In the first place it is not necessary and usually not wise to have a fully graded course to start with. Almost any school may now establish four divisions, kindergarten, elementary, secondary, and senior or adult, and find one good text book for each. With the material already at hand and forthcoming, such schools may confidently expect to find other good text books ready for use in each of these divisions at the beginning of another year. These will be taken up by the pupils remaining in each division while those who come up from the lower division will take the course that the others have just finished. Thus the foundation for a graded course will be laid, and, supposing the school to be divided into divisions of four grades each, it would take but four years to develop a fully graded curriculum. It goes without saying that there should be a general plan for the curriculum well in mind to start with toward which as a goal the selection of courses should proceed.

A second point which is covered by such a mode of procedure is this: The deficiencies of some teachers may be met and their difficulties in using modern text books may be overcome by grouping them under the direction of more experienced teachers as division or grade leaders. These teachers may meet together for the study of the course they are using, thus securing the advantage of the old time teachers' meeting and omitting some of its disadvantages.

This same principle may be carried still further and applied to the school as a whole by the appointment of some one person as superintendent of instruction.

This officer may be the pastor of the church, often must be. It may be the superintendent of the school. Preferably, in any large school at least, he should be a separate officer, some one with adequate educational qualifications. It should be his duty to study the problems of the curriculum as a whole, to consider each grade in relation to all the others, to see that variety and special adaptation are neither sacrificed to dead uniformity nor prompted at the expense of proper unity of purposes. It should be his constant endeavor to discover among the teachers or members of his church those competent to undertake independent and original work, and set them at it. With all that has been said by way of caution against rash experimenting in advance of teaching ability, special emphasis should also be laid upon the responsibility laid upon every school possessing such independent teachers of making some contribution to the general welfare. If in any school there be a single teacher competent and willing to undertake the task of working out a course of study for which satisfactory material is not available it is quite as unwise and even wrong to keep that teacher and his class fettered by the

restraints of a uniform system as it would be to plunge the entire school into work for which they were not fitted. Our best text books for religious instruction will come to us as have the best ones in other lines of study, not turned out by a general committee as parts of a system, but rather as the result of practical experience of good teachers; each one working out his problems as best he can, finding the best publisher he can, and leaving selection on the ground of fitness to do its work.

In addition to thus providing opportunity for the independent worker to take the lead, every effort should be made to bring the entire teaching force up to the highest possible level of efficiency.

Every school should include in its course some provision for the normal training of teachers. The training of the teacher will include adequate, comprehensive knowledge of the subject matter with careful study of the theory and method of teaching. With a well planned curriculum, the first requirement should be met by the regular course of study in the grades, through which the teacher will have passed; the second requirement should be provided for in special classes for the study of religious pedagogy. There are a number of excellent text books which are now available for such a course. Nor is it necessary to wait until a full class can be gathered or a suitable teacher found in the school. Excellent opportunities are offered in the way of correspondence study. Such reading courses as those offered by the American Institute of Sacred Literature, or by the Sunday School Commission of the Diocese of New York, if actively promoted among the teachers in any school would yield a rich harvest in greater efficiency and readiness to attempt advanced work. The cost of these correspondence courses is moderate. It would be a splendid investment for many schools to bestow a scholarship upon a number of teachers each year.

Another difficulty which must be recognized is that presented by the physical deficiencies of the average Sunday school in the way of rooms and material equipment. Most modern churches are showing improvement in this direction but the vast majority of these edifices indicate a total ignorance of, or disregard for, the claims of the Sunday school for suitable quarters. Separate rooms for the various divisions of the school, except the primary, are yet an innovation; while tables or desks for scholars to work at are regarded as a useless extravagance. The ideal seems to be that of a meeting place rather than of a school room. influence of uniformity is strongly felt here also.

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Something can be done towards overcoming this difficulty by the use of screens, which serve to shut classes from each other's sight, if not entirely from sound. In one school such screens are made to serve a

double purpose by covering the upper portion of them with blackboard material. Where the expense of tables for note book, map, and picture work is felt to be too great, lapboards may be made to answer the purpose. Necessity and the will to do will overcome many physical defects. Perhaps the greatest need of all is for more of the pioneer spirit; a willingness to make experiments within range of reasonable expectation of success.

We must not expect to accomplish everything at once, but be willing to take time, and to make beginnings. I have heard superintendents and pastors say, "We are interested in this movement and are watching those who are working it out; when the work is finished we want to put it into our schools." So far as such a remark is prompted by proper regard for the caution with which this paper opened, we have no criticism, but so far as it reflects either the spirit of indolence, or of unwillingness to do something even if one cannot do all that might be desired, it is utterly unworthy. Suppose your school does not find a fully graded course with suitable text books ready to hand. Start in with what can be found, in whatever grade it may be. Be content to let one teacher or class make progress even if others have to stand and wait. Do not despise the day of small things. Above all let us consent to sacrifice smoothness of organization to vitality of spirit, rather than, as is now too often the case, to sacrifice spiritual results on the altar of the system.

TEACHER TRAINING IN THE LOCAL SUNDAY SCHOOL

EDWARD PORTER ST. JOHN,

PROFESSOR IN THE HARTFORD SCHOOL OF RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY,
HARTFORD, CONN.

"The educational problem of every century is to find the schoolmaster, not to found the school," says Dr. Little. In teacher-training is our great need and opportunity. The effort for gradation, in its largest and vital sense, is the only other reform that can compare with it in importance; and that is bound up with this, for it is through the training of the teacher that it will be accomplished.

Whatever there is of ineffectiveness in Sunday-school teaching is not due chiefly to lack of Christian character in the teachers. The most sincere and consecrated members of the Church are found among the number. And perhaps the most careless of all are not wholly responsible for their attitude. Until we take Sunday-school teaching sufficiently seriously to provide training for the teachers how can we expect them to appreciate its responsibilities?

By very few pastors or superintendents is the need of teacher-training fully appreciated, but it is everywhere felt. Few would claim that they have made adequate provision for it. Yet satisfactory plans and results are wholly attainable by the Sunday school of the average church. Such plans this paper is designed to suggest. The writer has ideals as to the Sunday-school teacher's work, but they have not been formed in ignorance of the real conditions under which the work must be carried on in city, town, and country churches.

The principal error, where any effort is made to this end to-day, is in the character of the plan. The chief emphasis is placed upon the teachers' meeting, which can never be an adequate substitute for the training-class. Indeed, its influence is often detrimental to the real development of teaching power. The average teachers' meeting is an institution for the manufacture of crutches for able-bodied people who have never learned to walk. Instead of grounding the teachers in educational principles and giving facility in the use of correct method it simply provides an exposition of the next lesson; and in proportion to the extent to which it guides the teachers in their work it fosters the feeling that a knowledge of either principles or method is a wholly unnecessary accomplishment. Instead of stimulating self-reliance, developing natural gifts, and encouraging such response to the special needs of a

class as will secure a helpful adaptation of the lesson, it checks originality, lessens the personal element in teaching, and tends toward a mechanical repetition of stale thoughts. The plan is defended because the

teachers are untrained: the answer is, Train them.

The successful conduct of such a class is the immediate difficulty to be overcome. The essential problems to be solved are four: to find the teacher, select and interest the students, determine the course of study, and discover a suitable time and place of meeting. These will be considered in order.

I. The time and place of meeting. The first objection to the plea for a normal class is, "When can we meet?" In city and town every evening is already filled with other engagements. In the country an additional weekly meeting would often be welcomed, but the scattered population and the farmer's long work day usually make it impracticable. With a well-equipped and enthusiastic teacher this difficulty may be overcome in case of small groups of especially loyal and progressive teachers. I have known classes that met at nine o'clock Sunday morning, at nine Sunday evening, at four Sunday afternoon, at the close of the Christian Endeavor meeting on Monday evening, for half an hour before the weekly prayer meeting, and others for an hour after its close. But these plans are manifestly unsatisfactory, and of very limited availability. In three-fourths of our schools teacher-training classes can be successfully maintained at only one time during the week. That is, in the Sunday school during its regular session. Adopt this time and one problem disappears. It is the hour already set apart for Sunday-school work by those whom you desire to enlist. Social and other engagements do not conflict.

Certain objections will be urged. First of all, "The teachers cannot attend." I admit it, and reply, Gather as many of them as you can before breakfast on Sunday morning and lead them to higher ideals and better work but remember that if you limit your efforts to this, this is what you will always have to do. By a normal class in the Sunday school itself you may give in advance a training to those who will begin to take the places of your present untrained teachers two or three years from now.

Again, it will be said that this plan will substitute pedagogical lessons for lessons from the Bible for those who take this training. But any worthy pedagogical course taught by a competent Christian teacher will yield as large results in the strengthening of Christian character as the usual round of Bible lessons. Besides this we must take into account the reflex influence of the future teaching for which this prepares the way.