Living at our best; teacher's manual

Contents

CHAPTER p AGE

Introduction. 5

I. Growing Up. 9

Introduction

The following lessons have been developed with a twofold aim in mind.

Everyday living is of necessity the experience of every member of society. There usually arrives a consciousness of one’s relation to society for boys and girls somewhere between the ages of twelve and four¬ teen; a realization that life brings experiences to them not only from within the home and the school but from growing relationships with the community.

It is desirable that this conscious relationship with society should be so presented to our young boys and young girls of early adolescent age that their interests shall be aroused, and their desires stirred to assist in the community life which offers opportu¬ nities in which even the youngest members may share.

We hope, however, to bring before the members of the class a deeper relationship in the experience of everyday living, and w r ish so to present the Gospels’ challenge of the actual “Kingdom of God” that the students shall be convinced that when one is living at his best he is a Christian citizen, trying in his finite way to do the work which the Son of God prophesied should be carried on by his disciples.

During the last two thousand years men and women have tried to live lives of Christian virtue, and poets and essayists have set before them stirring religious literature. We have, therefore, added quotations and excerpts from authors whose in¬ spiration, we believe, is only secondary to that of the Bible. And we have challenged discussion by adding to the lessons groups of questions which should stimulate much informal and, we hope, happy conversation in the hour of recitation.

INTRODUCTION

The Aim of the Course

Our text is divided into three parts. We have chosen the old expression “Health, Wealth, and Happiness” not only because it sums up in brief form that for which man has labored since time began, but because at the present moment these special topics are in the lime-light. Public health has gone so far that physicians and psychologists are working together for health of body and mind and spirit. Moreover, the brilliant economists in our universities have reached the conclusion that wealth includes time and opportunity as well as money. And perhaps the most far-reaching social psychology of the present century is the fact that ultimate happiness is based upon conformity to law and service.

Living at Our Best is no easy task: while each lesson is presented in very simple language, with the discussion of very simple daily acts, the aim is so to present Christ’s social message to these young boys and girls that they will understand his words of advice and his philosophy of life. This task, we say, is not an easy one. It will take consecration and reverence to teach a course the culmination of which is to lead boys and girls into a passionate desire to follow the leadership of the Master.

And we believe that “Faith without works is of no avail.” The year’s study will be worse than no study if at the end we do not see the boys and girls steadily becoming more interested in the kingdom of God and making an effort to partake in social service as an expression of that interest. Living at Our Best should mean a text which not only inspires but works out practical applied Christianity.

INTRODUCTION

Subject Matter of the Course

The chapter titles of the three parts enumerated in the Table of Contents have been chosen with the desire to catch the mind of the students. Be¬ hind the titles lie the great subjects of meeting obligations, reasonable service, obedience, courage, conscientiousness, purity, loyalty, lovingness, for¬ giveness, and sacrifice. These are subjects which the teacher may amplify at her discretion. They lie between the lines of the anecdote and the quota¬ tion. Purposely they have not been thrust upon the boys and girls. The teacher is supposed to be so trained either by education or experience that any little homily upon these great subjects will come from her heart, “for out of the heart are the issues of life.” The teacher, moreover, will be a student of the Bible, and biblical and historical references which are simply touched upon in the text she will without doubt introduce at the psy¬ chological moment.

We ask of the capable teacher that she read the whole text of Living at Our Best before undertaking to teach the lessons. Having gathered a running idea of what the authors have presented, we be¬ lieve that an effort on her part to become an expert on the subject of health, wealth, and happiness is most important. It will be wise for the teacher to obtain from the United States Bureau of Educa¬ tion, Washington, D. C., and also from the Bureau of Home Economics in the Department of Agri¬ culture, the many pamphlets which these bureaus have published in connection with health both physical and mental, and the particularly helpful pamphlets in connection with Home Economics*.

INTRODUCTION

The list of books in the Appendix will help in developing the ideas of happiness and social service.

Materials and Equipment

The class should be provided with Bibles (Amer¬ ican Standard Revised Version), notebooks, pens, paste, and a map of the town in which they live. This map may be built up and developed as various members of the class bring in subjects for discus¬ sion suggested by the Study Topics. For instance, when we ask the pupils to name the men and women they know in their community who are carrying on the wonderful work begun by Jesus in his cures of blindness and deafness there should be marked on the map of the community or the city the hos¬ pitals or the homes for incurables or the headquarters for the district nurses, and so on, emphasizing as far as possible the actual life of the community which is Christlike.

The class may make collections of pictures not only illustrating the people and the buildings that portray the ideas set forth in this text but views which will illustrate also the life of Christ and the surroundings which were daily before his eyes. The city of Nazareth, so full of trade and com¬ mercial enterprise, with the coming of the camels from the desert to meet the traders from the far West, was a city like unto our cities. “Can any good come out of Nazareth?” was said in the days of Jesus Christ. “Can any good come out of our own community?” is the challenge of the twentieth century. It will interest the class to collect from newspapers and magazines pictures of this Eastern world, this Jewish environment, and compare with pictures of some modern cities.

Chapter I Growing Up

The teacher at the outset should appeal to the members of the class by assuring them that from now on they are to be taken seriously—that at their age the teacher believes that the growth of body and mind which has developed so rapidly in the past year or two makes it possible to discuss the experiences of living together in the community. The text says that “Your increased stature is making you ‘safe for the world’ because, with your increased strength has come a self-control that makes it comfortable and enjoyable to live with you.”

Aim.—In other words, the teacher takes the class into her confidence. If it seems wise the teacher will read the brief story which is told of the Boyhood of Jesus, when he too was twelve. The story is told farther along in the text, but there is no reason why the teacher should not use it at this particular moment when she is encour¬ aging her pupils to meet their obligations to make a study of everyday living, just as did the boy Jesus when he went in to the Temple to talk of his own personal obligations to his heavenly Father.

The teacher should emphasize far more vividly than the authors this period when one grows so fast both physically and mentally that not only one cannot have but a single suit of clothes at a time, but even storybooks are thrown aside for new and older stories, because of our changing interests. This “Growing Up” can be made very fascinating, and the pupils can return to their homes after the first chapter has been presented in Living at Our Best with a feeling that they too, like Jesus, may “increase in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.”

Centers of stress.—The purpose of this first chapter centers in the thought that by the time we are twelve years of age we should be subject to our conscience, and that though a boy or girl of twelve or thirteen is still very young, with the old poet Ben Jonson we can say:

“In small proportions we just beauty see;

And in short measures life may perfect be.”

This chapter will probably be taught too early for the football games, but football heroes and basket¬ ball heroines are well known in the public schools and throughout the community. It will be possible, there¬ fore, to follow up this discussion with examples un¬ til the teacher has established sufficient interest.

“Taking care of yourself” is another thought which needs discussion; and “The ability to talk like a gentleman,” or like a lady for that matter. Here, again, the more informal and frank the dis¬ cussion, the more able we are to lodge in the mind of a class the thought that responsibility for finer and stronger daily living is part of the respon¬ sibility of growing up. Then, again, on page 18, the question of “becoming subject to” is another topic which needs much elaboration. Sharing in the family hospitality as a social obligation may be altogether new to many members of the class. The teacher has a splendid opportunity at this point to emphasize the matter of courtesy and social culture.

GROWING UP ii

Procedure.—If the members of the class each have a textbook, this opening chapter may well be read aloud by the different members of the class. Especially if the books have but just been given out and there has been no time for study. The paragraphs may be broken in order that discussion may take place where a sentence challenges ques¬ tion and answer. It might be of advantage for the teacher to read the whole of such a paragraph aloud first and then have it reread in parts by the boys and girls with immediate discussion taking place. For instance, “A lithe body”:—at once this gives an opportunity for the class to discuss some splendid leader on the football team who is not so big and strong physically as an opponent, but whose wit and daring and very “liveness” itself has made him a success.

Application.—Our ten Study Topics following the memory quotation open up different avenues for discussion. After the topics have been thoroughly gone over, the relationship between the text and the topics of the chapter will not only be seen, but, in a measure, the application of both text and topics will be better understood. The class will be able to examine themselves individually and note whether, in the last year or two, they, like their Master, Jesus Christ, when a boy of twelve, “increased in wisdom and stature,” and are them¬ selves in favor with God and man.

Activities.—We would suggest that notebooks be kept throughout the year. Very brief answers to the Study Topics should be written down in the notebooks for each chapter. Where it is necessary to look up references, the answer should be placed in the notebook.. In this particular chapter the notebook should contain a brief definition of why Napoleon is counted a man worthy of discussion; why Alexander’s conquest was not as important as Homer’s “Iliad”; where Tufts College is situated; who Barnum was; who Ben Jonson was; and the meanings of any words which are used in the text which need further explanation.

Assignment.—Have the next lesson in your mind and decide just the best use to be made of its points, and how your class can be led to study the lesson and prepare to discuss its topics. Assign¬ ments may be made for looking up instances of heroic struggles for health and vigor, the cost of sickness, etc. Every lesson should have its special, detailed motivated assignment, such as will bring cooperative effort to master and apply.

The Life and Words of Christ , Geikie. D. Appleton & Company.

A People’s Life of Christ , Patterson-Smyth. Flem¬ ing H. Revell Company.

Jesus Our Standard , Horne. The Abingdon Press.

Chapter II The Will To Be Well

The appeal of this chapter is to a better under¬ standing of physical health; to challenge the class to feel the force of Saint Paul’s words quoted in the text, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

Aim.—The aim of this chapter is to show that we must become physically fit when young in order to make good as we grow older; and to lead to the present practice of physical fitness. The teacher should emphasize Wordsworth’s lines, “The child is father of the man.”

Because of space it has been impossible to give in detail the story of Roosevelt’s boyhood and the way he outgrew his semi-invalidism. If possible for the teacher to have access to a life of Roosevelt, it would be well for her to give (or have some pupil give) in detail more facts concerning the ambitious boy, the boy who “willed to be a strong man,” and the way in which he accomplished his purpose.

Centers of stress. —After emphasizing the story of Roosevelt comes the challenge to the boys and girls themselves. Much discussion may follow the brief paragraph “Be Strong.” A third center of stress is the statement that throughout the cen-

H turies it has been almost impossible for any artist of any nation to portray the child Jesus or the man who was our Master in such a fashion that we shall see in the picture some one who was holy and acceptable unto God. This picture of Jesus which has been attempted over and over again always ends in disappointment because we know the artists have been unable to portray the ever-increasing strength and power of the Christ.

So, too, the older we grow the more we realize the importance of health and our obligation to society to prevent ill-health through knowledge of disease, prevention of disease and ideals of right physical living.

The questions on “Save on Repairs” are worth taking up in detail, especially the thought of how much we may spend for other things if we save the cost of doctors’, druggists’, hospitals’, and nurses’ bills.

Procedure. —Having discussed the main text of Chapter II while reading it informally aloud to the class, it will be possible to take the memory quota¬ tion as a basis upon which we may work. In the first verse we can discuss the “powers of dark¬ ness,” which are indifference and ignorance in regard to disease, as well as vice. Then, too, we can take the second verse and build up a list of the methods which we ourselves and the people of the community constantly use to overcome the powers of darkness which wage around our steps. It is important for the pupils to realize that all this effort to be well, this effort to keep fit as a reasonable service to one’s fellow men and to one’s God, has been made possible in the Christian world through the strength which really comes by the

THE WILL TO BE WELL

Holy Spirit, and by the example of Jesus Christ, who overcame temptation and crucified the flesh in order that his spirit might be free.

Application. —The fifteen Study Topics suggest so many tests for the body and its members that “the will to be well” finds its application in the answers to each one of the questions.

Activity .—The Study Topics will be answered in the notebooks. Also the points made under the memory quotation may be placed in the notebooks, if the lists are satisfactorily made out during reci¬ tation.

The notebook should also contain if possible a brief story of Roosevelt. Possibly one pupil can bring in the material and dictate to the other mem¬ bers of the class that which is most important to be preserved as notes.

It may be worth while to add suggestions that have helped the older members of the family at home in keeping well. The father may have exer¬ cises (see Walter Camp’s Daily Dozen). The mother may have exercises which help her; and even in the nursery there may be little exercises which the babies and younger brothers and sisters use to make them stronger and better fit. These suggestions may all be put into the notebook for further refer¬ ence. While hearing them talked about in class is interesting, yet, if their interest is to be permanent, the notebook will save them for further reference. Plans may be made for individual projects by members of the class to practice such living as will favor physical fitness.

Assignment. —Look ahead and make your plans. Expect your class to prepare. Give definite direc¬ tions and some individual assignments.

i6

Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography , Thayer.

Houghton Mifflin Company.

Roosevelt’s Religion , Reisner. The Abingdon Press. Control of Body and Mind , Jewett. Ginn & Com¬ pany.

Chapter III Heads And Heels

Tennyson says: “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.” We may add that knowledge of physical health is a step forward, but until we have instruc¬ tion which shall build up and strengthen our minds and souls, our knowledge of physical laws will not end in happiness.

Aim. —Our aim in this chapter of “Heads and Heels” is to engage the class in thinking concern¬ ing the training of their higher nature, both mental and moral, and here, as always, to put into practice.

Our text states that “He that heareth reproof getteth understanding” as well as, “He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul.” This proverb, which would train us into finer and higher mental and moral habits, is what makes it possible for us to say with Browning, “The best is yet to be.” Every day we are growing older and if only our heads equal our heels, our minds will be equally developing along with our bodies.

Centers of stress. —The text of this chapter offers much for discussion, not only in connection with the introductory paragraphs which lead up to the definition of “growth,” which must be of two sorts in order that body and brain may make a perfect “team,” but with the special suggestions introduced under the paragraph called “The school bell rings.” The class is asked to picture the whole educational problem from the kindergarten through i8 the college and professional schools. Much time may be spent on this paragraph, and under applica¬ tion and activity the details may be explained. Again stress should be made (the greatest stress in fact) upon the obedience of Jesus Christ in that lovely Jewish home where he as a boy obeyed the laws of Moses both in his private life and public worship. A special topic should be given to a member of the class which might be called “ Going to school in Nazareth.” Geikie’s Life of Christ pictures this daily routine most delightfully. An¬ other special topic should be the whole poem entitled “The Law of the Jungle,” by Kipling. Each mem¬ ber of the class should commit to memory the lines which are applicable to living together obedi¬ ently for the good of “the pack.”

Application.—Here, again, the Study Topics are very important. There are but twelve tests offered, but they should lead to a dozen more interesting mental and moral tests. Moreover, as we study these topics it would be well to see where the mental and the moral unite and where they are each separate habits with no special relationship to each other. The memory quotation, which contains philosophy for an older member of society, does hold within it a challenge of encouragement to youth. “Our times are in His hands,” and the thought that though youth can show but half, if he trusts God and is never a coward, life will open up to him.

Activities.—The Study Topics are to be entered in notebooks. The poem may be explained or paraphrased into a little essay which will give courage to boys and girls. A summary of the two important topics may be entered in the notebook. Special personal lists of their own tests of their heels

HEADS AND HEELS and their heads may be entered in the notebook. The special quotation from Kipling may be copied also. Remember also that character grows by the expression, or putting into practice, of the virtues desired. Hence consider the possibility of planning with your class how to make definite personal use of the lessons taught by carrying them over into daily conduct.

Assignment. —The next lesson affords oppor¬ tunity for definite assignment of some “goodneighbor” thinking, perhaps investigating, or the working out of projects or problems. Be sure to make a careful assignment of such work and activ¬ ities as are best suited to your class and their environment.

Law of the Jungle and Other Poems , Kipling. Double¬ day, Page & Company.

Social Service and the Art of Healing , Cabot. Moffat, Yard & Company.

The Science of Mental Healing , Eaton. The Abing¬ don Press.

Chapter IV Have A Heart

Growing up and having a will to be well and making our head save our heels give us a fairly good working organization in which we may carry on our daily routine of duty and pleasure. But, after all, “out of the heart are the issues of life.” If we weren’t filled with love and sympathy at times for our fellow-men; if out of our hearts there came not a love of God and his Son, Jesus Christ, somehow or other physical health and mental and moral habits would lose their zest.

Aim.—Therefore the aim of this chapter is to bring before the pupils that you must think “of the good of your neighbor for your neighbor’s sake,” and thereby to make the boys and girls better neighbors here and now.

Above the noise of selfish strife and again in “haunts of wretchedness and need” we find a chal¬ lenge. The author, Dr. Frank Mason North, from whom we quote, makes us realize that the voice of the Master is calling us into this larger activity of good will toward men, of peace on earth.

Centers of Stress. —The whole chapter findsits high¬ est purpose in presenting the example of Jesus Christ in his life in the city and his life in the country. Whether he was at work in Nazareth as a young car¬ penter or in the fields searching for inspiration from God’s creation, his heart was alive to the beauties of the lilies or the friendship of men and women.

HAVE A HEART

Procedure. —The Study Topics are so closely related to the general text that it might be well to introduce the topics at the very time we are talking about the animals—the paragraphs at the outset of the lesson, omitting the fifth topic until we make a study of the Memory Quotation.

The paragraphs which dwell upon wild and tame animals will give rise to much discussion; and we believe it would be well for the teacher to allow many anecdotes to be told in class, in order that a more sensitive feeling both for wild animals and domestic pets may be created.

Where the lesson moves on into the higher levels under the title “Beyond Instinct,” discussion does not enter in. This is where we believe the teacher should set forth even more fully than the text the beauty that surrounded Jesus and the miraculous way in which he felt that beauty, so inspiring .

Application. —Very likely the children belong to the Audubon Society, or they know something of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani¬ mals. Special topics of like nature may be assigned to different members of the class who have access to books in their homes and libraries. The world would be a better place to live in if boys and girls could be taught to treat animals more kindly; and if this kindness should be established, we feel quite sure kindness to human beings would follow. When the example of Jesus Christ is followed by every one as we come and go in our city life or wander out into the hillsides for rest, recreation, and in¬ spiration, we shall be ready to do away with the cruelty of war between nations as well as arriving at the prophecy, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, . . . and a little child shall lead them,”

Then will the text at the close of the chapter come true: Proverbs 3. 13.

Activities. —The Study Topics will be written in the notebooks. So, too, the special topics. The discussion of the poem should be set up in the notes. Pictures of Jerusalem and Nazareth might be brought into class by the teacher; and the pupils, if possible, might bring in famous pictures of ani¬ mals, like Landseer’s pictures of dogs. The prize story of “Black Beauty” may be referred to, and some child may be able to tell the story of Black Beauty, or at least portions of it. Other stories may be used to illuminate this particular chapter.

Assignment. —Keep up the practice of knowing your lesson a week ahead, and of planning how to make such assignment of work as will appeal to the sense of personal responsibility and class loyalty and pride. Remember that the pupils must do some independent, effective work for themselves if the course is to be a success for them.

The Manhood of the Master , Fosdick. Association Press.

Red Cross Magazine. See Pool’s Index for back numbers. Houghton Mifflin Company.

The Master , Johnston. The Abingdon Press.

Chapter V The Doctor-preacher

With John the Baptist as an example of a mighty preacher, the teacher may introduce in this chapter, “The Doctor-Preacher,” something more concern¬ ing the mighty man whose pathetic figure in a coarse, hairy robe was seen wandering on the fast¬ nesses of the hills or through the desolate wilderness of the Dead Sea in his lonely hours. As he said, he was “but a voice in the wilderness,” seeking nothing for himself. There is something very tragic about John the Baptist which may be spoken of in passing. The contrast between the work accomplished by Jesus Christ and that attempted by John is very striking. John is never the central figure of the great story. He is the last of the long line of prophets in the story of Israel’s past chronicles. He came to declare the divine will and to prophesy the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The preparation of these two great figures in the drama of the first century was altogether different. Jesus Christ, who was to work with his fellow men and preach the gospel of the brother¬ hood of man, was brought up in a city full of tempta¬ tions; whereas John the Baptist was a hermit in the wilderness, far from the noise and temptations of men. He denied himself all lawful comforts. He fasted and clothed himself in hair-cloth, feeding on the food of locusts and wild honey, and all the time that he meditated on the ancient prophets or denounced the sins of the world, the flesh and the devil (which he knew existed throughout the great Roman Empire), he was dreaming of the king¬ dom of God which should be fulfilled when Emman¬ uel, the Wonderful, the Counsellor, should appear.

Aim.—The aim of this chapter is to show the stu¬ dents that Jesus Christ worked among people, just as we ourselves may work in our community with our neighbors. His first effort often had to take the form of curing some particular man of a bad disease in order that he might catch that man’s attention and bring to him the gospel—bring to him the living reality that in our heavenly Father lies all healing and all blessedness.

Centers of stress. —Our first emphasis must lie in the realization that Jesus Christ did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. He was no revolutionist. The paragraph entitled “Learning to Live with Nature” explains in part what the au¬ thors wish to present; that all science is a kind of Chris¬ tianity; that in order for us to get on with nature we must study nature’s ways and use her mighty forces instead of fighting these mighty forces. Nature and the God of nature can be made our friends.

A second center of stress is the realization that always throughout ancient history the Jewish code of health has been the most important. The teacher of this chapter may well bring into class a “Life of Jesus” which shall contain a list of the laws for diet and cleanliness and for physical and moral health which all Jewish children were taught when they were no older than six years of age.

As a special topic, Longfellow’s poem, “The Golden Legend,” will give a picture of the little Jesus, the car¬ penter’s son, studying in the schools of Nazareth.

THE DOCTOR-PREACHER

Curiously enough, although the Greeks and Romans cared for beautiful bodies and for athletic sports, they never gave the same attention to the laws of health as did the Jews. Our emphasis, then, should be placed upon the ancient Hebrew institution of both public and private health.