MATERIAL FOR ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL INSTRUC

TION

JACOB RICHARD STREET, Ph. D.

DEAN OF TEACHERS' COLLEGE, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, SYRACUSE, N. Y.

Before any successful attempt at gradation can be accomplished in the great world of Sabbath schools it is pre-eminently necessary that there be a general knowledge of the religious developmental needs of children and a definite formulation thereon of a course of study adequately elastic and adjustable and at the same time sufficiently comprehensive to meet and satisfy the developing needs of the expanding mind and soul. This paper will not project a new curriculum but will gather together what has been accomplished so far, and will briefly criticize the same in the light of modern principles.

First, the Method: The writer put himself into communication with all known publishing houses issuing Sabbath-school literature, with authors of known courses and with schools organized into specific grades and following a definite curriculum. It is not supposed that the courses about to be enumerated form the sum total of such courses, nor that they are the best that exist anywhere; they are simply the ones I have been able to secure.

Basis of Criticism: A course of study to fully satisfy the demands of religious pedagogy must possess at least four requirements:

First, there must be a gradation in the material studied. It is a fatal fallacy to suppose that the same material may be presented to all ages with gradation in method. As one of my correspondents put it: "What is needed is not gradation in lessons but gradation in teaching." Child psychology has revealed the developmental quality and nature of the human mind and has made manifest that there are distinct periods of life that demand a specific material of instruction that tends to satisfy the natural desires of such a period, through which satisfaction the growing soul expands into those interests and needs that characterize the next higher period of development. An efficient course of study must make provision for the epochal times of child life. The efficiency of a course of study in the secular school grows in large measure out of the possession of this quality. In the religious life no new law enters that will excuse the curriculum maker or the teacher from a careful recognition and application of the fundamental laws of human psyche. Again an efficient course must be organic. The work of each grade

must be vitally connected with that of the other grades. It must hold that double relation of cause and effect. The kindergarten must look forward to the primary school and back to the home. Its material and its teaching must so develop the child in power that he will be able to pursue with interest and profit the work of the advancing primary years. The primary grade must build its superstructure upon the kindergarten foundation and at the same time prepare a rock-bed upon which the junior grade may rear its intellectual and religious edifice. Lack of energy and loss of effectiveness invariably follow when this principle is not strenuously adhered to.

The third requisite demands that the course be comprehensive. It must include all of the essentials of religious knowledge. It should cover the whole period of the divine revelation to man, not necessarily in detail but in its varied interests and activities. This principle through the course of study would lead the child into a knowledge of God as revealed in nature, in the Bible, in individual life, and in institutions. There would be a careful study of human character and its laws and forces, of ecclesiastical history, of missionary and philanthropic enterprise, of comparative religions, sociology, and ethics, of the doctrines of the particular and the leading denominations, and of hymnology as well as of the Bible content. A man or woman so instructed would be at least an intelligent Christian.

The fourth requisite is the principle of adaptation. This is in a measure involved in the first, but it is worthy of specific mention. It declares that the needs of the child at his particular stage of development must be recognized. Paul had the true ring when he wrote milk for babes, strong meat for men. There are certain dominant interests peculiar to stages of development swaying the individual life and leading it in certain definite directions. These indicate the soul hunger. They point out fundamental needs and aptitudes. Sometimes they are healthy and sometimes unhealthy. In either case they suggest the methods and the material to be employed in developing that particular individual.

There are other qualities that will mark a strong course of study, but these four are the predominating ones. In them we therefore have a standard by which the efficiency and the sufficiency of a curriculum may be tested, and a general guide in the projection of a new one. It must possess gradation, organization, comprehension, and adaptation. We now turn to see what has been accomplished.

At the very beginning of such a study one finds that old and practically universal system known as the International lessons. It is so

familiar to every Sabbath-school worker, that but a descriptive word is needed. Its method consists in arranging a series of Bible topics or lessons for a cycle of seven years, part being taken from the Old and part from the New Testament. Frequently a half year has been spent on each though there have been departures from this equation. It aims to present a fairly comprehensive view of the Bible in each series of lessons, covering the literary, historical, biographical, prophetic, doctrinal and epistolatory elements. In the school it takes no recognition of age, or grade, or mental, moral, or religious proficiency of the learner, but presents the same lesson matter to all the classes.

Criticism: Any one familiar with the history and growth of the Sunday-school movement must be conscious of the great service that the International lessons have rendered. They brought order out of chaos and enthusiasm instead of indifference, and greatly elevated the spirit and the purpose of the workers. They have fostered, possibly created and fostered, an interest in the Book, and through their use have built up a spirit of religious tolerance and a consciousness of the brotherhood of the race. They have produced a healthy emulation among the publishing houses whereby a better type of religious literature has resulted, though much of that bearing directly upon the lessons has but little passing and still less permanent value, and when tried by the touchstone of modern text-book requirements is found wholly wanting in precious content. Various strictures have been pronounced against them, some justly; some unjustly. With these we are not concerned. The vital question for us is, do they meet the requirements laid down in a former paragraph, viz.: gradation, organization, etc? It is unnecessary to examine them in the light of each of these requirements for they violate every one of these fundamental pedagogic principles, and since they are wrong in principle they are totally inefficient in application, and no matter what service they have rendered they must be reformed or they will be supplanted.

A second system is the supplemental system. This consists in giving the class additional matter not found in the regular lesson, such matter being chosen in harmony with the stage of development of the class. So far as it goes it is good, but why grade a portion of the lesson and not the rest of it? Most of the supplemental lessons investigated lack in progressiveness and definiteness, and have the effect of dividing the already too short time for the lesson work.

A third system is the Bible Study Union Lessons, more commonly known as the Blakeslee system. It divides the Bible into three parts, the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the rest of the New Testament.

Six series of lessons are built out of this material, and each series is divided into four courses corresponding to the four departments of a graded school, i. e., primary, junior, intermediate, and senior, and each course employing a different portion of Scripture. The work proceeds along two lines, the biographical and the historical, and is so arranged that a year is spent in each part of the three main divisions, and when once traversed they are again repeated.

Criticism: The curriculum is graded, but it is not a natural, it is rather a mechanical, one. It lacks in vital organic relations. Knowledge of the Bible rather than the needs of the child and his development seems to be its aim. As far as the Bible is concerned it is quite comprehensive, but is devoid of other sources of religious intelligence. In adaptation it is not at all good. Much of the material is unsuited to childhood, or at least is not so arranged as to recognize the developmental life periods.

The Episcopal Church seems to be working very earnestly at the problem of graded curriculum, so I present next what is known in their literature as the "S. S. Commission Source Method Lessons."

The general scheme of Sunday-school organization is to follow that of the day school. The course provides matter for the primary, grammar grades, high-school, and adult ages. It covers the Scriptures, church catechism, prayer book, church year, Christian evidences, the church doctrines, church history, methods of church work, sociology, missions and hymns. This is a well-organized course of study, well graded, and fairly comprehensive, but is lacking in adaptation to the child. It assumes that the truth to be mastered is the important thing and so elevates it above the growth of the learner, and thus violates the fundamental law of all teaching, viz., the mind of the learner must be the point of departure. It possesses many virtues, but cannot become a universal course as it is formed on an exclusively Episcopalian plan. I have also consulted a dozen other curricula employed in various parishes and in other states, such as California and Massachusetts. While these curricula differ in many points from the "Source lessons," they have so much in common therewith that it may be taken as the type of curricula for that church.

The Society of Friends is doing a good piece of work by way of a graded course of instruction. As yet the detailed curriculum is not fully projected but the general purpose and outlines have been set forth: Seven years and under: Bible stories, stories of religious characters, stories illustrating virtues.

Eight to eleven: Stories continued with special attention to memor

izing. This memory work consists of selected passages from the Scriptures, beautiful poems with a moral and religious content, and hymns.

Twelve to thirteen: History of the Jews and early Christians, covering the whole Bible period.

Fourteen to fifteen: Study of the organization, testimonies, and history of the Society of Friends.

Sixteen to seventeen: Ethical and moral lessons based on the Prophets and the Gospels.

Eighteen: The Bible as literature.

Nineteen: Study of social problems.

Adult classes: Careful Bible study, church history, ethical and social problems, etc.

Criticism: Like the "Source lessons" this course is designed first and last for a particular denomination and cannot therefore pass into general usage. So far as the details have been set forth there is a fairly good recognition of the child as the center of instruction but it is lacking in those niceties of adaptation which it is now possible to introduce into Sunday-school work. I am sure, however, that helpful suggestions will be found throughout all its parts.

Individual schools in the Unitarian church have developed strong courses of study. Most of these are based on the publications of the Unitarian Sunday School Society. A typical one is that of the Disciples Church of Boston. It forms a sort of trilogy - there are three parallel lines of study and activity, viz., Bible lessons, ethical teachings, and social service. Taking the child at four years of age it outlines a course of study for sixteen years and suggests possible lines for Bible classes. Character is the aim. In the accomplishment of this not only is specific Bible instruction given, but an endeavor is put forth to make the child intelligent along religious, ethical, and social lines. It treats religion as a natural growth of the human soul and seeks to stimulate such growth. There is, however, a predominance of the philosophical and intellectual elements to the neglect of the emotional and imaginative. The course is well constructed, thoroughly knit together, but is not adapted to the epochal life of the growing boy or girl. In passing I may say that this society is developing some very excellent manuals that could be used with profit in schools other than of the Unitarian faith.

Professor Richard Morse Hodge of Union Theological Seminary in his Manual Methods of Sunday School Teaching, appendix B, has outlined a splendid course of study covering three lines - Biblical Literature, Biblical History, and Church History. It makes provision for the kindergarten and twelve years of progressive instruction and has