The church school

Front matter

IPxe -Clmrc

; Salterft '^ttKeara

Class _J

Foreword

This volume is the outgrowth of a commission report on "The Correlation of the Educational Agencies of a Local Church" presented at the Cleveland meeting of the Religious Education Association. This report awakened widespread interest. As chairman of this commission the writer has received many requests for details of organization and nature and content of curriculum suited to the various periods of unfolding childhood.

The introduction of courses in religious education into colleges, seminaries and city institutes has created a demand for textbooks which will open up the whole field and direct the students to the literature and material now accessible.

This volume is not an attempt to assemble the popular practices in the church schools of our times. The author believes that nothing is practical which is not founded on the best educational theory. The great need of the church schools of our day is leadership capable of evaluating practice in terms of well-established theory. Progress in religious education must not be a matter of accident — the chance survival of that which works. Trained specialists, having at their disposal scientifically-equipped labora-

[vii]

tories endowed liberally for research, must guide practice.

Eeligious pedagogy is the youngest of all the offshoots from general psychology. Very much is yet to be discovered, but there are already many results from the fields of general psychology and the psychology of religion which may be taken over into the field of religious education.

This volume is an attempt to give religion the advantage of the scientific research that has done so much to increase the efficiency of secular education. It accepts as its fundamental proposition the doctrine of growth. It believes that every child is God's child from the beginning, capable of growth and unfolding until he "attains unto the perfection of the Father.' ' It seeks those methods by which a child may "grow up a Christian and never know himself to have been otherwise." It seeks to find not what is being done, but what should be done to attain the desired end.

The theories herein advocated have been put to practical test under the author's observation. He believes that the principles of the church school set forth in this volume must be put into operation in every community which seeks the religious culture of its youth. This program will cost money and it will require trained leadership, but it will produce results.

The author wishes to acknowledge his obligation to all who have contributed toward the completion of this volume. Special acknowl-

[ viii ]

edgment is due to Dr. E. D. Starbuck, of the State University of Iowa, who has read the manuscript and given invaluable suggestions; and to Miss Grace Jones, Professor of Methodology in the School of Eeligious Education, Drake University, for her valuable assistance in both the library and the laboratory while this volume has been in preparation.

The author sends this book out with the hope that it will be helpful to that rapidly increasing body of religious workers who seek to give the practices of the church school the support of sound educational theory.

Waltee S. Atheaen.

Des Moines, Iowa, April 4, 1914.

[ix]

Contents

I. Functions, Activities and Program . . 1

Reference Books on Principles of Education . 8

II. The Need of Correlating the Educational Agencies of the Church . . 10 The Present Condition of the Church's Educational Organizations — No Definite Purpose for Organizations — The Overlapping of Similar Work — The Faithful Few Overworked — Much Needed Educational Work Omitted — The Lack of Supervision — The Lack of Correlation — The Absence of Promotions — Summary- Bibliography 23

Chapter I Functions, Activities And Program

1. Functions

The functions of the church school are, (a) to develop intelligent and efficient Christian lives consecrated to the extension of God's kingdom on earth, and (b) to train efficient leaders for all phases of church work.

The church that fails to provide a school for the training of workers for its various activities will be forced to call into leadership men and women who are unprepared for the duties they are asked to perform, and the work of the church will suffer as a consequence. Efficient church work demands trained leadership, and training for leadership is one of the functions of the church school. It follows that the church school must be as comprehensive as the church itself.

2. Activities

The activities of the church school are (a) teaching, and (b) worship.

In insisting that the church school shall become a real school we must not forget that it is a. The piace to be a religious school. It will difthe chwch p in f er from tne Public school not only school in the content of the curriculum, but

also in the place of worship in the program. Its methods will be scientific, its teaching will be thorough, its atmosphere will be surcharged with religion. The songs, the prayers, the order of service, the attitude of teachers and officers will give an emotional coloring to the facts of the lesson that will make them always differ from facts presented under different circumstances. The simple law of memory — that things held before the mind at the same time tend afterward to suggest each other — holds true of emotions as well as of sensuous imagery. An object revived in memory not only recalls other objects, but it recalls also the emotions experienced when the objects were first presented to the mind. Biblical facts, to have value as religious truths, must be associated with emotional responses, and then passed over into conduct so that the subsequent recall of the fact will reinstate the emotion and issue in a godly deed. The lessons in the church school should be taught in an atmosphere of reverence, and every lesson should close with prayer, the teacher lifting the facts of the lesson over into the realm of feeling and tying them to the shies so that these facts will forever differ from all other facts in that they will reinstate a religious feeling and inspire a religious act.

FUNCTION AND PROGRAM

When all one's experiences have been lifted into the presence of God, one will live and move and have his being with the consciousness of God as an ever present fact.

The teaching act must include both instruction and expression. It is now generally beb. The place lieved that all consciousness is mo- ?n the P chur° C h tor — that nothing comes in through school -fl^ senses that does not tend to

pass out through the muscles. Not only do bodily acts follow upon consciousness, but each act performed reacts upon consciousness, "carrying with it a sense of reality and a feeling of appropriation and possession.' ' The reaction from the physical expression makes the act real. In the words of Stratton, "The feeling of what is occurring in our veins and muscles rolls back upon the mind and gives the mental state definiteness and 'body.'" 1 In other words, an object ceases to be "foreign' ' and becomes a part of one's self as soon as it has passed into his consciousness through the motor process. It is then vitally a part of the actor.

James recognizes two important aspects of the content of consciousness. He speaks of the concrete as "substantive" elements of consciousness, — facts of color, loudness, sharpness, which we call sensations. These are relatively passive, static elements. Besides these concrete elements the mind contains also less con-

1 Experimental Psychology and Its Bearing upon Culture, p. 269.

crete, " transitive ' ' parts, "fringes," relations or links, snch as sameness, causation, etc. An object is the same as another, cansed by something, liked or disliked, chosen or rejected. These aspects of consciousness give a sort of universality to experience, while the concrete sensations seem transitory and more or less accidental. These aspects arise when the mind crete, "transitive" parts, "fringes," relations is actively doing something with the sensation. These aspects, once created, make the object a part of the self and it is always thereafter imaged in terms of the self. It is the constructive activity which makes knowledge a part of the self.

God will be a "foreigner" until some act of prayer, or worship, or service makes him a part of the self. ' ' Faith apart from works is dead, ' ' and "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching" seem to recognize the connection between activity and belief. We not only learn to do by doing, but we also learn to know by doing.

A sense of reality and identity with the self will only attach to those facts which have been dynamically acquired. Children may come to know about God from verbal memory of facts and precepts, but children who are really to know God as a personal presence, in whom they are to "live, move and have their being," must do something with God. They must use him in the performance of their daily tasks. The sense of the presence of God thus acquired will

FUNCTION AND PROGRAM

give the mystic's assurance of reality which logic and argument can never overthrow.

The church school must undertake two types of expressional work, as follows :

T eg of (1) There must be a response to

Expressional the instruction given which will fix the facts presented in the consciousness of the pupil. There must be no impression without a corresponding expression. The lesson story must be told back to teacher or parent. The map must be drawn or modeled as well as seen. This requires individual response on the part of each pupil. The teacher must hear pupils recite, as well as present new truths to them. He must be provided with blackboards, maps, charts, models, work tables, etc., and he must require composition and notebook work, map making, modeling and handwork appropriate to the subject and the pupil.

In addition to vitalizing the truth taught, expressional work of this kind adds an interest and a charm which can be secured in no other way. " Every child born in the image of the Father finds his highest joy in creation. In education we have learned that if we would best develop the royal H's, the Head, Heart and Hand, it is necessary to provide materials which, with high effort and much love, may be fashioned into simple objects of beauty." 1

(2) In addition to the type of response which will fix the lesson in the mind of the pupil, there

1 Seegmiller, Primary Hand WorTc, p 7. [5]

must be another type which will carry the lesson over into life habits. The curriculum must pass over into conduct. It is not enough to give the pupil what James calls the systematic resonance; we must also give him what Hirn in his " Origins of Art" calls the social resonance. The story of the Good Samaritan must be retold, visualized, written in a notebook and thus fixed in consciousness, but the child's experiences must also be so organized that he will live the story of the Good Samaritan in his daily life. He must know how it feels to act his ideals in the presence of his fellows. To this end the church school must connect up with the home, the day school and the community. In another chapter we shall point out the need of a correlation of the educational agencies of a local church.

Secular education does not separate the class-room from the laboratory, and the church must no longer divorce instruction and expression. Habits of religious expression are formed just as other habits are formed, and the church must give religion the benefit of all the research in psychology and pedagogy which is so rapidly improving the methods of the public schools.

The arguments which have given us the graded church school curriculum must also give us graded worship and graded expression. A child must be taught to live a full life in all the world he knows ; and as his world grows larger his religious life should keep pace with his ex-

FUNCTION AND PROGRAM

panded horizon. In the chapters of this volume dealing with the departments of the church school an attempt has been made to point out types of expressional work suitable to the various stages of unfolding life. The efficient administration of an educational program demands emphasis on the fact that religious expression is a part of the process of religious teaching. It must follow that the organizations that have sprung up as agencies for the expression of religious life must be correlated with the church school and that one board of officers must administer both sides of the educational program. "When a student is promoted from one department of the church school to another, he should pass by virtue of the promotion into all phases of the work of the new department. At the close of the Senior course the school should make it a part of its business to see that each student is actively identified with some of the adult organizations of the church.

If the activities of the church school are teaching and worship, and teaching consists of instruction and expression, it is clear that the program of all departments of the church school must consist of three parts : worship, instruction and expression. The program would arrange these parts as follows :

a. Period of real and reverent worship, suited to the age, experience and needs of the department.

b. Period of instruction. This is the regular class period. The graded lessons will suit the subject matter to the capacity and needs of the students.

c. Period of training for and in Christian service. This period of the program will take the place of the Junior, Intermediate and Senior Societies now meeting under separate management.

These three periods can be united into one exercise lasting from one hour and a half to two hours. This arrangement secures the attendance of all who are in the church school upon all the expressional services suited to their years. It secures a correlation of instruction and expression, and makes possible a unity of supervision that prevents the overlapping of agencies.

REFEBENCE BOOKS ON PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION

Bolton, Principles of Education, $3.00. Charles Scrib-

ner's Sons, New York.

Henderson, Text Book in the Principles of Education,

$1.75. The Macmillan Co., New York. Klapper, Principles of Educational Practice, $1.75. D.

Appleton & Co., New York.

Thorndike, Educational Psychology, Vol. 1, $2.50.

Teachers' College, Columbia University, New York. McDougall, Introduction to Social Psychology, $1.50.

John W. Luce & Co., Boston.

Home, Psychological Principles of Education, $1.75. The

Macmillan Co., New York.

MacCunn, The Making of Character, $1.25. The Macmillan Co., New York.

FUNCTION AND PKOGKAM

Baldwin, Development and Evolution, $2.60. The Macmillan Co., New York.

Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study, $1.25. The Macmillan Co., New York.

Thomson, Heredity, $3.50. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

Seashore, Psychology in Daily Life, $1.50. D. Appleton & Co., New York.

Coulter and others, Heredity and Eugenics, $2.50. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Galloway, The Principles of Religious Development, $3.00. The Macmillan Co., New York.

Bagley, The Educative Process, $1.25. The Macmillan Co., New York.

Hartshorne, Worship in the Sunday School, $1.25. Teachers' College, Columbia University, New York.

Coe, Education in Religion and Morals, $1.35. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York.

Coe, The Spiritual Life, $1.00. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York.

Starbuck, The Psychology of Religion, $1.50. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.

King, Education for Social Efficiency, $1.50. D. Appleton & Co., New York.

Starbuck, "Hopeful Lines of Development of the Psychology of Religion," in Religious Education, Vol. 8, pp. 426-429, December, 1913.

Athearn, "Contribution of General Psychology and Pedagogy to Religious Education," in the Sunday School Encyclopaedia. Thomas Nelson and Sons, New York.

Bushnell, Christian Nurture, $1.25. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.

CHAPTEB II

THE NEED OF CORRELATING THE

EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES OF

THE CHURCH 1

In order to know whether closer adjustment is needed between the Sunday school and the i The Present var i° us young people 's societies of condition of the local church, there should be an

the Church's 7 . .

Educational examination 01 existing organiza-

Organization ° ?

tions with reference to their purpose, methods and condition. One of the most fruitful sources for such investigation is through questioning a number of representative churches, as it is assumed that other churches would reveal approximately the same conditions. For this purpose, a questionnaire was sent to the pastors of one hundred churches. The list was confined to churches within the Missouri Valley, in order that climatic and other general conditions might be similar. Ten different Protestant denominations were represented in the list, in order that all methods of organization might be included. Churches were selected which ranged in membership from twenty-six

1 An extract from an unpublished thesis prepared under the author's direction by Mr. Koy L. Thorp, B.D., a graduate student in religious education.

COBKELATION OF AGENCIES

to two thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, or about two hundred and fifty members on the average, and were located in the country, in villages of varying size, in towns and in cities. This was thought necessary in order that the needs of the smallest and the methods of the largest might be known. One-half of the pastors replied by filling out regular blanks and the rest through personal interviews. Some of the questions did not apply to all the churches and naturally some answers are too indefinite to be of any value. Conclusions have been drawn only from definite answers given. The following list of questions was used :

1. What is the membership of your church, Sunday School, Young People's Societies, Senior Endeavor, Intermediate, Junior, Brotherhood, missionary societies, prayer meeting and other organizations!

2. What is the main purpose of each organization in your church scheme, e. g. prayer meeting?

3. What has been the success of each organization in attempting to realize that purpose; the Sunday school, e. g. ?

4. List the activities of your organized Sunday-school classes.

5. Do organized classes tend to increase or decrease attendance and effectiveness in Young People's Societies, etc.?

6. Are there instances where similar lines of work intended for the same group of people overlap 1

7. What needed educational work for any age is omitted?

8. What plan of program and library equipment have you for your missionary societies' study?

9. Do you have a system of promotion in your Sunday school, Young People's Society, etc.?

10. How many take part in prayer meeting, Young People's Societies, etc.?

11. What supervision, if any, has the church over its various organizations?

12. What system has the church for using people trained in organizations ?

13. What plan and course have you for Teacher Training?

14. Use the back of this sheet to record any experiment you have made to increase effectiveness in any organization.

In response to the first question, there were reported 24,827 church members, 17,100 in Sunday school, 3,304 in Young People's Societies, 406 in Intermediate societies, 888 in Junior societies, 969 in men's organizations, 3,576 in women's missionary societies and 1,472 in prayer meeting. There were a few other groups of various kinds, but not enough to consider in a general study. This shows that the enrolment of the Sunday school is 68 per cent of the membership of the church. Considering the number of children in Sunday school, this means that much less than half of the church's constituency is receiving such vital training as

CORRELATION OF AGENCIES

the Sunday school claims to give. Considering the number of adults in the school, it means that there are less than one-half as many of the oncoming generation in training for the work of the church as are now in the church. Either the church's membership will be reduced, or it will be made up of a great number who have not had the advantages of early training for Christian work.

Compared with the church membership the Young People's Society has 13.31 per cent; the Intermediate, 1.63 per cent; Juniors, 3.55 per cent; Brotherhoods, 3.89 per cent; missionary societies, 14.40 per cent and prayer meeting, 5.75 per cent. All these organizations combined have a membership of only 42.78 per cent of the church membership. Inasmuch as the same people are in a great number of these organizations, it is evident that a very small percentage of the church membership is being cared for.

Each organization claims for itself a great field, but surely the field is not being cultivated. Probably less than one-fourth of the membership of the church is definitely allied with some organization aside from the Sunday school, which seems by far the strongest department. One might say that this percentage is unfair, as not all the churches in the list have all the organizations. It is true that they do not, but this only indicates that a great host in our small churches are not receiving what the larger ones claim to have. Since the combined membership [13]

in small churches probably exceeds that in the larger, the defect of our present system is evident, for a church of less than two or three hundred members cannot carry on all these forms of activity successfully.

Question two revealed general conditions rather than specific ideas. Many of the written

xt ^* • answers on "the purpose of each

Purpose for organization' ' left the question entirely blank, while others only gave a general purpose to include all. When asked in interview as to the purpose of certain groups, such as Young People 's Societies, many pastors seemed dazed for a moment, and then some said, "Well, the same as all Young People's Societies, — what is that?" Some frankly admitted that they had no definite purpose in mind, and others seemed to search their mind for what they had read from the founders or promoters of such movements. No matter in what way they answered, only a small percentage of the pastors showed any definite purpose for each organization, or that these societies had any definite aim, which they were holding as their goal. Instead, pastors seemed to have found them in the churches they entered, and considered it their duty to keep them going, or else they were started because they had them in other churches. This lack of definite purpose would naturally spell failure, even if the original aim of the founders were the highest.

Answers as to "success" revealed something

CORBELATION OF AGENCIES

of the same nature. The difficulty is that one cannot determine the criteria by which success has been measured. Where the purpose was indefinite, they could not measure by that, yet this class reported the greatest success, even if the figures denoted otherwise, while those seemingly more successful were the most modest in their statements. Those who realize their problems are working on them, realizing the distance of their goal. More hopeless are those who do not realize their problems and are satisfied with merely keeping up appearances, while many indicate a spirit of self-satisfaction.

A great difficulty in our present system seems to be an overlapping of similar types of

Th ov r wor k designed for the same group lapping of of people. Thirty-four churches

Similar Work i i -i • i n

reported no overlapping, most or these being smaller churches where there were few organizations. Fifteen mentioned an overlapping between Sunday-school classes and Young People's Societies. Most reports did not show much activity in organized Sunday-school classes aside from boosting the class enrolment, which would have no effect on Young People's Societies. If they are carried on by the plan of the International Sunday School Association, there must be an overlapping. The social committees of both are supposed to look after the social life of the members. Each has a missionary committee to interest the members in missions. The Sunday-school class has a devotional committee corresponding to the prayer

. [16]

meeting committee of the Young People's Society, and class prayer meetings are urged. Other committees belong to both, such as flower, citizenship, lookout, etc. Six report a decrease in effectiveness while eleven, by dividing the work, felt that they helped one another.

Men's classes and Brotherhoods have the same problems, and many have combined these into one organization. Four report the prayer meeting and Young People's Societies as overlapping. This is especially true in many small churches where the older people take part in Young People 's Societies, and the two meetings are carried on in precisely the same fashion. It is also true that few young people attend prayer meeting. Six report an overlapping in attempts at missionary work between societies, or Sunday-school committees and societies. Nine others mention some form of overlapping.

Even this does not tell the whole story, for there is a great drain on a few people for dif-

The Faith- f eren t sorts of work. Eight volunfui Few over- teered the statement that a few are in all organizations. One said, "The prayer meeting attendants are the best all-round church workers.' ' The question is, whether they are the best all-round church workers because they attend prayer meeting, or vice versa. The faithful feel that it is their duty to attend all meetings, and indeed their presence is necessary. Imagine the Sunday schedule of one who teaches a Sunday-school class, attends morning church service, superin-

COEEELATION OF AGENCIES

tends the Juniors, helps with the Intermediates, attends Teacher-Training Class, Senior Endeavor and evening service. Such is known to be the case with some, and many lack only one or two of these services. Add to this one's Sunday work and is it any wonder that many break down under such a strain?

In comparison with these people, note the modern pastor, especially in the smaller churches. He is expected to be present at and give life to nearly all meetings. One leading pastor said, ' ' The modern pastor is expected to be a machinist instead of a preacher. It takes all his time to oil the machine and nurse infant organizations. ' ' It is often true that only through the pastor's attention and assistance some organizations keep alive. Such being the case, his study must be neglected and he cannot constantly give a masterly message, for the wider a thing is spread out, the less the depth in any one place.

Another serious handicap in our present system seems to be that a great amount of needed

.. . XT . educational work is omitted. Here

5. Much Need-

work d oSit°e n d al a £ am we cann °t expect our answers to reveal all needs, for the pastor who realizes such needs will be supplying them as fast as possible. Yet there were only six who said no additional work was needed, while sixteen mentioned missionary education. The bulk of this work is being attempted through women's societies. Their success must be limited, since only seventeen report any missionary libraries whatever, and twenty-three having societies stated that they had no library. It seems strange, also, that there is no such work attempted for men. If there be such, it is a rare exception. This puts intelligent giving to missions on a cheapened basis, for men, who are used to dealing in hundreds of dollars and on whom the major support of all church enterprises rests, are left uninformed, excepting from an occasional missionary sermon.

Six wanted something such as an Intermediate Young People's Society, six wanted Junior Societies and one wanted something for the motor side of all below the Senior. Since only 1.63 per cent and 3.55 per cent respectively of the church membership are being taken care of in any expressional life, it seems that much is needed in Young People's Societies, or something that will take care of this vital side of human nature. Nine expressed a need of Teacher Training, and we find that only thirtythree of the one hundred churches mention any provision for this need. Eight felt that the young people were not given the right sort of work to line them up for the church. Three expressed the same need for young men and four for the older men. It is a great problem to get everyone into some definite church work, yet one of the most important. Sixty-five churches report that they have no system for this. Many societies claim to train for service, and yet when they are through training no task is given

COEEELATION OF AGENCIES

them. One church assigns visiting, one has its young people run a mission Sunday school, and three have their membership divided into neighborhood companies with workers in each company.

Thirteen others expressed various desires such as education for social service, sex education, library equipment, church history, church management, boys' club and Christian giving. Seven were modest enough to say they needed everything, or, as one said, "much every way." Nineteen others spoke of efficiency in existing organizations as the most needed thing. Probably nearly all these expressions of need might be applied to a large percentage of churches, which are entirely wanting in any degree of efficiency.

It is probable that if we were to test the attempts that are being made by a high standard of efficiency, even the aforesaid would be a modest statement. Present weakness is not exaggerated by these statements, for pastors will not overstate this side of their work. This indicates that the problem of religious education is far from solved, and makes us wonder that the church has accomplished so much.

The weaknesses named above are not so difficult to understand when we note the lack of 6. The Lack of supervision reported. Especially supervision i s ftri s true of overlapping in one place and omission of needed work in another. Thirty-nine said their church had no supervision of organization, and nineteen others made no report of any. Six mentioned no supervision but the pastor's. Seven churches of the Methodists and United Brethren report supervision by a Quarterly Conference. This gives an opportunity for conference on the work of various departments and is better than no such communication, yet this plan seems to approve rather than direct the order of working and the choice of the leaders in various departments. Five Presbyterian and United Presbyterian churches report supervision by a Session made up of church and department officers. One pastor said this was only nominal supervision, checking a bad move rather than originating and promoting a good one. Three churches elect their Sunday-school officers and four others nominate them, but other organizations seem to be independent. One church board elects the Sunday-school superintendent ; another has a Sunday-school board meet with them, and one board has a representative from each organization. Two churches approve all officers and two require reports. One board has a Sunday-school Committee ; two churches elect all officers, and one of these operates all societies, having only one treasury for the church.