LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
PRINCETON, N. J.
PRESENTED BY
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Fergusson, Edmund Morris
1864-1934.
Church-school admi ni st rat il
Church-School Administration
BY E. MORRIS FERGUSSON, D.D
PILOTING THE SUNDAY
SCHOOL. A Message to Super-
intendents. Cloth, $1.35.
CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINIS-
TRATION. A Manual for Pastor,
Superintendent and Director.
Cloth, $1.75.
HOW TO RUN A LITTLE SUN-
DAY SCHOOL. A Handbook of
Sunday School Management
Cloth, $1.00.
V
vV
A
Church-School
Administration
Fell '^i " 'i-^
c-rV>^
By
E. MORRIS ^FERGUSSON, D.D.
Author of "Haw to Run a Little Sunday-SchooV
New York
Chicago
Fleming H. Revell Company
London
AND
Edinburgh
Copyright, 1922, by i
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY i
IVinted in the United Statts of America
New York : 1 58 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
London : 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh : 75 Princes Street
To
the memory of
EDMUND
{i8gg-ig2d)
whose radiant life exemplified
the ideals of religious education
Preface
FOR the practical superintendent, for the pastor
and director seeking the best in methods of
local religious education, for the student of
church-school method, and for the teacher in need
of a class text on church-school administration, this
book is written. It embodies views, experiences and
convictions gathered in thirty-six years of active
Sunday-school work, field and local; and it aims
withal to represent the latest viewpoints and stand-
ards of our rapidly changing church-school situar
tion, and to forecast the further changes which now
impend.
I have tried not to forget the situation and needs in
the little Sunday-school of the rural and frontier
fields, whose workers constitute so large and signifi-
cant a section of our .Sunday-school army. The
principles laid down, and most of the precepts, are
for them no less than for the worker in the church
school of city size and departmental development.
But for the specific study of little-school problems as
such, the reader is referred to my earlier book, " How
to Run a Little Sunday School."
The treatment starts with a general view of the
steps needful in organizing the school for efficiency
of operation. It closes with a review of those fea-
tures of church-school life which minister to personaJ
7
8 PEEFACB
religion and lead to holiness of character and dedica-
tion to Christlike service. Between these chapters
the main topics with which the administrator must
deal are duly considered and his practical problems
discussed.
Most of the chapters open historically. I have
nought to show how our present modes of work have
grown out of those current in the last generation, and
in the times before. I hope thus to enable such of
my fellow-workers as still follow the old ways to see
the path over into the new and the reasons why the
new ways are better. Perhaps, also, some of those
whose approach to religious education has been mod-
em and academic may be strengthened in sympathy
and respect for the conservative wing of our common
host, through these glimpses at the progress of each
specialty to its present stage of educational develop-
ment. If the church-school worker of to-day matches
his predecessors in faithfulness and eagerness for the
best, he will do well.
I have been greatly helped by the criticisms of my
Sunday-school friends who have read the manuscript
in some of its earlier forms.
E. M. F.
Auburndale, Mass.
Contents
I. The Church School Organized , 17
1. Why Organize?
2. Organizing the Session
3. Organizing the Pupils
4. Organizing the Teachers
5. Organizing the Officers
6. Organizing Membership Increase
7. Organizing the Course of Study
8. Organizing the Music
9. Organizing the Calendar
10. Organizing the Finances
11. Organizing the School's Relations:
(a) With the Church
(b) Internally
(c) Denominationally
(d) Neighbourhood
Assignments
IL The Official Staff . • . 35
1. The Distribution of Jurisdiction
2. Classes of Officers
3. Officers of the Church:
(a) The Pastor
(b) The Director of Religious Edu-
cation
(c) The Superintendent
4. Officers of the Council :
(a) The Chairman
{b) The Clerk
(c) The Treasurer
5. Officers of Graded Instruction
6. The Executive Staff:
(a) The Associate
(b) The Secretary
(c) The Chorister
(d) The Librarian
7. Assistant Officers
8. The Officer's Pay
Assignments
10 CONTENTS
III. Divisions, Departments and Classes 53
1. The Teaching Organization : Early ffis-
tory
2. The One-Lesson-for-All Idea
3. Expanding the One-Room School:
(o) Start at the Beginning
(b) The Five-Class School
(c) The Ten-Class School
4. Groups in the Larger School
5. Departmental Differences
6. The Department Without a Room
7. Features of Departmental Organization:
(a) Children's Division
(b) Young People's Division
(c) Adult Division
8. Grades and Promotions :
(a) Yearly Grading
(b) Departmental Grading
(c) Promotions
9. Class Organization
Assignments
IV. The Teaching Staff. ... 76
1. The Ungraded Teacher
2. Departmental Specialization:
(a) Primary Specialization
(b) In the Upper School
(f) Consequences
3. Department Principals :
(a) In the Children's Division
(b) In the Upper School
4. Departmental Staffs
5. The Substitute Service:
(a) By Staff Organization
(b) By Understudies
(c) By Pupil-Teachers
(d) Regulations
6. Upper-Grade Teaching:
(a) Exacting Requirement's
(b) Compensating Advantages
(c) The Promotion Problem
(d) Short-Course Senior Classes
7. Wanted, a Vacancy:
(a) Establish the Case
(&) Facilitate Acceptance
CONTENTS U
(c) Provide the Succession
(d) Arrange the Alternative
& The Teachers' Meeting
Assignments
V. The Course of Study and Expression 97
1. The Problem of Lesson-Choosing;
(o) An Educational Task
(b) Lessons for Adult Convenience
(c) Lessons for Pupils' Needs
(d) Establishing the Dominant
Principle
2. Essentials of a Course of Study:
(a) A Tool for Character-Making
(b) A Course, Not a Field
(c) Features of a School Course
3. A Church-School Study Course:
(a) A Course in Religion
(b) A Course Given Under Diffi-
culties
(c) Correlations
(d) Expectations
4. Lesson Aims :
(a) Logical and Psychologic Aims
(6) Aims of the Graded Lessons
(c) Administrative Use of the Aim
5. The Course of Expression :
(a) Worship
(b) Expressive Activities
(c) Expressive Conduct
(d) Evangelism
6. Educational Projects
7. Building the Curriculum :
(a) Introduction of Graded Studies
(b) Selection of Course Material
(c) Allowable Teaching Freedom
Assignments
VI. The School and the Homes . .124
I. Church Duty to the Home:
(a) Home the Great School o£ Re-
ligion
(fe) Religion Moved to the Church
(c) Origin of the Home Department
12 CONTENTS
j
2. Home Service to the Church School: i
(a) The Self-Sufficient Home ]
(b) The First Step a Call for Serv- |
ice I
(c) A Scale of Home Cooperation '
3. A Home Program of Religious Educa-
tion: I
(a) A Wide Scope
(&) Goals, Not Standards I
4. Agencies for Reaching the Homes : !
(a) The Pastor as Preacher
(b) The Pastor as Visitor
(c) The Cradle Roll \
(d) The Home Department j
(e) The Organized Adult Class
(/) The Parents' Department i
5. Training for Parenthood : ]
(a) A Community Responsibility
(b) A Task for the Church School |
(c) A Field for New Endeavour I
6. The Department of the Home: I
(a) Elements of the Combination j
(b) Organization and Relationships j
(c) Program \ I
Assignments
Vli, The Building and Equipment . .144
1. Begin Where You Are j
2. The Power of the Wall «
3. Makeshift Housing: '
(a) The Present Situation
(&) The Way Out ;
4. How to Plan a New Building: !
(a) Emancipation ,'
(b) Inherited Limitations i
(c) The Starting-Point ]
5. General Principles : '
(0) Unity {
(b) Efficiency i
(c) Economy
(d) _ Suggestion "
6. Provision for New Features : j
(a) Community Responsibility ',
(b) Professional Service ]
(c) Week-day Instruction |
(d) Visualization
(e) Play and Recreation
CONTENTS 13 j
7. Realization : 3
(a) Working Out the Ideal
(b) Winning a Verdict
(c) Specifications, Not Plans
(d) Estimates and Adjustments [
8. An Available Building Standard: \
(a) Origin ;
(b) Form 1
(c) Mode of Application ,'
9. A Glimpse of the Vision '
Assignments i
VIII. Training for Leadership Service . 170
1. The Master Task !
2. The Size of the Need :
(a) Vacancies and Losses j
(b) General Progress i
(c) Overtaking the Deficit j
(d) Completing the Course '
(e) A Going School ;
3. Undergraduate Training: ;
(a) From the Beginning '
(b) Junior Training '
(c) Intermediate and Senior Train- ■'.
ing
(d) Entrance Requirements Ful- i
4. The Training Curriculum : ']
(a) The One- Year Manual
(b) A Superseded Type j
(c) The Three -Year Standard j
Course '
(d) Preliminary Courses !
5. Supervised Substitution :
(a) No Premature Interruptions
(b) Lower-Grade Departmental As- !
signments i
(c) In the Upper-Grade Classes
(d) Other Opportunities i
6. The Training Department: ';
(a) Its Scope 1
(b) Its Leader '
(c) Its Members and Methods '
(d) Equipment
7. Training Outside the School : ,]
(a) Headquarters Leadership
U C50NTENTS
(b) The Community Training
School
(c) Summer Schools and Reading
Courses
8. The Workers' Conference
9. The Wider Outlook :
(a) In the School
(b) In the Church
(c) Life Service
(d) Reciprocity
Assignments
IX. The Yearly Program . . , 197
1. The Annual Goal:
(a) Not Sessions but Years
(6) When Shall the Year Begin?
(c) A Goal for Every Work
2. Promotions :
(o) Remaking the Graded Roll
(b) The Policy of No Demotions
(c) Promotion Day Suggestions j
3. Appointments and Installations : <
(a) The Principle ' ^
(b) Method of Application ]
(f) Installations
4. The General Officers' Year:
(a) When Shall This Begin?
(b) Elections and Appointments
(c) Installations ;
(d) Annual Reports \
5. The Annual Budget
6. The Festival Calendar: |
(a) Forestall Worry ]
(&) Departmentalize
(c) Use the Young Folks '
(d) Use the Graded Work ,
(e) Make the Music Count '
7. Picnics and Outings
8. The Ordering of Supplies
9. The Workers' Conference Calendar
10. Finding Time for All This:
(a) Fix a Routine
(b) The Seven Hours
(c) A Constructive Program
Assignments
CONTENTS 15
X, The School's Religion . , . 226
1. A School of Religion :
(a) Education for Holiness
(6) Education for Service
(c) Graded Religion
2. Child Religion:
(a) Love and Obedience
' (b) Child- Lessons in Religion
(c) The Administrator's Part
(rf) Junior Religion
3. The Religion of Youth :
(a) At the Place of Decision
(£>) Idealism
(c) Service as Religious Expression
4. The Religion of Later Adolescf^nce :
(a) Organization for Educational
Serv'ice
(b) Faith, Fellowship, Dedication
5. Adult Religious Education
6. The Religion of the School :
(a) The School's Need of Religion
(b) Religion as Personal Life
(c) Religion as Relationship
(d) Religion as Service
7. The Service of Worship :
(a) Significance of School Worship
(b) Magnifying the Worship Period
(c) The Reverent Opening of Wor-
ship
8. The Call to Confess Christ
9. Is Ours a Religious School?
Assignments
Appendices 249
Bibliography 261
Index 265
THE CHURCH SCHOOL ORGANIZED
1. Why Organize?
Whatever service we may desire our church school
to render, it must be organized if the service is to be
rendered surely and well.
Poor organization shows in a dependence on the
initiative of the leader. He thinks of everything,
tells everybody what to do, announces or signals his
©rder for every act and performs most of the acts
himself. In contrast, a well organized school has
every act and function provided for. The school runs
" like a machine," — except that its members are alive,
intelligent and enthusiastic in taking the parts as-
signed them, and the " machine " has the capacity for
growth and self-direction.
Every step toward better organization releases for
profitable service some force that previously was con-
sumed in the task of running the machine. Of these
forces the most valuable is the initiative of the leader.
In an unorganized school this is all expended in the
maintenance of routine. Such a school is said to be
"in the ruts." Better organization releases this
power and enables the leader to seek the higher life
of the school.
The wise leader, therefore, will constantly study
17
18 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
the workings of his school, both those under his own
hand and those already committed to others^ with a
view to making every such working, as far as may
be, automatic through organization.
2. Organizing the Session.
The first feature, ordinarily, to need organization
is the order of service for the Sunday-school session.
Steps to that end will be :
(a) Provision of separate assembly rooms, as
soon as may be, for each of the departments of the
Children's Division, and permission for these depart-
ments to plan and hold separate services for the full
time of the school's session. (Chapters III and VII.)
Extension of this arrangement to any older class that
desires to meet separately for all or part of the service
time. The responsibility for results in such case
should be left with the class.
(b) Division of the whole time into periods, each
with its own plan and culmination, like an act in a
drama. These will naturally be :
(i) The assembly period, from door-opening to
the hour of beginning. The janitor must have a rule
as to the opening of the doors and must be made re-
sponsible for order until some appointee arrives to
whom the leadership shall pass. For the assigned
minutes of this period a sequence of steps must be
established, leading up to the call to order.
(2) The period of worship, covering the first
minutes of the session. (Chapter X.)
(3) The period of desk instruction. (Sec. 9 of
this chapter.)
(4) The period of class instruction.
(5) The period of closing. The tendency to-day
is to transfer this period to the separate class ses-
sions, allowing each class to finish its work and ad-
ORGANIZATION 19
journ with a prayer, whether in its own room or on,
the main floor. In some church schools the inter-
mediate classes occupy the main floor, all others
having separate rooms ; and the closing period is used
by the department principal as his platform time.
(Chapter III.)
(6) The period of dismissal, ending with the lock-
ing of the doors.
(c) Provision of an order for each period of the
program, with responsible conductors and partici-
pants.
(d) Publication of these orders, by printing, post-
ing or drilling from the platform, so that all will
know and take their proper parts.
(e) Training of the various assistants to perform
their parts in proper sequence, with observance of the
time schedule and in a spirit of worship and con-
sideration of the end in view. (Chapter II.)
3. Organizing the Pupils.
School children are of many ages and capacities.
Each of these has its characteristic needs. While in-
dividuals vary widely, it is possible to strike a de-
pendable average for the capacity and need of a
particular age, and on this average to base a particular
method for the instruction and training of the group
of pupils who may be assigned to the work of this
age. This organizes the continuous nurture of the
child into a series of steps or grades. Dividing the
pupils thus, in order to the better meeting of their
respective needs, is the first step in the grading of a
school.
In the school of the home the nurture must remain
continuous, expanding steadily with each child's ex-
panding powers and needs. It will also be a different
20 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION"
nurture for each individual child. In the school of
the community, however, or of the church, grade-
grouping is necessary, in order to meet, at all stages
of growth, those needs of all the pupils for which the
particular school is responsible.
Punctuating the otherwise steady growth of the
child's powers from infancy to maturity are certain
times of transition from one stage to the next. Some
of these, like teeth-cutting and puberty, are physi-
ological and fairly constant for humanity generally.
Others depend more or less on our social and educa-
tional customs. It is manifestly desirable, in the in-
terest of a unified education for each child, that the
standard educational breaks and transitions of the
community system and of the church system shall
agree.
With the help of these transition epochs, a series of
periods may be established for any school, by means
of which all the pupils of any three or four years can
be rationally grouped together for mass leadership in
worship, instruction and activities. These will then
be the departments of that school. The single-year
groups within the departments will ordinarily consti-
tute the grades. The advantages of a standard basis
of grading and departmentalization are obvious. All
week-day schools acknowledge the need of this or-
ganizing of the pupils. The church schools, with
equal need, are now rapidly falling into line.
The standard grades, departments and divisions, as
recognized by the InternationJul Sunday-school Asso-
ciation and the denominational agencies of religious
education, are:
ORGANIZATION 21
Qiildren's Division :
Cradle Roll, birth to three years.
Beginners, four and five.
Primary, six, seven and eight.
Junior, nine, ten and eleven.*
Young People's Division:
Intermediate, twelve, thirteen and fourteen.
Senior, fifteen, sixteen and seventeen.
Young People, eighteen to twenty-three or
twenty- four.
Adult Division:
Adults, from twenty-four up ; including parents'
classes and adult members of the Home De-
partment.'
Steps to be taken in thus organizing the pupils
will be:
(a) Without regard to classes, determine the
proper grade of each pupil up to and including seven-
teen years, recording this on a graded roll. This
should, of course, be done with the cooperation of
those who know the pupils well. Consider first age,
then public school grade if available, then size, home
conditions and other special characteristics of the
case. The older the pupil, the greater the probability
of error in following age alone.
•* The Junior Department was formerly recognized as
consisting of four yearly grades, from nine to twelve. Many
church schools are still so organized. The official steps in
the transition from the four-year to the three-year basis have
not yet all been taken ; nor has final action been taken on
the names of the divisions as here given.
* There is also a School Administration Division, including
the general officers of the church school.
22 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
(b) By shifts and reorganizations, as opportunity
offers, adjust the present class system of the school
so that each class shall stand for one or more grades
of boys or girls. In a school of 200 members or
more, each class can stand for one grade only; but
where the school is smaller pupils of two or even
three grades may have to be taught in one class.
Make transfers by invitation to those to be trans-
ferred, from the pupils of the class to which they are
to go; the teachers concerned having previously
agreed to the arrangement. This smooths the trans-
action. Such transfers should happen informally
from time to time, until the closest possible harmony
between the class system and the grade system has
been secured.
(c) Fix the annual day of promotion. This is
ordinarily the last Sunday in September, just before
the opening of the graded lesson courses on the first
Sunday in October.
(d) Advertise the grades in every possible way;
thus arousing the pupils' ambition to prove them-
selves woidiy of promotion by the faithful doing of
this year's assigned work.
(e) Enlist all, especially the older pupils, in sup-
port of this system, by showing them that in this way
only can the grades be annually renewed and main-
tained and each pupil given his fair share of what the
school has to offer.
4. Organizing the Teachers.
The separation of the pupils into these grades and
departments carries with it a like separation among
the teachers, with the need of a principal teacher at
the head of each department. Good work also will
demand in most of the departments the organizing of
a staff of assistants. No single operation in the or-
OEGANIZATION 23
ganizing of a church school does more to relieve the
leader of detail than the placing of a department
under the care of a competent principal and then
dealing with those classes through this principal
only.
From the time (about 1820) when the " infant
Sunday school " was introduced in America, it has
been the rule that the smaller children should be
grouped into an " infant class " or " primary depart-
ment," with a separate and permanent teacher, who
usually handled in one class-group all or most of the
ages now comprised in the Children's Division. This
permanency of the primary teacher tended to her
constant educational growth and gave her a standing
above the teachers in the main room; because they
moved along from year to year with the natural
growth of their classes and so were unable to profit
by the increase of teaching material for the use of
successive classes or by experience in its use.
The modem church school extends this advantage
to all the teachers, by attaching them to one depart-
ment, sometimes to one yearly grade, and by provid-
ing for the promotion of the pupils, singly or as a
class, at the end of each year to the next higher grade,
and at the end of each department period to the next
higher department. The teacher in the latter case is
assigned, ordinarily, to one of the new classes enter-
ing from below.
5. Organizing the Officers.
Besides the pupils and the teachers with their prin-
cipals, the church school needs certain officers for
24 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
service to the school as a whole. These, with the
matters appropriate to their respective trusts, are now
by the International standards of classification
counted as the Division of School Administration,
both in the local school and in the field work pertain-
ing thereto.
In a well-organized church school each of these
officers (Chapter II) has been assigned his precise
responsibility and trained to the efficient performance
of it. He has been given in his jurisdiction freedom
to do the work in his own way and encouraged to
originality and progress. The process of annual elec-
tion or appointment has been so established that each
officer responsible for the work of an officer below
him is free, if he wishes, to nominate one of his own
choice for the place; this choice being subject to con-
firmation by those who must work with and under
such nominee for the year. Such a system of reports,
also, has been established that every work is exhibited
in detail to those concerned, to be praised or censured
as it may be found good or ill.
6. Organizing Membership Increase.
No feature of church-school work is more in
need of good organization than the process by which
new members are recruited, received, trained and in-
spired with the school's ideals; and nowhere in the
school is the need of good organization, ordinarily,
more completely overlooked. Ten superintendents
are concerned with the work of gaining new members
for every one who gives a thought to what must be
done after the new members enter the school.
OEGAMZATION 26
Instead, therefore, of spending one's whole effort
on the launching of an elaborate membership contest,
with no further or higher goal than a record of in-
creased numbers, it is better to organize thus :
(o) Stimulate regular and punctual attendance,
to get more and better work done for and by those
already enrolled.
(b) Determine what should be the maximum size
of each class and department, in order to make full
use of present available resources in teachers, seats
and room-space, without loss of efficiency through
crowding and interruptions, and without disarranging
the proper proportions of the departments and grades.
This will show what vacancies there are to be filled by
recruiting.
(c) Plan increases in the force of officers and
teachers along with increases in the number of pupils.
Plan also to train the new official recruits in the duties
to which they are to be assigned.
(d) Establish a school register, with a system for
receiving, enrolling and assigning each new pupil and
for keeping his record up to date. The system should
include a fixed procedure for following up irregular
pupils and those who have left the school. Make it
impossible to enter the school except through proper
registry and assignment, and hard to get out except
through orderly dismissal to another school.
(e) Build up the fellowship spirit of the school,
so that all who ever attend will want to belong; and
improve the teaching, so that all who belong will wish
to continue receiving such good instruction.
(/) Make the recruiting of new members, where
such can be received, part of the school's missionary
service, in which all are urged to engage ; and, in ad-
dition, conduct from time to time a systematic can-
vass.
26 CHUECHSCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
7. Organizing the Course of Study.
The organizing of the pupils into grades, more or
less closely represented by the classes, and the teach-
ers into department faculties, opens the way for the
corresponding organization of the materials of in-
struction.
The American Sunday school, in the course of its
evolution into the church school of to-day, passed for
most of the denominations through a forty-year age
(1872-1912) of lesson uniformity, during which time
it was the accepted idea that the material for study
should be the same for every class and age in the
school, that this material should consist of a selected
Bible passage some ten or twelve verses long, with a
" golden text " and other accessories, and that the
adaptation to the needs of the different ages should be
secured by a more or less radical process of selection
and adapted treatment for each department, age and
class.
The long struggle for lesson gradation, in and out
of the fellowship of those who stood together in sup-
port of this principle, has now brought us to where
all, apparently, concede the reasonableness of grading
the material as well as the method of the lessons;
though a large minority of the Sunday schools still
use the uniform lesson supplies. It is hard to see
how any one can accept the general principle of this
chapter and not agree that the first step in organizing
the studies of the school will be to give each depart-
ment, and presumably also each yearly grade, its own
lessons ; each course being chosen with an eye single
to the spiritual and other needs of the pupils using it.
ORGANIZATION 27
and therefore chosen without reference to what other
classes with other needs may be studying at the same
time. (Chapter V.)
8. Organizing the Music.
Unorganized music in the church school is that
which is chosen and given out by random and usually
hasty selection, on the theory that we must sing some-
thing, that it should always be lively and inspiring,
that any playing by the pianist is mere filling-in, and
that there is no connection between the educational
and spiritual purpose of the school and the music that
forms so conspicuous a feature of the sessions. On
this theory, of course, any superintendent may be the
school's musical leader ; and no organization is called i'
for beyond a supply of hymn-books and some pro-
vision for starting the tune.
When, however, we consider that religious educa-
tion includes the nurture of emotions as well as of
ideas, that music is part of the language of emotion,
and that character is shaped and decision arrived at,
in numberless instances, under the spell of musical
influence, we see that apart from the idea-value of
the words of our hymns, the emotional value of our
church-school singing is an educational force that it
is a sin to squander. The words have value chiefly in
giving to the tune its intended emotional force;
though, of course, they often carry their own message
as well.
In organizing the music the leader will provide the
school with a hymn-book edited in conformity with
the educational conception of worship-music. He
28 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
will seek a chorister and an accompanist who accept
this principle and arc competent to interpret the
music to be used. He will then plan his programs
of worship with a view to the use of every hymn and
musical number in leading the school along some pur-
posed line of emotional expression. Sometimes this
will be lively and enthusiastic; at other times it will
be prayerful, penitent, grateful, trustful, or sympa-
thetic with the needs or the sorrows of others.
It is not easy to make choices like these, or to find
choristers able to interpret and carry out such a pol-
icy. But our professional training schools are begin-
ning to send forth leaders able to follow the vision
and show it to others; and as the courses given in
community training schools on the ministry of music
in religious education are multiplied, we may hope
for an increase in local workers qualified to help the
superintendent in the organizing of the music of the
church school.
9. Organizing the Calendar.
In the days of uniform lesson procedure each su-
perintendent was supplied with a ready-made calen-
dar for his weekly and yearly platform work. There
was always a " lesson for the day." This calendar
also furnished each quarter a lesson on temperance
and took note of Christmas, Easter and a few other
occasions. Many of the older superintendents feel
lost without this well-remembered guidance.
Now, however, with graded lessons in many if not
all of the main-room classes, each leader must draft
a calendar of his own. He must look ahead, plan for
OEGANIZATION 29
the due observance of such festivals as the school
should celebrate and for whatever preparations these
will call for, pay reasonable attention to the minor
dates and special Sundays, and fill the dates not other-
wise covered with topics of his own choosing; thus
providing for every Sunday in the school's year an
appropriate and helpful lesson for the day. Around
this lesson, whether seasonal, churchly, evangelistic,
missionary. Biblical or generally didactic, he may
group his prayers, reading selection, story, brief talk,
and one or two hymns ; thus securing for the school's
main assembly that unity of sessional emphasis that
was formerly supposed to be given by the uniform
Bible lesson. (Chapter IX.)
Back of the public calendar of festivals and Sun-
day services will be the manager's calendar of edu-
cational enterprises to be undertaken, goals to be at-
tained and responsibilities to be taken up and assigned
or personally discharged, each in due season. Before
the year begins, the executive must work out his
projects, discuss them with his fellow-workers and
fix plans of cooperation for making each a success.
In the superintendent's note-book will then be re-
corded the dates when the various steps in prepara-
tion for each of these must be taken. The superin-
tendent who sets apart some time each week for work
on that which lies beyond next Sunday will come
somewhere near the attainment of his yearly goal.
10. Organizing the Finances.
Good education costs money ; and it is worth pay-
ing for. The easy way to finance a church school is
30 CHUECH SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
to do without any but the cheapest and most meager
equipment and coin the interest of those engaged in
the work to pay for it. In such a school the bare
idea of paying money for a teacher's or a leader's
service is regarded with horror as treason to the high
principle of voltmtary service on which our Sunday-
school traditions have been built. Nearly equal
shock is felt if it is proposed to expend any but the
merest dole on the attendance of one or more of the
teachers at a summer school or other opportunity for
intensive training.
A church school cannot afford to run on principles
like these. The financial side of its life must be or-
ganized as carefully as its lessons. By successive
steps, educational and diplomatic, the leader must
(a) enlarge its budget, economizing on outgo that is
educationally unproductive and increasing outlay on
that which will count, (b) convince the church that
it cannot afford to let its school remain financially
independent, and cause the annual school budget to
be added to the general budget of the church, (c) in-
terest his force, teachers and pupils, in increasing
their regular or special contributions to direct local
church support and the church-approved benevolent
causes, so that the church officers may feel that their
adoption of their own school was a good investment,
and (d) set before each class and department and the
school as a whole an inspiring set of choices for their
giving service, so that the school's giving shall in all
its aspects be an educational and a character-building
feature of the work.
So organized, the income side of the school's life
OEGANIZATION 31
will prosper. Its outgo side must be organized with
equal care. Each department and officer must be
ready in season with his detailed estimate of expense
for the year soon to begin. With the help of these a
finance committee will draw up the annual budget.
This fixed, the superintendent will notify each subor-
■dinate of the amount of his credit and how it is to be
drawn on. The treasurer will apportion general bills
to the accounts to which they should be charged, and
from time to time he will report to the workers'
council how the accounts stand. A rule for making
payments from the treasury will be adopted and lived
up to. In reporting for the year to the superintend-
ent, each department head will be asked to state how
much money was spent by his department during the
year, and what the work got for it. If all drafts are
made directly on the church treasury, these rudi-
mentary rules of sound business practice must be
even more carefully observed. -
11. Organizing the School's Relations,
(a) With the Church. — No church school can
afford to live its life alone. It must be actually, not
nominally, a living part of the church it serves. Be-
sides the financial connection just described, there
must be an educational relationship. The church,
through its highest governing authority, must assume
responsibility for the school's work, by the appoint-
ment of the superintendent or the director of relig-
ious education who is to have charge of its adminis-
tration for the year, and by a loving and practical
interest in its work and needs. The best way for the
32 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
church to discharge this responsibility will be through
a small, competent and active committee on educa-
tion, constituting a " school board " for the parish.
(b) Internally, the relations of the workers must
be established. The teachers having been separated
into departments and divisions, they must also, with
the officers and heads of the older classes, be united
in a school body, the Workers' Council, whose
monthly conferences will develop unity, zeal for
progress and a sense of responsibility for the welfare
of the school as a whole.
(c) Denominationally, the school must be trained
in loyalty to the fellowship of school service for
which its denominational board, society or agency of
religious education stands. It must be led to give
first consideration to the standards and programs of
its duly constituted leaders in the body to which its
church belongs. Whatever quotas or tasks are set
before it should be accepted as a challenge and wher-
ever possible met or exceeded.
(d) With equal fidelity should the church school
acknowledge and discharge its neighbourhood obliga-
tions to the fellowship of Christian schools in the
township, county or other community unit of which
it is a part. Its report should be furnished when
called for by the secretary of the county association ;
its fair share of the expense of the united work
should be promptly met ; and at every convention its
delegates should appear. Whether the school be
large or small, needy or splendidly equipped, it can-
not afford to neglect the gains of this relationship or
the duty of rendering this service. By the firm es-
OEGANIZATION 33
tablishment of these local relations we begin that re-
building of the undivided religious community with-
out which the blessings of an adequate education in
religion for American childhood and youth will be
forever beyond our reach.
Assignments
The numbers refer to the section numbers in the
text.
If not yourself a superintendent, take a school of
which you know something and answer as to that
school, estimating or imagining where you cannot
supply the facts.
1. Name a few symptoms of low-grade organ-
ization that you have seen in a Sunday school.
2. Outline your school's service as usually con-
ducted, giving the time when the periods begin and
indicating briefly what is done in each period.
3. Write from memory, in one column, the list of
standard grades and ages as here given; and along-
side it show how the departments and grades are now
arranged in your school.
4. Give reasons why a teacher should stay in the
department when the class is promoted to the next
department. (If you do not consider this a good
rule, give also the reasons against it.)
5. Why, and how far, should an officer be free to
work in his own way ?
6. Outline a plan of campaign for an increase of
your school's membership, showing, in a few lines,
the order of the steps to be taken.
7. In parallel columns, write the advantages of
34 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
uniformity in lesson material and the advantages of
material chosen independently for each grade.
8. (i) What hymn-book is used in your school?
When was it introduced? How does the supply of
good copies compare with the need? (2) Name a
few hymns recently sung in the school, from which
you feel that a religious benefit was derived. What
benefit ?
9. (i) Which festivals does your school observe?
How do you observe Christmas? (2) W^hat gains do
you notice from the Christmas observances? What
costs, in time, attention, feelings and money? (3)
Who carry the Christmas responsibility? How and
when are they appointed? (4) Write, in a column,
the dates of the Sundays for the next calendar quar-
ter; and against these see how many appropriate
topics you can set as the desk lesson topic in your
school for that Sunday.
10. (i) Draw up, from memory and estimation,
last year's budget of expense for your school; or
sketch a budget covering all real needs for next year.
In so doing, classify the expenditures in such a way
that the school and the church can both see how far
each feature of expense is justified by results. (2)
Draft a by-law to govern the treasurer in making
payments for school expense. (3) How are your
school's expenses covered? (4) Describe your plans
for benevolent giving. When and how are gifts
made? To what objects? How far have classes and
departments a say as to where their gifts shall go?
11. Of the four relationships named, which are
well organized in your school ?
II
THE OFFICIAL STAFF
1. The Distribution of Jurisdiction.
The first task before the executive head of a
church school is to secure a clear and detailed vision
of what his school ought to be. To aid the student
in gaining such a vision was the aim of Chapter I.
Next in importance is the task of completely distrib-
uting his own managerial jurisdiction.
A manager's jurisdiction is like an estate in the
hands of an executor. At the outset of the trust it
is all his own. By one act after another debts are
settled, claims collected, properties liquidated, lega-
cies paid and distributions effected, until at last the
trust is wound up and the executor discharged. So
the superintendent at the outset of his year may
properly charge himself with full responsibility.
Rapidly, however, he will arrange with one worker
after another as to what that worker's special re-
sponsibility is to be. When this process has been
completed, the entire estate will have been dis-
tributed, except that definite round of labour by
which he, a worker among workers, shares tlie serv-
ice of the cause.
When this task is well performed, not only does
the school run smoothly (Chap. I, Sec. i), but every
officer and teacher, and every pupil entrusted v'ith
35
36 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
any responsibility, has been given a strong motive for
doing his own particular task faithfully and well.
This chapter aims to study the official force of the
church school with reference to the effective appli-
cation of the principle of distributed jurisdiction.
The teaching force, while not here excluded, will be
more carefully studied in later chapters.
2. Classes of Officers.
No satisfactory entuneration of the officers of the
church school can be made while we think of them
as a single class over against the pupils and the
teachers. Still less is it possible thus to discuss their
functions and related responsibilities. Each officer
has a work to do which is vitally related to the work
of others ; and before we can profitably consider the
work we must take account of the relations. The mo-
ment we do this, we perceive that there are distinct
classes of church-school officers and that we must
consider each class in turn.
A classification of the officers needed in the well
organized church school, if based on the nature of
the relations sustained, will be as follows :
(a) Officers of the church in the church school.
(b) Officers of the board or council of the
school.
(c) Officers of graded instruction — the principals
of divisions and departments.
(d) The executive staff of the school.
(e) Assistant officers.
Let us follow this classification in our study.
THE OFFICIAL STAFF 87
3. Officers of the Church.
(a) The pastor, as executive head of the church,
comes into the church school as ranking officer, with
supervisory but not immediate jurisdiction, except as
this may be expressly conferred. The fact of his
being pastor gives him no specific function, unless it
be that mentioned in Section 4, below. His gen-
eral function is to oversee the conduct of the church
school, advise with its leaders, represent its interests
in pulpit and church councils and cooperate as ways
open. It is just because this service from the pastor
is so greatly needed and when wisely and heartily
given counts for so much in the life and progress of
the school that it ought not ordinarily to be limited
by exclusive attention to the adult class or any other
special field of service.
As spiritual leader of the congregation the pastor
will from time to time need the use of the platform
and other parts of the school mechanism in carrying
out his plans for reaching the children and young
people with special messages and invitations. These
facilities can be thus used so as to strengthen and
not diminish their educational value. For all such
purposes the pastor's jurisdiction should be loyally
conceded and full cooperation given.
(b) Next in rank, as a church officer in the school,
will come the director of religious education.
More and more clearly to-day we realize that be-
sides the intelligent layman's business training,
adapted to the needs of the church-school enterprise,
we need for the conduct of a real church school a
technically trained educational executive who has
38 CHUBCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
specialized in the teaching of religion. If teachers
of religion need training, how much more they who
are to train and direct them! Few churches have
yet realized this need sufficiently to employ such a
worker; but that gives us no warrant for failing to
call for the filling of this office as part of the church's
task in the upbuilding of a modern church school.
The jurisdiction of the director is derived from
the church and extends beyond the Sunday school to
all features of church hfe which are or can be made
educational. In some situations it may be best for
him to take the superintendency for a season, until
he has worked out its functions on an educational
basis and prepared the office for transfer to one who
is ready to administer it in sympathy with his plans.
Usually, however, it is better for him to carry only
those functions which are strictly educational, leav-
ing general administration in the hands of a separate
executive. Close and cordial collaboration between
the two leaders will of course be essential.
(c) Third in this class will come the superin-
tendent.
Whether in conjunction with a professional (in
some cases a voluntary) director of education or
carrying the whole responsibility alone, the super-
intendent of the church school should derive his
jurisdiction from the church which has entrusted its
school for the year to his leadership. Only so can
the church be led to accept its responsibility for the
religious education of its children.
Full voice in the acceptance of their leader should
be accorded to the board or council of the school,
THE OFFICIAL STAFF 39
after the church authorities have made their nomi-
nation. The principles governing this arrangement
are discussed under Section 7, below. The pastor,
as go-between, can easily guide the two parties*
choice to a harmonious outcome; but the formality
of annual choice by the church and ratification by the
teachers should be maintained.
4. Officers of the Council.
Every church school has or should have some
form of legislative organization, by which the of-
ficers and teachers — to whom should be added the
presidents of the older organized classes — take part
in the management of the school's affairs. The
stated meeting of this body is now called the work-
ers' conference; and the body itself we may call the
workers' council. (Chap. VIII, Sec. 9). The of-
ficers of this council constitute the second class of
officers of the church school.
Three officers are called for by the work of this
council. It must have a chairman, a clerk and a
treasurer. Provision should also be made for a vice-
chairman to fill the chair in the chairman's absence.
(a) The Chairman. — In the rules of one church
(the Methodist Episcopal) it is provided that the
pastor shall be chairman of the Sunday-school board,
corresponding substantially to the workers' council.
Quite apart from this prescription, there are good
reasons for considering the adoption of this custom.
Manager of proceedings at the meeting the superin-
tendent certainly must be. But from which point
can he do the most effective managing — from the
40 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
chair, or from a seat on the floor? Every pastor is
a parliamentarian, famihar with the usage of his de-
nominational body. He knows that it is contrary to
rule for the chair to speak to a motion. If he should
forget this, it can without disrespect be called to his
attention. By a careful preparation of the docket,
with notifications to participants, the superintendent
can hold full control of proceedings; and being on
the floor he can with propriety speak on every matter
on which he has aught to say. The office of chair-
man of the council, moreover, is an excellent school
for the pastor, or for the senior deacon or elder who
may be honoured with the vice-chairmanship,
(b) The Clerk. — It is usually assumed — surely
without much reflection — that the secretary of the
Sunday school is also clerk of the council. But if
the body is to be educated to a sense of its co-
responsibility with the superintendent for the welfare
of the school, why should it not elect a clerk of its
own ? Such an officer, chosen from its own number,
can usually do it better service than can be had from
the overworked secretary. He will also be immedi-
ately responsible to the body that elected him. His
duties will include good minutes, prompt notices of
meetings and a well-kept roll.
(c) The Treasurer. — Chief among the council's
functions, as the church school is ordinarily run, is
the control of school funds. The treasurer of the
church school, therefore, will derive his office from
the council, in order that he may be fully respon-
sible thereto. He will not be an officer of the church,
like the superintendent, nor a nominee of the super-
THE OFFICIAL STAFF 41
intendent, like the secretary. He will be an officer
of the council ; and he should be elected by that body
from among its own number, that when a special
meeting is hastily called he may be there.
Being treasurer of a school, where the educational
value of the offerings far outweighs their monetary
value, the treasurer should so keep his books and
make his reports that the gifts of individuals, classes
and departments shall have the highest possible edu-
cational effect. The added labour of special-object
accounting should never daunt him ; for by encourag-
ing the support of these special objects we arouse
interest, focus endeavour and build character.
The school is also a business. As such, its ac-
counts should at all times be lucid, well posted and
at hand for light on the financial standing of each
department and budget item. Besides making regu-
lar public reports of offerings received and for-
warded, and official written reports to the council
showing classified income and outgo, the treasurer
should supply the superintendent with materials for
a simplified executive financial record. A financial
secretary should gather and record the weekly of-
ferings under the treasurer's and the secretary's joint
direction.
When the school is placed in charge of an active
committee on education, as suggested in Chapter I,
Section iia, th^re will be no need of an administra-
tive fund separate from the general church treasury.
The workers' council, however, under the lead of the
educational director, will continue to direct the gath-
ering and disposing of the school's benevolent funds;
42 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
and for the handling of these it will need a school
treasurer.
5. Officers of Graded Instruction.
The principals or superintendents of instruction in
the graded departments of the church school con-
stitute the third class of officers. They exercise a
dual responsibility, as managers and as head teachers
of their departments. In the former capacity they
are subordinate to the superintendent, in the latter
to the director. They should be elected by the church
board, on the nomination of the superintendent, the
director and the pastor.
In a large school, or one where complete organi-
zation is especially desirable, there is also need for
divisional principals, in charge respectively of the
children's, the young people's and the adult divisions.
Architectural conditions may emphasize this need,
the building requiring a separate handling of these
larger units of school organization.
The duties of these officers are discussed in Chap-
ter III.
6. The Executive Staff.
Dividing with the superintendent the executive re-
sponsibility for the administration of the school as a
whole are certain officers who with their chief con-
stitute the executive staff. These form the fourth
class of church-school officers. Like the members
of the President's cabinet, they should be nominated
by the chief executive and confirmed by his senate,
THE OFFICIAL STAFF 43
the workers' council, according to the principles of
Section 7, below.
(a) The Associate. — In all church schools of one
hundred members or more, and in smaller schools
where possible, the associate superintendent should
be a full-time officer and not the regular teacher of
a class. He may be of mature years or a young man
in training. In either case the superintendent should
advise with him frequently on current issues, taking
pains actually to associate him with the conduct and
life of the school. Special provision for his training
through courses of instruction and attendance on con-
ventions and summer schools should also be given
him.
One by one the duties of the executive office should
be given the associate, to be discharged in his own
way. In a large school there may be several asso-
ciates under such training. These may be assigned
from time to time to special offices as their abilities
permit. The final test of an associate's grasp of af-
fairs will be his ability to draw up a satisfactory
docket of business for the monthly workers' confer-
ence.
Some of the functions that the associate may per-
form are :
(i) Participant in the service of worship and in-
struction.
(2) Alternate as platform leader,
(3) Representative on the floor, to welcome visi-
tors and late comers and to attend to personal mat-
ters while the superintendent opens school on the
appointed minute.
44 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
(4) Substitute teacher for older classes.
(5) Manager of the usher and doorkeeper service.
(6) Superintendent of classification of new pupils,
where this is not in the hands of the director of edu-
cation.
(7) Manager of the substitute service, so far as
this is not in the hands of the department principals.
(b) The Secretary. — Next to the superintendent,
the secretary is the most conspicuous and the most
standardized officer of the church school. Much of
his v\^ork, ordinarily, is inherited routine, the educa-
tional and administrative reasons for vi^hich he might
have trouble in explaining. Yet no officer's effi-
ciency and intelligence are more vital to the school's
success.
These are the functions v^^hich the secretary and
his staff are expected to perform, with the objectives
to be striven for in each case :
(i) Keeping of the school's roll and register, rep-
resenting its interest in the personality of its mem-
bers and accessions.
(2) Keeping of the school's weekly record and the
summaries based thereon, thus providing for the
measurement of the work and its results.
(3) Gathering of the weekly offerings for record
and delivery to the treasurer.
(4) Making of weekly, quarterly and annual re-
ports to the school, thus stimulating individual, class,
departmental and general improvement.
(5) Making of comparative reports, thus stimulat-
ing attendance, membership increase and giving.
(6) Managing the correspondence of the school,
including orders for supplies, subscriptions to peri-
odicals and statistical reports to denominational and
association secretaries.
THE OFFICIAL STAFF 46
(7) Recording of the facts of the school's history,
with report of the same on anniversary occasions,
(8) Custodian of records, blank forms and execu-
tive supplies.
In a very small school one officer may essay to
perform all these functions single-handed. It is ob-
viously better, even in such a case, to divide the work
with one or more assistants, each with his own
specific duties. In larger schools there will be a
secretarial staff, including a financial secretary, a
biographical or birthday secretary and one or more
general assistants. As an auxiliary staff, there will
also be a secretary for each department and for each
class above the primary classes.
It is the secretary's duty so to organize this staff
that all departmental information and offerings shall
come promptly to his desk, in shape for rapid han-
dling, by a given minute of the session. It is equally
his duty so to act that the operations of himself and
his staff shall cause no distraction of class attention
or interruption of departmental or general worship.
His auxiliary staff will, of course, be officers of their
respective departments or classes, but under his au-
thority as to that part of their work which concerns
him. A meeting of these auxiliaries should be called,
at which he can explain their duties and secure hearty
cooperation.
(c) The Chorister. — The chorister is leader of the
ministry of music for the school. His function is
not simply to lead the singing, but rather to make the
music of the church school an integral part of its
46 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMIOTSTEATIOK
educational plan and its religious appeal. Hence his
jurisdiction extends to the departments that meet
separately; and while it would of course be unwise
for him to interfere in the department principal's de-
tails of plan, he should have general plans and sug-
gestions for making the singing and hymn-memoriz-
ing in these departments a part of the musical work
of the school as a whole. Usually his constructive
help, especially in preparation for festival work, will
be welcome.
The pianist or organist will be the chorister's as-
sistant and should therefore be entirely acceptable to
him. Without sympathetic and capable accompany-
ing no musical program, least of all an educational
one, can be successfully carried out. But the pianist,
in addition to the work of accompanying, will have
direct service to render in the opening and closing
selections, which may be made a contribution to the
spiritual life of the school and also a vehicle for the
advance presentation of melodies to be sung as hymn-
tunes on a later Sunday.
Under modern conceptions of church-school wor-
ship as part of the pupils' religious education,' all the
platform work of the school, including the music, is
part of the field of the director of religious educa-
tion. He should join with the superintendent in the
preparation of worship programs, in the correlation
of these with the material of the graded courses and
in the utilization of them in the make-up of festival
programs. The work of the chorister will therefore
\ See the works of Professor Hartshome, especially Wor-
ship in the Sunday School.
THE OFFICIAL STAFF 47
be indirectly under the director's supervision. The
chorister's direct responsibility, however, will be to
the superintendent as general conductor of the plat-
form work.
(d) The Librarian. — While the modern graded
church school has outgrown the kind of service that
was formerly rendered by the typical Sunday-school
librarian with his rapid-working devices for the cir-
culation of light religious fiction, it needs good li-
brary work more than ever.
The librarian may properly be a former teacher of
good education, or a well-informed member of the
community. He will strive for the gathering and
constant increase of a collection of books needed by
the school, and for the wise use of these when so
gathered. He will have an efficient system for list-
ing, handling and charging these books and for the
following up of those that are not returned. He will
print or post a catalogue and bulletins of accessions,
and will make reports showing the service rendered.
The good church-school library will contain a de-
partment of healthy juvenile fiction and missionary
adventure for the eagerly reading juniors; historical
and otherwise educational fiction, biographies of the
heroes of the graded lesson courses, missionary
biography, travel and description, social service and
Bible information, for the intermediate and senior
classes; books of spiritual power for adult readers
and thoughtful young people; and the usual officers*
and teachers' library of reference works and books on
religious education and departmental and administra-
tive method.
48 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
In many communities the full service of such a
library can be secured from the public library of the
community. In such case the librarian may act as
chairman of the church-school library committee,
and without a plant of his own can render an equally
needed service of supervision, suggestion and stimu-
lation.
As an educational officer, the librarian may also
profitably act as custodian of the stocks of graded
lesson material, relieving the secretary of this duty.
In uniform lesson days the latter officer could handle
the several lines of quarterly and monthly supplies
with small thought of their educational content and
value ; and the annual order for renewal was a simple
matter. But under the conditions of the graded lesson
system the making out of the lesson order sheet is
a rather technical affair. It is for the director to
specify what course each class is to receive; and it
will then be the librarian's duty to see that full stocks
of these supplies, quarter by quarter, are ready for
distribution by the secretarial staff. The salvage thus
made possible may amount in a large school to many
dollars a year, to say nothing of the educational
smoothness of operation thus secured. All teachers'
lesson books not purchased by the teachers for per-
sonal retention should bear the school's library label
and be returned to the shelves at the end of the
quarter.
7. Assistant Officers.
Responsibility implies freedom of choice. Every
principal officer, therefore, should be free to nomi-
THE OFFICIAL STAFF 49
nate the assistants for whose work he is to be held
responsible. But these assistants are to work with
the whole church-school force for a year. The force,
therefore, should be free to accept or reject the
nomination. Efficiency further requires that the
fellowship of the service shall not be marred by ill-
feeling, such as might be caused by the rejection of
a nomination publicly made.
The pastor, therefore, or in his stead some wise
leader, should oversee and guide the process of of-
ficial selection, so as to avert personal issues and
secure, year after year, the most effective official
combination that the resources of the community
afford. To this end he will constantly exalt the work
to be done and the results to be gained, rather than
the honours of place and the rights of jurisdiction.
The spirit of Christ will insure liberty and progress.
The principles here stated, if accepted as valid,
should be embodied in the rules of the church school
and given a general application. Application of them
to the case of the superintendent has been made in
Section 3c, above.
8. The Officer's Pay.
Whether church-school workers should be paid is
being seriously discussed in some quarters and will
soon be a living issue. But really, no worker of any
kind ever works without pay. There can be no ac-
tion on the part of a free agent without motivation.
Brilliant projects are constantly coming to naught
because the advocates have failed to make coopera-
tion seem worth while. In industry and commerce,
50 CHTJECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
no less than in the voluntary enterprises of the
church, production lags where motive is lacking.
The manager pays high wages; but he may not yet
have given each of his men an adequate motive for
doing his best. Let not the church fall into indus-
try's error.
It is clear to-day that money, the standard eco-
nomic motive of endeavour, should be applied by
the church to many services where the need and our
ideals have outgrown the possibilities of marginal
service by men and women whose living is gained in
other ways. Even so, money cannot be the real mo-
tive. Money will simply spell release from the ne-
cessity of rendering service elsewhere. There must
be spiritual pay for all our workers. For each sepa-
rate officer, teacher and pupil, we must ask, What
pay, oflfered to this individual, will move him first to
accept our task and then to continue earnestly and
faithfully to discharge it? He who can solve this
riddle as often as it appears will be a great execu-
tive.
The superintendent, therefore, must learn the art
of challenge. He must know how to put a task to
the busy man in such light that the man will want to
try it. Then he must see that every cent of pay
earned by that man is received by him ; and he must
intuitively know in what sort of coin this man should
be paid. Fellowship and an introduction to the
young folks' set may be what the young student or
stranger would prize. Quiet satisfaction in the do-
ing of a good work pays some, public recognition
others. Let the leader see that every worker gets his
THE OFFICIAL STAFF 61
pay and that he himself does not take too much.
God pays with equal justice; and the honest super-
intendent rejoices to follow the divine example.
Assignments
1. In what respect, and how, is a superintendent
like the executor of an estate ?
2. Name the classes of officers of the church
school. How does this classifying of the school
officers help us in organizing the school ?
3a. What is the pastor's work as a church-school
officer ?
3b. For what is the educational director respon-
sible? If in your church there is one who might take
this place, how could the church help him or her to
learn more as to its duties and standards ?
3c. Why should the superintendent be directly re-
sponsible to the church?
4a. "Resolved, that the pastor should be chair-
man of the workers' conference." List the argu-
ments for and against this proposition.
4b. What are the duties of the clerk of the work-
ers' council?
4c. How should the treasurer be chosen ? Whose
needs should he study to serve? What constitutes
efficient treasury service?
5. What two responsibilities does the depart-
ment principal carry ?
6a. What is the situation in your school as to
the associate superintendent? Which of the listed
functions are or soon will be distributed to him or
some other official ?
52 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
6b. (i) In your school, which of the listed secre-
tarial functions are now being satisfactorily per-
formed? (2) Name one or more improvements
needed.
6c. (i) Outline a plan for making the music of
your church school more of an educational force for
religion. (2) If no capable chorister seems available,
what can be done to supply musical leadership ?
6d. Duties and opportunities of the librarian.
7. (i) What assistant officers are now in service
in your school? (2) What additional assistants are
needed? (3) Draft a by-law to govern the annual
election of the officers of the church school.
8. How may the superintendent get officers for
the school, keep them from year to year and cause
each to give of his best?
m
DIVISIONS, DEPARTMENTS AND CLASSES
1. The Teaching Organization: Early History.
From its beginning under Robert Raikes in 1780
the Sunday school has been organized by classes, each
under a teacher. Originally it comprised only pupils
old enough to learn to read and not too old to be will-
ing to stay with the younger ones; that is, from six
to fourteen. Classes for teaching adult illiterates to
read the Bible were started in England and Wales
about 181 1. The movement for adult and senior
Bible classes thus begun was soon carried to Amer-
ica, aroused much enthusiasm and was combined with
the earlier movement for Sunday schools as originally
conceived. Hence the odd name of " The Sunday
and Adult School Union" (Philadelphia, 1817),
which later became The American Sunday-school
Union.
" Infant schools " for children below the reading
age were started by experimenters in England before
1820. This new idea was likewise soon brought to
America ; and the fashion of having an " infant
school " as an adjunct to one's regular Simday school
began to gain currency. As progress was made in
the establishment of general education, the need of
teaching new Sunday-school pupils to read before
they could begin to use the Bible grew less; and so
53
54 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTKATION
the distinction between the infant school and the low-
est classes of the Sunday school disappeared.
Between 1815 and 1830 the churches of America
acquired the habit of maintaining a Sunday school as
part of the local church organization. Such a school
regularly consisted of the main-school classes, with
an infant school below and the so-called Bible classes
above ; each of these adjuncts, as we have seen, hav-
ing originally been a separate enterprise. The infant
school or infant class in the course of years became
the primary class, embracing all the children from
three to nine, ten or eleven, and sometimes those even
older, and taught usually by one teacher, with assist-
ants to maintain order as needed. A few progressive
workers in the sixties had primary departments or-
ganized by classes, with teachers who divided the
work of instruction as well as that of management;
but the establishment of the doctrine that all the
school should study one lesson set back the movement
for primary department organization.
2. The One-Lesson-for-AU Idea.
During the latter half of the nineteenth century
and the first decade of the twentieth it was the gen-
erally accepted idea among Sunday-school workers
in America that all classes in the Sunday school
should study the same Bible lesson, each teacher
adapting the treatment to the age and needs of his
class. With the adoption in 1872 of a common Bible
passage and specifications, to be used by all lesson
publishers as the basis of their several treatments,
the idea was extended to include uniformity among
DEPABTMENTS AND CLASSES 66
all Sunday schools on the same Sunday, as well as
among all classes in the same school on that Sun-
day. Around this idea of " the lesson for the day/*
which all classes in all schools were to study, grew
up during this long period a series of institutions of
which it was the central and determinative factor.
Among these institutions may be enumerated :
(o) The superintendent's review of the lesson
from the desk, as an indispensable part of the closing
service.
(b) The presence of the primary class and the
Bible classes in the main room for the opening serv-
ice, that they might join in the responsive reading of
the lesson for the day ; and also for the closing serv-
ice, that they might have their lesson teachings uni-
fied by hearing the superintendent's desk review.
(c) The weekly teachers' meeting or preparation
class, for study of the next Sunday's lesson; with
union classes where teachers from all departments
of many schools might gain the benefit of lesson
preparation under some celebrated leader.
(d) The weekly expository article on the current
lesson in the religious and the secular press.
(e) The various systems of daily home Bible read-
ings on the lessons, for individual or family use.
(/) The " Akron plan " of Sunday-school build-
ing, allowing all departmental and class rooms, how-
ever separable for part of the hour, to be thrown
together, with every seat in view of the desk.
(g) The home department plan of enrolling home
students of the Sunday-school lesson.
(h) The simple drill-book type of teacher-train-
ing manual, to introduce the student to the work of
adapting and teaching the uniform-lesson passage to
a class of any age.
66 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
(i) The annual volume of lesson expositions for
all teachers.
The foundation of this idea of one lesson for all
was laid before the sympathetic study of childhood
had revealed how widely and fundamentally the
spiritual needs of one age differ from those of an-
other. The methods of secular education as then
generally followed were far behind the standards of
to-day. The ideal of unity was understood by
American Sunday-school leaders and followed un-
flinchingly; the ideal of adaptation to observed need
was known and followed by a few. So firm was the
organization in support of unity, so strong were —
and still are — the interests arrayed on its side, and
so loyal was the fellowship of American, Canadian
and British Sunday-school workers, that for long
years the steadily rising advocacy of adapted (and
therefore non-uniform) lessons made little headway.
The forces of the church school must understand
this historical situation in order that they may be
able to work together in sympathy and achieve united
progress. The more fully a worker of to-day is
committed to the modern program of gradation, the
more carefully should he study the phenomena of
that period of uniformity through which so many of
his fellow-workers have come, and in which thou-
sands of American Sunday schools still dwell.
3. Expanding the One-Room School.
(a) Start at the Beginning. — In studying the de-
partmental organization of the church school, we
may begin with the school of average city size, num-
DEPAETMENTS AND CLASSES 57
bering at least 150, with several rooms in addition
to its main assembly room. Such a school is al-
ready more or less divided departmentally. Our
problem in such case is to bring the work into con-
formity with the standards of departmental organi-
zation as already given/
But the majority of American Sunday schools are
not of this type. The average Sunday school in the
United States, according to the statistics of 1918,*
has but 121 members; while in seventeen states the
average membership is less than a hundred. At
least half the Sunday schools of North America are
small schools, whose housing is a church or school-
house of but one room. This hard condition must
temper our dogmatic idealism as to the minimum
essentials of graded efficiency, if our studies are to
have practical value to a large section of the Ameri-
can church-school constituency.
There is gain indeed for all workers in a progres-
sive study of the problem of right departmental or-
ganization. Beginning where the little Sunday school
is forced to begin, with fifty members or even fewer
in a single room, we may consider how the succes-
sive departments should properly be formed, organ-
ized and housed, as the school grows to the size with
which we are especially concerned. So shall we test
the soundness of our principles and the worth of our
customs. Many so-called modem methods of or-
ganization are merely devices for handling the crowd.
* Chapter I, Sec. 3.
* Report of the Fifteenth International Convention,
statistical insert.
58 CHUKCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
(b) The Five-Class School. — A Sunday school of
fifty members — we will not call it a church school
until it has justified by its good work the more mod-
em title — will probably have five classes. There will
be the primary class for the children of eight and
under, the junior class for those from nine to about
twelve, the senior class for the older boys and girls
from thirteen to sixteen or seventeen, the young peo-
ple's class from about seventeen to about twenty-
three or twenty-four, and the adult class of men and
women. Seldom will these groups be well balanced
in numbers; one neighbourhood will be singularly
short of this age or sex, another of that. But these
are the natural dividing lines for classes that are to
represent in the small school the work of the de-
partments of many classes in the large school.
When for each of these classes we have found a
permanent teacher for the ages represented and have
adopted a system for promoting the pupils and re-
taining the teachers, we have departmentalized our
little school.
(c) The Ten-Class School. — With a growth to one
hundred members there may be ten classes. These
will properly be a beginners' class of children under
six, a primary class of those from six to eight, a
first junior class of boys and girls of nine and ten,
a second junior class of boys and another of girls of
eleven and twelve, a senior class of boys from
thirteen to seventeen, a like class of girls, a young
people's class, an adult class for men and an adult
class for women. These age-limits will of course
vary in different schools and may vary in the same
DEPABTMENTS AND CLASSES 59
school in different years; but the aim should be to
restore them by transfers and promotions so as to
keep each class as far as possible a permanent in-
stitution, until the growth of the school calls for a
closer structure/
In this school the three junior classes will consti-
tute the junior department and should as soon as
possible have a principal with no duty but to pro-
mote the work of the department ; whether or not it
is possible to give the department a separate room.
The primary class will of course have been given its
separate room at an earlier stage, and the beginners'
class likewise; or at least the separation of a screened
or curtained corner.
4. Groups in the Larger School.
Let us suppose that the growth in numbers con-
tinues. The primary class, which usually grows
faster than the older departments, will soon split into
three year-groups of six, seven and eight years old,
with boys and girls in each year-graded class. For
these classes teachers will be found, the primary
teacher becoming principal of the department. The
older classes will likewise be split on age-lines as
new teachers become available; and wherever pos-
sible above the primary department there will be for
each year a class of boys and one of girls.
Between the junior and the senior classes will de-
' See the author's " How to Run a Little Sunday School,"
pp. 49-53- It is of course possible, and in some cases may
be advisable, to arrange the groups in a different way.
60 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
velop the intermediate department, in which will be
grouped the classes formed to cover the ages from
twelve to fourteen.'
The young people's class will naturally tend to
divide on sex lines ; young men's and young women's
classes being the customary thing where numbers
make them possible. A sounder plan educationally
will be to keep the young people together in one
or more active classes dividing on age lines; the
young people's department further developing
' The history of these names and ages is peculiar. When,
about 1890, the pioneer graded workers were developing a
department between the primary class and the main school,
some called the pupils thus separated " intermediates," while
others preferred to call them " juniors " ; all above these, to
the adults, being seniors. This ambiguity became serious
when the lesson publishers began to multiply graded lesson
quarterlies on the uniform lessons. One house issued
quarterlies for intermediate classes, meaning those from nine
to twelve or thirteen, for junior classes, meaning those from
thirteen to sixteen or seventeen, and for seniors, meaning
those of eighteen and over. Other publishers used the names
"junior" and "intermediate" in the opposite order. When
the users of these helps met in county conventions, primary
unions and summer schools, constant explanation was neces-
sary as to what ages were meant. In 1904 the Committee
on Education of the International Sunday-school Association
arbitrated the matter. After ascertaining the extent of the
divergent usages they drew up a standard set of names and
ages : beginners 3-5, primary 6-8, junior 9-12, intermediate
13-16, senior 17-20, adult 21 up. This grouping was fixed
with almost no experience to go by as to the best age-group-
ings for the upper grades. It was nevertheless followed by
the Lesson Committee and their advisers, 1909-1916, in
grouping and naming the graded lesson courses. In 1917
the Sunday-school Council utilized the experience of later
workers in establishing the present standard of names and
ages, given on p. 21. Many schools, however, continue to
use the older grouping, and many able junior workers op-
pose the transfer of twelve-year-olds to the intermediate
departxaeat.
DEPAETMENT8 AND CLASSES 61
through the organizing of a training class and other
special classes for the study of special courses. The
correlation of such a department with the young
people's society of the church will naturally follow.
The adult division, begun by the separation of the
men's and women's classes, will continue to grow
by simple increase of these classes in numbers, until
it becomes possible to form classes of parents on the
lines of their children's ages. The home department
when formed will constitute a part of this division,
and should be closely affiliated with each of the
main adult classes. In a large school there should
be several classes of men and several of women,
formed to represent younger, middle and older life-
interests, problems and tastes ; each class being large
enough to make a good social group and maintain a
working organization.
5. Departmental Differences.
No two of the standard departments can be or-
ganized in exactly the same way. Experience with
one age-group is not a safe guide in work with any
other group, older or younger. Each department
must be run on laws of its own, based on a close,
continuous and sympathetic study of the pupils con-
cerned, of their teachers working with them under
church-school conditions and of the reactions se-
cured to the studies and methods so far used. The
latest official standards may be presumed to be based
on such study. If we find that they do not fit our
children, we may properly deviate from them. But
our customs and habits, our convenience, our ex-
62 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
perience with older pupils or with younger, — these
are not good reasons for such deviation.
The standard plans of departmental management
for the beginners', primary and junior departments
imply for each department a separate assembly
room, with provision of separate classrooms or at
least curtained spaces for the primary and junior
classes; each class having its table and circle of
movable chairs of size to fit the bodies of the chil-
dren concerned. With the advent of well-trained
teachers, classes will naturally increase in size; and
a modern school classroom, at least for each junior
class, will become the standard plan of housing.'
Each of these departments needs a principal trained
in modem methods of children's church-school work,
able to teach, lead and manage her department and
to inspire and train her departmental fellow-workers.
Important divergences in method are called for
by the rapid changes which mark the oncoming and
development of adolescence. The one sure fact about
any group of intermediates is that they are not to be
handled in the junior way. The dividing line comes
somewhere about the twelfth year. Over that line,
with rare exceptions, no teacher should pass. Only
so can the junior faculty and the intermediate faculty
be separately built, each on a foundation of increas-
ing experience with pupils of its own assigned ages.
Laxity here means the virtual abandonment of the
ideal of a well-graded school ; while firmness at the
outset will make later insistence relatively easy.
Adolescence demands not only new lessons and a
* Chapter VII, Sees. 6b, c, g.
DEPAETMENTS AND CLASSES 63
new method in teaching but a new principle of de-
partmental organization. Control must now come
more and more from the pupils and less and less
from the school. To make room for this we must
learn to think of the adult leaders of these depart-
ments not as superintendents or principals in author-
ity but as counselors or coaches, guiding and inspir-
ing the boy and girl leaders and ever seeking not to
check and limit but rather to develop initiative and
enterprise, while holding up standards and encourag-
ing to patience and a steady pursuit of the year's
goal. By this radical shift we meet half-way the
eager desire to be trusted with responsibility, make
our church school a school of democracy, hold the
older pupils with a new set of interests and ease the
superintendent's load.*
In the adult division the control is entirely with
the representatives of the adult members of the or-
ganizations concerned. The teachers are included
as equal factors in the administrative organization
with the class presidents and other convenient rep-
resentatives of the adult force. An adult council,
with the usual officers, will unify and direct the work
of the division; while an adult principal, if needed,
may carry out the educational plans of the director
of religious education.
6. The Department Without a Room.
Thousands of church schools still lack even a
*In Appendix A is given the illuminating deliverance of
the Sunday-school Council of Evangelical Denominations,
1917, as to a policy to be followed in developing thf church-
school work of the young people's division.
64 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
separate junior assembly room, to say nothing of
classrooms. Other thousands have only a makeshift
arrangement for separating the beginners from the
primary children. A vast number have no separate
room at all. What can these schools do to gain the
benefits of departmental organization?
Where one class covers the age-limits of a stand-
ard department, as in the five-class school, the class
is the department and its teacher is the department
principal. Where there are two classes, one of the
teachers may be appointed principal. With three or
more classes in the departmental age-group, there is
room for a principal in addition to the class teachers ;
and the classes concerned may be grouped in a desig-
nated space on the main-room floor.
No separate service of v^^orship will be possible in
such a department, nor any drill in recitation and
song. Brief notices may be given, by arrangement
with the school superintendent, or slips handed to
the teachers as they enter. Conferences with the
teachers and drills with the classes may be held be-
fore or after the school hour. The principal will
keep the graded roll of the department and will
watch the progress of each pupil quarter by quarter.
A department which thus shows its need of a sepa-
rate room and its will to overcome obstacles is on
its way to getting the desired separation.
7. Features of Departmental Organization.
(a) Children's Division. — The cradle roll depart-
ment belongs to the children's division as to all work
done for the babies and their mothers in the school-
DEPAETMENTS AND CLASSES 65
irooms and by the division workers as such. The
visitation of the mothers in their homes, with any
>vork done for the babies directly there, properly
comes under the jurisdiction of the home depart-
ment and so is responsible to the leadership of the
adult division ; but it may be left with the children's
workers if they are best fitted or situated to do it
well.
A " cradle-roll class " of three-year-olds, assem-
bled in the beginners' room during the hour of morn-
ing worship, or in a separate room at school time, is
becoming a standard feature of well-graded church-
school work. Providing for these very little children
enables their mothers to attend service or join a
mothers' class, while it relieves the beginners' teacher
of many embarrassments. The children are amused
and taught with simple plays and nursery conversa-
tions based on lessons from pictures on blocks.
The beginners' department will seek the spirit of
the nursery, the kindergarten and the home rather
than that of the school. It will have a principal, a
pianist and one or more assistants according to size.
The pupils are properly grouped as four-year-olds
and five-year-olds, or all ages together, for the open-
ing " circle talk " and for the main lesson story.
The graded course of story lessons, two years long,
is usually taught to the whole department at once.
At this age so little depends on logic and so much on
atmosphere that the gain of departmental unity far
outweighs any advantage to be secured by exact
gradation of studies. Little memorizing is done ex-
cept of short and simple texts like "Be ye kind,"
66 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
following one or more stories illustrating kindness,
and of equally simple childhood hymns.
The primary department, like the beginners', takes
no note of sex; the children being graded as six,
seven and eight at their last birthday, with excep-
tions as needed, and placed in classes, each of which
should contain children of one grade only. Like the
beginners' department, also, this department needs a
principal with a staff of assistants; and it should
also have a teacher for each class."
The junior department, being preeminently the de-
partment of lesson study and habit formation, needs
schoolroom housing and equipment, a well-trained
principal with assistants, and a corps of teachers
trained for junior work and kept to their task by
regular transfers to younger classes as their pupils
reach the promotion line. The department has a
* Here we meet the question whether the lessons for the
department shall be taught separately to each grade, the
three yearly courses being given simultaneously every year,
or whether one lesson shall be taught to all three grades at
once in a three-year cycle — the departmental plan. The les-
son story, we must remember, properly takes, with its accom-
panying treatment, less than half of the hour ; the remainder
by either method being in the principal's hands. On the
closely graded plan we need at least one teacher for each
grade. On the departmental plan such teachers are still
desirable; but all the work might be done by the principal,
as in the old-fashioned primary class. In the small school
the departmental plan fits the situation; though the closely
graded supplies may be and often are successfully adapted
to small-school use. In the larger school the departmental
supplies are available if we prefer to work that way; but the
closely graded method enables us to offer each year to each
set of incoming six-year-olds the same three-year course in
Its natural order. The problem should be settled by each
school on its educational merits and in the light of its own
needs, and the supplies ordered accordingly.
DEPAETMENTS AND CLASSES 67
work to do for these pre-adolescents that if well
done will make later teaching and management far
easier and if ill done or neglected can never be re-
placed. The principal's desk work is of equal im-
portance with the lesson work of the class teachers.
One full hour a week is an altogether inadequate time-
allowance for the religious instruction which children
of these ages require. Not one minute of this time
should be lost or reduced in teaching value by the
needless presence of the department in the main
room when it could be at work in its own assembly.
Once a quarter is often enough for such a partici-
pation, until we can transfer some of the junior les-
sons to the week-day religious school.
(b) Young People's Division. — The rapid develop-
ment of personal feeling as we cross the line of
adolescence calls, as we have seen, for radical
changes in our modes of treatment. The dropping
out of the older pupils, so constant a factor in old-
fashioned Sunday-school work, is simply the young
folks' response to the way we meet the facts of their
individual and social life. When the school work
fits these facts, the big boys stay as cheerfully as the
little ones.
This development of personal feeling leads to a
heightened social feeling and accompanies an in-
crease in the power of voluntary attention. The
class group becomes a more important factor in our
organization. The recitation period calls for more
minutes of the school hour. Ambition for leader-
ship and responsibility grows. For a few years there
is a tendency to secretiveness : the pupil wants sym-
68 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
pathy with his problems and trials and light on the
solution of them; but he is averse to questions or
situations that call for self-revelation or draw public
attention. People may notice him when he is put-
ting through some successful feat : at other times he
shuns pubUcity. A deep religious concern may mask
itself back of a most discouraging appearance of in-
difference, cynicism or rebellion.
Administratively, our answer to these facts will
come first of all in a larger emphasis on class life.
We will train and furnish to each class a wise and
competent teacher, usually but not necessarily of the
same sex. We will give each class wherever possible
its own room, lengthen the period of class instruc-
tion, allow some freedom as to lesson courses and
more as to methods of following the course, encour-
age selection of special objects of giving and service
and provide for class organization as a means to ef-
fective class activity.
For the management of the intermediate and
senior departments, separately or together as condi-
tions may determine, we will look to a council of
class presidents, with the departmental or divisional
counselor as adult guide and the pastor and super-
intendent as privileged but not controlling ex-officio
members. Teachers will assist in the departmental
administration according to their capacity for ren-
dering service. One may prove a good leader for
girls* activities, another for those of the boys. One
may lead in the dramatic or the musical activities
of the departments, while another assists in the les-
son handwork and a third keeps track of the memr
DEPAETMENTS AND CLASSES 69
orizing assignments in the several grades. There
may be a missionary specialist and a leader in tem-
perance activities. Frequently it will be better for
one or more of these specialties to be in the hands
of a supervisor for the department or the division of
the school, with no class responsibility. The coun-
selor will necessarily exercise headship over the
adult functions thus provided for; but toward the
pupils and the classes service, advice and coopera-
tion will be the attitude rather than authority and'
control. Increase in the pupils' capacity for respon-
sibility and power to get results will be one measure
of success for this division.
In the young people's department proper, eighteen
to twenty- four, we meet the desire and the capacity
for the sexes to work and play together ; and a mixed
class for general Bible study may be our answer,
with no distinction of sex in the training class and
other special groups. We find also a keen sense of
need for preparation for the coming responsibilities
of life and a capacity for handling some adult trusts
in church and community. A fit answer to these
characteristics would be some plan by which the full
responsibility for administering all the church's work
for its young people of these and adjacent ages was
turned over to its young people; the needed adult
service to be supplied as the young people them-
selves might seek it.
(c) Adult Division. — Childhood and youth being
the formative periods for character and personal re-
ligion, our school work for the adults must consider
first of all their relation to our program for these
70 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMIKTSTEATION
earlier ages. Secondarily, it will cover the needs and
possibilities of adult education for the sake of the
men and women themselves and the various pieces
of world-work they are doing. A third aim is found
in the advances to be secured through adult educa-
tion in the methods and standards of church, com-
munity and civic life.
Full freedom for each class and department in this
division is of course implied; all management being
by way of advice, suggestion and invitation. A rep-
resentative adult council, including the superin-
tendent and the pastor, will be the natural organ of
leadership; though a superintendent of adult in-
struction and activities may be found useful, as the
council's executive officer.
Permission for each adult class to meet in its
own room for the entire hour should be cheerfully
given. There are other and better ways of conserv-
ing school unity than by demanding participation by
all in a common weekly service of worship. If any
class, however, wishes to be so included, it should be
made welcome.
8. Grades and Promotions.
(a) Yearly Grading. — A grade (Latin, gradus, a
step) is a period in the school life of a pupil, and in
the collective life of the pupil-body. It implies
standard age-limits, a set of studies and activities
adapted to age and capacity, and promotion when
the graded period is complete. This period, for the
church school, is ordinarily one year, as in the public
DEPAETMENTS AND CLASSES 71
school; though the departmental method extends it
to three years.
Whether the school niimber twenty or five hun-
dred, it is equally desirable that each pupil of grow-
ing years shall be rated as to the year of his graded
standing in the school plan. In the large school there
will be at least one class of boys and one of girls for
each year. Where limits of number make the full
set of classes impossible, one class may represent
two or three grades ; but careful note should be kept
of the grades thus combined. In the little school one
class may hold all the boys and girls of junior age.
Such a school will naturally grade on the three-year
plan.
In the fully graded church school there is for each
yearly grade a distinct lesson course, taught every
year to the pupils who occupy that grade that year.
Every pupil gets the full curriculum as planned for
the pupils of his age ; and he gets it in the designed
logical order. In thousands of American schools
this system is at work and smoothly running.
(b) Departmaital Grading. — In the small school,
and in the larger school where a simpler mechanism
seems called for, it is possible under the three-year
departmental classification to grade departmentally,
three years at a time. The primary department will
then be one grade three years long, the junior one,
and so on. Qasses with this range of ages may then
be formed from the primary department and moved
unbroken up the graded scale, changing teachers
every three years and getting a closely graded cur-
riculum in its logical order. Or, we may promote
72 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
pupils each year, singly in a small school, by classes
in a large one. The pupils will then get the three
years of each departmental course in three different
orders, this year's class i, 2, 3, next year's 2, 3, i, and
that of the year after 3, i, 2.
By the whole-class departmental plan one-third
of the pupils are liable to be a year younger than the
central year of the grade and one-third a year older.
This maladjustment will continue as to these pupils
to the end of their stay in the school. By the an-
nual-promotion departmental plan two-thirds of the
pupils, as we have seen, will get their studies in an
illogical order. The small school must accept one or
the other of these alternatives, making up for the
disadvantage by closer work with the individual
pupils. The large school which for convenience or
some other reason prefers to work departmentally
should consider what its children under this plan will
necessarily lose.
(c) Promotions. — Under any plan of departmental
organization separations must necessarily take place
between pupils and teacher. These being usually
painful, the graded administration must at this point
prepare for trouble. This, however, is not hard to
do. When we rouse the pupil's ambition to go on to
the next higher grade we have forestalled half the
trouble. When we interest the teacher in the con-
structive problems of his department and make him
a member of a faculty of specialists we have met
the other half. A bright, impressive Promotion Day
service, with welcomes by each set of pupils to those
coming up from the department below, will then
DEPAETMENTS AND CLASSES 73
carry us over the dead center and make the once
dreaded separations a means of educational enthu-
siasm.
9. Class Organization. •
The law of education through voluntary self-ac-
tivity and the law of social education through group
activities unite to call for class organization as a
means to class activity. Each class, from the juniors
up, should be challenged to be more than a mere
group of learners around a teacher. They can and
they should be a force, first for themselves and their
teacher, then for their fellows of like age and sex
in the commimity, then for the department and the
school, then for the church and the neighbourhood
and then for the world.
In order to be able to act together the class must
have officers ; and to emphasize their unity of pur-
pose they must have a name. To facilitate inter-
school cooperation and to encourage maintenance
of established standards, the adolescent classes may
properly be registered at denominational or associa-
tion headquarters. But emphasis should be placed on
the vitality of the organization and its relation to the
work to be done, rather than on its official regularity.
Adult classes have a definite standard of organi-
zation, first formulated and promoted by the Inter-
national Sunday-school Association, which requires
five officers, including the teacher, and three commit-
tees, as a prerequisite of official recognition by head-
quarters authority. It is further provided that the
committees in their work must cover membership.
74 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
social, devotional and missionary activities. For the
classes of the young people's division no set form of
organization is demanded ; but a president and secre-
tary are clearly necessary, and a treasurer usually so.
Definite duties for each office should be prescribed.
Committees as a rule should be for specific tasks and
may be discharged when these are accomplished.
In the junior department the classes may also
have a very simple organization, to facilitate de-
partmental and school work and train for the class
activities of the intermediate department.
Assignments
1. (l) What ages were embraced in the original
Sunday schools, and why? (2) Describe the intro-
duction of adult and infant schools. (3) Describe
the old-fashioned primary department.
2. (i) For what period did the doctrine prevail
that all the school should study the same lesson?
(2) How came all schools to study the same lesson
together? (3) Mention a few institutions that grew
up around the idea of lesson uniformity.
3. Why consider the special needs of the little
Sunday school?
3a. Give a plan for a five-class Sunday school,
with name and age-limits for each class.
3b. Expand this to fit a ten-class school.
4. How would you organize the departments in
a church school of 250 members ?
5. ^ (i) A junior worker is to be principal of the
new intermediate department. Caution him as to his
junior experience, giving reasons, and direct him to
the proper sources for his plans of organization and
DEPAETMENTS AND CLASSES 75
management. (2) A last-year junior teacher is sure
that her dear boys require her continued service for
one year longer; so she insists on being promoted
with the class. Show her why you cannot grant the
request. (3) Why should the principal of an adoles-
cent department consider himself as first of all a
counselor ?
6. Without a separate room, what can a junior
superintendent do?
7. Selecting any two of the departments, give the
salient features of the grading, leadership and han-
dling of those departments.
7c. Aims of the teaching in the adult division.
8a. (i) What is a grade in a church school?
(2) How would you keep track of the pupils' graded
standing ?
8b. (i) When is departmental grading a neces-
sity? (2) What two plans of handling promotions
are possible in a school departmentally graded? (3)
What are the educational advantages of grading by
years rather than by three-year periods? (4) In a
school where grading by years is possible, how are
the children benefited by departmental grading?
8c. How may we forestall the reluctance of classes
and teachers to separate when promotions make this
necessary ?
9. ( I ) Give, in proper order, the steps to take in
organizing a class in the young people's division.
(2) What are the standard requirements for head-
quarters recognition of an organized adult class?
IV
THE TEACHING STAFF
1. The Ungraded Teacher.
In the Sunday-school Hterature of the nineteenth
century we find constantly held up the concept of
" the Sunday-school teacher," his qualifications and
duties, his proper methods of study and teaching, the
rewards of his labour, without reference to any grade
or age for which his teaching is to be utilized. In
the Rev, John Todd's admirable treatise on " The
Sabbath-school Teacher," for instance (1837), there
is one chapter on " Infant Sabbath Schools," and the
methods appropriate to that desirable but then by no
means common adjunct to the Sunday school proper;
and for the rest there is no hint that one teacher
has any task different from that of any other. In
Dr. H. Clay Trumbull's " Teaching and Teachers,"
(1884), which for years was the standard treatment
of the subject, neither the primary teacher nor any
other graded worker is once mentioned. The in-
fluence of the uniform lesson idea is evident, in thus
obliterating, so late as 1884, all distinctions of func-
tion in the general task of teaching a class in the
Sunday school.
2. Departmental Specialization.
(a) Primary Specialisation. — From the early days,
nevertheless, the infant or primary teacher has held
76
THE TEACHING STAFF 77
her own as a specialist among the Sunday-school
teachers. While the others were usually traveling
with their unpromoted pupils over the whole floor of
the " main room," — educational nomads — she, in her
separate room, was constantly receiving the very lit-
tle children and more or less regularly promoting
those who had outgrown her instruction and the fel-
lowship and discipline of her class. By force of
these conditions, therefore, she was a graded teacher.
What followed? Just what follows when a tribe
of nomads attains the agricultural stage of civiliza-
tion. The primary teacher, working for the same
ages year after year, amassed educational property
and became the expert among her fellows. Amid a
host of tutors, each interested solely in the problem
of how to teach to his own group of permanent
charges next Sunday's lesson, she alone was a
teacher, interested in the broader task of wisely
teaching all children of a certain age and eager for
help on this her specialty. Hence the primary unions
(1870 and later); the National Primary Union
(1884), with its monthly bulletins for primary teach-
ers ; the development of primary leaders ; the " Sum-
mer School of Primary Methods" (1894); the
tendency, shown at least as early as 1869, to give
these workers the privilege of one or more special
sessions at the National or International Convention.
" To him that hath shall be given."
Before 1890 a few American workers were ex-
perimenting with the " junior class " midway be-
tween the primary department and the main room.
By 1900 both the junior department and the begin-
78 CHTJECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
ners* department were recognized as standard units
of gradation ; and fellowships were forming of per-
manent workers in these departments.
(b) In the Upper School. — Slowly the principle of
specialization was extended to the teachers of the
intermediate and senior classes. Among these teach-
ers it is still far from acceptance in the average
Sunday school. But the number of upper-grade
teachers who, singly or through the organizing of
departments, have accepted a graded relation to a
limited age rather than to a permanent group of
pupils is steadily growing; and with it is growing
the power and permanence of church-school educa-
tion for the ages concerned.
To-day we seldom hear of " the Sunday-school
teacher," except in reference to the department in
which he specializes. The modern church school, by
relating every teacher to his department through in-
sistence on the annual promotion of pupils, secures
for all its teachers those educational benefits formerly
gained by the primary teachers alone. Whenever a
teacher for personal reasons is allowed to go with
the class to the next higher department, we revert
to the nomadic stage of civilization and abandon the
store of experience and teaching material gathered
in work with the ages left behind; for nothing is
more certain than that these same pupils cannot be
taught for the next three years in the same way in
which they have been taught for the last three.
(c) Consequences. — Where then are the old values
of " the Sunday-school teacher," as eloquently set
forth by Todd, Trumbull and a hundred others in
THE TEACHING STAFF 79
the books, journals, reports and hymn-books of days
gone by? They are all here in the graded church
school, alongside many other values with which the
fathers did not reckon. But they have been dis-
tributed. We no longer expect one worker to em-
body so many excellences, discharge such varied re-
sponsibilities and attack so impossible a task. We
are therefore less frequently disappointed. We do
not presume to better the beautiful service of those
honoured saints who now and in our memories il-
lustrate what a Sunday-school teacher may some-
times be. But the average product of all our teach-
ers is much more dependable; and the human wast-
age through failure of the system to function has
been sensibly reduced.
3. Department Principals.
(a) In the Children's Division. — For each of the
three standard departments of this division there is
needed a department superintendent or principal. A
divisional principal may also be found or designated ;
especially if among the workers is one qualified to
guide and inspire the others, or one who will seek
such power through attendance at the summer school
or the weekly community training school.
The cradle roll department, not being charged with
a task of instruction like those of the other three, is
referred to a superintendent, whose duties involve
visitation and correspondence. Where the three-
year-olds are taught in a cradle-roll class on Sunday,
the princlpalship of this service usually is with the
beginners' department.
80 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMIOTSTKATION
Each principal is or should be in ftill charge of
the class teachers of the department. Both the super-
intendent as manager and the educational director
as teacher-in-chief should aim to deal with these
teachers only through their respective heads. The
principal should be held responsible for the regular
attendance and loyal service of each teacher, and for
his success in lesson work, class activities and prep-
arations for the pupils' annual promotion and par-
ticipation in seasonal events. In finding substitutes
and recruits for vacant places the superintendent and
the principal will of course cooperate.
The good department principal is the friend and
associate of each teacher. She coaches new teachers
as to their tasks, particularly as to ways of making
a success of the lesson teaching, the stories, hand-
work, memory work and class activities. She holds
meetings of the teachers for discussion of depart-
ment problems and reports on the progress of the
pupils. In some departments the principal meets
separately the teachers of each of the three grades,
discussing with them the stories for the following
month. Such departmental supervision by a mature
and qualified principal insures for each class a defi-
nite standard of teaching and watch-care and so
makes it wise to use young and inexperienced ap-
prentice teachers where better are not yet available.
In the children's division, however, still more than
in the upper grades, the class teacher does not do all
the teaching. In the beginners' department the teach-
ers are largely helpers, dividing with the principal
the personal care of the little children. In the pri-
THE TEACHING STAFF 81
mary department the lesson stories are told and the
drill work is done by the class teachers, while the
principal does the work of seasonal teaching, leads
in the songs, plays, prayers and giving service, and
in fact is still as of old in large degree " the pri-
mary teacher." In the junior department the desk
work by the principal is of great significance as a
habit-forming influence and a school of social re-
lations; though here the class teaching holds a rela-
tively larger place.
{b) In the Upper School. — Without a well-marked
distinction between the intermediate, the senior and
the young people's departments no systematic course
of studies can be maintained by the church school,
nor can a graded series of educational activities be
undertaken. In most churches and communities,
also, the adolescent pupils are connected with many
other instructive, expressive and recreational organ-
izations; and to correlate these into a unified re-
ligious education for each boy and girl is not easy.
The church school therefore needs for each of its
three adolescent departments a principal, to handle
well its own educational program, and to labour for
bringing into relation with this all other educational
opportunities which the principal's pupils do or
might enjoy. A divisional superintendent for the
young people's division as a whole is also highly de-
sirable.
Toward the pupils, as we have seen,* the depart-
ment principal acts as counselor, encouraging each
individual to think of himself as the active and re-
' Chapter III, Sees. 5, 7.
82 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMIKESTRATION
sponsible agent in whatever is done, and doing him-
self as little as possible. But toward teachers and
other adult workers, and in the department whenever
necessary, his authority as principal is complete. He
may or may not have a separate room, which for the
intermediate department is especially desirable. One
principal may in some cases wisely have charge of
the intermediate and senior departments together.
In a small school a divisional superintendent can
often furnish all the leadership required.
Duties of the principal include :
(i) Maintenance of punctuality and order.
(2) Supervision of attendance records, with steps
to secure regularity and increase.
(3) Supervision of class teaching. This is some-
thing the old-line Simday-school superintendent sel-
dom thought of attempting.
(4) Management of the departmental substitute
service.
(5) Coaching of new and temporary teachers.
(6) .Stimulation of pupils in lesson study, supple-
mental drill-work, pageant and exhibit work and the
finishing of requirements for honorary promotion.
(7) Counselor service with class presidents and
the departmental council.
(8) In a separate room, supervision of the wor-
ship and desk service as conducted, for the most
part, by pupil-leaders.
(9) Supervision of service and missionary activi-
ties by classes and the department.
(10) Correlation of Boy Scout and kindred ac-
tivities with the educational program of the depart-
ment.
Full discharge of these responsibilities will nat-
THE TEACHING STAFF 83
urally call for a staff of departmental assistants and
supervisors. Full correlation with the extra-de-
partmental activities cannot be accomplished without
help from the church through its church committee
and its director of education. The superintendent
should consider which of these functions can safely
be neglected, and what responsibility he himself as-
sumes if he decides that there is no need of a prin-
cipal for each of these departments.
4. Departmental Staffs.
The average church school has too few specialized
departmental workers. Just as the superintendent
needs his cabinet, so does the principal need his staff.
He should not rest until every necessary or facilitat-
ing function is in the hands of a trained helper who
does not also regularly teach a class. These special-
ists, with the possible exception of the department
secretary, are to be considered as teachers working
in the staff rather than in the line.
Assuming that the three lower departments have
rooms of their own, separate and sound-proof, with
full session time except on festival occasions, the
primary department will need its song leader and
accompanist, its secretary and assistant secretary
(where the department is large), and usually also its
supervisors of the memory tasks included in the
graded course and of those technical details of hand-
work on which all teachers cannot be expected to
specialize. The beginners' department will need less
than this and the junior department more, including
a librarian.
84 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
For the junior department, or the junior and in-
termediate departments combined, a supervisor of
map work has been found by some schools a valu-
able assistance. Such a worker should have a geog-
raphy room as workshop, with its equipment of maps,
blackboard, sand table, work table and running
water, and should receive one class after another
for a short course on Bible geography, the teacher
studying with the pupils and afterwards seeing to the
completion by his class of the handwork undertaken.
Such work as this should of course be done in the
week-day school; but the church school that would
teach the Bible vividly cannot afford to see it left
imdone.
While the map teacher is thus engaged, the mem-
ory supervisor may hang on the wall charts of the
names of the Bible books and other drill matter, with
lists of the passages each grade is expected to master
for the quarter, and may conduct brief drills to stim-
ulate and examine on the work thus advertised.
Each specialist will in like manner magnify his as-
signment, the principal organizing the efforts so as to
secure a unified curriculum of supplemental instruc-
tion.
5. The Substitute Service.
(a) By Staff Organization. — To be ever seeking
substitutes for classes unexpectedly vacant is the
penalty the superintendent must pay for poor organ-
ization. If this were all, we might leave him to pay
it till experience made him wise. But the class must
pay the larger share, in discontinuous lesson service
THE TEACHING STAFF 85
weaker interest and lowered standards. Not the
least of the gains of firm departmental organization
is the better substitute service thereby made possible.
Similarly, the reward to the department principal
for training a staff of assisting specialists is the avail-
ability of these as substitutes during the class lesson
period. Each must be familiar with the lesson
courses used in the department; and even on a sud-
den call he can take up the thread of the quarter's
teaching and carry it along. The staff worker, even
if not fully occupied every Sunday, has a good rea-
son for regular attendance and so is ready on call.
When substituting, a pupil can be put in charge of
class order for the brief periods when necessary staff
work is to be done.
(b) By Understudies. — Where full departmental
organization has not yet been established, and espe-
cially in the upper classes, every teacher may be
asked to secure a competent understudy or permanent
substitute, preferably a member of the family or
near neighbour. This friend is to study regularly
the lesson followed by this class and may be enrolled
in the home department and his work recorded and
reported there. The school will supply his pupil's
and teacher's books, to be returned to the library
when the quarter's work is finished. As assistant
teacher he will be asked to visit occasionally the class
in session and to attend some of its week-day gather-
ings. Some large Sunday schools, organized on the
older lines, have found it possible to give such a
backing to every teacher in the main room.
(c) By Pupil-Teachers. — V^Tiere the school has a
86 CHUECH'SCHOOL ADMIKISTEATION
fully developed training department, the furnishing
of pupil-teachers as monthly observers and assist-
ants in the lower departments and as weekly sub-
stitutes in the upper classes will form a regular part
of the three-year training course/
(d) Regulations. — Under any of these plans, or
where all are combined, some such rules as these
should be discussed, adopted, explained to all incom-
ing teachers and enforced :
( 1 ) Every teacher is responsible for the filling of
his place every Sunday. When obliged to be absent
he must notify his principal or the officer in charge
and do his part in providing for his substitute.
Where an emergency makes notice impossible, an ex-
planation is expected.
(2) Where a teacher's absences average one a
month, he is expected to find and provide a compe-
tent understudy. (If all teachers are to be so re-
quired, change wording to read, " Every teacher is
expected," etc.)
(3) Understudies who have registered with the
secretary and been approved by the superintendent
and principal will be counted as assistant teachers
on the roll of the workers' conference. They are in-
vited to unite with the home department, pursuing
their class lessons as their allotted home study.
(4) Substitute service includes not merely attend-
ance and the teaching of a lesson but the maintenance
without break of the regular teacher's lesson plan
for the quarter.
(5) Where full substitute service has been pro-
vided for the class, whether by stafif teaching or
supply from the training department, after previous
notice of intended absence, or by the sending of a
* See Chapter VIII, 5.
THE TEACHING STAPF 87
registered understudy prepared to teach the lesson,
the absent teacher will be credited with attendance;
provided, that on notice and staff supply only one
Sunday per month will be so credited.
In schools where the classes still look directly to
the superintendent for their leadership, the manage-
ment of the substitute service should be specialized
in the hands of the associate superintendent. He
should then organize a substitute corps, providing
each member with the helps needed in the grades he
is especially to cover.
6. Upper- Grade Teaching.
(a) Exacting Requirements. — In the senior and
young people's classes, with their closer organization,
wider outlook and more advanced studies, the task
of successfully holding, teaching and inspiring the
pupils is more difficult and the teaching places are
correspondingly harder to fill. A like patience and
sympathy is required as with the work in the lower
grades, equal skill in the technique of teaching, equal
experience and insight into the peculiarities of the
ages dealt with, and a much wider range of culture
and general and Biblical knowledge. There is also
usually less cooperation from the department prin-
cipal. Each class lives largely to itself and the
teacher must meet his problems alone.
(b) Compensating Advantages. — Fortunately for
the church-school enterprise, the rewards of appre-
ciation and pupil-friendship earned by the devoted
and successful upper-grade teacher are proportion-
ately great. The young people can and do express
88 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
themselves. In a few years of continuous and prop-
erly organized work, graduates of the class will in
church and community be carrying on its ideals and
practicing its lessons; and one by one the honours
will return to him who has fitted them for service.
But apart from these future expectations, the teach-
ing of any such class brings each week its sufficient
reward. It is hard to induce a busy and able busi-
ness or professional man to consider the taking of
such a class; but once he is led to try, three weeks
generally settles the matter for a term of years.
Nothing but the lesson teaching should be expected
of the upper-grade teacher. He will indeed wish to
interest himself in the life of his students ; but all
routine responsibilities should be put up to the class
officers. If all classes from the juniors up have for
some years been organized and at work, a senior
class will not only run itself but with the guidance
of the department counselor may be left to work out
its own social and altruistic program; the teacher
aiding as his time and inclination may allow.
Where a new teacher is needed for a senior or
young people's class, the leaders of the school may
properly decide who is qualified for such a service;
but the work of getting the teacher should be put up
to the class itself. An appeal from a delegation of
earnest youth, backed by the superintendent, is hard
to resist. After such action, moreover, the class is
committed to a policy of loyalty in following the
teacher's lesson plans.
(c) The Promotion Problem. — Difficult as it may
be to secure promotions on the regular age-lines in
THE TEACHING STAFF 88
these upper grades, it is clear that if the group of
young people now forming the class is allowed to
hold together indefinitely, we shall erelong have a
small and diminishing adult class where our bright
young people's class was a few years ago. Some city
schools have, on the women's side at least, a collec-
tion of such left-over classes, without vitaUty enough
to develop programs or school spirit enough to be
willing to merge for the good of the work as a whole.
Many a fine teacher has dropped out of the school
faculty when the class " died at the top." Some
strategic senior and young people's classes, also, are
in the hands of willing and pious but untrained teach-
ers whose powers no longer fit their pupils' needs,
and who hold their dwindling circles by sheer power
of affection and loyalty, without making progress in
studies or in Christian training.
This indeed is but half of the problem. The other
half is felt below. The objection most frequently
raised against the promotion of a pupil or a class out
of the hands of a fairly successful teacher is, " What
is to become of them, with nowhere but the Bible
class to go, unless they are put into that class of
older girls (or boys) that has held together for so
long?" Provide a series of fairly steady upper-
grade classes, maintained at about the same places
year after year, with membership reasonably flexible,
and this objection is answered.
As to the teachers, the potent remedy for these
unfortunate conditions is the placing of all teaching
appointments strictly on an annual basis. As to the
pupils, equal relief will come if we can clear our
90 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMIJSTISTEATION
promotion system of associations with the methods of
promoting the Httle children and can introduce asso-
ciations with high-school and college occasions. On
Promotion Day handle the older promotions first, or
use two Sundays, one for the children's promotions
and another for those of the upper school. Make
the latter as dignified as the exercises of a college
commencement, and draw on the wisdom of the
graduates for a few essays based on recent lines of
lesson study. At suitable times earlier in the year,
take time to show the upper classes the arguments
for the strict promotion policy.'
Then, if by workers' council action it is made the
school law that every teacher every year shall be ap-
pointed to that place where, in the judgment of the
school leadership, he can do his best work for the
school, and if the solemn reading of these appoint-
ments by the pastor, with subsequent installations,
can be made an annual feature of the school's pro-
' Such as these : While for next year no great harm might
be done by our letting you last-grade young men and women
stay unpromoted, in a few years grave injustice would be
done to the rights of the younger pupils coming on. What
would happen to college life if the graduates selfishly stayed
around, hanging on to their accustomed offices and priv-
ileges? They have had their fair turn; let them now move
on, so as to keep the educational system in at least as
effective condition as when they entered. You know your
respective grades in our system; if you feel that you prop-
erly belong in the grade below, we will consider the question
of demoting you a 3'ear or two. But if you belong where
you are now, the greatest good to the greatest number
requires that you help us to keep these places ready for
those who are due to come up from below. The leaders in
the classes to which j'ou are to go next year are already
making plans for some interesting advances; and they count
on your help in putting these plans over.
THE TEACHING STAFF 91
(notion system, we may be able to relieve various
situations, while giving to each class its best possible
teacher and aiding our faithful but ill-placed work-
ers without loss of face to find their post of largest
service/
(d) Short-Course Senior Classes. — Wherever an
interest can be aroused in the choice of lesson courses
by the older classes, to the end of acquiring some
definite knowledge or skill, and teachers competent
to present such courses can be found, it becomes
possible to deal with the department or division as
the fixed and permanent unit ; the class being organ-
ized around the course which it is to pursue. The
training class of young people meeting at the school
hour is a familiar example of this plan. Numerous
interesting and profitable electives await the study
of such pupil-groups. The International Lesson
Committee has prepared outlines of Bible, missionary
and social service studies on these lines. To facili-
tate the use of this and like material, the habit of
forming short-term classes for special studies should
be cultivated.
7. Wanted, a Vacancy.
No church-school faculty can be efficient if it con-
tains even one member who refuses to accept the
leader's ideals or to conform to his methods. Where
a group of such stand together in opposition, the
difficulties are increased. Where one such antago-
nist or indifferentist occupies a leading position in the
school and has powerful church connections, the way
' See Chapter VIII, 3.
92 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
for harmonious educational advance seems blocked
indeed. In such case, what can the superintendent
do?
(a) Establish the Case. — First of all, the issue
must be lifted clear of all personality. The teacher's
right to a poor opinion of the superintendent is as
good as the superintendent's right to a poor opinion
of the teacher. Have a definite standard of per-
formance, low and reasonable enough for any faith-
ful worker to reach. Put this in writing, present it
to the workers' council and have it considered and
voted into law. Advertise it from time to time, so
that all may have it in mind. Then see that fair and
pertinent records of performance are kept and reg-
ularly published to the school, so that each worker's
work may be rated as above or below the standard.
If on this showing any worker's standing is below
par, there is no personality in the calling of such
worker to an accounting, in the interest of a better
performance for the school.
(b) Facilitate Acceptance. — Expect the best of
every one. Having set up a standard, give the un-
satisfactory worker every possible chance to reach
it. Stimulate him to new efforts; send him to some
convention or summer school ; lend him a book or
article ; explain your plans and the reasons why they
appeal to you; show the results of such service as he
has been giving. If these have the least effect, let
him have full credit for every advance, with no
reference to what has been. The finest possible so-
lution of the situation will be to find a new worker
inside the old one.
THE TEACHING STAFF 93
(c) Provide the Succession. — The work will prob-
ably in any event be the better for the presence of a
young, ambitious and studious assistant by the side
of the worker in question. At any rate, find and
have in training some one who when the vacancy
comes will be ready to fill it. More than one suck
case has been " settled out of court " by the older
worker seeing the situation from the higher view-
point and presenting his resignation.
(d) Arrange the Alternative. — Nobody enjoys be-
ing pushed off or shoved aside. Much useful service
has been lost to the Sunday school for lack of a
study of what the retiring worker could do. The
various secretarial and staff positions in the modern
church school offer many special lines of usefulness
that can be prepared for occupancy by the one who
for no reason discreditable to him is no longer ef-
ficient where he is now. Has the school a birthday
secretary ? Is Bible memorizing being given its right-
ful place? Could we not systematize our visitation
of absentees or the distribution of papers and
flowers? Has the home department all the visitors
it can use? In making his final move in the matter
positive rather than negative, the superintendent is
building efficiency as well as good-will.
8. The Teachers' Meeting.
With the uniform lesson has gone, of course, the
weekly " teachers' meeting " for lesson preparation.
But the need for meetings of the teachers has grown
with the growing complexity of our educational
task. Besides the teachers and their principals and
94 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
departmental staffs, the general officers and the
presidents of the older classes should also be ejti-
rolled. The whole company of workers should then
be firmly organized into a workers' council and called
to meet statedly in conference. Monthly meetings
are more likely to be successful and well attended
than those held less often.
As suggested in Chapter II, this meeting should be
well moderated, and the hour of its closing should
be as fixed as that for which it is called. The pas-
tor is the appropriate presiding officer, with the
superintendent at his right hand to guide the pro-
ceedings and explain matters as they arise. Time
should be set apart for real devotions and also for
conference on the spiritual and missionary side of
the school work. Business should come up in the
form of brief and clear reports, with definite recom-
mendations to be settled by the meeting after need-
ful discussion. General discussions and digressions
should be ruled out of order, unless on a practical
proposition which is to come to a vote.'
The closing period of the conference should be
given to general study, with a paper by one of the
members, or occasionally an address by a visiting
speaker. Sometimes the meeting may gather around
the supper table, the docket being taken up as soon
as quiet can be secured. Sometimes this supper
meeting may precede the church prayer-meeting.
' In the interest of brisk procedure, it will be well to enact
this by-law: "Whenever discussion arises with no motion
before the meeting, any member may move that we return
to the docket ; and such motion shall be put without debate."
THE TEACHING STAFF 95
The stated night of meeting should be adhered to
except for reasons of unusual force.
Where the superintendent really associates his
teachers with him in carrying the responsibilities of
school administration, by maintaining thus a real
legislature for determining jointly the policies of the
school, the difficulty of interesting teachers in the
business problems of the school and getting them out
to the workers' conference will seldom appear.
Assignments
1. How does the old conception of the Sunday-
school teacher differ from the way in which we think
of Sunday-school teachers to-day?
2. What is your own view as to the value of the
new plan as contrasted with the old? Have we lost
or gained ? In what ways ?
3a. (i) Outline two duties of the department
principal in the children's division. (2) If the home
department should claim jurisdiction over the cradle
roll, how would you settle the issue?
3b. Name one or two weaknesses in the upper-
school work of your church school that might be
strengthened if you had competent principals for the
intermediate, senior, young people's and adult de-
partments.
4. (i) What staff workers are needed in the
junior department of a city-size church school? (2)
Would you classify these workers as officers or teach-
ers? Why?
5. ( I ) What is the penalty of a poorly organized
service of substitute teaching? (2) How does the
building up of a departmental staff help to solve the
96 CHUECH-8CHOOL ADMINISTRATION
substitute problem? (3) How does your school now
handle this problem ?
6a. Why is upper-grade teaching an exacting
service?
6b. Why then do busy men and women take such
classes ?
6c. (i) What steps may be taken to establish
and maintain annual promotions in the upper grades?
(2) What good results will follow?
6d. Explain the short-course plan of handling the
senior and young people's departments.
7a. In removing an undesirable worker, how may
the issue be made impersonal ?
7b. What will be the best possible solution ?
7c. How prepare for the step to follow removal?
7d. What shall we do with the one removed?
8. Draft a docket for the next meeting of your
workers' council, with a topic for essay and dis-
cussion.
THE COURSE OF STUDY AND EXPRESSION
1. The Problem of Lesson-Choosing.
(a) An Educational Task. — Part of the work of
organizing a church school, as we saw in Chapter I,
is to determine what shall be the lessons studied in
the departments and classes. This is a problem for
joint solution by the parties concerned. Unity of
administration, however, requires that the leader,
after full consultation, shall embody the wishes and
needs of these parties in a comprehensive plan of
studies for the whole school.
This task is essentially educational. Guidance of
the school in its choice of studies is the educational
director's most significant function. Where there is
no director of education, the superintendent must
meet and consciously settle with his fellow-workers
the problem of what lessons his school is to study, or
confess that the school is running without educational
direction. To let the secretary, without instructions,
order the lesson supplies as a piece of mere business
routine is to make such a confession.
(b) Lessons for Adult Convenience. — For forty
years, as we have seen,' the great majority of Ameri-
can Sunday schools placed this problem unreservedly
in the hands of the International Lesson Committee.
' Chapters I, 7 ; III, 2.
97
98 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
It was a great convenience to be thus relieved. The
school did indeed choose vi^hat publisher's helps they
would use and how far they would provide their di-
visions and departments with graded adaptations of
the uniform Bible lesson selection. Here and there,
also, they found room for supplemental lesson mate-
rial. But over the choice of regular lesson ma-
terial they exercised no control.
Unused for so long, the function of lesson choosing
atrophied in the average Sunday school's organism.
Many superintendents do not yet comprehend its im-
portance, or the principles embodied in its proper
exercise.
The uniform lessons have been popular largely be-
cause they minister to adult convenience. Not only
superintendents but pastors, teachers, adult Bible stu-
dents, parents of several children, traveling men,
readers of religious and secular papers, managers of
conventions and union religious meetings, lesson-help
publishers, — the gain to these from the policy of hav-
ing one Bible lesson for all schools and all classes
was and is incontestable. If lessons are to be chosen
for the convenience of those who handle and teach
them, uniformity has a strong case.
(c) Lessons for Pupils' Needs. — But in education
the teacher's convenience yields place to the pupil's
need. This is indeed a fundamental law of God's
kingdom. Whether the alternative be the divinely
instituted Sabbath, or the gift dedicated to the altar^
or merely the convenience of some servant of the
kingdom, institutions and dignitaries come second,
while human need comes first. To deny that prin-
STUDY AND EXPEESSION 99
ciple or obstruct its free operation is to challenge the
authority and the wisdom of Jesus Christ.
It is therefore our duty to choose for our school
not the lessons that will be most convenient for us,
but those that give greatest promise of meeting the
spiritual needs of our children and youth. To per-
form this duty we must learn what our children's
needs are. " The need of the child is the law of the
school." In a humbly scientific spirit, divesting our-
selves of dogma and pretense, let us study our chil-
dren, marking their unforced responses to what we
have heretofore presented, noting failure as well as
success, and drawing on the stores of observation
gained by the thousands of patient workers who have
gone this way before.
Candidly so studying, we shall soon see :
( 1 ) Whatever these children do need, it is certain
that they do not all need the same lessons. Uni-
formity of lesson material means sacrifice of graded
adaptation to the needs of the several ages. Each
course must be entirely independent of every other
course, or it cannot be chosen to fit need.
(2) Adapted sequence of successive lessons is as
vital as adapted choice of material for the lessons one
by one. The pupil's mind and life advance by suc-
cessive steps. The material on which our lessons
for each of these steps are based must be related in
the plane of the child's life and growth. He has
needs for this quarter as well as for next Sunday.
When, therefore, the " improved uniform lessons "
aim " to provide for teachers in every department a
thoroughly teachable lesson," the aim falls short of
the need. The quarter's lessons are chosen on a
plane of adult Scriptural sequence. From ao.y (mt
100 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
of these weekly lessons a " thoroughly teachable "
primary lesson might conceivably be drawn. But by
no human power can thirteen consecutive lessons be
so drawn and the quarterly course thus formed be a
well-adapted course for little children. To call such
lessons graded lessons is an utter misnomer.
(3) For any age of childhood or youth, to deter-
mine what are the average religious needs of Ameri-
can pupils, and to arrange a course of studies to fit
those needs, is an educational task of great complex-
ity. No one solution can be thought of as final. It
may well be attempted by various groups, and by the
same group again and again.
(d) Establishing the Dominant Principle. — In
choosing printed lessons for the individual school, as
in framing the course before publication, the issue
must be met and settled as to whether the need of the
pupil is to be the dominant or only the secondary
consideration.
No man can serve two masters, or observe two
dominant principles at the same time. One must
lead and the other follow. Uniform lessons may be
(and usually are) graded as far as possible under the
dominant principle of uniformity. Graded lessons
may be approximated to each other, by ingenious ar-
rangement of topics, use of seasonal lessons at Christ-
mas, etc., so as to get as much uniformity as is pos-
sible under the principle that every course is chosen
first of all to meet the needs of children of a particu-
lar age or type. But in every imaginable case the
lessons are dominated by one principle or the other.
If uniformity dominates, they are not graded. If
adaptation dominates, the^ are not uniform. "Graded
STUDY AND EXPEESSION 101
uniform lessons," therefore, are an impossibility, be-
cause the two terms contradict each other.
Not less hopeless is the effort, frequently made, to
maintain the dominance of adaptation to need while
exalting some other principle in the selection of mate-
rial. Some lesson-makers, genuinely anxious to meet
the pupil-need in every age, are nevertheless deter-
mined to emphasize in every grade a certain set of
doctrines. Others are equally concerned to magnify
the ritual and symbolism and nomenclature of their
church. Others, again, are devoted to missions or
some other sacred cause. But need is a jealous mis-
tress. If the child is to come first, not only must
dogma and rite and cause come second, but we must
cease to give this predilection of ours any considera-
tion whatever until the child's need has been fully
sei'ved. Then, indeed, we may supplement our work
with what we count important ; and it may be that it
will be made richer and better thereby.
If the leader has settled in his mind that his
school's outfit of lesson helps must serve the needs
of his pupils first of all, it will not be hard to deter-
mine as to the samples of any recommended series
whether or not in the making of these lessons this has
been the dominating principle.
2. Essentials of a Course of Study.
(a) A Tool for Character-Making. — For every
school there must be a course of study. We go to
school to learn, that we may know, feel, do and be
that which, without such learning, would be beyond
us. Material, therefore, must be so chosen, arranged
102 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMIKISTEATION
and used that what goes in as learning shall come out
as life. Our curriculum is to control conduct, im-
part culture and fix character. These are the highest
human values known to man ; and the curriculimi of
the school is the instrument with which the workmen
are to shape them. Why should we be surprised to
find the instrument complex and the task of making
it a baffling problem ?
Proposals for an easy solution of the problem will
be many. But the only way to make this problem
easy is to dodge the difficulties of which it is com-
posed. The uniform lesson system did this monu-
mentally. Various plans of partial uniformity have
sought the same end in lesser degree. They do not
solve the problem. No course, no school.
(b) A Course, Not a Field. — Traversing a field
and pursuing a course are two different things. By
the uniform lesson method all departments traverse
together the great field of the Bible in an eight-year
cycle and then begin again on a fresh cycle, newly
planned. This is not the method of a school; and
lessons so planned do not constitute a course of
study.
(r) Features of a School Course. — In any mod-
ern school system covering all ages, the course will
naturally embody these features :
( 1 ) It will be divided into convenient units, each
of which is adapted to the average needs of a par-
ticular age or type. The usual unit is one year.
(2) It will therefore be fixed, remaining the same
from year to year, except as improved in the light of
experience. Each successive set of pupils, as it
STUDY AND EXPEESSION 103
travels up the course, will receive in each year the
studies provided for that year.
(3) The studies of each year will presuppose
mastery of those that have gone before and will lay
the foundation for those that are to come after.
(4) There will, therefore, be a logical order of
studies, which cannot be disarranged without confu-
sion and educational loss.
(5) There will be as many distinct year-courses
as there are years in the pupil's school life. If he
enters at four and leaves at twenty, seventeen yearly
courses will be needed to keep every class supplied
with a fresh course each year.
(6) The older the class, the greater the need for
freedom of choice in studies. Pupils and classes
averaging eighteen and older will be made responsible
for electing their own studies; and a range of such
studies will be provided for their use.
3. A Church-School Study Course.
In addition to these necessary characteristics, ex-
emplified in our American system of general educa-
tion, a course of studies for use in American church
schools must embody some additional features, corre-
sponding to its special aims and to the conditions
under which it is to be used.
(a) A Course in Religion. — The general Ameri-
can school course may contain lessons on anything
and everything except religion. Whatever ap-
proaches that forbidden field must be denatured of
the religious element before being used. Morals may
be taught, — on a utilitarian basis, as the greatest good
to the greatest number. The Bible may come in, — as
literature or good morals or inspiring biography;
never as the basis of faith or the message of salva-
104 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
tion. History, geography, literature and language
may bring many contacts with the various religions
of mankind, including our own ; but the school's atti-
tude toward all must be negative and impartial. To
supply the deep human need for religious feeling as
a motive for action and a unifier of personal and
social life, patriotism is invoked, like the emperor-
worship of ancient Rome. That came in to fill the
void left by the death of the old faiths ; this comes to
meet the conditions imposed on our schools by the
American Constitution.
It is idle to quarrel with this condition. It marks
a necessary stage in our national growth. The arti-
ficiality of it is constantly and happily exemplified in
the real religious teaching that many a devoted school
teacher finds ways of imparting, as she meets some
soul-need that only religion can fill. In many com-
munities, also, common consent sanctions the inclu-
sion of a certain amount of worship and religious
teaching in the work of the public school. These ex-
ceptions merely emphasize the American rule.
Over against mathematics, literature, science, art
and vocational studies, therefore, stands religion, as
the one great body of subject-matter to be presented
in the curriculum of the church school. Whoever
counts religion an important element in life will do
what in him lies to make every church school an
effective teacher of religion ; for if that fails, Amer-
ica can count on no other agency to save her from
control in a few years by the votes and the leadership
of a religiously illiterate generation.
(b) A Course Given Under Difficulties. — la
STUDY AND EXPEESSION 105
framing a course for use by church schools, the
limitations under which they ordinarily run must be
allowed for :
( 1 ) The class in religion has but one recitation a
week.
(2) The teacher is one who does something else
for a living and gives to this service only marginal
time. No amount of conscientiousness and good-will
can wipe out the distinction between professional and
amateur. Teaching is a profession.
(3) An increasing, but still a low proportion of
these teachers have had either mental furnishing for
their general task of Bible teaching or training for
the work of their respective departments.
(4) The superintendence under which these
teachers work is with occasional exceptions as unpro-
fessional and untrained as the average of the force
superintended.
(5) The housing and equipment is ordinarily far
below present standards of educational efficiency.
(6) A large proportion of church schools are
small in numbers and hence unable to carry out the
standard plans of exact yearly gradation. They can,
however, modify these plans to fit their needs and
adapt standard courses to their small-school condi-
tions. Course material directly adapted to these
needs should be provided for their special use.
(c) Correlations. — Offsetting the absurdly inade-
quate recitation allowance of one a week (when every
major school study in primary and grammar grades
has five), the church ordinarily provides various
other meetings of religious-educational value. Such
are the pulpit services, the young people's meeting,
the guild, band, league or troop meeting for worship^
106 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
fellowship, study, recreation or service. Most grow-
ing boys or girls belong to some one of these organi-
zations and so have, in addition to their church-school
hour, another hour of more or less value for educa-
tion in religion.
Not one of these except the pulpit service pretends
to cover all the growing ages. Each represents a
certain period in life. The more closely this is de™
fined, and the more firmly the accepted age-limits are
enforced, the better is the organization's chance of
success and permanence, A young people's society
whose membership takes in juniors and intermediates
below and retains in active relations mature Chris-
tians above is not likely to do much for the religious
education of the real young people of the congrega-
tion.
The church school, representing as it does all ages,
and having for these ages a definite course of study,
may rightly consider itself the vertebral structure
with which each of these organizations is to be corre-
lated, in order to the successful inclusion of all in a
unified parish system of religious education for each
pupil. The superintendent may, and the director
must, take the lead in this difficult and diplomatic
work. Steps in correlation will include :
(i) Adoption by each organization of the age-
limit principle.
(2) Adjustment of these age-limits to those of
the standard departments of the church school.
(3) Unification of management and control for
all the church's work for the children and youth of
each separate period.
STUDY AND EXPRESSION 107
(4) Through this unified management, unification
of studies, activities and worship, so that all the Sun-
day and week-day work of the pupil shall be part of
a common educational plan.
(5) Removal of whatever overlaps and repeats.
(6) Provision for those types of pupil who have
not heretofore been drawn into the auxiliary activi-
ties for children of their age.
(7) Completion of whatever is lacking in the
series of auxiliary agencies.
(8) Re-study of the whole curriculum as in-
stalled, to make it, as far as it goes, an educational
unity.
(d) Expectations. — With the incoming of the
practice of establishing Protestant schools for week-
day religious instruction, in vacation time or through-
out the school year, the limitations of our present
church-school system may be met and fully over-
come. A system of religious schools paralleling the
system of public education will give to religion the
educational emphasis that is its due.
Such a development will, of course, imply great
changes in the plans of the church school, especially
as to its curriculum. Relieved of its responsibility
for information-teaching and drill- work, and with
pupils trained in Bible language, religious music and
missionary lore, the church school can make its ses-
sion a time of devout worship, intimate instruction in
religion and Christian ethics, training for church
service and the inculcation of denominational ideals.
4. Lesson Aims.
Every course of study was planned to accomplish
108 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMIlflSTEATION
some result. It therefore has an aim. No one can
successfully teach or administer a course who does
not both comprehend and share the aim that is em-
bodied in the topics and selections.
(a) Logical and Psychologic Aims. — All lesson
aims are either logical or psychologic; that is, they
have to do either with the matter or with the pupil.
If our interest in the thing taught is greater than our
interest in the person taught, our aim in lesson-choos-
ing will be logical, — relating to words. If we care
for the person more than for the matter, our aim will
be psychologic, — relating to soul. Again the alterna-
tive is absolute. Most teachers care for both matter
and soul ; but the way they teach soon shows which is
to them the dominating factor.
Nearly all education, up to a comparatively recent
time, has had a logical aim. Studies have been as-
signed because they were judged to be of intrinsic
importance. The most precious verses in the Bible
for the Jew were the " Hear, O Israel " of Deuteron-
omy; hence they were assigned for the Jewish child
to memorize. Whether or not they met his needs
was a secondary consideration. They were good
words to learn.
" The new education," as it is frequently called,
follows the psychologic aim. It denies that matter
has any intrinsic teaching value whatever. Its sole
value, in this view, is in relation to the need of him
who learns it. If the words in which it is expressed
are not understood by the learner, it is not teaching
matter at all. All modern educational science is
based on this view.
STUDY AND EXPEESSION 109
When, therefore, we plan a course designed to
cover the whole Bible in a given number of years, we
have a logical aim ; because our choice is based on our
judgment of the value of the Bible. In this judg-
ment we are not mistaken. The new education does
not require us to alter by a jot our estimate of Bible
values. But it does require us to keep free from
dogmatic presuppositions as to what must be best for
the child to study, that in all our lesson choices we
may be guided by his needs alone.
(b) Aims of the Graded Lessons. — In a properly
constructed graded lesson course covering one year
the aim is primarily psychologic, — to furnish for that
specified year of the average pupil's life the lesson
material it most needs. Adjustment must also be
had to the aims of other years, that the material of all
the years may hang logically together. The whole
series will then have a general aim, to the meeting of
which every course will contribute its share.
The original use of the aim, whether for the single
lesson, the quarter, the year, the group of years or the
series, is to guide in the wise selection and arrange-
ment of the lesson material and the wording of the
topics. The International Graded Lessons were
drafted by a company of practical Sunday-school
workers, including several specialists of note. They
first agreed on what the children or youth of a given
age need at that stage of their religious education.
Next they considered the bodies of material that
seemed to promise, if properly presented, a meeting
of such needs. They then formulated the aims of
tiie year's course. The lessons were then chosen to
110 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
fit these aims, and the course when complete was
criticized, recast and perfected in the hght of its aim,
with experiments in actual classes to determine how
far both aim and lessons were effective for results.
Inasmuch, however, as these course-outlines were
afterwards revised from the logical viewpoint, first
by the Lesson Committee for whose use they were
made, then by the denominational editors and com-
mittees and then by the lesson writers, the faithful-
ness of the original lesson-makers to their stated aims
does not always appear. The International Graded
Lessons as printed show in many places a compro-
mise between two ideals. The substitute material in-
troduced by authority, sometimes displacing a whole
quarter or half-year of the original outline, and in
many cases changing the topic and emphasis of the
individual lesson, cannot be called a sincerely psycho-
logic effort to compass the avowed yearly aim. But
taking the series as a whole, the published courses,
especially those which have followed closely the In-
ternational outline, do substantially embody the aims
they profess.
In the other graded lesson courses listed in Ap-
pendix B, the same effort to formulate and then
follow an aim may be seen. The independent courses
claim to be free from the need of trimming the uni-
versal psychologic aim to fit the dogmatic require-
ments of many denominations and types of thought.
The courses prepared for and by particular churches
for their own schools show decided logical leanings in
the direction of the bodies of material they feel the
need of imparting. All modern courses, however^ i»
STUDY AND EXPEESSION 111
comparison with their own predecessors, show prog-
ress in the direction of the pure psychologic ideal.
(c) Administrative Use of the Aim. — To the
church-school administrator the several aims of the
courses studied in his school are guides indicating
what results are to be looked for in the pupils and
classes. Though stated broadly, any one who knows
and understands children can translate their general
terms into the every-day life of the boys and girls of
his field and can ask, as to each age in turn. Are these
aims being realized as our pupils study and practice
this course? If not, at what point do our efforts fail,
and by what steps can they be made more resultful?
As the conductor of the orchestra studies not only the
scores of his several sets of players but the marks of
expression by which the composer indicated his plan
as to the interpretation of his composition, so must
the church-school leader study not merely the topics
and passages assigned for study in the different
grades but also the spiritual aims which are to be
realized if the studying is to be successful.
5. The Course of Expression.
Not more than half of the school's lesson problem
has been solved when a satisfactory series of graded
studies has been selected and introduced. With all
its difficulties, too, this is the easy half. Far more
complex and unexplored is the problem of giving to
every pupil, along the line of his studies and in accord
with his developing capacities, an outlet of religious
expression.
112 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
No lesson is learned until it has come out as well
as gone in. It is that which comes out of the man
that defiles or ennobles him. We learn something.
The knowledge fires us to feeling ; and feeling moves
us to action. Yesterday it was a lesson in a book.
This morning it was a teaching that stirred our
hearts. To-night it is a deed well done. We can
never be the same again. The lesson has helped to
shape our character, because by an act of voluntary
expression we have made it a piece of our life.
Nothing that does not complete this round should be
called teaching.
(o) Worship. — In the teaching of religion the
simplest and most universal act of expression is wor-
ship, the recognition of the presence and power of
God. If our lessons in every grade are essentially
lessons in religion, they will lead naturally to expres-
sion, individually and in groups, in acts of conscious
approach to God. Prayer, gifts, the daily reading
of God's message to mankind, attendance on the serv-
ices of the church, service to others in His name, may
be idle forms or reflex impulses; or they may be
made by good teaching the true and hearty expression
of reverence, faith, gratitude, penitence and aspira-
tion.
The worship service of the church school, there-
fore, or of any of its departmental assemblies, is a
vital part of its course of instruction. So also is that
training of the devotional life which should be the
concern of each teacher and parent. By establishing
in the pupil habits of private and public worship we
have not made him religious; but we have provided
STUDY AND EXPEESSION 113
an outlet for the normal expression of the religion
that has been and is to be taught in our lesson series.
{b) Expressive Activities. — The dramatic impulse
is strong in little children. Whenever an experience
has been set before their imagination through a song,
a story, a picture or the example of their elders, they
seek to live it out in play. The creative impulse like-
wise moves them to draw, colour or embellish pic-
tures, or to model, cut or construct something that
shall carry on the thought and embody the ideal set
before them in the lesson story. By adding to our
teaching plan some such activity to draw out the chil-
dren's minds and muscles we help them, so far, to
live their lesson and make it their own. Hence the
play lessons of the beginners' department and the va-
rious forms of handwork in the graded primary and
junior courses. In themselves these activities mean
nothing for religious teaching ; and they can easily be
mishandled and overdone. But as means for com-
pleting our lessons in religion they have the highest
spiritual value.
Year by year, as the children grow, the expressive
handwork must be made not only more difficult but
more logically related to the lesson it is designed to
express. The map or plan must be needed to eluci-
date the text. Instead of a picture we may have a
list of names or a diagram, or perhaps a story worked
out and illustrated by the class, each pupil making his
share. As adolescence approaches, altruism must
enter. A class that would not care to finish an illu-
minated hymn or a " Life of David " for itself, or
even for the school's Christmas exhibition, might do
114 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINI8TEATION
so eagerly if the books when finished were to amuse
the sick children at the hospital or be packed in the
box for the missionary. Even with these induce-
ments, however, interest in handwork and its value as
expressive activity is with difficulty carried beyond
the junior years.
(c) Expressive Conduct. — More difficult but of
far deeper significance is the task of securing lesson
expression in the pupil's daily life. The traditional
Sunday-school lesson has always had its moralizing
"application." But (i) the successive applications
have had no sequence, so that one might follow up
another; (2) they have seldom been specific?; (3) the
conduct encouraged has been but slightly related to
the narrative of the lesson, if the lesson has had any
narrative; (4) circumstances to call for such conduct
may not present themselves until long after the im-
pression has passed away; (5) emotion is not evoked
to stir and sustain the will ; (6) the reinforcement of
group action is seldom called into play; (7) slight at-
tempt has been made to follow up the suggested ap-
plication by questioning, drill or encouragement to
continued endeavour. We have not taken our appli-
cations seriously.
Reversing these neglects, and planning our pupils'
responses in conduct in the same way that we would
plan handwork or pageantry, we may sometimes se-
cure obedience, kindness, fair play, or whatever vir-
tue the lesson exemplifies, with as definite a success
as in the simpler and more material realm.
As this is a matter to be handled by each teacher
with his class in his own way, the principal or super-
STUDY AND EXPEESSION 115
intendent can seldom do more than to bring up in
conference and personal discussion the need of secur-
ing control of conduct as the outcome of lesson im-
pressions. A teacher who thus seems to be succeed-
ing in realizing the lesson aims for the year should
report the work, with illustrations, in the monthly
workers' conference.
(d) Evangelism. — As the highest and most fun-
damental result of our teaching is the winning of our
pupils to personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and
acceptance of Him as Saviour, so the most significant
expressive conduct on their part will be the voluntary
act of public confession. How and under what con-
ditions this is to be registered is determined by the
usages of the various religious bodies. Whether or
not the school shall observe a " Decision Day," or,
far better, a day for the declaration of decisions
quietly and personally made, it is surely wise to lead
the school in its worship and in the counsels of its
teaching body to an attitude of deepened spiritual
earnestness and realization of the claims of Christ on
our life's fullest devotion. Advantage may also be
taken of seasons favourable to decision ; and the hesi-
tancy of adolescence to make itself conspicuous may
be met by seeking for mass action by classes and
groups, provided the individuality of each confession
is duly assured.
Educationally, it is essential that the act of confes-
sion shall be :
(i) Voluntary and free, and as far as possible
spontaneous.
116 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMIOTSTEATIOl^
(2) Intelligent, according to the pupil's years and
mental capacity.
(3) Rational, an outgrowth of lessons and ex-
pressive conduct leading in that direction.
(4) Emotional, springing from a heart touched
with love, gratitude and devotion.
(5) Practical, in relation to a definite course of
conduct embodying loyalty to Christ and the church.
In the case of pupils in middle and later adoles-
cence (from fifteen onward), and in earlier cases
where possible, the confession should also be clearly
(6) Final, a life-decision consciously so made,
and sealed with acceptance of the sacramental vow.
In a church whose society, group and class activi-
ties have been even approximately correlated, the
newly avowed Christians can easily find fields for ex-
ercise, expression and service. The organized class
activities, being under the supervision of the class
teacher, are well fitted to play this essential part in
the church's evangelistic program. In addition to
all class, departmental and school instruction, the
pastor's catechetical class, either before or after bap-
tism or confirmation, is a wholesome influence and
should wherever possible form part of the plan.
6. Educational Projects.
If the church school is to build character and im-
part religious experience, its studies and its activities
must be correlated far more closely than they are
usually correlated now. There are two ways, and
only two, for securing this correlation. One is by
the method of expressive activity just described. We
first plan lessons and then plan activities to flow from
STUDY AND EXPRESSION 117
them. This plan, as we have seen, is only partially
successful. The activities of the societies, clubs and
bands it does not touch at all.
The other method works in the opposite direction.
It begins with the activities and plans for lessons to fit
the needs thus brought to light. It starts with a proj-
ect, real or imaginary, on which teacher and class
joyously embark together. By skillful leading the
class soon discovers its ignorance and inability to pro-
ceed; so it betakes itself to study, masters the diffi-
culty, starts afresh with a broader view, and soon
encounters another problem larger than before. So
proceeding, the year's end finds the class with the
project carried out, a large body of information se-
cured and well organized in the brain, interest in
studies and class life broadened and strengthened,
and character shaped through experiences encoun-
tered on the way.
No religious lessons in project form have yet been
issued ; and it is hard to see how any standard course
could be drafted on this principle, so essential is it
that the project shall fit the concrete situation of
teacher and class in the community, as well as aver-
age spiritual needs. For the present, project-teach-
ing in the church school is a fascinating possibility,
with promise of unusual results for religious culture
when we are able to meet its pedagogic requirements.
A competent teacher, familiar with project methods
in general education, might well be given freedom for
a year from all lesson restrictions and encouraged
thus to do pioneer work for the pupils, the school and
the profession.
118 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
7. Building the Curriculum.
(a) Introduction of Graded Studies. — No pub-
lished lesson course of graded studies comes to the
church school ready-made. It consists of standard
units which must be selected, adjusted to the local
situation and introduced step by step as the way is
made ready. Intelligent educational leadership is in-
dispensable. Schools that " introduce the graded les-
sons " as if they were simply a rival set of uniform-
lesson quarterlies generally throw them out in disgust
six months later. So would one deal with his new
automobile, if it were " introduced " in any such way.
In changing from uniform lessons to the graded
lesson system, the following considerations should be
kept in mind:
( 1 ) Introduction should be from below. The be-
ginners' class is presumably using graded stories al-
ready, as the present Lesson Committee enjoins.
First in the primary department, then among the ju-
niors, let the lessons come in; each departmental in-
troduction being handled as a separate enterprise.
When success so far is in sight, introduce in the
intermediate classes, and in the higher classes as each
is ready for the new work.
(2) The most serious difficulties come at the be-
ginning ; because each course presupposes familiarity
with the courses which come before. Hence the de-
sirability of holding back the intermediate lessons
until one class of juniors has been graduated into the
intermediate department. Each year of graded
teaching makes the work easier for the next year.
(3) The lesson year begins on the first Sunday of
October. That is, therefore, the time to start, begin-
nings with Lesson i in each course used. If neces-
STUDY AND EXPRESSION 119
sary to begin on January i, start the primary courses
with Lesson 14, since with the little children much is
made of the seasons, and the lessons must come on
the Sundays for which they have been planned. In
the junior and higher courses the start may be made
with Lesson i at any time, though it is always prefer-
able to begin at the opening of the school year.
(4) In the graded courses the lessons run by
themes, sections, quarters and years. No lesson
stands by itself as under the old plan. Teachers
must, therefore, study by quarters and sections as
well as by single lessons, and must know their whole
course before they can properly teach the first lesson.
The pupil's book or folder must be made up as speci-
fied, that it may be shown as a sample of the hand-
work desired. At least a month's start is needed for
this advance preparation.
(5) In giving out this advance material, the
teacher should be directed to read the pupil's book
with the eyes and heart of a pupil, then the teacher's
book, mastering the " foreword " and other general
explanations, noting the aims of the course, studying
the Bible references, working out the handwork, and
planning what expressive work the class shall be
asked to do.
(6) For each class that is to begin a graded
course, determine the class age-year, and use the
course specified for that year.
(7) The simplest plan of introduction is to start
all classes in the department on the first year lessons
for that department. The second year the new
classes take the first year's lessons, while the classes
of the second and third years take the second year's
lessons and those who were third-year pupils last
year are promoted and get the first year's lessons in
the next higher department. By the third year all
three grades in each department are getting the
proper lessons; and thereafter each child gets the
120 CHUECH-8CH00L ADMINTSTEATIOH
whole course as he passes from one grade and depart-
ment to the next.
(b) Selection of Course Material. — In selecting
its lesson supplies, the church school will, of course,
use those issued by its own denominational supply
house, unless cause for other choice is clearly shown.
Nearly every denomination publishes text-books on
the International graded lessons or its own church
courses. The independent graded courses are of
high educational merit, some directors preferring
them to the International issues.
To mix courses, taking one year's work from one
series and another from another, is seldom wise, un-
less the school is under a trained educational leader,
able to cope with the difficulties thus brought in. The
aims of the different series are not identical, and a
year's course in one does not necessarily lead up to
the next year's course in another.
Each department principal should keep a graded
roll, showing the pupils arranged by classes, with
each pupil's year-grade noted. The standard is,
from the juniors up, at least one class of boys and
one of girls for each grade. Before Promotion Day
this roll will be made up for the new graded year. If
the standard is reached, the determination of the
courses and the preparation of the order-sheet will
be a simple matter. Where the school is too small to
make this possible, two or more grades will be repre-
sented in one class ; and the course to be followed will
be that of the average year-age of the group thus
formed. In case of doubt it is better to select the
STUDY AND EXPEESSION 121
younger course, giving extra work to the brighter or
more advanced pupils. If by mistake an older course
is assigned, it may take several years to make the cor-
rection, as the class must proceed each year to the
course next in order.
(c) Allowable Teaching Freedom. — When the
course is once chosen, each teacher should loyally
strive to learn and teach the lessons thus assigned.
The aims printed in the teacher's book indicate the
general objective for the year. To cover the ground
of the lessons, imparting their information-content
and securing the specified handwork, memory work,
honour work and other assignments, is a secondary
objective, to be reached so far as it contributes to the
gaining of the primary objective in character-culture
and spiritual development, or does not detract tliere-
from. The teacher, therefore, must be left free to
determine how much of this lesson content he will
undertake to embody in his quarterly lesson plan.
Trained teachers, and those who have had experi-
ence in the course with one or more previous classes,
may be allowed also considerable freedom in the ar-
rangement of their quarterly course. Some lessons
may for this class be worth two or even three Sun-
days' study. Wherever a project is undertaken, even
so simple a one as the making of a class biography of
the main hero studied, some lessons will have to be
sacrificed in order to make room for others. It is far
better to determine such rearrangements in advance
than merely to fall behind and end the quarter with
the last few lessons unreached. But as the daily
home readings on each lesson form an important part
122 CHUECH-SCHOOL ABMIOTSTRATION
of the character-training provided, and as the interest
in these depends largely on their relation to the cur-
rent lesson, the teacher who deviates from the quar-
terly calendar should provide reading assignments to
correspond v^ith the revised plan.
Assignments
I a. Who should settle what lessons the church
school shall study? Why?
lb. Who benefit by uniformity in lesson material'?
id. Why are graded uniform lessons impossible?
2a. ( I ) Is it possible to simplify the " closely
graded" system? How? (2) What do we lose in
so doing ?
2c. Name some of the features that must be em-
bodied in a course of study in any school.
3a. The lessons of a church school must consti-
tute a course in religion. Is this a religious necessity
or an educational necessity? Why?
3b. List some of the difficulties under which re-
ligion is now taught in the average church school.
3c. (i) Why is it needful to correlate the work of
troops, societies, etc., with the work for the corre-
sponding ages in the church school? (2) Name
some of the steps to be taken in so doing.
4a. Explain the difference between a logical aim
for a lesson and a psychologic aim.
4b. (i) What part did the yearly aims have in
the making of the graded lesson series? (2) How
have logical and psychologic aims become mingled in
the publication of most of the graded courses ?
4c. How should the director, superintendent or
principal use the lesson aims?
STUDY AND EXPRESSION 123
5. Why must instruction come out as well as go
in? Illustrate.
5a. Why and how is the school's worship a neces-
sary part of its educational plan ?
5b. Describe one or two types of expressive activ-
ity used in connection with graded lessons.
5c. Why are our lesson applications to conduct so
seldom taken seriously ?
5d. (i) How would you lead up to a time for
seeking Christian decisions? (2) If evangelism is to
be educational, as it should be, what qualities must
the decisions show? (3) How may tiiey be fol-
lowed up ?
6. (i) What is an educational project? (2) In
what way is it the opposite of an expressive activity ?
(3) Under what conditions may the project method
be applied to religious teaching?
7a. Write one or two suggestions for a superin-
tendent who expects soon to introduce graded lessons
into his school.
7b. Explain how the courses to be studied next
year in your school are to be determined.
7c. (i) What is more important than that the
teacher shall cover the whole ground of every lesson?
(2) What freedom is permitted your teachers in the
rearrangement of their quarterly courses ?
VI
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES
1. Church Duty to the Home.
(a) Home the Great School of Religion. — Home
is the great field for religious education. All that the
best church school can do to build Christian character
and train for godly living is small compared with
what could be done in the homes, were these dedi-
cated to the task, prepared by training and equipment
for its performance and united with the church in a
close bond of fellowship and mutual cooperation. In
the rare cases where these conditions are fulfilled, the
results fully establish the thesis here maintained.
(&) Religion Moved to the Church. — In defiance
of this well-established fact, the processes of religious
activity have been moved from the home to the
church, leaving the home without adequate time or
means for the discharge of its religious-educational
duty.
The Rev. Samuel W. Dike in 1884 pointed out that
the church for nearly a century had been enriching
its own program of centralized activities at the ex-
pense of the home's chance to cultivate family re-
ligion. Sunday-school sessions, missionary societies,
temperance and other reformatory meetings, young
people's meetings, brotherhoods and guilds, — each as
it came in had seized on some Sunday or week-day
124
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES 125
hour and appropriated it for the use of its own
church-centered activity. The churches, in fact, had
done for reUgious training what the factories had
done for industrial training. They had taken it out
of the home.
(c) Origin of the Home Department. — Others
before Dike had seen this and had inveighed against
these movements for thus discrediting and blocking
the processes of home religion. Dike saw that the
movements were in themselves good, but that their
tendency to exploit the home must be met by a coun-
ter-tendency that would carry a part of the energy
thus developed in the church back to the home again.
To meet this need he invented the mechanism of the
home department and supervised its early operation
in the rural parish at Royalston, Vermont.
Three years before this a movement developed In
the New York State Sunday-school Association for
the organizing of home classes as Sunday-school out-
stations in outlying neighbourhoods, to be gathered
from adjoining homes and taught each week by a
visiting teacher from the Sunday school. As these
classes met in the homes, the movement was a contri-
bution to the need later voiced by Dr. Dike. Later a
determined effort was made by W. A. Duncan, leader
of the home class movement, to identify the two ; and
for many years he was for the combined idea the
zealous spokesman and International leader. The
home class method has always been an interesting
missionary possibility, seldom realized; while the
home department idea of Dr. Dike, enriched with im-
provements from several sources, has for a genera-
126 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
tion been a standard method, indispensable to the
right organization of the church school.
Since the introduction of the home department
method, more new ways of getting the children, the
young people and the parents out of the homes have
developed than in the whole century preceding. Not
all of these now center in the church or are of as-
suredly uplifting value. If Dike had need to rescue
the home in the name of religious training, our need
is critical indeed. It is our business first to see, then
to understand, and then to meet the situation.
2. Home Service to the Church School.
(a) The Self-Sufficient Home. — The first diffi-
culty we encounter in any plan of service to the home
is its spirit of self-sufficiency. This is not a fault but
a virtue. It springs from the instinct of full parental
responsibility for the welfare and right upbringing of
the children. Any policy that tends to break down
this instinct, whatever its immediate advantages, will
ultimately weaken the power of the home. We
must, therefore, beware of methods that aim to sub-
stitute the influence of the teacher or any other
school institution in place of that of the parents.
However incompetent, they must be strengthened and
established as educational factors rather than dispos-
sessed. When the case passes the point where this is
possible, it is one for attention by the public authori-
ties or the social agencies rather than by the church
school.
{b) The First Step a Call for Service. — Taking
this difficulty on the flank, then, let our first aid to
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES 127
the home come in the form of a call for its coopera-
tion. Our general church-school program has long
included this call; but we have thought of the co-
operation as a gain to our own work. So it is ; and
so much the better for our present purpose. Let this
continue to be the only motive we avow ; for so long
as we stand on this ground we do not raise the issue
of home independence.
In responding to this reasonable call, however,
many parents will take their first steps in conscious
religious effort for their children. Apart from any
question of the furtherance of our school plans, it is
worth while to seek home cooperation for the sake of
the home ; for in this way it may be possible to start
the home to working on its own immeasurably greater
program.
(c) A Scale of Home Cooperation. — The specific
services which the homes may render to the church
school vary with the different grades. As an aid in
the systematizing of our efforts and in the rating of
our homes as to the degree of cooperation secured,
we may use some such scale of home cooperation as
the following :
1. Attendance. Child sent regularly; attendance
facilitated.
2. Disciplinary, Report card signed and re-
turned ; authority of school and teacher supported.
3. Facilitating. Home life regulated so as to fa-
cilitate the child's full performance of home-study
tasks.
4. Sympathetic. Parents attend church-school
events and discourage adverse claims of other inter-
ests on child's work-time.
128 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
5. Financial. Regular, spontaneous and personal
giving encouraged; parents contribute, proportion-
ately to means, to church-school funds.
6. Normative. Parents second school in the ef-
fort to establish habits of religious living such as
church-going.
7. Pedagogic. Assistance in lesson study and
other home work for the church school.
8. Devotional. Family worship maintained, with
grace at meals.
9. Evangelistic. Early lessons in prayer and rec-
ognition of God's presence, power and love; presen-
tation of Jesus as Saviour and Lord; encouragement
of child in seeking full church membership as soon as
he feels himself ready and the church authorities ap-
prove.
10. Vocational, Encouragement of the child in
seeking to obey the divine call to service in God's
kingdom.
Good management of the church school calls for a
systematized effort to secure the rendering of these
services by every represented family. A method for
coordinating the forces that must work together to
this end, if it is to be even partially accomplished, is
outlined under Section 6, below.
3. A Home Program of Religious Education.
(a) A Wide Scope. — By as much as the oppor-
tunity of the home is larger than that of the church
school, by so much is the possible content of its re-
ligious education fuller and its material more varied.
A parent who is religiously minded may make any
contact with the child, at any age, a means for de-
veloping his sense of relationship with God. Jesus,
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES 129
as He walked and taught in Galilee, saw the power of
God around Him in nature and man and turned the
simplest and most homely incidents and objects into
lessons in religion. A matter-of-fact parent, whose
religion, like Martha's, is practical rather than mys-
tical, may yet be shown, along his own temperamentcd
line, how to teach religion at home. All parents may
at least be called on to cleanse their own lives and
seek a deeper religious experience for the sake of
their children's religion.
(b) Goals, Not Standards. — No two homes, of
course, could follow the same program. To erect a
standard program would therefore be an idle en-
deavour. But a wise leader might lead some of his
homes to adopt a series of goals of home endeavour,
and then he might aid these homes in finding definite
ways of seeking these goals. When a circle of such
families had begun to work and pray together in the
pursuit of these goals, it might be found possible to
draw others into the circle. Methods tried in one
family and found effective would tend to become
standard for the church or community group, and if
of general value would be utilized elsewhere.
Among such goals of family endeavour may be
suggested :
( 1 ) The establishment in the home of the reign of
law. When father and mother are themselves guided
not by caprice or passion, but by rule, even the infant
feels the influence and learns the lesson of self-mas-
tery at the call of a higher power.
(2) An appraisal of conduct on lines of duty
rather than those of pleasure or economic value. As
130 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
long as the breaking of a glass brings a whipping and
the telling of a lie a laugh, religious home training
cannot begin.
(3) An early familiarity and sympathy with the
works of nature as manifestations of God and outlets
for religious impulse.
(4) Grace at meat, as an acknowledgment of our
daily dependence on God's care.
(5) Early use of the approved means of grace,
especially private prayer, the Bible and family wor-
ship.
(6) Unconscious tuition through pictures and ob-
jects of religious value.
(7) Provision of books and periodicals likely to
interest in facts and considerations of religious value.
(8) Story-telling and reading aloud with the chil-
dren.
(9) The habit of extending hospitality to visitors
whose table-talk and personal influence may prove a
religious stimulus to the younger members of the
family.
(10) Formation of plans for the children's edu-
cation and life-work in which God's call and the
claims of His kingdom shall have a part.
4. Agencies for Reaching the Homes.
(a) The Pastor as Preacher. — High on the list of
the home-reaching agencies of the church must be
reckoned the pulpit service, with its opportunity for
the preacher to speak from time to time directly to
the parents in attendance as to the message of home
religion and the vehicles for expressing it effectively.
The leader of the church school, considering the ur-
gency of the need, is surely not presumptuous in sug-
gesting to the pastor from time to time the value and
pertinence of sermons to the home.
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES 131
(b) The Pastor as Visitor. — Still more significant
is the pastoral service of visitation. We have not
yet, even in city and suburban fields, outgrown the
expectation of more or less regular pastoral calls. A
pastor with a program for his homes might touch
them all in a year without adding to his labours any
service that he does not owe them now.
If we determine to insist on the inclusion of the
pastor in the church school's educational plan, we
may insure at least his familiarity with our home pro-
gram; and some pastors will forthwith make this
program their own. As leader of church activities,
the pastor may in many ways throw his influence in-
dependently in the direction of the fostering of home
religion; and in the pulpit, as we have seen, he has
the ear of all parents who are members of the con-
gregation.
(c) The Cradle Roll. — Vast possibilities inhere in
this popular but far from fully utilized church
agency. The apparent simplicity and juvenility of
cradle-roll forms of work must not lead the church-
school administrator to undervalue its efficiency.
Under a trained and purposeful leader, with reason-
able support from the related departments and from
the treasury, the power of the cradle roll in the estab-
lishment of religious education in the homes is pro-
found.
To begin with, the cradle-roll superintendent's
friendly call on the new baby and his parents is al-
most never unwelcome, however estranged from re-
ligion and church the family may be. It is easy then
to invoke the spirit of responsibility for this newlx
132 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMmiSTEATIOJST
entrusted soul and to suggest steps for discharging
the trust, directly in the care of the child, indirectly
in a better performance of acknowledged church
duties and home religious observances. Thousands
of families have thus been drawn from the outside
into the warm fellowship of the church's religious
life, and the children's religious nurture has so far
been assured. In the work of welcome and enlist-
ment the partnership of the beginners' teacher, the
adult classes and the pastor is called for; and this
should be seen to by the executive of the school.
In homes of culture and external church connec-
tion the problem is different but the need not less.
The cradle-roll leader may here seek for partners
among the officers of the woman's club and the par-
ent-teachers' association as well as in the church-
school company. Remembering that a baby is the
household king or queen, whatever the family's es-
tate, let the visitor, with tact and courage, carry out
her visiting and reminder-sending program and ask
God's blessing on its influence.
(d) The Home Department. — Ambitiously named
is this institution; for it reaches only some of the
homes and does even for them but a part of the
service the church is due to render. For years, as
we have seen, it was confused with the quite distinct
method of home classes. It has further suffered from
over-advocacy by zealous partisans who have failed
to see it as one line of a larger service that should be
developed in its entirety. But in itself the method
introduced in 1885 by Dr. Dike is as valuable to-day
as when first presented.
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES 133
There is need, however, for a broadening in the
content of instruction in the lessons brought by the
home department visitors into the home. The quar-
terly magazine expounding the current uniform les-
son may still be used where that seems the best
response to the Bible-studying capacities of the mem-
bers. But the department should constitute itself a
bureau for the distribution of all kinds of literature
needed in the homes, especially bulletins bearing on
child-training. In homes where older children are
studying the intermediate or senior graded lessons,
the parents may take these as the basis of their own
home studies and be credited therewith. The deter-
mining of what lessons shall be used by the home
department members is to be counted one of the edu-
cational problems of the church school and settled
accordingly.
(e) The Organized Adult Class. — Besides its
many other functions of usefulness, the adult class,
organized for self-active service as well as for study,
discussion and fellowship, can be made a definite
agency of home stimulation to a program of religious
education. Steps in this direction will comprise :
(i) Development of the class recruiting service
until it draws into at least occasional attendance per-
sons not ordinarily identified with church member-
ship and activity. The methods of such " boosting "
are familiar.
(2) Among the class membership as thus en-
larged will be found many parents. Occasional les-
sons and discussions may be given on problems in
nurture, guidance and home discipline, and the result-
134 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMimSTRATION
ing interest and participation noted. A simple ques-
tionnaire may be passed to ascertain and record the
facts. The way may thus be prepared for the organ-
izing of one or more classes of parents.
(3) Special addresses by teachers, physicians and
social workers on problems of the home may from
time to time be introduced in the general class pro-
gram.
(4) Father-and-son and mother-and-daughter
banquets, promoted as class activities, may be made
an annual feature of the class social program. They
should be planned so as to be educationally and re-
ligiously purposeful and not merely jolly times.
(5) Connection should be established with the
home department, by which each adult class may
refer to the home department all its members who are
unable for a time to attend, and by which also the
visiting home-department members shall be welcomed
to seats as extension members of the class. From
the adult class membership also will be recruited the
needed visitors and substitutes for the home depart-
ment's force. The simplest way to establish this
connection will be by making the home department
superintendent or one of the leading visitors a mem-
ber of the class executive committee.
(/) The Parents' Department. — We have seen
with what instinctive aversion the average parent
receives outside advice as to what he is to do for his
own child. He feels that " a man's house is his
castle." For an enthusiastic educational director or
a teacher with ideas to proceed to form a parents*
class or department, in order to impart to the parents
of the church that wholesome instruction in parent-
hood which they now lack, is to invite failure. The
subject must be approached indirectly.
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES 135
If the way has been prepared by systematic calls
from the departments and classes for home coopera-
tion (Sec. 2b), and by studies of home problems in
the adult classes (Sec. 4e), a beginning may be made
by calling together a few of the more intelligent
and interested parents and suggesting the organiza-
tion of a parents' club or circle, for parents of junior
pupils, high school pupils, or some other group of
children or youth. Leadership of the movement
should as soon as possible be lodged with the parents
themselves. The school register, if properly kept,
will furnish a directory of the parents, with resi-
dence, occupation and church affiliation. With the
help of this information, supplemented from the
church roll and the pastor's visiting list, the club
membership may be recruited.
After the meetings for organization, the club
should plan for a limited series of meetings for the
season. It may hear lectures by the educational di-
rector or some other speaker, follow a text-book
course or prepare its own program, with papers from
the members, followed by discussion. A small club
grouped around a definite age of childhood can do
better work than a large body whose bond of inter-
est is more diverse.
One such club, successfully started, will pave the
way for another. A parents' department, with super-
intendent and a definite program, will naturally fol-
low. The periodic canvasses of the home department
should advertise the parents' classes and recruit
members for the parents' department.
In many beginners' departments a company of
136 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
mothers is already in attendance as visitors, some'
times to the serious embarrassment of the orderly
work of the hour. To reassure these that their off-
spring will be safe without them should not be hard.
Then an invitation to a conference in some adjoin-
ing room may be given; and after one or two weeks
of preliminary conversations, with exhibit of bulle-
tins secured from the Children's Bureau at Wash-
ington on diet for young children and other practical
matters, a definite call may be extended to all moth-
ers of young children and a start made on a ten-
weeks' course of class study. A class of older girls
might cooperate by contributing some " sunshine
band " work in staying with the babies at home or
caring for them elsewhere in the church while their
mothers were thus engaged. If the beginners'
teacher must lead this group, the time will have to
be fixed at some other hour than that of the church
school.
5. Training for Parenthood.
A vital function of the church school under all con-
ditions is the training which it is due to furnish, in
rudimental form to the intermediates and more
specifically to the senior and young people's classes,
in the principles of home-making and child-nurture.
The inauguration of such a service would be an
appropriate activity for the parents' department and
an easy extension of its scope. Having finished for
themselves a course in child-nurture, with its dis-
cussions on the mistakes of parents and their tragic
consequences, what more natural than that these now
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES 137
thoughtful parents should take steps to save the pres-
ent young people of the church from like mistakes
and to lead them to a clearer conception of the re-
sponsibilities, the joys and the conditions of success-
ful child-training? But the need for such service is
too urgent to await the prior starting of parents'
work.
(a) A Community Responsibility. — But this is not
primarily a church responsibility. It inheres in our
whole social situation. The earnest words of Her-
bert Spencer, in his classic little work on education,
should not be forgotten. Speaking as a biologist, he
postulates that the great work of this generation is
to cause that the next generation shall reach higher
ground in the scale of existence, physical and social.
It therefore follows that of all possible fields of for-
mal education the most significant is education in the
principles, the art and the purpose of intelligent and
loving parenthood. To us who in addition see the
value of the religious element in education, this sage
reminder comes with double force.
(b) A Task for the Church School. — Here is one
fundamental task which for two reasons may prop-
erly be left by the community to the church school.
In the first place, most pupils leave the day school
before the mating instinct, with its aroused interest
in home problems, has begun to dominate life. In
the second place, all parties are ready to agree that
a religious background should colour and shape the
teaching and training of the home. Whenever the
church school, or the community school for week-
day training in religion, can qualify for the depend-
138 CHTJECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
able discharge of this trust, general education will be
ready to pass it over.
This trust, let it be noted, cannot be confined to
the teaching of religious values alone. The great
essential in successful home teaching of anything is
atmosphere, the combined influence of the home sit-
uation as a whole. There can be no dividing be-
tween the physical, mental, social and religious
phases of this situation by those who would plant
seeds of better home life in young and aspiring
hearts. If the desired religion of the home is to be
a real and a living religion, it must function in and
through every feature that makes the home, sustains
its life and gives it character. Here, then, is one
field where the natural unity of general and religious
education, divorced by nineteenth-century conditions
of life in a new democracy, may without controversy
be experimentally reestablished.
(c) A Field for New Endeavour. — How this great
trust is to be administered is a question not yet
furnished with a standardized and well-tried answer.
We have not yet even assured ourselves of regular
contact with the individuals for whom the instruction
is to be provided. Many of these are in the ages
that call students and workers away from home.
The project method, with its necessarily expert han-
dling and its freedom from fixed and sustaining
courses of weekly lesson assignments, seems pecu-
liarly adapted to this field. Splendid opportunity is
here for original experiment, the working out of new
plans and the making of history in religious educa-
tion.
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES 139
While waiting for the Edisons of the situation to
appear, those engaged in the more commonplace
service of teacher-training may take notice that in
the possible future home and fireside we have at
least as worthy an object of normal study by young
people as in the responsibilities of the church-school
teacher's chair. Bible study, child psycholog}^, meth-
ods of teaching and the place and standard methods
of the church school are all studies of prime value to
the future parent ; while such a course as that on the
training of the devotional life is more a home course
than a school course by far. In planning and pro-
moting our training courses and classes, then, while
properly stressing ostensibly the call for church-
school teachers, we may well have in mind the need
for trained home teachers too.
6. The Department of the Home.
(a) Elements of the Combination. — Putting to-
gether all the actual and possible resources of the
church for the reaching and leading of its homes in
the work of religious education, we have the elements
out of which may and should be organized a De-
partment of the Home.
To this department will belong all that part of the
pastor's work which concerns the homes, all the cra-
dle-roll work which involves calls, canvasses and
correspondence, the home department as now usually
run, the home side of the adult class work, the par-
ents' department, the home-training side of the
teacher-training service, and the principals of all de-
partments whose teachers and supervisors make a
140 CHUBOH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
call on the homes for educational cooperation. The
missionary societies and all other church agencies
contributing to the undergraduate educational pro-
gram will be included as interest may Appear.
(b) Organisation and Relationships. — The natural
head of the department of the home will be the pas-
tor. In the church home council, meeting statedly
and representing every agency at work for the homes,
he will preside. A home superintendent will organ-
ize and correlate the various activities and will sup-
ply initiative as to areas needing further service. If
the existing home department under its present
standard plan can be broadened in thought and sym-
pathy as well as in function until every service-con-
tributing body is welcomed and full cooperation and
supplementation is secured, no launching of a new
enterprise will be necessary.
In this connection we may note that it is time to
drop the sentimental connection of the home depart-
ment with the undergraduate classes of the Sunday
school. In the early days of home department pro-
motion this was made much of, on the plea that our
main work was to get the stay-at-homes to studying
the same Bible lesson that the children were study-
ing in the Sunday school. With the passing of uni-
form lessons this plea has gone out of date. But
the logical relationship of the home department has
always been in reality with the church proper rather
than with the attending Sunday school. And under
our new conceptions the church school embraces all
that is educational in the life and work of the local
cSiurch; the undergraduate graded school of religion
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES 141
being one church activity and the home department
another.
By the present International standards, as already
noted/ the home department and all work for par-
ents comes tmder the care of the adult division. Or-
ganized work for young people in teacher-training
and training for prospective parents goes under the
young people's division.
(c) Program. — The ultimate objective of the de-
partment, of course, is to cause each home where
there are or may be children to embark upon its own
proper work of home religious education for each
child and to continue this work to the child's ma-
turity. Toward this objective the pastor may preach
and labour, and the parents in their own department
may be led in the development of higher ideals of
home religious service. Festival occasions may be
utilized for presenting these higher ideals in pageant
and dramatic form ; and the claims of childhood on
the home may be voiced at father-and-son banquets
by the boys themselves.
The systematic efforts of the department, however,
will be mainly spent on the securing from every
home of the full ten-point cooperation with the
church school called for by the scale given above
under Section 2c. Under these heads each agency
concerned should be asked to formulate exactly what
cooperation it wants and to do its part in making such
cooperation easy. Reports should be systematically
gathered, not from the homes but from the teachers
and other workers as to how far cooperation has
^ Chapter I, Sec. 3.
142 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
been rendered and what benefits have been observed
therefrom.
Then, if the secretary of the department will ar-
range a card index of the homes, recording first the
general facts and then the periodically gathered rec-
ord of cooperation, exact information on the progress
of the homes toward a home policy of religious edu-
cation can be recorded without recourse to personal
judgment and the making of invidious characteriza-
tions. By means of the ten-point scale a statistical
measurement may be made of home cooperation ; and
reports may thus be given that will stimulate the
progress of the department's work.
Assignments
I a. What is your own conviction as to the place
the home should have in religious education?
ic. What tendency did the home department aim
to counteract ? By what method ?
2a, Why is the home properly jealous of inter-
ference with its own plans of child-nurture?
2b. In assisting the home along this line, what
should be our first step?
2c. Name a few lines on which the church school
may properly seek for cooperation from the home.
3a. Why will the home's own program of re-
ligious education take a wide range?
3b. Name some of the desirable goals of home
effort in religious education.
4a, b. What can the pastor do to help ?
4c. In what ways has the cradle-roll superin-
tendent a unique opportunity?
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOMES 143
4d. (i) Why is the home department ambi-
tiously named? (2) What can it do to increase the
practical value of its present routine?
4e. Name some of the ways in which the adult
class may work for the homes.
4f. (i) What specific work for the parents is
now done in your school? (2) How would you start
such work and extend it after the first steps had been
taken?
5a. Why is training for parenthood a community
responsibility ?
5b. Why may the community be expected, when
the church school is ready, to turn over the general
responsibility of training for parenthood to the
church ?
5c. (i) Why do we not have in every church
school a well-developed plan for training in the re-
ligious duties of future parenthood? (2) What part
of our present plans may be adapted to that end ?
6a. What elements should be combined into a
department of the home ?
6b. How should such a department be organized ?
6c. What are some of the things it can do ?
VII
THE BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT
1. Begin Where You Are.
When the newly called administrator takes charge
of his church school, the first element of the situation
to meet his notice will be the room or rooms in which
the work is to be done. So far as these rooms, with
their equipment, are fixed and permanent in struc-
ture, it will be wise for him to conform the opening
steps of his plan to the limitations they impose. He
must show that he can work with the tools that are
given him; and he needs to gain prestige and a fol-
lowing before attempting radical measures. The
treatment thus far has therefore said little about
ways and means for adapting the church-school plant
to the needs of better educational service.
Rooms and tools, moreover, are dead things. No
amount of modernness, expensiveness or abundance
in the material outfit will supply motive, skill and
content of instruction, or can take the place of edu-
cational and spiritual life. It is the heart-touch of
the living teacher that makes the school. What
equipment did Jesus lack for His dialogue with the
woman of Samaria, His parables by the lake, His ser-
mon on the mountainside? Was not Garfield right
in his oft-quoted sentiment that a seat on the end of
a log, with Mark Hopkins on the other end, was aJl
the university he wanted ? Why then should not the
144
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 146
church-school administrator bravely take the rooms
and furnishings that he has and go on making the
best of them?
2. The Power of the Wall.
Why not? Because Mark Hopkins is not a fair
sample of the average church-school worker; nor is
Garfield a fair sample of the average pupil; nor is
the problem of teaching one auditor comparable to
the problem of organizing and administering a
school. And if a poor workman is not made a good
workman by being given good tools, neither is a good
workman given his chance to do good work when he
is condemned to work for years under conditions
that make fine or even standard work impossible.
Edward Thring, headmaster for thirty-four years
at Uppingham School, and a valiant fighter for better
conditions in English education, says : ^
" Whatever men say or think, the almighty wall
is, after all, the supreme and final arbiter of schools.
" I mean, no living power in the world can over-
come the dead, unfeeling, everlasting pressure of the
permanent structure, of the permanent conditions un-
der which work has to be done. Every now and then
a man can be found to say honestly :
* Stone walls do not a prison make.
Nor iron bars a cage.'
But men are not trained to freedom inside a prison.
The prison will have its due. Slowly but surely the
immovable, unless demolished, determines the shape
of all inside it.
'Addresses, pp. 75 f.
146 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
" Examine well, in no discontented spirit, seri-
ously, hopefully, the structure of your schools — the
buildings, the appliances, the tools, the whole ap-
paratus for work, living or material. Be not hasty;
but never rest till you have got the almighty wall on
your side, and not against you. Never rest till you
have got all the fixed machinery for work, the best
possible. The waste in a teacher's workshop is the
lives of men. And what becomes of the waste?
You cannot take your failures and lynch them; they
live on; they persist in living on; and they hang
heavy on the neck of all progress."
3. Makeshift Housing.
(a) The Present Situation. — In the light of this
•suggestion, what shall we think of the situation in the
ordinary church school to-day? The great majority
of these are working in rooms and with tools that
were made with substantially different purposes in
view from those which our workers are now pursu-
ing. There is hardly an item of our program but
runs against some architectural limitation to educa-
tional progress. Such a limitation is often taken By
the worker as a full discharge from any responsibility
to bring his work up to standard in that respect. He
bows to the authority of the almighty wall.
Many Sunday-school sessions are still held, for all
but the primary class, in the church auditorium.
Other schools use a broad basement room with a
low ceiling, poorly lighted, ventilated, divided and
approached. The limitations of the old-time country
church are educationally disheartening. Yet between
these and the recently erected " modern " Sunday-
school building or parish house, if we seek a full
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT Ul
efficiency, there is frequently not so much to choose.
Most of these proudly cherished structures reflect a
conception of the nature, mechanism and scope of
church-school work that is already passing away.
They were built to fit the Sunday school as remem-
bered by the building committee, rather than the
school of the church and the community as visioned
by the educational prophets of to-day.
(b) The Way Out. — Whether therefore the work-
ers and the congregation think of their own church-
school plant well or ill, it is part of the adminis-
trator's duty to study its adaptability to the best and
most effective educational service of which his force
can be made capable. The limitations that seem final
to others must grow transparent tcf him ; and behind
them he must discern and fix, with steadily increas-
ing clearness, the lines of that better plan that is
some day to replace them.
How this vision is to become real must be locally
determined. The leader may plan to proceed by
successive alterations. He may decide instead to
work up a sentiment for radical rebuilding. Where
two or three churches divide the Protestant forces
of a limited field, he may see that no full attainment
of his vision will be possible apart from some form
of federation, so that the movement for a real church-
school plant may become a community enterprise.
In any case he will need a loyal constituency, to whom
he may hope to impart his vision. The young folks
at least will espouse the cause; and they will grow
up. Imagination, enthusiasm, patience and capacity
for getting results under difficulties are needed in the
148 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIOK
leader who would outgeneral that all but universal
adversary, the almighty wall.
4. How to Plan a New Building.
(a) Emancipation. — The oyster makes the shell,
not the shell the oyster. The building, fixed and
final as its walls must be, should nevertheless be the
plastic and obedient counterpart of the living church
that is to use it. But the school that has lived for
years in a makeshift building is like a hermit-crab.
Its natural structure has been shaped by the limita-
tions which its borrowed housing has imposed. Be-
fore the leader is ready to think out his new build-
ing, he must see just where his school has been
pinched and its proper development arrested by the
pressure of the wall.
(b) Inherited Limitations. — When the churches,
early in the nineteenth century, adopted the Sunday
school and gave it place within their walls, they were
meeting-houses, places of public worship and preach-
ing, and almost nothing more. This type of housing
forced the Sunday school to make much of its as-
sembly and worship features, instead of making these
incidental to classroom work as in the public school.
It took a long fight to get even a separate room for
the " infant class," and another for the " Bible class."
How much of our feeling that the church school is
first of all a united assembly is a pure inheritance, a
relic of our long bondage to the meeting-house wall?
Obliged to organize its classes in the church pews,
and later on the broad floor of the church vestry or
prayer-meeting room, the Sunday school soon found
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 149
that there were fixed limits to the size of a class
taught under such conditions. The teacher must sit
near enough to every child to be able to reach and
control him, and must be able to make him hear and
attend without having to raise the voice above a
conversational tone. Not more than six or eight
pupils can be so seated. Where a class grows to ten
or twelve, either the pupils or the teacher will soon
disturb the adjoining classes and compel a readjust-
ment. For a hundred years, therefore, our architec-
tural limitations have been forcing on us the purely
artificial idea that whereas in a public school forty
pupils can be handled by one teacher, in a Sunday
school forty pupils must have at least five teachers.
To be sure, we have of late been building class-
rooms; and with their help the situation has been
sensibly improved. We have also introduced movable
chairs in place of pews and benches, tables to cen-
tralize class discussion and facilitate the handling of
lesson materials, and curtains to cut off disturbing
sights. Few of our classrooms, however, represent
careful planning for the permanent work of a partic-
ular grade. Some are primarily clubrooms for or-
ganizations that were strong and articulate enough
to get what they wanted. Others are merely im-
proved and enlarged locations for main-room classes ;
and their size, shape, lighting, ventilation and ap-
proach leave much to be desired.
Uniform-lesson methods in the sixties and seven-
ties of the last century brought in the Akron type of
Sunday-school architecture. For years this was con-
sidered the last word in Sunday-school planning.
150 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
Theater-like, the room was built around a central
platform. In front were the main-room classes. To
one side was the large primary room, with perhaps
a junior room on the other side. Back of the plat-
form, on the stage, was seating for an adult class.
In the rear and around the galleries were the class-
rooms, some square, others of lozenge shape, all de-
signed first of all to enable the members to see and
hear the superintendent. Curtains or movable par-
titions cut these off more or less — frequently less —
from the noises of the main room. The passing of
uniformity has made these buildings nearly as out
of date as the old Puritan meeting-houses that pre-
ceded them; but in these forms and patterns of con-
struction many of our local church leaders will be
found thinking to-day.
(c) The Starting-Point. — The authority of ex-
perts, as voiced in books on Sunday-school architec-
ture, will help the leader in his planning, but is mani-
festly a guide to be used with caution; since these
inherited forms of thinking may colour even the
expert's recommendations. To visit " model Sun-
day-school buildings " is equally unsafe, except for
suggestions in detail. Obviously, no ready-made plan
will exactly fit the special needs of the leader's situ-
ation. After all, it is the oyster we need to vision,
rather than the shell. What sort of school may our
school be, when we can hold it in a building made
to fit its real and not merely its inherited needs?
When the intricacies of that question have been an-
swered, the form of the building will be relatively
easy to determine. In any plan for complete re-
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 151
building, there can be no effective starting-point
short of a thorough reconstruction of the entire
church-school plan.
5. General Principles.
(a) Unity. — Our plant must be planned to serve
the church and parish as a whole. From the cele-
bration of the communion down, every feature of
the church's work has its contribution to make to the
religious education of each individual. That educa-
tion should be unified, each part related to the others
and all combining into a harmonious whole as to
every child, youth and man. We cannot therefore
think out our school organization and its building
without consideration of the church in its entirety.
{h) Efficiency. — For each service that a given
room or appliance is to render, it must be made
efficient for that service. The floor, shape, lighting,
approach and other features of a room, with every
fixed appliance, must be worked out from the view-
point of what is to be done in that room. All possible
advice and experience must be gathered as to this,
from experts and from those locally interested.
Against this principle the old Akron type sinned, in
its habitual robbing of class and department rooms of
half their efficiency in order to make them parts of
a larger room. Architecturally, also, efficiency is
often sacrificed to the requirements of a Gothic or
other special style of construction, whose claims are
indeed worthy, but should come in after those of
efficiency in use.
(c) Economy, also, must be studied, no less than
152 CHUKCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
efficiency for each service. This calls for considera-
tion of the load-factor. What figure will represent
the week's use of a given room or appliance, as com-
pared with one hundred if it were in use for every
available hour of working time? If the church plant
might conceivably be used seven hours a day on
week-days and eight hours on Sunday, that gives us
one hundred half-hours as the units of our weekly
scale. On this convenient basis let the leader note
the load-factor of his present church auditorium and
other rooms. The figures will make a suggestive
study.
Obviously, the way to cut building costs on any
kind of plant is to increase the load-factor. In a
church this can be done by ingenious adaptations of
the same room to two or more purposes. Many
such adaptations are already familiar; and with
broadened plans we shall doubtless find ways of mak-
ing many more. But no such economy should be at
the cost of educational efficiency in any one of the
uses so combined; nor should the proposed shifts
and changes entail loss of time and a heavy load of
weekly labour.
(d) Suggestion. — The general effect of the plant
on the observer should be in line with the purposes
of its creation. Externally, in site, grounds and
architectural appearance, the church should harmo-
nize with its situation and convey an appropriate im-
pression of dignity, force and spiritual leadership.
The interior of every room and lobby should suggest
the emotions and responses proper to the worship
and other activities therein to be carried on. Rever-
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 153
ence is caught, not taught; and the unconscious tui-
tion of well-planned rooms and approaches is a factor
in the educational efficiency of the church-school
plant.
6. Provision for New Features.
These general principles clear, we must next in-
quire what new features in the development of local
and community religious education must be taken
account of, if our proposed plant is to be built in
full alignment with twentieth century progress.
(a) Community Responsibility. — The church of
to-morrow will realize its responsibility to serve the
community which remits its taxes and counts on its
service in raising moral standards and adding to the
community's educational system the element of in-
struction in religion. Whether or not a " community
church " in the sense of being free from denomina-
tional competition, the church must pay its com-
munity debt of service to all sorts and conditions of
men. Without the least abatement of its gospel of
salvation, and without lowering its fellowship service
to its own members, old and young, the church of to-
morrow will provide rooms for service to some of
the less fortunate groups of its surrounding society.
The liquor saloon, of unwept memory, frequently
found a room and a welcome for the labour group
that had no other place of common meeting. Shall
the church of the Carpenter of Nazareth be less
hospitable in its social planning?
{h) Professional Service. — The unmistakable trend
of the times in religious education is toward a wider
164 CHUECH-8CHOOL ADMINISTEATION
use of professional service. Long before the church-
school plant erected to-day has repaid its cost and
finished its work, professional directors of religious
education will be common, and professional teachers
of religion will occupy on whole or part-time salary
many of our principalships and teaching chairs.
Such workers will refuse to waste time with the
facilities we now contentedly offer our faithful
amateur band; and the church will refuse to waste
money on maintaining them in such a situation. Not
all teachers will be paid, by any means; nor will
the paid teacher in every case do finer work than the
unpaid one. But room and equipment for some
professional workers must be built into our new
plant, or we may live to see it prematurely out-
grown.
(c) Week-day Instruction. — Equally certain is the
early incoming of week-day instruction in religion.
Many and complex as are the difficulties that still
bind us to one hour a week on Sunday, these dif-
ficulties are already being successfully overcome.
Each year adds to our experience and tends to
standardize and improve our methods. The Ameri-
can system of education in religion, correlative with
but independent of the American public school sys-
tem, is coming in. Buildings and rooms will be in-
creasingly needed for the week-day teaching of re-
ligion, for our own and other children. Classrooms,
assemblies, playgrounds, health and recreation facili-
ties adapted to regular use on several days of the
week by large classes under professional teachers
of religion will in a few years be called for. A
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 155
church ambitious to take and keep the lead in serv-
ice will build with these uses kept well in view,
(d) Visualisation. — In lantern slides, motion pic-
tures and other forms of visual teaching, what new
resources may come to our aid within the next few
years we cannot tell. Those already at our disposal
are ample to warrant the modern church in equip-
ping its plant for visual instruction in every possible
form. In some of the classrooms, if not in all, lan-
tern facilities should, be provided, with a full motion
picture equipment in the main social hall. The
screens, lighting switches, signals and window-dark-
ening facilities, also, should be so arranged that
transition to and from visual instruction can be made
simply, quietly and without delay.
(e) Play and Recreation. — Along with the Puritan
meeting-house we inherited the Puritan mental as-
sociation of all sports, games and recreations, espe-
cially the theater, with evil. From this association
our minds are still far from free. Our Lord, with
His inspired educational psychology, saw in the chil-
dren's happy street dramatism of marriage dance
and funeral wailing, in the social feast, and even in
the seven-days' wedding jollification, means of re-
ligious education. Even so the great lawgiver of
earlier days had seen in the ancient tribal feasts and
picnics of springtime and harvest-home the oppor-
tunity of the religious teacher. The time has come to
build not in prejudice but in wisdom.
When the church is ready to serve the whole life
of its young people, it will have the right to their
whole allegiance, and not before. So long as it in-
156 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
sists on ministering only to that side of their natures
with which its gospel message is primarily concerned,
it will continue to get from them a partial, casual
and exceptional response. Social amusement is part
of the serious life-business of normal youth. Studies,
employment, household duties, church work — these
have their place; but real life for us young folks is
what we do in our marginal hours. Into the enter-
prises of these hours we put our whole selves ; be-
cause through them we are enabled to mingle with
our fellows in the unceasing quest of our hearts for
true friends and worthy competitors in one sex and
a life-partner in the other.
For the children's play and the games of the boys
and girls some architectural provision must be made ;
though most of their needs can better be met by the
homes, the school and the community. It is for the
young people from fifteen to twenty-five that the
church needs especially to build. What business does
for profit the church must do for love. It must re-
member that its young people want to do rather than
to be done for; and its facilities, instead of furnish-
ing amusement ready-made, must be so shaped as to
make it easy for groups of young people to organ-
ize, conduct and carry to completion their varied
projects of amusement, dramatism and altruistic en-
terprise. Where a church keeps up its heart-preach-
ing and its evangelistic endeavour and at the same
time gives its young people facilities for making its
rooms their social home, it may hope to retain their
allegiance and bring them through "the slippery
paths of youth " to a rounded maturity of loyal and
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 157
well-trained readiness for a wide range of Christian
service.
7. Realization.
(a) Working Out the Ideal. — Putting together
these critical and constructive suggestions, with all
others available, the leader or group of local leaders
will steadily work out what their projected new
church plant ought to be. Many conferences may
be held, at which divergent views will be compared
and special studies and visits reported. Step by step
needs will grow clearer, plans more comprehensive,
courage more audacious and hope more sure. The
less likelihood now of a new building, the better the
chance for a quiet and unhurried study of the fun-
damentals of the situation. A specific group should
be organized for the unofficial study of the architec-
tural problem, with the understanding that its full so-
lution may be a work of years.
(h) Winning a Verdict. — A necessary part of this
group's duty, first for themselves and then for the
whole church and community, is to win against the
present plant a verdict of condemnation. No move-
ment for rebuilding can start until the people are
dislodged from their complacency. Destructive criti-
cism is in itself unlovely and by itself unprofitable;
but in every constructive process it must play an im-
portant part.
The weakness of such a case is usually its sub-
jectivity. The leader knows w^hy he wants better
rooms, but he has not yet succeeded in putting his
criticisms into objective form. The people know
168 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
them simply as his feelings. The group understands
why he so feels, and they are beginning to feel with
him; but others are reacting in the opposite way.
" This building is a disgrace," say the progressives ;
and back comes the reply, " We love it; touch not a
single stone ! " If we could measure the building
with an educational yardstick and show exactly
where and how far it falls short of being what the
church needs, we should still need to do much mis-
sionary work with the conservative element; but we
should have freed our arguments from the charge
that they were merely a personal opinion or a fad.
(c) Specifications, Not Plans. — As the studies of
the group advance, the tendency will be strong to
draw sketches of the new building and its rooms.
A limited amount of this sketching will help the
committee in its conferences; but the attempt should
not be made to formulate final conclusions in this
way. No amateur architect is likely to draw a floor
plan that will take proper account of elevations,
standard lengths and stock sizes and other necessaiy
technical details. Where such a plan is submitted
to an architect it tempts him to flatter and please his
clients by embodying their crude notions in his own
plan, though he may see other and better ways of
reaching the results they desire.
Specifications, therefore, rather than plans, should
be the outcome of the committee's study. Let each
member, after agreement on general objectives, draft
by himself a detailed statement of what he wants to
see embodied in the new building. If he is con-
cerned as to the size of a room^ let him specify what
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 169
he thinks its dimensions should be. If he has seen a
useful built-in device, or has thought of an eco-
nomical adaptation of one room to two uses, let him
set down his ideas in shape for committee consider-
ation and action. Then let the various papers be
studied together, with a joint set of " owner's speci-
fications " as the result.
The committee may now proceed, if it will, to con-
sultation with an architect; it being stipulated that
this action is preliminary, obligates only those in-
dividuals who seek the architect's advice and en-
tails no lien on the freedom of the church in any
plans it may later make for actual building. With
the specifications to guide him, a competent architect
can easily draft a set of sketches embodying the
committee's wishes in the best possible form.
Before such consultation, however, it will be
manifest wisdom for any such group to meet with
the trustees and other authorities of the church for
a frank and full talking over of the project and all
its implications. It should be made clear that the
objective is not now a new church but simply a clear
vision of what a new church should be in order to
serve well the needs of religious education. Every
possible convert among the powers that be is so
much gained toward the real start of the campaign.
(d) Estimates and Adjustments. — Sketch-plans, on
a scale of one-eighth of an inch to a foot, can be
prepared at small expense and without responsibility
for a later percentage on cost, if arrangements are
so made. While contractors* estimates cannot be
secured on these in any but the roughest form, the
160 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMIKLSTRATION
sketches will do very well as a basis for enlarged
public discussion and consideration of economies and
adjustments. Of these there will necessarily be
many. Every combination that increases the load-
factor and makes the plant useful to more people
and at more hours per week diminishes the total
expense for covering all these uses and either hastens
the day of moving in, or releases part of the cost
for investment in the reaching of some additional
need, or by cutting the total cost brings in new
supporters who would oppose a larger expenditure.
The outcome of this discussion campaign may
come soon, or it may take years to mature in action.
Enthusiasm, however, is catching, especially when
based on a case made clear. If the group has gone
well over the ground of its problem and can stand
firmly on the educational need for every one of its
claims, recruits will flock to its standard; and the
time to sound the call for advance on " the almighty
wall " of old restrictions will come betimes.
8. An Available Building Standard.
(a) Origin. — Through the work of the Inter-
church World Movement the " educational yard-
stick" called for in Section 7&, above, has been
made at least partially available. As part of that
movement's American Survey of Religious Educa-
tion, conducted under the direction of Professor
Walter S. Atheam, a thousand-point standard for a
city church plant was worked out by a group of edu-
cational and architectural authorities and prepared
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 161
for use in the exact objective rating of any existing
city or village church plant. A like standard for the
measurement of rural church plants was likewise
projected but not finished during the lifetime of the
movement.
Not only was this standard published in convenient
form/ but it was applied by its authors in a sys-
tematic survey of the seventeen existing churches,
large and small, in a typical American small city;
and their findings, with numerous illustrations and
comments and a reprint of the standard and its speci-
fications, was also published in a volume * which, with
the standard, is now available for the guidance of
such a group as we have imagined at work on its
own local vision. Here is the yardstick for measur-
ing every defect and excellence in the building we
now have, and with it the material for the construc-
tion of our dream of what we ought to have. The
issuance of these two manuals should mark an era
in the architectural history of the American churches.
(b) Form. — Of the thousand points that would be
«cored by a perfect plant for church life and religious
education under city conditions, with building laws,
materials, inventions and educational apparatus as
they stood in 1920, the Interchurch standard makes
this allotment:
I. Site 130
Location 55
Nature and condition 30
Size and form 45
* Standards for City Church Plante.
"The Maiden Survey.
162 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATIOK
II. Building or buildings 150
Placement 20
Gross structure 80
Internal structure 50
III. Service systems 160
Heating and ventilation 40
Fire protection system 40
Cleaning system 10
Artificial lighting system 15
Water supply system 15 *
Toilet system 25
Other service systems 10
Service rooms 5
IV. Church rooms 170
Convenience of arrangement 20
Auditorium 100
Chapel or small assembly 15
Parlor and church board room 5
Church office 10
Pastor's study 15
Church vault 5
V. Religious schoolrooms 200
Location and connection 15
Assembly room 60
Classrooms 90
Cloak-rooms and wardrobes 15
Superintendent's office 10
Supply rooms 10
VI. Community service rooms 190
Rooms for general use 60
Rooms for social service 70
Recreation and athletic rooms 60
Under these subheads there are also specified more
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 163
than a hundred points of detail, to each of which is
assigned a standard rating. The accompanying
specifications discuss each point in turn, indicating
what constitutes standard construction or equipment
and what alternative materials or arrangements are
available. On fireproof construction and fire safety,
heating and ventilation, and the different sizes of pipe
organs, the specifications are particularly full and
clear.
The important item of illumination, in which so
many of our so-called schoolrooms in church build-
ings so seriously fail, is reduced to measurement by
the use of the foot-candle unit. A foot-candle is the
light cast by a standard candle at the distance of one
foot. Every seat in church, assembly rooms and
classrooms should furnish at least three foot-candles
of natural light for the occupant's use. Many like
items are covered in this exact and practical way.
(c) Mode of Application. — Application of the
standard to the rating of an existing plant, if made
by an interested and untrained individual, will be
simply a personal judgment with little power to con-
vince. A right application is laborious; but the re-
sults are well worth while.
A committee of judges should be chosen, repre-
senting the various sides and viewpoints concerned.
To these should be added a school principal or other
educational expert and an architect or builder. If it
can be planned to make a comparative survey of all
the plants in a town or other community unit, results
will be much more satisfactory; because the team
will learn the art of quickly reaching a just decision
164 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
on one point after another, and the outcome will be
an educational stirring up of community opinion.
The team must give time to the work, visiting each
plant together, and each man checking his rating of
the various points on his own score-card independ-
ently. One of the team, then or at another time,
will gather the local information called for in the
survey blank. After thus inspecting one or more
plants, the team should hold a session for report,
discussion and settlement of the joint score as to the
plant concerned. This was the process followed in
scoring the churches of Maiden.
9. A Glimpse of the Vision.
In conformity with the positions of the Inter-
church standard, and in the light of the principles
and suggestions of this chapter, can we now catch a
glimpse of the church plant of to-morrow, as the
church of to-morrow will demand that it shall be?
An ample and well-placed site is needed first of
all. The church of to-morrow will use its out-of-
doors and will fight the limitations of noise, shadowed
windows and nearness to sources of foulness and
fire. If a generous campus cannot be had in the
heart of the city, then auxiliary grounds, easy of
access, will be provided for recreation and other uses.
On the site the buildings will be so placed as to make
the effect harmonious, impressive and uplifting.
Two main halls, one for worship, the other for
social and educational assembly, will appear; each
capable of seating the full congregation, and each
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 166
built, adorned and equipped in line with the finest
ideals of the life it is to foster and train. The social
hall must be available for lectures, concerts, choruses,
dramatism, pageantry and visualization, while the
church must suggest worship, reverence and the pres-
ence of God and must fit the needs of minister, wor-
shipers, communicants, candidates for baptism, or-
ganist and choir. If without sacrifice of these ideals
it is found practicable to make one hall serve these
two purposes, the general load-factor of the whole
plant will be substantially lifted and the cost cor-
respondingly decreased. But the difficulties of mak-
ing this combination have not yet been successfully
overcome.
On special occasions the church school will use the
social hall as its place of united assembly. There
will be separate assembly rooms for the beginners',
primary and junior departments, with classrooms for
the cradle roll class of three-year-olds and for the
graded classes of the junior department. Each of
these junior classrooms will be planned to seat thirty
children under good school conditions, with chairs,
tables and separating devices for smaller classes while
it is necessary so to divide. The upper-grade classes
will each have its well-planned classroom ; and there
will be an intermediate and senior assembly room,
possibly divisible into two, which might also serve
as chapel for the mid-week church service and other
smaller assemblies. Rooms of adequate size for the
adult classes and for the training class and other
classes of the young people's department will also be
provided.
166 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
Work in each of these schoolrooms will be given
full time and freedom from distraction. This will
be architecturally encouraged by wide lobbies, easy
stairs and landings and convenient approaches from
the assembly rooms; by solid walls wherever prac-
ticable; by access from pupils' rear; by standard
lighting, heating, ventilation, bells and signals; by
cloak-rooms and toilets to insure comfort and con-
venience for all ages and in all weathers; and by a
well-planned service and cleaning equipment to en-
courage a maximum of good condition at a minimum
of labour and expense.
Equally careful provision will be made for the
auxiliary and overhead functions. The library, ex-
hibit and supply services will be adequately and cen-
trally housed. Secretaries, treasurers, supervisors
and other special workers will have desks, cabinets
and filing space, with guards against intrusion and
facilities for dealing with those they serve. The
principals of departments will have desks, book
shelving and other facilities for good educational
administration. The pastor will have his study, the
chorister his music room, the church secretary an
office equipped for duplicating, mailing, carding and
bulletin work, and the educational executive — direc-
tor and superintendent — an office and study worthy
of their joint responsibility. The building in short
will make for division of function, that every worker
in every place may be free at all times to give of
his best.
Bodies will be served by this building as well as
souls.
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 167
" Let us not always say
* Spite of this flesh to-day
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the
whole ! '
As the bird wings and sings.
Let us cry ' All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than
flesh helps soul ! ' "
Safety from the tragedy of fire will be studied in
walls, floors, stairs, doorways, storage, wiring and
approaches. Cleanliness and sanitation will be
thought of, freedom from eye-strain, dust and
odours, fresh and warm air, encouragement to
healthy and fascinating sports like bowling and
tennis, that the sexes can enjoy together and that
may satisfy in part the craving of youth for the
perilous dance. Full gymnasium equipment, with
basket-ball and swimming facilities, will be provided
when the way is clear to a non-competitive com-
munity relationship, and when a continuous, com-
petent and spiritually trustworthy leadership can be
assured.
The plant will facilitate the church's relationship
of hospitality to the community. Not primarily as
feeders to its own membership and welfare, but
rather as its ministry to need, rooms will be dedi-
cated by the church to mothers and babies, employed
boys and girls, workingmen, readers, new Americans
and other special classes in the community served.
When the church, forgetting its self-interest and
catching the full spirit of its Master, builds thus to
serve, the answering love, gifts and devotion will in
due time vindicate its leaders' faith.
168 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
Every great building embodies and visualizes a
great idea. The formative and unifying idea of this
building will be aspiration. That life is more than
meat, that service is better than gain, that the on-
coming generation must distance their fathers in
religion no less than in culture and comfort, progress
and speed, that the world shall be more brotherly,
that earth shall grow nearer to heaven, and that
Christ shall have a temple fit for His ministry to men
and His communion with the Father, — such is the
message that our building and its equipment will
carry to the sons of men.
Assignments
1. Why begin work with rooms as they are?
2. Why not so continue ?
3a. Illustrate from experience, if you can, the
limitations of current church-school housing.
3b. What gain comes by making alterations?
What loss ?
4b. ( I ) How has architecture caused us to make
much of our school's " opening exercises " ? (2)
How has it limited the size of our classes ?
4c. What must the leader plan before he can
wisely plan his new building?
5a. What will his plant include?
5b. What must be his requirement as to each part
of this plant?
5c. (i) What is meant by the load- factor? (2)
On a scale of 100 half-hours a week, what is the load-
factor of your church auditorium? (3). What is
the average load-factor of all the rooms? (4) What
BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 169
gain in raising the load-factor? (5) What possible
loss?
5d. How might the plant be efficient as to every
part and yet fail as a whole ?
6. Mention and briefly explain some of the new
features that a modern church-school plant should
provide for.
7a. How should the leader, having begun to get
his vision of the new plant, start the work of making
it a reality?
7b. What case must he prove ?
7c. (i) Why not start to draw plans? (2) What
would be a better way? (3) What consultations
should be had ?
7d. How may the people be interested and their
help secured?
8a. What standard for church-plant measurement
is now available ?
8b. How is it arranged?
8c. (i) How should it be applied? (2) Of what
help would it be to a committee working out a new
plan?
9. (i) With special reference to your own field,
note those points of the " vision " that you count su-
perfluous or unwise. (2) Which points seem espe-
cially desirable? (3) What would you add?
VIII
TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP SERVICE
1. The Master Task.
High and exacting is every one of the tasks that
make up the responsibihty of the church-school ad-
ministrator. But when we take the school as a per-
manent institution, and think of its possible service
and its inevitable needs for the years ahead, one ad-
ministrative duty stands out as chief of all. The
leader must train his workers and his oncoming ca-
dets for the continuance, enlargement and improve-
ment of all that is now being done. It is great to
labour well to-day. It is greater to insure that better
work shall be done by those that enter into our la-
bours. The administrator's master task is training
for leadership service in the church school.
2. The Size of the Need.
Provision must certainly be made for training "both
the present force of officers and teachers and those
who will be needed as their successors. What pro-
vision? How large is the need which the training
service of the church school must arrange to fill ?
(a) Vacancies and Losses. — It is exhilarating to
open the session of a well-organized church school,
every class with its earnest teacher and every office
170
TEAINING FOR LEADEESHIP 171
with its working officer. But one year's life in most
of our American communities will see a fourth, a
third or even a half of these places either vacant or
filled with a newly found worker. And when we or-
ganize our training class of teacher-candidates, how
many of those who enrol and start with the class will
drop out before graduation or fail for any one of
many reasons to report for assignment ?
(&) General Progress. — But during this same
year of recruiting, the educational world has gone
forward. Higher ideals have been visioned, stand-
ards of service raised. The pupils have advanced in
their expectations. The community life has ad-
vanced in the calls it makes on our graduates for
service, and also in the variety and insidiousness of
its temptations to evil. We must be doing better
work than a year ago, or we are losing ground.
(c) Overtaking the Deficit. — Nor are our Sunday
schools yet doing their allotted share of the com-
munity's task of education in religion. Every can-
vass shows a large percentage of the Protestant chil-
dren of school age, to say nothing of the adults, out-
side the church school. We can reform this situa-
tion only by gaining ground steadily from year to
year. The only effective way to make inroads on the
mass of the unreached is to make new places in our
working force and then go after the outsiders. This
means still another call for new workers.
(d) Completing the Course. — One period a week,
whether taken at the regular church-school hour or
on a night of the week, is all the training time we are
usually able to command; and in most fields forty
172 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
weeks is the limit of a possible training-course year.
It is the judgment of our leaders that 120 lessons is
the least number required to cover the instruction
that every church-school worker should receive. If
then we can fix the number of candidates whom we
should enrol each year, in order to be ready to fill
every vacancy and keep the average quality of the
work improving, we must multiply this by three to
provide for the three years of the standard training
course.
(e) A Going School — In the light of these obvi-
ous and inescapable needs, how can we longer depend
on past customs and limits of investment and effort
to provide us with an adequate system of leadership
training? And until we are so provided, can we
properly call our school " a going concern " ? In
many sections the Sunday schools are showing signs
of spiritual and educational anaemia. They barely
hold their own. They dare not adopt aggressive
modern methods, for lack of leaders among their
number. In the rural districts they frequently, on
slight provocation, give up the struggle and cease to
meet. Need we look further for the reason ? In the
day of their apparent prosperity they neglected to
provide for their own perpetuation and increase.
Now they are paying the penalty ; and the children
are bearing the first of the long train of losses that
come with the breakdown in the processes of relig-
ious education.
What system of training, then, will make a pres-
ently successful church school reasonably sure of its
future ?
TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP 173
3. Undergraduate Training.
(a) From the Beginning. — The whole curriculum
should be developed with a view to the place it will
have in the training of future leaders and teachers in
home, church and school. No point can be set where
the element of training for teaching and official serv-
ice shall begin. The baby on the cradle roll, in the
mind of the wise church-school planner, is due to
receive some lessons that will fit him for better serv-
ice some day as a religious teacher. The lessons
taught the little child, bearing on his fundamental
traits of character and the quality of his religion,
will some day contribute to his teaching efficiency;
and for lack of just such lessons some of our present
teachers are inefficient as soul-leaders to-day. It
would be reason enough for graded lessons in the
church school that through a properly graded course
we contribute, through the work of every grade, to
the adequacy of the equipment of our future teaching
supply.
(b) Junior Training. — With the junior grades,
fourth to sixth, ages nine to eleven, our training pur-
pose begins to take definite and visible form. Train-
ing elements in a junior church-school curriculum
may properly include :
( 1 ) Possession of a Bible ; memorizing of classi-
fied list of Bible books; association of book names
with included stories and memorized material ; daily
use of Bible in home readings; practice in reference-
finding.
(2) A fairly full cycle of the great stories and
174 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMEHSTEATION
narratives of the Bible, effectively presented and re-
produced.
(3) Simple Bible map study; including Palestine
as a whole, its topography, contour and main loca-
tions; detail of story backgrounds, as the plain of
Esdraelon, the western slope of Judah, Jerusalem and
vicinity, the Sea of Galilee, etc. ; Sinai and Palestine ;
sketch maps of the Old and New Testament worlds.
(4) Memorizing of selected Bible passages for
worship and religious expression.
(5) Parallel and additional stories and narratives
from missionary history and adventure.
In the best printed treatments of the International
and other graded lesson systems substantially all of
this matter is included now. It is not easy to cover
it all under the limitations of an ordinary church
school. A few schools succeed in doing so; and
their junior graduates enter the intermediate de-
partment with a grip on the basic features of Bible
knowledge and an appreciation of Bible values be-
yond what the ordinary adult church member enjoys.
(c) Intermediate and Senior Training. — Present
graded courses for the six intermediate and senior
years (grades seven to twelve) contain, year for
year, less of drill material and memory work than
does the junior course. Adolescent interest in life
demands the full available lesson period for the study
and discussion of the character, topic or story as-
signed for the day. 'Adolescent independence of au-
thority and suggestion, with the heavy program of
school work, social engagements, community organi-
zations and uncorrelated church work under club,
band and society leadership, makes it no easy matter
TEAINING FOE LEADERSHIP 175
to add drill work of any kind to the church-school
lesson. When we are able to command even one addi-
tional lesson period a week, with a corresponding pe-
riod for supervised study, advanced map work and
other information lessons may be given, leading to a
mental organization of the outlines of Biblical his-
tory and the contents of the more important books,
and to a great extension of acquaintance with the
literature of missions and social service and the facts
of church history.
More significant for the prospective religious
teacher, however, even than these desired attain-
ments, are the present actual results secured by good
teaching of the curriculum for these six grades. In
the biographical studies which now predominate the
pupil is given the key to the Bible as a book of life.
Its men and women are made real to him. The les-
sons of their lives are expressed for him not only in
verbal generalizations but in applications to his own
growing ideal of manhood or womanhood. For his
present spiritual need he gains a vision of the true
values of life ; and for his future use as a teacher he
gains an appreciation of the true values of the Bible
and of many illustrative and parallel lives from other
centuries of time. The requirement that every
teacher shall be an intelligent Christian, able to dis-
cuss and defend his faith as well as to profess it and
to maintain and apply his code of ethics and religious
observance, is provided for in the senior studies on
the life of Christ and the meaning of church member-
ship and the following of Jesus as Lord. Most of
the practical problems that confront the adolescent in
176 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
his personal and social living are also faced and sym-
pathetically considered in the lesson courses for the
senior years.
(rf) Entrance Requirements Fulfilled. — Comple-
tion of twelfth-grade study, at the average age of
seventeen or eighteen, thus fully prepares the
teacher-candidate for entrance on advanced elective
studies, which in his case will look forward to quali-
fied teaching service. Completion of even the full
junior course will amply cover many of the Bible and
map lessons of the old-time Sunday-school normal
text-book; and the addition of the intermediate
courses will give an appreciation of the Bible that will
make all subsequent Bible study intelligent and inter-
esting. It is, therefore, a reasonable feature of a
church-school training system to require a definite
covering of graded studies, or an examination to
show equivalent preparation, before the candidate is
admitted to the training class or allowed with the
school's approval and support to matriculate in the
community training school. The standard can be set
low and advanced grade by grade as progress may
warrant.
Normal studies, of course, can be and usually are
entered on in the average Sunday school with no
such stipulation. The very idea of insisting on any
entrance qualification seems seldom to occur. Yet
what college or technical school would think of open-
ing its courses to matriculants without raising the
issue of what they have studied and may now be
trusted to know ?
Two of the customary obstacles to the starting of a
TEAtNING FOR LEADEESHIP 177
local training class are the hardness and unfamiHarity
of the studies and the lack of interest in the project
on the part of the young people whom we desire to
enrol. Therefore, it is argued, we should not add to
these difficulties by so much as mentioning that candi-
dates for the training class shall be required to know
anything or to have taken studies of any prescribed
grade. Is this reasoning sound? By making mem-
bership in the training class an evidence of standing
and acceptance shall we make it more or less desir-
able? By stressing in advance the need of honest
Bible study and fulfillment of graded requirements in
order to qualify for entrance on these higher studies,
shall we help or hinder the work all along the line?
Under such a policy, will the appetite for real studies
and worth-while masteries languish or grow? And
without a large and well-organized " apperceptive
mass " of preparatory knowledge as the teacher-
trainer's working capital, can we really fit any one to
teach religion?
Graded studies, therefore, should be counted
among other things as a necessary and natural prepa-
ration for normal studies in the church and the com-
munity system of religious teaching. Courses in
teacher-training and officer-training should fit and
follow the higher graded courses and should be reck-
oned as a regular though an elective portion of the
school's curriculum. Admission to such normal
classes should be handled as the highest honour to
which a faithful pupil may aspire; and the require-
ments, once set, should be sustained by real tests and
unflinching exclusion of the unfit.
178 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
4. The Training Curriculum.
What, now, shall be the form and content of the
standard course of studies by which, in a modern
church school, the properly prepared candidates for
official and teaching positions shall be fitted for effi-
cient performance of these high tasks ?
(a) The One-Year Manual. — For young people
who have been fragmentarily taught under the uni-
form lesson system or where the working ideals of
graded lesson instruction have not been reached, and
particularly for mature students eager for knowledge
but rusty in their habits of study, the most acceptable
course of study has been that of the one-year manual
or drill-book, with a few crisp outline studies on each
of those bodies of information which, it is held, every
good Sunday-school teacher ought to possess. This
form of instruction came in with the uniform lessons,
was perfected in the annual classes of the Chautau-
qua Assembly under the lead of John H. Vincent and
his successors, and is exemplified in Hurlbut's
Teacher Training Lessons and many other manuals
of the same type. From 1908 to 1917 it formed the
basis of the International " First Standard Course."
Of its popularity and the practicability of using it in
gathering, holding and graduating a class under un-
favourable educational conditions there can be no
question.
{h) A Superseded Type. — But in changing from
a uniform to a graded lesson basis the church-school
constituency has also changed its needs for a normal
curriculum. Candidates must now train for real
teaching work, rather than for a set of hortatory con-
TEAINING FOE LEADERSHIP 179
versations on a dozen Bible verses each Sunday.
They must speciaHze in studies preparatory to service
in a particular department. Each topic in the course
must be so filled with content that it shall be under-
stood and assimilated in detail and not merely memo-
rized in outline ; which means that the course must be
several years long. The undergraduate studies of
the graded lesson course are coming more and more
to be found in use in our Sunday schools, with con-
sequent better preparation of candidates for normal
study. These fundamental changes in the situation
make the Hurlbut type of manual an outgrown insti-
tution, except where the traditions of the uniform
lesson continue to prevail and the leaders are satisfied
to perpetuate them.
But deeper than these changes of situation is the
shift in the educational center of gravity from the
Bible to the child. Once v/e taught the Bible for its
own sake. Now we see that it was " written for our
learning," and that, precious as its values are, they
are not to be compared with the values presented by
the children whose lives we seek with its help to
guide and form.' The child, therefore, takes the
place of the Bible as the primary subject of our
study.
(c) The Three-Year Standard Course. — The old-
style manuals all began with the Bible, Into forty or
fifty short lessons, complete in themselves and leading
up to no subsequent studies, they aimed to pack the
rudiments of Old and New Testament outlines, Bible
' See also what is said as to logical aiid psychologic aims,
Chapter V, Sec 4*
180 CHUKCH-SCHOOL ADMIlillSTEATION
geography and institutions, child nature, methods of
teaching and the Sunday school. The eagerly antici-
pated outcome of the course was a teacher-training
diploma and the status of an alumnus at the annual
teacher-training banquet or rally.
Following a vigorous attack on this method and its
educational results, made by Professor Walter S.
Athearn at the Fourteenth International Sunda}^-
school Convention, Chicago, 1914, the denominational
leaders of religious education began a carefiil study
of the problem of normal curricula. In 191 7 a new
standard course of teacher-trainh.g studies was com-
pleted by the Sunday-school Council and was jointly
approved by them and by the International Sunday-
school Association. In distinction from the " first "
and " advanced " courses, which it superseded, it pro-
vided for:
(i) Three years of study, when pursued at the
rate of one 1^- 1 a week for forty weeks a year; a
total of 123 lessons.
(2) The course to be divided into twelve units of
ten or more lessons each; four units to constitute a
year's work.
(3) The material of the course to be selected pri-
marily for its training value ; information as such
being as far as possible left for graded studies to
supply.
(4) The first four units to comprise the studies
of greatest general value to all kinds of church-school
workers ; so that those pursuing the course for only
one year might get the greatest possible help for their
future work.
(5) The Bible material in the first year's lessons
to be such as is used in classes of every age.
TEAINING FOE LEADEESHIP 181
(6) The first eight units to be studied by the
whole class.
(7) The last four units, comprising the third
year's work, to be separate for each main specialty of
church-school service ; a different text or set of texts
for each specialty being therefore required.
(8) Certificates to be granted on completion of
any unit or year; a diploma on completion of the full
course.
The general titles of the eight units of the united
two-year course under this plan, as approved by the
Council in 1916 and 1917, are:
First Year: (i) The Pupil; (2) The Teacher;
(3) Significance and Teaching Values of the Life of
Christ; (4) The Sunday School.
Second Year: (5) Significance and Teaching
Values of the Old Testament; (6) Significance and
Teaching Values of the New Testament (other than
the Life of Christ) ; (7) The Message of the Chris-
tian Religion; (8) How to Train the Devotional Life.
Under these titles, variously modified, and under
the five sets of titles also adopted by the Council for
the five lines of third-year specialization recognized
in 1917,' many text-books have since been issued;
concerning which the administrator will naturally in-
quire of his denominational headquarters, comparing
what is there recommended with other texts by differ-
ent authors, to find that which will on the whole best
meet the needs of his local work.
(d) Preliminary Courses. — So unready is the
North American field as a whole for the full program
of three-year studies thus outlined, that thousands of
^ See Appendix C.
182 CHUEOH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
workers still cling to the older and simpler text-book
form. For many years we shall still have some
young persons and many adults who would gladly
take training studies for church-school teaching, but
who lack preparation to fit them for satisfactorily
pursuing the standard course.
If confronted with such a need, the administrator,
instead of lowering his standards of entrance and
continuance on his regular graded three-year course
of training, should organize a preparatory class. The
studies of this class will be mainly on the Bible.
They may be frankly informational in content and
aim. The old-line normal manual will not answer
for this work ; but numerous useful texts have been
published which may be used to gain a general view
of the Bible contents, an outline of Bible history and
an introduction to the appreciation of its literary,
ethical and religious values. Treatises of this sort,
written for this purpose, are much to be desired.
5. Supervised Substitution.
Qualification as a teacher implies experience along
with knowledge and good-will. The laws of peda-
gogy are as dead as the formulas of trigonometry
until we have applied them to living cases, used them
in overcoming actual difficulties and so made them
part of ourselves. All good normal training, there-
fore, involves a certain amount of practice teaching.
(a) No Premature Interruptions. — The training
class is never to be used by the improvident superin-
tendent as a hunting-ground for emergency substi-
tutes. For at least the first term, and preferably for
TEAINING FOE LEADEESHIP 183
the first year, the students should go on with their
lessors without distraction or break. To call
them out during this period is to disregard and vio-
late the conditions of successful training.
But when the interested student has learned the
characteristics of childhood at different ages and the
elementary rules of good lesson-making, and has had
these applied to some of the lessons in the graded
course, he will want to try his own hand at the proc-
ess. It will then be good training to afford him a
chance to do so.
(b) Lower-Grade Departmental Assignments. —
In the lower departments, as we have seen,* the de-
partment principal does most of the hour's work and
is herself a preceptor to her teachers and assistants.
Under these conditions, the candidate for future
service in any one of these departments may be by
special arrangement detailed for a month as extra
assistant or substitute teacher. On completion of
this period the pupil will resume her place in the
training class and submit a report of her experience
and observation for discussion and criticism. One
or more of such temporary assistants may thus be
furnished monthly throughout the year ; and the prin-
cipal concerned will organize her permanent force ac-
cordingly. The missed training lessons will have to
be studied week by week and the recitation work
made up with special help from the training teacher.
(c) In the Upper-Grade Classes. — For those who
are to teach upper classes, single Sunday assignments
will be the rule. Arrangements may be made — per-
' Chapter IV, 3a.
184 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
haps at the monthly workers' conferences — to relieve
certain teachers of their classes for certain Sundays
two or three weeks ahead; and for these and other
expected vacancies the training teacher will prepare
pupil-assignments. The pupil-teacher is to work up
the lesson with care, if possible after consultation
with the regular teacher, and is to submit his plan to
his preceptor. This is needful not only for his good,
but to make the lesson, for the pupils' sake, as effect-
ive as possible. After teaching, he is to report his
experience in class for the usual discussion and sug-
gestions by fellow-pupils and teacher.
(d) Other Opportunities. — In addition to these
outlets for pedagogic expressive activity, the pupil-
teachers, especially in the second year and later,
should be encouraged to seek opportunities to teach
wherever they can be found. Groups of children can
be gathered for story-telling; service can often be
given in a mission school at some other hour on Sun-
day ; or the school can develop its extension service as
a branch of the home department and open one or
more home classes for weekly visit and instruction in
outlying sections of the parish ; the training students
acting as teachers. The candidates for service as
church-school officers may find their best fields for
practice in these out-station appointments, including
the supervision of the home classes. A training su-
pervisor whose students are eager for such oppor-
tunities rather than for diploma credits is a success.
6. The Training Department.
(a) Its Scope. — The real training curriculum, as
TEAININQ FOE LEADERSHIP 185
we saw in Section 3, reaches into every grade of the
school. Similarly, every officer and teacher should
be a student under training. The administrator's
aim should be to make every position in the school
force a continuous course of training for better and
higher service.
The traveling teacher, attached to an unpromoted
class/ has no chance to accumulate experience vi^ith a
certain grade and grow proficient through repeated
effort. Nor can one who teaches a revolving course
of Bible lessons gather a store of recitation material
for use when covering the same course with a new set
of pupils. But the department faculty member can
do both these things ; and so his place in the graded
church school is itself a training course. Every year
of his experience adds to his value as a teacher.
The scope of the training department will therefore
embrace everything in the school that contributes to
proficiency in service. The training leader's advice,
suggestions and criticism in this direction should al-
ways be made welcome. If the secretary is handling
his assistants as mere drudges, never giving them a
chance to work out some problem or acquire some
new experience, his function as a trainer should be
called to his attention. If the graded studies in one
department are a failure, the training leader should
bring up the issue if the superintendent or the direc-
tor does not.
The assignment of pupil-teachers as apprentice
helpers and supervised substitutes will give the train-
ing leader a further relationship to the work in all
' See Chapter IV. 2.
186 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
departments. Tact, therefore, no less than courage
and skill, will be a requisite, if the training service is
to be developed to the full.
The work will further extend to all the forms of
extra-school training discussed in Section 7, below.
(b) Its Leader. — Service to the extent and of the
quality thus indicated is obviously necessary, if this
master-task of the administration is to be adequately
discharged. Equally obvious is it that the fields
where such service can be had on our usual volunteer
basis will be few and far between.
Here, then, is the point where the far-seeing ad-
ministrator may hope with least friction and speediest
success to begin the inevitable movement of our
church-school system from a wholly voluntary to a
partially professional basis. The employment of a
director of education is a church matter, of a class
with the calling of a pastor. The securing of a com-
petent head for the training department is a responsi-
bility of the church school.
The need of such a worker and the scope of his or
her duties should be explained to the workers' coun-
cil. A vote should then be taken to fill the place
when the way is clear. A limit of salary may be set
and a committee appointed to find the man or woman
and the money. Until the church is ready to add this
part-time salary to its educational budget, the cost
will have to be covered by a special subscription.
The work might form part of the duties of the
director; but it is far better placed in the hands of
one who has no other task in the school. A Qiristian
school teacher or principal, who will accept this io
TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP 187
place of night-school work under his board of educa-
tion, would be the likeliest selection. But the com-
munity might furnish some better choice.
(c) Its Members and Methods. — In a small
school the trainer will organize one class of young
people and carry it over two years of class work, then
seeking places for the students in their chosen de-
partments, where they may pursue their studies for
the third year by text-book study and practice under
tutorial supervision. Where the school is larger, as-
sistant trainers must be found, so that a fresh class
may be launched each year. With students doing
third-year work under supervision, the trainer or an
assistant should be free of class work during the les-
son hour, so as to be able to visit students at work for
criticism and suggestion. The second-year students
doing supervised substitution should likewise have
the help of a critic-teacher whenever this can be fur-
nished.
The members of the department should be encour-
aged to organize, to develop their social life as fel-
low-students, to wear a badge and to look forward
to the honours of graduation and entrance on the
status of an accredited graduate of the training
course.
(d) Equipment. — A room or rooms of adequate
size, furnished with student armchairs, ample black-
board space, library shelving and a teacher's desk, is
clearly needful, if the training classes are to be kept
up to purposeful work. The room must be closed
from sight and sound of other departments, kept
clear of interruptions from visitors and officials and
188 CHUECH-SCHOOL AD]\nNISTRATION
made available for week-day work whenever so
needed. Note-books, paper and other supplies should
be furnished, and the department's library kept
fairly up to date. As most of the graduates will
serve the church freely, the least it can do is to be
generous in recognizing and meeting the department's
requirements for efficient service.
7. Training Outside the School.
(a) Headquarters Leadership. — The church school
at its best will need and should use help from the
general body of church-school workers, denomina-
tional and territorial.
From the educational headquarters of its church
or denomination the school's training department is
due to receive its approved text-books, the enrol-
ment, examination and grading of its students and
the general supervision of the training-class work,
with much else of suggestion and supply. Some of
the denominations conduct field institutes and em-
ploy educational representatives whose correspond-
ence and occasional visits to the churches may prove
to be the starting-point of effective local organization.
Wherever this denominational service is unavail-
able or inapplicable, as in the case of a church of a
small denomination, a federated church, a union
school or a community class formed by joint action
of neighbouring churches, the leadership of the state
association headquarters may be invoked for a simi-
lar service. The conventions and institutes held by
the state, county and city associations are likewise
fruitful sources of educational inspiration to the
TEAINING FOR LEADERSHIP 189
schools represented; especially where the larger and
more progressive churches and church schools give
to the united w^ork their active and liberal support.
All standard training-class work should be promptly
reported to the proper officials both of the denomina-
tion and of the associated work.
(b) The Community Training School. — Wherever
population and educational interest make possible, the
training department of the church school should re-
ceive and utilize the immense assistance of a com-
munity training school. In the enterprise of starting
and maintaining such a school, such a church school
as this book has been describing will be an active
partner.
In a community training school run on the Inter-
national standard there are held each night two sets
of lectures or classes, with an assembly period before
or between. The school meets on one night a week
for at least twenty nights a year. The work is di-
vided into two terms of ten or more weeks each.
The studies include thorough courses on the Bible, to
organize and deepen the workers' Bible knowledge;
courses in psychology and pedagogy; courses in the
practical methods of the several departments; and
courses on such topics as story-telling, map-making,
pageantry and dramatism in religious education, and
other specialties needed by particular workers.
These studies are planned and announced three
years at a time. This enables each student to elect
his course so as to cover in three years what he wants
to learn. At the end of the three years, or on suc-
cessful completion of six units of twenty or more
190 CHUECH SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
lessons each, the standard diploma is awarded to
those whose work has been satisfactory. It is usual
not to offer all the courses every year. In a properly
run community training school — or a school of re-
ligious education, as it is also called — each member
of the faculty is fully qualified to teach the courses
assigned him, and the texts used and classroom
standards maintained are those of a college; a high-
school training or its equivalent being presumed for
all students.
Where such a school is available — even if many
obstacles in the way of transportation and the shift-
ing of other engagements must be overcome — the
leader of the training department will unite with the
superintendent to secure the enrolment and regular
attendance of as many of the force as can possibl>
be induced to attend and work. The small registra-
tion fee and the cost of transportation will of course
be met by the school. The method courses for the
work of the several departments will aid the train-
ing teacher in getting his students over the ground
of the training-course specialization year.
(c) Summer Schools and Reading Courses. — In
thousands of communities, of course, the community
training school does not now seem a possibility.
From these fields, as well as from the more favoured
centers, selected workers may be sent by the church
to take a week's course in religious education at a
school of principles and methods. A number of
these week-long schools are held every summer.
The oldest and in some respects the most advanced
in educational development is that held at Asbury
TEAIKING FOR LEADERSHIP 191
Park, New Jersey, the first or second week in July.
The church school's denominational headquarters
will be able in the spring to supply information as
to these summer school opportunities; as will also
the office of the state association.
In the standard simimer school, as in the com-
munity training school, the studies are planned in a
three-year cycle. To unite the work of the three
years, reading courses are offered, which students
may pursue at home. By means of these courses,
frequently supplemented by correspondence with the
educational secretary at headquarters, the student is
enabled to utilize his regular service in class and de-
partment as practice work in his course and is fitted
for the higher studies of the second or third year.
Several of the denominational headquarters also offer
correspondence courses for individual training stu-
dents who live where an organized class and a teacher
cannot be maintained.
8. The Workers* Conference.
Not the least of the training facilities available to
the church school is to be found in a properly de-
veloped monthly conference of teachers, officers and
presidents of older classes. With the pastor as mod-
erator, to keep the program to time, a well-digested
docket of necessary business items despatched with-
out delay, and earnest periods of worship at the be-
ginning and conference on problems following the
business session, time in addition may regularly be
found for a half-hour's study of some vital topic in
method. On this topic, announced on a yearly cal-
192 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
endar, one of the principals or teachers or officers
may be asked to present a paper, to be followed by a
short discussion.
Nothing educates us like the expression of the
thought that is in us. One year of such meetings as
is here described may well bring up the force to a
new level of seriousness as to their work and its
claims and problems.
9. The Wider Outlook.
Divine grace, ministered through determination,
hard work, the pastor's sympathy, full cooperation
in the departments, the raising of a fund for paid
leadership and the finding of the right leader, may
enable the church school to develop its training func-
tion as is here described. What will the harvest be ?
(a) In the School. — Advance provision for need,
in the form of a waiting list of graduates ready in
each department for the next class vacancy, will be
the immediate end of our efforts. Several years of
steady progress should bring us approximately to
that condition. Automatically we shall thus fix a
higher rating for our teaching service and increase
the pressure for standard educational results. Some
of the teachers older in service will improve their
work ; others will resign. The pupils, especially those
of high school age, will respect our calls for attend-
ance and home study as they do not ordinarily respect
them now.
(b) In the Church. — If ours is a church school, it
should offer training for church as well as church-
scbool service. Home visitation, church and bencv-
TEAINING FOR LEADERSHIP 193
olent collecting and finance, leadership and service
in aid and missionary societies and church boards,
and service in the simpler forms of inter-church co-
operation, are among the method specialties that may
be offered as elective courses in the church school's
training curriculum. As this broadened service is felt
in the church life, through the incoming of trained
recruits for these needed services, the problem of
support for a work so manifestly profitable will be
sensibly lightened.
(c) Life Service. — Abundant experience shows
that when real training is anywhere given for volun-
tary and marginal Christian service, it stimulates
some of the students to the point of dedicating to
the work their whole hves. The Lord has need of
such workers ; and every year sees the need increase
and the prospect brighten of a living salary and a
standardized service awaiting the qualified worker.
Already we have the standardized profession of di-
rector of religious education and that of the deacon-
ess or trained church worker. Soon we shall in like
manner standardize that of the graded teacher of
religion, with its basis of church or community sup-
port.
It is high time that our church school should seri-
ously consider these coming needs. If we are to be
ready to meet them, the boys and girls concerned
should be under elementary training now, and every
likely recruit of older age should be encouraged to
train to the limit of present opportunity. Profes-
sional schools exist where a student in residence may
coD^lete the training begun at home. Departments
194 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
of religious education in Christian colleges are more
common than formerly and are doing better work.
If one in ten of our enrolled training students is led
to turn his eyes to the white field of religious educa-
tion as his life-call, will not that result alone make
all our efforts worth while ?
(d) Reciprocity. — It is American to move. Many
of those whom we seek thus to train for service in
our own church school and the homes of our parish
will in a few years, perhaps in a few months, go else-
where. What then? Is the effort to be counted
lost? Does not the strong school owe a debt to the
field at large akin to that which it seeks to pay in its
missionary offerings? Should we not rejoice to send
forth a stream of leaders who in some less fortunate
place may reproduce the standards and the atmos-
phere of the old school at home?
Mention was made at the outset of this chapter of
the drawback of transient workers. It is indeed a
discouraging feature of our work. But are we not
obligated in honour to give to the field at least as
much as the field sends back to us? When every
church school is doing its part in the service of train-
ing for Christian workers, the evil of transiency will
largely disappear.
Assignments
1. Why is training the master task of the church-
school administrator?
2. (i) What percentage of the pupil-members of
your school should be students in training? (2) In
calculating this, what should be taken into considera-
TEAJNING FOE LEADEESHIP 195
2e. How does lack of adequate training aifect
Sunday-school conditions generally?
3a. How does good elementary religious training
contribute to training for teaching service ?
3b, Name some of the training features of the
graded junior course.
3c. What contribution is made by the graded in-
termediate and senior studies?
3d. (i) Why is it reasonable to set up entrance
requirements for the school's training course? (2)
What obstacles will this help to remove ?
4a, b. Why is the one-year drill-book type of
teacher-training manual no longer standard ?
4c. Give some of the features of the present
standard outline plan for the training course.
4d. What preliminary study may this call for?
5a. Why should the superintendent in need of
substitutes let the training class alone?
5b. How may the students training for work with
children get contact with the work of their prospec-
tive grades?
5c. How may pupil-teaching in the upper grades
be handled ?
5d. What other chances for practice are avail-
able'
6a. How wide is the scope of the training de-
partment ?
6b. (i) What are the minimum qualifications es-
sential in a successful leader of the training depart-
ment? (2) How may such a leader be secured?
6c. How shall the training class be taught in the
S3>ecialized third year of the standard course?
196 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
6d. How would you build and equip the room or
rooms for a training department in your school ?
7a. (i) What help may be sought from the
school's denominational headquarters? (2) From
the headquarters of the state association?
7b. (i) What is a community training school?
(2) Does it supersede or stimulate local training
work? How? (3) What should be the relation of
the church school to its community training school?
(4) If none, what to the need for one?
7c. ( I ) What is a summer school, or " school of
principles and methods," for church-school workers?
(2) How does it complement the work of the com-
munity training school? (3) How can its work be
made continuous from year to year?
8. How can the school's monthly workers' con-
ference be made a training force ?
9. (i) Mention some of the results that a well
organized training department may be expected to
secure. (2) State if you can any such results that
have come to your attention.
IX
THE YEARLY PROGRAM
1. The Annual Goal.
(a) Not Sessions but Years. — Between the work
and the ideals of the old-line Sunday-school super-
intendent and those of a modern church school the
distinctions are many. One fundamental distinction
should be emphasized; especially as it is subject to
personal exceptions on both sides. The superinten-
dent of the earlier ideals was wont to make his plans
and do his work session by session. Modern ideals
demand that the executive shall make his plans by
the quarter, the season and the year.
The goal for next Sunday is not primarily a rec-
ord attendance and an inspiring session. Success to
this extent is surely desirable, providing it can be
attained without the sacrifice of higher values. The
true goal for next Sunday is rather the making of a
definite and standard contribution, in every class,
department and assembly, to the lesson-teaching and
character-shaping work undertaken for this school
year.
The year forms the natural unit of all school work.
While the school and the college emphasize terms
and semesters or half-years, it must be remembered
that they work twenty or thirty hours to the church
school's one. The church school should take pains
to punctuate its years one from the other, if this
punctuation is not already effected by the vacation
197
198 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
period. When this clear marking of the years has
been made, it will be possible to formulate and keep
in mind an annual educational goal.
(b) When Shall the Year Begin f — The educa-
tional year of the church school will naturally begin,
with the graded lesson courses, on the first Sunday
in October. No other date fits our American school
habits, to which all systems of graded lessons con-
form. This fixes Promotion Sunday, with its public
transfers of pupils, classes and teachers, on the last
Sunday of September; in order that all grades may
start with Lesson i on the following Sunday. An
earlier Sunday in September may be taken if more
convenient.
Four full terms of three months each is the ideal
to be striven for everywhere. But where attendance
runs low in the summer, or the school is closed al-
together, classes are frequently reorganized and pro-
motions made on Children's Day, the second Sunday
in June, or on some other Sunday of that month.
This then becomes the school's commencement day
for the year; the summer work if any being sepa-
rately planned for on a reduced scale, with fewer
workers and consolidated grades. It is then in order
to hold on the last Sunday of September a setting-up
day, in which the new roll of teachers is called over
and provision made for vacancies which have devel-
oped since June.
Whenever it may occur, the end of the school's
teaching year should be a high day, with formal an-
nouncements and the conferring of honours, and
.with such speaking and exercises as will lend dignity
THE TEAELY PEOGEAM 199
and interest for all grades to the completion of an-
other unit in each pupil's life-work of religious edu-
cation.
(c) A Goal for Every Work. — Back of the public
school's commencement lies a year of serious work,
the plans for which, in every class, grade and study,
were made at the beginning and followed up with
determination. Illness or absence of a teacher, dif-
ficulties with the heating plant, an epidemic and
quarantine — these were not placidly taken as full ex-
cuse for failure to keep work up to schedule. Sub-
stitutes were found; emergency measures were
adopted; the term was lengthened to make up for
lost time. The public school takes itself seriously.
When the church school does the same, its com-
mencement also will be a really momentous occasion.
The educational leader, therefore, must plan his
year of work, not only for the school in general but
for each department and class and for every empha-
sized specialty. He will do this, of course, through
the principals, supervisors and teachers concerned,
by calling on each to prepare and submit his state-
ment of plan for the coming year's work and results
expected therefrom. These drafts, after study in
committee and digestion into standard and simple
form, will be supplemented by the formulated goals
of the general officers and presented to the workers'
council for adoption and record; after which each
worker will take his carbon slip and keep it before
him throughout the year.*
*A detailed statement of such goals for a Sunday school
of fifty members, presumably in a rural neighbourhood, will
200 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMIKISTRAHON
No goal for any work, of course, can be more than
an estimate of what good work should accomplish
in that place within the unit period. No worker is
bound by the goal except as he himself accepts it as
his challenge. Each worker so accepting will pro-
ceed to pass on the challenge to his pupils or under-
workers and call on them to join in making the chal-
lenge good. The spirit in which these goals are pre-
sented, therefore, will have much to do with the suc-
cess of the effort. No goal should be set that earnest
effort by real workers cannot reach. But allowance
may be made for the factors of improvement in per-
sonal efficiency and in the cooperation and coordina-
tion of other lines of work ; so that the goal is higher
than Tan be reached unless these improvements are
secured.
2. Promotions.
(a) Remaking the Graded Roll. — ^The children are
constantly growing. If the graded structure of the
school is to remain and grow stronger year by year,
promotions are inevitable. These may take place
semi-annually with the very little children, every
three years in schools graded departmentally ^ and
annually in all other cases. The effective handling
of these promotions will constitute an important fea-
ture of the educational year,
he found in the author's " How to Run a Little Sunday
School," pp. 117-121. As arranged for a school of this type,
the statement covers the five heads of community uplift,
development of Christian character, Bible teaching, training
for service and self-perpetuation.
' Chapter III, 8t.
THE YEAELY PIIOGRAM 201
If the name of every pupil, with the grade to which
he belongs and the class in which he is now enrolled,
lies before the educational director in the school's
graded roll, it will be easy to make up the list of
those to be promoted from the third grade of one
department to the first grade of the next. Promo-
tions within the department will be equally clear. If
this roll has not been prepared or is uncertain, pro-
motions will give trouble and may lead to unpleasant
personal issues with pupils and parents. Suggestions
for making transfers of pupils earlier in the year, in
order to bring the graded roll and the roll by classes
into closer harmony, were given under Chapter I, 3,
above.
(b) The Policy of Na Demotions. — It is not well
to demote pupils in the church school for failure to
reach a standard set for lesson preparation and mas-
tery of graded studies. If in this or any other way
it is learned that the pupil properly belongs in an-
other and younger group, a transfer may be made;
but this should rather be done informally and earlier
in the year, as suggested in the reference just cited.
The information-content of the courses is important ;
but our dominant aim is spiritual, the growth of
character, the development of interest, ambition, en-
thusiasm, reverence, faith. Fear of demotion is of
no avail in the reaching of these ends. Moreover,
when a pupil fails to reach the standard it is some-
times his own fault; but the real trouble may lie at
home or with the teacher. Our policy should be to
give each class each year its full chance to receive
and profit by the school's instructioR, and al tit
202 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
year's end to move it along, that its members may be
properly grouped for the new year and that room
may be made for the others coming on.
(c) Promotion Day Suggestions. — With the policy
of no demotions should go an earnest effort in each
department to bring every pupil up to the line, with
the assignment of extra honour work for those able
to carry it. Credits should be given throughout the
year in the classes for work done, with monthly re-
ports to parents of attendance, lesson work finished
and other items as deemed vital. If this has been
done, it will be easier to insist on lost work being
made up before the pupil is ready to move on to the
next grade. Honour work, especially in the junior
department, is usually given public credit at com-
mencement in connection with the pupil's promotion.
Other suggestions for the conduct of Promotion
Day and for work during the year which will tend
to its success may be thus summarized :
(i) In the main school assembly, advertise the
grades during the year ; sometimes by dismissing one
grade after another, beginning with the higher grades,
sometimes by asking one grade to answer a question
or read a passage, and again by references to what a
particular grade is studying. This stimulates graded
ambition and encourages the pupils to look forward
to gaining a grade at promotion, even though at the
cost of changing teachers.
(2) In a large school only the names should be
read which are promoted from the roll of one de-
partment to that of the next ; with mention of
honours. In a small school it will be possible to read
the whole graded roll as it stands for the new year.
THE YEARLY PEOGRAM 203
(3) Promote from the top down. Announce first
those entering the young people's department from
the senior, then those intermediates who become
seniors, and so on, finishing with the cradle roll mem-
bers who have become beginners during the year.
(4) Handle each department differently. It is
easy to disgust the older pupils with " baby work."
In all cases let the pupils of the department to which
the promoted pupils go have a hand in the work of
welcoming them.
(5) Interesting programs have been prepared for
use by the principals of the juvenile departments on
Promotion Day. These will usually need pruning,
to keep the whole exercise within limits and allow of
the necessary general announcements. Give each
department its time allowance and see that it is ob-
served.
(6) In welcoming the new juniors from the pri-
mary department, the school should present each with
a small but clear-print Bible, American Standard
Version, suitably inscribed. This provides him with
his text-book for the work of the first year junior
lessons, standardizes the school's Bible supply, adver-
tises \he school to all his friends and takes the place
of the useless giving of Bibles at Christmas. Later,
as a senior, he will need a reference Bible ; not now.
(7) Before closing, each principal should have an
opportunity to explain to his department as to the
new courses which begin on the following Sunday.
The teachers will have received their pupil's and
teacher's books at least three Sundays before. The
best way to insure this opportunity will be to dis-
miss the departments to their separate rooms.
(8) Promotion Sunday should be clearly dis-
tinguished from Rally Day. The former is a family
affair of the school, to which guests may be invited,
but in which the school's educational needs have the
right of way. Rally Day is a public gathering of all
204 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
Sunday-school members and friends, old and new, to
emphasize the duty of regular attendance through-
out the year. It is best held several Sundays later.
The need for any such occasion, with its high-pres-
sure advertising, is a significant sign of our low edu-
cational status. Go-to-Sunday-school Day, empha-
sized in some fields, is a still more popular affair, be-
ing an appeal to the whole community. This should
come later still.
3. Appointments and Installations.
(a) The Principle. — Following the problem of
making up the new graded roll and carrying it into
effect through promotions will come the kindred
problem of the recasting of the teaching force. How
shall the administration set back the organization to
the form it had one year ago, improve and enlarge it
where advisable, fill every vacancy, strengthen every
weak place, locate each worker where he can do his
best for the school, and equip and inspire the whole
force for better service ?
In connection with the problems of upper-grade
teaching, the annual appointment of teachers has al-
ready been discussed.' The same method should be
used with the teaching and staff forces of all the de-
partments.
If the school is not already committed to the prin-
ciple that no class owns its teacher and no depart-
ment its principal or assistants, but that every mem-
ber of the teaching force is subject to appointment
where his service will be of greatest good to the
school, it should be led to that position and com-
' Chapter IV, 6c.
THE YEAELY PEOGRAM 205
mitted to it as a permanent policy. Every Methodist
minister is subject to the appointment of his con-
ference. Every Moravian minister takes his ordina-
tion subject to the right of his church to send him
anywhere, to a home field or to some lonely post on
the " far-flung battle line " of that heroic communion.
The church schools that have resolutely applied the
appointment principle, in place of the old notion
that we dare not interfere between a class and its
beloved teacher, have found it both workable and
popular. Wise management will of course take due
note of personal and class preferences and will meet
these as far as school interests will allow.
(b) Method of Application. — The general issue as
to annual appointments should be raised and settled,
with the mode of operation, early in the year. The
only open matter as commencement approaches will
then be the various personal applications of the prin-
ciple. Appointments should be announced as far
ahead of Promotion Sunday as the school's seasonal
calendar will permit, to allow the new appointees
time for advance study of their assigned lesson
courses. The resolutions by which the principle is
adopted should also indicate the authority that is to
make the appointments and when they are to be an-
nounced.
The following form of resolutions is suggested:
(i) Every divisional, departmental and class posi-
tion in the teaching force of this school, including
principalships, staff and assistant positions and teach-
ers' chairs, shall henceforth be filled by annual ap-
pointment.
206 CHUKCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
(2) Appointments to these positions shall be an-
nounced on the Sunday next before Promotion Sun-
day (on Commencement Day if that is held in June),
by the pastor, or in his absence by the superintendent.
(3) Appointments shall be made by a board of
appointments, consisting of the pastor, the director
of religious education, the superintendent, the di-
visional and departmental principals and the church
committee on religious education (or other central
educational authority).
(4) Each principal shall submit to the board his
recommendations for the positions of his department
and shall be consulted as to any changes in these
which the board may deem needful for the common
good. Temporary appointments and the filling of
vacancies arising during the year shall continue to
be made as heretofore provided. (If by principals,
so specify.)
(5) Principals, staff officers and teachers, when
newly appointed to the force, must first be confirmed
as eligible to appointment in the manner now pro-
vided. (Specify how.)
(6) No teacher shall be transferred with his or
her class to the next higher department, unless at the
request of the director of education and the prin-
cipals of both the departments concerned.
(7) Requests for the return of teachers or other
appointees to their former places may be considered
by the board only after the appointee has filled the
new place for at least two Sundays.
(8) Teachers and others left without appointment
shall remain on the roll of the workers' council as
reserves for vacancies and for service as substitutes
and on committees.
(c) Installations. — On Promotion Sunday if there
is time, or on the following Sunday, or, still better,
THE YEAELY PEOGRAM 207
at the pulpit service of the church on either of these
days, should be held a brief service of installation
for the offigers and members of the teaching force.
It is not desirable that this shall be elaborate and
"preachy"; nor is there need of a prepared form
other than such as any pastor should be able to write
for the school. The service will include an appro-
priate hymn; a roll-call of the principals and their
staffs, with the names of the teachers at the same
time or in a separate call ; the gathering of all at the
desk or pulpit as their names are called; suitable
brief Scriptural selections, with or without responses
provided to be made by the appointees; a pledge to
faithfulness; a verse or two of exhortation; and a
closing prayer and benediction.
4. The General Officers' Year.
(a) When Shall This Begin? — The school has a
business year as well as an educational year. This
also must be punctuated with care, that it may con-
stitute for each officer a definite trust, to be annually
reported on and its results compared with the goals
and carried to the records.
It is not necessary, and it is seldom desirable, that
the school's educational year and its business year
should agree. We begin our personal year on the
first of Januaiy, our business year whenever it suits
us to close our books, and our church year, in most
bodies, on the first of April or at Easter. It is with
this church year, rather than with the graded lesson
year^ that we should begin and close the official year
of the church's school of religion. If this comes in
208 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
April, a new administration will have no more time
than it needs to prepare for the opening of all depart-
ments on a standard scale of efficiency by the first
Sunday of October,
(b) Elections and Appointments. — Following the
principles already laid down as to official appoint-
ments/ the church, through its committee on re-
ligious education or its highest governing body, will
nominate the superintendent, assure itself informally
of his acceptability to the workers' council, and pre-
sent his name to that body for consideration and elec-
tion at its meeting next before the close of the
school's business year. The newly elected superin-
tendent, then or at the next meeting, will nominate
the members of his executive staff — associate, secre-
tary, chorister and librarian, — and the council in
like manner will elect them and receive and confirm
their appointments to the various subordinate posi-
tions.
Responsibility for making this process a means for
avoiding friction, eliminating inefficiency and secur-
ing each year a stronger and better organized corps
of administrative officers will rest with the chairman
of the workers' council, who is presumably the pas-
tor. He must see that opportunity is given for frank
questioning of the wisdom of any of these appoint-
ments, that due regard is had to the principle of pro-
motion for efficient service, and that each appointing
officer accepts full responsibility for the training and
faithfulness of his subordinates, and for the accept-
ance of any who may not be present when elected.
* Chapter II, 3c; 7.
THE YEAELY PEOGEAM 209
He will also enforce whatever rules the church may-
have as to the eligibility of new appointees.
(c) Installations. — On the first Sunday of the
school's administrative year, preferably in the pulpit
service, the new officers should be installed in the
same general manner as the teaching force, but with
the use of a varied selection of Scripture and song
and a different pledge and exhortation.
(d) Annual Reports. — Every officer in the super-
intendent's cabinet should make to him an annual re-
port, covering whatever items he may call for. These
should be in hand in time to enable the superintendent
to utilize them in the preparation of his report to the
church at its annual meeting. They should include
statistics of resource, operation and result, with such
facts as may show the value of the work and the
profitableness of the church's investments therein.
All reports should be in writing.
The treasurer's report, while properly made to the
workers' council as disbursing body of the school,
should be submitted in duplicate to the superintendent
with the other reports, as he will need the informa-
tion it contains. Reports of the department prin-
cipals and the other special departments, home,
teacher-training, etc., may also be called for, to show
what the school is now doing and what results of the
year's work have been noted so far.
Digesting these, with his own record of service,
into one clear, specific and carefully condensed story,
the superintendent will prepare the annual report of
the school. He will in this make mention of note-
>vorthy records of faithfulness in service and will
210 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMTNISTEATION
endeavour to voice the school's administrative ideals.
If the church has a director of education, he may
make a separate report or let the educational work
of the school be reported by the superintendent, as
may be mutually agreed on. Any officer's report may
be presented separately if the superintendent and his
advisers so agree. All these reports may vi^ell be
laid first before the workers' council for discussion,
amendment and approval, before presentation to the
church.
5. The Annual Budget.
Attached to the superintendent's annual report to
the church should be his budget of estimated needs
for the new year. This indeed should better be pre-
pared in time for previous consideration by the
church trustees or other authorities, that they may
be enabled to incorporate its total in their church
budget for submission to the meeting. The super-
intendent's report will then be a speech in defense of
the school's asking; and if the trustees have scaled
down his estimate, he will be in position to plead for
the original figure.
In preparing the budget, the experience of the
present year should first be carefully studied by
means of the treasurer's report, the file of bills pay-
able if any, stocks on hand, and other facts available.
Each officer and principal should then be consulted
and asked to submit his needs for the year ensuing.
A finance committee of the council may then digest
these, compare them with the offset resources and
with the giving power of the school, and make out
THE YEARLY PEOGEAM 211
the list of appropriations, to be confirmed or revised
in accordance with the action of the church at its
annual meeting.
In defending his budget before the trustees of the
church, the superintendent may, if he pleases, use the
weekly offerings of the school as a sHding scale with
which to adjust the financial weight of his proposal
to what the church will bear. It is manifest wisdom
educationally to train the pupils — all the pupils, not
merely those whose parents are church attendants
and contributors — to contribute to the support of the
church which sustains the school. Be the parish
never so wealthy and so interested in missions and
benevolences, the school should at least once a quar-
ter make an offering for the support of our church
and should understand what it is doing. If the
church is poor and needs all that the school can raise,
the figures may be reversed, with a missionary or
benevolent offering once a quarter; and between
these any proportion of Sundays may be taken that
will suit the situation. Then, with his offer already
ratified by council action, the superintendent may
challenge the church to take up the support of their
own school, promising in return that the school will
stand by the church, and that neither this year nor
in the future will the church be the loser by its pres-
ent generosity.
6. The Festival Calendar.
(a) Forestall Worry. — At certain seasons in our
community life, especially among the children, the
festival spirit is in the air. Woe to the superinten-
212 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
dent whom the advent of this spirit takes unawares !
To some leaders Christmas is a nightmare and a
year-long worry; to others it is a precious oppor-
''tunity. The way to the latter attitude is through a
year-long plan of festival preparations, with due re-
gard to educational principles of festival observance.
Some church schools follow the Christian year in
their observances. Others take the popular sequence
of Easter, Children's Day, Rally Day and Christmas ;
with Mothers' Day, Thanksgiving and other minor
festivals in between. Whichever we use, it is pos-
sible so to unite these with the weekly life of the
school that the whole shall form one educational,
spiritual and social enterprise, each part contributing
to the success of the other.
(b) Departmentalize. — Many of our Christmas
difficulties disappear automatically when the school is
handled by departments. Where the department
meets in its separate room, recognition of all but the
most significant festivals should be left with the de-
partment principal. The interests and habits of the
beginners and primary children are so distinct from
those of the older ones that a separate observance
by these of the social features of all festivals is en-
tirely in order. This is now the usual plan in the
larger schools.
Once a quarter, or at the major seasons of the
Christian year, the whole school should assemble on
Sunday for its united festival worship. The begin-
ners may march in with the others, take their part
in the program, and soon after retire to their room
for their own story and worship. This experience
THE YEARLY PROGEAM 213
of the visible unity of the school will persist in the
memories of even the smallest children until the next
festival and will render quite unnecessary that
weekly sacrifice of departmental separateness on
which some superintendents unfortunately still in-
sist.
(c) Use the Young Folks. — While the Sunday
festival observances are part of the year's educational
program, to be handled under the director's lead, with
the best efforts of superintendent and chorister to
make them spiritually effective, the week-day and
evening occasions are part of the social and recrea-
tional program. These, too, contribute to the edu-
cational program indirectly. Much of their potential
educational value is lost when the school fails to
make them as far as possible enterprises planned and
carried out by the young people.
Busy as the young folks are, they can generally
find time for real enterprises that appeal to them as
large and worth while, and in which they can be hap-
pily associated together. A young people's depart-
ment, or two classes working together, with the boys
and girls helping as needed and next time doing it
themselves, can with very little supervision from the
adult leaders " put over " a first-class Christmas en-
tertainment for the whole school, and will gain in
character and leadership power thereby. But they
must be given ample time for preparation, hearty co-
operation, sympathy and appreciation and a reason-
ably free hand.
(d) Use the Graded Work. — Each department
should be encouraged to take its turn in contributing
214 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
to the festival program. Instead of having some-
thing from each department every time, let the pri-
mary department favour the school with something
good this quarter, the juniors something better next
time, and so on. This may apply both to the Sun-
day observance and to the evening entertainment.
The aim set before the participants should be to make
the platform work as far as possible a sample or an
outgrowth of the matters it has learned or become
interested in. This cannot always be done; but
whenever it is done it should be especially com-
mended. Meaningless recitations given in parrot
fashion by single children, and didactic platitudes in
dialogue form, testify to the poverty of the depart-
ment's educational program.
At the outset of the quarter, in a junior or inter-
mediate department, the principal may designate
some of the work as festival material, to be dram-
atized, pictured in pageant or tableau form, or pre-
sented through selected essays or narratives, or a
jointly worked out exhibition of models and maps.
A platform map exercise, if well rehearsed, is al-
ways impressive. Where drill-work on the Bible
books has been done, it may be exhibited by ques-
tion and answer; some honour pupil acting as inter-
locutor. If the rest of the entertainment is bright
and snappy, an interlude of serious material, well
and strikingly presented, will heighten and not mar
the success of the show. The festival thus adds zest
to the lessons and aids in securing home study and
parental interest.
(e) Make the Music Count. — The Sunday festival
THE YEAELY PEOGEAM 216
observances may also be made to pay tribute to the
general progress of the school. The worship pro-
gram, instead of being accepted ready-made from
the missionary or Sunday-school headquarters of the
denomination or bought of a music house, should be
worked out by the leader and the chorister and
printed in outline for the use of school, participants
and congregation. Following the order of worship
should come the school's story of its quarter's work,
with honours and announcements. The festival thus
advertises the school, at less cost than is usually in-
curred by the use of purchased orders of service.
During the months preceding the festival, the
music needed for the program should be introduced
and sung in the weekly sessions of the school, with
special selections learned by the departments and per-
haps by a chorus or quartet. If a properly educational
hymnal is in use, it will be easy to select and learn
the hymns to be sung by the school. The responsive
reading can also be taken from the hymnal, or spe-
cially provided. Care should be taken not to infringe
copyright by reprinting copyrighted hymns without
permission. If the book supply is what it should be,
this will not be necessary.
In some schools a certain hymn is always sung at
Christmas as that school's Christmas hymn; and so
with other seasons. The associations thus established
remain through life and help to fix religion as a part
of character.
7. Picnics and Outings.
The Sunday-school picnic has a high historical
216 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
value. It is the testimony of our predecessors to
their belief in social fellowship and the physical side
of religious education. The recent developments in
organized class life and club activities for boys and
girls should never be suffered to overshadow the
great day when pastor, superintendent and other dig-
nitaries meet all ages and social classes on the play
level and show what they can do. It is a question
whether a man is fit to superintend a Sunday school
who does not enjoy the annual picnic and cannot
see wherein it may be made a means of grace.
Not all picnics, indeed, are entitled to such a rating.
The centrifugal forces of the occasion are strong.
Family and clique parties tend to get together, ignor-
ing the crowd. Young folks who should be think-
ing of others go off in squads, or two by two. The
burdens of the day are borne by the faithful few.
Against these tendencies there should be worked out
a plan of centralization that will distribute the re-
sponsibilities and keep the crowd attracted together
for at least half the day, leaving a reasonable amount
of free time for those desiring to organize their own
company. Here, as at the Christmas festival, the
young people should be challenged to take charge of
the social and athletic features on behalf of the school
as a whole.
Department picnics and outings have a special
value, bringing together as they do the children of
like age and their teachers and developing in the de-
partment the spirit of fellowship and team play. The
tasks of the graded lessons will not seem so hard to
accomplish, if asked for by teachers who can lead x|
THE YEAELY PBOOEAM 217
fine games and are willing to spend a fatiguing day
in giving pleasure to others. For a department with
no separate room, the department picnic or excursion
is an invaluable invigorator of department spirit.
But under all conditions, there is room in the sum-
mer's program for one general picnic or excursion
and another outing for every department and organ-
ized class.
8. The Ordering of Supplies.
In a well-managed church school every material
need will be fully met at all times. Year after year,
without breaks and need of explanations, teachers
and classes will receive the right text-books and pa-
pers on the right Sundays. Festival, financial and
secretarial supplies will arrive in time for scheduled
use. Hymnals and Bibles needing rebinding will
drop out of sight before loose pages are gone and
from time to time will reappear in new dress or be
replaced. Broken chairs and tables will be attended
to. Erasers and crayons will be found in good con-
dition where they belong. The little jolts that slow
down a school's educational efficiency will be fore-
stalled by rules, organization and adequate budget
provision for upkeep and renewal.
Traditionally, the secretary is purchasing agent for
the Sunday school. It certainly conduces to order
and system for all supplies to be ordered by one of-
ficer, except as may be provided for by giving the
department principals allowances for incidentals,
which should always be done. But back of the agent
should be a purchasing system, audited by the super-
218 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
intendent or his associate and operating under a few
simple rules, such as :
(i) Principals shall place with the secretary their
yearly orders for graded supplies not less than six
weeks before the first Sunday of the lesson year.
(Change number of weeks to fit time required for
sending orders and receiving shipments.)
(2) Changes in quantities desired shall be reported
to the secretary three weeks before the first Sunday
of each quarter.
(3) Supplies for principals and teachers, including
one each of teacher's book and pupil's book or paper
for grades covered, shall be delivered to departments
on the third Sunday before date of first lesson.
(4) Supplies for pupils shall be delivered on the
Sunday before date of first lesson.
(5) Principals shall retain full sets of the books
used in their departments.
(6) Teachers' books not purchased by teachers
shall be returned to the secretary (or librarian) at the
end of each quarter, together with all left-over pupils'
books.
(7) Before ordering new supplies, the secretary
shall ascertain how much of next quarter's needs can
be met out of stock on hand.
(8) All orders for graded supplies and for peri-
odicals shall first be approved by the director of edu-
cation and the superintendent (or associate acting as
comptroller of the budget).
(9) The librarian shall be responsible for the con-
dition of the hymnals, Bibles and library books. He
shall promptly remove from use all loose and dam-
aged books and shall hold classes responsible for
damage beyond ordinary wear and tear. He shall
from time to time, as needed, submit to the superin-
tendent proposals for rebinding or renewal of book
THE YEAELY PEOGEAM 219
supplies and for the purchase of new books for the
library.
(lo) The associate shall be responsible for the con-
dition of furniture, blackboards, maps, pictures and
similar equipment. Proposals of purchases of this
class of supplies shall be made to the superintendent
through him ; also proposals for repairs and replace-
ments as needed.
(ii) In the weekly handling and the periodic in-
spection and checking of supplies the officers con-
cerned shall encourage and organize the cooperation
of pupils, transferring to them so far as seems wise
the responsibility for the service.
(12) No bill for supplies shall be paid without the
superintendent's written approval ; and no bill ex-
ceeding the budget appropriation for the department
or item concerned shall be approved or paid without
the vote of the workers' council, which shall include
a transfer of credit to cover the expenditure so voted.
9. The Workers' Conference Calendar.
If the monthly workers' conference is to be made
something more than a perfunctory business meeting,
it must have a calendar of topics for the year. These
may properly be planned by a committee, the superin-
tendent assisting. The topics should be seasonal,
bringing up each month for study and discussion,
perhaps for action, whatever can most appropriately
be considered at that time. How to make the sum-
mer sessions successful, for instance, would be in
order for May, while there was still time during June
to act on the suggestions brought out in the discus-
sion. The calendar should be printed or posted on
the school's bulletin-board.
220 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
10. Finding Time for All This.
How shall the superintendent find in his busy week
the necessary time for all these items of preparation
and performance ?
(a) Fix a Routine. — The only way to do this is to
establish a weekly routine. Complete organization
saves labour, in that it relieves the superintendent of
much that he would otherwise himself have to do.
But it brings with it duties of inspection, consultation
and supervision; and to build the organization and
keep it up is itself a heavy labour. Besides the work
of the session hour, the leader must set himself a
series of preparatory tasks and must resolutely set
apart the time necessary for performing them.
The weekly work of the superintendent may be di-
vided into seven parts. We may call them his seven
hours ; but only the last need be an hour long, nor will
they necessarily come on the seven days of the week.
He is more likely to despatch the first three by Sun-
day night. The more fixed and unbroken the rou-
tine, the easier it will be to maintain it against inter-
ruption, and the freer the leader will be to put into
his seven hours whatever the changing needs of his
school may require.
(b) The Seven Hours. — As thus defined, the seven
hours will be :
(i) The Survey Hour. As soon as possible
after the platform hour the superintendent must ex-
amine the records of the day's work and determine
what they tell as to the condition of the school and
the conduct and performance of its members. Some
of these records he may be able to see during the
THE YEARLY PEOGEAM 221
lesson hour. Whatever records he needs as manager
to inspect he will arrange with the proper officials to
have put into his hands. He will provide for the
prompt return of these. He will train one of the
young people to act as his personal secretary, to make
up for him each week the bundle of exhibits he is to
carry home. Some of these records this secretary
will copy into the superintendent's note-book; others
he will put in his bag, while the chief is bidding
teachers and pupils farewell.
(2) The Follow-up Hour. The checking up of
records must be followed up by action. Members
must be made to feel that the leader is watching.
Telephone messages, short notes, personal words,
brief references from the desk, resolutions intro-
duced in council — these are some of the ways through
which contact can be had with the force. As each
department comes more and more under the full con-
trol of its principal, the superintendent's words to the
workers in that department will reach them through
their official head.
(3) The Constructive Hour. Early in the week,
before the urge of next Sunday's necessities is felt,
should regularly come an hour for dealing with work
beyond the next session. Only by the faithful main-
tenance of this hour can the element of progres-
siveness and readiness for new opportunity be devel-
oped in the church school. Dull sessions, diminish-
ing attendance and reliance on pins and other arti-
ficial devices for keeping up interest usually indicate
the absence of this hour from the leader's routine.
(4) The Study Hour. In this hour the superin-
tendent will make personal preparation for his own
work in the next session.
(5) The Hour of Adjustment. Somewhere, late
in the week, there must be a time for adjusting the
supposed perfection of next Sunday's arrangements
to the facts as reported by telephone or otherwise. A
222 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
reserve supply of teaching and leadership must al-
ways be within call, unless these worries are entirely
in another's hands.
(6) The Hour of Spiritual Preparation. The su-
perintendent is a leader of worship, a teacher and a
manager. He must handle a large company in one
crowded hour, with many distracting cares. He
must secure for his platform hour an educational
unity that shall impress lives and build character.
His week will surely be incomplete if it fails to in-
clude a time of waiting on God for the help of His
presence through the trying hour of the session.
(7) The Platform Hour. Coming as the outcome
of such a routine, the school's platform hour cannot
fail to make its due impression.
(c) A Constructive Program. — As a docket of
business for his constructive hour, the superintendent
may find help in this list :
(i) The Calendar. Write the dates of the Sun-
days for this and the next quarter, and against these
note events, seasons and topics that must be provided
for. Take up these dates for planning and arrange-
ment in the order of their difficulty and importance.
(2) Future Programs. Make a full plan for some
Sunday several weeks ahead, and enrich it with the
cooperation of others. The hand-to-mouth superin-
tendent cannot get people to read or sing or tell a
missionary story, because he knows they will not do
so on three days' notice.
(3) Next Meeting of the Workers' Council. In
addition to the discussion item on the program for the
year, each monthly meeting should have its well-
planned docket ; especially if the superintendent is to
run it from the floor, with the pastor as moderator.
The docket drafted, reminders to officers and com-
THE YEAELY PEOGRAM 223
mittees of the items due from them will naturally
follow.
(4) Committee Work. What are the council com-
mittees doing? Which one of them is waiting for
that set of instructions that the superintendent was to
draft when he had the time?
(5) Officers' Work. In his survey of reports the
superintendent no doubt saw some features that call
for permanent improvements and rearrangements.
One of these may now be worked out and turned over
to the party concerned.
(6) New Organization. Every step of progress
will reveal some new function to be provided for,
either by increasing the duties of a present officer or
by the establishment of a new office and the training
of a new worker.
(7) Community Relations. Not sectarianism or
selfishness, but simply lack of time in which to pay
attention to notices and to exchange civilities, is the
usual explanation of the isolation of a Sunday school
from the life of its Sunday-school community. No-
tices from the county secretary and other correspond-
ents should be laid by for careful attention in the
weekly planning hour. Plans for friendly visits with
other superintendents may be made at this time.
Assignments
la. What should be the leader's goal for next
Sunday ? ,
lb. When should your school's annual commence-
ment be held? Why then?
ic. (i) How may the church school each year set
its goal for every work? (2) What gain can you see
in a school's so doing?
2a. How does a well-kept graded roll help at pro-
motion time ?
224 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
2b. Why should no demoting of pupils be at-
tempted ?
2c. Mention some of the gains that would come
or have come to your school through a Promotion
Day held as suggested.
3a. Why is a school weak where every class owns
its teacher and every teacher his class ?
3b. What difficulties are met and overcome when
we secure in advance the adoption of a school law
governing all appointments?
3c. What should be the features of an effective
service for installing church-school teachers?
4a. With what other year should the business
year of the church school coincide ? Why ?
4b, c. How should the school's officers be elected
and installed?
4d. (i) To whom should the chorister make his
annual report? The treasurer? (2) How shall the
superintendent prepare his report, and to whom shall
it be submitted ?
5. (i) When and how should the annual budget
of church-school expense be drafted? (2) How
may the superintendent get its total accepted by the
church ?
6a. What festivals or special occasions does your
school annually observe?
6b. (i) How should festivals be departmental-
ized? (2) When, in your judgment, is it best for the
entire school to hold its festival together ?
6c. (i) Why lean on the young people in plan-
ning for festival observances? (2) Under what con-
ditions can this be done successfully?
THE TEAELY PEOGEAM 226
6d. What is gained when the graded lesson mate-
rial or other parts of the educational program are
drawn on in preparing the festival program ?
6e. How may the music of the regular sessions
and of the festivals be combined, to the advantage of
both?
7. Suggest ways by which the picnic may be made
to further the school's educational and spiritual plans.
8. What are the main features of a supply system
that will keep all classes, departments and lines fully
supplied each Sunday and all bills and charges cor-
rectly made and paid when due?
9. Make out a calendar for five successive
monthly meetings of the workers' conference in your
school.
10a. What is the secret of finding leadership
time?
lob. What are the seven hours or periods of the
superintendent's week of work for the school ?
IOC. Name a few items for which he needs the
time of the constructive hour.
THE SCHOOL'S RELIGION
1. A School of Religion.
What shall it profit a church school if it grow in
numbers and popularity, adopt every modern method,
listen to the last word in educational science, and fail
in causing its pupils to walk with God? How this
can be made the outcome of the work is the greatest
of the administrator's problems. Everything else is
but a step on the way.
(a) Education for Holiness. — The church school is
first of all a school of religion. Back of organiza-
tion, curriculum and method, the teaching of the
Bible and the work of conversion, is the objective of
holiness, the life conformed to the likeness of Christ
and in all its aspects dedicated to God. That every
pupil may grow in grace, the church keeps school.
Other objectives are mediate, steps on the way, means
of grace that have received approval. In making
much of them we do well. But the ultimate end is
religion.
(b) Education for Service. — Holiness comes to ex-
pression in love to God and love to man. That con-
ception of the religious life that seeks holiness in
solitude and separation from human society is untrue
to the example of Christ. He did seek solitude for
226
THE SCHOOL'S EELIGION 22T
communion with God; but He used the strength its
hours brought in better and fuller service to human-
ity. Our educational objective must be neither a
selfish individualistic seeking after salvation nor a
selfishly motivated satisfaction in having influence,
showing power for service and widening the circle of
our beneficiaries. It must rather be such a love for
God as will see Him in all His works and all His
children and will express itself in conduct and service
based on a spirit of good-will to all. It is thus, and
only thus, that service has a religious value.
(c) Graded Religion. — To say that our ultimate
end is religion is very far from saying that our ulti-
mate end is adult religion. That indeed was the
objective of most of the Christian nurture of fifty
years ago. No child was deemed " pious " who
could not tell his experience of sin and forgiveness in
the language of adult conversion. Thanks to the
vast revelations of child-study, the application of
psychological method to religion and our growth in
reverence for personality, we now see that every age
of life has its characteristic religious attitudes and
modes of expression, and that our ultimate objective
can be sought and approximately realized in the free
and natural religion of child, boy, youth and man.
Instead, therefore, of seeking to anticipate adult
religious experience in childhood, we should rather
labour that in each of the successive stages of imma-
turity the genuine religion of that stage may fully
appear. It will soon be outgrown and replaced, as
we hope, by the type of religion normal to the next
stage; and in due time the full-grown man will have
228 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINI9TEATION
his man's religion. The frog, as Dr. G. Stanley Hall
has reminded us, needs neither tail nor gills. What
he needs is to have had these when a tadpole. No
more does the tadpole need legs and lungs; if you
were to graft them on him he would smother and die.
Not the future but the present need of the child is
the law of the school.
2. Child Religion.
(a) Love and Obedience. — For the little child, re-
ligious education is largely concerned with the train-
ing of the emotions and the will. Our task is to lead
him to God as his loving Father and to establish him
as a happy and confident child of God. This in-
volves the religious interpretation of the facts of life
as the little child meets them; of which the classic
illustration is Jesus' nature lessons on the Father's
care. As sin, estrangement and reconciliation
through forgiveness are among the facts of the child's
experience in the home, they can be used to teach
corresponding facts in our relation with God. Christ
as the Friend of sinners and the Helper of all in need
should also be introduced. The natural response of
gratitude and desire to please the loving Father may
easily be evoked ; and its expression in obedient con-
duct and impulses of self-control will be the child's
way of showing his religion.
(6) Child-Lessons in Religion. — In the standard
graded courses of lesson stories for the beginners'
and primary departments, with their accompanying
pictures, simple texts and song verses, full provision
is made for the covering of this ground and a great
THE SCHOOL'S KELIGION 229
deal more. When cooperation from the homes can
also be secured, and when the teachers have caught
the spirit of their assigned tasks and have made the
work of the courses thoroughly their own, and when
rooms and equipment and pictures make good teach-
ing easy, the five years of church-school teaching that
lead up to the child's ninth year, even though but for
an hour each Sunday, are religious education indeed;
and their influence on character and the later relig-
ious experience is profound.
(c) The Administrator's Part. — It is therefore the
part of the church-school administration, in defense
of the sacred rights of childhood to a good start in re-
ligious education, to face the question of whether or
not courses as thus outlined are actually being given,
No substitute can take the place of a real teaching of
real religion. Are there in this church school certain
unsatisfactory but well-entrenched conditions, which
no one has had the courage to disturb ? Are the chil-
dren in consequence being fed, year after year, on
religious husks, in the shape of words without child-
significance, or false and futile attempts to adapt
kindergarten material without understanding of the
kindergarten spirit ? Then no educational excellence
in the upper grades will later give that depth of re-
ligious feeling of which the foundation must be laid
in the heart of the little child.
(d) Junior Religion. — To the junior child religion
is first and last a matter of obedience. Regulations,
in family and school, of that free and outward-
looking life that tastes so good and goes so swiftly,
form a conspicuous part of his experience. Being
230 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
good means to do what one is asked to do and to
have one's fun strictly within the limits set by supe-
rior authority. It is natural, therefore, that God
should be to him the great Lawgiver. The fact of
sin and a simple setting forth of God's plan of re-
demption in Christ as our Saviour can be taught and
made clear ; and the response of penitence for sin and
a genuine struggle against temptation is as normal for
the junior boy and girl as is interest in David's ex-
ploits and the life of a pioneer missionary.
These evangelical teachings, with the applications
to conduct arising therefrom, may be embodied in
good junior stories and in projects of expression and
service. They may also to a limited extent be pre-
sented symbolically in those habit-lessons on prayer,
giving, church attendance and daily reading of the-
Bible which are so needful at this age, and in memory
drills carrying some significance even though not
fully understood. With this work well done, by
teachers whose life attractively presents religion, the
junior's religious reactions may be looked for; and
however different these may be from the traditional
voices of early piety, we may count them as signs of
our boys' and girls' normal religious life.
3. The Religion of Youth.
(a) At the Place of Decision. — The early adoles-
cent is confronted with the task of organizing his
personality. As a junior, duty was presented to him
in the will of others, and of God as interpreted to him
by them. Now he demands his independence ; which
involves the necessity, if be wo^ild continue as a child
THE SCHOOL'S EELIGION 231
of God, that he define God's will for himself. One
after another the issues present themselves. Some-
times he settles them wrongly. Sometimes he breaks
with father or mother on an issue that is for him
simply a matter of the freedom of his soul. What a
relief to the perplexities of his spiritual situation if
he can be led to see that in deciding once for all to
give his life to God in a whole-souled adherence to
Jesus as Lord he has found a means of settling all his
issues and at the same time has established his free-
dom from the spiritual dominance of all on earth !
The early adolescent who is not in some way given a
chance to avow his decision to be a Christian has
been deprived of his rights.
(b) Idealism. — Religious education for intermedi-
ates and seniors, then, assuredly includes the call to
Qiristian decision. In some cases this will be the
solemn confirmation of a stand taken years before, or
taken by parents and now personally assumed. In
other cases it will represent a genuine conversion.
Sometimes both aspects of the act will appear. But
the course of study must furnish the pupil with far
more than a series of evangelical appeals, needful as
these are at the appropriate season.
If the youth's decision is to have content and value
for life, he must in his religious lessons be given ma-
terial out of which to frame his life's ideal. Bio-
graphical lessons, such as form an important part of
the graded curricula for these years, must acquaint
him with the intimate personalities of many followers
of God in Bible and later times. Among and above
these must be presented in repeated and cumulative
232 CHURCH-SOHOOL ADMINISTRATION
form the life of Jesus, that he may absorb its char-
acteristics and make its holy aims and aspirations his
own.
(c) Service as Religious Expression. — Activity in
practical service for others will be the normal relig-
ious reaction from these and correlated intermediate
religious lessons, provided ways of rendering such
service can be attractively presented to the group or
gang, A service program for each class, submitted
for adoption with alternative propositions and freely
undertaken, is therefore an indispensable part of the
religious curriculum at this age. But the continu-
ance of junior habits of Bible-reading, church attend-
ance and giving may also be sought by teachers and
leaders, and faithfulness therein taken as signs of
love to God. Reverent attendance on public worship
(because the pulpit has regard for the worshiper's se-
crets as to belief, acceptance and approval of what is
said) is an especially valuable adolescent means of
grace.'
As the senior years are reached, we may more and
more appeal to the spirit of loyalty to Christ. We
may expect the young Christian to show that he is
passing beyond the legalistic experience of conform-
ity to a law of obedience into that aspiration after
godliness that marks the Pauline sense of freedom
from the law and bondage to Christ. A teacher who
can call forth these aspirations is at this age a bless-
ing indeed. A social organization in which the re-
ligious side is kept prominent is also a needed means
of grace.
* McKinley, " Educational Evangelism," pp. 173-188.
THE SCHOOL'S RELIGION 233
4. The Religion of Later Adolescence.
(a) Organization for Educational Service. — At the
close of the high-school age, where our present senior
department also ends, the church school should have
some sort of graduation exercise and should grant its
diploma for the completion of the full imdergraduate
graded course.
The six or seven years of young people's life which
follow this significant era, corresponding to the col-
lege and post-graduate years, form a period where
religious education is received in close and conscious
reference to service. Some of the graduates will
enter the training class to continue their graded
studies intensively, with the prospect of winning di-
ploma credit and taking some teaching or official posi-
tion. Others will join a class of young people, there
under class organization to attack problems and carry
responsibilities in church and community, besides
pursuing some one of the many profitable elective
courses now available. Many will go away to col-
lege or employment, returning on visits or at vacation
times. What shall we do with them?
All these young people of the church and congre-
gation, present and absent, whether church members
or not, and whether or not they are now enrolled in
the church school as workers or class members,
should be united in one broad young people's organi-
zation. This organization will be understood as em-
bracing all in the congregation whose age or gradua-
tion record from the church school puts them within
seven years from receipt of the school's diploma.
Every member whose educational age exceeds seven
234 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
years from this point will be honoured as an alumnus
or alumna of the young people, v/elcome as an associ-
ate or adviser but ineligible to serve on committees or
hold official young people's positions. This universal
college rule should not be hard to explain and en-
force.
To this permanent, because constantly changing,
guild of the congregation, wisely organized under a
central committee, should be entrusted the work of
uniting, uplifting and religiously educating its mem-
bers and training them for Christian service. Every
activity in which young people are concerned may be
counted an activity of the guild, — the devotional
meeting, the training class or classes, the organized
classes, the mission study classes, the corps of teach-
ers and assistants in each of the church-school de-
partments, the corps of ushers, the correspondence
section of students and workers away from home, the
singing society, dramatic league, literary circle, or
other group; — and all should be represented in the
guild management and seated at its public gatherings
for business, worship or commemoration. The ex-
perience of young people's life in the church during
these years should be made a bright and sacred chap-
ter in the story of every one who has lived through it
and passed on.
The distinguishing mark of that service which will
avail as means of religious education for later adoles-
cents, it will be noted, is reality. It will not do to
hunt up some interesting task such as we would find
for our intermediates and expect a twenty-year-old
to seize it, leaving us adults in undisturbed possession
THE SCHOOL'S EELIGION 236
of our customary franchises of responsibility. What
we offer must be something that the church itself has
heretofore claimed as its own, or might claim. To
take up in its own right, with the pastor's friendly co-
operation, the whole problem of developing the relig-
ious life of the guild and its members and providing
for them adequate training for the service of the
church and its community, — this is but the first of the
tasks that the young people are ready to undertake,
once we realize that until the church makes them its
partners they are not interested in its enterprise at all.
(b) Faith, Fellowship, Dedication. — The religious
education for later adolescents must include training
in faith. With reason and judgment maturing, an-
swers are wanted to the many new problems of the
soul. Every class needs to be a forum, with the
widest possible liberty of discussion. The kind of
teacher who wants his tadpoles to stay tadpoles will
see his class melt away. The way to faith is through
intelligent questioning of that we thought was final
before. When God is seen as great enough in His
love and His working, His justice and His power, to
satisfy the young man's ideals, faith will follow;
though not always according to childhood's forms.
The later adolescent is also profoundly social.
This is the mating time of the species. The senti-
mentality of middle adolescence past, instinct impels
to a wide mingling in social pleasures with those of
both sexes, because out of such conditions may come
the satisfaction of life's greatest desire. Religion is
perfectly at home in this compan5^ The church
should foster the plans of its young people, as worked
236 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
out in their guild or other organization with adult co-
operation, and should encourage the means of relig-
ious idealism. Such means are found in earnest
weekly young people's meetings, the leadership of the
pastor, and regular delegations to inspiring and edu-
cative summer conferences and young people's con-
ventions.
When by wise and well unified church administra-
tion of religious education such conditions as these
have been established, results should appear. The
young home-makers should enter on their life of ma-
turity with a spirit of dedication to God's service in
their community, and with an appreciation of the re-
ligious significance of industrial, commercial and
public service and of the supreme sacredness of
parenthood. The church should find it easier to be
efficiently served in its many places of voluntary la-
bour. And every year should see one or more deci-
sions for the gospel ministry or some one of the many
other modern forms of non-commercial dedication to
the service of God and humanity.
5. Adult Religious Education.
Adult religious education frequently includes a
making up of lost opportunities in Bible study and
the rudiments of Christian ethics and theology. Most
adult classes include a few near-heathen thinkers,
some of whom, it may be, sit high in the rule of the
congregation. To open the eyes of such to the view-
point of Jesus and Paul is good though sadly belated
education. Training for teaching, for parental serv-
THE SCHOOL'S EELIGION 237
ice and for Christian citizenshipj through special
classes, may also figure in our plans for the adult
department.
The main adult objective, however, at least for
those already Christian by profession, is to teach,
illustrate and apply to life the essential principles of
the Christian religion. The standard method is dis-
cussion ; usually w^ith some Bible passage or topic as
a point of departure. To help busy workers and
burden-bearers to see the religious meaning of the
facts and institutions of their daily life; to expound
the New Testament philosophy and the implications
of the gospel of love as the rule of living; to meet
hard questions with illuminating answers ; to give
help to the soul for its fight of the week to come, —
that is the religious education our men and women
need ; and the department should be organized to fa-
cilitate their getting it.
6. The Religion of the School.
(a) The School's Need of Religion. — To make the
church school truly a school of religion, the curricu-
lum in every grade must have its religious side ; and
the school administration must understand and value
that side and take whatever steps may be needful to
put it into operation as a teaching force. To this end
have we thus reviewed the curriculum and to some
extent the teaching organization. Let the superin-
tendent see that his school teaches religion.
But back of the curriculum is the school itself. It
also must teach religion. The curriculum is its voice ;
238 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
and the voice must speak from the heart or its mes-
sage will not carry. Before a school can hope to
teach religion, it must be a religious school.
Some church schools do have religion, or did have
it years ago, as their old members can feelingly tes-
tify. Others run for years at a " poor dying rate."
Some, whose standing was never questioned, fall out
over some personal issue and lose their religion in
strife, jealousy and bitter recriminations. While
such an atmosphere prevails, the teacher of religion
labours almost or altogether in vain.
(b) Religion as Personal Life. — Every teacher and
leader in a school of religion must realize the educa-
tional necessity that his " manner of life be worthy
of the gospel of Christ." No qualification as officer
or teacher can make up for inconsistency of beha-
viour and insincerity of profession. In a school ad-
ministered on the plans herein laid down, full pro-
vision exists for the orderly retiring of the unfit from
any place ; and each board or other appointing body
has full responsibility for every choice and retention.
The life of the leaders, as thus known and endorsed,
is therefore the life of the school. Let that life teach
religion.
(c) Religion as Relationship. — No insignificant
part of the daily life of church-school workers is that
which is lived in the presence of the school. The
school organization establishes relationships of the
members one with another, and other relationships
with the offices they hold, the duties they perform
and the values they handle. In all these is scope for
the exercise and culture of the religious life. Cour-
THE SCHOOL'S RELIGION 239
tesy and consideration, punctuality and exactitude of
performance, self-control under provocation, rever-
ence and recognition of God's presence during times
and acts of worship, and other evidences of personal
walk with God, are mighty forces for the teaching of
religion; while every breach and fall from Christian
standards is a setback, the more serious as the judg-
ment of adolescence is more keen and pitiless than
that of age that knows.
Times of election and promotion are especially
valuable opportunities for religion to show its power
in the teachers' and leaders' lives. If there is any
element of injustice or unwisdom in the rules by
which these occasions are governed, he whose re-
ligion has the element of courage will bring up the
matter in due season and have these rules amended if
he can get for his proposals his fellow-workers' com
sent. When the time comes for decisions, appoint^
ments and it may be separations, disappointments
and failures to recognize true worth and meritorious
service, the religious worker will loyally play the
game and look to his Master for justice and reward.
For a teacher of growing girls or boys to show such
a spirit under trying circumstances is a lesson in re-
ligion indeed. Should not the pastor at some con-
venient season make this clear?
(d) Religion as Service. — There are church
schools where the missionary offerings are treated as
a tax that must be grumblingly collected and paid in
order that our credit may not suffer. Such schools
usually also confine their personal service activity to
the making up of one or more Thanksgiving dinner
240 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
baskets and the gathering of Christmas gifts for some
institution or for the neighbouring poor. In each
case there must be a return in the shape of fun for
the school and at least a letter of unqualified appre-
ciation from the matron or the missionary, or the
school will think itself ill used. Does not such a
spirit indicate a rather low level of religion?
In a truly religious school such openings for gifts
and service will be seized as privileges and will be
occupied without calculation of acknowledgment and
return. Givers will not wait until the coming of the
festival spirit makes it fashionable and easy to re-
member the poor; nor will they scrape off into their
own bin the heaping top of their missionary measure.
Such a spirit will not reduce the joy of sei-vice gath-
erings; nor will gifts so made fail of recognition.
The religion of our Lord Jesus Christ is service.
Let our school's service be religion.
7. The Service of Worship.
(a) Significance of School Worship. — In the pulpit
services of the church we worship for ourselves, to
find soul-strength and pay our duty to the Lord. In
the church school we should worship not less but
more devoutly, because here we not only draw near
to God but bring with us the children, that they too
may find the way to Him. Our worship is part of
our program of education in religion. In the class
the appeal is mainly to intellect and reason; in the
worship the appeal is to the emotions of the religious
life.
Evangelism and worship ought to go forward hand
THE SCHOOL'S EELIGION 241
in hand. It is strange that the connection between
these two outstanding features of church-school life
has not been more clearly seen. If the God whose
forgiveness we seek, and who so loved the world that
He sent His Son to be our Saviour, is a real and liv-
ing God, then every contact established between our
spirits and His divine presence is a step toward fuller
fellowship with Him in Christ, or else a step toward
the clearer revelation of our sinful self and our own
utter need of His forgiving grace. Insistence on
purity of doctrine cannot take the place of the pub-
lican's prayer for forgiveness and the worshiper's
glad and free approach to his Father's footstool. Let
every great conviction of truth be taught with posi-
tive clearness ; and let the way of the contrite heart
be kept open, hallowed and free. So shall each of
these religious influences support and reinforce the
other.
(b) Magnifying the Worship Period. — The church
school being a school, with a complex organization
and with many features heading up in a single busy
hour, the whole of our order of service evidently can-
not be called worship. We should therefore organize
it, as was suggested in Chapter I, Section 2 ; and that
part allotted to worship should be "holy to the
Lord," religiously kept clear of all frivolity, all inter-
ruption and all attempts at instruction.
During the worship period the doors should be
closed and all official moving about should be for-
bidden. The service should as far as possible be au-
tomatic, without directions, explanations, the beating
of time, the playing over of the tune, or any other
242 CHUKCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION
intrusion between the souls of the worshipers and
the presence of God. Later, if need be, the leader
may drill on material to be used in the next worship
service, teach a hymn, explain a passage or correct
some fault of behaviour. But in worship he rever-
ently leads in a varied but constant acknowledgment
of the reality and the nearness of the loving and
hearing God.
The best of our modern church-school hymnals
now furnish ample material from which the leader
may take his orders of worship. To secure that au-
tomatism that makes our church services so quietly
worshipful, the same service should be used for a
series of Sundays ; the service number, with the num-
bers of the hymns, being posted so that no announce-
ment need be given. Teachers should be drilled apart
from the school as to their part in reading the an-
nouncement board and leading their classes in rever-
ent participation.
An appropriately phrased call to worship should
bring all to their feet, ready for an animated re-
sponse. Prayers should be brief and for definite
utterances and needs. Full use should be made of
memory passages that have been learned in the
graded courses. Hymns should be sung from an
opening chord and chosen to express some desired
emotion. If the leader can tell or procure the telling
of a brief story embodying the emotion the worship
is designed to nourish — gratitude, good-will, rever-
ence, faith, loyalty — it will add to the impression.
After an interval of from seven to ten minutes, the
doors may be opened, late-comers admitted and the
THE SCHOOL'S EELIGION 243
tension lightened ; though the atmosphere of worship
will still be cultivated for the rest of the opening
period/
(c) The Reverent Opening of Worship. — What
seems to some schools an insuperable obstacle in the
way of holding such an opening service of worship is
the irreverent atmosphere preceding the opening and
the difficulty of promptly bringing the school to or-
der. How to secure even respectful quiet and atten-
tion, to say nothing of the worshiper's attitude of
reverence, seems a problem. Yet the problem must
be solved. We must have discipline, or the higher
goal of reverence in worship will be forever beyond
our reach.
How is reverence secured in the church? By in-
suring that no irreverence shall have a chance to de-
velop. The janitor opens the doors and represents
church authority till some one arrives to whom the
unspoken trust shall pass. There is also a sequence
of items in the unwritten program of the church's
assembly period, — the incoming and silent prayers of
the early worshipers ; the arrival of the organist, the
ushers, the choir; the musical prelude; the pastor's
entry and the opening act. Just such a sequence can
be organized for the school's assembly period, with
' For many forms of opening worship, with carefully
selected and arranged prayers. Scripture selections and
hymns, see Hartshorne's Book of Worship for the Church
School. For a large collection of stories to be u^ed in these
services, with other guidance for the leader, see the same
author's Manual for Training in Worship. Professor
Hartshorne's theory of educational worship and the experi-
ments on which the Manual is based are discussed ia his
Worship in the Sunday School.
244 CHURCH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
no break or interval of unorganized time, and with
every step leading up to the opening words of devo-
tion.
Every door should have both an outside and an
inside sentinel. These should be in their places two
minutes before the " zero hour," or substitutes should
replace them for the day. As the superintendent
rises, the doors should close. The inside boy will
then watch the leader for the signal to reopen ; while
the outside boy explains the rules to the late-comers
and awaits the signal of the turning latch to say,
" Please go quietly to your seats."
8. The Call to Confess Christ.
In a Christian school which has succeeded in em-
bodying its religion in its life and worship as herein
described, confession of Christ will be the normal
and obvious act of all but those whom some evil com-
panion or ill-advised parent seeks to hinder. But
where the school life is essentially irreligious, spend-
ing itself on activities that do not count toward its
main objective, such a proposition as the holding of
a Decision Day will seem strange, undesirable and
fraught with much anticipated danger.
It is educationally indispensable that some provi-
sion be definitely made to confront with the call to
decision, at least once a year, those from whom a
Christian decision is due. In the primary department
the little children are equally entitled to be known as
followers of Jesus and to hear His loving call; but
only in exceptional cases will it be wise for the
THE SCHOOL'S EELIGION 245
church to confirm, baptize or otherwise seal their in-
dividual act. The older juniors and the intermedi-
ates may be given a wider chance to take a public
stand; and for all seniors and young people not yet
professing Christians an earnest effort to win them to
out-and-out decision should be made and carried up
by personal organization to the unconverted of ma-
turer years. How these appeals are to be made each
church will, of course, determine for itself.
Preceding such appeals there should be education
in the meaning of the decision called for. A proper
graded course will contain such teaching ; and to sup-
plement this a pastor's class of catechumens is usually
formed and in some communions is counted indis-
pensable. Where the school joins with the pastor in
this work of evangelical education, and the church
holds a public confirmation service, with vows of
consecration to Christ made by the confirmed, the act
should be considered that church's mode of observing
Decision Day.
Following the decisions, likewise, every one who
has made any kind of sign of religious interest should
be noted, followed with care by teacher and pastor,
invited to make his confession complete if that has
not yet been done, and given some congenial activity
to pursue as evidence and exercise of his newly
avowed faith and purpose. Under the plans of class
organization, pupil-management of departments and
self -organization of the young people's guild already
presented,* opportunities for such activity will not be
lacking.
* Chapter III, Sees. 5, jh, 9 ; Chapter X, Sec. 4a.
246 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION^
9. Is Ours a Religious School?
The educational director, the superintendent, the
pastor and all who share responsibiUty for the con-
duct of the church school may well take up for fre-
quent and prayerful study the question whether their
plans are leading in the direction of a fuller and
deeper religious life for the school. Religion may be
in the studies; and in the hearts of many of the
teachers and other workers it may shine. But is it
in the school? Does it reach to the homes? Is it
felt in the community? Is it a temporary state of
revival, or has it the means of its own perpetuation
and the nourishing supply of a rich program of wor-
ship and brotherly service? Are the little children
granted the full franchises of the kingdom? Do those
who lead in its counsels walk with God? When such
schools have been multiplied and extended to meet
the want of them that now prevails, the future of our
nation and of the world will be secure.
Assignments
I a. (i) Do you agree that a church school should
be first of all a school of religion? If so, give rea-
son. (2) If not, what other end would you put in
religion's place ?
lb. When has service a religious value?
ic. What are the evils of seeking an adult relig-
ious experience in children and youth ?
2a. What will be the main features of religious
education for the little children in the church school ?
2b. By what support and cooperation can this be
made effective?
THE SCHOOL'S EELIGION 247
2C. (i) What instances have you observed of a
Sunday school that failed to give good religious edu-
cation to its little children? (2) What v^ould you
have done to improve matters ?
2d. (i) What would you teach the juniors, as a
What
2d. (i) What would you teach the juniors,
means for developing their religion? (2) ^
would you watch for as signs of success?
3a. Why do we owe to our intermediates and
seniors a chance to make a public avowal of their
decision to serve and follow Christ ?
3b. What besides appeals to accept Christ is
needed in adolescent religious education ?
3c. (i) How will intermediate religion normally
express itself? (2) Senior religion?
4a. (i) If the plan of a young people's guild, as
outlined, were applied to your congregation, what
organizations and activities would be thereby corre-
lated, what changes would be needful, and what
benefits might be expected when the plan was fully
installed? (2) What sort of service will meet the
older young people's religious needs ?
4b. (i) With the young people properly organ-
ized, what will constitute the main elements of their
religious education? (2) What results should be
looked for?
5. What is the essence of adult religious educa-
tion?
6a. Why must the school as well as its lessons be
religious ?
6b. Why is the life of the leaders, for better or
worse, the life of the school ?
6c. How does the religion of the school show
through its members' relationships?
248 CHUECH-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
6d. (i) What sort of service and giving fails to
be religious? (2) How would you make it better?
7a. (i) Should school worship be less or more
worshipful than church worship? Why? (2) Why
should evangelism and worship work together for
souls ?
7b. Draft an outline service of opening worship
that will embody the features suggested.
7c. Draft a program for the assembly period, to
control conduct, direct activities and lead up to a
worshipful opening of the school. Indicate the hour
of each item.
8. ( I ) How would you handle a day of decision
in your school? (2) What preparatory steps would
it involve, and what follow-up?
9. (i) On a scale of icx), how would you grade
the religious life of your school? (2) Show how
you arrive at this conclusion.
APPENDIX A
A Policy for the Young People's Division
(See text, page 63)
On recommendation of its committee on young
people's work, the Sunday-school Council of Evan-
gelical Denominations, at its annual meeting in Bos-
ton, January 16-18, 1917, adopted a general policy
for the handling of church-school work in the Young
People's Division, as follows:
/. The Scope
The years of adolescence are regarded as the scope
of our work. The natural groupings within these
years are recognized as follows :
Group I — years 13, 14 (12 optional).
Group 2 — years 15, 16, 17.
Group 3 — years 18-24.
It is understood that these groupings shall in all
cases be considered flexible, thus permitting the
adjustment of group organization to local needs.
The grouping of any particular pupil is not to be
determined primarily by age. His week-day social
relations and his mental and religious development
are exceedingly important factors.
It should be clearly understood that in the applica-
tion of these principles in the local school the relative
efficiency of the organization of the junior depart-
ment and of Group i should be taken into account in
placing the twelve-year-old pupil.
The upper age-limit of Group 3 shall not be under-
stood to prevent the promotion into the adult depart-
249
250 APPENDIXES
ment of those young people who, before passing
twenty-four, shall have established homes of their
own, or otherwise taken up the responsibilities and
interests of adult life.
//, The General Aim
Building on the foundation laid in previous years
(the elementary departments), the aim is to produce
through worship, instruction and training, the highest
type of Christian manhood and womanhood, express-
ing itself in right living and efficient service.
///. Group Aims
The aim of these groups is to realize in the life of
each individual the following results:
In Group i, (a) the acceptance of Jesus Christ as
a personal Saviour; {h) a knowledge of Christian
ideals; (c) a personal acceptance and open acknowl-
edgment of these ideals; {d) the public acceptance of
the privileges and opportunities of church member-
ship; {e) the development of the social consciousness,
and the expression of the physical, social, mental and
religious life in service to others.
In Group 2, (a) the acceptance of Jesus Christ as
a personal Saviour; {h) the testing of his earlier
Christian ideals in the light of his enlarging experi-
ences and the consequent adjustment of his life-
choices and conduct; (c) the expression of the
rapidly developing social consciousness through the
home, church and community; {d) the development
of initiative, responsibility and self-expression in
Christian service.
In Group 3, (a) the acceptance of Jesus Christ as
personal Saviour and Lord; {h) the maintenance of
his tested Christian ideals and the relation of these
to the practical work of life; (c) the preparation for
and a willingness to assume the duties and responsi-
APPENDIXES 261
bilities of home-making and citizenship; (d) the
preparation for and acceptance of a definite place in
the organization and work of the church for the
community and the world; (e) the preparation for
and acceptance of a definite place in the work of life,
business, professional, industrial ; that in and through
his daily work he may do the will of God and promote
His kingdom in the world.
IV. General Principles
1. The ideal is one inclusive organization in the
local church for each group of adolescents. Each of
these organizations should provide all necessary in-
struction and training through classes organized for
specific tasks and individual training; the classes to
meet separately for instruction, together for prayer,
praise and testimony, separately or together for
through-the-week activities.
2. In churches where there already exist a Sunday
school, young people's societies and other organiza-
tions for adolescents, the work of these organizations
should be correlated in such a way that it may be
complemental, not conflicting or competing. For this
purpose there should be in each group a committee
composed of the presidents and teachers of the
classes, the officers of the various organizations in-
volved, the pastor and any advisory officers appointed
to this committee by the local church. These com-
mittees in conference with those charged with the
work of religious education in the local church should
determine the program of study and activities in
order to prevent overlapping and duplication of ef-
fort.
3. The program of study and activities for adoles-
cents should be such as to develop them on all sides
of their nature — physical, social, mental, religious.
This should include Bible study and correlated sub-
252 APPENDIXES
jects, the cultivation of the devotional life, training
for leadership, and service through stewardship,
recreation, community work, citizenship, evangelism
and missions.
V. Means
Groupings. — For purposes of administration, the
three natural groups may, for the present, be named
as follows: Group i. Intermediates; Group 2, Se-
niors; Group 3, Young People.
Suggested Form of Organisation. — The officers of
these groups should be president, vice-president, sec-
retary and treasurer, to be elected by the members of
the group from their own number, and a counselor
or superintendent, selected by the group in confer-
ence with the proper church authorities.
The officers of the group, with the presidents of
the organized classes and the counselor or superin-
tendent, shall constitute the executive committee in
each group. The pastor and general superintendent
shall be ex-officio members of the executive com-
mittee. All the activities of the members of each
group shall be under the direction of and related to
this central executive committee.
Other committees may be formed as needed, pref-
erably short-term committees appointed for special
tasks.
Meetings. — Meetings may be held (a) on Sunday,
as a group, for worship and the expression of the
devotional life; in classes, for instruction; (b)
through the week, for expressional activities as occa-
sion demands, recognizing the physical, social, mental
and religious life.
Program. — Any complete program of religious
education must include the three factors of worship,
instruction and expression.
I. Worship: The program should provide oppor-
tunity for training and participation in worship.
APPENDIXES 253
2. Instruction: (a) Teachers. The teachers
should be graduates of a recognized teacher-training
course, or its equivalent. (b) Time. A class period,
at least thirty minutes of which should be given to
the lesson, (c) Course of study. There should be
courses of study graded according to the needs and
interests of each group ; with elective courses for the
young people's group. Definite provision must be
made both in lesson material and by practice for the
training of leaders for all Christian activities.
3. Expression: Provision should be made so that
all worship and instruction shall issue in service for
Christ in the home, the church, the community and
the world along physical, social, mental and religious
lines.
APPENDIX B
Published Graded Lesson Texts
Graded lessons for use in Sunday schools may be
classified as (A) International, based on the series
of yearly lists of graded lessons issued by the Inter-
national Lesson Committee; (B) denominational,
based on lists formulated by denominational au-
thority; (C) independent, based on lists formulated
by a publishing house working independently of de-
nominational or International relationship.
A few facts as to the genesis of the International
Graded Lessons will be of interest to administrators
using or planning to use them in any of their present
forms :
The International Lesson Committee was_ first
formed in 1872, to select the International Uniform
Lessons. It was regularly elected and instructed by
the successive International conventions, representing
254 APPENDIXES
the Sunday schools of all Protestant evangelical de-
nominations in the United States and Canada. In
191 2 it was reconstructed, to represent the Sunday-
school Council of Evangelical Denominations and the
denominations severally as v^ell as the Convention.
Originally fourteen, later fifteen, the reconstruction
increased the membership to about forty; the de-
nominational lesson editors predominating.
In 1895 the Lesson Committee, to meet a demand
from some critics of the uniform lessons, issued a
one-year primary course, so-called. This was little
used. A more specific demand later arising, it issued
in 1901, for use in 1902, a one-year course for be-
ginners, following this with a two-year beginners'
course, which had been sanctioned by the Interna-
tional Convention of 1902. This was widely used
and led to a demand for other graded courses to
follow.
In October, 1906, the International Superintendent
of Primary and Junior Work, Mrs. J. Woodbridge
Barnes, pursuant to authority given her by resolution
of the International Executive Committee, called to-
gether a conference of workers at Newark, N, J., to
study the spiritual needs of children of the elementary
grades, ages four to twelve, and to outline a course
of lessons for each of these nine years, to meet the
needs thus studied. In April, 1908, the result of the
labours of this conference was presented to the secre-
tary of the Lesson Committee, in the shape of nine
years of graded lessons for the ages already named.
For each year there was a list of fifty-two titles, with
Scripture and other specifications for the lesson-
writer's guidance.
Meanwhile the current discussions of graded and
uniform lessons led to a conference, called by Mr.
W. N. Hartshorn in January, 1908, at which all
parties agreed that the International Convention,
through its Lesson Committee, should continue to
APPENDIXES 256
prepare the tiniform lessons as long as they were
demanded by the schools, and should also prepare a
full set of graded lessons, to be used by any who
might so desire. In July, 1908, the Convention, meet-
ing at Louisville, Ky., endorsed this policy.
In January, 1909, the Lesson Committee, after hav-
ing carefully revised the outlines received from the
conference, issued three yearly sets — first year be-
ginners, first year primary and first year junior — and
continued so to issue these yearly lists until the
elementary courses were complete. In October, 1909,
the first sets of lessons were introduced into the
Sunday schools.
The demand for these new International graded
lessons proved unexpectedly large, notwithstanding
the many difficulties which the Sunday schools
adopting them found in training teachers to use them
effectively. The Lesson Committee asked the Graded
Lesson Conference, so-called, to reorganize itself
under the same chairman and proceed with the draft-
ing of the intermediate and senior lists, for the eight
years from thirteen to twenty. This was done, the
denominations cooperating. The lists thus prepared
were submitted to the Lesson Committee in printed
form, and were by them revised and issued from'
time to time. For the fourth senior year, age twenty,
two alternative courses were prepared, one Biblical,
" The Bible and Social Living," the other non-
Biblical, giving an outline of Christian history under
the title " The Spirit of Christ Transforming the
World." The whole series of seventeen yearly
courses was completed in 1916.
Objections having been raised to certain extra-
Biblical features In some of the courses, the Lesson
Committee issued alternative lists to cover these fea-
tures. It has also issued other elective courses for
senior and adult students, and has sanctioned the
departmental handling of its graded lists. The Com-
256 APPENDIXES
mittee of course has no control over anything beyond
the use of the designation " International " ; and even
under this title the publishers have handled the lists
rather freely.
Directors and others desiring to study the Com-
mittee's lesson lists, with their aims and other in-
troductory matter, can usually procure them through
the editorial office of their denominational publishing
house, for whose use they are furnished.
A. International Texts
1. The Syndicate issues. Immediately upon re-
lease of the first graded lists, the Congregational,
Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South and
Presbyterian houses formed a syndicate to issue
jointly the entire International graded lesson series.
The lessons were written by members of the confer-
ence which had discussed and selected the lessons
and were carefully edited by the lesson editors of
these denominations — Drs. Sidney A. Weston, John
T. McFarland, E. B. Chappell and J. R. Miller. Each
house used its own title-page and trademark. Pilgrim,
Berean or Westminster ; but otherwise the text-books
were the same. Many other denominations also used
these issues, the title-pages carrying the denomina-
tional name and imprint. In 1914 the Presby-
terian house withdrew from the Syndicate, after it
had cooperated in the issuance of the first fourteen
of the seventeen courses. In 191 7 and 1918 the
Syndicate lessons were entirely revised and reissued,
with many improvements.
2. The Keystone issues. With equal promptness
the American Baptist Publication Society, under the
editorial leadership of Dr. C. R. Blackall, brought
out and has since revised its own independently
written " Keystone Graded Lessons," based, like those
of the Syndicate, on the International lists, with some
modifications.
APPENDIXES 2b7
3. The Southern Baptist Convention followed a
little later, using the strictly Biblical material fur-
nished alternatively in the International lists, and pub-
lished for their constituents a complete graded series.
4. The Standard Publishing Company (Disciples),
and the Christian Board of Publication (Disciples)
each issue a complete series based on the original
International outhne.
5. Several other publishing houses, denomina-
tional and independent, including the Universahst
Publishing House and The Sunday School Times
(undenominational), have at various times issued
text-book material based v^holly or in part on the
International graded lessons,
6. The Presbyterian house, after its withdrawal
from the Syndicate, formed a new syndicate of Pres-
byterian and Reformed houses and began the issuance
of " International graded lessons, modified," in de-
partmental issues published in periodical form. Each
periodical is intended for use in all three of the
yearly grades of the department concerned. The
lesson books and papers are dated and like the uni-
form lesson quarterlies are freshly issued whenever
the course is repeated ; that is, every three years.
B. Denominational Texts
The Department of Religious Education, represent-
ing the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U. S. A.,
issues the Christian Nurture Series, published by the
Morehouse Publishing Company, Milwaukee, Wis.
It covers all grades. The lessons are prepared and
constantly revised by commissions, numbering over
one hundred persons, under the guidance of the
Department.
The Lutheran Publication Society, representing the
United Lutheran Church in America, issues, from
its headquarters at Ninth and Sansom Streets, Phila-
268 APPENDIXES
delphia, the complete graded series of text-books,
papers, pictures and appliances formerly furnished by
the General Council, now united with the General
Synod. This series is now being rewritten and re-
cast. It also issues the "Augsburg " imprint edition
of the Syndicate's International texts.
The Friends' General Conference, from its Cen-
tral Bureau, 150 North Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia,
issues a set of graded lessons covering nearly or quite
all the grades, with courses for adults. The juvenile
lessons are partly based on the International graded
lesson topics.
The Unitarian Sunday-school Society, from its
headquarters, 25 Beacon Street, Boston, issues the
Beacon Series of graded lessons, covering all grades.
These lessons, with the earlier texts which preceded
them under the same distinctive name, were used by
the schools of this denomination for many years prior
to the issue of the International graded texts.
Information concerning any of these lessons, or
concerning the lesson policy and available issues of
any denomination not here listed, may be secured
from the denomination's publication headquarters.
C. Independent Texts
In addition to various publications intended for
graded teaching in some department of the Sunday
school, or available for such use, the following com-
plete systems of Sunday-school graded study are
offered :
The Completely Graded Series, published by
Charles Scribner's Sons, 597 Fifth Avenue, New
York. This series is the successor to the Bible Study
Union or Blakeslee Lessons, issued about 1891 by Dr.
Erastus Blakeslee and used by a large company of
Sunday schools prior to the introduction of the Inter-
national Graded Lessons. From the Bible Study
APPENDIXES 259
Union, organized by Dr. Blakeslee, the publication of
these partially graded lessons and their " completely
graded " successors passed to the firm which pub-
lishes them nov/. The series provides for all grades.
The Constructive Studies, published by the Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, is a series of texts
covering all grades and intended for use in the Sun-
day school. It is the outgrowth of the " constructive
Bible studies " promoted for many years by President
William R. Harper and his colleagues in the Ameri-
can Institute of Sacred Literature. Like the Com-
pletely Graded texts, these books represent a high
degree of scholarship and an appreciation of the
ideals of religious education.
APPENDIX C
The Standard Teaclier-Training Course
(See text, page i8o)
Besides the titles adopted by the Sunday-school
Council for the eight units of the first and second
years, as given in the text, these were in 1917 adopted
for the five parallel courses of the third year. Num-
bers indicate the number of lessons in each section.
Beginners and Primary Units. — (In publication,
the courses for beginners and primary teachers may
be separated if publishers so desire.) Specialized
Child-study (beginners and primary age), 10; Story-
telling (selection and telling of stories, with practice
work in class), 10; Beginners and Primary Methods
(including practice-teaching and observation), 20.
Junior Units. — Specialized Child-study (junior
age), 10; Junior Teaching Material and Its Use
(story-telling, analysis and emphasis, with practice-
teaching), 10; Christian Conduct for Juniors (includ-
260 APPENDIXES
ing special reference to habit and Christlike action),
lo; Junior Department Organization and Methods
(with practice-teaching and observation), lo.
Secondary (Young People's) Units. — Specialized
Study of the Pupil (intermediate, senior and young
people's ages), lo; Material for Secondary Teaching
(studied with reference to the development of Chris-
tian character), lo; Christian Doctrines and Institu-
tions (in relation to the life and thought of the pupil
at this age), lo; Methods for Intermediates, Seniors
and Young People, lo.
Adult Units. — The Psychology of the Adult and
His Religious Education, lo; How to Present the
Social Message of the Bible and Its Modern Applica-
tion, 10 ; Adult Aims and Methods, lo; The Church,
Its Activities and Leadership, lo.
Administrative Units. — History and Principles of
Religious Education, lo; The Educational Task of
the Local Church, lo; The Sunday-school Cur-
riculum, 10 ; Sunday-school Management, lo.
Bibliography
Among recent books bearing on church-school adminis-
tration, these may be mentioned :
Stout, John Elbert. Organization and Administration of
Religious Education. Covers week-day and collegiate re-
ligious instruction, in addition to the work of the Sunday
school, from the viewpoint of a professional educational
administrator. Abingdon Press, 1922.
Bower, William C. A Survey of Religious Education in
the Local Church. Explanation of the survey method; full
schedules of queries covering the church school, generally
and by departments. A guide to clear and detailed ad-
ministrative thinking. University of Chicago Press, 1918.
Cope, Henry F. The School in the Modern Church.
Stimulating presentation of the new ideals in local religious
education; useful bibliography appended. Doran, 1919.
Other books of this introductory type are:
Bett's, George Herbert. The New Program of Religious
Education. Abingdon Press, 1921.
Bower, W. C. The Educational Task of the Local
Church. Front Rank Press, 1921.
Useful for detailed suggestions on several of the topics
named below, especially H, IH, VI and X :
Faris, John T., editor. The Sunday School at Work.
Chapters by various authors on special topics in Sunday-
school administration. Westminster Press, 1914; revised
€d., 1915.
Of special value on the chapter-topics named:
/. The Church School Organised:
^ Athearn, Walter S. The Organization and Administra-
tion of the Church School. A brief handbook of principles
of administration, with suggested methods, from the edu-
cational viewpoint. Pilgrim Press, 1917.
261
262 BIBLIOGEAPHY
Cope, H. F. The Modern Sunday School and Its Pres-
ent-day Task. A study of practical administrative church-
school method. Revised from the author's 1905 book. Re-
veil, 1919.
Cunningim and North. Organization and Administration
of the Sunday School. Abingdon Press, 1919.
Lawrance, Marion. How to Conduct a Sunday SchooL
Management problems practically treated, from the view-
point of an experienced field worker, who was also for over
thirty years superintendent of a large city Sunday schooL
Revell, 1905; revised ed., 1915.
Fergusson, E. Morris. How to Run a Little Sunday
School. Revell, 1916.
//. The Official Staff:
Brown, Frank L. The Superintendent and His Work..
Detailed suggestions, well arranged, with index. Methodist
Book Concern, 191 1.
McEntire, Ralph N. The Sunday-school Secretary. De-
tailed suggestions, with comparison of various methods and
numerous sample forms. Methodist Book Concern, 1917.
On the chorister's work, help can be had in a study of any
of the recent high-grade school and church-school hymnals,
especially :
Smith, H. Augustine. Hymnal for American Youth. The
Century Company, 1919. See also a series of accompanying
pamphlets based on this collection, by Professor Smith's
fellow-workers; same publisher, later dates.
Valuable suggestions on the handling of a Sunday-school
library will be found in The Sunday School at Work, listed
above.
III. Divisions, Departments and Classes:
' Athearn, W. S. The Church School. Includes a careful
educational study of each department, with numerous lists
of books, pictures, story material, etc. Pilgrim Press, 1914.
Bryner, Mary Foster. The Elementary Division Organ-
ized for Service. Revell, 191 7.
Baldwin, Maud Junkin. The Children's Division of a
Little Sunday School. Westminster Press, 1922.
BIBLIOGEAPHY 263
Maus, Cynthia Pearl. Youth and the Church. The pro-
gram of work for the intermediate, senior and young peo-
ple's departments, in conformity with the 191 7 standard of
the Sunday-school Council. Standard Publishing Company,
1919.
Wood, Irving F. Adult Class Study, Analysis of what
constitutes effective teaching in the adult class; lists of
courses. Pilgrim Press, 1911,
IV and VIII. The Teaching Staff; Training:
McElfresh, Franklin. The Training of Sunday-school
Officers and Teachers. Abingdon Press, 1914.
Athearn, W. S. The City Institute for Religious Teach-
ers. University of Chicago Press, 1915.
Slattery, Margaret. A Guide for Teachers of Training
Classes. Leader's manual for the now superseded Pilgrim
training course, but suggestive for guidance of practice-
teaching. Pilgrim Press, 1912.
Text-books of special value for the teacher-trainer:
Betts, G. H. How to Teach Religion. Abingdon Press,
1919.
McKeever, William A. How to Become a Successful
Sunday-school Teacher. Standard PubHshing Company,
1915.
V. The Course of Study and Expression:
Pease, George W. An Outline of a Bible-school Curric-
ulum. Suggestive, though now largely of historical value,
as a pioneer work in this field. University of Chicago
Press, 1904.
Meyer, Henry H. The Graded Sunday School in Prin-
ciple and Practice. Full on the then new International
Graded Lessons. Methodist Book Concern, 1910.
Coe, George Albert. A Social Theory of Religious Edu-
cation. Note especially Chapter IX, " A New Theory of the
Curriculum." Scribners, 191 7.
Hutchins, W. Norman. Graded Social Service for the
Sunday School. University of Chicago Press, 1914.
264 BIBLIOGRAPHY
VI. The School and the Home:
Cope, H. F. Religious Education in the Family. Uni-
versity o£ Chicago Press, 1915.
VII. The Building and Equipment:
Athearn, W. S., editor. The Maiden Survey. See text,
p. 160. Doran, 1920.
Evans, Herbert F. The Sunday-school Building and Its
Equipment. Based on the modern educational viewpoint.
University o£ Chicago Press, 1914.
Burroughs, P. E. Building a Successful Sunday School.
Full and helpful on housing and equipment. Revell, 1921.
IX. The Yearly Program:
Lawrance, M. Special Days in the Sunday School. Re-
vell, 1916.
X. The School's Religion:
Hartshorne, Hugh. Childhood and Character. Pilgrim
Press, 1919.
Same. Worship in the Sunday School. Teachers College
Publications, 1913.
Same. The Book of Worship of the Church School.
Scribners, 1915.
Same. Manual for Training in Worship. Scribners, 1915-
Brewbaker, Charles W. The Devotional Life of the Sun-
day School. Revell, 1921.
Stowell, Jay S. Story Worship Programs for the Church-
school Year. Doran, 192a
Index
Adaptation, the principle of, Cai<e;ndar, the, organized, 28
99 . ... Character shaped by lessons.
Administration division, 21, loi
24 Child religion, 228
Adult classes, started, 53; in Children's Day as commence-
the small school, 58; as an ment, 198; its observance,
agency for reaching the 212
homes, 133; religious edu- Chorister, the, 28; his duties,
cation in, 236 45
Adult division, the: control, Christmas, 212, 215
63, 69; includes the home Church officers in the school,
department, 21, 141 Z7
Aims of lesson courses, 107; Church relations, 31
of the graded lessons, 109; Church service, training for,
administrative use of, iii 192
Akron plan of Sunday-school Class organization, T2)
buildings, 55; history, 149; Class presidents, council of,
description, 150 68
Annual appointment of teach- Classes of officers, 36
ers, 89, 204 Classes, Sunday-school, how
Annual reports, 209 started, 53
Architecture, church-school: Classrooms: size, 62; origin,
history, 148; general prin- 148; limitations, 149
ciples, 151 ; new features in. Clerk of the workers' coun-
153 ; a standard for, 160 cil, 40
Assistant officers, how Committee on education 12
elected, 48 41 > v .
Associate superintendent, du- Communitv, responsibility of
a/iI^"' '\?r^u o < o church to, 153; discharged
Athearn, Walter S., 160, 180 through its building 167
Average Sunday school in Communitv training school
U. S., size, 57 the, 189"
T> , Confession of Christ, 244
BEGINNERS department: its Correlation of church-school
spirit, 65 with other work, 105, 116,
iiiographical studies, value in 234
training, 175 Council, the workers', see
Budget, the annual, 30; how Workers' council
prepared and presented, Counselors in young peo-
210 pie's division, 63, 68, 79
265
266
INDEX
Course of study: features of
a, 102; for a church school,
103; built for a school,
118; selected, 120; train-
ing-course features of,
173; religion in the, 228-
237
Cradle roll, the: in the chil-
dren's division, 65, 79; as
an agency for reaching the
home, 131 ; its place in
teacher-training, 173
Cradle-roU class, 65, 79; a
room for, 165
Curriculum; see Course of
study
Decision Day, 115; princi-
ples governing, 230; meth-
ods, 244
Demotions unwise, 201
Denominational headquar-
ters, to be utilized, 181, 188
Denominational relations, 32
Department of the home, the,
139
Department of training, the,
184
Department principals : re-
sponsibility, 42; in the chil-
dren's division, 65, 79; in
the young people's division,
63, 68, 81; should keep
graded roll, 120 ; facilities
for, 166; their work on
Promotion Day, 202; an-
nually appointed, 205; fes-
tival work of, 214
Department without a room,
the, 63
Departmental diflFerences, 61
Departmental lessons, 66, 71
Departmental staffs, 83
Dike, Samuel W., 124
Director of religious educa-
tion, the: his jurisdiction,
37, 46; his work in corre-
lation, S3; in lesson-choos-
ing, 97 ; his office room,
166; should not be teacher-
trainer, 186; candidates
for, 193; annual report of,
210
Distribution of jurisdiction,
35.
Dominant principle, the, 100
Duncan, W. A., 125
Easter, 212
Education of the emotions,
27
Educational projects, 116
Entrance requirements for
the training class, 176
Equipment : in the children's
division, 62, 65 ; for map
teaching, 84 ; lack of, 105 ;
for home work, 142; place
of, 144; for visualization,
155 ; for play and recrea-
tion, 156; of church room
and social hall, 165; for of-
ficers' work, 166; for
physical training, 166; for
training, 187
Evangelism : as religious ex-
pression, 115; methods of,
with childhood, 228; with
the juniors, 229; with
adolescents, 230
Executive staff, the, 42
Executor, figure of the, 35
Expanding the one-room
school, 56
Expression, the course of,
III
Expressive activities, graded,
113
Expressive conduct, 114
Father- AND- Son banquets,
134
Features of departmental or-
ganization, 64
INDEX
267
Federation of local churches,
147
Festivals, 211
Financial organization, 29
Five-class school, the, organ-
ization, 58
Freedom of the teacher, 121
GARfiELD and Mark Hopkins,
144
Goals: of home endeavor,
129; annual, 197; for every
work, 199
Going school, a, 172
Go-to-Sunday-School Day,
204
Graded lessons: how intro-
duced, 118; use in festival
preparations, 213
Graded religion, 227
Grades and promotions, 70
Grades, International stand-
ard, 20
Grading: definition, 19, 70
History : of the teaching or-
ganization, 53 ; of the uni-
form-lesson idea, 54; of
department names and age-
limits, 60; of primary spe-
cialization, 76; of the
junior department, Tj; of
the International graded
lessons, 109; of the home
department, 125 ; of church-
school architecture, 148; of
teacher-training courses,
178
Home classes : history, 125 ;
use of for training prac-
tice, 184
Home department, the; his-
tory, 125; its needs, 132;
related to the church, 140
Home service called for, 126;
a scale of, 127
Home, the: a school of re-
hgion, 124; self-sufficient,
126; a program for, 128;
agencies for reaching, 130
Hurlbut type of training
manuals, 178
ILLUMINATION of rooms. 163
Independent lesson courses,
no
" Infant schools," 23, 53
Inherited limitations i n
church-school practice, 148
Installations: of teachers,
206; of officers, 209
Interchurch World Move-
ment, 160
Intermediate training, ele-
ments of, 174
International Graded I<es-
sons: history, 109
Junior Department : its
fourth year, 21 ; its needs,
66; history, ^T, staff, 83;
place in teacher-training,
173; Bible supply for, 203
Junior religion, 229
Junior training, elements of,
173
Jurisdiction distributed, 35
Lesson-choosing, 97
" Lesson of the day, the," old
and new, 28
Librarian, the, 47, 218
Life service secured through
training, 193
Little Sunday schools, 57, 64
Load-factor, the, 152, 165
Logical and psychologic aims,
108
Losses of workers, 170
Makeshift housing, 146
Map teacher, the, 84
268
INDEX
Membership increase : organ-
ized, 24; needed, 171
Music : how organized, 27 ;
relation to festival obser-
vance, 214
Needs of the pupil para-
mount, 98
Neighbourhood relations, 32
New building: how to plan,
148; start with full reor-
ganization, 150; general
principles, 151 ; new fea-
tures, 153; how to realize,
157
New members, how take in,
24
Nomadic teachers, T], 185
One-lesson-for-all idea, the,
54
One-year training manual,
the, 178
Opening worship, 241 ; how
opened, 243
Order of service organized,
18
Organization, good and poor,
Organizing the pupils, 19;
the teachers, 22; the of-
ficers, 23; the course of
study, 26; the music, 27;
the calendar, 28; the
finances, 29; the school's
relations, 31
Paid officers and teachers,
30, 49, 1S6
Parenthood, training for, 136
Parents' department, the, 134
Pastor, the : as a school of-
ficer, },•], 39; as a catechist,
116; as an agency for
reaching the homes, 130
Pay, the officers', 49
Periods in the order of serv-
ice, 18
Pianist, the, 46
Picnics, 215
Play and recreation provided
for, 155
Primary department: its
start, 54; growth from pri-
mary class, 59; arrange-
ment of classes in, 66; his-
tory, 76
Professional service in the
church school coming, 153
Project-teaching, 116
Promotion Day, 22, 72, 90,
198; suggestions for, 202
Promotions, 72, 88, 200
Public schools cannot teach
religion, 103
Rally Day, 203, 212
Reading courses, icx)
Reciprocity in the training of
workers, 194
Recreation provided for, 155
Religion : need for a course
in, 103; difficulties of such
a course, 104 ; taught by the
school, 226; lived by the
school, -ZZT, 246
Rooms, the leader's attitude
to, 144; the vision of, 164
Rules: for sulistitutes, 86;
for annual appointments,
205 ; for the purchase of
supplies, 218
Secretary, the: not clerk of
council, 40; his duties, 44;
facilities for, 166; should
train his assistants, 185; as
purchasing agent, 217
Senior promotions, 90
Senior religion, 232
Senior training, elements of,
174
INDEX
269
Separation of pupils and
teachers, 62, 72, 88
Short-course senior classes,
91 . . ^
Speciahzation, primary, 76
Spencer, Herbert, on parent-
training, 137
Standard for city church
plants, 160; interpreted as
a vision, 164
Standard teacher-training
course, 179
Standards, official, to be fol-
lowed, 61
State and county Sunday-
school association : rela-
tionship recognized, 2>2', re-
ports to, 44; leadership
utilized, 188; notices from,
223
Substitute service, the, 84; as
part of the training course,
182
Summer schools, 190
Superintendent, the : as a
music leader, 27 ; as a
calendar-maker, 28; a
church officer, 38; manager
of the workers' council, 39;
of the platform work, 47 ;
must pay the workers, 50;
responsible for unorgan-
ized department's, 83, 229;
must choose the lessons,
97; his annual report, 209;
his sevenfold routine of
work, 220; his docket of
work ahead, 222
Supervised substitution, 182
Supplies, how ordered, 44,
217
Tadpoi,e illustration, the, 228,
235
Teacher, the Sunday-school :
the concept, 76, 78; in the
upper grades. 87; allow-
able freedom of, 117, 121,
138; annual appointment
of, 90, 204
Teacher-training; see Train-
ing
Teachers' meeting, the, 93
Ten-class school, organiza-
tion, 58
Thring, Edward, on " the
wall," 145
Todd, John, 76, 78
Training: the master task,
170; size of the need,
170; of undergraduates,
173; its curriculum, 178;
substitution as part of, 182 ;
the department of, 184; re-
sults of, 192
Transfer of pupils to another
class, 22, 201
Treasurer, the, 40; his annual
report, 209
Trumbull, H. Clay, 76, 78
Ungraded teacher, the, 76
Uniform Lessons, 26; his-
tory-, 54; institutions based
on, 55 ; are for adult con-
venience, 97; fail to meet
needs, 99; not a true
course, 102
Unity of church plant, 151
Upper-grade teaching, 87 ;
promotions, 88
Vacancy wanted, 91
Vincent, John H, 178
Visualization, 155, 165
Week-day religious instruc-
tion, 107 ; architectural
provision for, 154
Workers' council, the : estab-
lished, 32; its officers, 39;
its action, 90; its confer-
ence : how run, 93 ; as a
means of teacher-training.
270 INDEX
igi ; should approve the Young people's department :
annual school report, 210; needs, 69; a plan ior or-
its calendar, 219 ganizing, 233; teaching for,
.Worship: as religious ex- 235
pression, 112; the service Young people's division: fea-
of, 240 tures of organization, 67;
activities of, 116, 245;
Year, the, when begin, 198, should help in festivals,
207 213
CHURCH AND CHURCH SCHOOL
W. EDWABD BAFFETY, Ph.D., P.P.
Editor of The Intemattonal Journal of Reltgtous Education^
Church School Leadership
An Officers' Manual of Practical Methods for
Workers in the Church's Sunday, Week-Day and
Vacation Schools. $2.00
"A combination of a systematic manual of methods and
inspirational treatise. It covers the entire field of re-
ligious education in the church, including week-day and
vacation schools and principles of grading." — Congregsk-
tionalist.
OEOBGE EZRA HUNTLEY, P.P.
Author of "Seeing Straight in the Sunday Schooi"
Hope Victoria at the Helm
A Story of the Twentieth Century Church School. $1,50
"A book with a purpose, one that every Church school
superintendent and teacher should read and ttnll read.
The fascinating form of the book carries^ one through a real
course in Church School administration." — IV. Bdwari
Raffety, Editor, International Journal Religious Education
CLINTON WUNPER Pastor Baptist Temple.
-^—^■^———^——^— Rochester
Crowds of Souls for chust and the kingdom
Introduction by Pres. Clarence A. Barbour
(Ptochester Theol. Sem.) $1.50
"The successful 'management of the modern church' is
the proposition before us. Promotion, advertising, financ-
ing, publicity and generally 'running' a church with a
three million dollar combined church and office building
is some job. The preacher-manager tells us how he
does it." — Boston Transcript.
F. A. AGAR, D.D.
Author of "The Competent Church," Bto,
The Local Church
Its Present and Future. $1.00
"Dr. Agar is the secretary of stewardship and church
efficiency of the Northern Baptist Convention. This latest
book presents a picture of general conditions in the
church of to-day, and constructive methods for improv-
ing them. I know Dr. Agar personally and consider him
one of the greatest church builders in the land."—
Alabama Baptist
WORK AMONG YOUNG FOLKS
WALTEB BUSSELL BOWIE, B.B.
Recto-r Grace Church, Neva York
Chimes and the Children $1.25
The author of "The Children's Year" has another volume
of talks to children which are really for the youngrsters r.nd
not "way over their heads." A wide variety of subjects,
ranging from Gypsy Moths and Pigeons to Ships and
Windmills, makes Dr. Bowie's latest work in many re*
spects, his best
WALLACE DUNBAE VINCENT
Introduction by Dr. George T. Fisher, Deputy Chief
Scout E-recHtive
Say, Dad!
Chummy Talks Between Father and Son. $1.50
Talks between father and son on games, sports, duties,
habits, qualities and aims. Sixty chapters of meaty stuft
about all sorts and manner of deeply interesting subjects
about which a boy should, and in the main, really does
wish to know.
J?. S. WILLIAMSON AND HELEN K.
WALLACE
Stewardship in the Life of Youth
$1.00
An ordered and capably developed arpumeiit for the
proper and reasonable dedication of personal possessions of
whatever sort. Its appeal, in the interests of Christian
Stewardship, is made specifically to the young people of the
Church.
HENRY T. SELL, P.P.
Sermons in Action for Young Folks
Five-Minute Series. $1.25
"Dr. Sell is an expert in five-minute sermons for boys
and girls. He knows how to hold up the mirror to
every-day life. There is action, quick action in every
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Twentieth Century Express who took chances of 'Run-
ning on the Yellow,* instead of slowing up according to
orders. Fifty in all. They are very suggestive for pas-
tors and teachers who have occasion to talk to boys and
girls," — Boston Transcript.
WILLIAM FEANCIS BEEGER, 'AM.
Author of "The Sunday School Teacher as a Soul-Winner^'
The Sunday School Teacher the Book
^ $1.25
A fervent plea for the making of the Bible the irre-
proachable, unassailed foundation of the work of the
Sunday-School teacher. While fully alive to the benefits
accruing from I<csson Helps, Mr. Berger maintains
vigorously that the one great fund of inspiration is the
Book of books.
Date
Due
»'
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ft OP 'Of\
^ 2 ^ '40
'i
'■"f ■^ »
"■■»■■ !!■ MM
jiii.:^
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