Sunday-school problems; a book of practical plans for Sunday-school teachers and officers

Preface

If you are looking in this book for a systematic treatment of the subject, for big words and philosophical analyses, I am afraid you will be disappointed.

But if you want to know what practical Sundaj^-school workers have found helpful in solving the principal problems of their work, I hope you will be aided by these pages.

This book is a record of my thoughts and observations on the Sunday school during the past seven years. Its various chapters have already enjoyed, separately, a wide reading. They have appeared in The New Century Teacher, The Sunday -School Times, The Pilgrim Teacher (Congregational), The Baptist Teacher, The Westminster Teacher (Presbyterian), the publications of the British Sunday-School Union, and addresses before various Sunday-school conventions, the American Bible League, and the Religious Education Association.

Whatever may be said of those that discuss the Sunday school from the outside, I am sure that the actual teachers of the Sunday school are interested far less in theories and criticisms and profound disquisitions on "the Sunday-school movement," than in the very humble

4 PREFACE

but infinitely important question, how to get Bible wisdom into Tom Jones and Susie Brown. This book says nothing, I believe, about " the Sunday-school movement." It is just about Tom and Susie.

Amos R. Wells.

Boston,

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. HOW TO GET HOME STUDY 7

II. THE LAST FIVE MINUTES 16

Chapter I How To Get Home Study

What complaint is most frequently heard from the Sunday-school teacher ? Undoubtedly this : " I can't get my scholars to study at home." And that is a pretty serious complaint, if the teacher desires to teach, and not merely to lecture ; to educate, not harangue. Of course, much good may be done the scholars, and the school is well worth while, though Bibles are never opened at home, and all the class learns about the lesson is what their teacher tells them ; but Sunday-school efficiency is doubled or quadrupled if home study prepares a foundation on which the teacher can build.

Creating an Appetite. — Nor is the object of home study merely to gain information ; that is where many teachers fail in their efforts to obtain it. One important function of home work is to create a zest, an appetite, for the work of the school. No teacher will persuade his scholars to study the lesson by scolding them. In some way, home study must be made attractive. The element of play must enter it. We have none of the imperative motives which the secular schools can bring to bear upon their students, but must make up the lack by ingenuity and skill.

Plan for It. — It is essential, then, that the Sunday-school teacher plan carefully for the home study of his scholars, as carefully as for his own work in the class. Every week he should present some device, not always, though often, a different one. Beginning with slight, easy tasks, let him go on to more difficult work; but from the start — and here is where many teachers fail — it must be something quite definite, and something that is evidently worth while, no mere answering of a set of leading questions.

Follow It Up. — Any attempt to bring about home study will be useless unless it is followed up, regularly and persistently. Call for the results of it the first thing, at the beginning of every lesson. While home study is becoming a habit, it would be worth while to give each scholar a postal card, on which, the middle of the week, he will send the teacher a report of his work. A record of the scholars' faithfulness in this regard should be kept explicitly. Indeed, it will help greatly if this matter is recognized each Sunday in the secretary's report to the school, so that the scholars may know how many have studied at home the past week, and for what average and aggregate time, and what improvement is being made. At the end of the year, if such home work as I shall suggest is carried out, the school will have ample material for a notable exhibit, interesting to the entire church, and a fine advertisement for Bible-study.

Helps. — It is useless to require home study until the scholars have Bibles ; and almost useless unless the Bibles are of clear, large type. If they are the Revision, the scholars' pathway will be wonderfully smoothed. But

HOW TO GET HOME STUDY 9

they will also need the helps that come with a teacher's Bible, especially the atlas, the references, and the index. As to the concordance, that feature in a teacher's Bible is so condensed as to be more of an aggravation than an aid. By all means, every scholar that can afford a full concordance and a Bible dictionary should be induced to purchase them. For the others, a little class library may be kept in the most easily accessible place, and there should be found not only the books already mentioned, but good commentaries on the portion of Scripture the school is studying.

Does any one demur at the cost of this ? Remember, the books will answer for years, and it is as foolish to attempt Biblical studies without text- books as to send your children to the secular schools without grammar, arithmetic, and geography.

Instruction in the use of these helps must be given. Few scholars know how to use the concordance or Bible index, or on what map of the atlas to look for a certain place, or even how to get the most out of their regular lesson helps. An entire session of the school might profitably be spent by the teacher in giving this necessary instruction and drill.

Plain Directions. — It is hardly possible to be too explicit in giving directions for home study. Fix a regular time for this work, so that each of the class may know that, when he sits down for his daily ten or fifteen minutes with the lesson, all the other members of the class, so far as possible, are at the same task. And give the scholars written programmes for their stud} 7 , as : —

1. Intervening events and lesson proper (Bible.)

2. Place (atlas).

3. Time (lesson help).

4. Persons (Bible dictionary).

5. Events (commentary).

6. Teachings (lesson helps, etc.).

7. Scripture light (Bible index).

One of these points may be taken up on each of the seven days of the week, and the lesson may be studied in this order in the class. Such a programme, however, soon grows monotonous, and the scholars will become able to do this fundamental work more rapidly, leaving time, at home and in class, for more attractive advanced work such as I shall indicate.

If possible, interest the parents in this home study. Nothing will better promote the success of your class. In any event, it is an admirable plan for you, once each week, to study the lesson with one of your scholars, taking them in turn. Not only will you thus give them the most needed intellectual help, but you will get closer to their spiritual needs than in any other way. In addition, it will be a delightful stimulus if the scholars themselves meet occasionally at one of their homes, for an evening of study together.

Specimen Studies. — The nature of the special home studies, which are to add zest to your routine work, depends, of course, on what part of the Bible you are studying. If, for example, you are entering upon the life of Saul, set your class to preparing historical charts, showing the Hebrew kings in order, at distances proportioned to the lengths of their reigns. If you are beginning the life of Christ, interest your scholars in constructing

HOW TO GET HOME STUDY 11

charts which will show in order all the recorded events

of his life.

If the lessons lie in the Psalms, get the class to go through the entire book, prefixing a title to each Psalm, or classifying the Psalms under a few suitable heads, such as "Psalms of Praise." The lesson may be one of the miracles. Then have the scholars make a list of the Bible miracles that are akin to it, such as all miracles of healing. A parable may be the lesson theme. In that case the class may be set to writing paraphrases ; or, if any are capable of the feat, they may be asked to tell the story in original verse.

A quarter's lessons lie in Genesis. Ask the scholars to read the entire book, finding a keyword for each chapter. A lesson from Proverbs may contain a maxim regarding money. Induce the scholars to collect the rest of the proverbs that discuss the use of wealth. The choice of the twelve disciples is the theme. Obtain, from this home study, lists of events and sayings which will exhibit all that the New Testament tells us concerning each disciple.

Give your work an air of completeness, of finality. For instance, with the first temperance lesson of the year let each scholar get (or make) a blank book, in which he will copy, during the four temperance lessons of the year, all that the Bible says on this theme. Or, you are beginning the lessons in the life of Samuel. Getting other blank books, the scholars will proceed to compile, as they go on, their own biographies of the great judge, gathering up whatever the Bible or the lesson helps say about him. In the same way the class will make their own lives of Paul, putting in an account of each Epistle at the time when it was written. Some lessons taken from the minor prophets will give rise to another little book, one page being devoted to each of the twelve, the Bible dictionaries being ransacked for all known facts of their lives. At another time, as you draw near to the end of a series of Old Testament studies, the order may be : Prepare a list of all the principal characters of the Old Testament, in their chronological order. In such ways the scholars will be made to feel that they are actually achieving something, completing something.

One of the most profitable lines of home study is the correlation of the Bible, illustrating Scripture with Scripture, making the scholars familiar with the Bible as a whole and not merely with the fragments on their lesson leaves. Thus a lesson from a Bible address, such as that of Moses in Deuteronomy or that of Paul on Mars Hill, will suggest a study of all the orations of the Bible; and this study will extend over several Sabbaths, to be followed, at intervals, by similar studies of Bible poems, Bible letters, and the like. Similarly, the lesson on Elijah's ravens will bring about a search for Bible birds ; and other lessons will lead you to study Bible fishes, trees, mountains, children, mothers, brothers, rivers, and like topics almost without end. With older scholars the object of exploration may be more ethical, and they may be asked to illustrate the main teaching of the next lesson, for instance, by three passages from other parts of the Bible. Or, for work with a still wider range, ask the scholars to bring in next Sunday, each of

IJOW TO GET HOME STUDY 13

them, a set of ten references obtained from reference Bibles and appropriate to the various sections of the lesson, the class to select, by vote, the references that seem on the whole to be the best. By such contrivances as these, frequently varied, you may attach your week's lesson to the rest of the Bible, and make your scholars feel that the entire sixty-six books are one Book.

As the teacher earnestly plans for home study, a great number of devices will occur to his mind. One of the best of these is Bible marking. Some simple system of indicating the subjects of verses, such as by significant letters in the margin, — P for prayer, S for sin, SI for salvation, — prove sufficient to interest your scholars in hunting up correlated texts, and making their Bibles books that can be used.

Occasionally let the teacher prepare a set of questions on the lesson, a set quite full and difficult. Using some manifolding device, prepare a copy for each scholar, as a guide and stimulus to home study. Occasionally, too, and perhaps better, get the scholars themselves to prepare at home sets of questions on the coming lesson, sending them to you by Friday, that you may use the questions on the coming Sunday.

Sometimes, at the beginning of the year, perhaps, let the teacher give each member of his class a blank book, saying, "This is your Duty Book. I want you to write out in it, each week, in the course of your home study, a statement of the duty or duties the lesson inculcates. Bring these books to the class, so that we may compare notes."

Many classes will be interested in making their own

Bible commentaries. For this purpose they will need a lot of blank paper of uniform size. Cutting out the lesson text from their lesson leaves or quarterlies, they will paste it on one of these sheets, writing beneath whatever explanation is needed, prefixing verse numbers to each point taken up. They will be interested in this work in proportion as they are faithful to it, and see it growing till it promises to cover the whole Bible.

If you have many lessons from a single book, as from one of the Gospels, get each scholar to print the name of the book on a blank book, and write inside a running analysis of the chapters. Be sure to have in each book a title page and a preface, the latter to contain an account of the author and the circumstances under which the book was written.

Sometimes ask the class to bring, written out, analyses of the current lesson made under the following heads : Time ; Place ; Connection ; Chief person ; Subordinate persons; Chief event; Subordinate event; Chief teaching ; Subordinate teaching. Use this order in the class discussion.

Often let a review be part of the home study. To insure this you might ask the class, for instance, to write out, and hand or send to you during the week, a full statement of the teachings of the lesson just studied.

I do not think that acrostics are generally practically helpful, though if the scholars themselves prepare them they will promote home study. I do believe, however, in the preparation of diagrams showing the succession of historical events, reigns of kings, and the like, and especially do I believe in home-made maps; for example, a

HOW TO GET HOME STUDY 15

map showing Christ's journeys, a different color for each journey, the events being indicated by numbers with marginal explanations ; or a similar map for Paul's journeys, or one for the various travels and events of Moses' life, or one for the various exiles.

Quite a different line of work, promotive of home study, is the search for illustrations of the lesson truths. It may be a temperance lesson ; send the class to study the newspapers for illustrations. At other times urge them to bring you illustrations from biography, history, the annals of missions.

Bible scrap-books will prove useful in stimulating home study. They will be receptacles for maps and diagrams, for all pictures illustrating the Bible, and for photographs of famous paintings of Biblical subjects. If there is a place for such a collection it is astonishing how rapidly it will grow, and interest in it will grow with equal rapidity.

I have named a variety of methods for promoting home study, and yet I have only begun ; for, like any other line of endeavor, skill in this work and abundance of plans are the fruit of sincere attempts and persistency. We can obtain home study if we want it, and if we will add to our desires a measure of ingenuity, energy, and perseverance.

Chapter II The Last Five Minutes

Ik many Sunday schools it is the custom to ring a signal bell five minutes before the close of the teaching. Whether he like it or not, that bell marks a crisis in the teacher's work. The test of his teaching has come. Now or never he must manage those finishing touches which in the case of his pedagogic effort, as of a statue or a poem, ally it to the endless years, or, failing, send it to the refuse heap of all poor work.

How Not to Do It. — Those precious five minutes must never be spent on Sunday-school mechanics, — collecting the pennies, making announcements, distributing the library books or papers. These should all have been cleared out of the way.

Nor should this climactic time be spent upon any minor detail of the lesson. No matter what interesting fact you leave out, no matter what bright anecdote or telling point you omit, go at once to the main teaching of the lesson, and during those five minutes drive it home.

Yet you will not succeed if you allow an uneasy sense of hurry to dissipate your attention and that of your scholars. They must not be made to feel, " Only five minutes more! " but, " Now for the best ! " If anything, proceed more deliberately than before, since a sense of leisure is necessary for the wisest teaching and the surest learning.

THE LAST FIVE MINUTES 17

Especially, have a carefully matured plan for those last five minutes. If the half-hour's teaching has given you a sudden inspiration for your close, and you are certain it is worth following, follow it ; but such inspirations are far more likely to come if you are prepared against their not coming. For instance, just when that warning bell rings, some anecdote appropriate to the lesson will catch the attention of your scholars and withdraw it from the thought of time ; but you must have it ready in reserve, as a part of your lesson plan.

Not with Homilies. — The most common use of tjf§ last five minutes is in exhortation. That is almost always a mistake. Kestless with the half-hour's steady thought, the class will not be appreciative of sermonettes. It is necessary, if you would hold their attention, to give them something to do. If you can set them to work, and make their own activity of hand and mind draw together the lesson thoughts into some rememberable whole, you will have set a worthy and workmanlike seal on your teaching. It seemed to me that I could not furnish more practical help in this chapter than by suggesting perhaps a dozen ways of doing this.

1. Give each member of the class a slip of paper, and ask them to sum up the teaching of the lesson in a single word — or in two words, three, or ten, as seems best. After all are done, each will read his summary, and you will state which seems the best, and why.

2. Place on the blackboard — and always a large block of paper will answer, if you have no blackboard — some symbol of the lesson. It may be a diagram, a simple picture, a mere acrostic. Explain it briefly ; then hand out pencils and paper and have the symbol copied, and the copies taken home as souvenirs of the lesson. If the paper you give out for this purpose is heavy, and neatly cut into some pretty shape, it will be more likely to be kept.

3. Distribute among the scholars brief quotations from well-known writers bearing on the great truth of the lesson. These will be read aloud one by one, and you will comment, very briefly, on each.

4. Get the class to question you on the events of the lesson, and urge them to press in the queries as rapidly as possible, while you make your answers brisk and brief. At the close, you yourself will ask the one important question, forcing home the lesson truth upon their consciences.

5. Show the class some beautiful picture previously concealed, such a picture as Holman Hunt's " The Shadow of the Cross." Get them to tell you what idea is brought out by the artist.

6. A very impressive method of closing is to give each scholar a personal note, fitting the lesson to his special need. Have these notes read in silence, and then ask that all heads be bowed while you offer a short closing prayer.

7. Every teacher should have his own collection of poems, especially chosen for their helpfulness in illustrating Scripture themes. Choosing from this collection the one best adapted to impress the lesson of the hour, place it in large script before the class, or dictate it line by line, while they copy it. Ask them to commit it to memory at home, and be sure at the next meeting of the class to have the poem recited.

THE LAST FIVE MINUTES 19

8. Prepare a set of questions covering the ground of the lesson. Make them as crisp and interesting as possible. T\ 7 rite them in plain, large script on a big sheet of paper, which you will hang before the class as soon as the five-minute bell rings. Furnish the scholars with pencils and paper, and bid them see who can answer correctly the most of the questions before the close of the five minutes.

9. Print or write on a large sheet of paper some beautiful hymn or some fine prose quotation suitable to the lesson. Unroll it suddenly and place it before the class. Say a word about the author, if you know any fact of his life that adds force to the extract. Then get the class to read the quotation in concert, softly, and again and again, till the thought has thoroughly entered their minds. Close with silent prayer, all heads bowed, the petition being that God will make that truth a part of their lives.

10. Having determined w r hat central teaching you wish to impress, examine carefully the past week of your life, and see if you have not had some experience which illustrates that truth. Study in the same way your scholars' lives, so far as } T ou know them or can imagine them, and search out similarly illuminating experiences. Recall the news of the week, with the purpose of discovering some prominent event that brings out the main teaching of the lesson. From one or more of these sources you can doubtless glean an anecdote that will rivet the attention of the class for these concluding five minutes, and fasten the lesson truth in their minds better than a half-hour's homily.

20 SUJNTDAY-SCHOOL PKOBLEMS

11. Teachers, especially of the younger classes, should make collections of well-told stories that point useful morals. They will serve as standing models for the teacher's style, and also will help by direct use. Choosing one of these that is suitable, spend the last five minutes in reading it before the class (or get one of the class to read it), asking the scholars to listen intently and write out their remembrance of the story as soon as they get home. Give them stamped and directed envelopes in which to mail to you these stories during the week, that you may examine them and read the best before the class on the next Sabbath.

12. Appoint one member of the class to take your place in front, and submit to be questioned on the lesson by all the class. As soon as he misses a question, appoint another to take his place, and so on. As the five minutes draw near their close, tell the class that you also want to ask a question, the most important question of all ; and then proceed briefly to bring out, by a single heart-searching query, the truth you wish chiefly to impress.

13. All of the foregoing plans elicit the interested cooperation of the class; but you will gain and hold their attention very effectively if you can persuade some good speaker to "drop in" on the class just as the warning bell rings, and talk to your scholars for five minutes on the topic which } 7 ou have made your central theme. The class will accept a homily from a fresh speaker when they would not accept it from you.

It will be seen that, if }?ou are to make such thorough plans for these last five minutes, you must not be cheated

THE LAST FIVE MINUTES 21

of them, The superintendent must understand that for no reason are they to be abbreviated. The warning bell and the closing bell must come with most " dependable " regularity.

The ideal use of these five minutes will do five things, — one for each minute. 1. It will grip your scholars' attention, and hold it in defiance of all distractions. 2. It will concisely review the lesson. 3. It will bring it to a climax, a rememberable point. 4. It will apply this central truth to the heart-life of the scholars. 5. It will send them away stimulated, pleased, and wanting to come again. Thus treated, the last five minutes will be the eagerly anticipated crown of the entire session.

Indeed, I might fittingly compare these final five minutes to the arrow-head with its barbs, whereby the arrow makes a permanent conquest. And if I have given too complicated directions for fashioning the arrow-head, I hasten to remind the teacher that only one method, or even a part of one method, is to be applied at once, and continued till it becomes easy and familiar. Your last five minutes may not be pedagogically perfect ; but if you realize their importance and do your best, they will grow constantly in attractiveness and force ; and, anyway, even a clumsy arrow-head is better than a headless arrow.

Chapter III What To Do With Backward Scholars

The backward scholar is the teacher's test. If the teacher brings the backward scholar forward, he is the teacher's triumph. " What thank have ye " if ye make only bright scholars learn? "What do ye more than others ? "

Sympathy. — I suppose the first requirement, if a teacher would help a backward scholar, is that he be sympathetic. You cannot greatly help any scholar, still less a dull one, until you believe in him, and show him that you believe in him. Bemember Sir Walter Scott, and all the rest of the Ions: line of brilliant men and women who were stupid children. Eecognize diversities of gifts, and remember that not all children are cast in the same mold. Courage will be half of progress for the backward scholar, and your courage will be more than half of his.

Comradeship. — Though you are on terms of comradeship with no others of your class, you must be on such terms with the dull scholar. Your immediate pleasure would lead you to have more to do with the more attractive pupil, so that you will need to be on your guard here. Your personal leadership must move the backward scholar forward, and he will not follow your leading unless he likes you.

And so it is a good plan to invite the less ready scholar to your own house, to study the lesson with you ; or, go

WHAT TO DO WITH BACKWARD SCHOLARS 23

to his house for this partnership study. You can show him how to study better in this way than any other, and that is the first thing he has to learn. Besides, with every such lesson you can come into more intimate acquaintance with him.

Along this line, however, the aid of some one of his own age will be worth more than yours. Children quite invariably learn more readily from one another than from their elders — a principle too often left out of sight in secular as well as religious instruction. And so, if you can naturally bring it about, get the brighter scholars to study the lessons with the duller ones. To show them how, have at your home occasional jolly " study bees" for the whole class, and then for some weeks set them to studying two by two, the duller with the brighter so far as you can arrange it, the younger with the older.

There is one great advantage in going to the backward scholar's home to study with him, — you thus become familiar with his home surroundings. Many a poor scholar could be transformed into an excellent one if you could obtain the cooperation of his parents. No teacher can work very long in the homes of his scholars without waxing zealous for a home department of the Sunday school. Establish such a department, make a special effort to obtain the membership of the duller scholars' parents, persistently urge the study of the lesson as a united family, and as by magic your stupid scholars will be changed into earnest and effective pupils.

I have spoken about the need of sympathy with the backward scholar, such sympathy as this intimate knowledge will beget. A backward scholar should never be scolded, in the class or out of it. He should never be told that he is backward. Pie should never be allowed even himself to admit that his abilities are less than his comrades'. Progress will be made through a feeling, not of inferiority, but of power. If you want your scholars to work you must fill them, not with shame, but with interest.

Begin with His Best Points — Find out, therefore, what the backward scholar can do most easily and well, and develop that first. Get him to help you make ready for teaching the lesson. He may be a good penman. Get him to copy out the little question slips or outline slips you hand each scholar as a guide to the next week's study. He may be a fair reader. Find some interestingparagraph or brief article or poem on the lesson, or some phase of it, and have him read it before the class, previously reading it at home. He may enjoy drawing and be measurably expert at it. Set him to preparing some diagram or chart or map for you, or even, if he is sufficiently skilful, get him to copy a picture of some Biblical landscape. He may have many friends. Interest him in the work of obtaining new scholars. He may be ready of speech. Ask him to exhibit to the class a picture or a series of pictures in some book, accompanying them with running comments.