USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The Religious Education Association : proceedings of the first annual convention, Chicago, February 10-12, 1903 > Part 18
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You remember that the figure of a "clearing-house" was used yesterday by some of the speakers; and some of us who are familiar with the work of charity organiza- tions in the city, the bringing together of the various organizations under one centralized force, know what a clearing-house means in connection with an organization.
3. But the new organization will not simply unify, it will undertake to render service in stimulating present
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agencies to greater effort, such aid being furnished through suggestion ; through the publication of informa- tion concerning the work at large ; through the provision of larger and better opportunities for these agencies to confer together ; and through the help derived from the personal contact with each other of those interested in the same divisions of the work.
A body of men working together, looking out over the whole field, surely ought to be able to make sugges- tions to the different agencies in different parts of the field. What is needed more than anything else is a bureau of information, an organization to collect statis- tics and give information to those who desire it. A large part of our inefficiency is due solely to ignorance of the facts with reference to work now being done. Fur- ther, the beneficial results of such a conference as this, of men and women coming from different states and from different organizations, are easily understood. Thus the new organization will at once unify and stimulate, but more than this:
4. It will undertake to render service in creating new agencies where no agencies now exist -agencies for spe- cial lines of work in which as yet no united effort has been exerted ; as well as in working out new plans which may be found helpful in lines of work already estab- lished. Here a long list of examples might be given. We may think of the educational work for the people at large in church art and architecture and in church music-a field that is almost wholly neglected ; of effort from a new point of view in relation to religious and moral education in the public schools, according to the lines that were indicated yesterday ; of the proposal of new plans for using to advantage the many libraries established in our villages and cities. Think what a power the Carnegie libraries throughout the country may be made to be if they are brought into touch
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with the Sunday schools and with religious work, and hundreds of these libraries have already indicated their willingness to come into such relationship; all that is needed is a guiding hand to bring them together. Then, again, there are the fields of the Sunday school, the Young People's Societies, and the Christian Associations. It is perfectly evident - the speakers gave us this infor- mation yesterday - that much is to be done still in every field of religious education, and that some fields have scarcely yet been touched. This should be the purpose -to unify, to stimulate, to assist, to create. But now, how will the organization attempt to do this ? A few propositions, if you please, upon that side:
5. This work would be undertaken in part through the holding of an annual convention. Such a conven- tion will lead men to formulate and pronounce important thought upon these particular subjects ; for example, a great text-book will have been given to the world when the Proceedings of this Convention are published. It will bring into sympathetic touch with each other those who are interested in these subjects and who are able to attend the meetings ; a convention held every year in some great center will quicken the life and inter- est of the community in which the convention is held. It will furnish literary material of the highest value for the use of those who are not able to attend the conven- tion itself, but who desire assistance and information along these lines. There are many conventions being held -perhaps too many; but after all there is a work which a convention can do -a convention like this, an annual convention-that can be done in no other way.
6. Again, the new organization will work through the instrumentality of departmental organization, in which each special division of the subject of religious education will form a separate department.
Sometimes I think we are prone to suppose that the
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Sunday school is the only agency; more emphasis seems to be given to that agency than to any other. It deserves all the emphasis that can be placed upon it, but I think we ought to remember that the Sunday school is only one of fifteen or sixteen departments for religious and moral education. Each department thus constituted will hold special conferences and conventions intended to further an intelligent interest in the subject ; while the represen- tatives of different departments, living within a certain district, whether a county, or a state, or a group of states, will join in combined effort along all the lines thus organized.
Among these departments would be perhaps a depart- ment of Universities and Colleges, and there is no field today more open for influence in this respect. Too many colleges, especially in connection with Christian denomi- nations and in fact under ecclesiastical control, are doing less than they ought-to say the least- for religious edu- cation and for biblical study. Another department would deal with Theological Seminaries. We heard last night, indeed two or three times yesterday, of the need of a new kind of training in theological seminaries for the minis- ters of the future. Other departments would relate to Churches and Pastors, Sunday Schools, Public Secondary Schools, Public Elementary Schools, Private Schools- for the work in private schools must be put upon a differ- ent basis from that of public schools, Training Schools, Christian Associations, Young People's Societies, the Home, the Libraries, the Press, Correspondence Instruc- tion, Religious Art, and Religious Music. There are many others, but these are some of the great branches of the work; and of these it will be seen that the Sunday school is only one agency.
7. The new organization, in addition to the annual convention which it ought to conduct, and in addition to these various departments which it ought to establish and
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organize, will include the establishment of a central Board of Directors, which will constitute the executive body of the Association, and, as such, arrange the programs of special and general conventions, secure by proper means the co-ordination of the work of the departments, and carry into effect the decisions of the Association at large and of these several departments.
An Association with this annual convention and its district conventions, with its departmental organiza- tions along the lines suggested, and with this central body working and guiding and helping all, surely will be able to unify, to stimulate, to assist, and to create.
8. In this organization the Board of Directors should surely be made up of officers and members selected annu- ally in open convention from among those who are deeply interested in the cause. The members of such a Board of Directors, who are given this responsible position of directing the work as a whole, should represent the various countries (for this work should not be limited to our own country ), states, territories, and districts which furnish the membership of the Association. But not only this ; such a Board of Directors should represent as fully as possible also the various religious denominations, and the various schools of religious opinion recognized as Christian. Still further, such a Board of Directors must represent the various divisions of Christian activity, whether they are educational, evangelistic, or philan- thropic.
9. A large Board of Directors, representing in this way all the different sides of the work, must of course have an Executive Board made up from the membership of the Board of Directors-a smaller body, which will act as the legal corporation of the Association, secure, and invest or expend the funds of the Association- since funds will be needed for the work-and will repre- sent the directors in the interval of their meetings.
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10 Such an Executive Board will need Secretaries. Among these there will be the General Secretary, whose entire time will be devoted to the interests of the Asso- ciation ; an Editorial Secretary, to whose care will be committed the charge of all the printed publications of the Association; and a Financial Secretary, who shall be charged with securing the means needed to defray the expenses of the work of the Association.
This will indicate the consensus of opinion gathered from conference after conference in many of the great cities East and West, concerning the scope and purpose, the whole extent and plan, of the proposed organization. But now let us go one step farther.
II. This Association, through its Boards and Secre- taries, will have first the task of securing the funds needed for this work.
A large part of the Christian work carried on is greatly hampered for lack of funds. We do not wish such an organization as this to be in any sense commer- cial, or to be dependent in any way on publishing rela- tionships ; but there must be funds with which to conduct the work. These funds are needed for the defraying of the ordinary expenses of the Association; also, for con- ducting the special investigations proposed by the De- partments. Investigation is one of the chief things which should be undertaken, and it cannot be conducted without money. Money will also be needed for the printing and publishing of the proceedings, reports, and other literature of the Association; and for the endowment of special phases of the work which will always require assistance. A large sum of money will be needed -as much as $25,000 a year-to pay the expenses of this organiza- tion, if it is to do its work.
12. The Association will also print and publish re- ports, bulletins, documents, and books, including the proceedings of the annual and of special conventions,
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reports of committees appointed to make special investi- gations, and important contributions to the cause of religious and moral education which the Association may deem it desirable to issue.
13. The Association, through its Boards and Secre- taries, will aim to encourage in various ways individual and institutional effort in the direction of religious and moral education This will include, for example, assist- ance in the work of grading Sunday schools; effort to secure the introduction of courses of instruction in the curricula of colleges and universities; aid in the training of teachers ; preparation of lists of books on the different subjects of religious work and thought; pro- vision of special material for the use of the daily press ; organization of work for mothers' clubs ; and many other similar kinds of work.
Let us now look at the movement from another point of view.
14. The Association, through its Departments, will propose to make new contributions to the cause of reli- gious and moral education, and this will be done through the light of scientific investigations. Some of these will attempt to define more closely the true relation of reli- gious and moral instruction to other branches of instruc- tion, and to indicate the part which religion should perform in the development of the individual and of society. Others will undertake to correlate religious and moral instruction with the instruction in literature, his- tory, and science now provided in the public schools. Others will seek to determine the place of the Bible in religious and moral instruction, and to set forth the best methods of using the Bible for this purpose. Still others will endeavor to point out the application of the established results of modern psychology, modern peda- gogy, and modern Bible study, as these stand related to religious and moral instruction.
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There is work in these lines of investigation-real, definite, scientific investigation -to occupy the time of thousands of men and women, if they will undertake it.
15. The organization must undertake, through these various Departments, to carry on practical experiments. Perhaps we should not distinguish these from scientific 'investigation, but there may be a distinction. Some of these practical experiments will have to do with the ap- plication of religious and moral instruction to different stages of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual develop- ment; others with the adjustment of the material em- ployed for purposes of religious and moral instruction to the needs of the special sociological groups included in the Christian Associations, Young People's Societies, Bible clubs, and the like; and still others with the work- ing out of an approximately ideal curriculum for the Bible school-a curriculum which will embody the larger substance and the better methods of a religious and moral education that is in accordance with the pres- ent status of biblical, theological, ethical, psychological, pedagogical, and scientific knowledge.
16. The Association will from time to time present constructive propositions, which shall be intended to serve as the basis for lesson-helps and text-books on various portions of such curricula.
I doubt whether the Association will ever feel inclined to undertake the issue of lesson-helps or text-books-I shall hope that it will not undertake that-but it can cer- tainly undertake to present the basis for such. Further, it can do in its way what has been done in other ways by other Associations toward securing the more adequate training of teachers-this certainly is a great thing to be accomplished. It can undertake to place re- ligious and moral education on as high a plane as that on which secular work has come to rest; and that of all things is the necessary thing, for the boy and girl must
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be led to respect religious education when it is put in comparison with secular education.
17. Now, how shall the Association do all this, with what spirit ? First of all, with the scientific spirit. If there is any one point to which it seems to me we ought to pledge ourselves, it is that all the work of this organi- zation shall be done with the truly scientific spirit, and that consequently this Association, in all its undertakings, will proceed carefully and cautiously upon the basis of fundamental principles, seeking to observe accurately the facts and from these to make deductions, and aiming to co-ordinate and systematize the material presented for consideration. The time has come for such work to be done as it has not yet been done.
IS. The Association must also be controlled by what I should like to call, for lack of a better word, the uni- versal spirit, and this will forbid the placing of emphasis upon the distinctive views of any one denomination or any one school of opinion to the exclusion of others; it may be confidently asserted that those who hold different theories of biblical history will be able to unite upon a constructive teaching of the Bible from a practical re- ligious and moral point of view. It will likewise forbid the limitation of the work to any single phase of reli- gious instruction, inasmuch as the time has now come for the existence of an organization which shall not aim to supersede any of the existing agencies dealing with special phases of religious instruction, but will undertake to study and develop the subject in its entirety; this spirit will also forbid the restriction of the control to any one section of the country, or to those interested in any one division of the work, or to those representing any one school of thought.
19. The Association will cultivate, above all, the co- operative spirit, and thus manifest clearly its purpose to assist all organizations working in the same field; to
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refuse to enter into rivalry with institutions or associa- tions of any class ; and to perform that general service which will promote the efficiency of all institutions.
An important lesson may be learned from the policy of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The Car- negie Institution, with its ten million dollars, is not a new University, but a body of men using the income of the endowment to co-operate with existing universities, and with men wherever they may be found in any state who are carrying on scientific investigations-a splendid example of co-operation.
20. And just one last word. It seems to me that this Association, if organized, must be expected to require time to plan its work, and still more time to execute it. There are some of us, I fancy, who think that something can be done at once -in a week or a month. My friends, anything done in a day, or a month, or a year, will be small. Let us plan work for decades; let us not try to do something at once, before plans can be perfected, before organization can be secured. The work we have in hand is not the work of days or months. Many years of careful preparation and labor will be required before large results will begin to appear. Let us not be disap- pointed, therefore, when the organization is established, if the work does not begin to show results at once. Let us remember that good work, strong work, requires time.
As I have said, I have merely embodied in this state- ment points that have come from hundreds of men and women interested in the work
DISCUSSION
CHANCELLOR J. H. KIRKLAND, PH.D., LL.D., VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, NASIIVILLE, TENNESSEE
It might well bring consternation to a braver heart than mine to undertake, in the limit of eight minutes, to discuss twenty propositions so freighted with great ideas as are these that have been read before us. But while a detailed discussion is impracticable in the limited time at my disposal, I hasten to give my adherence to the whole plan and purpose of this new organization. I have faith in the fundamental principles on which it is established, and confidence in its ultimate success.
A great central organization is needed for the work of religious education. In this way men of thought can meet men of thought, and ideas be brought in conflict with ideas. In this way the extreme views of one can be tempered by the conservatism of another, and the doubtings of the timid can be dispelled by the boldness of the brave.
The justification of this method is found in the his- tory of every movement. The educational worker of today finds himself in a perfect whirl of new ideas, and hardly knows where to make a stand. Old things that we thought definitely established are shaken up again ; fundamental doctrines are disturbed through com- mittees of five, ten, fifteen, or twenty; and every few days a new annual report of a college president sets us all wondering and guessing. We seem to have reached that condition of things so aptly described in Holy Writ: "Yet once more I shake, not the earth only, but also heaven." We had supposed that if one thing was settled it was a four-years' college course ; but one presi- dent now tells us that the degree of bachelor of arts
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should be conferred on the sophomore, while another of equal wisdom tells us that the absurdity of this proceed- ing is perfectly apparent to anyone who ever saw a sopho- more. Another president, with a tact equal to his great constructive ability, tells us that the sophomore, if he may not be a bachelor of arts, is at least worthy to be an associate.
Now, what shall we do amid these new movements ? There is one thing that can be recommended, and that is to get together and fight it out among ourselves.
In the same manner the work of religious education calls for such preliminary discussion. We learned last night some of the difficulties in Sunday-school work; the introduction of a graded system is not easy. There are still more difficult problems connected with the applica- tion to the work of our public schools of principles in which we all believe. Just how this problem is to be approached, just what recommendations can be made, is matter for careful deliberation.
For one, I am not willing to start with the assump- tion that all we have done is wrong and must be over- turned. I believe there is a great deal of religious work now being done in public schools which is not generally recognized. I am not willing to accept the epithet "godless " as properly applicable to any part of our edu- cational life. We are a Christian nation, born out of the struggles incident to the establishment of a Christian civilization, and we have not yet sold our birthright. The teachers in our public schools are generally of strong ethical bent, and are frequently enthusiastic in positively religious work. With caution and with wisdom this Association should work out a plan by which all our educational system, public as well as private, may be used for applying the highest ideals of individual culture and character. This we must do without rudely or roughly disturbing present conditions. Our coming
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DISCUSSION
should be not with whirlwind, with tempest, or with earthquake, but gently, like the rising of a new star, or the breaking of a new day.
But, further, we need this Association as a stimulat- ing influence. The driving power of the world is not in logic, but in sentiment; it does not rest in the head, it rests in the heart. Men act because they feel, not merely because they know. While we need ideas, we need more than ideas, and we must touch the springs of power. This we can do through this Association.
In American life I believe in the supremacy of public opinion. What the people want, generally they get in the course of time. Public opinion has made our govern- ment, and has given shape to every enterprise now in operation. Private initiative started our general educa- tional system; then it was taken up by the state. We hope, therefore, through an organization of this kind, to touch the public heart and to move men who are ready to do something great by showing how it can be done.
It seems to me, friends, that we have reached a time when everything is ripe for this movement. What means this gathering here, surpassing the expectations of its most interested promoters, but this, that the whole atmosphere is charged with this idea, that teachers and leaders all over our country are ready to do their part ? This sentiment now needs crystallization. I recognize in the movements of history God's providence, and it is not irreverent-it is but facing the facts-when I say that in this gathering, and in the work that is held out to us to do, we may see God's hand leading and point- ing us to an opportunity that should mean to us a sacred obligation.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat ; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat ; Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer Him ! be jubilant, my feet ! Our God is marching on.
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REV. EDWARD A. HORTON, D. D.,
PRESIDENT UNITARIAN SUNDAY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
That the ideals we have inherited should lose their power is the great peril of our Republic. The lack of vitalized intelligence and rational enthusiasm constitutes the most serious danger to religion.
What can such a movement as this do to meet this situation and safeguard the future?
Our sessions have thrown light on both aspects. What we plan and what we together with noble enthusiasm resolve to do, concerns the civic and the religious welfare of our American civilization. Nothing less than this is the scope of our proposed organization ; and nothing less than this is the goal of our ultimate activity.
Whatever may be adopted as the formal and organized expression of our intentions will be simply the agency for working out loftier conceptions. These dynamic purposes must be clearly understood. I venture to men- tion four dominating thoughts:
I. We must aim at closest co-operation with the public- school system. The free schools of America are justly our pride. They liberate, they stimulate, they equip. Our national life in its entirety is molded by their influ- ence.
But we, as a people, have trusted too much to smart- ness and to mental acumen. Knowledge is a tool whose sharp edge cuts for good or evil. What the young people need is a right spirit, a sensitive conscience, a deep reverence. The ignorant man is helpless in face of modern duties; but the educated man may become a foe to mankind. His scholarship may turn to cynicism ; his erudition serve as a toy for dilettante or selfish pleasure. This movement calls on the church and Sunday school to bestir themselves; to sustain with vigor that enno- bling relationship to life and character which belongs to
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