weet eee 255, + ', re , i tie) wat) e458 i orwereth oe se a - y barby way this iiss Poca i ack ets rie ye. AE . ; - ; oat : 5 “a bye tars oF ats peasy ae pany gto ar ebae ae : TOPE SR tant tis LiaTas - SF Petals ; s ' wat aaa 1° o) peat ba fate aed F al? ps > et.’ md 3 rs + “On ah *, 2-2 et LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. PRESENTED BY eee OA ies BY 15d50 .Ho7y 1924 Harris, Hugh Henry, 1875- The organization and administration of the Ce ORGANIZATION AND ee OER LON OF THE Vv > DEPARTMEN ae eat BY HUGH HENRY ate A Textbook in Teacher-Train- ing, Conforming to the Stand- atd Outlined and Approved by the Sunday School Council Third-Year Specialization Series PRINTED FOR THE TEACHER-TRAINING PUBLISHING ASSOCITION BY THE PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH, NASHVILLE, DALLAS, RICHMOND, SAN FRANCISCO COPYRIGHT, 1924 BY Hucu Henry Harris nn ee ee ee ee ee ee PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS SPECIALIZATION COURSES IN TEACHER-TRAINING PAGE POOUEO west ET RODUCTION | was ce si Sits pts Pe cates ete 5 Cuapter I VY Pescaee Ott PARZatiONe .Lenearay chisel otc platelet oi 11 . CHAPTER II Merino ese luGrta ittoe ire tr ete aise. 06 eo Ore oe eee 33 eer iicer! Chaser ler lists sain taie ere u es.» siehedatere 51 CHAPTER IV Ree abe soe L RIC UNION Ue ian ts a Gexripsime atthe a spuivin'e » 70 CHAPTER V ieee army OLS tas ise ee ye, hs ads «2 ay ale oo dele Sobke 86 CHAPTER VI Problems of Department Management and Supervision. 104 CHAPTER VII Leadership Ee a a 2 a oe a 121 CHAPTER VIII GindinesEepvessional Activitiegis .... 42... ohn eee ss 140 Me CHAPTER IX Maidesstoe ate anivest Ment ive: 4 47 oe Petdne< daw a eds 154 CHAPTER X Leadership and Training in Church and Community aN: Wig i Let La idee vai TS LR Soa 3 a ee a A 175 THIRD YEAR SPECIALIZATION COURSES IN TEACHER-TRAINING CONFORMING TO THE STANDARD AND OUTLINES APPROVED BY THE SUNDAY SCHOOL COUNCIL For Teachers of Beginners A Study of the Little Child. Mary T. Whitley. *Story-Telling for Teachers of Beginners and Primary Children. K. D. Cather. Methods with Beginners. F. W. Danielson. For Teachers of Primary Children A Study of the Primary Child. Mary T. Whitley. *Story-Telling for Teachers of Beginners and Primary Children. K. D. Cather. Methods for Primary Teachers. Hazel Lewis. For Teachers of Juniors Junior Department Organization and Administration, Ida M. Koontz. Other Units in Preparation A Study of the Junior Child. Mary T. Whitley. For Teachers of Adolescents (intermediates, seniors, and young people) Psychology of Early Adolescence. E. Leigh Mudge. Community Forces for Religious Education (early adoles- cence). G. Walter Fiske. Community Forces for Religious Education (middle adoles- | cence). G. Walter Fiske. Organization and Administration of the Intermediate De- partment. Hugh H. Harris. Other Units in Preparation—For Teachers of Adults The Psychology of Adult Life. Theodore G. Soares. Principles of Christian Service. Henry F. Cope. For Officers The Educational Task of the Local Church. W.C. Bower. Other Units in Preparation N. B.—AIl books listed (with exception of those indicated as only in preparation) are available at all of the publishing houses listed. (4) *Identical. EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION SPECIALIZATION COURSES IN TEACHER- TRAINING In religious education, as in other fields of con- structive endeavor, specialized training is to-day a badge of fitness for service. Effective leadership pre- supposes special training. For teachers and adminis- trative officers in the Church school a thorough preparation and proper personal equipment have be- come indispensable by reason of the rapid develop- ment of the Sunday school curriculum, which has resulted in the widespread introduction and use of graded courses, in the rapid extension of department- al organization, and in greatly improved methods of teaching. Present-day standards and courses in teacher-train- ing give evidence of a determination on the part of the religious educational forces of North America to provide an adequate training literature—that is, prop- erly graded and sufficiently thorough courses and textbooks to meet the growing need for specialized training in this field. Popular as well as professional interest in the matter is reflected in the constantly increasing number of training institutes, community and summer training schools, and college chairs, and departments of religious education. Hundreds of caro ae of young people and adults, distributed (5 6 The Organization and Administration among all the Protestant Evangelical churches and throughout every State and province, are engaged in serious study, in many cases including supervised practice teaching, with a view to preparing for sery- ice as leaders and teachers of religion or of increasing their efficiency in the work in which they are already engaged. Most of these students and student teachers are pursuing some portion of the Standard Course of Teacher-Training prepared in outline by the Sunday School Council for all the Protestant churches in the United States and Canada. This course calls for a minimum of one hundred and twenty lesson periods including in fair educational proportion the following subjects: (2) A survey of Bible material, with special ref- erence to the teaching values of the Bible as meeting the needs of the pupil in successive periods of his development. . (b) A study of the pupil in the varied stages of his growing life. (c) The work and methods of the teacher. (d) The Sunday school and its organization and management. | The course is intended to cover three years with a minimum of forty lesson periods for each year. Following two years of more general study, pro- vision for specialization is made in the third year, with separate studies for administrative officers and for teachers of each of the following age groups: Of the Intermediate Depariment 7 Beginners (under 6); Primary (6-8); Junior (9-11); Intermediate (12-14); Senior (15-17); Young Peo- ple (18-24), and Adults (over 24). A general course on adolescence covering more briefly the whole period (13-24) is also provided. Thus the Third Year Specialization, of which this textbook is one unit, provides for nine separate courses of forty lesson periods each. Which of these nine courses is to be pursued by any student or group of students will be determined by the particular place each expects to fill as teacher, supervisor, or administrative officer in the church school. Teachers of Junior pupils will study the four units devoted to the Junior Department. Teachers of young people’s classes will choose between the general course on adolescence or the course on later adolescence. Superintendents and general officers in the school will study the four administrative units. Many will pursue several courses in successive years, thus adding to their specialized equipment each year. On page four of this volume will be found a complete outline of the Specialization Courses available at the time of publication of this volume. A program of intensive training as complete as that outlined by the Sunday School Council necessarily involves the preparation and publication of an equal- ly complete series of textbooks covering no less than thirty-six separate units. Comparatively few of the denominations represented in the Sunday School Council are able independently to undertake so large 8 The Organization and Administration a program of textbook production. It was natural, therefore, that the denominations which together had determined the general outlines of the Standard Course should likewise codperate in the production of the required textbooks. Such codperation, moreover, Was necessary in order to command the best available talent for this important task and in order to insure the success of the total enterprise. Thus it came about that the denominations represented in the Sun- day School Council, with a few exceptions, united in the syndicate production of the entire series of Specialization units for the Third Year. The preparation of these textbooks has proceded under the supervision of an editorial committee rep- resenting all the codperating denominations, The publishing arrangements have been made by a simi- — lar committee of denominational publishers likewise representing all the codperating churches. Together the editors, educational secretaries, and publishers have organized themselves into a voluntary associa- tion for the carrying out of this particular task, under the name Teacher- Training Publishing Association. The actual publication of the separate textbook units is done by the various denominational publishing houses in accordance with assignments made by the Publishers’ Committee of the Association. The enterprise as.a whole represents one of the largest and most significant ventures which has thus far been undertaken in the field of interdenominational co- operation in religious education. The textbooks in- Of the Intermediate Department 9 cluded in this series, while intended primarily for teacher-training classes in local churches and Sunday schools, are admirably suited for use in interdenomi- national and community classes and training schools. This volume is the third in a series of four units of specialized study for workers with Intermediates, ages 12-14. These workers will find in the present volume well-thought-out guidance in the specific problems involved in the organization and adminis- tration of. the Intermediate Department. Workers who are alive to the potentialities of the Intermediate age in the gradual unfolding of Christian character and are eager to inaugurate an effective program of religious education which will be dynamic in the lives of Intermediates will rejoice in the helpfulness of this text. For the Teacher-Training Publishing Association, HENRY H. MEYER, Chairman Editorial Commtttee. E. B. CHAPPELL, Editor. THE ORGANIZATION AND ADMINIS- TRATION OF THE INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT CV i od OY SR PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATION UnpER the plan of the International Sunday School Council of Religious Education, representing the various Protestant denominations, the member- ship of the church school is divided into the following groups: Corresponding Name of Group Ages Included Grouping. Cradle Roll Birth - 3, yrs. Kindergarten, Beginners’ Department 4and 5 yrs. 1st, 2d, 3d grades Primary Department 6, 7, and 8 yrs. 4,5 and 6grades Junior Department 9,10, andilyrs. 7th, 8th, grades Intermediate Depart- 12, 13,and14yrs. and 1st, yr.H.S. ment EPR Ly COPIES STs | Senior Department 15, 16, and 17 yrs. and 4th, yrs. College, profes- Young People and 18 - 24 yrs. sion or business Adult Department 25 to death home-making. Where junior and senior high schools exist, it will be noted that the Intermediate Department of the church school corresponds exactly to the junior high school. It is also well to notice that under the old Sunday-school classification intermediate pupils ranged in ages from thirteen to sixteen. In nearly all schools to-day boys and girls as young as twelve © (11) 12 The Organization and Administration are in this department, while some as old as sixteen may still be found in the group. The task before us is to consider the principles of organizing and the means of administering the edu- cational program of the church school for all those boys and girls who are about twelve to fourteen years of age. The characteristics of these pupils are sufficiently distinct for the group to be set off from the remainder of the school asa department. Teach- ers and officers in smaller schools where necessity compels intermediates and seniors to be grouped together will find in this book help in organizing such a department, especially as regards the younger element in it. | The conviction that these pupils Poul be ina department separate from the remainder of the school is a clear indication of the seriousness with which religious workers are viewing the problems that arise in the lives of these boys and girls. It indicates further that their training must be handled differently from those in the department just below them and just above. They constitute a group to themselves, needing thorough understanding and_ skillful handling if the church would do them justice. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that they are still a part of the school, for the general management of which the church is responsible; they, in turn, must be trained to become increasingly responsible for the larger organization through enlarging par- ticipation in it. | Of the Intermediate Department 13 THE CHURCH ORGANIZING ITs FORCES The authority and responsibility of the church toward the department is exercised through the department counselor or superintendent. He is chosen by the general superintendent and council of the Sunday school, subject to the approval of the governing board of the church. He needs to be one who has genuine and intelligent sympathy with the young, a leader by force of his personality and power to win support, one whose inward sense.of justice is evidenced in both word and deed, and one who by experience knows something of the lives of boys and girls to-day. On this choice depends in largest degree the success, or failure of the department. With the approval of the general superintendent he selects the teachers. His wisdom in choosing them materially affects the ability of the church to do its work of religious education with this group. The teachers and the counselor represent the church in its capacity as the religious educator of youth. The organization of the department from the point of view of the church organizing itself for a special task may be thus described: The church board of) religious education is the delegated organ of the church charged with the duty of providing religious education for all groups; the pastor is the head of this as of all similar executive departments of the church; the superintendent has laid upon him the special duty of creating the organization and direct- ing the personnel of the church school; the superin- 14 The Organization and Administration tendent of the Intermediate Department, as the appointee of the general superintendent and the church-school council, is charged with organizing and executing the work of religious education among the boys and girls from twelve to fourteen years of age, and, as his immediate representatives and par- ticipants in the task, he selects the teachers, Thus the department is thoroughly organized from the administrative view of the church. A diagram may make the relations thus described more clear: ‘Authorized Church Board or Committee on Religious Education eS ee eee i The Pastor The General Superintendent | Superintendents Counselor (Superintend- Superintendents of Beginners, ent) of the Intermediate Young People’s Primary, and Department Senior, and Junior Depart- | Adult Depart- ments Teachers of Department ments Classes Such a diagram needs some explanation, lest too much be taken for granted. For instance, this is not (need one remind himself?) a military organiza- tion; it is a group of voluntary workers bent on giving the best possible service to God through the church school. Consequently, while the general superintendent is general of the whole enterprise, his authority is that of one among equals rather than that of an autocrat. Further, if he is wise and Of the Intermediate Department 15 has chosen capable department superintendents he will permit each of them large autonomy in his own department. How the Intermediate Department shall be organized, aside from the fact that as a school it is to provide adults who can teach, is left to the wisdom of the group. THE AIMS OF THE DEPARTMENT Before one can be certain of what form of or- ganization is best, one must be clear as to its aim or end. What is to be accomplished by it? What purpose will it serve? The answers will serve as guides in formulating the further provisions of the proposed scheme. 1. Obviously Christian character is the great objective. What is to be done must be determined by that aim and its success or failure measured in terms of this sort of product. 2. ‘‘Provide opportunity for planning programs, choosing objectives, and determining methods’’— that is, opportunities for self-directed activities. 3. “Provide training in leadership and in co- operation.” 4. Provide opportunities for increasing one’s knowledge of the Christian life and skill in living it. At first glance it may seem that this overhead organization is sufficient. The general superintend- ent has charge of the entire school, is responsible for its conduct and welfare, and, under the church board, is final authority. Under him the superin- 16 The Organization and Administration tendent, or counselor, of the department has charge of the department, is responsible for its conduct, and is final authority and executive. In each class is the teacher who is charged with the task of in- struction and also of the organization and adminis- tration of his pupil group. From the viewpoint of administration it is quite sufficient; but from the | point of view of religious education it is inadequate. Such ends as are here enumerated can hardly be ~ wrought in the fullest sense except as the pupils are organized into a codperating whole, with officers, committees, programs, and objectives of their own choosing. Some reasons for this statement follow. Tue NECESSITY FOR SELF-ORGANIZATION First, the superintendent of the department is or should be the counselor of the pupils rather than the dictator. They have reached the age when self- expression is seeking an outlet. Efforts at self- direction are not confined to any one department of their lives. Every school-teacher and all thoughtful parents are familiar with the emergence of this new personality. John and Elizabeth, who have been such docile, easily led children, at twelve or soon thereafter begin to show an unwillingness to take the advice of others, to follow blindly the conven- tions, to be satisfied with the say-so of their adult guides. They wish to choose for themselves, 16 act according to their own opinions. This is the be- ginning of that self-directed adult life toward which Of the Intermediate Department 17 we all should move if we are ever to escape from childhood’s estate to full-grown manhood and womanhood. This restlessness explains many of the discordant notes in adolescent life, and full recognition of the new impulses is the best means for entering sympathetically and helpfully into the growing experience of the young. In the religious experience of early adolescents the religion of external authority belonging to child- hood is rapidly being outlived, to be superseded, under right conditions, by the religion of internal authority. Indeed, the best way to help these young lives pass from the externally controlled living of their earlier days to the self-directed living of later experience is to lead them and guide them as friend, companion, and counselor. But if external authority as vested in the superintendent is to be withdrawn, some other authority more nearly representing the pupils’ will must take his place. At this point is grave danger—the danger of thinking that setting up a machine is the same as having that machine function. Some think that they attain their aim of self-directed and spontaneous group religious living when a few pupil officers have been elected and some committees appointed. Nothing is further from the truth. The end sought by those who would aid these pupils is growth in knowledge, in spiritual attainment, in efficient Christian living. Of course, this end is possible in the early teens only as the compulsion of childhood 2 18 The Organization and Administration yields to voluntary and glad acceptance of Christian ideals, and as constant practice in Christian living results in efficiency. No organization will guarantee this, nor will its absence prevent it. What will insure the fulfillment of such an ideal is the constant, intelligent, sympathetic fellowship with these pupils f counselor and teachers, good teaching, lessons fitted to their mental and religious needs, and. ef- fective stimulation, with opportunities to put the Christian ideals and sympathies into action. And all this can be done with no more organization than has been already described, for it is the wisdom and personality of those who are to guide these youths that count for most. — But many have found that some simple student — organization best enables the pupils to express them-. selves religiously, best secures that interest and codperation necessary to real community living, and best -makes possible indirect guidance and leadership by teachers and superintendent. Hence it is that further organization is advised; but it must be not merely “‘paper’’ organization. A second consideration arises out of a new con- - ception of the work of this department. So long as our church-school leaders went no further in their concept of worship as a means of religious education than to believe that one mass gathering of the en- tire school sufficed, this department could disimiss its responsibility for the worship life of its pupils. At most, loyalty to the mass gathering was all that Of the Intermediate Department 19 was demanded. But it has been discovered that training in worship is as important as class instruc- tion. Such training cannot properly be given in a service over which the department has no control. To make worship vital and spontaneous it must be the product of those worshiping. Hence, it has been found expedient to have such organization as shall care for the awakening interest in the worship of the department. Similarly recreation for the department is doubly interesting when provided by its members. What training in sharing one’s pleasure comes from pro- viding the program for a hike, a social evening, a dramatic representation! And the service activities, those deeds of helpfulness—how they must be planned! Why not, say those who have tried, train the young to plan their own program of service, so that the deeds, from the initiation of the idea to its execution, shall be theirs? To develop such codperative living needs some machinery, some organization. Hence, again, workers are finding the organized department, with organized classes, the best method for accomplishing their aims. THE OFFICERS OF THE DEPARTMENT The form of the student organization of the de- partment should be as simple as possible consistent with good work. It has been found much better to have real working officers, who shall have responsi- bilities that they must perform than to have many 20 The Organization and Administration honorary positions meaning little or nothing to their holders. There is no educational value in holding a position except as the position means responsibility. Four officers only are needed. These are president, vice president, secretary, treasurer. They should be elected semiannually by the pupils. Other officers may be chosen as the occasion arises. The president is the executive head elected by the department. He can perform his duties and gain his training in leadership only if and only so far as the superintendent of the department becomes in reality a counselor. Rare occasions may arise upon which, in behalf of the good of the entire school, the counselor must exert his executive authority derived from the church; but those occasions should be rare indeed. In general the conduct of depart- mental worship, the task of presiding at business sessions, and the general oversight of the work of the department should fall upon the president. The vice president performs the duties usually falling to such an officer. In the president’s absence he performs the duties of chief executive. It is well for the president to give way to the vice president occasionally in order to train him in the work of leadership. The secretary keeps all records of the department, cares for the correspondence, and performs the usual tasks belonging to his office. What records he shall keep will be considered later. In some large de- partments, especially if the seniors and intermediates © Of the Intermediate Department ahi are together, two secretaries are chosen, one record- ing and the other corresponding. Usually one officer will suffice. The treasurer keeps account of all moneys re- ceived and all accounts paid. He is the source of information on all financial matters. He should report from time to time what the department is doing with its contributions, that all giving may be- come truly educational. His books are the property of the department, open to the inspection of its - members at all times. CHOOSING PUPIL OFFICERS Many have questioned the advisability of per- mitting pupils so young to choose their own officers. Instead these cautious souls would make elections in the department really the voice of the superin- tendent-counselor and his adult advisers. Such procedure is fundamentally false to all the ideals involved in self-direction. Rarely will it be found that the pupils of these ages wish to ignore the larger experience of their leaders. The happy solution is reached not in any well-wrought-out machinery of direction but in a personal contact between the adults and their pupils which will naturally and easily lead to exchange of ideas and to a community of purpose. : Practically it is well to have appointed before every election a nominating committee that shall bring to the meeting a suitable list of provisional 22 | The Organization and Administration . candidates. Upon this committee may be one adult who, if wise, will counsel when asked but will in no wise endeavor to dictate. Elections should be held at some week-day business meeting, and every member of the department, adult and pupil, should be eligible to vote. THE COMMITTEES OF THE DEPARTMENT The number of permanent or standing committees in the department is determined by the size of the group and by the stability of the organization. The difficulty of standing committees, as so often said, is that they stand and do nothing else. Moreover, intermediates are still too young to hold their in- terests and enthusiasms for a long period of time. The experience of many has led them to recommend temporary or short-time committees and to use standing committees only where such groups actually engage continuously at their task. To illustrate: Some would make the ccoeeatiaued life of the department largely dependent on the counselor and his council, while for each recreational event a special or temporary committee is appointed. Others, with better organization and longer training of the pupils in committee work, have found the permanent recreational committee capable, with adult advice, of planning the’ continuous program of recreation for the entire six months. The ‘same divergence is found regarding a per- manent worship committee. Some contend for a Of the Intermediate Department 23 new committee, appointed week by week or, at most, month by month; while others have successfully worked out the worship program with a standing committee of worship. Let us then note the possibilities of committee organization, realizing that local circumstances and the personal ability of the pupils will have to de- termine the exact direction taken in a given case. The following may be considered an adequate organization of the department: (1) the council; (2) the executive committee; (3) the program or worship committee; (4) the membership committee; (5) the service committee; (6) the recreation com- mittee. . 1. The department council—The council of the department is composed of all pupil and adult officers of the department, all teachers, and all officers of the various classes. Ina large department this will constitute a considerable group. In small departments it will be of a size to make unnecessary a special executive committee. The president of the department presides at the council meeting. The business of the department which can be better projected through the council than through the business meeting of the entire group should be cared for here. Reports of progress, projection of new plans, adjustments of difficulties, and all matters that should be considered by the executives should here be given full consideration. This is the clearing house of the department. The 24 The Organization and Administration adults in the council meeting sit as equals with their pupil officers and together with them work out the plans and adjust matters for the welfare of the de- partment. The recommendations of the council should be carried back to the general meeting of the entire department for adoption except in those cases in which the department has delegated to anne council its powers. 2. The executive committee —In ideee yaa hg 78 as already indicated, the executive committee (com- posed of the officers of the department and the coun- selor ex officio) may act for the department in the interim of its business meetings. In this committee — the president presides; reports may be heard, pro- grams laid out, and plans formulated, all being sub- ject to the approval and adoption of the council or of the whole department. 3. The program or worship committee —The chair- man of this committee is the vice president of the department. With him labor two or four other student members appointed by the president or elected by the department, and a teacher as ex- — officio member. Their duty is to plan the worship programs for the six months they remain in office, to see that those appointed to participate are made acquainted with their assignments, and to see that the president, as presiding officer on Sunday morning, has sufficient knowledge of the program to lead it well. Of the Intermediate Department 25 4. The membership committee—The membership committee is composed of a chairman, appointed by the president, and two or four other members. One teacher should be appointed as advisory member of thig committee also. The duties of this committee are to enlist new members, to look up absentees and secure their immediate return to the department, to welcome new members and visitors, and to sug- gest to the council or to the executive committee plans for making the department more efficient in enlisting and holding members. 5. The service committee-—The service committee is formed like the committee just described. Its duties are to plan programs of service, including missionary endeavor and community welfare and betterment, and to see that such programs when adopted by the department are carried into effect. A discussion in detail of what these service activities are will be found in the chapter on ‘‘Guiding Ex- pressional Activities.” 6. The recreation committee —Like the membership and service committee the recreation committee is composed of a chairman, an ex-officio member, and two or four other members, appointed by the presi- dent or elected by the department. Their duties are to provide for the recreation activities of the depart- ment, planning ahead for the six months, so that all- round recreational life may be enjoyed. Recreation should include not alone amusement but social life, reading, nature study, athletics, sports, and all 26 The Organization and Administration similar undertakings. The purpose is to minister to the good fellowship of the group and to train in recreational leadership—a form we service greatly needed in these days. 7. Short-time committees —Where only one er two standing committees are desired, as before indicated, much may be accomplished through short-time com- mittees. Often much of the recreational life of in- termediates can best be cared for through the class organizations. In this case the occasional recreation of the entire department may be planned and cared for by a temporary committee; likewise with mem- bership and with worship programs. A large latitude is needed to leave room for experimentation. In any event these short-time committees will give training in codperative thinking and working and will be excellent means for developing leadership as well as for discovering latent talent in the group. The interests at this age are too fleeting, too quickly aroused, and too hastily dissipated to warrant too much permanent committee work.) ORGANIZATION A MEANS, NoT AN END Need we remind ourselves that organization is never an end but always and only a means? The organized department is organized to do something, not to furnish the novel sensation of holding office. What an organization is to do determines the choice of officers and of committees. To maintain its ex- istence it must retain its pupils, and to share the - Of the Intermediate Department 27 good life with others of their own age and community it must seek new members; hence the membership committee. As Christians or those maturing toward the Christian goal they must put their ideals into practice through service; hence the service com- mittee. And that all may work harmoniously and efficiently, the department must run smoothly and efficiently, all codperating to one common end; hence the executive committee or council. One need not be surprised to find an unused paper or- ganization dying or dead; indeed, one need shed no tears over its death. An organization is good for nothing but to be buried except as it puts people to work, thinking, planning, and acting for the common good. | CLASS ORGANIZATION Shall the classes become self-organized groups? To those who see cogent reasons for self-organization and self-directed activity in the department the answer is obvious. If the end we seek as leaders is not to do something for these pupils but toaid them to achieve self-control and self-direction, then as teachers we shall take our places as counselors in our classes. We shall encourage just so much or- ganization as the pupils can utilize. Intermediates are at what has been called the gang age; that is, small groups of boys enjoy each other’s society, submit to the leadership, sometimes the tyranny, of their leader, and thus begin the larger socializing processes that end in citizenship, business 28 The Organization and Administration Ee ee ibn ASL MM cooperation, religious affiliation, and other forms of social existence. Girls are inclined less to the more inclusive gang but more to the exclusive clique. In these tendencies are found the natural social formation for the organized class. Class conscious- ness and class interest are stronger than depart- mental allegiance. The avenue of most natural approach to the social experience of these years, then, lies through class organization. Details con- cerning class organization will be found in a succeed- ing chapter. | Résumé OF ORGANIZATION It is now time to develop the diagram of organi- zation to new lengths to embody the ‘ideas of group © self-government. It may be done in the following fashion: Of the Intermediate Department. 29 PLAN FOR ORGANIZATION OF THE INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL Officers of the Department | | Representing the church Representing the de- school (acting largely partment (initiating in an advisory capac- and executing its ity) plans) Authorized church board Department officers Pastors! : President | Vice president General superintendent Secretary Treasurer of the church school Department superintendent or counselor” Teachers Department council Committees of the department Executive Program or Worship Service Membership Recreation Class organizations® ‘In churches employing a director of religious education, if a minister, he may have delegated to him the authority and responsibility lodged at other times in the pastor. Whether minister or layman, he may be the actual general 30 The Organization and Administration. Let it be noted that the power of self-direction is acquired slowly and with difficulty. We achieve freedom rather than being born with it. Hence it is that the younger and less experienced the pupils, the more will the superintendent or coun- selor. of the department and his teachers have to be both the stimulators of ideas and ideals and the executives of departmental and class activ- ities. To form a group into an organization, in- stead of relieving the adult officers of responsi- bility, tends to increase their labors. It is vastly easier with one’s adult experience to plan the pro- grams and to see that they are carried out than to suggest, coach, lead, urge, and finally succeed in getting the pupil-officers to do their duty. But the easier is not the wiser. Let no one organize his de- | partment or class and think that thereupon he can trust the youthful members, official and unofficial, to formulate plans and carry them to happy fruition. superintendent of the church school. In either case his po- sition is that of an adviser of the department rather than that of an executive. The department superintendent or counselor joins in his office the two functions of adviser and executive. As repre- sentative of the general superintendent and of the church school he is the executive; but in practical experience his influence is best felt as the counselor or adviser of the pupils. 3In intermediate classes the recreational life is largely planned by the teacher. Inexperience requires that the re- sponsibility must rest here, although temporary committees for this or that “‘affair’’ are most desirable. Of the Intermediate Department 31 Instead he will need to be all the more on the alert to make success possible. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. How far do the pupils in your Intermediate Department correspond to the age in the early adolescent group? 2. Why should tne Intermediate Department be organized? 3. Name the officers of such a department and give the duties of each. 4, What standing committees should the depart- ment have and what are the duties of each? 5. What is the position and what are the duties of the counselor in the department? QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 1. If the Intermediate Department in your school is not organized, discuss with the counselor what advantage would arise from organization; first, to the department; secondly, to the counselor and teachers. If organized, learn how far the organi- zation is real and what results have been obtained. 2. How far have individual members shown ability to plan and execute simple activities for department or class? 3. Should the case of disciplining a difficult pupil be brought before the department council? Or should it be handled by the teacher? Or should the superintendent or counselor of the department handle it? 4. Should these pupils in their business sessions discuss the lesson materials for the ensuing months? Should they be permitted to determine lesson material? 32 The Organization and Administration 5. Suppose the program committee falls down on the job; whose task is it to make and carry out the worship program on Sunday morning? Would making the chairman of that committee responsible for that morning’s service tend to correct his care- lessness in the future? Should the worship training of the department be allowed to suffer because of the committee’s neglect? 6. Should the membership committee confine itself to the task of enlisting members for this de- partment only? Suppose some one of this committee should run across a new family in the neighborhood; should he report to other departments the names and addresses of those in the family not included within the age limits of his department? Why? 7. If the newly elected president proves incapable, what should be done? Who should’ determine his © capability? Who has power to remove him? 8. How should the treasurer be prevented from being tempted by the moneys placed in his hands? Is there temptation at this point? 9. Are the mistakes and blunderings of an or- ganized intermediate group a part of their education? How far should the innocent members of the group be compelled to suffer at the hands of inexperienced leaders? 10. What are some of the tests by which you will determine whether your organization is successful? CHAPTER II PRINCIPLES OF GRADING THE first problem of administration confronting department leaders is to group pupils in a manner most conducive to their intellectual, moral, and religious development. Such grouping is what is known as grading. Grading consists in putting _ together those of like mental development to the end that instruction shall go forward most rapidly. To place in the same class pupils twelve years old and those fourteen means that the younger ones will find the lesson presentation over their heads and, hence, that they will lose interest; or else, in trying to reach these younger pupils, the discussion will become too simple, too immature for those older. In using age as the basis of the first rough classifi- cation it must be remembered that differences in pupils are not all determined by the calendar. Averages never take account of individual differ- ences. Some thirteen-year-olds may be _ behind twelve-year-olds or ahead of others who are fourteen. The less developed will with difficulty discuss either lessons or midweek activities in an interesting way with those whose age compels a different viewpoint. If for no other reason than the happiness afforded the pupils themselves grading should be taken seriously and carried out most carefully. In fact, 3 (33) 34 The Organization and Administration the purpose of grading, conceived from the pupil’s angle, is the greatest happiness to the greatest number. ANNUAL PROGRESSION Theoretically we advance year by year to new attainments, each step in the progress being marked by a distance that puts us beyond those following in our footsteps. Public education has long since divided its student body and its course of studies into years, each year making advancement toward a new grade. While any mechanical system is open to serious criticism, this scheme is the best yet de- vised for ‘‘average’’ conditions, and the church school does well to follow the largé Ko of. general education. This is no argument for grading in the church school, for we have long passed the day when the value of grading is debatable. Opinions as to the best methods of grading still vary; but that grad- ing the school is the best means of directing the educational progress of the young had been demon- strated beyond need of further proof. It is clear,. then, whether a school is rural or urban, whether large or small, that the first task of the leaders of the Intermediate Department is to see that the pu- pils are arranged in such order according to devel- opment as shall make successful teaching possible. Let us suppose that a Sunday school is ungraded. How shall one go about to classify the intermediate ° pupils? ; Of the Intermediate Department 30 pean enn N OAM AN ANS OP NORRIS GT AN ns TRY The first step in classification: registration—The first step is to obtain an exact record of each pupil who seems to belong to this group—that is, all those from twelve or thereabouts up to fifteen years old. This information may be placed upon cards for future use of the department and should obtain at least the following data:! Pate ee LON: CART) Veh ti teers Bea G CHURCH SCHOOL 1. Last name..., first name..., middle name...... pBorns yee. uit. Mon Chi Ale ay aniitenis) AL: Permbered Churcheschoolsd veaserreceivica exten) Mivinctoveune. MEG GOOM OTA CME Rc Plats Gil coher fhe tats ee aN MirrcoIployedy DOS TION Neal Lite kee 2S. GOP). mAseip ned ito tan 82 yi. Dealeep. classi“ ane. BENG OESS icc mrs Poe Sot iiod: Weve: be Bae Het ph OOO NTO ib w to @) 3 or a) ~ ° _—, ° =s = Va) 0 7 Items 1 to 7 on this card may be obtained at once; item 8 will be filled in when classification is made. Items 9 and 11 should be entered with pencil, per- mitting such changes as time discovers. This regis- tration card is of use not only in grading an ungraded school but should be used also to record the facts 1Other items may be added to the registration card, such as: renee bers Ol) fatisly..cs.. ck. tee. oe et. Member of church....... Member of....Department of church school. The purpose of such items is obvious. 36 The Organization and Administration -_————_—. about each new pupil after grading has been under- taken. With these data in hand classification becomes fairly simple. All those twelve years old are first- year intermediates, those thirteen second-year inter- mediates, and soon. Putting together those twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, we have the membership of the Intermediate Department. The second step: sex segregation a hhe next step in classification consists in putting all girls of the same age into one group and all boys of the same age into another. During the intermediate years boys and girls wish to be in separate classes. Sex at- traction has not yet reached the point where too great proximity is desired by either sex. Further, in behalf of good teaching, and especially in behalf of greater freedom in class discussion, separation of the sexes should if possible be maintained. Some of the most serious problems in these years have to do with the relations of the two groups to each other; hence, free discussion is possible only where separa- tion is maintained. Group activities, such as hikes © and athletics, are best developed in separate groups. The third step: selection of class groups —The third step in classification is to determine the size of the classes and to select the membership of each class. Intermediate classes should not exceed ten pupils to the class. The need of close personal friendship makes the smaller groups more desirable. Better start the class with not more than six pupils, leaving Of the Intermediate Department ai room for the membership to add more members be- fore division becomes necessary, than start with the full number and pull the class to pieces as soon as a good beginning is made. Leaders in public in- struction have learned the fallacy of believing that the best teaching is dependent on large classes. In choosing the members of a particular class it is well to keep in mind that a happy and contented pupil is always to be desired. Better work is accom- plished, and there is less friction to overcome. There- fore, put those together who are mentally enough alike to be congenial, so that the rules of good grading are not violated. If, therefore, there are already evident lines of association or lines of cleavage, then follow these lines of natural association in grouping pupils. It must not be expected that the first arbitrary division of pupils into classes is sure to prove entire- ly satisfactory. It will be necessary to keep close watch upon the classes to see that each pupil is where he may do his best. An unusually dull pupil must sometimes be taken from one class and placed with another a little younger. Such adjustments require most painstaking interest and tact. It is always easier to move the bright pupil up a grade than to move the delayed pupil down one. The difficulties will be greatly lessened if one keeps the pupil’s hap- piness always in mind. When a boy or girl is found to be listless and inattentive, it is possible to suggest that another class needs his assistance, that he will 38 The Organization and Administration © be happier there than where he is now, that his leadership in the younger group will count for much, that the teacher needs his codperation. The appeal for a change should always be made to the pupil’s own standards of value, never to his fears of those in authority. Such changes are frequently simplified if the home is put into sympathy with what is being done for its son or daughter. Let the parents know in advance that a change is to be made and make clear to them that the change is for the good of their boy or girl, not for the good of the teacher or of the school. | The reasons for adjustment are threefold: first, because of mental differences; secondly, because of social cohesion; and, thirdly, because of increase in size of the class. Exactly how far social distinctions should influence the make-up of a class is doubtful. In this democracy of ours the church school least of all should lend itself to any sort of caste system. Yet the fact remains that pupils of like neighbor- hoods form a more compact group than one made up of children from too divergent social elements. More Sunday schools than one have awakened to the fact that they found themselves unable to as- similate the new elements that had been brought in through a competitive membership campaign. To break down false social distinctions on the one hand and, on the other, to keep the spirit of the class alive is the difficult task to be faced. Where one member of the class is discovered to be obviously _ Of the Intermediate Depariment 39 unhappy because of social dissimilarity, there must be immediate adjustment, else soon that pupil’s chances for further religious education in that school are nil. If the other pupils cannot be brought to see the hidden worth of this individual so as to in- corporate him in the class life, he must be placed ina class where he will be happy. Not for their sakes but for his own must the change be made. “Splitting up”’ classes is a difficult undertaking and must be handled with care, lest the splitting up result in splitting to pieces. The better organized the class, and the more of class spirit it contains, the less easy becomes the problem of finding a means of making a new swarm. There is no mechanical solution to this problem. It is possible to use authority and to “make”’ a new class, but this should be the last resort of the counselor. It is better far to get an assistant teacher who shall win the con- fidence and good will of the class to’the extent that he and a part of them shall be willing to make a separate group. It is again the personality of the teacher which counts. One consolation is ever the reward of the leader in the graded church school: as the system of graded organization becomes a tradition, the pupils tend to fit into the plan with less and less difficulty. It soon becomes understood how each must find his place, and how the entire purpose of the scheme is the largest good to each person. Hence, the ease AQ. The Organization and Administration with which the better graded school maintains its standards can be realized by all. The fourth step: obtaining teachers—The next step is to get the teachers for the respective classes and to inform each as to the pupils who are to compose his group and the lessons to be taught. If it is possible to foresee the probable number of teachers to be employed, these should be selected well in advance, gathered together from time to time for consulta- tion about the proposed changes, instructed in the ways of the graded school, given the literature they are to use in class instruction, and in every way possible prepared adequately for their new duties. At this point many schools fail. The classes, new to the innovation, must depend on teachers for inspiration and: guidance that the teachers are iil prepared to give, as they themselves have had no preparation for the new tasks. Having prepared teachers and pupils for the change to the graded system, it is well to have the new groupings announced on a certain Sunday, the naming of each teacher and his pupils, and as- . signing the place in which the class is to meet the following Sunday. Then the next Sunday, with as little confusion as possible, let the work start for- ward. If all these steps have been taken with care, especially if the teachers have had adequate prepara- tion, the newly graded work will begin with little friction and delay and with small likelihood of dis- aster. Of the Intermediate Department 41 THE SMALL SCHOOL Grading in the small school encounters the ob- stacle that confronts the teacher of the rural school. The total number of pupils of strictly intermediate years in some country schools is occasionally only from three to six. In such instances to grade year by year would be to have one teacher and one pupil in each class. Accommodation must be made at this point in behalf of class spirit and social efficiency. At times the entire intermediate group is so small as to require only a single class made up of both sexes. It may even be that intermediates and_ seniors, because of poverty of numbers, must be, at least temporarily, thrown together. If, however, the best end is to be served, the intermediates should be placed by themselves at the earliest moment. Further, as soon as numbers permit, the intermediate boys and the girls should be separated into two groups. It may seem that such subdivision will work hardship on the class, but tact and persistence may make such a homogeneous class so attractive as to bring others into it. Thus, before long, a real class of from five to ten may be built. The more exactly the principles of grading are applied, the better the opportunity, first, of satis- factory lesson material, and, secondly, of social and service activities. The present tendency in the small Sunday school to throw all over twelve and under twenty-five into one class should be dis- couraged because it defeats the very end sought—a 4) The Organization and Administration class spirit built upon numbers. There can be no true class spirit among such widely divergent ele- ments. Interests are too conflicting, mental attain- ments are too diverse, and religious needs are too wide apart for the class to become a growing, ex- periencing Christian body. GRADED LESSON MATERIAL This textbook does not deal with the problems of lesson material and methods of teaching. Another book has been prepared to aid the worker in these matters. It may be well at this point, however, to note that grading the pupils is for the sake of helping in the teaching process, and that the graded lessons are likewise helpful in teaching because they are arranged in view of the developing lives of the pupils. The International and other graded lesson series for these ages are purposely designed to meet the growing interest of these classes. The International Graded Series has for twelve- year-old pupils a lesson course called Gospel Stories. Schools in which the Junior Department has four. age groups will find these lessons fit the last junior year. Where the more recent plan is in vogue, Course VII: Gospel Stories is intended for the first- year intermediates. These lessons are a departure from the earlier method of treatment in story form and first introduce the pupil to a connected narrative of the life of Jesus—the Gospel of Mark. The story of the good news brought by Jesus to Of the Intermediate Department 43 this world is followed by the carrying of that story through the activities of his followers in more recent times, thereby making contact, in the study of the influence of Jesus, with the life of to-day. These lessons in turn are followed by five lessons telling how the good news in the printed page was brought to us to-day—the story of how we got our Bible. Here the summer quarter begins, and the pupils are taken back to biblical material and learn of the good news as it was spread in apostolic days. The second year of the intermediate course in- troduces the pupils to Old Testament characters, that they may learn something of the motives that lay behind the wonderful heroes of the days of the Hebrew people. The purpose is to get the pupils tolike truly noble characters and thus to become like them. The same method is pursued the third year, only now the pupils are transferred in their studies to the characters of the New Testament and of Christian men since New Testament days. No adequate statement of the desirability of these courses is here possible, and only an actual and careful examination of the textbooks for pupils and for teachers for each of these years can reveal the wealth of material here placed at the command of the studious teacher. 2How to Use, numbers 4 and 5, will be sent by the denomi- national publishers. Other similar advertising may be ob- ‘tained from Scribner’s and from the University of Chicago Press by those desiring to know more about courses suited to ‘these pupils. 44 The Organization and A dministration Beginning with the year 1927, Group Lessons for the intermediates will be obtainable from the de- nominational presses. These lessons run in cycles and are alike for all pupils of a given department. The small school, in which necessity compels some accommodation of the year-to-year gradation plan, will find these lessons fitted to meet their needs. It should be kept in mind, however, that the closely, or year-by-year, graded material more nearly approx- imates the ideal and should be used where possible. GRADED SERVICE AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES Class gradation further simplifies the matter of adequate and satisfactory service and recreational activities. Recreation and service as applied to the entire department are discussed in other chapters of this text. Here let it be noted that the more closely alike are the interests and skill of the in- dividuals in a class the easier becomes the task of the teacher in aiding the pupils to find desirable forms of service and of helpfulness. Boys or girls. of about the same mental advancement like to do the same kind of things, whether these things are play or work. PROMOTION In any school that attempts proper grading there must be some means of marking the transition from grade to grade, some basis for determining the com- pletion of one section of the work before taking up the next. Thus it is that Promotion Day visualizes Of the Intermediate Department 45 the fact that some, having completed the tasks of one year, are ready to take up those belonging to the next and are to be promoted for that purpose. Now, if the end of the church-school education were the acquirement of so many intellectual facts, the basis of promotion would be self-evident. Instead, the end sought is not the acquiring of facts but the making of character—a matter that is far less easy to measure in its successive stages. Some of the stages of character development are dependent on experiences that only time can supply. It is doubt- ful if any examination can ever reveal how far along one has gone in character growth. It is further doubtful if holding. one back in his promotion to repeat the experiences of the grade just finished is the way for him to gain what he has not yet ac- quired. On the intellectual side alone the effect of repeating a grade is frequently to dull the pupil’s interest rather than to help his progress. For these reasons it seems wise to base promotion upon the completion of the calendar year but to give recognition to work well done. Certain standards may be used as tests by which to encourage better work and better endeavors after Christlike living and as means by which one may measure his own progress.’ 3Mrs. Johnson, in her school at Fairhope, Alabama, pro- motes her pupils year by year. Her report upon the results of such unexamined promotions is very interesting See Schools of To-morrow, Dewey and Dewey. 46 The Organization and Administration If standards can be set, so many points for this and so many points for that, in the light of which each pupil may see how well he has done, they will prove the best means of getting things accomplished, especially if these standards are adopted by the department as their own standards. The following standard is suggestive rather than recommended for adoption in its present form: Attendances iilda SC as Wie eee OREO Twenty minutes’ home etuacles t-sivnopdboae 20° Pastiatpationsin’ Classiact:4 12.) ee ee 20 One do-a-good-turn deed............. 20 Keeping up, the notebook... 72.7 2e@ "Potall. PYF Rh Be ee 100 Tardiness, off 5 points An average of 50 to 75 puts one in Class C An average of 76 to 89 puts one in Class B An average of 90 to 100 puts one in Class A Recognition should be given each quarter, and honor rolls or special marks of honor by the depart- ment should be made. The name “Honor Records,’’ which seems satis- factory to juniors, may be changed to -‘‘ Efficiency Records”’ for use among the intermediates. Some of those who are older and would resent the idea of ‘“Honor Rolls” as associated with the earlier years of church-school life would not be averse to the standard of efficiency. It may be that for the pur- pose of aiding right bodily habits, so much needing to be acquired during the entire adolescent years, Of the Intermediate Department 47 these efficiency records should give credit for such homely but necessary bodily attention as teeth cleaning, bathing, sleeping with windows open, and the like. It is certain that we need in our program of moral and religious education to stress life and habits, participation in social experience, and mastery of selfish impulses much more than mere intellectual attainments. A further credit might be given for some deed of loyalty to the department, to the church school, or to the church itself. These might all be classed under the head ‘‘Do a good turn;”’ but special at- tention may be called to the need of loyalty to the group, making for community righteousness by thus crediting effort in its behalf. Should church attend- ance be credited? Yes, if the church is honestly attempting to give in its morning service some spirit- ual food to this group. As loyalty to the institution it should figure; as a further obligation to two services laid upon the young over and above the obligation of adults for only one service it is certainly open to question. When properly functioning the Inter- mediate Department provides worship, study, dis- cussion, and activities better adapted to the needs of these young people than does a church service arranged primarily for adults. The church-school session is their ‘‘church service” oftentimes more truly than the later period of worship and sermon. When the pastor and the adults of the congregation feel their obligation to make the eleven-o’clock service 48 The Organization and Administration minister to the adolescents, the intermediates should be shown their responsibility to accept such aid. In the meantime church attendance is largely a personal and. family matter and may be left as such. PROMOTING THE TEACHING FORCE Skill comes by practice. This is the root of the custom of keeping teachers in the public schools in the same grade year after year. The same argu- ment applies to the teaching force of the Inter- mediate Department of a church school. Instead of the same lessons palling upon the teacher of, say, the first-year group, each year should see enrich- ment in the course. The custom of the same teacher going on year after year with his class has the ad- vantage of giving him deeper insight into the growing lives of his pupils. But this is more than offset by the additional skill he will acquire if he takes up his task, year after year, with a new group. If he were teaching lessons, repetitions would become monot- onous; but he is teaching boys or girls, not lessons, and they are ever-changing human material. Moreover, to keep a teacher with pupils of the same age gives him constantly deeper insight into that age group, until the counselor will look forward with greatest interest and delight to having the pupils of his department under the expert guidance of a particular adult. The teacher’s promotion is not like the pupil’s—from class to class—but in the larger and ever larger approval of the heavenly Of the Intermediate Department 49 ~ Father and of his colaborers as they witness his increasing power to lead group after group, year after year, into a larger and fuller Christian ex- perience. Need it be added that each personality with which the pupils of a department come in con- tact has something of its own to contribute to the growing lives of these immature beings? Is it not, therefore, unfortunate that any class should pass through the intermediate years in contact with only one personality, deprived of the contributions pos- sible from other equally worthy but different Chris- tian adults? QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why should pupils be graded? 2. What reasons can be given for separate classes for boys and girls at this age? 3. What information should be in hand to guide in grading? 4. Why is a happy and contented pupil to be chosen in preference to the opposite? 5. How large should intermediate classes be? 6. What readjustments might become necessary in class membership? 7. How may promotion best be’ handled? 8. What plans for placing and training his teachers should the counselor form to be of largest service to them? QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Carefully observe the intermediate classes in your Sunday school, answering the following ques- tions: 1. Is any pupil indifferent? If so, is indifference 50 Organization and Administration due (1) to his wrong placement or (2) to the teacher’s inability? Give reasons for the conclusions reached. 2. What items would you put into an efficiency record? Is a pupil of intermediate age able to esti- mate his own efficiency? Should such a card be sent to the parents? 3. In your church school do boys or girls pay more attention to social distinctions in the class? Suppose a boy or girl poorer than the average comes into the group; how is this person treated by the others? Base your replies on actual observation. : 4, Here is a boy somewhat younger than the aver- age of his class, somewhat behind in his school work, yet one of them in their social and recreational life. In size he is above the average of the group. How would you treat the matter.of grading in his case? 5. Aclass is built up by and around the personality of a teacher. He has won their attendance and now has a class of forty boys, in years from twelve to fifteen. If you were to grade a church school having this class, what steps would you take in their behalf? 6. A girl in an intermediate class refuses to be graded. If she has to go into the class where she belongs according to her years and her schooling she will leave the Sunday school. What would you do in her case? Would you let her go? What effect would this insubordination have upon the rest of the school? If you have actually had one of these too common cases, what did you do, and why? CHAPTER III THE ORGANIZED CLASS THE same reasons that were advanced for the organized department hold good for organizing the class. These young people, just emerging from childhood into youth, have before them the necessity of becoming self-reliant, self-directive persons. Com- pelled to codperate with other like personalities, they must be given every proper opportunity to learn how to live together codperatively. I€ is not enough that they grow up individually and negatively good. They must become personally but socially and ag- gressively righteous. They must learn how to line up with others in the active accomplishment of a worthy cause. They must discover how evil may become not only unpopular but impossible. They need to know not only how to work together in their employed time but how to utilize wisely their leisure time. In these days and in the midst of a democ- racy one cannot stress too strongly the need for living that is, first, self-directed, and, secondly, codperatively employed. THE CLASS IN THE INTERMEDIATE GROUP The class is the smallest social unit in the church school. A group of classes within certain rather (51) 52 The Organization and Administration clearly defined limits of age and interest make up the department. No definite limit can be set at which the class, as such, should be the organic unit or at which the department should begin. Obvious- ly in church schools in which a single class makes up all the group of intermediates the class and the de- partment are one, and only folly would counsel a dual organization. The organized class is the only organization needed. Even two classes—one of boys and the other of girls—may get on very well as separate classes, tied together by the influence, the wisdom, and the skill of the counselor; but for two or more classes the need of a department organiza- tion in addition to the class organization is soon © felt, and provision for such inclusive organization should be made. Two factors make for division into classes: one, the inexperience of our church-school teachers; the other, the larger opportunity afforded in the small group for the influence of the teacher’s personality. The class is instituted primarily for better pedagogi- cal efficiency. The class solidarity, both in interest - and in permanency, makes for the end desired. The homogeneity of the class is greater than the alike- ness of the department, and personal attachment and direct influence are increased as we move out of the larger number of the department into the smaller number of the class. Furthermore, the opportunities for free self-ex- pression are greatly enhanced in the compact life © Of the Intermediate Department 53 of the class. Social and recreational activities, as well as service priviliges, may be made available to every member of the smaller group, and the chances for free discussion and codperative thinking are possible only when the larger department breaks up into classes. Since the class is the social unit of the department, a relation exists between the organized class and the organized department. The department is com- mitted to a common program of action for the exe- - cution of which it is essential that each class perform its part. If, therefore, the class is unorganized, without machinery or habits of action, dependent on the spur of the teachers or the enthusiasm of the moment to get things done, the accomplishment of department ends will be greatly hindered if not altogether frustrated. On the other hand, where classes have their own organization, built up to accomplish the purposes determined by their co- operative thinking, in which the habits of working together are established and the sense of respon- sibility well formed, to carry out departmental plans becomes much more certain of accomplishment. The form of class organization.—The form of class organization should be as simple as is consistent with accomplishing good work. The class is organized to do something. The things it is to do are (1) to study and discuss the lesson; (2) to plan for Christ- like activities in philanthropic, civic, missionary, and other forms of service; (3) to provide for the 54° The Organization and Administration members of the class means of wholesome recreation- alexperience. (4) Todo these things the organization must be kept intact, its members enlisted and kept interested, and new life brought to it through the addition of. new blood. Like the department or- ganization, to which attention has already been called, the class organization has for its purpose not to bestow honors in the form of offices but to get something accomplished. | It must, however, have its officers. These are a president, a vice president, and a secretary-treasurer (there may be one or two officers for this task). The president should be chosen by the class; should possess, actually or potentially, the ability to lead; should have real Christian character in the making; and should have the power to originate and to execute the plans of the class. The office should be a schooling in leadership, and to that end its tenure need not be too long. His is the task of pre- siding at all meetings of the class, of seeing that the business and devotional activities of which he has charge on Sunday morning do not intrench upon . the teaching hour, and of stimulating loyalty and active participation in the life of the group. Asa member of the department council he represents the class, brings to the council matters from the class needing the codperation of the department, and carries back to his group the wishes and plans of the larger whole. The vice presidency puts one in training for the Of the Intermediate Department 35 higher office. This officer fills his superior’s place in the absence of the president and should, for train- ing purposes, be given at times the task of presiding in his presence. The secretary keeps the ceesaie of all meetings of the class. He also furnishes to the general secretary of the school the reports asked for in good shape and on time and keeps for the benefit of the class copies of these statistics. The secretary’s books should give the life history of the class, year by year, with all its enterprises. He should also correspond with absent members and keep them in touch with the life of the group. The treasurer, in like manner, keeps an accurate account of all moneys collected and spent, so that ,giving may become truly educational. At the business meetings of the group these records should furnish complete knowledge of all the class is under- taking. If birthday offerings are a part of the class program, the treasurer should keep a record of the time of each member’s birthday and should send greetings and reminders to each member during the birthday week. Let it be stressed that all money spent by the class, whether through the general treasury of the church school or by the class itself, should find record in the treasurer’s book. Other- wise, the class underestimates its giving. This simple organization may be expanded as much as conditions may warrant. In all classes some committees are necessary. The essential com- 56 The Organization and Administration mittees are membership and service; a recreation committee may be added. The membership committee, composed of three members or more, is charged with looking up absen- tees and with seeking new members as these move into the neighborhood. An interested class is likely to be a growing class, so that a part of the work of this committee is to see to it that each member is — employed in some happy enterprise, not to wait until absence makes action imperative. The. service committee performs for the class the. same duties that the like committee performs for the department. Philanthropic endeavors, such as helping a dependent child, sending to a children’s ward of a hospital or to an orphanage fruit, eggs, post cards, and linens, and aiding in the departmental service program are promoted and executed under the direction of this committee. Missionary interest is to be stimulated by them, and material aid, either in money or in things, furnished through them. Civic interests are also cared for by this group. The recreation committee also functions as does the like-named committee in the department. It seeks to furnish the class with recreation, providing a program that will be regular, fitted to the season, attractive to the entire class, and varied enough in its scope to meet the diversified interests of all., In all class committee work two different views are entertained by adult workers. One prefers to make standing committees who shall continue in Of the Intermediate Department 57 tee office for three or six months. The problem of the teacher and the president is in this case to keep the committee alive and acting. Another view is that, because the standing committee is hard to get to work at any age, and especially so at this age, it is better to have these committees appointed from time to time as need arises and to give them a specific task, after the performance of which the committee automatically disbands. Whichever method is adopted, the all-important thing is to get the com- mittee to do its work. This will take much advising, much encouragement, and constant oversight. If real self-direction and codperation are to become operative, the class will not only profit by the com- petence of the committee’s work but it must at times suffer from its neglect. The teacher of this group will constantly have to bear in mind the immaturity of the class and exercise his best abilities to hold the officers and the committees to their task. It should further be said that the three committees indicated are sufficient to place every member of the class in a position of responsibility, thus affording to all some training in leadership and in initiative. Meetings of the class—-From the foregoing dis- cussion it is obvious that the class will meet not only on Sunday morning for instruction and discussion, but at such other times as are necessary to promote its enterprises. A business meeting, which may be combined with a social gathering, needs to be held at least once each month. Recreational gatherings— 58 The Organization and Admintstration .- for hikes, for indoor and outdoor games, for work in dramatization, and for story-telling—should be held if possible as often as once each week. In fact, the larger opportunity for real recreational life among intermediates is found in the frequent gatherings of the individual classes rather than in the department group. THE TEACHING FORCE Up to this point attention has been directed to the class as a social unit and to its pupil officers and committees as persons through whom its thought and will are executed. But a class is incomplete without a teacher. He it is whose larger experience enables the class to reach out beyond its present limited knowledge and attainments, whose counsel and advice serves to augment and organize the con- certed opinions of the pupils, and whose skill pre- vents much useless waste of energy. Let us turn, then, to the selection, the training, and the function ~ of the teaching force in the Intermediate Depart- ment. We should keep in mind how they are related to the pupils of the class both as individuals and as a group. Selecting the teachers——The counselor usually se- lects his teachers. In general he will do well to choose those of the same sex as the class to be taught. A -man best understnads boys, and a woman girls. At this age in particular the-e are activities prac- tically demanding that one of their own sex should » be the leader of the group. Few women care to take Of the Intermediate Department 59 ——_—__ a party of boys out to spend the night on a hillside, and fewer men ought to think of taking a group of girls on such an errand. Athletic interests draw men to the boys even more than women to the girls. Besides, women can perform certain social tasks for their girls which a man cannot perform. While this is the general rule, it should be admitted that there are rare exceptions. A good woman. who will throw her life into the task can do vastly more for a group of boys than an irresponsible or selfish or lazy man. If the superintendent must choose between a capable and responsible woman and a careless or indifferent man, he had better choose the former by all means. It is rarely that the oppasite situation will arise. No rule can determine what should be the teacher’s age, although experience points to grave danger in selecting one whose age prevents active participation in the lives of the class. Youth is full of inexperience, but it is also keenly alive to the interests and ideals of the young, and responsibility for the welfare of others often develops unexpected balance and cau- tion. After all, it is not so much calendar age that counts as intellectual alertness and physical vigor. These boys and girls want adult companions—those who can think and act with them yet who possess the larger and richer experience of adult life. Moreover, it need hardly be said that in this age of general education when every boy and girl by his own right is immersed in the keen intellectual life 60 The Organization and Administration ae of school and of books, of motion pictures, and of newspapers, that the teacher must have at his com- mand the information that the pupils possess; that is, he must be of their general educational level. An adult who has lived apart from the world of to- day, whose mental life is too sluggish to respond to the quickening influence of modern thought, or who from mental indolence is unwilling to learn what and how the youth of to-day think is not the one to be chosen for this difficult task. True, we must select from what we have; but sometimes this se- lection seems to be made more on the basis of age and influence or of willingness to assume the position that upon any intelligent appreciation of what is involved in having an ignorant though morally good. and ‘“‘spiritually’’ aspiring person in charge of the thought life of boys and girls. How shall such a one answer the inquiries of youth about this physical world, about the moral problems, or the intellectual difficulties that faith confronts? If ever human life needs the help of sympathetic, clear-thinking minds, imbued with the spirit that was in the Master, this . is the age. So far as possible, the adult to be chosen as teacher should have reached a fair degree of achievement in the opinion of his fellows. A ne’er-do-well hardly typifies in his own person the sort of character we are expecting in the young. One need not to have ““succeeded,’’ as the world counts success, to make a most satisfactory church-school teacher, but he must Of the Intermediate Department 61 evince qualities that result in intelligent and ade- quate adjustment with his world and his fellow men if he is to command the respect and following of boys. The same may be said about the women teachers. Initiative is a prerequisite of good teaching, and these social achievements are indicative of such initiative. Two other qualities to be desired in the teacher are faithfulness and a sense of humor. The former is desirable in the teachers of all grades, but the latter is most essential in the teachers of boys and girls of this age. To take life too seriously, to be so devoid of the sense of fun that one may turn a joke into a most serious and painful situation, is to spell defeat before defeat. comes, Last, and greatest of all, must be character—fine, wholesome, gracious, manly, or womanly Christian character. Nothing else will take the place of this. These teachers are to be the epistles of Christ, read and known by every member of the class. What they are will count far more than what they say. What they teach will be, as one has well said, just themselves. For, after all, there is contagion in character; and goodness.is as catching, more catch- ing one gladly thinks, than badness. If such a teacher seems only to exist in the eal let one consider what these growing lives deserve. Shall they be led by one who is unwilling to go on toward perfection? Even if such ideal persons do not exist ready to be chosen, is it not well to have before us a picture of the sort of person we desire, so 62 The Organization and Administration that we may select from the men and women in our church the one combining in the highest degree the most of these qualities? Training the teacher—Selecting the best is only a part of the task of the counselor. His is the duty of training and counseling with these volunteer workers, who, more than anyone else, recognize their own limitations and imperfections and are, therefore, will- ing to be taught. And, however efficient these teachers may be already, there is always still room for further growth. | The pupils themselves compose a constant school of training if one will only give himself the chance to learn. Contact, frequent contact—in the church- school period and at play, in fun-loving sport and in acts of service, in their homes and out of doors in the great open, in summer and in winter—contact frequent and familiar, let it be repeated, is the best training for teaching youth that exists. Dull must that person be who can associate whole-heartedly with these boys and girls and not be taught the things - he most needs to know as their leader and teacher. Adulthood leads far from the thoughts and impulses of youth. Personal contact in work and in play soonest restores that insight into the mind and heart of the boy or the girl which alone can guide in suc- cessful teaching. ; But, besides this personal and educative contact one needs to fortify himself through reading the best books on teaching, on the psychology of adolescence, Of the Intermediate Department 63 and on all phases of the modern movement in re- ligious education. A selected list for such a worker is appended to this chapter. Reading may well be carried to other fields—those fields in which boys and girls are interested, such as juvenile stories, books of biography, and of heroic living, books that tell ‘“‘how to do” or “how to know”’ this or that. Anything and everything that is of interest to these pupils is a means for enriching one’s ability to think and to act with them. But the teacher’s training is dependent on a certain adventurousness, a willingness to experiment and to test the results of one’s experience, a willingness to try and fail, if need be, in order to know the better at the next attempt. ‘‘We learn by doing” is good pedagogy for the teacher as well as for the pupil. Planning ahead, working out plans, criticizing one’s own successes or failures, trying the new and the untried—these are the ways in which a teacher’s training comes. But in addition to all personal preparation of the teacher should be the constant oversight by the counselor of all his associates. Not a meddlesome inquisitiveness but a sympathetic helpfulness should characterize these efforts in their behalf. The all- too-common procedure is to put a teacher in charge of a class and then to let him wrestle alone with the problems he meets. No superintendent of a city public school and no principal of a ward school ever feels his duty discharged at this point. Many a 64 The Organization and Administration: mistake made by the inexperienced may be corrected and many a weakness overcome if only the wisdom of the counselor is ready in time. The waste of good teaching material in these departments because of lack of competent oversight and helpfulness is ap- palling. An intermediate council that shall act as a clearing house for ideas, as a means of inspiration, and as a source of aid and counsel for those beginning to teach is indispensable. | The incompetent teacher usually erelong elimi- nates himself. Sometimes more drastic measures must be pursued and recourse had to the general superintendent to dislodge the failure enamored of his job. Where incompetence comes from ignorance, training may save both the teacher and the class. If in the long run the class is suffering under the tutelage of one who either will not learn or who, because of lack of earlier training, cannot learn, then change is imperative. Let all kindness be shown. If possible promote such a worthy but in- competent soul to a task for which he is better fitted, but by no means let growing lives suffer at the hands of those who are totally incompetent and who are unwilling or unable to qualify to teach. And herein lies the manifest advantage of keeping teachers in a certain department and even in a certain grade of the department. If the end of grading for the pupil is his happiness and his progress, then for the teacher the end should be increased efficiency. Years of training in handling a certain age and in Of the Intermediate Department 65 teaching repeatedly the same lesson material should develop skill quite impossible to the novice. The teacher learns to know the interests, habits, and peculiarities of such an age group and has likewise mastered the essential facts of his lesson material to a degree that gives him large assurance and greater opportunity to devote himself to the individual needs of these fast-developing personalities. That is im- possible if he is always just on the margin of his teaching knowledge. Teachers are not equally com- petent to handle every grade. In course of time there will be discovered and developed a group of teachers who are masters of their trade and who have found the group best fitted to their abilities. THE FUNCTION OF THE TEACHER Perhaps this chapter on the class and its work can best be brought to a close by considering what is the function of the teacher. Obviously he is to teach; but teaching is not just ‘“‘telling.’’ It is stimulating the thought and activities of a class, that the pupils may know and experience a widening and a fuller life. Instruction is a part of the teacher’s task; in- spiring is another; directing the energies is another; affording new opportunities, new situations which demand new and more Christlike actions is another; helping pupils discover their own resources is still another. All these constitute the teacher’s task. His function is that of a big brother, hers that of a big sister, to these growing boys and girls. The: 5 66 The Organization and Administration _—_— teacher is a counselor, ever sympathetic, ever willing to help, ever ready to stand back and let the youth- ful impulse test itself out, ever wise to prevent irreparable disaster. Toward the department and the larger school he acts as the intelligent interpreter of the pupils under his care; toward his pupils he exercises the office of chief adviser concerning the plans, programs, and ideals of the larger group. He is the nexus between the official life of the church and the personal, private lives of each growing personality in his class. Development toward the Christian ideal, identification with the Christian enterprise, and full participation in the organized church are his desire for every one of his boys or girls. Let us formulate and summarize these diverse duties and privileges of the teacher: 1. As the adult member of the group he is the leader whose wisdom, skill, and sympathies command the respect and admiration as well as the loyalty of each and all. 2. As representing the church he is the superior © officer of the class, in and through whom the will of the church expresses itself. Conversely he expresses to the church the desires and purposes of the class. 3. As ex-officio member of committees he is the adult adviser in all class enterprises. 4. As specialist in his age group he is most com- petent to teach, to help, to guide. 5. As intimate associate of these boys or girls he Of the Intermediate Department 67 is best able to give vocational guidance as they pre- pare for or embark upon their life careers. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why should the class in the Intermediate Department be organized? How does class organi- zation promote departmental life and efficiency? 2. What are the officers, their qualifications and duties, in the organized class? 3. What committees are desirable? Should these be standing committees or temporary committees? Give reasons for your answer. 4. Name and discuss the qualifications of the teacher of intermediates. 5. What are the functions and duties of the teacher? . 6. In what ways may an alert person get training as an intermediate teacher? Which of the ways suggested seems to you to be most important? QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT 1. Ask a teacher of intermediates to list the exact number and purposes of all the meetings of the class for a period of six months. Analyze the results to see what parts of their religious training are being neglected. | 2. If an obligation of the class, say a missionary enterprise, was suffering through the inefficiency or the negligence of the committee, what would you do? Suppose a social, athletic, or other recreational ac- tivity failed through committee negligence; what would you do? 3. Select the most successful intermediate teacher whom you may observe. How far does each of the following characteristics enter into his success: 68 The Organization and Administration initiative; pedagogical skill; ability to think with his group; ability to organize their recreation; intimate knowledge of his pupils in their homes, their school life, and on the playground; fine, wholesome Chris- tian character; business or professional success, or, if a woman, her social standing? If each is scored fifteen as perfect, the whole will total 105. Mark the score and see how he stands. 4, If a teacher is willing to learn and quite capable to lead boys or girls yet lacks educational equipment, how would you recommend that he make up these deficiencies? Suppose, for example, he knows nothing about modern science; how could he learn? 5. Is it essential for a teacher of boys’ classes of the age under consideration to know anything about baseball? professional baseball? the batting averages of the best players? Why? 6. Give some good reasons for not wanting a man to teach a class of girls; a woman to teach a class of. boys. 7. Estimate the value of the following recreations for a class, determining whether for girls or boys: hiking, skating, baseball, basketball, track meet, Japanese tea, story-telling, basketry, radio, tennis, bacon bat, wiener roast, tracking, signaling, canoe- ing. Books DEALING WITH INTERMEDIATES Alexandria, John W.: The Sunday School and the Teens. Athearn, Walter: The Church School. Gibson, H. W.: Boyology. Harris, Hugh H.: Leaders of Youth. Maus, Cynthia: Youth and the Church. Of the Intermediate Depariment 69 Moxcey, Mary E.: Girlhood and Character, Leader- ship of Girls’ Activites. Slattery, Margaret: The Girl in Her Teens, The Girl and Her Religion. Leaders’ Manuals for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Camp Fire Girls. CHAPTER IV PROBLEMS OF EQUIPMENT Toots are never ends but means. They are the means by which better work may be accomplished or the same work done more easily. An ax, an auger, and a saw constituted the complete outfit of our pioneer forbears, and with these few simple tools they cleared the land, built homes, and furnished them. Their achievements, however, form no argu- ment against more and better tools-to-day. A modern house would be built with difficulty, if at all, with such poor implements. THE VALUE OF ADEQUATE EQUIPMENT The equipment of a modern church school con- | sists of the tools with which to do its work, and these tools should be sufficient to accomplish the best work with the least waste effort. Of course, the worker is the first essential. Tools will not use them- selves. It is idle to furnish good tools unless there is some one to use them, or there are those whocan be trained to their use. The best way to teach a boy the use of tools is to put them into his hands. Awk- ward at first, he will gain skill in their handling until he becomes a proficient workman. Is it not possible that, much as the church stands in need of (70) The Intermediate Department 71 competent teachers, it has almost equal need of adequate equipment? For, how in the absence of tools, can one ask capable workers to assume re- sponsibility for the religious education of the young? Can one hope to accomplish anything of value in the cluttered room unadapted to teaching, or to build programs of worship that shall develop the spirit of reverence in a school devoid of the pos- sibilities of departmental worship? Further, how can the inexperienced be trained to skill which re- quires tools that they do not possess? If, in despera- tion at their poor success, they resign, who is to blame? It is undoubtedly true that a good teacher is the secret of good church-school work; but it is also true that we have let the faithful workers at- tempt the well-nigh impossible task of making bricks without straw. Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other may once have constituted a college; but few college professors would accept a similar Arcadian position to-day. With all the best aids of the modern college they still feel their inability to meet the students’ needs; without these aids moderate success would be al- most hopeless. So important is equipment to the schools of to- day that this chapter will be devoted, first, to the consideration of what adequate equipment com- prises; and, secondly, a consideration of what may be done to remedy present conditions. i The Organization and Administration HousING SPACE 1. The assembly room.—The first essential-is a place in which to work. This department, if it is to carry on a fourfold program of worship, instruction, recrea- tion, and service, must have a home for its activities. No longer can any church contentedly ignore the imperative demand for adequate housing of the departments. For worship and for general business ees social assemblies the prime necessity is a room large enough to make each pupil comfortable, with additional space for visitors and for further growth in member- ship. During the week it is possible to make use of any large room for social or business meetings; but on Sunday, for the worship service, unless a certain room is set off for the particular use of the Intermediate Department, it will have to join with some other group, and thus the distinctive needs of intermediate pupils will inevitably be neglected. The size of this room depends on che size of the department, the standing rule being fifteen square feet of floor space for each pupil. This is to insure an abundance of air. Two hundred cubic feet of air space is another way of reckoning, for it must be taken into consideration that the height of rooms— varies considerably in church buildings. To obtain sufficient light so as not to induce eye strain thefe should be three square. feet of window space for each pupil. These are minimum not maximum require-_ ments. Of the Intermediate Department 73 In all cases the assembly room should be well lighted and attractive. That indefinable something called ‘‘atmosphere”’ is determined by the physical appointments of the room. Cheerfulness should characterize this atmosphere. While not partaking of the solemnity found in the more formal audi- torium of the church, the room should have nothing that detracts from the spirit of social worship. Hence it is that special attention needs to be given to the color scheme of the room. Disharmonies and bizarre color combinations are to be avoided. A person of keen esthetic sense should be sought to determine what the color combinations are to be. Tans, grays, buffs, or greens should prevail. This room is to be the very heart of all departmental life, and no pains or expense should be spared to make it best serve its purpose. 2. Classrooms.—Classrooms, one for each rae are essential. These rooms may be adjacent to the assembly room or further removed from it. To be near at hand economizes time, but at this age the pupils can pass readily to any part of the building; consequently, nearness to their assembly is not so essential as in some of the younger departments. But whether near or farther away these classrooms should be real rooms. No compromise of curtained alcoves or stalls will do. In a structure already completed the latter may have to be utilized for a time, but their shortcomings very quickly become apparent. First of all, they afford only partial 74 The Organization and Administration oe isolation. Noise from other classes comes through the curtain or screen. Next, without four walls a room has insufficient wall space to put up blackboards, maps, and other necessary aids. Last of all, they fail to furnish the “homey” atmosphere that gives security to the developing class spirit. The ideal classroom must conform to the recog- nized rules for size and window space just given for the assembly room. For ten pupils the room should not be less than 10x12 feet. A difficult problem arises at this point in view of the prevailing tendency to house both church and church school under one roof. To get enough classrooms each is built too small; and to get them under one roof window space and ventilation are sacrificed. In consequence there is growing appreciation of the church-school build- ing, adjacent to but separate from the church itself. But whatever the future may have for us, to-day the necessity for a four-walled, plastered, and there- by partially sound-proof room for each class is clearly demonstrated. _ The decoration of these rooms, like the coloring of the assembly room, is a matter of more than passing importance, Here also the effect desired is cheer- fulness and a general sense of the artistic which shall minister to the quickened esthetic consciousness of the pupils. 3. Cloakroom and kitchenette-——In addition to the rooms already mentioned each department needs at least. one cloakroom—better, two. Especially in Of the Intermediate Department cay the colder climates these are necessary in behalf of good health, to provide for the outdoor garments during the hour or hour-and-a-half session; and in all climates provision for the hats of the boys reduces to the vanishing point the possibility of their being used as missiles. If good order and system have a place in character development, the school does well to make orderliness a convenient virtue. These rooms should of course be provided with ample hooks, pegs, hangers for hats and wraps, and racks to hold rubbers and wet unbrellas. They should be adjacent to the assembly room for convenience’ sake. As more or less of the school life of the depart- ment is to be carried on in the assembly room, it is convenient to have a kitchenette at hand. The main kitchen of the church may be used, but in the larger churches it may be removed from the de- partment, and it is likely to be occupied just when the department has planned one of its own social func- tions. 4. Gymnasium.—If{ a church has a gymnasium, it may serve the purposes of indoor recreation for this department. It is doubtful if church gymna- siums are as universally necessary as is often con- sidered. The recreational life of intermediate boys and girls is best had in the open air. About the church may frequently be found adequate space for tennis, volley ball, and basket ball courts. In many parts of the United States these may be used nearly 76 The Organization and Administration all the year. To follow the seasons with appropriate seasonal sports is better than to stick to certain types of fun. In congested cities, however, a gym- nasium should be provided which at times should be set apart for this department, and during these periods it should be considered a part of the depart- mental equipment. The gymnasium, if properly placed and cared for, may be used as the assembly room of the department. This, however, increases the difficulty of creating a worshipful atmosphere. THE FURNISHINGS The next essential after housing the departments is to provide furniture adequate to their needs. 1. The assembly room should be furnished with chairs, simple in design but substantial in quality. .Bookracks fastened to the backs of the chairs furnish convenient places in which to keep hymnals. Pupils of the Intermediate Department are so rapid- ly approaching fully mature stature and the worship period is of such comparatively short duration that it is hardly necessary to use other than full-sized — chairs. But caution should be taken not to pur- chase chairs more than seventeen inches high or, having purchased, to lower them. The other furniture of the assembly room consists of a well-tuned piano, a table for the president and the counselor, a desk or table for the secretaries, a bookcase, and a victrola. So far as possible the furniture should match. The bookcase is to hold Of the Intermediate Department 77 reference books and hymnals where bookracks are not provided. It may also keep such pictures and other illustrative matter as the workers need from time to time. Untidiness of this case is to be avoided by making some member of the department custo- dian of its treasures. The secretaries’ table or desk should be provided with drawers and index files to meet the needs of the work. Experience alone can tell what may be needed at this point. A victrola is a decided addition to the room. It is of use in worship to train pupils in appreciation of religious music of real worth. Further reference to this will be found when discussing worship programs. The instrument is of further use on social evenings when the department is gathered in its home for recreation. 2. Intermediate classrooms must have chairs enough for all, a table about which the class shall sit, and a bookcase or bookshelf for reference books. The chairs should be of a height to give comfort to the pupils. Some prefer the desk-arm chair, which does away with the need for a large table. Some of the intermediates, especially the twelve-year olds, are yet undeveloped physically and need to have lower chairs and tables. The class session is longer than the brief worship period, and to work at tables while sitting upon chairs not adjusted to one during this period tends to discomfort and _ slovenliness of posture. | 3. Accessories—Besides furniture, certain acces- sories are needed as aids to good work. These may 78 The Organization and Administration ~_ be enumerated briefly as blackboards, pictures, stereopticon or motion-picture machine, reference books, hymn books, and maps. Each classroom should be provided with a blackboard, preferably fastened securely to the wall. The cloth board is a pocr substitute for a real blackboard. Both assem- bly rooms and classrooms are greatly improved by adding suitable pictures. These should be well- executed reproductions of some of the great works of religious art. It is better to buy a few well-chosen pictures, large enough to be seen by all, than to dis- tribute the picture money among many inferior or small pieces of art. Hofmann’s “Christ Among the — Doctors”’ is among the best. ‘‘Sir Gallahad’’ makes a peculiar appeal at this time of life. Others are “The Man with the Hoe,’ Millet; ‘‘Moses,”’ Michelangelo; ‘‘The Angelus,’’ Millet; “Frieze of the Prophets,’’ Sargent.’ If the photos or crayon likeness of former worthy pastors must be displayed, let them be placed in some room devoted to adults, certainly not in these rooms. A stereopticon or picture machine is a valuable — addition to the outfit of the assembly room. These machines may now be purchased through the denom- inational publishers or direct from the manufacturers. They furnish valuable aid both to the program of worship and to the social gatherings of the group. A machine belonging to the entire school may be shared; or this department may purchase one as a 1For a list see The Church School, Athearn, pages 242-43. Of the Intermediate Department 79 part of its activities, sharing it with other depart- ments.. Slides may be rented from various agencies. The choice of religious films should be carefully made, as much cheap work is on the market. These, too, may be obtained on a rental basis. Certain reference books will be needed by all; other works of this sort may be chosen for certain classes. The general library of the department should contain not only reference books for lesson pre- paration but also a good assortment of books about boy and girl life for teacher training, Bible and mis- sionary geographies, encyclopedias, books on Scout- craft, camping, recreation, etc. Maps are needed for classes or for the department as a whole, their selection being determined by the courses of study followed. Maps of Bible lands and of missionary fields are the chief need. The simpler these are in detail, the better. Some of the best maps for the department should be the product of the pupil’s effort; opportunity should be furnished to make them in sand or plastecine, that the relief of a country may be appreciated. These are better than the ready-made ‘‘relief maps,’’ as making them impresses the geographical situation more clearly and more firmly upon the mind. The class library will be restrictea to those books actually needed for class work, such as a Bible dic- tionary, an English dictionary, Bibles, and the like. Each room will provide books according to its own needs. Unless the table is supplied sufficiently with 80 The Organization and Administration drawers, filing cases, one box for each pupil, are con- venient devices for keeping crayons, pictures, and other paraphernalia These boxes should have a neat rack or be kept upon the shelf with the books. RECORDS Records for departments and for classes are con- sidered part of the equipment. The general secre- tary of the church school is likely to determine what general records he desires kept, just as the treasurer determines what sort of reports he wishes to accom- pany the offerings when they come to him. How- ever, the department and each class. will likely be allowed liberty as to the form of permanent records used. ; The secretary of the department will need: 1. Enrollment cards (see page 35). 2. Attendance record This may either be a bale: a loose-leaf file, or a card file. The items to enter are: Month vores tase ne ee Total | New En. Att. | Att. | Att. | Att. | Att. Att. |Mem. Lost En. Class 1 ee | | | SS | | | OO Oe a + | ee | | | | Le a a | ee | | | ef ee i | | | | Etc. Total for month 3. Secretary’s record book.—This book should contain an accurate record of all meetings of the department, together with all matters of business | transacted, programs of worship or of recreation fol- Of the Intermediate Department 81 lowed, and service activities attempted. Without this the history of the department is soon lost. Profiting by past successes or failures without it becomes impossible. 4. Birthday record—Cards giving name and date of birth, arranged in a file by months, enable the secretary to send out birthday congratulations and good wishes. If a corresponding secretary is elected, this may be part of his task. The treasurer of the department will need: 1. An account book, on which he enters every receipt and credits each item of expense. This is the property of the department and should be open to the inspection of any member at any time. The receipts should include the offerings from classes, each class offering being kept separate; income from socials, lectures, concerts; gifts, etc. The outgo of money should include what is paid each Sunday to the general treasurer of the school, to expense of the department, to service activities, etc. The secretary and the treasurer of each class will need to keep records much like those just described. All record books of the classes and of the department should be examined at least twice each year to make certain what shape they are in. This will tend to check carelessness. Special committees may be appointed for this purpose. If standards of attainment or of efficiency, such as those described on page 46, are to be used, cards or a record book for this purpose will have to 6 82 The Organization and Administration be considered part of the class equipment. These records may be kept by the secretary of the class or by the teacher himself, as seems best. So far as possible it is well to create a feeling of responsibility for one’s own marks, so that each may be trusted to keep his own score. Thus far housing, furniture, accessories, and records have been considered, altogether making up the complete equipment of the Intermediate De- partment and its classes. It is well to reconsider these items in the light of the actual limited facilities at the disposal of many church schools. Certain adaptations can be made to meet present conditions. UTILIZING THE PRESENT BUILDING Until adequate housing is provided, it is well to look over the present church plant carefully to see if every available portion of space is being utilized. An overcrowded department may find a basement that can be renovated and made its assembly room, Although far from ideal, this room is much better than having to join in the ‘general exercises” of the entire school, for it does give opportunity for development in worship. In some churches the auditorium is abandoned during the church-school hour, and here may be found admirable quarters for departmental efforts. It is possible, in some com- munities, to have the Intermediate, Senior, and Young People’s Departments meet at a different hour from the one at which the children’s depart-. Of the Intermediate Department 83 ments meet, thus increasing housing facilities. Even in the one-roomed structure curtains or screens made of beaver board may partition a part of the room for class and department activities, singing excepted. Curtains, while least desirable, may be employed as a last resort. Urgent need and repeated requests may succeed in getting an addition built to the church building sufficient to house the department. Failing this, “huts” of the type Uncle Sam built for the soldiers can be constructed upon the church grounds for a small sum, most of the materials being obtained by donation, and the work in large part being done by members of the department. To demonstrate to the church membership that the pupils of these departments need, ask for, and are able to utilize better accommodations and equipment is the first step to obtaining them. Not to utilize to the fullest the present inadequate building, not to show inventive- ness in making the most out of present conditions, is the surest way to prevent the coming of aid. It is not lack of money that prevents our boys and girls from having accommodations they so richly deserve; it is lack of vision and of initiative to demonstrate their determination to do their best to have what they need. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why is adequate equipment essential to suc- cessful departmental work? 84 The Organization and Administration 2. For what is the assembly room used? . How is its necessary size to be determined? 3. What equipment should the assembly room contain? 4. What size should the classrooms be? 5. What equipment should they contain? QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 1. Describe accurately the present accommodations of the Intermediate Department of your church. How far are these accommodations adequate? Is there room for growth? | 2. Describe, likewise, its equipment. 3. How can the church school set about to provide the needed tools? 4. What equipment has your church for the recreational life of the young? For instance, has ita | gymnasium? a basket ball court? a tennis court? a volley ball net and ball? (These can be put up any- where and used by any number of persons.) Is there a social room for evening gatherings of classes or of the whole department? a kitchen or kitchenette? 5. If yours is a country church, has the church used the church yard for any other purpose than a place in which to bury its dead? Is there room on the church lot for some of the things mentioned above? How would the older people of the church feel toward putting the lot at the disposal of the young? 6. Ask your secretary to show you the records of the church school for the preceding five years. If he does not have them, try to find them. When found, see how much the church has gained or lost in those years. What changes have come in keeping the records? Have any other facts than these statis- tics been preserved? For instance, can you tell how Of the Intermediate Department 85 many meetings of the teaching force were held during the years gone by and can you learn what was done at these meetings? Is there any record of the wor- ship services used during the years? 7. Consider if the present inadequate equipment in your school is due to: (1) prejudice against any- thing new; (2) lack of money; (3) lack of thought; (4) procrastination; (5) indifference or plain laziness. CHAPTER V TRAINING IN WORSHIP THE Sunday program of the Intermediate De- partment is made up of two distinct parts. One part consists of worship and fellowship; the other of class instruction, discussion, and expression. The former period, coming either at the beginning or at the close of the school session, is from fifteen to thirty minutes in length. If the entire school period is only one hour, one third of it should be devoted to worship; if the session has an hour and a quarter or more, the worship period may be length- ened by five to ten minutes. The arguments in favor of placing the worship before the class period are: (1) It starts the department together, (2) it provides that late comers shall not miss the class period, and (3) it leaves the teacher opportunity to close the lesson without the necessity of inter- ruption at a critical moment. In favor of the reverse program are the following considerations: (1) Wor- ship is quite as essential as instruction and should not be slighted, (2) the minds of the pupils are fresher at the beginning and therefore can give better attention to the lesson, and (3), having settled down during the class period, the pupils are in a. more devotional frame of mind. Local conditions, (86) The Intermediate Department ~ 87 such as distance of members from the church, other church services, and the like, will have to be taken into account. The position of the worship period before or after the lesson is not so vital as that during it the boys and girls shall actually worship. The gathering of the department in its own as- sembly room is essential to the best worship. How- ever, the absence of a separate assembly room does not totally preclude a separate service. After a ten- minute general worship service in the one-room church further worship by departments may be carried on if singing is omitted. For this reason a consideration of worship for intermediates, its need, its methods or program, and its standards of success is of value to every worker with pupils of these ages. THe APPEAL IN WORSHIP Good teaching makes its appeal to the intellect. Worship, on the other hand, makes its primary appeal to the emotions. Its purpose in all ages and under whatever form has been to put the worshiper on terms of greater fellowship with his God. Wher- ever worship has been carried on in common with another fellow worshiper it has further tended to bind the two together into a more intimate relation, because both have been stimulated by like emotions. They have literally “felt together,’ and this is the essence of sympathy. During the early adolescent years two things that demand careful attention to the worship life of 88 The Organization and Administration the pupils are taking place. First of all, they are awakening to the deeper meaning of things about them. Nature ceases to be a bundle of trees, grass, sticks, stones, animals, and inanimate objects loose- ly tied together; nature has an inner meaning now which it never had before. The very processes of life, including birth and death, seem driven on by some hidden Power. Skies are discovered to possess beauties never before seen. And not nature alone but human nature has its revelations also. New mean- ings are being discovered in others as well as in our- selves. We have learned that actions have their sources in the deeper fountain of the heart; hence, it is not enough to know the deeds of others: we must know the motives, the feelings, the inner springs of action. The awakened emotional life of the ado- lescent vibrates to these new meanings. But not only is youth awakening to inner mean- © ings; it is discovering the joy of social feeling. The emotions of the group seize and fairly sweep the boy or girl out of himself to some new elevation or, unfortunately, to some new depth. There is a danger in leaving these feelings untrained. It is unfortunate to pass through these years and miss learning the value and power of lofty, elevated feelings, to fail to tie these personal emotions to some object worthy of their most profound expression, not to discover these same lofty feelings in others of one’s own age and kind. Now, worship in the separate Intermediate De- Of the Intermediate Department 89 partment may fit so well into the experience of youths, meet so fully their quest of inner meaning- fulness, and satisfy so thoroughly their group con- sciousness that their attitudes toward the Infinite and toward those other finite beings like themselves shall be surcharged with the Christian spirit. Music, prayer, Scripture, story, all that goes to make up a worship program should be chosen to guide the emotional life of the pupils. The fact that worship is enjoyed together with others of his own years and experience tends to widen for each that appreciation of the sublime, the lofty, the nobler sentiments that move his fellows as they move himself. THE WORSHIPFUL EMOTIONS What feelings are to be aroused in these periods of worship? Toward God are feelings of (1) gratitude expressing themselves in praise and thanksgiving; (2) confidence and trust, manifesting themselves in expressions of faith; (3) wonder, awe, and depend- ence, expressing themselves in acts of reverence and in the language of adoration; (4) devotion to God and his cause, expressing itself in words and acts of loyalty to him and to his followers; (5) love or good will, expressing itself in terms of affection and friend- ship. Toward each other there may be aroused (1) See Worship in the Sunday School, New-York, 1913, Harts- horne, for a complete philosophy of worship in relation to religious education. 90 The Organization and Administration a er —— feelings of love and good will, and (2) feelings of comradeship in a cause. The last is evidenced by such hymns as “Dare to Be a Daniel’’ (not a classic but nevertheless written for this specific purpose) and ‘Courage, brother, do not stumble Though the path be dark as night; There’s a star to guide the humble. Trust in God and do the right.”’ *‘Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart!’’.is another of the Same type. If these are the feelings that are to. Bs inspired, then, as Hartshorne suggests, we should arrange our worship so as to embody these ideas, keeping to a certain idea long enough, say a month or more, until it shall have had time to make a lasting im- pression. PREPARING THE PROGRAM Obviously there must be preparation for worship if it shall minister intelligently to so high an end. The responsibihty.—lIn the intermediate years the burden of such preparation must rest upon the counselor; but by no means should he assume the full responsibility for the program. The president of the department is to carry the program to execd- tion as the presiding officer of the group. The wor- ship committee’ is charged with arranging the pro- 2See page 24. Of the Intermediate Department O1 gram and with securing those who shall take part. One or more of the teachers may be called in from month to month to assist in building up these pro- grams. The counselor may lay out the general outline of the year’s worship programs, suggesting such subjects as are appropriate and noting the special days that must be incorporated in it. With such an outline before them the counselor and the president, with the program committee and such other pupils as they may desire, should develop from week to week the specific program for the approach- ing Sunday. The president and his coworkers should be given the full responsibility of securing the actual participation of those members of the department or of persons outside whose services are needed to make the program effective. If some one is to be asked to sing or to recite a biblical or other selection or to tell a story, let the pupils assume the duty of securing such help. To make such programs worth while they must be planned far enough ahead to secure the willing and efficient codperation of those desired. Such planning should not be undertaken during the Sunday session but at some convenient hour during the week. The parts of the program on which dependence is placed to arouse the described emotions are music, prayer, and a story or talk. Music.—Music is the chief means for arousing emotional reactions both in religious and in secular life. Witness the place song played in the recent 92 The Organization and Administration tide of patriotic zeal. Community singing became popular and tremendously effective. In religious life both vocal and instrumental music may be uti- lized. The great musical compositions, when well executed, have a powerful effect upon the emotions. Because of the limited musical ability available in many communities the victrola has been suggested as an addition to the equipment of the department. A suggestive list of records follows which may be supplemented at will with a large number of other suitable records from the usual catalogues: Beethoven ‘‘ Adagio” from ‘‘ Fourth Symphony.’’ “‘Andante”’ from “ Fifth Symphony.” Gounod ‘“‘Unfold, Ye Portals Everlasting.”’ ‘“There Is a Green Hill Far Away.” Handel ‘Hallelujah Chorus.”’ “He Shall Feed His Flock.”’ “He Was Despised.”’ “‘O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings.”’ Haydn ‘“The Heavens Are Telling.” Hymns 7 ‘‘One Sweetly Solemn Thought.” ‘Abide with Me.” ) ALLO velity ‘Holy Night.” Of the Intermediate Department 93 Mendelssohn “Spring Song.”’ ‘“Consolation.”’ éé Hope.”’ “I Waited for the Lord.” “If with All Your Heart.” *“How Lovely Are the Messengers.’’ Orchestra “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.’’ “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.” ‘Joy to the World.” Wagner ““Walkiire.”’ Where good instrumental or vocal music can be had, it should be utilized. It is not suggested that all music of the department should be of highest artistic standards, though the selections should al- ways be of worth-while music. Utilizing the pupils’ skill for special numbers should be encouraged. Musical talent, sufficiently advanced to establish final standards of taste, is not likely to be found in the ages under consideration. For this purpose the best musicians are none too good. All that has been said of standards in victrola and personally executed music applies equally to hymn se- lection. Here the well-known is not always the best. Cheap songs have cheapened musical appreciation. New standards must beset and new ideals established. Various selections have been made for this depart- ment. One list of considerable length may be found in Leaders of Youth (Harris), page 128; another is found in 94 The Organization and Administration The Church School (Athearn), page 197. Miss Maus, in Youth and the Church, suggests that all hymns for these pupils should consist of three types: ‘‘Those that express the individual religious experience—‘Nearer, My God, to Thee,’ ‘O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go’; those that express the idea of social goodness or the goodness of the group—‘Faith of Our Fathers,’ ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’; and those that express the idea of world salvation—’Jesus Shall Reign,’ ‘Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life.’”” The unfortunate fact is that our hymnals are overflowing with hymns of the first type, fairly supplied with those of the second type, and sadly lacking in those of the third. However, hymns of this third type are being written and coming into use as new hymnals appear. Bible reading—Our dependence on the English Bible for our vocabulary, imagery, and spirit of worship is too well known to need comment. The perfunctory reading of a portion of Scripture is to be discouraged, but all the more should be encouraged the wise selection of biblical matter for the de- votional service. Such selections should always be made in view of the subject of the hour. The Bible is rich in every variety of religious thought and feeling if we will only seek the appropriate matter. For variety’s sake these selections may be used in concert readings, as responsive readings, or by the leader only. Well-known passages that have been Of the Intermediate Department 95 memorized in junior years are well worth repeating in concert. Prayer.—Two forms of prayer serve the needs of the intermediates: those which are somewhat formal and are entered into by all, and those which are extemporary. The former enrich the prayer vo- cabulary of the pupils and give the sense of common worship.. Unfortunately, we have permitted our use of formal prayers to lapse into the repetition of the Lord’s Prayer. Other rich prayer material may be found in the Psalms, in the English prayer book, and in other rituals. There is nothing to prevent and everything to encourage the writing of department prayers. These should be memorized and become the real expression of the devotional life of the pupils. Pupils may be discovered who can make in this way a real contribution to departmental life. Voluntary prayers in departmental worship should be confined chiefly to the teachers or to other adults. Needless to say, these should never be mere repe- titions of customary words but vital and vivid ut- terances of the soul’s real needs. The younger pupils should not be asked to participate in this part of worship while they are still so self-conscious that such participation would be unnatural. Their training in extemporary prayer is best given in the smaller class groups. At the close of the story or talk prayer lifts the worshipers directly into the presence of the unseen Friend and ties all the earthly life up with the Reality that is felt but not seen. 96 The Organization and Administration a Where sufficient training has already been given, pupils may be called upon for this ‘extemporary prayer. The talk or story—The story or talk is intended to give direction to the thought of the program. Lives and deeds of heroism, of self-sacrifice, and of nobility; anecdotes illustrating the needs of our fellows and the possibilities of our codperation in supplying those needs; brief discussion that shall lift the plain duties of life out of the realm of the commonplace and shall put them on the high plane of opportunity—these are -the sort of things that should constitute the stories and talks. Facts in — plenty are to be utilized, but poetry and narrative . that have in them more of truth than fact itself are not to be overlooked. Hence, a constant search for suitable material in biography, history, current events, books of poetry, and the rich abundance of fiction must be made by the counselor. Working out details —Three steps in building pro- grams of worship are: first, selecting the theme for the day; secondly, selecting the material that shall en- ter into the program—music, prayer, Scripture selec- tion, and story; and, lastly, the choice of those who shall be responsible for the various parts of the pro- gram. As has been suggested, the secretary of the department should keep copies of each program together with an accurate statement of their success together with their points of weakness. Selecting the persons to appear upon the program Of the Intermediate Department 97 is by no means the least important matter either. Making use of student ability is altogether desirable, especially if the teacher or counselor will be certain to see that proper training is given to the one who is to participate. This does not mean dress rehearsals, but simply certainty that the person knows exactly what is expected of him, that he will give careful preparation to his part, and that he will be certain to let the leader know atthe earliest moment if through unforeseen occurrence his absence becomes necessary. Such additional help is needed as may arise from the pupil’s own limited knowledge. Again, let it be repeated, the end of all this pro- gram planning is that the pupils may have a worship service fitted to their intellectual level and awaken- ing in them the right emotions toward God, their fellow men, and themsleves. The art of building programs of worship is not attained at the first attempt. Nevertheless, it is not an impossible art for anyone who will go thought- fully and painstakingly about it. Experience will give greater skill, and soon a point will be reached when the joy of meeting the devotional needs of the pupils will well repay all efforts. SUGGESTIVE PROGRAMS Some programs of different types which may be useful as suggestions here follow: 7 98 The Organization and Administration © THEME: GRATITUDE Processional: ‘‘Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.’’ Responsive service: A Psalm of Thanksgiving (for example, Psa. 103; 34: 1-10; or 95: 1-7). The Lord’s Prayer, or other prayer, in unison. Announcements, brief as possible during worship peroid. Offertory: Offering received. Hymn of gratitude and thanksgiving: ‘‘To Thee, O Lord, Our Hearts We Raise.” Prayer by leader, giving thanks. Bible reading: ‘‘Expressing Gratitude”’ (for ex- ample, 2 Cor. 9: 5-12). . Story, showing gratitude; illustrated by ‘‘ What Bradley Owed” from Story Sermons, Kerr; or similar stories, or by missionary material carrying out the theme of gratitude. Sentence prayer, clinching the thought of gratitude and asking for help in the lesson period. | Recessional to classes: ‘‘I Love to Tell the Story”’ from The Opening Service in the Young People’s Department. THEME: THE MESSAGE OF MUSIC Organ (or victrola) prelude. Hymn: ‘“‘O, Worship the King.” Short talk on ‘“‘The Message of Mustc.’’ Material may be found in the Manual for Training in Wor- ship, Hartshorne, page 45; ‘‘Music,” page 80; *‘Music and Prayer,’ page 81. Introduction to Handel’s ‘‘Largo,” followed by “* Largo,’ as piano or organ solo. Call to worship: Oh, come, let us sing before Jehovah; Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. (Psa. 95: 1.) Of the Intermediate Department 99 Short skeich of the life of Martin Luther as a hymn writer, introducing the hymn ‘‘A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.’’ Material for talk found in Famous Hymns of the World,” Sutherland, pages 159-78. Prayer of consecration by department counselor or by one of the teachers. ITymn: “Faith of Our Fathers.” Processtonal to classes. (Note: If time does not permit of so long a service, eliminate the first song rather than omit any of the verses from ‘‘A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.’’)— From Youth and the Church, Maus. THEME: GOD'S GREATNESS AS REVEALED IN NATURE Prelude: ‘‘The Creation,’’ Hadyn (record) Hymn: “Oh, Worship the King.” Responsive service: Psalms. 8 or 19. Prayer in concert: ‘‘O God, we thank thee for this universe, our home; for its vastness and its riches, and for the manifoldness of the life that teems upon it and of which we are part. We praise thee for the arching sky and the blessed winds, for the driving clouds and the constellations on high. , We praise thee for the salt sea and the running water, for the everlasting hills, for the trees, and for the grass under our feet. We thank thee for our senses by which we can see the splendor of the morning and hear the jubilant songs of love and smell the breath of the springtime. Grant us, we pray thee, a heart wide open to all this joy and beauty. . . . Enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all the living things, our little brothers, to whom thou hast given this earth as their home in common with us. . . . May we realize that they,live not for us alone but for themselves and for thee, and that they love the 100 The Organization and Administration sweetness of life even as we. . . . When our use of this world is over, and we make room for others, may we hand on our common heritage fairer and sweeter through our use of it.’”—Rauschen- busch.s Story of the stars (for material see Parables. from Nature, Gatty). Prayer by the counselor. | Hymn: ‘‘For the Beauty of the Earth.” THEME: PURITY OF HEART Prelude: ‘‘The Walkiire,’’ Wagner (record). Concert recitation: The Beatitudes. Hymn: ‘Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart.” Story: “Sir Galahad.” (For material see Idyls of the King, Tennyson; also The Boy's King Arthur. For a good setting to the telling of the story see The Use of the Story in Religious Education, Eggles- ton, pages 87, 88.) Prayer by counselor or teacher. Hymn: ‘Courage, Brother, Do Not Stumble,” or ‘‘I Would Be True.” | Themes for use with intermediates may include among others the following: Seasonal themes, such as Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Patriotism. (See Stories for Every Holiday, Bailey.) Special days, such as Rally Day, Sunday-School Day or Children’s Day, Mother’s Day. Birthdays of great men, such as Washington, Lincoln, Lee. (See George Washington, the Chris- tian, by W. J. Johnson.) ! 3From Prayers of the Social Awakening, Rauschenbusch;_ published by the Pilgrim Press; used by permission. Of the Intermediate Department 101 Missionary biography. (See Making Missions Real, by J. S. Stowell; Servants of the King; Live Stortes of Great Missionaries; and The Book of Missionary [eroes.) Stories of great men. | Nature (See Parables from Nature, Gatty). How God speaks to us. Courage and heroism. Unselfishness. CONDITIONS FOR A WoRSHIPFUL ATMOSPHERE Chapter IV considers at length the matter of furnishing as well as housing the department. In this may be found some further suggestions for creating in the surroundings an atmosphere that shall be conducive to prayer, meditation, and wor- ship. Here let it be stated that good worship, while not totally dependent on the physical surroundings, especially in adult years, is in these formative years greatly helped by a-wise environment. A well- appointed room with such conveniences as comfort- able chairs, enough hymn books, orderly arrange- ment, a good musical instrument, and appropriate works of art greatly enhance the probability of eliciting the spirit of worship in the pupil group. Further, the attitude of the counselor and the teachers has much to do with getting the right re- sponse. When these adults possess a real spirit of worship they communicate the same spirit to their pupils. The pupils must feel that their leaders are genuinely worshiping, not playing at worship. 102 The Organization and Administration © The entire service should possess a spirit of reverence and dignity, at once removed from stilted formality on the one hand and from flippant enthusiasm on the other. Real sociability is not contrary to good worship, but a happy-go-lucky spirit is. Programs of worship should aid in worship. If, on the contrary, they beget a spirit of dead formality they fail to achieve their purpose and may be the means of killing the very spirit they are intended to promote. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Where should worship be placed in the Sunday program? 2. To what in our reiugious consciousness does worship make primary appeals? 3. What attitudes are to be established through worship? 4. Who shall prepare the program? Who shall execute it? 5. What types of hymns should be selected for — Intermediates? Why? 6. Who should offer voluntary prayer in this de- partment? 7. Of what should the talk or story consist? QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 1. Make out a program using as its central theme ‘“‘Courage.’’ Supply all details. 2. Using your own hymn book, classify the hymris under the headings suggested by Miss Maus. 3. Would you use unfamiliar music in the pro- gram of worship? Would you stop the service to Of the Intermediate Department. 103 teach this new music? When and how would you increase the pupils’ familiarity with good music? 4. If a pupil proves incompetent to lead the wor- ship program, would you let him fail or take the program out of his hands? What else might be done? : 5. Make a list of special days that you think the department ought to observe. 6. Get the pupils of the Intermediate Depart- ment to write several department prayers. Select the best one and use it. Note the interest the pupils have in their own creation. 7. Discuss with two or three intermediates whom you know well what prayer means to them and what they pray for. Becertain to make this a constructive and helpful matter to the boys or girls. CHAPTER VI PROBLEMS OF DEPARTMENT MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION | INSTRUCTION is to be considered in this chapter only in so far as the organization and administration of the department and of the various classes con- cern success in the teaching process. For a com- plete discussion of the lesson materials for this age, as well as of the methods of teaching by which these materials may most successfully be used, the reader is referred to the text on teaching materials and methods for intermediates in this teacher-training series of specialization studies for intermediate workers. Successful teaching rests upon something more than the technique of teaching and the right choice of lesson material. Among the other matters that concern good teaching, either directly or indirectly, are the time allotted to the class period, the pro- gram of the class hour, the pupils’ home study, the supervision of teachers, tests of their efficiency and standards for their guidance, and, finally, super- vision and discipline of the pupils. These topics will be considered in their order. LENGTH OF CLASS PERIOD The class period in many of our schools is ridicu- (104) The Intermediate Department 105 lously short—sometimes infinitesimal. From fifteen to twenty minutes is the entire time allotted each. week to religious instruction in a large part of the Protestant church. ‘‘Thirty minutes a week for religious instruction in Protestant churches, whereas in the day school the instruction in mathematics would be equivalent to forty-one years of Sunday- school instruction.’’* The facts are really more appalling than even this statement of the case sug- gests. Before asking for more time, however, the two following considerations should be given due weight: first, the class period, though small, should be jealously guarded; and, secondly, it should be fully utilized. What is the actual procedure in many schools? First, to start late. Thereby every part of the day’s program is injured. Sometimes the worship program suffers; quite as often, if not more frequently, the class period is curtailed. But start- ing late is not the only affliction suffered. Inter- ruptions occur, visitors enter late, the secretary bustles in and out distracting attention, the super- intendent comes around with a belated notice, some well-meaning but thoughtless friend introduces himself to ‘‘say a word’”’ to the class. All in all, the class period is badly dissipated by these intruders on its insufficient time. 1This statement was printed in a child-welfare exhibit held in New York City, according to W. H. Gibson. See Boyology, page 233. 106 The Organization and Administration Now, all such vexatious annoyances can be avoided if the administration of the department become efficient. It is the counselor’s duty to safeguard the teaching hour. He is to ward off both friend and foe alike. Provision must elsewhere be made for the reports, the announcements, and for the introduction of those who must talk to his groups. Sometimes he will have to be firm, even though kind, in his re- fusal to allow his teachers and pupils to be inter- rupted in their precious twenty or thirty minutes. He and his teachers must stimulate prompt at- tendance, that no time be lost from class or from worship. Much may be done at this point by mak- ing it the unchanging rule to begin promptly on the minute and by having it understood that every teacher and officer be in his place ten minutes be- fore the hour of beginning. Example is worth more than complaint and faultfinding. . Quite as important as conserving the time by preventing its curtailment is the judicious utilization of eacl moment of the allotted period. Much time is wasted by irrelevant matters; by insufficient preparation of the lesson by the teacher and the consequent dawdling over insignificant details; by the introduction of foreign matter into the lesson itself. Sometimes well-intentioned teachers permit a gross waste of time by the president of the class, who, without a definite program, rambles from one 2See A Social Theory of Religious Education, Coe, page 243. Of the Intermediate Department 107 thing to another. We must expect youthfulness and inexperience; we do not need to continue to expect carelessness and wastefulness. But even when lesson preparation on the part of the teacher has been well made, and interruptions and delays have been reduced to a minimum, it will be found that twenty or even thirty minutes are all too brief for the class period. In the intermediate years, as has been indicated before, the class, far more than the department, is the unit of the life of the pupils; hence, the business of the class, the self-directed life of the group under the presidency of the class, must be developed and made effective. That takes time. Further, the most effective teach- ing is not by the lecture method but rather by class discussion, which rests back upon such knowledge of the facts of the lesson as make discussion possible. As many of the pupils at the present day make no preparation of the lesson before coming to class, time must be had for lesson study or lesson presentation that shall put the facts concretely be- fore the class before discussion can proceed. All this demands an extension of the class period, if any real attainments are to be expected, to a limit of not less than forty or forty-five minutes. It is hard to think that any church school cannot provide for such a class period. Indeed, it will soon be evident that, if the best work is to be done, still more time ' must be obtained either on Sunday or during the the week. How this may be brought about will be 108 The Organization and Administration © considered later. For the present it is well to de- termine just how the allotted period should be utilized. THE CLASS PROGRAM As a self-constituted group the class is in charge of its president. He it is who calls the class to order and presides over the class period, delegating his power to the teacher at the appropriate moment. The worship and business session is not an infringe- ment upon the teacher’s time; it is the class think- ing and acting together about the affairs of the kingdon of God. In this capacity they are learning the art of Christian codperation, planning how best to meet some of the real problems of life.» The brief devotional service, conducted by one of their own number, is essential to that growth of religious feel- ing and expression that shall find fruitage in their present lives and training for their richer later ex- perience. Solicttude for absentees develops loyalty — to the class, to the school, and to the larger interests of the kingdom. Active planning for and partici- pation in deeds of service extend their limited sym- pathies and enlarge their concept of how the spirit of Christ works in this world. All such self-directed thinking and acting is developing self-reliance and skill in handling the concrete situations that they must be trained to meet as Christian men and women. But we must permit no dawdling, no waste of valuable time: hence the need of a definite program. —_ Of the Intermediate Department 109 If the class period is forty minutes long, a wise division of time is somewhat as follows: Call to order. Devotion (consisting of prayer or prayer by, members of 'the-class). 2. ........ 2 minutes Report of membership committee..... 1 minute Report of service committee.......... 1 minute Suggestions and announcements by pres- ident and unfinished business........ 2 minutes phe messon le ehh aes. .Q tedniain, 33 minutes Closing prayer by teacher or pupil..... 1 minute es 40 minutes Brief prayers are much more natural than long prayers at this age, sentence ‘prayers taking pre- cedence over others. Their language may be quite colloquial, whereas the prayers in the worship service of the department should be well ordered and thus models of prayer diction. The reports of committees should be brief yet full enough to tell the class exactly what has and what has not been accomplished during the week just past. They should also contain suggestions for the coming week. Such reports are the only means of keeping the com- mittees actively engaged in their work. The presi- dent, having collaborated with the teacher of the class, should be able to outline suggestions for the consideration of the class, thus insuring real leader- ship on his part. Much depends on the initiative displayed at this point for the vitality of the class. _ Discussion of proposed lines of activity should be 110 The Organization and Administration confined to the specified time; the midweek meeting of the class provides for further consideration. By adhering strictly to such a program as the foregoing the class will be prevented from becoming wearied by routine discussion and from becoming indifferent to the living issues being worked out by those whom they have placed in authority. Needless to say, during the time the president is in the chair the teacher is a member of the class, accorded the same privileges of discussion as the others. As one of the group but not their leader he may advise and direct affairs even better than as administrator. ' SUPERVISING THE TEACHERS Teacher supervision is a problem of administration. If the counselor is to be made responsible to the general superintendent of the school for the work of his department, it follows that he must supervise the teaching carried on. Not as an autocrat does the counselor work, but as a friend and helper of teacher and pupil. His is the task of organizing the entire teaching program; his to see that each teacher does his best. Encouragement here, suggestion there, a book put into the hand of this worker, and a consultation hour with that will do wonders, The counselor should quickly find out the present limita- tions and the abilities and possibilities of each person on his faculty. He should be the means whereby unity is brought into the program of instruction, at the same time giving to the teacher the greatest Of the Intermediate Department 111 latitude consistent with the good of the whole. To obtain a possible candidate for his department, to encourage him to take all possible preliminary train- ing, to continue his training through practice teach- ing, through personal oversight, and through the loan of books until he becomes a master workman should be the counselor’s delight. And if it is a real school, and if advice, encouragement, suggestion, and help are all extended in the spirit of seeking greater ef- ficiency in the department, then no personal feelings need be hurt, no ill will established. The department council is the great clearing house for the work in hand. Once a week when possible, once a month at least, all workers in the department should gather for consultation, advice, and sug- gestion. Conditions in each class should be thor- oughly gone over, difficult situations considered, and ways devised to solve the problems. Here, with his workers, the counselor finds his greatest oppor- tunity to fulfill his function as executive. It is not on Sunday that he can plan for larger and better things, meet difficult situations, and help solve perplexing problems; but during the quiet of the council hour these matters may receive his best attention. The counselor’s attention must constantly be given to equipment for each class. To become careless or negligent of responsibility to each teacher who has voluntarily consented to help in his depart- ment reveals weakness as an executive and leader. 112 The Organization and Administration The counselor should anticipate such needs as pupils’ books, chalk, maps, mucilage, and other things, great and small, which facilitate good teaching, and so far as it is within his power he should see that these things are provided ahead of the day for their use. Ever alert to the teachers’ needs, he will build up the department library, point out sources of infor- mation at the public library, call attention to articles of note in the current magazines bearing upon the lesson material, and ever be ready to give a helping hand. ! | A problem always before the competent counselor of this department is that of supply. teachers. In the most devoted and reliable staff. there are days when some one is ill or otherwise unavoidably de- tained from school, and a substitute must be found. The alert superintendent will anticipate such a day and have about him cadet teachers, who, as helpers in various capacities, will also be learning to teach. Through the study of the lesson materials in use in the department, through the reading of good books on intermediate-senior work, through the teacher- training classes in church or community, through practice teaching in the presence of the regular teacher, and through criticism of such teaching in the council these cadets will be in training to take the places made vacant occasionally by sickness or permanently by removal from the school. It is impossible to pick up competent teachers when each grade of each department uses lesson material Of the Intermediate Department 113 suited to it and, therefore, different from the others. Hence, under our new curriculum in the church school, cadet teachers are essential to the success of the work. EFFICIENCY STANDARDS AND TESTS No. supervision can become successful until standards are set, determining what is and is not good teaching. When teachers know definitely what is expected of them, when criticism is based on definite and commonly recognized standards, and when all have accepted these standards as guides in their own efforts, then only does supervision be- come truly possible. With standards lacking, super- vision, though well intended, may seem like inter- ference and personal censure. Some of the standards, of which the component items and their values should be determined upon, are here suggested: 1. Attendance at church school....... 10 2. Promptness (ten minutes before the LGA; D2 00 gg oe te Uae ae AA oh ae DARE Rta the ee 5 3. Ability to secure attendance of class. 10 4, Ability to hold interest of class..... 20 5. Ability to get pupils to do deeds of service and helpfulness............ 20 De yerepook work of class... ...%..<.... 20 Pema ienarcouncil meeting... ..... 2c. 10 8. Reading of a good book each year on adolescent religious work...... A score card on a percentage basis of the foregoing points can be arranged by the department so that 8 114 The Organization and Administration each teacher may know where he stands, and will prove helpful in setting standards of efficiency. These score cards should be mailed or handed to each teacher each quarter. In some schools both the teacher and the supervisor score the teacher’s work separately, then compare results. This opens the way for frank discussion of the teacher’s work and of the needs of the class. The danger in such rating is to.set mechanical standards for one’s work, whereas success in teaching is determined largely by spiritual qualities of the personality. Neverthe- less, there are laws governing teaching, and there are objective standards of its results by which each may measure himself. By all means these should be established and utilized. wig SUPERVISING THE PUPILS Supervision of instruction in the department does not end with the teacher. The pupil’s welfare and progress are the end in view in all such efforts; and the counselor, while dependent on his teachers for final success, should feel his responsibility to each pupil to see that he is rightly placed, has the right - attitude toward his teacher and his fellow pupils, and is in every possible way aided in getting the most out of his instruction. First of all, the size of the classes will call for con- stant oversight. The tendency is for pupils to bring their friends into the same classes as themselves. If grading is carefully carried out, and if the dis- Of the Intermediate Depariment — 115 tribution of pupils is judiciously made, there will be little difficulty. But even then classes will tend to grow too large and will call for division. (See page 39.) Next will be the misplaced pupil, mentally too young or too old for the class in which he finds him- self. These adjustments, already considered from the standpoint of the pupils (see page 37), are to be looked at from every angle, and it is equally necessary to keep well in mind the viewpoint of the teacher during the teaching hour. A disinterested pupil is a drag on the class or worse. Fortunately we are hearing less and less regarding discipline in the church school. Having discovered and applied the fact that interest is the solution of problems of discipline, leaders of youth have spent less time on what to do with the unruly boy and more on obtaining competent teachers who can command interest and enlist energies. Neverthe- less, crises may arise at any time, and these demand the most skillful handling of which the wisest super- intendent is capable. Frictions that ought not to occur do occur; and pupils, misunderstanding the intentions of a teacher, are sometimes lost to the church school.’ 3] was in a Jewish Sunday school one morning and noted with pleasure a case of ‘‘discipline”’ of a twelve- or thirteen- year-old boy. He had been guilty of disrespect to his teacher. Instead of ‘‘bawling out’’ the youngster before his class the superintendent took him aside and talked the whole matter 116 The Organization and Administration The capable superintendent will ever be alert to detect growing restlessness among the pupils, will seek for causes, will counsel with teachers over such situations, will, if needed, call in the codperative help of the officers of the class involved, and will seek through every means to make the object of his inquiry certain that the school and its officers and teachers are desirous of nothing else than his best good. His efforts will never be to “uphold the discipline of the school,’’ but to discover the root of the maladjustment and to correct the difficulty if it lies within his power. Sometimes this will mean readjustment of classes; sometimes it -will call for home coéperation; sometimes it will, mean a visit to the public school to learn the interests and be- havior of the pupil; most frequently, however, it— requires little more than a friendly chat with the dificult pupil, permitting him naturally and with- out embarrassment to reveal his own viewpoint. Providing for the pupils’ study—lIt has already been noted that worth-while class discussion must out. They were within earshot, and it was highly pleasing - to see how the superintendent tried to get the boy’s view- point, showed him that his act was certainly unmanly and discourteous, and led him step by step to see that the only really manly and courteous thing to do was to make his apologies to the woman whom he had, in his thoughtless youthfulness, insulted. The whole affair was so far removed from the too-frequent attitude of ‘‘Make him behave or put him out,’’ or of ‘‘We’ll have to put up with him because we can’t afford to let him go,” that my heart rejoiced, Of the Intermediate Department 117 rest upon a basis of known facts, and these facts are to be known only through the study of the lesson itself. Many teachers find the handicap of the too- brief class period greatly increased by the pupil’s entire lack of lesson preparation. The motives and the methods effective in securing study by inter- mediate pupils belong to another textbook in this series. It is, however, an administrative respon- sibility to recognize the need for supervised study and to provide opportunity for it. Some teachers do this by combining with a social half hour a half hour or more of concentrated work on notebooks or of showing the pupils ‘‘what to do and how to do it”’ with text and maps and references. The schedule of time and place for this work for each class group should be the concern of the counselor. In many rural communities, where no other serv- ice occurs on that day, the lesson hour may be increased to any length desired. Here is a splendid chance to inaugurate an additional period; first, a study period, when for thirty minutes teacher and pupil shall get the facts of the lesson well in hand; secondly, a period of worship, when the carefully prepared pro- gram of worship shall be the ‘‘church” service for the day; thirdly, the recitation period, in which, on the basis of the study of the earlier hour, the lesson and its great truths shall be discussed in all their fullness. The same plan is possible in any city if the start is made enough earlier in the morning, or if the school is placed in the afternoon instead of 118 The Organization and Administration just before or just after the preaching service of the church. A few churches, in which the pastor realizes that his Sunday-morning sermon is a message for adults exclusively, are experimenting with the plan of a separate church service for intermediates. This combines their church-school worship with a ‘“‘ser- mon’’ especially adapted to them, which is a little longer than the ‘‘story or talk’’ in the programs of Chapter V. Here the supervised study precedes, and the class session follows, their ‘‘church”’ worship. Pupil supervision in instruction will also reach to the matter of departmental rewards and honors (com- pare page 46) and of supplying good literature for the department. It is not enough to have theclasses meet or even have to them well taught; the depart- ment is partly responsible for the reading tastes that are developing among its pupils. Thesuperintendent should be on the alert to find and suggest to his teach- ers sources of information for classuse. In like man- ner he will be eager to suggest books near enough akin > to the lesson in hand to be of immediate interest to the pupils. These he should at the appropriate time recommend to the classes, either personally or through the teachers. Posters advertising their attractiveness are one way of calling the pupils’ attention to these good books. Again let it be repeated that instruction is only a means to the final end—that is, to a rounded Chris- tian character, able and willing to do its best for the Master and his cause. Consequently, supervision Of the Intermediate Department 119 of instruction is never ended until it functions in supervision of the developing life of the pupils. This, however, leads to the larger phases of religious teaching, including recreation, service, and other phases of the pupils’ lives. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Suggest ways of conserving all the time of the class period. 2. What items should be included in the class program’? How long should prayers be? Why? 3. In what ways may supervision help to secure lesson preparation? 7 4. Name some duties of the counselor included under the head of supervision. 5. What value has an efficiency test for teachers? QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 1. Watch an Intermediate Department next Sunday to determine how far the counselor really supervises the work of the department. Review the chapter after Sunday, scoring a teacher you have observed. 2. A teacher was teaching his class when the superintendent introduced to him and to his class a man who talked to them for ten minutes on the anticigarette campaign. The lesson was from Leaders of Israel. The talk of the man was upon a subject vital to the welfare of the class. Discuss, criticizing as you think fit. 3. What would be the effect of (1) putting a pupil at the task of teaching the lesson; (2) lecturing to the class; (3) dividing the class into two teams and 120. Organization and Administration using counters to determine score while the teacher asked questions on the lesson? | 4. Which, if any, of the following would aid in securing prompt attendance upon the class ‘session: a banner, a formal announcement from the plat- form, a report on the blackboard of attendance by classes, a reprimand? 5. Are boys habitually late at a baseball game? Why? 6. A class without supplies for three Sundays heard the following explanation: ‘‘ Boys, the super- intendent has failed again to get any supplies to us. I told him two weeks ago that we were out.’’ Tell what was wrong and how to right it. 7. A teacher of a class of girls was well educated, attractive, and capable of teaching well, but she was always late and frequently absent. What steps would you have taken as superintendent of the de- partment? What would you have done had you been the student president? 8. A teacher appealed to her superintendent con- cerning a girl over whom she apparently had no control. What steps would you have taken as counselor to straighten out the trouble? CHAPTER VII LEADERSHIP OF RECREATION ONE of the discoveries in religious leadership in recent years has been the place of recreation in the moral and spiritual development of the young. It is a long way from the condemnation of all play—a position taken by some earnest parents and religious leaders of three or four generations ago—to the wise provisions the church schools are making for the young of the present generation. Instead of play now being considered irreligious, or even unreligious, it is conceded to possess rich religious possibilities. Even more, it is believed that to neglect this great need of the lives of the young is to invite disaster, moral and spiritual. THE VALUE OF RECREATION Using the word “‘recreation’’ in a broad sense to include play and other self-directed effort in opposi- tion to necessary or required effort, let us endeavor to estimate the place recreation should have in the lives of intermediates. They are at the point of rapid body building, of great outreach of mental powers, and of rich social expansion. The excessively sedentary life demanded by modern education and stimulated still further by inviting books and the movies must be balanced by plays and sports demanding muscular activity. If a good body is fundamental to a well- (121) p22 The Organization and Administration developed mind and soul, religious workers do well to give much attention to the play life of those under their care, particularly during these years that put special strain on the body. Recreation means more than sports and games; for instance the satisfactions that come from con- structive activity—building boats, wireless outfits, houses in the woods, quarters for little pets, basketry, and all the crafts; pleasures that are derived from the quest of the unknown or the known, such as is found in collecting anything from post cards to butterflies and moths; and the pleasures of imagina- tion and expression, as in reading, story-telling, and dramatization. Play has been the great educator of the race, and the experiments of the young in their play hours have rivaled the school in their fruitage. | If education is to fit man to know and use the world in which he lives, we must give large place to those activities which easily and naturally introduce the young to their physical and social environment. But, above all, it is in the realm of the moral and spiritual that recreation makes its largest appeal to religious leadership. To live happily with one’s fellows and to learn to live well in the presence of God are the aim and end of all religious education and this end can be achieved nowhere more satis- factorily than in the free play of the religious leader and his group. In these years, above all others, religion must be life rather than theories or ideals; for religion is a way of living, a habit of action, the Of the Intermediate Department 123 establishment of right attitudes. Fortunately we do not often have to decide between one who can teach well in class and one who can play well with his pupils; but if such choice must be made, in the inter- est of character development, of spiritual training, and of true Christianization the choice should fall upon the one who knows how to participate in and direct to real growth in Christian character the recreational activities of those under his care. It is here that they learn to play fair according to the rules of the game; it is here that in the most natural way they learn the give-and-take of life; it is here that kindness, faithfulness, loyalty, sincerity, truth- fulness, become not abstract virtues but definite re- sponses to life’s situations; and it is here that they learn to appreciate personality, to discover their inter- dependence upon one another, and, if the leader is what a religious leader ought to be, to discover the reality of that ever-present Friend as their own Com- panion. But why further catalogue the advantages of recreation? Every alert leader of boys and girls has discovered that a day in the open with his young friends is worth many days in the class; that the intimacies of recreational hours cement as does noth- ing else the friendships that make him in a special sense the representative of the Master whom he serves. | ) THE VALUE OF SUPERVISION It is true that we do not have to teach our pupils to want to play any more than we have to teach the 124 The Organization and Administration young of animals to frolic; but it is sometimes over- looked that all children learn, from some source, what they play. Resourcefulness in recreation is not overabundant. Watch a crowd of boys and girls and see how soon they reach the limits of their originality. There are observable differences of initiative among them, but when left without a guiding hand the larger number soon drop into inactivity or into undesirable forms of amusement. The large number of idle youths who stand about the streets waiting for some- thing to happen, the considerable number of girls who sit idly talking and talking, with no effort to amuse themselves, not to mention the gangs that issue forth in predatory groups to find pleasure at the expense of anyone who can be made the victim.of their per- verted sense of fun are all further indications of the general need of guidance in play. But guidance in recreation is something far differ- ent from an autocratic direction of youthful activity. Recreation, to continue to be recreation, must always. be spontaneous, self-directing. How can this seeming contradiction be harmonized? During the years of early adolescence guidance must be exercised in planning recreation with the young rather than in planning for the young. It must come about through thorough and intelligent sympathy with what these boys and girls are interested in and a clear under- standing of what they like. They must be helped to find their own recreations. The best fun is in self- directed play or construction or striving after a de- Of the Intermediate Depariment 125 sirable object. What the boys and girls want are knowledge, skill, bodily strength, and efficiency that shall satisfy both the natural curiosity of this period of life and its demand for power. Knowledge, skill, and power—these are the three objectives in all worth- while recreation. But to be effective they must be concrete. It is fun to find out something they want to know; to do well (anda little better than the other fel- low) something they care todo; to overcome obstacles they have chosen to measure their strength with. The leader must furnish the initiative, the fertile mind, that shall discover to these restless boys and girls forms of activity which promise a good time be- cause they come within the limits of their under- standing and the range of their eager spirits. The leader must be able to prevent a project from break- ing down because the limits of their resources have been reached and to shift their evanescent interest to some new and equally desirable objective before wearied nerves and muscles rebel. SUGGESTIVE PROGRAMS No person wishes to become a mere imitator, but anyone is foolish indeed who will not profit by the experience others have gained at great cost. The worker with intermediates in our church should by all means master the theory and the practice of scouting, whether it be under the auspices of the Boys Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, or some other such group. The boys’ and 126 The Organization and Administration girls’ departments of the Young Men’s Christian Association and the Young Women’s Christian Asso- ciation, respectively, furnish much suggestion. Whether these organizations shall be adopted in the church-school program or not, no worker with boys and girls can afford to be ignorant of their ex- cellent programs of recreational activities for boys and girls of these years. The happy combination of play, physical activity, intellectual pursuits, ac- quirement of skill, knowledge of woodcraft, and ready adjustment to group living makes these plans indis- pensable. The paraphernalia of badges, uniforms, secret words and signs, standards of efficiency, and promotion to rank are the best means yet devised to produce the strong, ‘capable, self-reliant boys and girls that we seek. One who knows little about recreation among intermediate pupils can do nothing. better than to get the manuals of one or more of these organizations and master them thoroughly. The information thus obtained will enable him to understand the viewpoint of his pupils better than ever before, and he will have at hand a guidebook to his work of inestimable value. | Scout troops are usually too large to be managed by a single teacher. If a troop is to be organized it should be a department enterprise undertaken in codperation with the entire administration of the school. There is great value in being a part of a democratic organization that reaches through many various social and religious affiliations.' Whether or Of the Intermediate Depariment 127 not the church school decides to enroll as a Camp Fire, a Scout Troop, or a Girl Reserve Corps, the principles of Scouting, woodcraft, camp fire, and the like are fundamental to true moral and religious edu- cation in the early teens. These principles are: 1. To utilize educationally the recreational life of the young. 2. To keep to the open as much as possible. 3. To develop the big muscles first. 4. To establish wholesome relations in fun and worth-while effort between the adult leader and the young. 5. To gain skill through activity. 6. To build character through practice. THE ORGANIZATION OF INTERMEDIATE RECREATION Provision will have to be considered both for class and for department recreation. In the chapter on “Department Organization’’ (Chapter I) a recrea- tion committee was provided to care for this form of department activity; and a similar committee (Chapter III) was provided to function in the class. Experience has taught many workers that the heavy burden of planning recreational activities falls upon the class committee, for the reason, first, that to keep alive and healthy the class needs frequent meetings; See -The Boy Scout Movement Applied by the Church, Richardson and Loomis. Alsosend to your denominational headquarters for suggestions as to these organizations. Some have put out pamphlets concerning one or another of them. 128 The Organization and Administration and, secondly, the group spirit of the class is stronger than the group spirit of the larger body. Among seniors and young people, department gatherings in which both sexes are thrown together are of greater value than the gathering in classes; but interme- diates need most of their opportunities for community life within the smaller group. While planning and direction by the pupil com- mittee is the ideal to be striven for in both class and department, it will be found that the teacher of the class and the adult workers in the department will have to supply the experience lacking among these boys and girls. Much personal attention must be given both to creating and to executing recreational programs if success is to be won. The practical ideal, therefore, is to plan with and through the class or department committee, making it incumbent upon the chairman and his fellow work- ers to carry the program into effect. Thorough understanding and hearty codperation should exist between the classes and the department, so that there shall be no clashes between the plans of the various groups. The program for the department should ex- tend over six months, should be balanced as to forms of activity, and should have reference to seasonable interests as well as to days and events. In the social and recreational gatherings of either the class or the department it is the chairman of the recreation com- mittee who is in charge. Of the Intermediate Department 129 TYPES OF RECREATION No list of recreational activities is ever final and complete, for each age improves old forms of play and produces new ones. The most that can be attempted within the compass of this chapter is to point out some types of recreation and to indicate sources for further information. 1. The hike—This simple form of recreation is always acceptable to this age and to both sexes. The essentials are: (1) a definite objective such as a partic- ular geographical point, a factory, an object of special interest, etc.; (2) a definite starting time, a definite arriving time, and definite time to return; (3) provision for “‘eats,’’ simple but enough to be sus- taining until the return; (4) thorough knowledge on the part of the leader of every step of the way and every point in the program. The values of the hike include opportunity for fellowship; discovery of individual interests, likes, dislikes, and limitations; physical exercise; increased knowledge. Practically no expense is involved, and this is a well-nigh univer- sal appeal. : 2. The sports—Hunting, fishing, swimming, boat- ing, skating, skiing, snowshoeing, according to geographical location and to the seasons, are open to all and should be favored in any program of recrea- tion. The leader who participates with his pupils in these sports finds many occasions for cementing his friendship. At the intermediate age both sexes like all of the sports just named. To the boys’ program 9 130 The Organization and Adminisiration may be added boxing, wrestling, Indian wrestling, “‘cockfighting,”’ tug-of-war, fencing, wrist wrestling; and these may take place either indoors or out. 3. Games—These form an important group of recreational activities. To possess the knowledge of a wide variety of games and how to play them is quite as essential for the leader of intermediate pupils as to be able to join in sports and other outdoor ac- tivities. Games are usually classified as team games (such as, baseball, punchball, basketball, etc.) ; play- ground games (three-deep, various forms of tag, re- — lay races, prisoner’s base, drop-the-handkerchief) ; and parlor games (including the various questioning and guessing games, ‘‘catches,’’ ‘‘Up Jenkins,” and the like). In general the more active of each kind take precedence in both interest and value over those of a more sedentary character and they surpass all other forms of entertainment in popularity for de- partment social gatherings. A handbook by William R. LaPorte furnishes a considerable list of games, with a brief description of how each is played, and con- tains an excellent bibliography for those seeking further information. | 4, Field and track events.—Field and track furnish opportunities for physical recreation. Some of the well-known forms of events are: fifty-yard dash, hun- dred-yard dash, hurdling, pole vaulting, high jump and broad jump (both running and standing), sack race, wheelbarrow race, potato race, relay race, tirree- legged race, tug-of-war. Some of these are suitable Of the Intermediate Department. 131 for girls, but girls’ team and field work should be done separately. 5. Entertainments —The seasons furnish many oc- casions for indoor entertainments, such as Saint Patrick’s Day, Halloween, Easter, April Fool’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Washington’s Birthday, and others. Four things are essential to the success of these occa- sions: first, invitations; secondly, decorations; third- ly, activities; fourthly, refreshments. These are especially desirable as departmental gatherings, sub- committees providing for each of the four matters named above. / 6. Dramatics—Both boys and girls are highly interested in dramatic representations, and these pupils may become skillful in putting stories- into dramatic form. Either a class or the department as a whole may engage in the enterprise. Arranging the drama, costuming, scenery, all constitute activi- ties of greatest interest and develop mental, manual, and social skill. Worship, service to others, apprecia- tion of biblical and missionary facts, teamwork, and much fun and sociability are all perfectly possible results of dramatization rightly done. Adult com- panions must be alert to see that these benefits are realized and that showing off, jealous rivalry, artificiality, and other undesirable effects are pre- vented. Directions for this form of entertainment may be found in Dramatization of Bible Stories and Dramati- zation 11 the Church School, Miller; How to Produce 132 The Organization and Administration Amateur Plays, Clark; Costumes and Scenery for Amateurs, MacKay; and Drama in Religious Service, Candur. : 7. Reading—Administrators in the Intermediate Department, both counselor and teachers, should know the reading habits of the pupils; what they have already read, what they are now actualy reading, and what they like to read. This knowledge can be obtained naturally and easily in class and personal discussions of a good book to read or perhaps to give to a convalescent member. : But the lists obtained should be written down and used by the department council as a basis for compiling lists of desirable books. Now, books, like people, cannot be fairly judged by hearsay evidence, and it will be necessary to assign the lists reported as read by pupils among | the various adults in the department to determine’ what is in them and to what they make their appeal, as well as to discover if less desirable reading is going on. This first-hand knowledge is prerequisite to fulfilling the duties of adult advisers to the reading life of their pupils. Boys and girls would as soon read a wholesome book as an unwholesome one—if it is interesting. © The unwholesome reading may be the result of ig- norance, of the suggestion of some one whose tastes are undeveloped or depraved, or of simply finding nothing else at hand. It is a lifelong service to direct the attention of boys and girls who already have a healthy appetite for reading to a wide choice of enter- Of the Intermediate Department 133 taining books of right ideals and attitudes and to see that plenty of such are available. With those pupils who have not yet developed a taste for reading of any kind the adult’s service is to awaken interest and to furnish at the appropriate moment the right satisfaction to this awakened hunger. This satisfaction is far more apt to come from a book recommended by a fellow pupil, so the teacher and the counselor will function most wisely as ‘‘clearing houses,” enlisting the partnership of all the pupils. Often the spur to reading comes from the interest in some activity, such as photography or radio, or some appreciation of birds and insects started during a hike or camp. Besides stories, handicraft, and nature lore, al- ready suggested, classified reading lists for this age usually include also biography, travel, and adventure and appreciation books, such as those on music, pictures, etc. A very good classified book list, graded to meet the needs of growing pupils, may be obtained from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; price, fifteen cents. Only the upper grades are of value to those advising the pupils of the intermediate group. Miss Moxcey, in Leadership of Girls’ Activities (The Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati; price, sixty cents) gives a complete list of books of all sorts for girls from twelve to twenty-one years of age. This book is well worth having. The writer, in his Leaders of Youth, also has a long list of books for both boys and girls. Gibson, in Boyology (Associa- 134 The Organization and Administration tion Press) gives the results of a questionnaire as to what boys really read. This book is arranged by ages and is significant of the reading habits of boys and young men. 8. Story-telling in the department—Before books were invented, their place was taken, so far as ro- mance and history were concerned, by the story- teller. For some time his place was so fully sup- _ planted by the printed tale that he seemed to disap- pear almost entirely. To-day we are in the midst of a revival of the story-teller’s art. We are discovering that not only children but adolescents love to hear good stories, and many love to tell them. Moreover, the art of the story-teller and interest in reading are more closely allied than was frequently believed. It is not hard to awaken interest in good stories and then to direct the attention of those already - skilled in the art of reading to sources where delightful tales may be found. Not every interme- diate is interested in learning how to teli'a story well; but, like dramatic interest, the story-telling impulse is far more universal than supposed. A story-tellers’ club among the intermediates will afford its members the opportunity to learn and practice theirart;and the — worship service, a social evening, the camp fire, and camps may be greatly enriched through their skill. Among the many books on story-telling the following will be found especially useful in such a club: How to Tell Stories to Children, Bryant. Education by Story-Telling, Cather. Of the Intermediate Department 135 The Use of the Story in Religious Education, Eggles- ton. The Art of the Story-Teller, Shedlock. Stories and Story-Telling, Saint John. Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them, Wyche. Some stories not found in the above books but well adapted to intermediate interest are those of Haw- thorne. Several of Laura E. Richards’s stories are capital material for telling, among others ‘‘The Golden Windows” and ‘‘The Silver Crown.” Van Dyke’s stories are all good, some more usable than others, of course. Try those found in Zhe Blue Flower and The. Ruling Passion. Mrs. Gatty’s - Parables from Nature are serviceable to you. Brain’s Love Stories of Great Missionaries are usuable at the worship hour of the department, as is also Annie Fellows Johnston’s In the Desert of Waiting. Expecially good for intermediate girls are Keeping Tryst and The Three Weavers, from her Little Colonel Series. ‘‘Ruth’’ and Esther,” from the Bible, are characteristically adolescent stories. INTER- AND INTRADENOMINATIONAL RECREATION Games, athletic contests, and field days may be planned within the department or between the de- partment teams and other similar organizations in other churches or in the community or without. In the same manner, in addition to the social gatherings within the department, larger social groups made up of all the departments of the city may meet for an intermediate banquet or for an outdoor social. In 136 The Organization and Administration rural communities such gatherings may include the intermediate pupils from several church schools widely separated. Games, contests, sports, singing, and ‘‘dinner on the grounds”’ should make up an attractive program. Camp Fire Girls may join with all the others in a given territory for a grand council fire; Boy Scouts for a district review; Girls Reserves will have representatives in an interclub council. Such gatherings tend to develop community spirit as well as to broaden the symapthies of all who partic- ipate. RECREATIONAL LEADERSHIP There is no mystery about the art of recreational leadership for this group. The requisites are ability to understand the interests of these pupils, willing- | ness to sacrifice time for this work, determination to qualify for leadership through the reading of books on recreation such as the Scout Manual, Camp Fire Girls’ Manual, and the like, and to perfect oneself in the actual accomplishment these programs require of the boys and girls. The way to begin is just to begin, then to continue learning by experience and by the aid that can be had from others through their books - and through such institutes, conferences, and summer training schools as are within reach. The pupils of this group are most sympathetic toward anyone who will try to be their friend and to help them to have a good time. Perhaps among pupils of-no other age is there found greater appreciation of efforts expended in recreation. Certainly few other pupils are more Of the Intermediate Department 7, ready to help. At no point in church work can a a minimum of effort and of intelligence and skill produce larger returns. But this is by no means an excuse for laziness in the leaders, for it should always be borne in mind that increased skill produces cor- respondingly increased results. The appended list of books will help any who wishes to qualify as recrea- tional leader: Social Activities for Men and Boys, Chesley. Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gym- nastum, Bancroft. Camping for Boys, Gibson. Indoor Games for Boys, Baker. Ice Breakers, Geister. Phunology, Harbin. Eighty Good Times Out-of Doors, Heath. Play in Education, Lee. Leadership of Girls’ Activities; Good Times for Girls; Physical Health and Recreation for Girls, Moxcey. Social Evenings, Wells. Recreation in the Church, Gates. Games for Boys, Ripley. Health by Stunts, Pearl and Brown. _ At Home in the Water, Corson. Games, Draper. Almost indispensable to the leader’s library are the latest editions of the manuals of the following organi- zations: Boy Scout Handbook (Boy Scouts of America, 200 Fifth Avenue, New York City). Christian Citizenship Training Program; Handbook 138 The Organization and Administration for Pioneers, Manual for Leaders: Pioneers (In- ternational Council of Young Men’s Christian Associations, 347 Madison Avenue, New York City). The Girl Reserve Movement (Woman’s Presé 600 Lexington Avenue, New York City). Scouting for. Girls (Girl Scouts, Inc., 527 Fifth Avenue, New York City). The Book of the Camp Fire Girls (Camp Fire Girls, 31 East Seventeenth Street, New York City). The Woodcraft Manual ‘for Girls and for Boys (Woodcraft League of America, Inc., 13 West Twenty- Ninth Street, New York City). Canadian Girls in Training (National Girls’ Work Board, 523 Wesley Building, Toronto, Canada). QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why should the worker with intermediates give © thought to their recreational life? 2. Why is supervised recreation of greater value than recreation that is not supervised? 3. Should the class or the department provide the recreation program for these years? Orshould both? How prevent clashes between the plans of the smaller and the larger group? 4. How may one become acquainted with the reading interests of the young? Is such knowledge essential to the teacher of this group? 5. Of what use is story-telling to intermediates? 6. Is reading a form of recreation or of work? What is to be done for those who do not care to read? 7. How may one prepare himself for recreational leadership? What is the relative value of out- door and indoor recreation for boys and girls of this age? Of the Intermediate Depariment 139 QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 1. What are the programs of recreation mapped out by the Boy Scouts? the Girl Scouts? the Camp Fire Girls? 2. How far do the seasons determine the recrea- tional activities of your pupils? 3. Can you lead in the following games: three-deep | tag; prisoner’s base; volley ball; basket ball; flying cloud; hand tennis; dodge ball? 4. Give an outline of events for a social evening for the department; these should include means for getting acquainted, activities that will consume the time and mix well the various members of the de- partment in common games or events, “‘eats.’’ What decorations would you provide? 5. Does your church need a gymnasium? Are the conditions of your community such that the need will not be met unless met by the church? Have you the money to provide leadership after the “‘gym”’ is built? How much of your recreation program can- not be carried on outdoors? 6. Give the arguments for and against the forma- tion of a Scout Troop in your department. If you already have such a troop (or Camp Fire Girls), how far do you feel that it functions helpfully in your school life? How far does it fail? CHAPTER VIII. | GUIDING EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES A FUNDAMENTAL axiom in education is that ‘‘we learn by doing.’’ This does not mean that we learn and then we do, but that doing is involved in the very learning process. The brain is not the only organ of the body involved in gaining knowledge. We do not learn completely until the thing learned expresses itself through mind or muscles or both. We learn to write by writing, to play the piano by playing, to swim by swimming. Just so we learn to be a Chris- tian by being a Christian, and that means acting as a Christian acts. How well a teacher teaches is not determined by how well he talks to the pupils nor by what he does for them; it is determined by what he gets them to do. What he gets them to do is of vastly greater importance than what he gets them to say, though the latter has its educational value, too. The great task of those responsible for church- school administration is to see that true education is given, and true education can come only through ex- - pression. Guiding the expressional activities of intermediates is a most important aspect of teaching them. What expressional activities shall be under- taken? And when? Two vital forms of expression have already been considered—worship and recreation. By participa- (140) The Intermediate Department 141 tion in worship the pupils are trained to worship. The chief value of separate departmental worship is that it affords the pupils real participation in this important part of religious activity. Talks and ex- planations regarding worship are of small avail; only worshiping can help one to know what worship is and alone can educate one in the developing con- cept of worship. In so far as recreation expresses the codperation, friendly competition, and the desire to make others as well as oneself happy, it, too, expresses the pupil’s religious life; and recreation becomes thereby one of the expressional activities. More of the real Christian spirit of the sacrifice of self for the good of all, of real codperation with one’s fellows for the common good, can be learned upon the ball ground than in listening to a talk upon Christian codperation. But in this chapter we are to consider two addi- tional phases of expressional activities through which spiritual and moral progress is made. The first has to do with the class session; the second with mid- week forms of helpfulness. EXPRESSION IN THE CLASS HouR 1. Geographical interest.—A teacher of a class was engaged in building up the life of Christ. He took his class out of the church school building to an open space and there in the sand helped them construct a map of Palestine on a scale of one foot to the mile. The points of the compass were kept. As the map 142 The Organization and Administration grew, each mountain had its story, each road its incidents, the Sea of Galilee its treasures, Jordan its events, Samaria its tale by the well. As the pupils walked back and forth over ground now made sacred by the life of the Master they realized as they could not otherwise have done what sort of country he lived in, what a real life was his, and what spirit an- imated his brief earthly existence. The life of Christ was no longer an unreal bit of Bible lore, but a vital experience into which they themselves had entered. When an outdoor map is not convenient or practi- cable, map drawing becomes of great service. Geo- graphical interests are very strong during interme- diate years. Over the map many a lesson may receive better development than through a less visualized discussion devoid of a map. Simple outline maps are better than those filled with all sorts of marks and names. To be able to draw an outline map of the country under consideration is essential to good teaching. To get the pupils familiar with the geog- raphy and the topography of the land in which some hero lived is to make his life more vital. Such ex- pression helps to fix the life in mind as well as to give it vividness. 2. Models—Closely akin to map making is the building of models. It is to be remembered how re- mote is the life of the Bible from our own times and how difficult of comprehension are the customs of that far-off day. To make it more realistic resort may be made to the construction of models of houses, Of the Intermediate Department 143 implements, and costumes. Such participation by the pupil or pupils in making the lesson understand- able adds a sense of importance to the enterprise quite lacking where the teacher does it all. A word of warning should be uttered. Sometimes so much time is spent on the minute details of temple, imple- ment, or costume as to make the model the chief ob- ject of attention rather than the people and times under consideration. This exaggeration of the means till it becomes the end is never to be per- mitted. Bible costumes are not sacred because found in the Bible; they are but means by which we may better understand the living people of that day. 3. Spoken language-——The simplest form of class expression is through speech. To be able to repro- duce for oneself what has been heard is one thing; to make it intelligible to the class is another; to dis- cuss quite a third. All, however, are forms of vocal expression desirable in the class. Such expression can come only as the mind becomes interested, the attention held, and opportunity given. Hence, those who desire to develop expression will need first of all to see that interest is quickened and the attention caught. Wedo not talk about that in which we have no interest. Perhaps for courtesy’s sake we feign an interest and talk to avoid the embarrassing silences that are ‘‘bad form’’; but no adolescent boy or girl is going to put himself long to the trouble of talking against time. There must be real interest if conver- sation is to follow. 144 The Organization and Administration Failure to gain vocal expression from the class often comes from failure to give opportunity or en- couragement to talk even when interest is aroused. Rather than go to the additional trouble of awaken- ing response the teacher ‘‘does it all’’; only, of course, that is just what the teacher cannot really do. The pupil must do his part; the thinking must be his. By giving opportunity one does not mean simply to pause to see if anyone will speak. It takes much more tact than that to unseal self-conscious lips. In early adolescence we are too sensitive to making our- selves ridiculous to risk a possible display of our ig- norance. If the pupils should laugh, we would never open our lips again. And, more, ideas in a strange field, unurged and unguided, never do well up with great promptness. The delicate task of the teacher is to get the class to think and to think aloud. This means the use of questions that shall adroitly draw out the mental resources of each pupil. Dis- cussion is the chief teaching method in intermediate years, and the question is the key to oral expression. Good questions do not spring spontaneously to one’s lips but come as the result of careful preparation and thought. The lesson preparation that ends with knowledge of facts is hardly half completed; the other and larger half consists in planning its presen- tation so that thoughts shall be aroused, questions asked that shall open silent lips, and interesting sug- gestions made which demand following up. Debates make an attractive form of oral expres-_ Of the Intermediate Department 145 sion. These require study if they are to be real tests of mental alertness, and their competitive form tends to compel the mind to think. To convince another is a means of bringing mental clearness to oneself. When the class is divided into two groups, each member may become a party to the discussion. Such procedure can succeed from the educational angle only if the question has been assigned in advance, if time limitations are carefully observed, and if the rules of debating are strictly adhered to. 4. Written expression.—In addition to oral speech written expression should be utilized. This is the place for notebook work. The grammar school has prepared the pupils to do and to expect written work. The essay or theme of the high school makes writing familiar if not easy. To put on paper the facts de- sired, the outline needed, or answers to questions de- manding more than spontaneous thought Is to set the mind at work—that is, to learn by doing. In all the graded lessons suggestions for notebook work are made. Additional directions for this sort of expression may be invented by the teacher. Reports on special assignments are often the easiest means by which some of the pupils can be encouraged to do home work and to contribute to the expressive life of the class. EXPRESSION THROUGH THE WEEK But no expressive activities are quite complete that end inthe lesson hour. The lesson itself is only a means toanend, that end being the development of 10 146 The Organization and Administration Christian personality. For this reason more stress is to be placed on activities that bring the teaching into fruitful contact with life as lived by the pupil than upon the neatness of notebooks or accuracy of maps. We do not seek to know the Bible for itself, but for the light it may throw upon our lives. Pupils are taught in the church school not that they may recite perfect lessons, but that the lessons learned may find expression in their everyday living. Whatis needed is a program of activities that shall translate the instruction into deeds of service, helpfulness, kindness, brotherliness in human betterment and community welfare which show that we have caught the spirit of true yoke fellows of Christ. A department program may include the following items: . 1. Some specific missionary enterprise, large | enough to enlist the entire department. | 2. Some philanthropic enterprise in the homeland of a similiar magnitude. 3. Some community enterprise of a civic rather than of a distinctly ecclesiastical nature. 4, Some church enterprise. These four types of enterprises should be of a permanent character; so far as possible the depart- ment’s free choice after careful investigation by the service committee; and so spaced as to focus attention upon each at different times. For instance, suppose that the service committee, after carefully considering several opportunities, has decided to Of the Intermediate Department 147 recommend that the department support a native child in India. Suppose, likewise, that the children of an orphanage have become of interest to this de- partment. In the same manner, imagine that the sympathy of the children has been drawn out by the needs of poor children in its own community who are in want of clothing or books to attend school. And, last of all, let us suppose that the church needs a communion set or a baptismal font. If these objects have been adopted by the department as worthy of their help, attention may be focused upon the child in India during the weeks preceding Easter, upon having the communion set or font ready to dedicate in June, upon the children needing books and cloth- ing just before the opening of school in September, and upon the orphanage at Christmas. While this permanent program commands the continued interest of all the members of the depart- ment, each class needs to work out in addition its own service activities, which may be of a more temporary character. The kinds of activity that the class may enter into are as varied as life itself. What has been attempted by others may be suggestive to the reader. 1. Service for the church.—Organize a choral club to furnish special music for Sunday school or church. Help in church socials, the boys as coffee pourers, the girls as decorators and helpers. Improve the looks of the church property, cut the weeds, plant shrubbery, sow seed and made a lawn, 148 The Organization and Admintstration fix a rickety walk or steps, and replace broken pickets in the fence. Put in lights or windowpanes that are broken out. Have an entertainment and get the church painted. Provide flowers for the pupils each Sunday. Distribute church advertising, thus helping the pastor. Act as ushers at the Sunday evening service. Serve as pastor’s messengers. 2. Service for the Sunday school or a department.— Give a play, lecture course, or entertainment to buy new hymn books. Collect costumes, pictures, flags of all nations for decorations, and place in trunk for use of church school on special occasions. | Raise funds to send a representative to the inter- mediate summer camp. Have a birthday secretary who shall. remember each pupil with a card on his birthday. Help beginners, primary, and junior teachers with their social affairs. . Build up a Sunday-school library; contribute a good book and get others to do the same; raise money to buy books; havea “‘book night’’and ask every one to bring a good book. Report to pastor and the superintendent newcom- ers who should belong to other departments. Make cupboards, tables, etc., not already provided for your department. Assist the Home Department and the Cradle Roll. 3. Service for class——Keep a class stunt book in which to preserve kodak pictures and souvenirs. Get speakers to present different vocations to the class. } Follow up absentees. Mail a card and visit them. Get them back to Sunday school at once. Of the Intermediate Department 149 Find newcomers and invite them to the school. Go after them. Send a committee and let them know that you really want them. Have a lookout social for newcomers. 4, Relieving physical need.—Provide a week in the country for a city boy or girl. Make sheets, pillow slips, and simple garments for a children’s ward ina city hospital. Make surprise bags, bedroom slippers, and scrap- books for children’s ward and day nurseries. Make jelly or grape juice for hospital or orphanage. Gather eggs for the old people’s home. Ask the associated charities for a needy case that you may aid. Find used baby carriages for needy families. Help old folks of the neighborhood by chopping their wood, carrying coal, raking leaves, shoveling walks, carrying groceries and water. Care for a baby for an hour so that a mother can get some real rest. 5. Providing for social and spiritual needs —Learn memory hymns and sing them Sunday afternoon at the old people’s home. Sing Christmas carols and use gifts for worthy cause. Serenade the church-school teachers on New Year’s night. | Hold an old folks’ social, bringing the old people to the church. Make a church tennis court for the use of the young people. - : Have an athletic exhibition asking friends to enjoy it: i Have a Be-Square Club. Invite a child from foreign quarters or from the 150 The Organization and Administration mill district to a home for Thanksgiving or Christ- mas. Give socials, parties, and hikes for pupils from other church schools and for those outside of Sune ay school. Provide a scholarship for a boy or girl in a moun- tain school. On Old Folks’ Day provide rocking-chairs, pillows, etc., for the aged. Send for the old people, place them well in front in the church, and take them home in cars. Get up a letter or post-card shower for the sick or shut-ins. Visit shut-ins and sing or read to them. Read to the blind. Conduct a children’s story hour and help them to dramatize the stories. 6. Misstons.—Have a Japanese tea, _ ! Plan the missionary features for the year at one time so that pictures and clippings may be accu- mulated. Look out for returned missionaries and get them to speak at the worship service. Carry on aregular correspondence with the boy or girl your department is supporting in the mission field. Make gifts for the leper missions. Dramatize incidents in the life of Livingstone or other missionaries. vipa Have members in costume read stories, essays, or impersonate missionaries telling ‘‘ what I did.” Send Christmas, Easter, and other post cards to the mission field. Raise vegetables, sell them, and use the money for » missionary gifts. Collect waste paper, sell, and use money in same way. Of the Intermediate Department 151 7. Civic interests and community welfare.—Distrib - ute seeds and bulbs among children who could not otherwise have them. Give a prize for the best- looking yard. Observe clean-up week, Ivy Day, Arbor Day. Crusade for clean athletics. Pick up stray papers and so keep the streets clean. Organize a junior police and so train in civic mat- ters: CLASS OR DEPARTMENT? As the class is the real unit of social organization in the Intermediate Department, it is well for each teacher to develop high efficiency in service within his group. Each class will have its own service com- mittee intrusted with the task of discovering objects needing service and methods of assisting individuals or causes. The duty of assigning individuals or groups or members to the fulfillment of each serv- ice contemplated also belongs to this committee. The order should be such that no member is over- looked in the assignments of the year. But the carrying out of many forms of service de- mands more helpers than any one class can furnish. For this reason the department also has its service committee, which should function in the department just as the like committee functions in the class. A program of service for the entire year, taking into consideration what each class is doing as a class, should be formulated for the department. Into this larger program each class and each pupil should be fitted so that all may participate. Worship and 152 The Organization and Administration _ - service are planned for the entire department, while instruction and recreation should be activities devel- oped largely by the classes. By all means sponta- neous service should be encouraged and deeds of real helpfulness should be fully recognized and honored. THE FINAL PURPOSE The real purpose running through all schemes of service should never be lost sight of. This is not to be able to make favorable reports of moneys raised or of aid given; it is that habits of observation may be formed, that sympathy may be developed, that hab- its of helpfulness may be established, and that meth- ods of human coéperation may become familiar. Real help must be given if these ends are to be met. Spontaneity must be developed. Sympathies, in- telligent as well as intense, must flow freely and read- | ily. Willingness to lend a hand, with others and for others, must become habitual, not exceptional. The success of the service activities is measured not by. their number or extent but by the pupils’ growth in character, Christlike in love, and ready to help. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. What other forms of expressional activity be- sides worship and recreation may intermediates undertake? 3 2. How may one develop the lesson ‘‘over the = map’’? Illustrate from the story of Jacob’s journey to his uncle Laban’s home. 3. What is meant by the discussion method? bids is preparation essential to discussion? Of the Intermediate Department 153 4, What value is there in having written work done by the pupils? What forms do you advise for inter- mediate pupils? 5. Whatis meant by service activities? What serv- ice activities has your class undertaken during the past year? 6. What is meant by “no impression without ex- pression,’’ and by ‘“‘learning by doing’’? Illustrate. QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 1. Of the following forms of expressional activity which do you consider the most important and why: reciting in the class; worship; recreation; service to others? In which do we most clearly ‘‘ put the lesson into life?”’ 2. Is knowing the characteristics of the Old and the New Testament heroes certain to affect the pupil’s daily living? How would you suggest that these char- acteristics may become possessions of the pupil’s own character? 3. What value lies in learning Old Testament geography? Is it any more religious than the geo- graphical study of your native State? Why encourage map drawing in the church school? 4. What is the difference between a fact question and a thought question? Illustrate. Which leads more probably to discussion in the class? Why? 5. Is class discussion a means or an end? Give reasons for your answer. 6. Check over the list of things to do found in this chapter. How many of them are possible forms of service in your community? 7. What help, aside from that of attending church, has the pastor or other church official asked of the intermediate group of your church school? Make sure that you know what has been asked. CHAPTER IX GUIDES TO LIFE INVESTMENT THE purpose of this chapter is to indicate the re- sponsibility of leaders of early adolescent pupils to act as guides to the wisest investment of their pupils’ lives; and, further, to show how such guidance may best be undertaken. This whole subject is popularly known as ‘vocational guidance,” a sufficient term if we keep in mind the broad definition of vocation as any life work, whether financially remunerative or not. The idea of vocational guidance as some scheme by which the young may be directed into certain industrial channels is too nar- row. The narrower meaning has arisen from the: necessity that is felt to guide into some suitable and worthy money-making channel the children who must early push out to support themselves and per- haps must help support a family; but there is nothing in the word ‘‘vocation”’ thus to restrict it, and every- thing to warrant the broader usage. We are concerned not with any particular ey stratum, but with the broad problem of helping pupils find themselves in this world, which is primarily a world of work, of purposive endeavor. Sometimes unconsciously, but always surely, these boys and girls are laying the foundatons for their later ability to handle themselves in that world of work. Their (154) The Intermediate Depariment 2 155 future happiness, and not less their future character development, is to be determined by whether they are ready to shoulder a real job and carry it or whether in a world of accomplishment they shall fail and in their failure shall find their worthy ambitions falter and failtoo. If they shall drift intoan occupa- tion for which they are not prepared or for which they have no natural aptitudes or which ends in a blind alley, with no outlet for future endeavor; or, if unprepared, they wander from position to position with no settled purpose, not only will their happiness be forfeited, but their powers of self-development will be nullified. On the other hand, if they discover the place in the world of work that offers a future worth striving for, one for which they are well prepared, and in which, happily settled, their very best shall come out, then indeed we may be well assured of their happiness and moral progress. FATAL OPTIMISM There is an almost fatalistic tendency in American life to believe that, left alone, our young life will “find itself.’”’ We point with pride to self-made men and women who with little or no preparation or guidance have ‘‘landed on their feet’’ in the business or professional world. We congratulate ourselves with the thought that men have arisen from log cabin to White: House. We have had good grounds for such optimistic reasoning. But we have ignored too willingly the failures that have accompanied 156 The Organization and Administration these meteoric careers. We have been willing to believe that the average is up to the exceptional. We have forgotten to notice all around us men and women who might have made good had they had better preparation or better guidance in the choice of life’s tasks; and we have further neglected to notice that with the advance of the frontier line in our Amer- ica the conventionalizing of life has gone on apace. Moreover, with the development of modern ma- chinery and modern ways of doing business it takes more preparation to succeed, even from the purely mercenary viewpoint, than hitherto. . The general level of intelligence has arisen, and with it the de- mands of the working world for preparation and efficiency. It behooves us to consider how essential preparation has become and how increasingly diffi- cult it grows to find the right place to work in. THE FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL IN VOCA- TIONAL GUIDANCE At first thought it may seem that the church school has no responsibility for the vocational guidance of its pupils; but, both in the broader and in the narrow- er sense, it has a very definite task. Notwithstanding the interest parents take in the success of their children, few homes are doing much along this line. Sometimes because of absorption in the duty of car- ing for the family, sometimesbecause of ignorance,; the boy’s or the girl’s future is' left to chance and tiie kindly offices of a good providence. In the larger Of the Intermediate Department 157 cities the public schools are endeavoring to grapple with vocational guidance, but in many of our smaller communities nothing is done. The rural districts, aside from some semitechnical teaching of agriculture in a few schools, are destitute of any work of this sort. In most of our church schools, therefore, neglect by others forces this task upon us; while in those places where the task has been undertaken by some other organization, there is still room for our codperation. Expecially is this true if we believe that the choice of a life task should not be settled on the basis of selfish interests alone. If in our pupils’ choices altruism is to be the dominant note, if we are to hope that the consideration of most weight is to be what a voca- tion will mean to the welfare of the world, not what the one entering upon it may get for himself, then religion and the organizations of religion have a large part to play in vocational guidance. For at no other age is one so susceptible to an appeal to self- sacrifice and to the heroic as during the adolescent years. Then is when we discover the joy of living for and, if need be, dying for the good of the group or of the needy within the brotherhood of man. Another reason why the church school should con- cern itself with vocational guidance is that just at these years the pupils are leaving public school for business life. School attendance above fourteen years of age is required in few States. Choices are being made as economic necessity or personal whim dictates, The school can no longer act as guide, 158 The Organization and Administration The home, as has been said, frequently cannot. Hence, it is the school of the church that can exercise a guiding hand in the future welfare of these pupils. If the church school has its plans for vocational guidance in just these decisive years well laid and its program in operation it may be able to save many a wrong investment of time and labor, it may dis- cover for its pupils their own capacities, and it may direct them to useful further training. If religion is not something added to life but is life itself at its best, then the church school can well afford to turn its attention to that large part of life and its adjustments which makes up manhood and woman- hood, the life of strenuous endeavor in a world of work. ADMINISTERING DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES FOR VOCA- TIONAL GUIDANCE The first step for organizing the department for vocational guidance lies in the establishment of right attitudes toward all work. This is trite, but no less true. If the teaching force echoes the plati- tudinous sentiment of ‘‘work because we have to” and ‘‘I’m doing it to make a living,” the pupils will - be quick to catch the accent, and every effort toward vocational guidance will be pitched on the plane of self-aggrandizement. Work will be looked on as a thing to be avoided, and the easy berths will be sought by all. It need hardly be said that this is a totally unchristian view, impossible to find in a Of the Intermediate Department 159 thoroughly Christian organization; yet it is so preva- lent even among those of us who are partially Chris- tianized that a word of warning is still in order. If, on the contrary, we uphold the Christian view that life affords us the supreme privilege of service to our fellow men, and that one’s vocation is the medium through which one can best render that service, we shall have taken the preliminary step toward vocational guidance. At this age the pupils will be influenced more by our attitudes than by our words. Hence, every teacher of early adolescents should reveal to his class the joy he finds in doing his life’s task well and the satisfaction that comes from being skillful in his own field. If his vocation is not yielding him a life vastly bigger than his living, he may well question how far he is yet thoroughly Christian, or, if thoroughly Christian, whether he himself is rightly placed so as to contribute the best to those about him. A miser, we need to remind our- selves again and again, need not be a millionaire, nor a worshiper of mammona worldly man. If this point is well fixed, not alone in our minds but in our atti- tudes toward our daily work, it will inevitably be- come perceptible in our contacts with the growing minds about us. In addition to this attitude the department owes it to its pupils to see that they become familiar with a large number of possible investments for their lives, The poor choices made by the young are not infre- quently due to poverty of knowledge. Here is the 160 The Organizaiion and Administration boyhood friend of the writer who was twenty-five before he determined upon a medical career. Noone, so far as is known, had ever taken the pains to make clear to this growing youth the possibilities of that career, its opportunities for service, its financial © returns, its demands for skill, or the personal qualifi- cations that go to make up the successful physician; yet he lived not in the country but in the city, where many physicians practiced their profession. Had anyone taken the time to explain, his remarkable career ending in the early forties might have been extended backward toward his youth. He simply did not know. His home, abundantly able to provide for his professional training, had no means to guide him in his choice. The schools were not awake to their responsibilties, and the church schools had never dreamed of vocational guidance as part of the duty of religion. It is not enough that pupils see men and women daily active in the various walks of life. These pro- fessions and trades are sealed to the inquiring eyes of youth, not from desire on either side, but from in- ability to find a point of contact. Some way must be found to inform our pupils, what each vocation means, what its work consists in, what skills it calls for, what personal and financial returns it offers, and, above all, what value it had in the life of the world. Out of the abundance of such possibilities the young may choose more wisely than out of the paucity of vocations now known to them. Often only one Of the Intermediate Department 161 choice is open, and that the choice of the parents. Wider knowledge gives a background for choice and should be the possession of all the group. Four means of obtaining such knowledge are easily available. First of all is to make some of the hikes contribute to this end by visiting various places where the world’s work is going on. These visits to industrial plants, to professional offices, to commu- nity projects, will make possible further discussion of their desirability as places for lifeinvestment. Not only so, but these visits afford the teachera means of estimating interests and abilitiesin his pupils which will pave the way for more personal guidance. Such visits are best made, not by the entire depart- ment, but by each class, that teacher and pupils to- gether may make their own discoveries. A second means is to bring to the department from time to time men and women who shall represent various vocations and who are able to describe what is required in each and what is the happiness derived from their work. Such talks will reveal much to these pupils who would hesitate to interrupt the busy man to ask personally what he is doing, what joy he gets out of it, and what chance there is for the young in the same field. Sometimes it will be well to make such talks part of the devotional service, but it is far more effective to have them at the social gatherings when time may be had for asking questions. Fur- ther, it may be found better for the class to ask the speaker for its social gathering rather than for 11 162 The Organization and Admintstration eateeeneneeeetieel the department to meet them together. The intima- cy of the class may furnish a better opportunity for questioning and dicussion. A third means of informing the young of various vocations is through books suggested by the teacher. Fortunately the number of such books is increasing. Some of these are listed at the close of this chapter; others must be discovered as they come from the presses. Catalogues of books for public school use should be followed carefully by those who wish to keep informed as to the new publications in this field. A fourth means of helping these boys and girls is to give them actual practice, so that they may dis- cover their natural bent No intermediate pupil is prepared to practice medicine; but courses in first aid furnish a basis for discovering one’s interest in anat- omy, physiology, and simple immediate emergency practice. No boy is yet ready to take up law; but a_ debating club may open his eyes to the possibility of argumentation, and mock trials may show him some of the interesting features of court procedure. Me- chanics is an attractive subject for many youths, and skill in it need not wait until maturity. These earlier attempts will soon show how far the boy is mechani- cally minded. Chemistry need not wait for the days of college. Here, too, a discovery of interests may be made. 3 Much of our school education is based upon the cultural idea rather than upon the attainment of skill of hand and eye. Only of recent date has large Of the Intermediate Departmen 163 addition been made to the curriculum of the schools in behalf of manual training, domestic science, and in the rural schools, agriculture. Now, as a consider- able part of the world’s work must be wrought out by hand as well as by brain, every particle of such train- ing is helpful in finding one’s place in the world’s work. Not so much for future efficiency are such subjects valuable but as a means of real educational develop- ment. Here is a natural point of contact capable of large development. It does connect with the later life task of most of the pupils. Further, the spare time engagements of many boys and some girls may give opportunity for discovering their bent. While it is not desirable that these young people should be led away from school at this early age but should rather be encouraged to finish high school and, if possible, college, many do take up some gainful form of leisure-time occupation. Here is offered another opportunity to learn by actual par- ticipation much of business life, of buying and selling, of office work, of newspaper life, of factory methods. These broader contacts give the immature greater ability to adjust themselves to the world of labor. Now, all that has been written points to two con- clusions: First, in these various ways the pupil him- self is furnished some opportunity to discover his own likes and dislikes, his own interests and capacities. Secondly, the teacher is able, as he follows his pupils, to judge somewhat of the probable trend of their various awakening interests. Upon the basis of this 164 The Organization and Administration experimental introduction into active life advice is possible, and aid can be extended which shall mean much in guiding the young into happy, permanent life work. y a As to those whose full time is already engaged in gainful occupations something will be said later. INDIVIDUAL GUIDANCE IN PROFESSIONAL CHOICES Guiding the pupils into places for life investment, however, can never end with such group activities. Something must be done for each individual pupil for the sufficient reason that each pupil is a problem all by himself, and his selection of a life occupation can be made only in the light of his own background of experience, education, training, aptitudes, and oppor- tunities. Economic pressure may compel a selection that under other conditions would not be made. So the teacher will need to take up the case of each pupil by itself. His study should begin with the family. Here he should be able to discover the family interest in the pupil’s future, their ability to help in further training, and their willingness to render such assistance. Their attitude toward the various industries, trades, call- ings, and professions are also ascertainable, together with their general feeling toward work itself. If here is found sympathetic interest in the future of their boy or girl and willingness to sacrifice for it, a far different course will follow than in case they are‘un- able to see further than the next dollar that can be Of the Intermediate Department 165 earned or the next job that may be secured. If their whole philosophy of life is to get all that one can, spend all that one can, and be as selfish as one can, the task before him who would guide the son or daughter of that family is quite different from his course with a boy or girl from a prudent, fore-thoughted, unselfish family. Also, if there is found high appreciation of the value of preparation for life’s activities, there will be an open way to the consideration of the pupil’s | future training; if not, the reverse will be true. All these facts will have a decided bearing upon how the teacher proceeds to guide his pupil in the latter’s choice. Facts about the home life of each pupil serve the teacher many useful ends aside from that of voca- tional guidance, but this end alone is sufficient to warrant a careful investigation into home conditions. The facts here found should be kept in writing for future reference. Our memories are faulty at best, and some day exact knowledge may save us from giv- ing wrong directions. The next step in the personal investigation of each pupil consists in a careful estimate of his capacities and aptitudes. As guides to such study Professor J. B. Davis has listed a series of questions in his Voca- tional and Moral Guidance which Richardson and Loomis, in The Boy Scout Movement as Applied to the Church (pages 354-56) have rewritten in the following fashion: 166 The Organization and Administration OONNA ME WN wal’ 7 . Where was he born? . Does he live at home? . If not, why not? . Is his father living? His occupation? . Are there any hereditary diseases in the family? . Does he take regular physical exercise? . Is he interested in sports? In what does he take part? . How much schooling has he had? . What are his favorite studies? . In what studies is he weak? . What kind of reading has he done? . What line of reading is he following? . What is his hobby? Does his mind concentrate or skip about? Can he plan well and carry out his plan, weighing the consequences ahead of time? 18. Does he work best when his work is direct- ed by others? 18°) 20. ZL: Le o- 24. 20: 26. Qt Has he self-confidence? Has he patience? Is he inclined to be lazy? Does he act impulsively: Does he make friends easily? Is he fond of company? Is he sensitive? Is he inclined to think himself misunderstood? © Is he most interested in things—machinery, tools—or in men? or in ideas? 28. 29. Does he enjoy business—buying and selling? Does he find himself assuming a position of leadership among his fellows in work or recreation? 30. Can he remember things well and for a cdn- siderable length of time? A Of the Intermediate Department 167 31. Does he remember people—names and faces? 32. Is he persevering? 33. How does he spend any leisure time he 34. Do you consider him absolutely honest? 35. Is he trustworthy? 36. Is he conscientious? 37. What is his religion? 38. Is he a church member? 39. Is he engaged in any church activity? 40. Can he save money? 41. What special ability has he? (1) mental; (2) physical; (3) will power. 42. What limitations or defect has he? 43. What is his greatest ambition? 44. What life work does he prefer? 45. What tratning or special fitness has he had for this work? 46. Is he willing to pay the price in hard work to attain success? This list of questions, while exceedingly suggestive, is not exhaustive and should be used asa guide only. These are not to be used as a questionnaire to be filled out by the pupil but as helps to the teacher in his search. Such an investigation should put the teacher in possession of all the knowledge necessary for in- telligent and sympathetic codperation with the pupil in selecting and training for a place in life. Reliance in getting such information should never be placed entirely upon one’s own personal interview with the pupil under consideration. His teachers in the public school should be sought out, and their 168 The Organization and Administration opinions obtained. His parents’ opinions have great weight. If he has been employed, those for whom he has worked should be consulted. If he has belonged to the Boy Scouts, or she to the Camp Fire Girls or Girl Scouts, the leader in each case may throw needed light upon the investigation. Finally, the pupil himself should be consulted di- rectly as to his own ideas for the future. This cannot be done without tact but it can be done naturally by one who will get into the pupil’s confidence. Here it is not enough to discover what is now in the pupil. If immediate placement in some field were the end in view, perhaps one could readily stop there; but the church owes more to its young than that. Perhaps ambition needs arousing, possibly direction toward — new interests needs to be given, perhaps steadiness needs to be cultivated looking toward future employ- ment. Whatever it isin which the pupil is short, this is the field in which the wise and helpful teacher will direct his energies toward bringing the pupil up to the average or a litle beyond. _ In this personal discussion will come to light the desires of the boy’s or girl’s heart, and here will be | found opportunity to advise, encourage and help. Perhaps ignorance of how to go about training fora special task or where to get it will demand specific advice. Perhaps some means of obtaining funds for further training must be sought. Possibly the con- sent of parents to enter some line of work will be the first step toward their life choice. Whatever the Of the Intermediate Deparimeni 169 need, the teacher should be in a position to throw him- self into the task of helping the youth meet that need. HELPING IN TRAINING FOR LIFE’S TASK Furnishing knowledge of how and where to get training for one’s task is possible to department leaders who have pursued the foregoing course. They will possess themselves of catalogues of schools and colleges that furnish training; they will be in touch with correspondence schools; they will seek to know the industrial life of their own communities, to know where boys and girls can be placed so as to acquire immediate and adequate training for future useful- ness. With this information on hand and ready for use the teacher will be to those who seek guidance a friend possessed of both knowledge and wisdom. More boys and girls would go to the colleges and get the requisiste education to place themselves if they only knew that certain coveted vocations must have a college training as a prerequisite and if they knew the steps necessary to get into the schools. In this day of school facilitiesit may seem strange to say that our own boys and girls do not know how to go to college. But college is a mysterious place, and the ways thither are strange and devious to the unknow- ing. Hence, a friend who has been or who can point clearly the way as well as the need is of great help. Particular training in the various trades may be greatly facilitated and improved by the aid of the many correspondence courses in use to-day. Such 170 The Organization and Administration training is no longer experimental; it has passed that point. On beyond the need of guidance in choosing a voca- tion is the need of guiding the young to prepare them- selves for their chosen calling. Guidance and encour- agement at this age are both needed; it is doubtful which is the greater need. | PLACING INTERMEDIATES'‘IN POSITIONS While the church school can hardly act as a placing bureau, it can do some worthy work at this point. The adult members of the department are not infre- quently in business and have business associates and acquaintances whose good offices may be secured. With exact information as to the characteristics of each pupil, if economic need arises for immediate employment, the teacher or his associates should be in position to render valuable help and advice. This is actually being done in an unorganized way in many schools to-day. What is needed is a more careful and more systematic handling of the whole matter. A boy or a girl looking for a job may drop by favorable accident into the sort of position he seeks; the chances are equal. that he will fall upon some opening un- satisfactory and most uncongenial or for which he is poorly fitted. These misfits and blunderingscan be re- duced to the advantage of the employeras well as to the employed by the judicious endeavors of the workers in the church school—if always, they have taken the trouble to know their pupils from the vocational angle. Of the Intermediate Department 171 FoLLow-Urp WorK Last of all, if the largest results are to be obtained, it is necessary to follow up the members of the school. To watch the growing life of the young is always pleasant tothe sympathetic observer, but it becomes doubly interesting when that person’s success lies partially in the hands of the observer. Blunders we are any of us likely to make, but they need not spoil a career. The encouragement offered in season, the advice rendered just at the necessary moment, the consciousness that some one older is tremendously interested in one’s future—all stimulate one todo his best. Maladjustments may arise in spite of the best intention; then the only course is a rapid but wise change that shall preserve the pupil ’s enthusiasm and desire to make good. These are the ways by which the school may prevent the wastage that comes from the lack of a friend and adviser at the critical points in one’s career. RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP In this whole process it should never be lost sight of that among the many pupils passing through the church schools are those who are to be the future guides and leaders in the affairs of the church itself. The church has the responsibility for presenting the vocations that call for self-sacrifice but which have their rich rewards—the work of the ministry, the missionary’s task, both at home and abroad, and the whole-time worker in the various fields of religious 172 The Organization and Administration education and social service. The demands to do the tasks of the world in one field or another are of equal importance, and all are equally sacred; but if the church neglects its future leadership it has none to condemn but itself. Life decision, again let it be said, should never be placed by the church on the level of money getting, fame, or any other selfish basis. And when the call to life investment is made in terms of service and sacrifice, the church will get its own proportion of the young life for the sustenance and continuanceof its work. QuESTIONS for REVIEW 1. What responsibility has the church school in the subject of vocational guidance? 2. What are some of the things it may do to aid the young to determine their future careers? 3. How may a wide range of possible choices for life investment be brought to the attention of inter- mediate boys and girls? 4. What follow-up work should be undertaken in behalf of those beginning their business careers? QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 1. Choose a boy or girl of intermediate years and discover what he or she has in mind as to the future. Seek to know the basis of the desire; for instance, is it wealth, interest, or ease with which the person may obtain employment in that particular field? One such careful investigation will reveal more than a superficial examination of several cases. 2. A girl asked an older friend if she could follow art asa life work and still be a Christian. What would you have told her? Of the Intermediate Department 173 3. A boy slipped into a grocery job during the vacation period and found the work congenial. He stayed with the concern instead of returning to school. How do you feel about this case: first, as to thus shortening his education; and, secondly, as to his satisfaction in this rather humble position? Could the Intermediate Department have had a responsi- bibility in the matter? 4, What is meant by the word ‘‘humble’’ in the foregoing question? Does this betray an attitude toward manual labor that is thoroughly Christian? What is a fair standard for judging the merits of a position? 5. A man now in the forties was early impressed with the opportunities for service in the ministry. He was compelled, however, because of financial reasons, to leave school and go to work. He is now a small farmer giving as much time as possible to volunteer church work. What would the following suggestions have contributed to his thinking and possibly to his conduct: a chance to earn his Way through high school; the possibility of earning his way through college: a scholarship, to be repaid later, in some good college; relief for the parents, which would have en- abled them to send their boy through school? 6. Is playing with mechancial things a clear indi- cation that one likes mechanics and should make this a life work? Is success in amateur dramatics a sign that a boy or girl should choose the stage as a career? What other factors enter into the choice of a career besides interest in it? Books ON VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE Babson, Roger W.: The Future of Us Boys. Bos- ton, 1915. 174 Organization and Administration Bloomfield, Myers: The Vocational Guidance of Youth. Boston, 1909. Fowler, Nathaniel C., Jr.: The Boy—How to Help Him to Succeed. Boston, 1902. va Parsons, Frank: Choosing a Vocation. Boston, 1909. Weaver, E. W.: Profitable Vocations for Boys. New York, 1915. CHAPTER X LEADERSHIP AND TRAINING IN CHURCH AND CoM- MUNITY ACTIVITIES Upon the parents devolves the responsibility of training their young in those activities that make up family life. Their leadership in these matters may be improved by the church. Parents’ classes are organized that parents may become more efficient leaders of their offspring. Upon the teachers of the public schools, likewise, is placed the responsibility for leadership in school activities, and to them we must look for training in the activities that make up school life. In the socializing processes that are going on both home and school feel some responsibility for leader- ship and training incommunity activities. How much is being done at this point can be determined only by a study of each home and of each school. Where social interest runs high and social education has been pushed forward both institutions become con- tributors tocommunity welfare through the example they set and the training they give in community living. Many homes and a considerable number of public schools are glad to lead youths into active par- ticipation in their own group and in the community life, thus making them sharers of responsibility and of the joys of accomplishment that adults expe- rience. (175) 176 The Organization and Administration In like manner the church school has its duty first to train its pupils in the life of the church; then, to lead them to participate intelligently and actively in the affairs of the community. First let usinquire how these duties devolve upon the church school and then discover some ways in which they may be dis- charged. | THE NECESSITY OF LEADERSHIP TRAINING /The perpetuation of the life of the church—its. organization and management, its support, and its future expansion, numerical, intellectual, and spirit- ual—is determined by the ability of the rising genera- tion to cope with new situations and with its willing- ness to put forth effort to that end. The life of the organized church might conceivably be brought to a speedy close if every one now under thirty years of age refused to assume any responsibility for its per- petuation, or if each were hopelessly incapable of doing his part therein. Church buildings would soon decay or become diverted to other uses. Knowl- edge and skill already acquired in Christian living might conceivably vanish from the face of the earth. The present genertion has it in its power to end the propagation of the gospel if it so desires. It can turn its attention to disqualifying the rising generation for participation in the future work of the institution; and with experience and knowledge gone the institu- tion would vanish also. If the organized church hasa contribution to make to world progress and preserva- Of the Intermediate Department 177 tion, if it is to act as saving salt, that can become possible only as this generation actually engages the interest, trains the minds, develops the skill, succeeds in incorporating into itself the life of the youth of to-day. Obviously the church owes the world the training of its young in church activities so that con- trol, guidance, and enlargement of the institution shall be assured to future generations. As has already been noticed, the home and the school each have obligations to train the young in community activity—the first because its own per- petuation and happiness depend on the sort of com- munity that shall be built up; and the second be- cause, as the servant of the community, it should help the community to continue at its best. But the community is dependent for its ideals in large part on the forces of religion. The church is never an end, and church membership is never a mere refuge. The — task of the church is to Christianize the community. This can be done only as its membership participates in the community life, shaping its thought and its actions according to the Christian ideal. ‘The _church,”’ as such, can never do this; it is only the mem- bers of the church. If.these members are to exert their influence in any significant way it will be by actual, intelligent participation in the community movements, enterprises, and activities. ' Such activity on the part of the church members is not likely to arise if a sense of community respon- sibility is not early developed. Nay, more, if the 12 178 The Organization and Administration boys and girls are not actually set at community tasks, taught how to participate in community activities and made to feel the religious significance of living among one’s fellows and the responsibility it entails, religion will remain detached from plain re- sponsibility to the community. Hence it is that thoroughly to Christianize their own pupils and thor- oughly to Christianize the community are alike dependent on the church’s leadership and training of its pupils in community activities. PARTICIPATION IN CHURCH LIFE The first steps in church activity should have been taken before early adolescence is reached. Habits of church attendance, contributions to the church, and intelligent participation in missionary and service activities should be already formed. The church school is the church organized to teach. But with the coming .of the teen years voluntary personal incor- poration in the life of the church organization be- comes natural and desired. Church fellowship, which with the well-trained pupil should already have become a growing experience, should now be acknowledged by a definite pledge of loyalty to the institution and to participation in its activities. The church school is the church organized to teach, and participation in the church school has been training in church membership. Now, upon the Intermediate and Senior Departments rests the obligation of calling the attention of their pupils to the fact that Of the Intermediate Department 179 they are of years to enlarge their fellowship with others who are loyal to the ideals and standards of Jesus Christ, and declare their definite intention of continuing that fellowship. These declarations of the intention of the pupil constitute a public accept- ance of Jesus as Saviour and Lord and a renewal of the pledges their parents have already made for them. Whether baptized or unbaptized they have, if rightly trained, already passed through many stages of their progress toward mature Christian experience. Fur- ther training in church membership is given in the ‘graded courses. INTENSIFYING CHURCH LOYALTY The Intermediate Department, however, should now do what has heretofore too frequently been neg- lected—namely, train the pupils in large participa- tion in the active life of the church. Much of this training will come strictly within the life of the de- partment; for as we should remind ourselves again, it is a part of the church at work, not something in addition to the church. Loyalty to the department is loyalty to the church, and activity in and for the department is activity in and for the church. But if the larger responsibilities that have been assumed are neglected, joining the church tends to become a mere form. For instance, church attendance, which before has perhaps been due to parental authority, now becomes a matter of personal obligation. It should become a part of the departmental plans 180 The Organization and Administration to increase in the pupils their sense of obligation toward the church’s service of worship and social fellowship and toward its effort for better living within and without the group. This can be done in several © ways. First, attention may be called to the church service, to things in the sermon of interest to these. pupils, to the music and its messages, to the meaning of the church building, and to the obligations church membership brings. It is difficult to stimulate real living interest in that part of church life that is utterly removed from the pupil’s world, and it must be recalled that the morning worship, in sermon and oftimes in its ritual, is far removed from these boys and girls. It may be possible to discuss with the entire department or with a committee from it what in the service was of interest to the pupils, what changes they would like to see made, and what things they would like to have their minister preach about. Out of these discussions the results may be carried back to those responsible for the preaching service. If the church school is rightly organized, worship services will be built up to meet the needs of all members of the church, of these pupils as well as of those who are older. Where space and workers make it possible, a church service separate in part from the main service may be built up’ in which, after all have worshiped together, those who are younger may assemble for their own instruction and participation. In most See The Church School, Athearn, pages 133-136, a " Of the Intermediate Department , 181 churches, however, such an arrangement is impracti- cable, and that real interest may be developed and real loyalty to the church maintained, the pastor will be compelled to find a way for every service to minister to ‘‘these least.”’ INCORPORATING INTERMEDIATES INTO CHURCH ACTIVITIES By far the most effective means of developing their growing sense of loyalty is to give the pupils some part in the life of the church. In the chapter on service activities several possibilities of rendering help to the church were suggested. The yard may be kept in order, the building cleaned, and the books in place, flowers planted outside and cut flowers from woods or gardens placed on the pulpit, advertising for the church distributed, letters carried from the pastor to the sick and to newcomers, newcomers reported to the pastor, invitations distributed to the hotels of the community ,and other similar tasks carried out. These answer the double purpose of giving outlet to the growing altruistic or social impulse and of build- ing up church loyalty. They train in the investment of time, thought, and energy for the work of the church and, therefore, look toward leadership. - But a fuller participation in the life of the church of all its members under twenty-one is needed if the best results are to be attained. While the judgment of intermediate pupils is not mature, their presence on many of the church committees is not undesirable. 182 The Organization and. Administration To know how the work of the church is put forward and to have a part in its work, if onlya silent and listening part, is the beginning of training in real ap- preciation and loyalty. It is possible to use these younger members on committees where activity is needed and to honor their fidelity by ge with them the responsibility. The church school should be financed by the church at large, that the pupils may be taught to dis- charge their financial responsibility to the church. If giving in the school is true giving, and not a species of self-support, each pupil may designate some part of his offering for the support of the local church. This will bring the responsibilities of church mem- bership closer home than if the pupil’s contributions go they know not whither. The special objects of the church’s benevolence—home and foreign missions, community philanthropy, of church improvement— may all be brought to the attention of the depart- ment and their financial aid sought.’ If this is the church school, it should, in its financial arrangements, seek to educate the pupils for church membership and in church membership. CORRELATION IN CHURCH WORK 1. Within the church—-Much confusion arises in the minds of the young because the various organiza- tions of the church, working as separate units, bid for the pupil’s time and energy. Besides the Sunday school are the missionary societies for the children Of the Intermediate Depariment 183 and young people, the various forms of young people’s organizations, and often other dissociated groups. Instead of the church presenting to the young a definite and well-correlated program, which would give a unified impact upon the mind, it insists on giving the impression of a multiplied number of separate groups. Each special agency of the church in a particular field contends for first place in the interest and support of the boys and girls. If we want the intermediates to grow up in the church, recognizing their obligations and discharging their duties, we shall have so to reorganize and inter- relate the various forms of instruction and of activi- ties as to make these boys and girls feel that the church is a coherent cosmos, not a confusing chaos. The church school, with its central board of education within the local church, its well-defined program to prevent overlapping, competition, friction, and waste is the best solution of this difficult problem. Mission- ary education, temperance education, devotional training, and active participation are needed. But is it not necessary to break up the unity developing in the lives of these pupils through the stupid and sometimes selfish efforts of several separate societies within the church? Just as there should be not a smattering of biblical instruction but a well-devel- . oped course for comprehending the scriptural narra- tive and its meanings, so there should be not a con- fused appeal from different “‘causes,’’ but a common emphasis showing different opportunities for life 184 The Organization and Administration investment; not a multitude of voices urging confes- sion of Christ, but one consistent and cumulative appeal for public recognition of Jesus as Lord and Master. Such a unified program will make it more easy, more rational, more normal for the youth brought within these groups to declare himself for Christ and to ally himself actively with the organ- ized body of believers. 2. Among the churches——A further strengthening bond in church loyalty is found in the codperation of the various churches of a given denomination within the same locality and of all the local churches through interdenomination activity. Too long has each Inter- mediate Department sat off by itself, as if it alone could solve the problems of the Christian life, ignor- ing other groups of the same years who are pursuing the same means toward the same ends. Similarity of organization within a given denomination makes possible the easy association of leaders and pupils of this department. Banquets, field days, picnics, and camps may be arranged in common. The give-and- take of social fellowship is excellent preparation for later denominational codperation among the pupils; and the exchange of ideas and of experience among: the adult leaders is certain to look toward greater efficiency in the local school. | The denomination has as its charge the care of its own young and should reserve the right to pass final judgment upon plans in their behalf. It would be stupid, however, to refuse to enter into interdenomi- Of the Intermediate Department — 185 national activity with other like departments in the locality for council and study among the leaders, in community and other service activities among the pupils, and in social and recreational plans among both pupils and adults. Failure to plan together in a large way for all pupils of this age in any community is frequently the cause of the partial and ineffectual _ results achieved by our churches. COMMUNITY ENTERPRISES But the department will be derelict in its duty toward its pupils if it seeks only to ally them with the church organizations. The pupils live in the great community of which the church is only a part. To Christianize this larger community, as has already been observed, is the task of the church; and in this task the young people have a right to participate. In fact, their own spiritual growth will depend in part on their incorporation into this larger enterprise. To bring this about the leaders of intermediates will seek by every means to arouse sentiments of patriotism and community loyalty and will furnish every possible opportunity for participation in com- munity programs of welfare and of service. Ali that has been said in the chapter on service may well be repeated here. This is the time to direct the thought of these pupils to ways in which the'town or city may be improved physically, morally, and spiritually. Surveys of conditions may be aided by these pupils. Newcomers may be reported to the pastor. Christ- 186 The Organization and Administration mas seals for the prevention of tuberculosis may be sold. Clean-up campaigns may be inaugurated. Campaigns for playgrounds may be aided by their efforts. The revival may be assisted by such house-to- house canvassing as the pastor may designate. Ad- vertising may be carried through the hands ofthe boys and girls. In the social programs of the deparilenee a place © may be made for learning essential court procedure through mock trials and for a city council. After due preliminary arrangement has been made, judges and officials willingly give time to explain the conduct of city affairs to groups of earnest young citizens. The special days of the State and of the nation may be remembered while the different political cam- paigns bring opportunity for studying the political issues that soon must command the thought of intel- ligent Christian voters. If these affairs are entered into, not in the spirit of something divorced from religion, but.as life itself, if the leader sees to it that well-advised findings of the pupils and well-deserved resolutions concerning pub- lic improvement are despatched to the proper author- ities, these experiences will be, not preparation for life at some far off time, but participation in life now. Not only willit give a sense of reality; it will be reality itself, Such discussions and eadh self-governing groups may prevent some outbreak of vice orlessen vicious- ness among others not of the group. Of the Intermediate Department 187 Such community activity cannot well be carried on in ignorance of what other agencies are attempting and doing. Here it will be necessary to take council with every agency that is dealing with community welfare, especially with those which are actively set- ting the boys and girls of these ages at work, such as the public school and high school, the Scout organiza- tions, the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Chris- tian Associations, the associated charities, the local representatives of the Internatioanal Sunday School Council, the Anti-Tuberculosis Association, and other agencies too varied to mention by name. Com- munity work is too large and too complex to become effectual except as we all pull together. Moreover, as the years advance, these same pupils need more and more to become identified with these community organizations through which their Christian purposes may effectually express themselves. Here is fur- nished the natural opportunity to become acquainted with the means of community betterment and with the persons involved in the various enterprises. The leaders of the future will come from the intel- ligent participants of to-day. THE GOAL. OF IT ALL We need to remind ourselves again and yet again that the end of all our endeavors in this department is to start our pupils in right habits of living, right ways of thinking, and right attitudes toward the great facts of life. It is useless to think our work ac- 188 The Organization and Administration . complished when we have organized the department, taught the lesson, or even have brought the young into the active membership of the church. We fol- low Christ that we may make this world what he would have it be. We bring our pupils to the Master, that, catching his spirit, they, too, may go forth to change this world into the likeness of that kingdom he had in mind and for which he laid down his life; and our task is not ended until we see them busy about his work. | If we would perpetuate the work that he began; if we would see the labor of our own hands brought to full fruition; if we would see the church and the civili- zation which, through these centuries, we have slowly been building up pass on to their legitimate and God- intended end, we must train the young to participate in the life of the church and of the community. Nay, we must inspire them to leadership that shall carry on to its full-rounded purpose the work begun. To this task we have consecrated ourselves; to this task let us not hesitate to dedicate the lives of those com- mitted to our care. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. How is the church to secure its own future leadership? 2. How does participation in the church school prepare for participation in the life of the church? In what sense is the church school the church? ¢ 3. In what ways can the church utilize the efforts of the intermediates in its own work? Of the Intermediate Department 189 4. How can boys and girls be helped to see the church as one enterprise rather than to give a divided loyalty to its several organizations? 5. How may we prepare the pupils for participa- tion in community life and for community leadership? QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 1. List the activities within your own church which are open to the intermediates. How may the list be enlarged? 2. In how far does the church service minister to the pupils of your department? What helpful changes to this end would you suggest? 3. What activities for the community might the Intermediate Department of your church undertake? 4. How would you go about organizing a field day for al! the Intermediate Departments of your com- munity? State each step in the process, including a list of events. 5. Is Decision Day a part of the regular program of your school? What preparation is made forit? How is it followed up? What definite instruction for church membership is given? What course in the graded lessons is especially prepared for this purpose? Do all pupils come to the point of decision on the same day? How should decision for active church membership be pressed during these years? 6. What in the programs of Scouts and other similar organizations provides training in community leadership? Is the church sharing in this work? Are the Christian men of your community lending themselves to it? 7. If you live in a city with a chamber of com- merce, ask its secretary if it is undertaking to incor- porate the boys in a junior chamber of commerce, 190 Organization and Administration What activities does this organization undertake? What desirable results are to be gained by this effort? 8. In how far does your Sunday school. codperate with the activities of the public school? For instance, in the celebration of holidays, recreation for the pupils’ field days, camps, basketball, football, and tennis tournaments? What is being done jointly in behalf of establishing better standards in athletics? Is either organization developing individual talent and leadership in dramatics, choral music, art, debate, pageantry? 9. If you are in a country school, consider what your Sunday school may do to develop community leadership through a boys’ and girls’ field day or a junior citizens’ town meeting, which shall consider good roads, good health, better schools, and com- munity recreation for the young. 10. Write a paper giving the methods it program for organizing the field day suggested above, using the following outline: (1) Advertising the field day; (2) the program of events; (3) The rewards; (4) providing for the midday luncheon; (5) financing the project; (6) the results hoped for. Tar | eG bad r “tae your. oe er. ¢ . Fs , a a % Boge ( bated Y ~~ ¢ fe Sone gt ine ~~ ect orits Ae sit.» BAL es . = $i o Date Due > =~ a | vt d - uw ae ca, rer te: i es oe el hit: Ho