Some principles of teaching as applied to the Sunday school

Preface

One of the most hopeful signs of improvement in the work of the Sunday-school is the noticeable increase in recent years in books and pamphlets on the training of Sunday-school teachers. The scope of work which is now regarded as essential for teachers in the Sunday-school has gradually enlarged. Knowledge of the Bible alone is no longer regarded as the only qualification for those who instruct the youth of the church in morals and religion. Not only must they be familiar with the Scriptures, the subject-matter to be taught, but Sunday-school teachers should also be familiar with the best and most practicable principles of teaching and with certain facts about child life and child development. A thorough knowledge of the Bible, and how to teach it, and a familiarity with pedagogy and with child psychology, are some of the needs of the teacher in the Sunday-school today.

This little book is the result of some work which the author did, as leader of a training class of Sunday-school teachers in Durham, North Carolina, in the winter and spring of 1914, and was suggested by an outline prepared for the New York Sunday-school Association by Professor George A. Coe, of Union Theological Seminary, New York City. The book is meant to be a practical aid to those who have had little or no opportunity to acquaint themselves with certain principles of teaching and certain facts of child psychology which may be used to advantage in Sunday-school teaching. The author believes that any in-

M telligent man or woman, of consecration, industry, and average ability will find suggestions here which, if followed, will eventually improve his or her work in the Sunday-school. The book lays no claim to being anything more than suggestive of what may be done for this great ally and support of the church; and it is given to Sunday-school teachers in the hope that it may be of some practical service in their work.

e. w. K.

Trinity College, Durham, North Carolina, September, 1914.

[vi]

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface v

Introduction ix

Introduction

Since the inauguration of the International Lesson System for Sunday-schools, the Sunday-school movement has taken on larger and larger proportions. The fact that a very large percentage of church members comes from the Sunday-school has emphasized the importance of that branch of the church's activity. Modern study of the child and the adolescent has confirmed with startling emphasis the fact that these stages are of crucial importance in determining the moral and spiritual character of the future man and woman. The development of the common school, especially along the lines of scientific pedagogy, has had a marked reflex influence upon Sunday-school practice.

Increased knowledge of need and of opportunity has increased responsibility. The matter of efficiency in doing the work of the Sunday-school has become a live question. On all hands it is admitted that the vital thing in any school is the teacher. It is often difficult to get teachers at all, and still more difficult to get competent ones. Many who do volunteer are painfully conscious of their incompetence.

This book has been prepared specifically to meet the need for trained teachers. The author, Dr. Edgar W. Knight, of the Department of Education in Trinity College, is a specialist in the history and science of education, and is personally deeply interested in the work of teacher-training for Sunday-schools. I have examined the book with pleasure and found it both

[ixl stimulating and suggestive. It is not merely theoretical; it is a workable book, and one that can be used in teacher-training classes or by individual workers. A specially valuable feature is the list of questions and subjects for investigation appended to each chapter.

Franklin N. Parker.

Trinity College, Durham, North Carolina, September, 1914.

M

CHAPTER I Historical 1 Religious Education Found among All Peoples

A historical study of religious and moral education shows that some form of religious education is found among all peoples, whether primitive or civilized. It is found in the earliest history of Egypt, when the priest class was dominant; it is found among the Assyrians, the Indians, and the Chinese, and among the educational ideals of the Greeks and the Romans. Early Hebrew life well illustrates the purposes and uses of religious education. Even during the nomadic period in the development of this people, when the patriarch gathered his household around him for the purpose of religious instruction, a great importance was attached to this form of education. Religious education began at the father's knee and formed one of the best examples of the earliest and most effective moral and religious teaching. Note the following: 2

" For I know him [Abraham], that he will command his children and his household after him, and that they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."

And the following exhortation to obedience suggests a custom which helps to explain the religious character

1 This brief discussion of the historical development of the Sunday-school movement is based largely on Cope's excellent study of the same subject, The Evolution of the Sunday-school, published by The Pilgrim Press, Boston, and on other books referred to in this chapter.

of the Hebrew race, and how the law became such a guiding force in all phases of their life: 1

" And thou shalt teach them [the words of the law] diligently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou riseth up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."

All the way from the prominence of the Hebrew scribe and interpreter of the law, through the beginnings and the development of the synagogue, where the law was read and explained at stated times, certain features of religious education and its methods may be traced. Instruction in the synagogue may not have been altogether verbal or similar to the instruction found in our Bible schools and other forms of religious education today; but it is important for Sunday-school workers to know that the synagogue became the center of the educational life of those people and that all phases of their life were, more or less, religious.

Early Sunday-Schools

It has become customary and rather popular in descriptions of the origin and early development of the modern Sunday-school movement to begin with these early peoples, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Hebrews, and the Greeks and Romans. Attempts have been made to trace certain features of the modern Sunday-school from them through the early monastic practices and customs, and through the practices of the early Christian Church. Such passages as those cited above are frequently given as proof that the Sunday-school, in its essentials, goes back to these

1 Deuteronomy 6 : 7-9.

early patriarchal days or to even earlier times. These injunctions, however, do not describe the Sunday-school, but rather indicate, the "normal educational activities which were usually religious either in content of study or in intent." The Sunday-school as we know it is a special institution, connected with and fostered by individual churches, and designed to give systematic, and regular instruction in morals and religion, a part of training for which public educational agencies make little or no provision. It may be defined as " an institution organized by a religious body for the education of youth in the religious life and holding its principal periods of instruction on the day of rest." It is an outgrowth of the period of popular education when a new attention was given to child life and child needs, near the end of the eighteenth century. In this respect it is something of a modern institution.

Robert Raikes Not the Founder

In the early history of the Sunday-school, Robert Raikes, who is sometimes called the "father of the Sunday-school," is a most prominent figure, and marks a very advanced stage in the development of religious education. Raikes, however, is not altogether entitled to the distinction which he has enjoyed. Men like Erasmus, Luther, Francis Xavier, Carlo Borromeo, Count Zinzendorf, and others emphasized religious education in their teachings, and in a form similar to that which Raikes himself advocated, and some of them as early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Several years before Raikes' interest in work of this kind began, Miss Hannah Ball was working in England in the interest of religious education. She organized children into groups and taught them the Bible and catechism immediately before the church service on

Sunday morning. And the work of John Frederick Oberlin, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, is similar to that done by Miss Ball. It seems safe to say, therefore, that Raikes "Neither invented the religious instruction of children nor originated the present day Sunday-school, ..." Moreover, it is interesting to note that the schools which Raikes founded and encouraged and those which flourished under his influence were very unlike present day Sunday-schools. They were, first of all, designed and intended for poor people who had no other educational opportunity; and so exclusive was their attention to the poor and destitute that they soon came to be called the "ragged schools." They attempted to teach reading and writing, and in some instances, probably, the elements of arithmetic were taught. They were entirely separate from the church and met with more or less opposition from the clergy, and were maintained largely as private enterprises and regarded as charitable efforts at general education. Not until after the middle of the nineteenth century were they, in England, regarded as an integral part of the church organization and equipment. Compare this description with a description of the modern Sunday-school. The latter is open to all alike, rich and poor, young and old, learned and ignorant. It emphasizes the teaching of the Bible, religion and morals. It is a vital part of the organization of the church, and is fostered entirely by the church.

The Work of Raikes

Robert Raikes was born in Gloucester, England, in 1736. He received a fairly good education, lived in comfortable circumstances, and early interested himself in philanthropic efforts. He was a "practical-minded

Christian." His interest in the poor children in the pin factories of Gloucester led him to establish schools for their training in reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic, the Bible and the catechism, and religious truths. The children came to his schools "soon after ten in the morning and stay until twelve; they were then to go home and stay till one; and after reading a lesson they were to be conducted to church. After church they were to be employed in repeating the catechism till half past five, and then to be dismissed, with an injunction to go home without making a noise; and by no means to play in the street." 1 Teaching in these schools was at first not voluntary; the teachers were paid for their services. Mr. Raikes "inquired if there were any decent, well-disposed women in the neighborhood who kept schools for teaching to read. I presently was directed to four: to those I applied and made an agreement with them to receive as many children as I should send them upon the Sundays, whom they were to instruct in reading and the Church Catechism. For this I engaged to pay them each a shilling for their day's employment." 2 Later on, however, voluntary teachers were secured. It is said that "ladies of fashion undertook the work of Sunday-school teaching." Certain it is that the work which Raikes was doing was received with some favor and the impetus which he gave the movement caused it to expand and to extend its influence. At the time of his death, there were many schools in England which were doing work similar to that which Raikes was doing. Raikes was much in earnest and seemed "swayed with passion for the children"; and

1 Turner's Sunday School Recommended (Appendix), p. 41. See also Trumbull's Yale Lectures on the Sunday School, p. 110.

2 From the Gentleman's Magazine; quoted in Trumbull, p. 110, his interest in the work hastened the development of wholesome opinion on the subject of public education. It is true that the Sunday-school movement has a distinct place in the history of English public education. Green 1 specifically says: "The Sunday-Schools established by Mr. Raikes were the beginnings of popular education." Raikes was "a prophet of the modern system of public education, and the school on Sunday was the first expression of his vision. "

The Beginnings in the United States

Sunday-school work began in this country near the close of the eighteenth century when Raikes' plan was brought to America. Here, however, two conditions were found in striking contrast to the conditions which surrounded the movement in England. First, the opportunities and facilities for general elementary education were, even at that early time, more extensive in the United States than in England, and there was less need for separate schools for the poor and destitute children. Second, the feeling which some of the churches had against the Sunday-school movement perhaps "increased the sense of responsibility on the part of the churches and helped to bring about a distinctive type of organization in the United States, namely, Sunday-schools created and maintained by the churches as well as meeting in church buildings. " 2 But little is known about the earlier Sunday-schools in this country. Bishop Asbury, it appears, established one in Virginia as early as 1786, but little is known of the school except its beginning. A Methodist Conference in session in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1790, ordered the establishment of Sunday-schools,

1 Short History of the English People, Vol. II, p. 359.

8 Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. V. Article, "Sunday-schools."

in or near the church or place of worship, and provision was to be made for securing persons "to teach gratis all who will attend and have capacity to learn, from six o'clock in the morning till ten, and from two o'clock in the afternoon till six, when it does not interfere with public worship." However, "No record is found of Sunday-schools organized in consequence of this minute." 1 In December of the same year a meeting was called in Philadelphia to consider the importance of the Sunday-school work, and the result was the formation, early in January, 1791, of "The First- Day or Sunday-school Society." One of its principal purposes was to secure religious instruction for the poor children of the city. The organization is another proof of the missionary spirit which was so much in evidence in all Christendom during this period. A Sunday-school was begun in Boston in 1791, one in New York in 1793, one in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1794, one in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1797, and in 1800 one was begun in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the year 1803 and the years immediately following, several schools were started in New York City by Mr. and Mrs. Divie Bethune; in 1803 one was started in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and in 1804 one was started in Baltimore, Maryland. Systematic efforts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, resulted in an organization for Sunday-school work which seems to have been successful; and in 1811 a new impetus was given the movement in Philadelphia. A local organization for combining efforts in Sunday-school work was formed in New York in 1816, and a similar organization was formed in Boston the same year, and one in Philadelphia in 1817. From these Sunday-school "unions"

1 Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, p. 123; also Brown, Sunday School Movements in America, p. 23.

grew the American Sunday-school Union, which was organized in 1824. This organization gave attention to the publication of Sunday-school literature, the selection of scriptural lesson materials, and the planting of schools in communities where they were needed. In 1832 Cincinnati was made the headquarters of this organization, and a systematic campaign for planning schools in the Mississippi Valley began. In two years, more than twenty-eight hundred schools were established in that region. 1

Adoption by the Church

It has already been pointed out that, in England particularly, there was opposition, on the part of the church and the clergy, to the Sunday-school movement. There was first of all, objection to educational activities on the Sabbath; and any effort, outside the church, to carry on any form of religious education, the clergy regarded as an invasion of their rights. But the church soon became interested in the movement in this country, adopted the Sunday-school, and recognized it as a vital agency for training the youth of the church. This marks a great advance in the development of the Sunday-school; it has been called the "American Sunday-school Idea. It meant that this school became, not a temporary expedient to rescue poor and ignorant children, but a permanent institution, discharging a definite function in the life of the church. . . The school met a real need in the life of the church, — the need of a specific agency or form of organization for the nurture of the young in the religious life. It also became a definite department of the church, suited to the life and needs of the child."

1 Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, p. 123.

Denominational Development

The Methodist Church has been given credit for being the first denomination to recognize the importance of, and to make official provision for, Sunday-school work. As early as 1824, the General Conference of that denomination passed resolutions providing for Sunday-schools and for teaching the catechism in them. Three years later the Church organized a Sunday-school Union which, after 1840 and until the present time, has had a very successful and efficient career. In recent years "it has led in the campaign for the effective gradation of Sunday-school material and for all that has made for the thorough adoption of educational methods in the schools." A Sunday-school Society was organized by the Unitarians in 1827 which has had a useful life. In 1830 the Lutheran Church organized a Sunday-school Union. The work of the Congregational Church in developing Sunday-school interests became very active in 1832. The Baptists early recognized the importance of Sunday-school work and "were the pioneers in the preparation of advanced texts for teachers." They have also been very active in promoting the training of teachers for work in the Sunday-school. The Presbyterians have always been interested in the Sunday-school movement and have actively promoted the educational interests of the church. The Episcopalians have also developed considerable interest in this phase of church work. In fact all of the greater Protestant denominations now regard the Sunday-school as a vital part of the organization and work of the church. In recent years especially, nearly all the churches are turning attention to the educational part of their work, for which they recognize the need of trained experts. And the harmony that exists in the combined efforts of the various denominations, as shown by the International Sunday-school Association, is a most encouraging sign.

Some Suggestions of Its Growth

This brief description of the origin and early development of the Sunday-school movement is intended merely as a guide to those teachers who should like to pursue a study of it more in detail. It is meant to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. It does serve to show, however, that the Sunday-school has had a steady growth; and a consideration of present day interests in Sunday-school work and religious education in general suggests possibilities of this great agency of the church which have not yet been realized. A more detailed description of the movement cannot be undertaken here. Enough has been given to show how the Sunday-school has grown from a more or less sporadic, unorganized institution, operating independently of the church, to a highly organized institution connected with the church and forming one of the most important parts of its organization. It also shows marvelous internal developments: formerly the children were grouped together without reference to their age, their sex, their previous training or capacities, or any of those factors which so effectively condition the teaching and training processes in the public schools. Today the children are grouped in graded classes; and if the Sunday-school is well organized and properly managed, all the factors which have to do with successful teaching in the Sunday-school are carefully considered. Formerly, the Sunday-school was regarded as a charitable attempt at general elementary education for the poor and destitute children; attention was given to reading, writing, and probably to some arithmetic. Today emphasis is placed on moral and religious instruction alone, with the Bible as the principal textbook. This steady development in the United States is said to be due to:

1. The adoption of the Sunday-school by the church and the church's recognition of it as a vital part of its organization, and the decreasing attention paid to religious education by public educational agencies.

2. The voluntary- teaching policy which has prevailed in the United States. Unpaid workers in the Sunday-school seem more normal to the general life of the American people.

3. The increasing need for a more efficient organization and for better trained workers. The Sunday-school has been severely criticized for its loose educational methods, and its organization and management. "Its peculiar function in the United States, especially its unusual position as a voluntary institution brought about a higher type of efficiency and a closer approximation, markedly in recent years, to educational ideals." 1

Some Suggestions of Further Improvement

In spite of its steady growth in organization and its advancement to a real place in the life of the church, the Sunday-school needs to make certain reforms and improvements in its curriculum, its methods, and in other features of its work.

1. The curriculum has grown and developed very slowly. In addition to the original subject matter taught in the Sunday-school, occasional lessons on temperance and similar subjects have been introduced, and missionary lessons have now and then been brought in also. But it was not until 1908 that the

1 Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. V. Article, "Sunday-schools."

[ii]

International Sunday-school Association gave its lesson committee authority to prepare a graded course of lessons for use in the Sunday-schools throughout the country. Before this was done, however, many schools had adopted graded lessons of their own. The Religious Education Association, an organization which was formed in 1903, seems to have had considerable influence in getting the International Sunday-school Association to take this important and advanced step. More attention is needed today in this direction. The lesson material needs to be so graded, arranged and adapted to the varying needs, interests and capacities of the children in the Sunday-school that it will more effectively promote their religious growth. The present interests of the child and his religious capacities must control the course of study used in the Sunday-school. The pupils must be graded, and the course of study must be graded to fit their needs and capacities.

2. More attention must be given to teacher-training. Just as no sound progress can be had in secular education without trained and well equipped teachers, religious education cannot longer afford to be left to chance method. It cannot go forward except by those who are trained in sound educational theory and otherwise qualified to guide practice in religious educational work. Moreover, religion should be given advantage of these essential principles which have so much increased the efficiency of nearly every phase of our public educational agencies. The Sunday-school cannot afford to neglect the aid that is sure to come from knowledge and practice of the best educational theory of the day.

3. Some reforms are also needed in the matter of financial support of the Sunday-school. The method of supporting the Sunday-school by soliciting contributions from the children every Sunday is being objected to from many quarters. The children should indeed be early taught the valuable lesson of giving. But they should be taught what they are giving for. The Sunday-school should be a "church school," and included in the regular running expenses of the church. The church must learn to spend more money on this phase of its work, in equipment, libraries for teachers and pupils, and in otherwise providing for facilities for greater service to the church and the community. The Sunday-school is a church school, — "it is the church engaged in certain of its functions of instruction. "

4. The teaching time should be increased. The average time given to instruction is about thirty minutes a week. This is entirely too brief a period to be devoted to such an important subject as that which is taught in the Sunday-school. At this rate of teaching, it would require a child nearly twenty-five years to complete the English, mathematics, or Latin course in any well-organized city high school, or nearly fifty years to do the work in English or mathematics in any well-organized city school system. It has been proposed, in order to remedy this weakness, that we adopt the method used in France, where pupils, whose parents want them to be placed under religious instruction, are excused from public schools on one afternoon each week. Another suggestion is that the time already available for religious instruction on Sunday morning be made more fruitful by adopting correct and scientific methods of teaching, by shortening the opening and closing exercises, or by lengthening the Sunday-school session. Sunday-schools need not expect the public school authorities, however, to grant any such concessions as may be had under the French system until the churches are better equipped and better qualified in point of well organized lesson material and properly trained teachers, for more effective teaching service. 1

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Books

Candler, The History of the Sunday-school, Phillips and Hunt, New York.

Coe and Cope, Article " Sunday-schools " in Cyclopedia of Education, edited by Paul Monroe, The Macmillan Company, New York.

Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday-school, The Pilgrim Press, Boston.

Cope, The Modern Sunday-school in Principle and Practice, The Pilgrim Press, Boston.

Cunnyngham, The History of the Sunday-school, Smith and Lamar, Nashville.

Graves, A History of Education before the Middle Ages, The Macmillan Company, New York.

Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell Company, New York.

Mead, Modern Methods in Sunday-school Work, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York.

Monroe, Textbook in the History of Education, The Macmillan Company, New York.

Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.

1. How may a knowledge of the history of the Sunday-school movement help the Sunday-school teacher?

2. How did the service in the early synagogue resemble a modern Sunday-school service?

3. What is the difference between teaching and preaching?

4. What is the advantage of the opening and closing exercises in the Sunday-school?

1 Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. V. Article, " Sunday-schools."

5. What were the catechetical schools? The catechumenal schools?

6. Why should Sunday-school pupils be graded in classes as they are in the public school?

7. What is the advantage of the graded lesson materials in the Sunday-school?

8. Make out a year's course of study in the Sunday-school for a group of children eight or ten years of age.

9. Give the principal facts connected with the organization and development of the International Sunday-school Association.

10. What is the purpose of the Religious Education Association ?

11. Give the principal facts in the life of Robert Raikes and his interest in the Sunday-school.

12. Outline the development of (1) the Sunday-school curriculum (course of study), and (2) teacher-training in the Sunday-school.

13. How do the Catholics care for the religious education of their youth? How do the Jews care for the religious education of their children ?

14. In what country are Sunday-schools most numerous? Why?

CHAPTER II The Need for Trained Teachers The Problem

The Sunday-school has been called the "noblest development of the nineteenth century." The past one hundred years have seen the origin and development of more agencies for human betterment and human progress than any preceding centuries since the Christian era. In the long list of these worthy organizations and institutions the modern Sunday-school occupies imperial rank, and as an agency for far-reaching reformation and effective training, it has possibilities which have not yet been realized. Born of a movement which gave unusual attention to child life and child development, and which has emphasized an extension of elementary education, and encouraged by the religious revival which found a part of its best expression in the Wesleyan movement, the Sunday-school has had rapid growth. But its advance in a career of usefulness is met by the same difficulty which has encountered and which still encounters public educational work. This difficulty is the task of securing, training, and maintaining a body of competent teachers for the work of all departments, who have a proper appreciation of the work in which they are engaged. In the Sunday-school this problem is particularly persistent and appears to be growing more difficult.

How the Problem is Being Solved

This problem of teacher-training is being met in two ways. In some instances effort is being made to train the teachers; in other cases professionally trained teachers in the public schools are paid for their services in the Sunday-schools, and it has been predicted that more churches will seek a solution of the difficulty in this direction. But most of us are opposed to this plan, and it is useless to think of abandoning the traditional, voluntary, unpaid teaching service in the Sunday-school. This voluntary service has its weakness, but it also has its strength; and the great need for the modern Sunday-school is to train these volunteers for teaching service. Unless they be trained properly and speedily, this great part of the church work will sooner or later lose its power in the church, and the future will account the work of the present in this enterprise a failure.