re-cognized, re-thought by the receiving mind. All telling, explaining, or other acts of so-called teaching, are useless except as they serve to excite and direct the pupil's voluntary mental powers. The teacher is a sympathizing guide whose familiarity with the subjects to be learned enables him to direct the learner's efforts, to save him from the waste of time and strength, or needless or insuperable difficulties, and to keep him from mistaking truth for error. But no aid of school or teacher can change nature's modes in mind work, or take from the learner the lordly prerogative and need for knowing for himself. The eye must do its own seeing, the ear its own hearing, and the mind its own thinking, however much may be done to furnish objects of sight, sounds for the ear and ideas for the intelligence. The Seven Laws of Teaching, Gregory, pp. 82-85.

Religious nurture, as well as general education, is development by self-expression. It is the unfolding of a divine germ present from the beginning in the child-personality. It is training within religion, not merely preparation for it. Religion of a Mature Mind. Coe, p. 317.

The teaching of the Sunday-school must aim directly at the acquisition of knowledge of the Bible on the part of the pupil. But none the less consciously must it aim at the attainment of that moral and religious result which belongs to the school because it is a part of the work of the Christian church. The central element in the school cannot remain unaffected by the ultimate purpose for which the institution itself exists. The teaching of the Sunday-school must seek as its ultimate aim the conversion of the pupil and his development in Christian character. Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton and Mathews, p. 5.

Christianity assumes, I take it, that the end of religious education is never mere knowledge of learning, but to bring the individual into life — the largest, richest, highest life; and that life it conceives to be the sharing of the life of God — his character and joy. John thus reports Christ as saying: "I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." The Psychology and Pedagogy of Religion. Proceedings of Religious Education Association, Vol. I., p. 68. — Henry Churchill King.

The primary principle of education is the determination of the pupil to self-activity — the doing nothing for him which he is able to do for himself. — Sir William Hamilton.

Unfortunately, education amongst us at present consists too much. in telling,, not in training. — Horace Mann.

THE TEACHER'S QUALIFICATIONS,

II. THE TEACHER'S QUALIFICATIONS

The teacher has a twofold relation : One to his subject, and the other to his student.

1. Relation to the subject. In the teaching of Bible classes, the subject is the truth of the Scriptures, and of this the teacher must have as complete and intimate knowledge as he can secure. Nothing will take the place of such knowledge — no amount of enthusiasm, no earnestness of appeals, no knowledge of the principles of teaching.

He must have a knowledge that extends far beyond the scope of the particular lesson that he is teaching, for that lesson bears a relation to the whole range of biblical truth, and the significance of the individual lesson can only be determined by its relation to the whole. Keeping just ahead of the class will not suffice.

His knowledge of the subject must be more than intellectual. It should be of a kind that has taken hold of his own life. He should have reached a spiritual apprehension of the knowledge that he is trying to communicate. He should have attained that spiritual discernment without which Paul tells us that "the things of the spirit of God are foolishness to a man." The teacher's knowledge of his subject should be of the kind that possesses him. It should weigh him down as a burden until it is transferred to another. As one has well pointed out, the teacher must not only know that which he would teach, but, if he is true to his office, he must also teach that which he knows. "Woe is me," said Paul, "if I preach not the Gospel."

2. Relation to the student. The teacher bears a relation not only to his subject but to his student as well, and the latter is no less important than the former. Many teachers become so absorbed in their own enjoyment of the subject that they forget the bearing of the subject on the student. Mr. H. Thiselton Mark tells us that he once knew of an old gentleman concerning whom there was a tradition that he always closed his eyes when he was teaching, and that he became so wrapt up in his subject that the boys in his class were able to slip away and leave him to pour forth his lesson to almost empty benches. The teaching process may be represented by a triangle, one side of which stands for the subject, another side for the student, and the third, connecting the other two, standing for the teacher. Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the direct connection between teacher and student, which shall not be broken by the subject. That teacher had come to a realization of this fact, who, when he was asked by a friend if he was teaching Latin, replied, "No, I am teaching boys." So of the Bible class teacher, it might be said that he is not teaching the Bible but boys or men — the Bible. For after all, it must be borne in mind that even the Gospel is a means to an end, and while it is the word of life, it is also the channel through which the influence of the teacher's personality is to be conveyed to the life of the student.

The relation of the teacher to the student has several aspects :

(1) The teacher must have a knowledge of the student. To use a common expression, he must know human nature. His knowledge should extend to the physical, the mental, and the spiritual characteristics of each of his students, to the environment of their daily lives, and the ambitions and purposes that control their actions. Neither should this knowledge be merely intellectual. It should not consist of a curious observation of the mental or spiritual traits of the student. Prof. James says that he cannot too strong-

THE TEACHER'S QUALIFICATIONS. 9

ly agree with his colleague, Prof. Munsterberg, when he says that the teacher's attitude toward the child being concrete and ethical is positively opposed to the psychological observer's which is abstract and analytical.

(2) The teacher must be an example to the student. He must be the bodily personification of the subject of his .. instruction, what Paul calls "a living epistle." Carlyle replied to a young man who wrote to him that he expected to be a teacher, and asked him for his advice : "Be what you would have your pupils be." A high school principal of my acquaintance made it a rule in the selection of teachers to choose only those whose personal character he wanted his students to emulate, this rule being based on the fact that character is chiefly influenced by example working through unconscious imitation. Of Lord Chatham it was said that everybody felt that there was something finer in the man than anything that he said. Emerson doubtless had some such thought as this in mind when he said, "What you are speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say." It is especially true of the Bible class teacher that he should be an embodiment of his own teaching, for, as we have seen, his chief object in teaching should be the development of the character of his students, and nothing so vitiates the force of his instruction as a recognition, which is generally quick and keen on the part of the student, of elements in the life of the teacher that do not conform to the spirit of his teaching. Nothing will so conduce to this end as the cultivation of a Christ-like character by the teacher. He should try to make it possible for the student to look through him to Christ. Not in such a supreme degree can the teacher say, as Jesus said, "Follow me," but this should be his objective. Paul said, "For though ye should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers : for in Christ Jesus I begat ye through the Gospel. I beseech you, therefore, be ye imitators of me."

(I Cor. 4:15-16) ; and again, "Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ." (I Cor. 11 :1.)

(3) The teacher must be a friend of the student. This belongs to the sphere of the "Teacher's Other "Work than Teaching." To be a true friend of the student the teacher must enter into the life of the student outside of the class session. He will need to know the temptations to which the student is subjected in every-day life, the kind of home in which he lives, the companions with whom he fellowships, the ambitions and motives that master him.

(4) The teacher must be a teacher. It would be well if he were a natural teacher, one who, even in the absence of a knowledge of the formal principles of teaching, has the native ability to inculcate knowledge, and inspire to a search for the truth. If he have such native ability, none the less he needs to have the knowledge of the principles of teaching to which reference will be made later. If he have it not, there is all the greater reason why he should apply himself to the acquirement of those principles which, whether consciously or unconsciously used, go to make successful teaching.

REFERENCES FOR READING. *The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 16-27. * Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton and Mathews, pp. 10-12, 22-24, 98-102.

How to Teach the Biole. Gregory, pp. 24-29. Unconscious Tuition. Huntington, entire essay. Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, Part II.

ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS.

What the teacher knows he must teach. There is an inborn need and desire in man for expression. It is the instinctive impulse to tell in some way, by word or action, our thoughts and emotions so soon as they become vivid and intense enough. It is the teaching passion. "While I was musing the fire burned ; then spake I with my tongue." Other motives and impulses may mingle and aid, but this is primary and fundamental. The hot heart — hot with visions and discovered truth — forces speech, or teaching which is better than speech. The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 16-17.

THE TEACHER'S QUALIFICATIONS. n

The teacher must master the lesson material until it possesses him, until he is his message and, in some measure, he can say as our Master, who is the Supreme Teacher, "I am the Truth." The Bible Record. Wieand.

Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them because they are spiritually judged. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. /. Cor. 3:14-16.

It is axiomatic that the teacher who gains no spiritual help from his study will impart none in his teaching. If his method of study is such that it brings him no uplift or strength, it can hardly have a different effect upon his pupil. Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton and Mathews, p. 22.

A teacher's study of his every scholar is quite as important as his study of his every lesson. Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 49.

There is vastly more zeal and enthusiasm among religious teachers for Bible study than for the study of human life, for which the Bible was given. Biblical Material Adapted. George E. Dawson, in Proceedings Religious Education Association, Vol. II., p. 74.

The old-fashioned schoolmaster was supposed to need just two qualifications — knowledge of the subject, and ability to maintain discipline. Everything and everybody was taught in the same way, without regard to age. To-day a competent teacher must add at least one other qualification; he must understand the stage of the pupil's growth and adjust methods of instruction thereto. The educational process is to be carried on from the standpoint of neither the teacher nor the subject, but from that of the child. The inner side of the pupil's life, his spontaneous interests, his characteristic ways of getting at things, constitute laws for the educational process. The Work of a Boys' Department. George Albert Coe, p. 35.

In most situations — in none more than a school — what a man is tells for vastly more than what he says. Nay, he may say nothing, and there shall be an indescribable inspiration in his simple presence. Unconscious Tuition. Huntington, p. 38.

A teacher's spirit, a teacher's character, a teacher's atmosphere, and a teacher's life impress and influence a pupil quite as much as a teacher's words. Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 32.

The Sunday-school teacher is not simply a teacher. His religious influence on the pupil ought not to be limited, cannot be limited, to that which he brings to bear through the knowledge of the Bible which he imparts, or which the pupil under his instruction gains. He is, or ought to be, the friend and pastor of the pupil as well as his instructor. Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton and Mathews, p. 98.

A teacher inevitably influences more by what he is seven days in the week, than by what he says one day in the week. Teaching end Teachers. Trumbull, p. 272.

THE TEACHER'S PREPARATION 13

III. THE TEACHER'S PREPARATION

The teacher's preparation for his work should extend both to the matter and the manner, to the substance and the method of his teaching.

1. The teacher's preparation in the subject-matter of his teaching may be regarded in its general and in its special aspects :

(1) The teacher's general preparation extends over his whole life. This is what Lyman Beecher intended to convey when he replied to the question, how long it took him to prepare a certain sermon, "Twenty years." The earnest teacher will make all sources of culture and discipline contribute to his efficiency as a teacher. Here all the knowledge that he secures from whatever source, whether from literature, the sphere of his daily calling, or his association with men, will come into play, and the accumulation of years will go into the efficient teaching of a single lesson. He will seek a knowledge of the Scriptures as a whole, and to that end he will not be satisfied with a study of the more or less fragmentary lessons of the series of studies which he may be conducting, but will engage for himself if necessary in a systematic and thorough course of biblical study, even though such a course may require years for its completion.

(2) The teacher will give special preparation to each recurring lesson. Even though it may be familiar ground over which he is expected to lead his class, he will familiarize himself afresh with it, remembering that the essential element in teaching is not the perfunctory communication of knowledge but the transmission of the message of the lesson surcharged with the teacher's own personality. The biographer of Phillips Brooks tells us that Dr. May, one of his instructors in theology, was a 'saintly man, whose conscience did not extend into the sphere of scholarship ; it did not invade the province of church history. His sense of fidelity as a teacher was not disturbed by his cutting the leaves of a new text-book in the very presence of the class who were reciting from it. When a young teacher asked President Garfield, then a professor in Hiram College, the secret of his power, he said, "See to it that you do not feed your pupils on cold victuals." The necessity of making a fresh impression in order to the greatest effect on the student, the limitations of the lesson period calling for the economizing of time, and the presentation of the most salient suggestions of the lesson, the nature of the subject-matter, having to do with the supremest interests of the student's life — all these and other considerations call for the most thorough and renewed preparation of each lesson by the teacher.

2. The value of the teacher's preparation in the method of his teaching should not be underestimated, least of all by the teacher. President Eliot in his inaugural address in 1870 said, "The actual problem to be solved is not what to teach but how to teach." The effect of the best subject-matter is oftentimes lost for want of a proper method of presentation. Emphasis on method need not be construed into a lack of appreciation of the necessity of the very best personality in the teacher. Dr. White in his Elements of Pedagogy has truly said that "the more scientific a system of teaching may be the more essential is the teacher." On the other hand, doubtless many a teacher of masterful personality has succeeded in spite of an objectionable method. These considerations, however, do not lessen the importance of method in teaching.