USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The Religious Education Association : proceedings of the first annual convention, Chicago, February 10-12, 1903 > Part 15
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the uniform system as a whole. Thus there were created in a way two sets of uniform lessons, of a genuine graded nature : those intended for the infants, and those intended for all the other pupils.
Now the graded-uniform system as an ideal would carry this process one or two steps farther. Following the natural great divisions of growth, it would classify the pupils as children, adolescents , and mature-possibly making two subdivisions of the last, one including the young men 'and women, and the other the adults. Within each of these three or four divisions there would be a different lesson taught, but each division would have the same lesson-that is to say, there might be taught to the different classes of children the same Bible story, to all the classes of boys and girls the same lesson of biography or geography, to all the adult classes the same lesson of biblical teaching.
There can be no denying that for many schools this graded-uniform system has decided advantages both theoretically and practically over the merely uniform les- sons. It preserves some of the advantages of the uniform system ; it gives the great body of pupils of approxi- mately the same age the lesson which is in a general way adapted to them, and at the same time does not tend to break down the unity of the school itself. Doubtless much can be done along these lines, and for many schools which wish to advance toward a genuinely graded curric- ulum this is unquestionably the step to be taken. For many years there have been on the market lesson-helps which make this possible. Today as never before there are tendencies at work which make it altogether probable that the next step forward in the general Sunday-school world will be along the lines of the recognition of the threefold division of the Sunday school, and of the desir- ability of forming cycles of lessons prepared especially . for each division.
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III. The graded curriculum. To be idealistic is to believe in the final survival of the fittest. If the uniform system is essentially practical and the graded-uniform system practical, the graded system is practically ideal. Not impractically ideal, but as experience shows, prac- tically ideal-if not for the majority, at least for the very respectable minority, of Sunday schools.
But to say that the Sunday school ought to have a graded curriculum is one thing; to show what that cur- riculum should be is another and a more difficult task. One is compelled to work here almost without precedent or experience, and must fall back on general principles and analogies derived from secular education, where a curriculum has already been worked out, aided by what little experience has already been had. Any attempts at the shaping of a course of study for the Sunday school must be regarded as tentative, and will undoubtedly be revised by experience. Nevertheless it seems necessary to make the attempt.
Yet right here the development of the college curric- ulum may furnish us a helpful suggestion. As the field of modern knowledge has grown and new subjects have knocked for admission at the door of the college cur- riculum, the colleges, as a rule, have not found it expedient either wholly to exclude them or to make room for them by excluding the older occupants. Room has been found for them by introducing the principle of election. The advantages of this method need be no more than hinted at here, some of them more marked in the case of the Sunday school than of the college. In the first place, the introduction of a wide range of sub- jects is an advantage even to those who are compelled to limit themselves to the same amount of work which they would otherwise have done. The necessity of choosing between different courses, or the knowledge that others are pursuing a different course from that which he is
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himself pursuing, broadens the pupil's horizon and in a valuable, though superficial, way increases his knowledge of the field of Bible study. Under an elective system, again, it is possible to adapt instruction more perfectly to individual needs. And, finally, it permits the student who will remain in the school year after year to be always moving forward to new subjects and new fields of study, and by this very fact tends to hold him in the school when otherwise he would drift away, feeling that he had gained all that the school had to give him.
But great as are the advantages of an elective system, the Sunday-school curriculum cannot, of course, be elec- tive throughout. Aside from the fact that the majority of the pupils who have not reached adult age are quite unprepared to make a wise selection of courses, it is evi- dent that there are some fundamental things which all need to learn and which must be learned as the basis of more advanced elective study.
At this point one may well utilize the experience gained under a system of uniform lessons. For a gener- ation Christendom has been instructing its children and youth in what earnest men have designated as material that should be known by all Christians. The system, pedagogically considered, is exposed to many objections. But, in that it has demanded that all should know some- thing, and in so far as it has required that this some- thing should include the essential elements of the biblical material, it points the way for further progress. What- ever failures may have followed the attempt to make this system of uniform lessons permanent rather than introductory to something better, its efficiency and effects at this point enforce the desirability of seeing that sooner or later all pupils study the same lessons.
From such considerations as these it results, then, that the first part of the course must be prescribed, the latter part elective. Where the line should be drawn
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may be matter of doubt, but perhaps no better arrange- ment can be made than this : for the years corresponding to the elementary and secondary divisions of the secular education-that is, approximately, from the sixth to the eighteenth year of the pupil's life-let the course be pre- scribed; for the subsequent years let it be elective.
What, then, shall be the governing principle of the prescribed course? Four factors must be taken into account : the years of the pupil's life during which he is pursuing this course; the fundamental principles of bibli- cal study based on the nature of the Bible; the fact that the prescribed courses are all that will be pursued in com- mon by all the pupils, and that they must therefore serve as the basis of the future diversified work; and the fact of the spiritual crises.
As respects the first point, it must be remembered that the majority of the pupils who pursue the prescribed course will be in the same year advancing through the elementary and secondary schools in their secular educa- tion. In the latter part of this period they will be pupils in the high school, and their course will include the study of history, in all cases the history of the United States, in a large proportion of cases that of some other country also, as of England, or of Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
As respects the second point, we hold that the deepest insight into and broadest outlook upon the meaning of the Bible, the truest conception of the basis of its author- ity, is to be gained by a thoroughly historical study of it. It is through the biblical history in the broadest sense of the term that the divine revelation is most clearly revealed and most clearly seen to be divine. But if this be so, then, in view of the third consideration named above, the prescribed course should culminate, intellectually speaking, in a broad historical view of the Bible.
Yet it is equally manifest that it cannot begin where
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it ends. Facts in isolation must precede facts in relation. And the work of the elementary division must be in no small measure the acquisition by the pupil of those facts which in the latter portion of his prescribed course are to form the basis of a true historical study. Still more needful is it to remember that in these earlier years the child is susceptible to religious impressions, and that the instruction should be such as to lodge in his mind, or rather impress on his heart, the elemental principles of religion and conduct. We come, therefore, to the con- clusion that the prescribed course, covering the ten to fourteen years of the elementary and secondary divisions -approximately the years from six to eighteen in the pupil's life-should begin with the simpler stories of the Bible and the more elementary truths of biblical teaching, and should move toward and aim at the acquisition of a systematic knowledge of biblical history, including in this term the history and interpretation both of events and of teachings.
The fourth fact, that of the occurrence of the spiritual crises, demands that the subjects of study should be adjusted to the stages of spiritual growth as shown by statistics. Speaking generally, these crises come in the period of early adolescence and of early maturity. The lessons intended for such periods should be therefore especially adapted to move the pupil to correct spiritual decision. In the case of boys and girls, such lessons should be biographical. In the case of young men and women, the crisis being more intellectual in character, the lessons should be both biographical and doctrinal.
IV. These considerations suggest the following gen- eral scheme for a graded curriculum :
I. In the kindergarten the instruction must of course be viva voce. The aim of the teacher must be to lodge in the hearts of the little children some of the elemental principles of morality and religion. Obviously this can-
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not be done abstractly. Stories from the Bible and from the children's own experiences will serve as media by which to convey or suggest the truth, and the child should at once be given opportunity to express in play or picture work his idea of the truth which has been presented to him.
2. In the first three years after the kindergarten the aim should be to lodge in the memory of the child such stories from the Bible as will interest and profit him, and certain of the choicer sentences or verses of the Bible, such as will make upon his mind now an impression of spiritual truth, and will be treasured in the memory in after life. Pictures and other illustrative apparatus must be freely used, and all the teaching must be skilfully brought into connection with the child's own life. To this end stories from other literature than the Bible, and from life, may be freely used by the teacher. The reli- gious and ethical aim must be constantly kept in mind along with the purpose of storing the pupil's memory.
The plan upon which these stories should be arranged deserves more careful study than it has yet received. An obvious division would be to devote one year to stories from the life of Jesus, a second to stories from the Old Testament, and a third to stories from the lives of the apostles. But it is probable that a topical arrange- ment on the basis of the ethical and religious ideas to be inculcated would be better, and that more account should be taken of the seasons of the year and the festi- vals of the church, such as Christmas and Easter, than a purely biographical grouping would permit. Neither the chronological nor the biographical motive appeals very strongly to pupils at this age. Nor, indeed, is it neces- sary to compel them to arrange details in any schematic order.
3. The child who has, in the preceding three years, heard many of the stories from the lips of the teacher,
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and has, it is to be hoped, had many of them read to him at home, has presumably by this time learned to read for himself. It is time, therefore, that he should begin to learn something about the books of the Bible, as a prepa- ration to the study of them from the printed page. A year may very profitably be given to the study of the Bible as a collection of books, a library. The children should learn from specimens of each kind the different kinds of books which the Bible contains, as for example books of history and stories, of law, of sermons, of poe- try and wisdom, of letters and of vision. Home readings from books of each class may be assigned, the co-opera- tion of the parents being secured. Passages of Scripture notable for their content and beauty, such as the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, choice psalms, sayings of Jesus and the apostles, should be committed to mem- ory. The names of the books of the Bible may be learned by classes, and in the order in which they are printed in the Bible, with the intent that the children may be able to turn readily to any one of them. The primary and controlling aim should be to give the pupil a knowledge of the varied contents of the biblical library, of the arrangement of the books in the Bible, and above all to give him a genuine interest in them which will impel him and prepare him to study them farther.
4. The pupil who, in the kindergarten and during the first three years after leaving it, has had lodged in his memory many of the Bible stories disconnectedly and without reference to their historical order, and who has spent a year in gaining a general knowledge of the con- tents of the whole biblical library, including, perhaps with some special emphasis, the books of history and story, may now profitably pass on to biographical study. In such study the unit is no longer the story, detached and isolated, but the life of the individual whether patri- arch, prophet, king, apostle, or Christ. The pupil being
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now able to read, the books of the Bible should them- selves be his chief text-book, whatever aids to the use of them it may be expedient to put into his hands. This portion of the curriculum may perhaps also occupy three years.
5. At this point in the curriculum the pupil, having had three years of stories, a year in a general survey of the books of the Bible, and three years of biographical study, may properly take up the continuous and more thorough study of single biblical books. Three years may be given to this kind of study. The aim should be to give the pupil an intelligent idea of the content and as far as he is prepared for it, of the structure and char- acter of certain biblical books. These books are the sources of the history which he is to take up in the suc- ceeding four years. It being impossible to study thor- oughly the whole of the literature, typical examples should be selected for study. But that the pupil may nevertheless gain a genuine, even though general knowl- edge of the contents of the whole Bible, there should be laid out for him a three-years' course of reading, cover- ing all the books of the Bible not taken up for thorough study.
6. In the last four years of the prescribed course the aim should be to give the student a connected idea of biblical history, including both events and teaching, and these in their mutual relations ; in short, a comprehensive survey of the history of biblical revelation, from the first recorded beginnings in the most ancient times down to the end of the apostolic age.
This course of fourteen years might be accomplished by the brightest pupils in somewhat less time. Each class pursuing its work independently might go rapidly or slowly, according to ability ; and individual pupils might carry on two courses at once, thus shortening the course to twelve, or even ten, years.
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7. When the pupil has completed his prescribed course, covering the twelve years or so of the elementary and secondary divisions, he will pass into the adult division, where elective courses, sufficient to occupy him the rest of his life, may easily be offered, if only compe- tent teachers can be provided. All the books of the Bible may be taken up for literary and interpretative study ; the several periods of biblical history may be studied in greater detail than before; the whole field of biblical theology and biblical ethics is open; and there seems to be no valid reason why courses in applied ethics, personal and sociological, as well as courses in the history of the church, ancient and modern, especially the history of missions, should not be offered here also.
These seven propositions yield something like the fol- lowing:
CURRICULUM
I. ELEMENTARY DIVISION
I. The kindergarten.
2. Three years of stories, pictures, and verses, the chief basis of grouping being probably that of the ethical and religious ideas to be inculcated.
3. One year of general study of the books of the Bible: ele- mentary biblical introduction, accompanied by reading of appointed portions and the memorizing of selected passages.
4. Three years of biographical study :
Fifth year : The life of Jesus.
Sixth year : Lives of Old Testament heroes.
Seventh year : The lives of the apostles.
II. SECONDARY DIVISION
I. Three years in the study of the books of the Bible :
Eighth year : First half - I Samuel.
Second half - The gospel of Mark.
Ninth year : First half -Isaiah, chaps. 1-12.
Second half - Acts, chaps. 1-12.
Tenth year : First half - The Psalms.
Second half -I Peter; Acts, chaps. 13-28.
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2. Four years of biblical history :
Eleventh year : Old Testament history begun.
Twelfth year : Old Testament history completed.
Thirteenth year: The life and teachings of Jesus.
Fourteenth year: The history and teachings of the apostolic age.
III. ADULT DIVISION
Elective courses :
I. The interpretation and literary study of the several books of the Bible.
2. Biblical ethics and theology.
3. Biblical history, more detailed than before.
4. Church history.
5. Christian doctrine.
LESSON-HELPS AND TEXT-BOOKS FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
PROFESSOR FRANK K. SANDERS, PH.D., D.D., DEAN YALE DIVINITY SCHOOL, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
The most ideal organization of the Sunday school and the most carefully devised curriculum will be of small avail in the absence of the proper tools for the use of teacher and pupil. A first-rate teacher, it is true, fully qualified by a rich, strong personality, by matured experience, and by careful training may often make shifts to accomplish an excellent result with the use of any available course of lessons. Such a teacher, how- ever, uses a poorly constructed course-as the Irishman drove his pig-by "laving it alone." He really makes from it a working course of his own. But given a course in which he believes, and which he can use with enthu- siasm, he accomplishes large results.
The question, then, of the text-books and lesson- helps through which we may promote the highest efficiency of Sunday-school instruction is only secondary to the question of the teacher. It is a perplexing and unsettled question, one which may give us anxiety for many years to come.
The question of proper lesson-helps is particularly important because the average Sunday school has to struggle along, facing every kind of difficulty with but few resources. Its teachers, far from being pedagogical experts, are usually unwilling to take the time to study out a line of questions which will lead up to any definite results ; their work is hap-hazard. They know the Bible only in a crude and fragmentary way and have little con- fidence in their own ability. It is a curious fact that as a steadying and encouraging influence upon the average
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teacher an attractive, well-edited lesson quarterly is only secondary to a sympathizing pastor or a considerate superintendent.
With such teachers as these the superintendent has to face the problem of interesting and instructing all classes of minds-not only little children and boys and girls, but young men and women, and finally adults. These classes have different capabilities and varying needs. They cannot be dealt with in the mass ; cach must be given instruction in the way best suited to it. How can teachers be enabled to realize the wise methods of approach and the proper subject-matter of instruction in each case ?
Clearly they cannot be thrown upon their own indi- vidual resources. To do so would be to invite indescrib- able weakness and confusion. Almost as questionable, in the long run, is the production by a Sunday-school committee of lessons for its own school. The enthusiasm with which such lessons are produced and handled makes them seem for a time of great advantage; but the gain is bought at a heavy price of individual time and strength ; the lessons reflect as a rule one or two domi- nant ideas, and are really too narrow and uniform to be of broad and permanent usefulness.
The International Sunday School Association has taken one step toward the solution of the situation by authorizing the publication of a special set of themes for little children. It still holds to its policy, however, of issuing only one set of topics for all other classes of students, leaving it to those who prepare lesson-helps to adapt the topic and Scripture passage selected by the Lesson Committee to every conceivable need. It is the growing conviction of a very large number of earnest and loyal supporters of this great Sunday-school move- ment that even when the International lesson topics are selected on a plan at once more flexible and more
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scholarly than is at present the case, permitting a varying treatment of the subject-matter in accordance with the class of persons in the mind of the lesson-help writer, it will still be impossible fully to satisfy through these topics the needs of all kinds of schools. Whether this conviction is well founded I shall not attempt to show. It relates to a matter which may be debated fairly, openly, and with friendliness.
For improvements in our current methods of produ- cing lesson-helps or text-books we must look in the first instance to individual initiative. Therefore experimen- tation is to be encouraged, not repressed. No one person, no small group of persons, will be likely to pro- duce a system of lessons which will be broad and permanent in value. It is desirable that there be some opportunity for describing to a larger public, both critical and receptive, these individual suggestions. We need in the Sunday-school world today nothing so much as a bureau of exchange, a clearing-house for the large num- ber of earnest and intelligent men and women who are students of this important problem of proper aids for the teacher, and are entirely capable of making scientific contributions toward its solution. Such a result can be best attained through a new and flexible organization which will make possible continuity of effort, complete- ness of experiment, and competency of criticism, as well as an adequate exploitation of that which merits general approval.
In recent years real progress has been made in the production of aids to the teaching of the lesson. We have come at least to understand what a lesson-help should not include, to realize that it must vary greatly in its form in accordance with the class of people who are to make use of it and the supreme end to be attained by it. We have acquired through varied experience the point of view of the student as well as of the teacher.
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No discussion of this theme would be adequate which failed to recognize the supreme service rendered to the cause of religious education in the Sunday school, not only from the practical and popular point of view, but from that of theory, through the Interna- tional Sunday School Association and the uniform lesson system. The uniform lesson idea was a distinctly great idea in its day. Its application has caused an immense expansion of the Bible-studying constituency of this country and of the world. The unification and educa- tion of this great body of students has given to the Inter- national Association a stability and responsibility which make it in our day, and probably for the future, the primary factor to be considered in the improvement of the methods in our Sunday schools. One important result, however, of its successful work is that there has been developed a type of school requiring a sort of Bible study for which the Association through its official Lesson Committee does not now, and probably never can with wisdom, make provision.
For such advanced Bible study there is beyond ques- tion an insistent and increasing demand. It is made evident by the widespread adoption by special classes, by single departments, and often by whole schools, of the courses of the Bible Study Union, of private lesson schemes, and even of the courses prepared for groups of young people by the American Institute of Sacred Literature, in the Bible-study department of the Methodist church, in the Christian culture courses of the Baptist denomination, and in those published for the college young men's and women's Christian Associations. Every successful course of a thorough character receives patron- age from Sunday schools, even though it may be open to criticism as ignoring all but one of the legitimate ends of Sunday-school instruction.
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