The Boy and the Sunday School Part 23

PATIENCE NECESSARY IN THE TEACHER

Things cannot happen in a day. Christianity itself is a growing, developing thing. "First the seed, then the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." Have patience! Maybe you will have to win the boys yourself first, before you can win them for Him. Read this letter from a man who has the vision, the plan and a lot of common-sense patience, and think it over:

"Very recently I came across your card, and it brought to mind the promise I made to report progress with my cla.s.s of boys.

"You see so many people in the course of a week, to say nothing of a couple of months, that it may be well to remind you that I am the chap who came to your room in ----, and afterward stuck to you all the way to ---- when you were leaving town.

"When I saw you I was having an average attendance of three, if one is allowed to stretch a fraction of a boy into a whole one, and a members.h.i.+p in the cla.s.s of four. These boys had lost all interest in the Sunday school, and it was only that 'Dad said you must' that any of them came at all to the service.

"Today I have done as well as the faithful servants, and behold my four talents have gained other four. There is no longer a members.h.i.+p and average attendance, for they all come when they are not sick or out of town; and one thing which is a wonder to me is that a good many of the boys from other schools come to us whenever there is no service in their own churches.

"I have not said 'now boys' to this cla.s.s once, but we have gone hunting caves and are going again next Thursday, and we are all going camping if we can arrange a time during the summer.

"These boys, who used to come to the church with a lurching walk and underlip stuck out, now come in like men. They have covered the cla.s.s room walls with pictures from magazines, have brought rocking chairs from home and use their room as the place to plan the fun for the following week. They have, after some pretty violent pus.h.i.+ng from the teacher, pet.i.tioned the powers to give the bas.e.m.e.nt of the church over to them and the other cla.s.ses of intermediate grade for the purpose of having a social evening once each week. The pet.i.tion has been granted and we will probably open up about May 16th.

"None of my cla.s.s show any violent signs of getting converted yet, but when one considers that this is a cla.s.s who could not keep a teacher over three or four Sundays; who used to start a rough-house on all proper and improper occasions, and who had been known to throw books or any other handy article when they got sick of hearing any more Bible, I think I can report progress.

"The most of my boys were arrested a couple of months ago for breaking into summer camps and looking around. Today three of them came to my office with one of their friends who had cut his foot and told me all about their trouble, owning up to the whole business and ending by saying that if I would take their Boy Scout society they would cut all that kind of business out. I wish to G.o.d I had the time to take up this Boy Scout job, but I have not; but I will do the next best thing by taking them hiking on Thursday, which is my day of rest.

"One can't teach boys like these the beauties of religion any more than he can teach Greek to a puppy. They are not up to this kind of thing, so I am trying to teach them to be men, and when we get that lesson we will try the higher one. Of course, I give them the moral side of every lesson and point out how G.o.d has worked through some mighty mean material.

"We still have a fight once in a while during cla.s.s hours, and I call time when they get too near the stove, but this is to be expected in a cla.s.s which is entirely self-governing. I never have said one word about anything they have done in the cla.s.s, except to impress upon them that they should be men and the lesson is working slowly.

"Now, my good sir, don't try to reply to this letter. I know you get a good many just like it, and I am writing just to give you my experience in the hope that it may help some one else; also because I promised to let you know what progress the cla.s.s was making.

"_If you will drop into ---- in a year from now I hope to be able to point to a much larger cla.s.s than the first six months has shown and to show you the majority in the church_.

"Thanking you for reading this far and with kindest wishes, I am "Very truly yours."

=The Boy the Main Issue=

The idea that must continually be kept in mind is the boy's good and the boy. A lot of our teachers in the public schools are trying to teach the subject-matter of the book when they ought to be teaching the boy. They employ static methods. You can get up a goal for attainment and the boy will reach the goal. Generally, however, he will go no higher than you point. Your teaching should be dynamic rather than static.

Aim to secure balanced, symmetrical activities for your cla.s.s. Remember your boy is four-sided, that he is physical, mental, social and religious in his nature. Do not neglect any one side of him, but get the proper agencies to cooperate with you for these ends. _Let the boys do whatever they can. Merely insist on adequate adult supervision_. Above all be patient, practical and business-like and remember that old heads never grow on young shoulders. _The Sunday school Teacher should take his place in the community by the side of the teacher of secular instruction. He is an educator, and is dealing with the most plastic and most valuable a.s.set in the community--boyhood_. Let him take his task seriously, look upon his privilege with a desire to accomplish great things, and always remember that the good of the boy is his ultimate aim.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE TEEN AGE TEACHER

Brumbaugh.--The Making of a Teacher ($1.00).

Foster.--Starting to Teach (.40).

James.--Talks to Teachers ($1.50).

Kirkpatrick.--Individual in the Making ($1.25).

McElfresh.--Training of Sunday-school Teachers (_in preparation_).

Schauffler.--Lamoreaux-Brumbaugh-Lawrance. Training the Teacher ($1.00).

XX

DANGER POINTS

A real danger lies in boys' groups which are seemingly organized, yet which really have no organization. A few Bible cla.s.ses have officers, such as president, secretary, and treasurer, and a few standing committees, all of whom take no real part in the cla.s.s life, the teacher doing everything himself and attempting to deceive the boys by giving them a show of organization. Such cla.s.ses are detrimental to the spirit of boys' work, and should not be tolerated.

The teacher who cannot retire his leaders.h.i.+p to the rear of the cla.s.s, instead of posing at the front, is another serious damper to organized work with boys in the Sunday school. A leader should have a strong Christian character, have the quality of commanding the respect of boys, have the ability to direct boys in doing things, be keen in his sympathy, have patience and persistence, and be absolutely natural in his bearing. He encourages freedom of thought on the part of the boys, believes that a boy has brains enough of his own to think on any point that may be discussed, is open and above-board in his teaching, has a strong grip upon the practical truths of life, and tries to lead his boys out of doubt and difficulty by the path of service.

If dangers such as these be eliminated from boys' work in connection with the Sunday school, and if the spirit of sincerity and earnestness pervades the work of the leaders, there should be little difficulty in raising the boy through the physical, social and mental to the larger spiritual expression for which the church stands. Every week hundreds of boys of the adolescent years are lining up for Christian service all over our land, and if the ideas and directions given these boys are of the right sort, within one generation there will be no boy problem, for the boy problem of this generation is not the problem of the boys, but the problem of the men who are leading boys.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON DANGER POINTS

The Older Boy Sunday School Superintendent (_American Youth_, October, 1912). (.20).

Robinson.--The Adolescent Boy in the Sunday School (_American Youth_, April, 1911). Single copies out of print but bound volume for 1911 may be obtained for $1.50.

Statten.--Danger Lines in Using Boys (_American Youth_, June, 1912) (.20).

XXI

THE RURAL SUNDAY SCHOOL

The problem of the rural Sunday school is its size and equipment. The average number in the school is around eighty, and the building is nearly always a single room. Some very small villages, near great cities, and even some struggling mission Sunday schools in these cities have to contend with the same problem. Some of this volume will apply to the rural Sunday school, and some will not. It is the province of this chapter to point out the parts that apply.

Everything that has to deal with the Organized Cla.s.s or group is applicable. The Organized Cla.s.s is the unit and beginning of all organization. The boy gang, or group, is common to both city and rural district. There is no problem in either place, if there is no group of boys. The Departmental groupings may not be feasible. Usually they are not. There may not be enough groups of boys to form a club or Boy Scout Troop or a chapter of a boy order. Generally this is true. And, after all, it is a distinct gain to the Sunday school, as the grouping that is made by force of compulsion is the Organized Cla.s.s or group. The chapter on the Organized Sunday School Bible Cla.s.s will apply itself to the rural school, wherever there is a half dozen boys and it is given a chance.

The chapter on Bible Study will likewise fit into the rural situation.

No matter whether the boys be urban or rural, they demand Bible Study that will fit into their religious, developing needs. Perhaps Bible Study courses with rural application need to be arranged, and I am led to believe that the ill.u.s.trative material should be vastly different from that used for city boys, and of a rural character. However, there has been too much written and spoken of the difference between rural and urban boys. The differences discovered by the writer seem to be all in favor of the country boy--more wholesome surroundings, more quiet and less nerve-destroying interests, and more time, because of fewer commercial amus.e.m.e.nts to really discover things for themselves. The average rural boy has read more and knows more about current events than the city-bred lad. The country boy should not be provincialized by his Bible Study, or anything else. He should be given as large a touch with the world of men and letters as any one else. The ill.u.s.trations used in Lesson Helps, etc., should have some bearing on the life he leads, that the application of the study may germinate in his daily life, else the study will have little meaning, but he needs no separate, distinct courses. It is not a different selection of material, but a different treatment that is needed. The Denominational Leaders will sooner or later be forced to heed this cry from the largest section of the Sunday school field. Until they do Graded Lessons will not gain materially in the open country.

On the other hand, where there is only one group of adolescent boys in the Sunday school, Graded Lessons are practicable, as well as necessary to the best religious development of boyhood. The grading is cut down to a minimum, and it merely means fewer cla.s.ses studying the same lesson.

It would mean just the one group, with a new course each year. The difficulty is not with the lessons, but with the school officials and the teacher.

The chapter on Through-the-Week Activities is very applicable. The gang will get together some time, on Sat.u.r.day night, if not at another time.

The Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation County Work Secretaries are getting the boys of the open country together for week-night meetings without trouble. "Get something doing" and see how quickly the rural boys will get together. These activities again will differ greatly from those of city boys. There will be great emphasis on the Social and Mental as against the Out-of-Door doings of the urban adolescents. The principle already laid down, to let the boys themselves decide the activity, will settle this difficulty at the start.

So as to the chapter on the Teen Age Teacher! Boys and men are the same pretty much, wherever they live. They may be more deliberate, less showy, and steadier in some places than others, but we cannot admit inferiority or lack of interest on the part of the splendid rural boy.

He is filling the big jobs in our cities today, and will as long as the cities last. The teen age teacher in the rural school needs to master himself for his task. He is doing a bigger piece of work than his brother of the city school. He is preparing men for urban leaders.h.i.+p.

To make a long story short, the parts of this book that deal with the small group are applicable to the rural Sunday school. The teen age teacher in the rural school should begin with these, and maybe after a while he will see opportunities for larger groupings. The Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation County Work Secretary certainly is. Inter-Sunday school work is possible by the Sunday school forces themselves.