! THE \>vOkKl j i . i RIBS BV 1471 .T46 1920 Thomas, Marion. . The primary worker and work The Worker and Work Series HENRY H. MEYER, Editor The Primary Worker and Wor MARION THOMAS '^'"''^'"• THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK . CINCINNATI Copyright 1920, by MARION THOMAS First Edition Printed January, 1920 Reprinted October, 1920; June, 1921 The Bible text used in this volume is taken from the American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible. Copyright, 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission. CONTENTS chapter page Laborers Together with God 5 I. New Teacher's First Sunday 9 II. An Hour with a Skilled Teacher 15 III. Margaret and Norma, Stanley, Leonardo, and Victor 22 IV. The Primary Child in the Making 30 V. The Primary Child as He Is 38 VI. The Primary Child in the Sunday School 46 VII. That the Child May Become 52 VIII. The Primary Course of Study 57 IX. Every Child Loves a Story 62 X. Word-Picturing 67 XI. The Technique of Story-Telling 72 XII. Uses op Pictures in Primary Teaching 77 XIII. Helping the Child to Make the Lesson His Own 84 XIV. Concerning the Choice of Materials and Forms of Handwork 89 XV. Helping the Child to Build the Lesson into His Character 95 XVI. Worship in the Primary Department 100 XVII. How TO Plan a Primary Program 105 XVIII. A Primary Program for a Sunday in November 110 XIX. A Primary Room and Its Equipment 115 XX. How to Maintain Interest. , 123 XXI. Promotions and Promotion Requirements 130 XXII. The Priimary Department and the Home 136 XXIII. The Department Organized for Work 141 XXIV. Where the Responsibility Rests 147 Appendices 151-156 LABORERS TOGETHER WITH GOD Those are important years of life which lie between the door of the kindergarten, as it swings outward, and the great portal which opens before the child at the reading age and bids him enter the sunny fields of story and verse and gather for himself at will. In these years when the child is six, seven, and eight years old, he is said to be in the primary period. It is here that elements of person- ality begin to manifest themselves and the foundations of individual character are laid. Here innate and inherited tendencies are seen, motive powers which lie behind the child's thought and action, requiring in some cases develop- ment, in others inhibition, but always to be reckoned with. In these years the child grows rapidly. New interests spring up, others that were absorbing a few months ago are cast aside. Each year of the developing life is a study in itself, and each individual child differs in many ways from any other of his group. It is said that it is impossible to teach a child whom one does not understand, and yet in our church schools it often happens that a young girl with no experience in dealing with children, and with no special preparation for teaching, is asked to take a class in the Primary Department. She accepts because of the urgency of the appeal, her desire to be of service, and her love for little children; but she soon finds that none of these excellent reasons for assuming the re- 5 6 LABORERS TOGETHER WITH GOD sponsibility furnish any light concerning the way in which it may be properly discharged. One purpose of this book is to help that inexperienced teacher to know the child, to see the gateways through which truth will most easily find access to his life, and to learn anew that she must herself be that which she wishes the child to become as she leads him to the Father. Again the book aims to give the teacher such a vision of her task that she will realize the wonderful opportunity it pre- sents, and desire to measure up to it fully. Then there is help for the teaching process. Through concrete examples the teacher is shown how, and by questions and suggestions is led to formulate principles. But the appeal of the book is not alone to new teachers. There is a charm and fresh- ness about the author's presentation which will make it of intense interest to all primary teachers, and none can read these chapters without gaining new inspiration and new points of view. The superintendent of the Primary Department also has a large responsibility. She must so organize her forces that the work will be done with the least friction and the greatest efficiency. The equipment of the room, a seem- ingly mechanical detail, is a vital factor in religious edu- cation, for each item, if wisely chosen, helps teachers and pupils to work rapidly and in comfort, or takes its place among the silent teachers which exert so powerful an influence over the child. To arrange the service of worship through which the child is led to praise and pray in a childlike way, and to plan the whole program of the hour so that there may be variety without confusion and perfect economy of time LABORERS TOGETHER WITH GOD 7 — these and many other duties fall upon the shoulders of the superintendent. In this book valuable suggestions have been given to the executive head of the Primary Department by one who had herself met the administrative problems of that position and solved them successfully in the laboratory of experience. It has been said by one who knew Miss Thomas well that "everything she wrote was a model of religious pedagogy." That is unquestionably true, for technically her work measures up to the highest standards. But it is the spirit that giveth life, and her message will live be- cause it is animated by the beautiful Christian spirit which illumined all that she wrote. She appreciated the dignity of her calling as a laborer together with God, and the last lines she wrote as she laid down her pen and ceased at once to work and live are a call to all teachers to realize their high privilege as coworkers with him. So, she, being dead, yet speaketh, and though absent from us she still lives and will continue to live on earth in the thoughts and deeds of thousands of little children and their teachers. Henry H. Meyer, December 10. 1919. CHAPTER I NEW TEACHER'S FIRST SUNDAY In the Primary Department there was a class without a teacher. A young senior had volunteered to take it, and the children who were to be her pupils were awaiting her arrival on the first morning of what she afterward re- ferred to as her great adventure. They called her "New Teacher." The class was somewhat unusual and had earned the reputation of being "difficult." There were both boys and girls in the class, and they were about eight years old. The boys disapproved of the presence of girls and some- times refused to sit next to them. The girls resented the boys' disapproval and treatment and were ready at all times to criticize their boyish manners, to ridicule them when they failed to make a perfect recitation, and to report their misconduct. Where there should have been cooperation and interest there were usually disorder and inattention — conditions which, if they prevail, make teach- ing impossible. But of these conditions New Teacher knew nothing. When she took the chair reserved for her at the head of the table she found herself looking into eyes of brown, blue, and gray — eight pairs of them. "The eyes of a child are keen, Keen as the lances of light," and New Teacher felt that the children looking so intently and questioningly at her were appraising her, estimating her strength and her weaknesses — and they were. She 10 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK became fearful and doubtful — doubtful of the adequacy of her preparation for teaching, of her ability to teach, and of the wisdom of her decision. Swiftly New Teacher recalled her reasons for accepting the position — her unrest at being in a class where she was taught, her longing to discover her own powers and to test her own strength, her desire for service and to be about her Father's business, her love for little children, and, finally, the appeal that had been made for a teacher for a class badly in need of one. She wondered if all these reasons taken together were sufficiently strong to warrant her being in the position in which she found herself. She could not decide. These thoughts were undercurrents. She hoped that not a ripple of them showed upon the surface, in her face or in her eyes. Even while she was thinking them and struggling to overcome her nervousness and timidity she was making the acquaintance of the children, telling her name and asking for theirs. The girls were shy. They gave their names so softly that it was with difficulty that they could be heard. The boys volunteered not only their names but the names of previous teachers and a short history of the class. It became evident that to "know something" and to be in- teresting while causing others to know are prerequisites for a teacher of eight-year-old children. The boys were continuing to tell what they liked to do and which Bible stories they liked best to hear when quiet music was heard, and it became evident that the session of the department was about to begin. 1. The teacher's attitude and manner. New Teacher had a reverent spirit, and quickly she laid aside her pencil and the little notebook in which she had been recording the names of her pupils and became attentive. Watching her, the children followed her example. She did not real- ize it, but this act on the part of the boys indicated that they had discovered in her an element of strength. It had NEW TEACHER'S FIRST SUNDAY 11 not been their custom to come to order quite so quickly, but there was something about New Teacher which made them feel that it was not prudent to play or to "show off" or to defy her on so short an acquaintance. It is not prob- able that they thought about what they were doing or why they were doing it. They acted on impulse, but that impulse had for its excitant an attitude, a manner, a force- fulness of character on the part of the teacher which made itself felt. 2. The importance of preparation for teaching. Later the children tested her. It was during the lesson period. She had prepared her lesson the best she knew how. She had given much time and thought to it, but she had had no training for teaching. The textbook, given her by the superintendent, was not the first of the course or even the first of the year. It gave few suggestions for the preparation of a lesson. She had not known what to do with it. Consequently, her preparation was of her own originating. She thought back into her own childhood to recall how she was taught, but she could remember neither lessons nor methods. Hers was a memory for incidents, experiences, and pictures. She saw over again the pictures that hung on the Sunday-school walls; she remembered certain black- board illustrations. She recalled her fear of certain big boys who tried to trip her up as she passed down the room to her class, and certain big girls who teased her and made believe try on her gloves and take her muff. She realized that there was no help in reveries like these and prepared to teach her lesson in the way she had been taught in the class she had left. 3. A first experience in teaching. When the lesson period arrived New Teacher opened the Bible that had been provided for her use and read the lesson passage. The children listened and seemed interested. Then she began to read each verse and to talk about it. Almost instantly she had occasion to wonder if she were teaching in the 12 THE PRIMARY WQRKER AND WORK right way; for the girls began to talk to each other, and the boys slyly to kick and punch one another. When she asked for their attention, they looked curiously at her, as if she might be, after all, of the same pattern as several former teachers. At length she abandoned her plans, opened her textbook, and read the story given there. She had not supposed that a story was a lesson. She was surprised to see the children settle down to listen and at the effect that the story had upon them. Before she had finished it, the classes were called together for the clos- ing service of worship, and she promised to read the rest of it next Sunday. She wondered why the story had been a success and her lesson a failure. She realized that she did not know how to teach children, and that she must learn how if she was to be the teacher of these children or of any. She felt instinctively that to excuse herself or to apolo- gize for her poor lesson would be out of order, yet she wanted to justify herself in the eyes of the children — if this could be done. As she was bidding them good-by she said': "It will take a few weeks to become acquainted with each other, but I hope that we may be friends, and that you will be my helpers. You will help me, will you not?" As she put her question she looked into the eyes of the boy who had been the most trying. He had been restless, inattentive, and mischievous, but he squared his shoulders and answered, "Sure I will," and assumed a protective attitude. His look and manner said, "Oh, you're nothing but a girl after all and you don't know how to teach, but I'll take care of you." He turned the other boys right about face and said to them: "Stop your talk- ing and be quiet. Teacher is saying good-by"; and he left the class quietly, and the other boys did the same. The little girls smiled, and one of them said: "I hope you'll be here next week. Our other teacher did not come very often. Some Sundays we had no teacher at all." Just at that moment the superintendent of the Primary NEW TEACHER'S FIRST SUNDAY 13 Department approached and asked, "How did you get along, and how do you like being a teacher?" "I did not get along at all," answered New Teacher, looking over her shoulder to make sure that the children were gone and could not hear her. "I made a miserable failure of my lesson, for I did not know how to teach it. If I am to be a teacher — and I think that I want to be — you must help me." "I will," said the superintendent, "and this is what I will do. I will teach the class next week while you ob- serve and listen, and afterward we will talk together about what I did and why I did it, the best methods of teaching young children, and how to prepare a lesson." And with this promise to give her courage New Teacher went home. The Lesson Continued 1. What do you consider is the purpose of the Sunday school? Answer this question fully and make a record of it in your notebook, that later you may, if you need to do so, revise or extend it. 2. Because of this purpose what are the motives that should govern the decision to become a teacher? 3. What, besides a high motive, is necessary to success- ful teaching? 4. What, do you think, does "knowing how" include? Answer this question as fully as you can from your pres- ent knowledge and experience in teaching and make a record of your answer in your notebook, that you may have it for comparison and study as you progress in the course. 5. Why was it, do you think, that New Teacher's lesson was a failure? 6. If we must use different methods in teaching children of different ages, what particular study should a teacher- training course include? What are your reasons for spe- cializing in primary work? 14 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK 7. What bearing or relation has the teacher's personality, manner, and habits to the imitative impulse natural to children? 8. In becoming a teacher in the Primary Department where there are certain rules and regulations for the chil- dren to observe, what command should the teacher lay upon herself, and why? 9. Formulate a rule or command for yourself with regard to attendance, to the observance of all signals, to sup- plies for your class. The last should have two points to it. CHAPTER II AN HOUR WITH A SKILLED TEACHER The second Sunday New Teacher was in her place early. At first it was a question who was the more shy and con- strained, New Teacher or her pupils, but she tried to -greet all with the same cordiality. Of the boy who looked as if lie might answer if spoken to directly she asked questions about his school and school work.^ She was a good listener, and because the children saw that she really was interested in their school life and play they began to talk freely. Girls and boys claimed her attention at the same time. She was beginning to feel somewhat helpless and as if she needed to know liow to preserve order as well as how to teach when she remembered her promise to complete the story begun the first Sunday. She had just finished it when the signal was given for teacher and pupils to become attentive to the opening service of worship. - 1. Necessity of first ivinning the child's interest. The worship was followed by the period of instruction. As the superintendent came down the room toward the class. New Teacher saw that she held in her hand an oblong wicker basket. It was about 12 inches long, 9 inches wide, and 3 inches high, and had no cover. It was, in fact, a correspondence basket, like those to be found on office desks in which secretaries place their employers' mail. New Teacher looked about and saw that each teacher in the room had a similar basket. She wondered what was in the superintendent's, but discovered that she, like the children, must await developments; for a piece of brown felt the ^ The true purpose and value of such, questions become apparent in Chapters V and VI. 2 The signal was quiet music. 15 I 16 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK size of the basket lay on top and concealed the contents. This piqued her curiosity and led her to perceive that elements of mystery and surprise introduced into a teach- ing situation have their values. She did not think in these terms, but noticed that the children Required no bidding to attend. They gathered about the table and suggested by their attitude that something quite worth while, from a child's point of view, might be forthcoming, and that they were ready for it. A .picture was the first thing produced. The superin- tendent held it in such a way that to see it the pupils would have to face toward her. The boys leaned forward from their side of the table to look, and the girls from their side. She explained: "This picture tells a story. Instead of telling this story to you I want you to tell it to me. Each of you, in turn, may take the picture in your own hands and look at it for a second or two and then pass it on to your next neighbor. Do not tell what you see in the picture until I am ready for you to tell me. Keep your discoveries to yourself in just the same way that you would if you were playing a game in which you did not want the other players to know what you were thinking or going to do. Which side is ready for the picture? I will pass it first to the girls." 2. Arousing the child's self -activity. The passing of the picture was done quickly; for the superintendent knew that if individual children kept it for too long a time, the others would lose interest. She knew too that some re- quire a longer time than others in which to recognize de- tails and their relation to each other. Hence, she did not lay the picture aside when it was returned to her, but held it before the children while she asked, "What story do you see in the picture?"^ One child saw only the people in the foreground. Another was attracted by the unfamiliar houses and street scene. Another child said, "Many people 3 "In the Streets of Capernaum." For this picture see Primary Picture Set No. 3. AN HOUR WITH A SKILLED TEACHER 17 are coming to Jesus." This answer showed an attempt to relate details, but was not entirely satisfactory. As atten- tion to details was necessary to a proper interpretation ot the picture, the teacher began to ask questions: "What time of day do you think it is in the picture? Why do you think it is evening? Where are the people? What do you think is their purpose in coming to Jesus? Are all the people of the same age? Do they look as if they needed to be helped in the same way? Who will take the picture, point to some one who needs help, and tell what it is proba- ble he wanted Jesus to do for him? What did other people want Jesus to do for them? Tell the story of what Jesus did that evening at Capernaum." The superintendent pointed to the lame, the blind, and the sick; while the children told her that Jesus made the lame to walk, the blind to see, and the sick well. "He healed many that were sick." 3. Interest centers in the story. Next the superin« tendent asked: "What part of the day is the evening?" and suggested, "Let me tell you what Jesus did earlier in the day." She laid the picture back in the basket under the felt covering and began: "Capernaum was a city be- side Lake Galilee. In this city there was a church called a synagogue. It was the gift of a wealthy soldier to the Jews." She told the story "A Busy Day at Capernaum." After telling the story she inquired, "What different ways have we of showing love to Jesus?" After the children had answered this question, she asked, "What will you try to do?" Because some children seemed thoughtful and hesitating, she added, "Think it over during the week, and next Sunday we will talk together about what you would like to do." Then she asked: "What shall we say to God?" and brought the lesson to a close with a prayer suggested by the children. The superintendent sat quietly a moment, then drew out the basket from under her chair, where she had placed it before beginning the story, and set it before her upon the 18 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK table. She took from it the folders of Story 17, Year 3, but before distributing them inquired, "What do you think would be a good title for the story that I have told you?" Several titles were suggested; but as the one she desired was not given, she said: "Think what Jesus did. What did he do early in the day? What did he do while in church? Where did he go when he left church and what did he do? What happened in the evening as the sun was setting? What kind of a day do you think it was for Jesus when he did so many things?" Quickly someone answered, "A busy day." "That is the title of the story," said the super- intendent, " 'A Busy Day at Capernaum.' " Then she passed the folders to the boy who sat next to her at the right with the request to take a folder and pass on the rest to his right-hand neighbor. After directing attention to the "Something-to-Do" page she said to the children: "Explain to your teacher what you do with your folders and handwork pages, and show how quickly and skillfully you can fasten them in place. And one thing more: be sure to learn the Memory Verse and to recite it to your teacher next Sunday." In a few moments the superintendent called all the classes to at- tention and led in the closing service of worship. 4. Considering a lesson in relation to results ac- complislied. A little later the children and the other teach- ers were gone. New Teacher and the superintendent sat for the second time at the class table. The primary teach- er's textbook and pictures and a pupil's folder were spread out before them. "Tell me," said the superintendent, "what was the first thing I did in teaching the lesson?"^ What happened as soon as I presented the picture? What led the children to do this? Was the kind of seeing which proceeds from cu- riosity the kind of seeing with w^hich I was content? That they might see not only with their eyes but also with their * It is advisable for the reader to answer each question as it occurs before reading on. AN HOUR WITH A SKILLED TEACHER 19 understanding, what did I do? I gave them something to look for in the picture, — its story or meaning. I might have told them what the picture meant, but that would have been to do their thinking for them, to have told them what they were perfectly capable of discovering for them- selves. As it was, the children became interested and self- active with regard to the picture. They gave purposeful attention and thought to it. Speaking more technically, one would say that the children became dynamic in regard to the picture and the lesson. As a result of individual at- tention and thought each child discovered for himself de- tails and teaching facts which are of value to him in learning to know Jesus. "The pictured story was, however, only a part of the lesson, a part of what I knew and desired the children to know. What next did I do in order to teach the lesson? Did the children listen to the story? Did their thought- fulness and their quiet, reverent tones in prayer have any meaning for you? To me they meant that the lesson had made an impression, had aroused feelings of wonder at the power of Jesus and of gratitude and love. "These are among the feelings that give rise to impulses, and to which appeal may be made for right conduct. But in some children the feelings aroused by a lesson are weak. Other children do not know what to do to express them- selves; hence it is desirable with most lessons to secure a response or prepare the way for it. This explains why I asked such questions as 'What may we do?' and 'What will you do to show love to Jesus?' and suggested prayer. Not all lessons need to end with prayer, and it is only occasionally that a lesson is begun as I began it to-day — that is, with the presentation of a picture. The way in which the lesson is begun and ended depends on the les- son and the method by which it is taught. "From what you have heard and seen to-day what, do you think, is an approved method of teaching Bible les- sons to young children? 20 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK "Judging from the lesson that I taught to-day, what three parts do you consider a lesson may have when taught by the story method? "What is the purpose of the story preparation? What should be the purpose of that which is done by or with the children after the story? "These are questions for you to think about and to an- swer in connection with the preparation of your next les- son," concluded the superintendent, "And whenever you are ready to prepare next Sunday's lesson, let me know, and we will prepare it together." Thus, it was with much thinking to do and an immediate task as well as the larger one of fitting herself for teach- ing that New Teacher again went home. The Lesson Continued 1. What, do you think, was the superintendent's motive in passing the lesson picture first to the girls? 2. What relation have acts of courtesy to the making habitual of such feelings as are enjoined in Eph. 4. 32? 3. What sense, strong in the boy's nature, did the super- intendent regard when she passed the folder first to the boys after having passed the picture first to the girls? 4. How do such acts affect a child's attitude toward his teacher, the teacher's requirements, assignments of tasks, and discipline? 5. There are several values in having the children handle a picture. Some of these will be discovered in a later lesson. Give one based on individual differences in the ability to see. 6. From what you have read in this chapter concerning the method of teaching the lesson "A Busy Day in Caper- naum" what do you consider is one purpose of the lesson teaching in the Primary Department? Keep your answer for future reference. 7. New Teacher's first attempt at teaching was largely a failure. This failure was not due to a lack of knowledge AN HOUR WITH A SKILLED TEACHER 21 or mastery of her subject-matter. She had studied the lesson material in the Bible and in commentaries. It might have been said, and said truly, that she knew her subject- matter. What was it that she did not know? 8. By following directions it is probable that New Teach- er would have taught much more effectively the second Sunday than she did the first. Was there any similarity in method between showing the picture to the primary children and having the young teacher observe the teach- ing of a lesson? What were the results in each case? 9. What does an experience give or become? Find your illustration or argument in this lesson. CHAPTER III MARGARET AND NORMA, STANLEY, LEONARDO, AND VICTOR They were pupils in the same class — 'Margaret and Nor- ma, Stanley, Leonardo, and Victor. Margaret was fair and dainty. She wore her dresses of spotless white and of delicate pink and blue with grace. She stepped lightly and handled things gently. Even her thoughts were light and airy. She rarely touched realities even in her thinking. She was imaginative to an exces- sive degree. When she was younger it had been neces- sary to verify her statements, for they were apt to be colored by her fancies. Now that she was older, there were times when she seemed to speak from far away and to be living in a dream world of her own. Labor was irksome to her. She guessed the answer to a question rather than thought it out, and preferred watching the other children at their tasks to accomplishing her own. Yet she possessed elements of strength. She defended the rights of others speedily and effectually and would permit no one to impose upon her. She was admired and obeyed by all the chil- dren. The boys in particular sought her approval and were quick to do her. bidding. She was the arbiter in times of controversy and set childish standards of right conduct. 1. Individual differences in children. Norma was vigorous. When the door opened to admit her, one was reminded of March winds, whirling papers, and a fire in the next block; for always there was stir and movement, mischief and excitement, in her vicinity. Her clothes and hair were usually somewhat rumpled and suggested a con- flict with the elements or a race to get to Sunday school 22 MARGARET, NORMA, AND OTHERS 23 on time or to outdo some boy whose speed she had chal- lenged. She differed from the boys at all times, dictated to them, quarreled with them, and derided their failures. She would glance over a boy's handwork page, discover an error, and taunt him with it to his exasperation and discomfiture: "You don't know how to spell! You are only in Three B. I'm in Three A, the rapid class." She was as quick to hear and to think as she was to see. It troubled her when the children did not sing in time or in tune. "That was sung too fast or too slow," she would urge; or, "The children are not singing that right. They go down when they should go up." She held every- one, even her teachers, to a strict accountability regarding the right or the wrong use of words. She inquired about their meaning and was anxious to be correct in her pro- nunciation. She wanted to know the reason why for every- thing. Norma grasped one idea and was ready for the next be- fore Margaret and some of the other children had begun to think. She was ready with the answer to a question before the other members of the class understood the ques- tion itself. She found it tiresome waiting for the others to do their thinking. It was a temptation to her to give an answer before the teacher desired it. Often it slipped out; or if it did not, Norma was apt to lose interest and to perpetrate a bit of mischief. There were reasons why she was in the rapid class in the public school. Stanley was somewhat smaller than other boys of his own age, but he was vivid. His eyes were bright and shining. Good health showed in the color of his lips and skin and under his finger nails. His bobbing head was like a glint of sunshine difficult to catch and hold. He was rarely still unless listening to a story. Then he would sit with his left foot over his right knee, his hands clasped around his left knee, and with his head held high. If the story made a special demand on the thought powers of a child, he was eager and attentive. If it ended with a 24 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK question, he knew the answer. If the story appealed to the emotions or sentiments, strong feeling — sympathy or joy, awe or reverence, love or gratitude — showed in his face. He was familiar with many Bible stories and had great love for the. heavenly Father and tenderest feeling for the Saviour. He referred more often to Jesus as the Baby born on Christmas day than to Jesus as a man but was deeply interested in stories of Christ's ministry upon earth. Stanley stood out from among the other children, for he seemed to radiate joy and happiness and good will to others. Leonardo was dark, like other children of his race, but slight. It seemed sometimes as if he scarcely opened the door but slipped into the room like a shadow. To watch him during the service of worship one would think that he was dull and unresponsive. He sat low in his chair with eyes partly closed. But by watching him one could discover that his eyelids did not droop, as if they were heavy with sleep. They were drawn down, as if he were taking refuge behind them and watching you and every- thing that you did. They opened widely only when there 'was something to be done in connection with the lesson for the day. He delighted in a beautiful picture and found infinite satisfaction in doing handwork. He did it well, as he discovered when he compared his work with that done by other boys in the class. That which they were able to do became a sort of standard by which he measured himself and found that he was not lacking. During the lesson period he showed energy, initiative, ability, and in- telligence. Victor was the boy who caused the heartaches and led more than one teacher to urge the finding of some other teacher who could control and help him. He was older tl^an the other children in the class and appeared much taller. His face was long, and this long look was accen- tuated by his mouth, which was open the greater part of the time, letting his chin drop. He was nearly always smiling. MARGARET, NORMA, AND OTHERS 25 not in appreciation of the happenings and sayings that the other children found amusing, but at what he himself was doing. His arms and hands and fingers were so long that with the least movement, and one which would not be ob- served, he was able to pinch the boy who sat next to him. Victor wore heavy shoes and he trod upon the feet of the other children. He paid slight attention to his lessons and rarely knew the memory verses. One day his teacher asked him to help her move a row of chairs and to place a table in a different position. It was seldom that he arrived at Sunday school sufficiently early to give any assistance, but this day he was on time. To the teacher's surprise he seemed eager and glad to perform this service, and that Sunday made an effort to control himself and to be attentive. The following Sunday she called upon him again to give muscular assistance, and from that time it was noticeable that when he was given something to do that he was capable of doing, there was a marked improvement in his conduct. Margaret and Norma, Stanley, Leonardo, and Victor are not peculiar to any one Sunday school. In nearly every Primary Department, if not in each class, there are chil- dren with vivid imaginations who may or may not lack concentration. There are boys and girls of quick percep- tions and keen intellect. There are those who are more responsive than others to the voices that speak to the spirit and bring one close to God. There are children from the city streets like the little foreigner, Leonardo; and there are the Victors, weak in all the ways that other children are strong. And what does it mean that in a class or de- partment there are these types of children? It means that New Teacher, about whose experiences you have read, pene- trated to the heart of the teaching problem when she asked if one must know not only how to teach but the in- dividual child to be taught. There may be six, eight, ten children in a dass, but each one of the six or eight or ten is an individual whom, truly to teach, the teacher must 26 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK know. She must know him as he is, and also as it is de- sirable and possible for him to become. What the child is he reveals by his conduct; for here, there, and everywhere and at all times he is showing what he is by what he does. Hence to know the child one must become familiar with his school life and watch him at his play. To understand his home life is imperative, for the conditions that environ him at home have a great in- fluence in making him what he is. A further knowledge of the child is to be gained through association with him and companionship. 2. Kno-wledge influences teaching method. Victor's teacher, who saw him only in Sunday school for a brief hour on Sunday, thought of him chiefly as an annoyance. One day she learned that he was without father or mother. His mother's sister had taken him into her home, but she had a large family to care for and was not strong. She was able to give Victor very little personal attention and did not understand why he should be so different from other children. He was provided with shelter, clothing, and food, but denied sympathy and love. Next it was dis- covered through his records and work at school that he had a weak mind in a not overstrong body. In his play he showed that he was not vicious but lacking in sympathy and regard for others. Having acquired this knowledge, the teacher's whole at- titude toward Victor changed. She would have been a very strange and unnatural teacher if it had not. She asked: "How can he have sympathy for others when he has never experienced it? How can he concentrate and really think when he has not the power? If he has a weak body and a weak mind, how can he be strong and controlled? What may be done in the Sunday-school hour to develop him physically and mentally, to arouse the tender emotions, and to minister to him spiritually?" In her teaching and in her attempts to control Victor the teacher began to use different methods. She ceased MARGARET, NORMA, AND OTHERS 27 reprimanding him for wrongdoing and urging a control impossible for him to exert. She began to direct his activities. When she made out a question for the other children there was always an easier question for Victor. When she asked other pupils to write an original state- ment, she gave Victor a sentence to copy. She was kind where she had been stern, and she studied his needs and how to help him upbuild a stronger and better self. Why? Because her knowledge made her sympathetic toward the child, fostered a tender feeling, and gave her an under- standing of his needs. It is said that the individual bond between the teacher and the individual child is the genius of the teacher. It is noteworthy that Victor responded to the teacher's different attitude and methods, became more amenable, and tried to attend to the lesson presentation. Some days there was a marked improvement in his con- duct. The Lesson Continued 1. There were times when Leonardo was unresponsive during the service of worship. It was learned that his father had lost courage in his struggle to earn a living in the New World. His mother worked hard but was incap- able of providing her large family with suitable shelter, clothing, and food. There were many times when the child came to Sunday school hungry because he had not had sufficient food for several days. Would this knowledge affect the teacher's attitude toward Leonardo? Would it cause her to modify her treatment of the child, her re- quirements for response or attention, or her assignments of work? How? 2. Leonardo's clothes were of the cheapest and thinnest. His shoes needed repairing. He lacked many things when he measured himself by others. Would this account in any way for his joy when he found that his handwork compared favorably with that done by other children of his age? What feeling would it give him about himself? 28 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK and of what value is this feeling? Is it possible that his father's continued failures in life might be due to loss of this feeling? When Leonardo appealed to his teacher to share in his joy and give him the word of commendation he craved, should she give or withhold it? What is the value of encouraging a child who does well to do, not better than his companions, but better than he himself has done before? 3. Stanley's birthday came two days before Christmas. What was to him the happiest season of all the year was associated with the story of the birth of Jesus. What feeling might one expect Stanley to have for Jesus, and how would he be apt to think of him? Endeavor to ac- count for Stanley's joyous, happy disposition, his good will to all, and his greater love for God and knowledge of Bible stories than that possessed by other children. 4. Norma's grandparents had served in kings' palaces. The originality of thought on the part of her father and mother and their independent spirit had led them to seek a home in a republic, to break away from an old creed, and to adopt another faith. There were numberless influences which stimulated Norma's thought powers and helped to make her keen and active and to give her a marked indi- viduality. How may the Sunday-school teacher obtain an equally intimate knowledge of the individual pupils in her class? 5. What would you do with a child who dreams, as Mar- garet dreamed, during the teaching of a lesson or when there is work to be done? and how would you do it? Day- dreaming and inability to concentrate attention may be indicative of adenoids. If day-dreaming continues, what is the responsibility of the Sunday-school teacher? 6. Sometimes it happens that in a Primary Department there are several classes of the same grade or year. In each class there is one or there may be two children who think and work much more rapidly than the other chil- dren. Would it be an advantage or a detriment to these MARGARET. NORMA, AND OTHERS 29 children to place them together in one class? Is it a help or a hindrance to the slower thinkers to be associated with the more rapid workers or thinkers? What is the practice in approved public schools? Discuss and answer these questions from the point of view of the needs and rights of the individual child. 7. We are told that physicians and educators who have worked with children who are deficient mentally have found that there is improvement when attention is given to ac- tivities that call into play the larger muscles like those of the arm and hand as a whole rather than those of the fingers. In view of this what would you do with such children as Victor? 8. What is it that an acquaintance with the child's home life helps you to know about him? 9. What is the Sunday-school teacher's responsibility and duty with regard to the pupils in her class? CHAPTER IV THE PRIMARY CHILD IN THE MAKING We meet him on the street. We see him at play with companions. We hear about him in school. Occasionally we visit him in his home and see him as a member of a family group. We think of him more often as the boy we teach in Sunday school, and for this reason are apt to forget that he is not only that boy; he is the boy his parents know, the boy his teachers know, plus the boy on the playground and on the street. The primary child is all these boys in one. Furthermore, he has not sprung into being; he has been in the making for six, seven or eight years. 1. Beginnings of mental life. Mental life has its be- ginnings, and certain habits are started by fostering, care. Once the child lay in his mother's arms helpless. He was able to do little more than cry when he was hungry or ill at ease and smile in variable fashion when he heard certain tones in his mother's voice and saw her smile as she leaned over him. Of his mother's love he knew noth- ing. Her thoughts lay beyond his power even to surmise. It was only her care and that of other people which af- fected him. Agreeable sensations or the reverse, feelings of comfort or discomfort, were occasioned by everything that was done directly for or with him, by the regularity with which he was given care, by the movements of persons and things, by sounds, and by qualities of objects that he became able to grasp and move. In receiving and reacting to these sensory stimulations his mental life had its beginnings and certain habits began to be formed. The young child makes an early beginning at discovery. 30 THE PRIMARY CHILD IN THE MAKING 31 At first his movements were reflex, instinctive, and uncon- trolled; but gradually he became able to locate a sound and turn his head toward it, to follow a light, to recognize his mother and distinguish her from other people who cared for him, to recognize a few objects in his immediate en- vironment, to reach out and to grasp things presented to him and to convey them to his mouth or move them from place to place, and, finally, to seek a repetition of sensa- tions that gave him pleasure and to avoid those which oc- casioned discomfort. Gradually he gained power to move about. There came a time when he struggled to free himself from arms that held him. Released, he slid to the floor to creep across the room to his Teddy bear in the corner, his Canton-flannel pussy cat, and his rattle. He jerked and pulled first one and then another and pounded it upon the floor. He found pleasure in doing this because it was his play. The next day, or the day after, sunshine lay warmly upon the rug. Making his way into it, the little one discovered an open door. He studied it a moment, then crept rapidly out upon the doorstep into the brighter light and freer air. What had happened? He had heard the unknown calling ever so faintly and had answered it. To continue his discoveries the child began to hold him- self upright, to stand upon tiptoe, and to walk. He was everywhere, and his sharp eyes and busy, prying fingers found their way into everything. He felt of, tasted, lifted, and let things fall. He was hearing, seeing, doing some- thing all his waking hours, and everything he could do by himself he wanted to do. One day his mother set him in a sand pile to play. He watched her as she took a large spoon and filled a wide- mouthed bottle with sand. When it was nearly full, she emptied it and began the filling process a second time. The little one would not let her continue but took the spoon into his own hand and tried to do what she had done. 32 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK Finally he mastered the feat, was able to convey the spoon to the mouth of the bottle, tip it, and send the sand inside. He filled the bottle and emptied it more times that day and following days than his mother was able to count. Imitation is another form of discovery. He imitated everything he heard or saw — birds chirping and birds fly- ing, the bark of dogs, the crying of little children, the movements of people, and the expression of their faces. If any one frowned in perplexity, he frowned. If any one smiled at him in friendly fashion, he smiled in instant response. If voices were raised in protest or anger, he raised his voice and scolded vigorously. By doing what he saw others do he gained ideas of the sensations felt by the people whose acts he imitated. In times of stress or strain, of anxiety or excitement in. the home he was nervous, excitable, and fretful. With persons who were contented and happy he was sunny na- tured. Often when his elders were laughing heartily, he stopped his play and bent back and forth in an excess of merriment. He was one of those about him and expe- rienced their emotions. It was preeminently the time with him of learning to share the mental life of others. This period in the child's development has been called the imitating and socializing stage.^ The period in which the child is affected by what people do for him, rather than by what they think, is called the presocial stage.- It is necessary for the primary teacher to know something about these periods for the reason that during the presocial stage, which ends about the close of the first year, and the imitat- ing and socializing stage, which ends at about three years of age, certain habits are formed and certain characteris- tics are developed which have an influence upon the de- veloping conscious life. 2. Beginnings of habit. Habits have an early start. In the earlier stage of development, the presocial period. 1 The Individual in the Making, Kirkpatrick. ^lUd. THE PRIMARY CHILD IN THE MAKING 33 health is fostered, and the mind stimulated by care given at regular times, which occasions the repetition of cer- tain sensations. Regular times for dressing, feeding, and putting the young child to sleep, for petting and caressing him, for talking to and playing with him, for leaving him alone to talk to himself and to play, tend to establish habits of regularity in needing care. The child learns to know what to expect at certain times or under certain conditions and to respond joyously and happily to whatever is done with or for him. He is good-natured, and good na- ture becomes one of his individual characteristics. Per- nicious habits of irregularity and characteristics of fret- fulness and irritability have no chance to fasten themselves upon him. Through proper care and training it is possible for the child in this stage of development to learn to wait quietly for food and to be taken up. Professor Kirkpatrick calls these more complex habits "elementary acts of polite- ness."^ Thus it is evident that desirable characteristics or the reverse have their beginning during the first year of the child's life. 3. The socializing stage. Early in the second period, when the child begins to do what others do and to share their mental life, he gains not a feeling of self apart from others but of common consciousness with them. This is the time when the spirit of those around the child and the atmosphere of the home affect his emotional life. He not only reflects the spirit and the temper of those around him but builds their joyousness or their irritability, their con- trol or lack of it, their kindnesses or cruelties, their con- sideration or selfishness, into his own character. It is believed that many characteristics that a child of primary age manifests, which we frequently attribute to instinctive and inherited tendencies, "are the results of emotional attitudes produced by the actions of others during the period of great susceptibility to social influence."* 3 The Individual in the Making, Kirkpatrick. * IMd. 34 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK In addition to imitating the acts of the people about him and, by so doing, feeling in part as they feel, he enters more understandingly into* their mental life through the use of language. He receives ideas by what is said to him and he both receives and expresses ideas by making use of words he has learned. He learns language rapidly dur- ing his second and third years, and his intellectual devel- opment, as a consequence, is rapid. 4. Development of consciousness of self. Usually during the third j^ear the child begins to use the words "I" and "you" correctly and to express his preference in terms "I want" and "I don't want." Such expressions on the part of the child are thought to indicate that he has be- come conscious of selfness or has now "the idea of the self as a distinct conscious being." The child's health is important. Physical well-being tends to give a favorable trend to the conscious life that is forming. Ill health, on the other hand, may be responsible for a contrary spirit and other undesirable characteristics that distinguish him later. It is important for the teacher to have a knowledge of early childhood. The primary teacher who understands the importance of the first three years of life and the effect of environment and nurture on child development is able to meet the needs of the primary child more surely and successfully than the teacher who has not this knowledge. She is able to recognize characteristics and to look for their possible causes, to determine which tendencies need inhibiting and which developing, to guide the child's ac- tivities wisely, and to give him the personal attention and instruction which he requires. This part of the teacher's task will be emphasized later. 5. Development of individualism. Another stage of development through which the child passes while he is in the making is the period of individualism.^ It is 5 The Individual in the Making, Kirkpatrick. THE PRIMARY CHILD IN THE MAKING 35 also regarded as the last half of early childhood/ The child begins to find less pleasure in playing alone. He unlatches the garden gate and leaves it wide open be- hind him. He is not far away, but when his mother calls he does not hear, for he is playing with companions. This is the time when his mother takes him by the hand and leads him to kindergarten and the Beginners' Department in the Sunday school. The child is beginning to be an individual person and to have a mental life of his own. He chooses what and whom he will imitate. Quite frequently he opposes his will to that of others. It is a problem to care for him and to direct and control him at this period; for his own individ- uality should develop freely and consciously, and, at the same time, he needs to be brought into right relationships with others. He needs a large amount of letting alone, and directions and suggestions rather than domination. He should be given opportunity to find things out for himself and to learn from experience what are the results of certain ac- tions and lines of conduct. He should learn to obey prompt- ly and without question or argument, for there are occa- sions when instant obedience is necessary to his own safety and that of others, to others' happiness and to his own. He has one absorbing and continuous occupation — his play. He leaves traces of himself all over the house. In the dining room the chairs are made into trains. In the library books are converted into railways and bridges. In the living room one must not move the piano bench from the middle of the floor because it is a ship at sea. Animal toys brought from the nursery are discovered upon the stairway, which in the child's imagination is the mountain from whfch wild bears come stealing down to kill little lambs in the shepherd's flock. Everything the child sees or hears about he tries to relive and make his own. He is entering into life and individualizing himself at the 6 "Chart of Childhood," St. John. 36 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK same time. It is only when nighttime comes or things go wrong in his little world that he wants mother. He begins to perceive that motives lie back of acts and to ask, not "What is that?" but, "What is that for?" "Where did it come from?" "Why is it like this? Why isn't it different?" "Why are you doing that?" "Why do you have to do it?" To some questions he is given the answer "God." The thought of God satisfies him and helps him to organize his thinking. God, whom the little child kno\ys, has power to do everything. He is a loving Father who takes care of little children, loves them, and wants them to be good. He cares about what a little child does, and the little child begins to try to please him. What God will think or feel because of what he, the little child, does, becomes a subject for thought and a topic of conver- sation. The child learns that certain lines of conduct are right and desirable, and he begins to form ideals of con- duct, to distinguish what is true, and to measure himself and his acts and the acts of other persons by certain stand- ards. It is during the years from three to six, or the period of individualizatioft, that the intellect is formed and the religious consciousness developed. At about six years of age the child becomes a real pri- mary child, for he enters the primary or first grade in the public school and is promoted from the Beginners' to the Primary Department in the Sunday school. He has been this child in the making for six years. What he is he manifests by his conduct. That which he is, together with that which it is desirable and possible for him to become in the next three years, represent needs that should be met. To meet as many of these needs as it can, and to meet them in the way that will contribute to the child's truest and highest development, is the purpose of the Primary Department. What the primary child is, what some of his needs are, and what the Primary Department may do to meet them will be considered in detail in other lessons. THE PRIMARY CHILD IN THE MAKING 37 The Lesson Contixued 1. Name the different stages of development discussed in this lesson. They may be defined approximately by years. Define them in this way and write briefly upon each, stating what you think are distinguishing and im- portant tendencies in each period. 2. In which period does the child begin to manifest cu- riosity, activity in play, and imitation? By means of a story from child life illustrate an early manifestation of each of these tendencies. Illustrate a later manifestation. Indicate briefly how each of these tendencies affects mental development. 3. If possible to do so, observe carefully a child in each period of development, note some distinguishing charac- teristic, and account for it. In doing this consider the child's environment, the care and treatment given the child, and the emotional life of those v/ith whom he comes in closest contact. If this study cannot be made of the three periods, choose and present one. CHAPTER V THE PRIMARY CHILD AS HE IS A MOVING van drew up at the curbstone in front of an unoccupied house. Almost instantly Dorothy, Lorna, Mar- garet, Walter, and Edward gathered in a little group near by to watch the process of unloading and to wonder wheth- er or not there would be children in the family which was coming. There were two girls, and Walter and Edward lost interest at once. One of the girls was perhaps a little older than Lorna, who was about five. The other was older than Margaret, who was six, and younger than Dorothy, who was eight. 1. Children seek companionsliip. Dorothy and Lorna were sisters. Margaret was a little friend and neighbor. The children in the two groups watched each other from a distance for a time, then suddenly became acquainted. They played together for a day, possibly for two or three days; then their friendship ceased to prosper. The three seemed to ignore the two children. This explanation may be offered to account for the situation: A child needs experience in associating with com- panions. The newcomers were inexperienced in playing with other children. They were not ready to share, to take turns, or to give up their way to make their little companions happy. They were inclined to want the best for themselves and to be first in all things. When the three children had been yielding for about as long a time as good manners to newcomers demanded, they began to defend their own rights. When the newcomers found that they could not get what they wanted, they ran crying to their mother to get it for them. The three children dis- 38 THE PRIMARY CHILD AS HE IS Z9> approved of such conduct, and they simply let the two alone. It was nearly two years before the two groups again united for play. By this time all five children were older and had reached an age when children's play assumes a different form. They united for such games as hide-and-seek, tag, and a few representative and dramatic plays; and they played "house" or "school" or "store" for an hour at a time without a disagreement. It was noticeable that the conduct of the two little sisters had become greatly modified. It con- formed much more closely to social customs that prevail among children, and it is probable that this is one reason why the children of the two groups found it possible to play together. The question is, Are such changes in chil- dren due to their added years or to formative and regula- tive influences which come into their lives? 2. Scliool experience as a regulative influence. Dur- ing the years from one to six the child obeys and for the greater part imitates adults. Therefore the chief social influence during the years preceding the primary are those of adult personalities. Even if the child attends kinder- garten and the Beginners' Department in the Sunday school, the attention and care given him are personal, and the dominating influence is that of the teacher. At about six years of age the child enters the Primary Department of the public school, and what happens? The child finds himself one of a quite large group of children, of his own age. There are rules and regulations to whicli he must conform. These have been made not for the in- dividual but for the best good, development, and happiness of a number of children. He is in competition with others of his own age at all times. There are many occasions when he must cooperate with them in work and play. He discovers very quickly that if he is to have an active part in the school activities he must regulate his conduct and conform to the school rules and to the ideals and stand- ards of conduct held by his associates. It is apparent. 40 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK therefore, that school is a help to the child in regulating his conduct and becoming like other children. The teacher's ideals and her own conduct, her courtesy, her even and just discipline, the treatment of one child by another which she upholds, the ethical stories she tells (we are now considering the public-school teacher), her talks on manners, her own truthfulness, and the truth- fulness she requires of her pupils help to shape the child's ideals. The stories the child reads in school are also formative influences. Thus it happens that if a child re- ceives but little ethical training at home he does not go trainingless. He receives it in school. 3. The home an agency of training. Most children, however, receive helpful training in the home, for it is there the average child is shown truest love and learns to love in return; where he experiences mercy and kind- ness, justice and truth, patience and courtesy, and is ex- pected to practice these fundamentals of character in his treatment of others. Children reflect this home training and the training received in school. (The training re- ceived in Sunday school is omitted from the present dis- cussion.) And when they meet in groups in school and on the street and in play they influence one another. They hold each other accountable to child standards of right and wrong, of truth, justice, and kindness. It is not unusual to hear one of a group of children say, "It is my turn," and for others to uphold him. Perhaps one hears: "I think you are mean. If you do that again, I am going home," or "If you do not play fair, we will not play with you." The one who is reprimanded plays fair or desists from his teasing, for the one thing above all others which a child of primary age abhors is to play alone. He wants to win the game, to demonstrate his skill or fleetness; and to accomplish this he must be one of a group. If he is not a desirable member of the group be- cause of his conduct, he will restrain and control himself, follow the rules of the game, obey the dictates of the leader. THE PRIMARY CHILD AS HE IS 41 do whatever is required, rather than be left out. There is no doubt that school regulations and practices, the influ- ence of teachers, and contact with companions of their own age, help children to conform to child customs and stand- ards of good conduct. 4. The influence of persons. From these studies of child life in the primary period important truths should begin to emerge and find emphasis: First, that while character has received an impetus in earlier years, habits are not yet fixed at six, seven, and eight years, undesirable characteristics may be modified or inhibited, and desirable ones may be developed to fuller power,^ Second, that the primary period is one of great suscep- tibility to regulative and formative influences. Among these are the ideals and standards of conduct and character and the personal example of those with whom the child comes in most intimate contact — the members of his fam- ily, his teachers in school, his friends and playfellows, and his associates in books. Third, that the primary period must be one of great opportunity for religious instruction and the development of Christian character. The great susceptibility of the primary child to social influences may be accounted for by certain innate ten- dencies that are prominent during the primary period. Sympathy, suggestibility, and imitation are three of these tendencies. The instincts of self-abasement or subjection and of self-assertion or self-display are also causes of sen- sitiveness to influence. 5. The influence of sympathy. Sympathy is the shar- ing and experiencing of the feelings and emotions of oth- ers. It has its beginnings in the period of common con- sciousness,- but is operative through life. Children of all 1 The years from six to twelve are desijjnated by Professor Kirk- patrick as the period of competitive socialization and regulation. The Individual in the Making, Chapter VII. 2 See Chapter IV. 42 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK ages, even adults, respond to emotion expressed either by bodily gesture, by the voice, or in the face. A merry smile dissipates gloom. Discontent in one breeds discontent and unhappiness in others. Fear, curiosity, and anger are readily communicated from one to another. Approval and disapproval, abhorrence and disgust, are also communi- cable feelings. When the child discovers that he is regarded with dis- favor because of some act or failure to act, the instinct of self-abasement is excited, and the emotion of subjection results. He experiences unhappiness and discomfort. He desires approval and makes an effort to win it. Having won it, he experiences the emotion of elation due to the excitement of the instinct of self-assertion. He has a pleas- urable feeling and continues to seek that which will give him pleasure. It is apparent, therefore, that the regard in which one child is held by another or by a group of children or by an older person whom he loves, admires, or before whom he feels inferior, is an influence that affects action; it tends to regulate it. 6. Suggestibility of the child. Suggestion is allied to sympathy in that the result is achieved through a pro- cess of communication. It differs from sympathy in that the something communicated is not an emotion or feeling so much as it is an idea or belief, a standard or ideal, which is accepted with little or no conscious reflective thought on the part of the one to whom it is communicated. The child is conscious of dependence on others and also of a lack of knowledge. In the presence of those who care for and instruct him he has the feeling of subjection or submission. He is in a receptive .attitude toward them, which leads him to accept any statement they make and to hold as his own any idea or belief they express or ex- emplify in conduct. Similarly, with companions or any one who seems to the child to be superior in respect to size, strength, knowledge, reputation, character or favor with others he is, as a rule, responsive to the suggestions he THE PRIMARY CHILD AS HE IS 43 receives directly from them or because of what they say, do, think, or feel. The suggestibility of the child is another cause of his quick response lo social influence and also to instruction. 7. The tendency to imitate. The very young child tends to do what he sees other people do. If some one smiles at him, he smiles; when some one waves his hand in farewell, he waves his. If he is old enough to play with companions who for any cause start to run toward home or shelter, he follows them without thinking why they are running or why he should follow them. When he becomes old enough to listen to a story, he is very apt to respond to the idea of action with action. In the midst of the narration he will fly like a bird if the story is about birds, or will run fast to show how the boy in the story is running. He will imitate peculiarities of gesture, facial expression, and other mannerisms of those among whom he lives. He will do all these things because of his innate tendency to imitate others. It is, however, imitation of another form which makes the primary period vital to character formation. There is in the child of primary age a strong tendency to imi- tate persons whom he admires. Left to himself, it is prob- able that his imitations are not wholly purposeful or con- scious, but under proper direction and stimulus (given usually through the suggestion of some adult) he will de- liberately set himself to imitate his model, to be like him, and to do as he does. There is also a tendency to carry out actions similar to those which the child has observed or heard about, which have interested or appealed to him, or which have been made to appear desirable in his eyes. He is of an age when he will work for a result if it is not too distant and is worth while from a child's point of view. The following is an illustration of what is meant: It is Christmastime, and the child is told a story about a boy who went without a desired Christmas gift that a child in a hospital might have a coveted toy, or performed 44 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK some definite task for a month that he might earn money with which to help buy a Christmas dinner for a hungry family. The story is told in such a way that the action of the child who performed the act of self-denial appears admirable and imitable. The child to whom the story is told becomes eager to perform a similar act. He does it and experiences the joy of service. He repeats the expe- rience and enjoys the same pleasurable feeling. By a con- stant practice of such acts he may grow out of and aAvay from a selfishness that may have characterized him. De- sirable character-forming influences or the reverse come into the life of the child through the tendency of imita- tion. Children are inevitably suggestible, firstly because of their lack of knowledge and lack of systematic organization of such knowledge as they have; secondly, because the superior size, strength, knowledge and reputation of their elders tend to evoke the impulse of submission and to throw them into the receptive attitude. And it is in virtue largely of their suggestibility that they so rapidly absorb the knowledge, beliefs, and especially the sentiments of their social environment.^ The three innate tendencies — sympathy, suggestibility, and imitation — and the self-feeling instincts — self-abase- ment and self-assertion — are causes of peculiar suscepti- bility to regulative and formative influences exerted by persons. To show why and how they are causes has been the purpose of this lesson. These same tendencies and instincts make the primary period one of great opportu- nity in the development of Christian character, as later lessons will show. The Lesson Continued 1. Observe a small group of primary children at play. Note what form their play is taking, whether or not it is Introduction to iSocial Psychology, McDougall. THE PRIMARY CHILD AS HE IS 45 imitative and of what. Note also personal characteristics that are exemplified by the conduct of different children which are desirable or the reverse. Describe your obser- vation. 2. Observe a larger group of primary children at play. Note the form their play is taking and whether it is one of large or small muscle activity. Note also the general and individual characteristics exhibited, and regulative in- fluences, if any are exerted, and the response to these in- fluences by individual children. Describe your observation. 3. To what innate tendency or tendencies of the child's is the teacher's greatest influence due? 4. Why do you consider the innate tendencies — sympathy, suggestibility, and imitation — important. CHAPTER VI THE PRIMARY CHILD IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL It was the Sunday after the annual Promotion Day. On the steps of the Sunday-school building stood a little child. For two years he had been in the Beginners' Department, but that day he was to become a primary pupil. When the door was opened, he did not go to the beginners' room, as had been his custom, or to the beginners' teacher for instruction. He knew where the primary room was and, impelled by his curiosity concerning the new experiences awaiting him there, went directly to that room. 1. Importance of a right appeal. In addition to cu- riosity the child has other natural qualities. He has in- stincts, impulses, and desires that render him susceptible to influence, guidance, and training.^ Among these are the imitative tendency, imagination, the tendency to act in response to suggestion, the tendency to play, the desire for companionship, a spirit of cooperation, readiness to share, desire for approbation, fear, a competitive interest, the instincts of subjection and of self-display, restlessness, the desire to do things and to accomplish immediate and pleasurable results, a tendency to repeat the doing or hear- ing of whatever has given him satisfaction, and the feeling of dependence and the spirit of obedience. In addition there are sentiments, emotions, and feelings such as love, grati- tude, and trust. These are among the natural qualities by which appeal is to be made and the whole nature of the child is to be aroused and lifted. It is by doing right that habits fundamental to Christian character are formed and strengthened. 1 See Chapters IV and V. 46 THE PRIMARY CHILD IN SUNDAY SCHOOL 47 2. A definite purpose. It is said: "There is no matter so important, none which so concerns all right-thinking people, as that of getting our children firmly grounded in righteousness and disposed to accept the ways of Christ with respect to life."- Hence to "take the young child and secure in each individual, by information and inspiration and training, the development of the disposition and the power to choose from within in righteous ways"^ is the task set for the Primary Department. This is necessary to the fulfillment of the larger aim, — the development in each individual of a Christian character, which is the supreme purpose of the Sunday school. For a better understanding of what is meant recall ob- servations of children at play, in the home, and at school. A group of boys and girls of primary age were playing hide-and-seek. Different children became "it" in turn. Among the players were those who were conscientious in closing their eyes and counting five hundred while the others were hiding. Others watched while their compan- ions hid or called five hundred before the counting was completed. What is indicated here? Is it not that chil- dren in their associations with others should play fair, show consideration, and be obedient to what is right; and that these are among the -habits of Christian living for children? An eight-year-old boy was playing with his two sisters. They were older, but he was strong and sturdy and had an accurate estimate of his own strength. He became rough in his play and began to trip up his sisters as they ran and to pull their hair. His teasing passed the limit of endurance, and they begged him to stop. But he exerted no self-control until they appealed to their mother, when he yielded an unwilling obedience to the word of authority. We observe that other habits which are desirable for the - The Use of Motives in Teaching Morals and Religion, Gallo- way. 3 IMd. 48 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK child to form are prompt and cheerful obedience to au- thority, merging gradually into obedience to what is right, ready sympathy for others, and rightful yielding of one's own way for the good or pleasure of other people. One day a mother was obliged to leave her two little daughters alone at home for a part of the afternoon. In a box on a table in the living room was candy, which the younger of the children proposed eating. Her sister re- minded her that their mother did not approve of their having candy at all times, and that it would be wrong to eat it without her permission. Then, because the candy continued to appeal, and the little sister suggested that the mother need not be told if she ate it, the older child urged the strongest motives for right conduct of which she could think. She said, "It would be wicked to eat the candy and not tell mother, and God would know if mother did not; and to-night you could not tell him that you had tried to be a good girl" — with the result that the little sister left the candy untouched in the box. The mother was one whose children had learned to obey her, not because they feared punishment but because they loved her so truly that they did not want to grieve her by doing wrong. Similarly, when the children had some con- scious choice to make, she had led them to do right from the motive of showing love to God and of being obedient to him. From this illustration it is evident that even young children are capable of holding in mind childlike standards of right conduct and of making right choices from motives. It is largely by suggestion and imitation and by appeal to other of the child's natural qualities that he is helped to begin the formation of right habits. But as his expe- riences multiply and ideas take shape he may be led to act more and more consciously and to make right choices from higher motives. He should try to do what is right for the sake of father, mother, teacher, friends and companions, the heavenly Father, and to shape his conduct after the pattern shown by Jesus. THE PRIMARY CHILD IN SUNDAY SCHOOL 49 3. Knowing the child. To meet the needs of the child and to give him the religious experience and training that may be provided for him in the Sunday school it is neces- sary for the teacher to know him as he is. The teacher will find it helpful to reread Chapters IV and V, and to study such books as Life in the Making, Barclay-Brown and others; Fundamentals of Child Study and The Indi- vidual in the Making, Kirkpatrick. In addition there must be thoughtful and sympathetic observation of chil- dren and friendly and intimate intercourse with individual children. It is from such association that strengths and weaknesses in a child's character are to be learned, and an estimate made of tendencies that should be diverted from wrong to right channels or inhibited, and of right habits that should be developed and strengthened. There is another method by which one may arrive at the habits of right feeling, thinking, speaking, and conduct which are desirable for the child and which the Sunday school should help him to form. This is to conceive of him as it is possible for him to become. Action is a great revealer of character. Think, there- fore, what that child would do. He would make an effort toward self-control and would make right choices with an increasing degree of consciousness. He would try to be truthful, honest, generous, and cheerfully obedient. He would be forgetful of self in social relations, would be fair and just, eager to help and to serve. He would show some recognition of his heavenly Father in his daily life, such as daily prayer, dependence on him for help and guidance in being good and seeking his forgiveness in wrongdoing. He would be reverent in Sunday school, participate in the worship, and be attentive to instruction. He would do all these things in an intermittent, childlike way, but it would be evident to those who knew him that he was try- ing to follow Jesus and to express love, trust, and rever- ence for his heavenly Father. 4. Getting right habits started. Having determined 50 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK many of the right habits the child should form, one's next step is to get these habits started. As has been intimated, for a young child this is done largely by making the right appeal to instincts, desires, and impulses. But for the child to continue doing these right things unconsciously or in response to appeal is not building character. It is only when he makes a choice, becomes self-determining with regard to conduct, and acts from motives that character is developed. Therefore, to get the child to do right is only the beginning of the teacher's task. In its larger aspects it is to develop the child's initiative, that he may become self-active in making choices, and to help him choose from an enlarging conception of what is right and to choose con- sciously from the motive of loving and obeying God. This requires an intelligent understanding and use of the means and methods by which these desirable results are to be ac- complished. One of the purposes of this book is to present and discuss methods of work and to help train the teacher for her task. See the following chapters. See also the teachers' textbooks on the graded primary lessons: BiMe Stories for the Sunday School and Home, Years 1, 2, and 3. In addition there should be the reading and rereading of the four Gospels; for, briefly stated, it is Christ's way in respect to life which is to be shown the child, and along which he is to be led. And it is only the Christ-filled life that can lead the child. The Lesson Continued 1. What is the child's attitude toward one who is older, who is felt to be superior, and who possesses greater ability and knowledge? Find the answer in Chapter V. What, then, is the child's attitude toward instruction? 2. To a child of primary age God is a Person, an all-wise and powerful, great, and mysterious heavenly Father. When thinking of God or viewing some natural object that exem- plifies his power and creativity, the child has a sense of God's presence. What natural instinct of the child may THE PRIMARY CHILD IN SUNDAY SCHOOL 51 be excited by this sense? See Chapter V. What religious feelings would result, and what response in action would you expect? 3. The instinct of self-assertion, or self-display, may be excited by the consciousness of observation by people. The response is the desire to be one's best self, to win appro- bation and praise. Can you think of a weak or low mo- tive from which a child might act who had a sense of God's nearness and presence? From what strong or high motive would you encourage him to act? 4. A child of primary age who has been told about the ministry and service of Jesus shows a readiness and eager- ness to help and serve, to be kind and good. What natural tendencies has the child to make him responsive to such stories at an age and stage of religious development when he cannot understand or appreciate their full religious sig- nificance? See Chapters V and VI. 5. Explain the relation of repeated acts to habits. CHAPTER VII THAT THE CHILD MAY BECOME Religious instruction is one of the means for nurturing the developing religious life. Hence instruction should find a place in every plan of training for the primary child. Since most of our lessons are from the Bible, let us con- sider a typical Bible lesson for a child who has been pro- moted from the Beginners' Department to the Primary. 1. Aim or purpose. It is desirable for the child to have a consciousness of God's presence and to show some recognition of God in his daily life. To develop this con- sciousness and to inspire to the performance of what the child should do becomes the purpose of a lesson. For the beginning, or point of contact, look to the child's environ- ment and immediate interests. It may be the harvest sea- son. If it is, the child probably finds fresh fruits on the breakfast and lunch table; he sees them displayed in shop windows; and it may be that at school he is drawing and coloring pictures of red and green apples, of yellow pears, of ripe peaches and grapes, and acquiring information about how the world is fed. In his number work he may be playing store and having experience in selling fruits to companions impersonating parents buying fruit for their children. The teacher at Sunday school places different kinds of fruits and vegetables into a box or basket. At the beginning of the lesson period she produces the basket, and the children wonder what may be inside. (Note the appeal to curiosity.) To discover the contents one child and then another puts his hand inside, feels something, grasps it, and tells what he thinks it is. Next he with- draws the object and shows it to his companions, who de- cide whether or not he named it correctly. The children are in competition with each other, and interest is keen. 52 THAT THE CHILD MAY BECOME 53 Next the children draw and color pictures of fruit. (Note the recognition of the child's desire to do things that are pleasurable.) The children look at pictures of fruit trees in blossom and of trees bearing ripe fruit. By conversa- tion and questions the children are led to think of God as the Source or Giver of these good things. (Note the advance from that which gives the child information to that which arouses feeling.) A story follows. It may be "God, the Creator of All Things," based on Genesis 1; "Hun- gry Travelers," from verses selected from Exodus 12 and 16; or some other Bible story. The appeal is to the feel- ings, for the children learn that God is the Giver or Source of daily blessings, and their love and gratitude are stirred. After the story the teacher inquires, "What would you like to say to God for his good gifts of fruit?" (Note the appeal to impulse and desire and to the child's initiative.) After the children have told her what to say, the teacher leads in prayer, the children repeating the words after her clause by clause. The habit of speaking intimately to God is begun or is strengthened, and there is nothing that brings the child closer to him than communion with him. After the prayer the teacher asks, "What will you do dur- ing the week to show love and thanks to God?" (Note the purpose to help the child relate the lesson to his daily life and conduct.) The children offer suggestions, discuss them, and decide upon some act of obedience, helpfulness, or kindness which they may carry out at home or as a class. What is accomplished for the child? The conscious- ness of God is deepened, the disposition and power to obey and to show him love are developed, the child's spiritual life is quickened. Interests crowd interests in childhood, hence the teacher does not permit the child to forget. The next week she asks what he did at home or at school to show love to God. If he was unsuccessful in doing what he wanted to do, she helps him to understand why. If he forgot, she encourages him to try again. If some cooperative activity 54 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK was planned the preceding Sunday, teacher and children unite to carry out the plan for making someone happy or for giving aid. Another lesson is taught. It has the same or a similar purpose as the one taught the preceding Sunday. After the story the teacher asks the children what they would like to say to God and what they will do to show him love, and helps them to act in response to the desires and impulses which the lesson awakened. Through repetition of acts habits begin to form, and through a re- currence of the feeling of gratitude, love and gratitude to God are deepened. 2. The importance of expression. Consider another lesson. It is desirable that the child shall have a ready sympathy for others, be helpful and loving in his daily life, and learn gradually to act from the motive of imitat- ing the example of Jesus and being obedient to his teach- ings. How is one to make the right appeal, to awaken the desires that will lead the child to act more consciously and purposefully in imitation of Jesus? The story "Jesus and Four Fishermen," based on the Bible passage Luke 5. 1-11, is told in such a way as to picture Jesus with his friends and to reveal his love and kindness, his sympathy and readiness to help. After telling the story the teacher connects with it some information, as for example: She gives the name that was given to Jesus because he helped people wherever he went — "Jesus of Nazareth, . . . who went about doing good." Then she asks the children what they would like to do for some friend. It is possible that Valentine's Day is approaching, and someone proposes sending valentines. The children plan what kind to send and where and when they will meet to make or buy the valentines. The whole nature of the child is enlisted not for self but for others. This lesson is only one of a group with opportunities for leading the children to think of many lines of conduct and to act in response to ideas of what is right and kind and Christ- like in association with friends and companions. The THAT THE CHILD MAY BECOME 55 teacher who knows her pupils can by conversation, ques- tions, and suggestions guide the lesson expression in the way best adapted to meet their individual needs. 3. Progress in instriiction. At this point reread Chap- ter II, in which a description is given of the method used in teaching the lesson "A Busy Day at Capernaum," based on the Bible passages Matt. 8. 14-17 and Mark 1. 21-34. The story of what Jesus did could not help adding to the child's wonder at the love and power of Jesus and deep- ening the child's love and reverence for him. From these feelings would spring the desire to show him love. But the impulse might be weak. Left to himself, the child might not know what to do, hence it is desirable for the teacher to ask, "What shall we try to do each day for love of Je- sus?" Conversation would follow. The children would tell what they thought. The teacher would give her ideas, using illustrations from child life as they were needed; and the children would begin to perceive what they might do and should do for Jesus. As must be apparent, this lesson is not suited to little children recently promoted from the Beginners' Department, but to the oldest and most thoughtful among the primary boys and girls. Thus, lesson teaching in the Primary Department in- cludes the giving of instruction. It imparts information. It puts the child in possession of a Bible story and a Bible verse. But the value lies in the appeal it makes to the child's impulses and desires, in the religious feeling awakened or strengthened, and in the child's response. It is not what the child knows as a result of the instruction in the Primary Department' that is most important; it is what he feels, thinks, says, does, and therefore is. We teach not for that passive thing called information but for a result in character and life. The Lesson Continued 1. In the lesson which leads the child to see God as the Source or Giver of all good, what point of contact is found 56 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK with the child's experience? What use is made of curios- ity and competition? The activity provided for the child is pleasurable to him. State in what way it is also valuable in the development of the lesson. How do the pictures help? What feelings are aroused by the story? In what two ways are those feelings ex- pressed? 2. Discover and indicate the appeals to interest, instincts, desires, and impulses in the lessons "Jesus and Four Fisher- men" and "A Busy Day at Capernaum." 3. What is the purpose of using such questions at the end of the lesson as "What would you like to say to God?" "What will you do?" CHAPTER VIII THE PRIMARY COURSE OF STUDY If lessons are to meet the needs of the primary child, they must be chosen especially for him. A familiar illus- tration will make this clear. Turn the pages of a much- used Bible — turn them thoughtfully and slowly. What do you find? Some pages are worn thin, some are held in place by strips of pasted paper. That a certain chapter may be turned to with readiness at all times, one finds it indicated by a bit of ribbon, a cherished letter, a card, or other marker. And does not one also find certain verses underlined, and penciled notes and dates beside others? What do the worn and crumpled pages mean? Is it not that here are the Bible passages that are turned to oftenest for help or comfort, for inspiration or guidance? The un- derscored and dated verses — are they not those which have given aid at some particular time? 1. Meeting the needs of the child. The needs of the child are different from those of the adult. At six, seven, or eight years of- age he is still near the beginnings of life. He is not yet far removed from the beginnings of his reli- gious life. He needs the kind of instruction and training that will help him develop "a religious life that is beau- tiful and strong and that will build a Christian charac- ter."^ A child cannot find his way unaided in the Bible. Bible stories and verses must be found for him. These should be chosen in the same spirit as that in which the adult goes to sources of strength. The stories should give the child satisfaction. The truth brought to him must be real and vital for him and applicable in his present life. The test 1 Bible Stories for the Sunday School and Home. ■ 57 58 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK of any course of study offered for primary children is what it accomplishes in the life of the child.- 2. Progress by themes. Quite frequently it happens that a teacher who has taught a lesson one Sunday and has taught it well finds the next Sunday that the child has almost forgotten it. This is because so many days have intervened since the lesson was taught, and each day has been full of new interests. There is so much that is new in the child's world, so much that is claiming his attention, that if he is to know any one thing well he must be per- mitted to learn it slowly. One phase of a truth must be presented to him one day, and a different phase of the same truth the next day. A course of study for the Primary Department should develop by themes or subjects with as many lessons under each theme as are necessary for the child to understand the truth and to relate it to his own life by acting in re- sponse to it. A course of study which presents one truth one Sunday and a wholly different and unrelated truth the next Sunday is not ideal for a six-, seven-, or eight-year- old child. 3. Suitable memory verses. Another test of a primary course of study is its Bible verses for memorization. Not long ago a primary teacher said with pride: "My pupils know a Bible verse for every letter in the alphabet. All that I need to do is to say 'A,' and they will give me a Bible verse beginning with 'A,' and so on." Quickly other teachers began telling what their pupils were able to do. One reported that her pupils had a verse for each finger of each hand and pretended to fit on gloves as the different verses were recited. She said that the children never failed to give the right verse for the right finger. Other teachers questioned the value to the child of Bible verses that had been memorized but not related to life in any way. The first teacher hastened to add that the verses 2 See Chapter VI, page 47 ; Chapter VII, page 53 ; and Chap- ter XXI, page 130. THE PRIMARY COURSE OF STUDY 59 were explained before they were memorized. The other teachers contended that more than explanation is neces- sary: a Bible verse must be connected with or related to the child's life. For example: A teacher who had listened to the teaching of one of the temperance lessons in the primary graded lesson course said: "The lesson that helps the child to control himself, to choose the food that will make him strong, instead of rich, unnutritious foods, is more truly a child's temperance lesson than the one that presents the evils of intemperance. The Bible verses *Do that which is right and good,' 'Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good,' and *Eat in due season for strength' are a child's temperance verses. I know that I am right, because they are verses which a child can act on. When my brother was a little child he could re- cite many Bible verses and the texts that were regarded as> the only temperance texts in those days: 'Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler; and whosoever erreth thereby is not wise;' 'Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow?' and the verse beginning 'Look not thou upon the wine when it is red' and ending with the words 'at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.' These verses were his mental possession, but that was all. They were wholly unrelated to his life. His need as a child was to learn self-control. This need was not met, and what was the consequence? When he grew older he was without power to control himself, and he could not resist temptation. Truth, even God's truth, must be linked with the child's present life and need if it is to be effective." To touch the present life of the child, to deepen some religious feeling, to inspire to the performance of some religious act that it may be made permanent as a habit, should be the purpose of the memory verses of the primary course of study. They should be connected with or grow out of a Bible story, that the child may see them exSmpli- field in life and receive suggestions from them for his own life. In this way the Bible verses become more than ver- 60 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK bal knowledge, more than precepts, more than truths un- derstood. They become motives for action, incentives to the performance of God's will for a child. The primary- course of study is therefore to be tested by the relation of its memory verses to child life. Emphasis is placed upon the necessity for the religious instruction to be suited to the stage of advancement of the learner. This means that it must keep pace with the child's development. He enters the Primary Department at about six years of age. The primary period is three years. Unless the child is abnormal — that is, deficient mentally or weak physically — he advances in his school work during the years six to nine. In this time his ex- periences multiply. He becomes conscious of greater free- dom and power. Each day he has impulses to do and dare which are new to him. As he uses his freedom and power he finds himself in new situations. Life unfolds and de- velops before him and in him. Day by day he has not only an ever-increasing mental ability and power but new spiritual needs. A test of any primary course of study is its plan for keeping pace with the developing life and needs of the child through the three years he remains in the Primary Department. 4, Importance of a progressive course of study. A course of study in which the child may progress steadily for three years is the only one that can meet his needs in the best way and contribute to his spiritual development throughout the primary period. A primary course may be three years long. During the three years it may teach many truths — in fact, all the truths taught by a course that offers three grades of lessons. But as long as each one of the lessons for three years is taught to six-, seven-, and eight-year-old children at the same time — that is, de- partmentally — it is inevitable that lessons suited to eight- year-aid children will at some time be taught to six-year- old children. Lessons suited for first-year children, who are little more than beginners, will be taught to girls and THE PRIMARY COURSE OF STUDY 61 boys nearly juniors. If the lessons are adapted — that is, if the first-year lessons are made more difficult, and the third-year simplified — then a lesson on one plane, suited to one stage of development, would be taught for three years. It is important for the child to make continuous progress in his religious studies and for his developing needs to be met. A graded and progressive course of in- struction is therefore recommended for use in the Pri- mary Department. The Lesson Continued 1. What is the purpose of the Primary Department? 2. What are some of the means for nurturing the child's religious life? 3. We discover what religious nurture should accomplish in the life of the child by making a study of his needs. To do this, study the child as he is and as it is desirable for him to become. What a child becomes he manifests by his conduct. What conduct do you think it is desirable and possible for him to manifest in his home and school, Sun- day school, and play life? 4. Suggest a Bible story or stories that you would use with a primary child, and tell what you think his response would be. 5. Give several Bible verses you would teach a primary child. State the age of the child to whom you would teach the verses, and tell what need you think each would meet. 6. Why is a lesson course arranged by themes better than one that teaches a new truth each Sunday? Give an illus- tration of several lessons under one theme. 7. Assume that the superintendent of the school or some teacher in the Primary Department is opposed to graded lessons. Prepare arguments to convince the objector that graded lessons meet the needs of the child much more surely than a departmental lesson. Find some of your arguments in the enlarging interests and activities of the child between the years six and nine. CHAPTER IX EVERY CHILD LOVES A STORY A GENERAL superintendent opened the door of the pri- mary room and stood in the doorway. He nodded in greet- ing to the secretary standing near him and to the superin- tendent of the department at the other end of the room, then looked interestedly from class to class. There were ten classes, — three first-, four second-, and three third-year. In each class there were eight pupils listening to a story told by the class teacher. A number of the children faced the superintendent. Several looked up when he opened the door, but they did not really see him. The first-year children were out in the snow and cold with little creatures in feathers and fur, seeking shelter and food. Keen interest showed in the children's faces, and tenderness. The second-year children showed some excitement. They were not in the class-room, but in the Temple at Jerusalem praising Jesus and singing with the children there, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest."^ The children in the third-year classes were listening to the story of the good Samaritan.' In their faces showed differ- ent emotions: pity for the man fallen among thieves, scorn for the priest and Levite, admiration for the Samaritan and his acts. The superintendent watched and listened for a moment, then said to the secretary, "To speak to teachers and children would be a serious interruption to the work 1 Bible Stories for the Sunday School and Home, Years 1, 2, and 3. 62 EVERY CHILD LOVES A STORY 63 being done," and withdrew, closing the door softly behind him. 1. The story lias absorbing interest. Not only the children in that Primary Department love a story, but all children do. This love is instinctive. It is a gift to child- hood from the time when there were no books, and the story told or interpreted dramatically was the only means of transmitting knowledge and culture. Because of the child's love for a story he gives attentive interest to almost any kind. He concentrates his whole mental energy upon the one he understands and enjoys, hence the story is a valua- ble means of instruction. In the Primary Department of the Sunday school large use is made of the Bible story. Usually it requires adapta- tion for the child to understand it, and in some cases be- comes a story based on a biblical incident. Stories from other sources are told occasionally for illustration and to make the teaching more concrete; as for example, the story, "Winter Shelters," that was being told in the first-year classes described. The story the child likes best to hear is one that pictures life in action. The reason for the child's preference is not difficult to understand, for when one stops to think and realize it, the child's world is largely a picture world. Through all his waking hours there is something to see. Except when he is asleep there are people around him who are always doing sometMng. Objects are moving or being moved before him. Life and its meanings are being con- stantly interpreted to him by moving pictures. The child's tendency is to identify himself with the life the story por- trays. In much the same way that the young child in the imitating and socializing stage ^ shares the mental life of the people about him, so the primary child has a feeling of common consciousness with the one about whom he is hearing, and shares his feelings, thoughts and acts.^ 2 See Chapter IV, page 28. 3 See Chapter V, pages 33, 34. 64 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK Tell a story and watch the little listener's face. In dif- ficult situations the child looks thoughtful or shows anxiety. If the hero is in trouble, shadows creep into the child's eyes, sometimes the tears fall. If the story approaches the climax with a joyous note, the child shows joy and happi- ness. If the story depicts self-denial, courage, or nobility of conduct, the child shows by his earnest, thoughtful at- tention, by uplifted look, by exclamation or comment that he is thinking rightly, feeling nobly. Through the child's tendency and power to live in the story, a story becomes to him an experience. Every ex- perience brings a contribution that influences and affects the developing life and character. If it is an experience that is helpful to him, it calls forth and leaves a feeling that is refining, ennobling, and enriching. It quickens the child's mind to a perception of truth. It opens his "soul- windows" and gives to him a vision of his own self and of the self that with God's help it is possible for him to be- come. There is nothing that lifts the life of the child so effectively as the story unless it is the act to which the story inspires him. 2. The story arouses impulses and creates motives. In a story the action is rapid. Incident follows incident in quick succession. Acts are recognized in their proper sequence and relation to each other. The motive behind an act becomes apparent. An act is perceived as a cause of an effect, and the child forms judgments, gains ideas. Moreover, he receives impulses and suggestions for action. For an illustration, consider the story of the good Samari- tan, in which the child perceives the effect of selfishness and unkindness. His reaction is a strong feeling of ab- horrence for such attributes of character. He admires the Samaritan, and his impulse is to imitate his conduct; and if the opportunity is made for him, he, with companions in his class, plans and executes some neighborly act.* * See Chapter V, page 40. EVERY CHILD LOVES A STORY 65 Later, when the child sees an animal in distress, a com- panion in trouble, someone whom he loves, worried or anxious, it is improbable that he recalls the story, but he responds with sympathy and some effort to help. He gives the thirsty dog a drink or rescues the kitten from its per- ilous position. He dries his little friend's tears, and sug- gests doing something pleasurable, or seeks to bring back the smile to his mother's face or to lighten her burdens. He shows by his conduct that his spirit is that of merciful kindness which is Christlike in its essence and expression. The child to whom this story would be told, if the Pri- mary Graded Lessons are used in the department, would be in the third-year class, and of an age when he needs to act not only from impulse but also from the right motive. Later the child's impulse may weaken under different in- fluences; but having known once what he should do and why he should do it, he cannot wholly rid himself of the idea. To give it permanency the second great command- ment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," is con- nected with the story, and the child is asked to memorize this Bible verse. In this way the child is given a sugges- tion for conduct that attracts and appeals to him and a motive from which to act. No other means is more effective than the Bible story that has a suitable Bible verse asso- ciated with it for bringing truth to a child and helping him to act from a right motive. It is said: "In morals and religion, as well as in most other significant elements of character, the culture does not come through responses which are forced from the out- side. To have moral and spiritual significance, all atti- tudes, choices, and decisions must be the child's own. There is no place in education where the principle of self- activity is as important as in religious training."^ Thus by teaching truth and presenting ideals of life and conduct and by influencing the child to determine his own ^ The Use of Motives in Teaching Morals and Religion^ Galloway, page 19. 66 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK conduct, the story is an aid in the development of char- acter. The Lesson Continued 1. What is the purpose of the Bible story as it is used in the Primary Department? 2. To fulfill its purpose, what must the story be and do? See Chapters VIII and IX. 3. If knowledge in the truest sense is the result of ex- perience, how and why may a story contribute to the child's knowledge? 4. What do you think was the purpose of the story being told in the second-year class when the general superin- tendent visited the department? 5. Explain the superintendent's action on the basis of the relation of attention to learning. 6. What was the purpose of the primary secretary in keeping a position near the door of entrance? CHAPTER X WORD-PICTURING A STORY is a picture. It is not a vital part of a life but a portrayal of that life. Story-telling is word-picturing. 1. The appeal and po-wer of the story. In the same way that a picture created by the artist with colors and brush is to convey a message, the purpose of the story is to give a message. Its appeal is to the imagination, feel- ings, and impulses; consequently, the story has the power to quicken the mind to new perceptions, to arouse helpful emotions, and to lift the life of the child by giving him ideals and motives for conduct and helping him to act from these. The Bible story is an opportunity for promot- ing the child's religious development by putting him into sympathetic relation with religious truths and helping him to realize them in his present life. 2. Requirements in the story-teller. Word-picturing is an art and as such has a technique of its own. The medium of expression is language; therefore the language used must be impressive, vivid, and readily understood. "Children require simple, direct words, clearly defined in thought and grounded upon common experience and con- viction. Facts and realities should stand behind the words of a teacher." ^ When new and unfamiliar w^ords are used, the child should be able to understand them because of their association with words w^ith which he is familiar, their position in the sentence, or from the idea gained or feeling aroused by the story. A picturesque, vivid, and colorful vocabulary is to be obtained by reading the poets; one that is simple and direct yet forceful, by reading the ^Special Method in Primary Reading, McMurray. 67 68 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK Bible and committing portions of it to memory; and a child's vocabulary may be learned by reading children's books. The story-teller needs to use language understand- ingly and skillfully, that the oral story may become "a perfectly transparent medium of thought. A child can see the meaning of a story through oral speech as one sees a landscape through a clear window-pane."^ A good speaking voice is a prerequisite of the story-teller. It should be flexible and capable of expressing feeling and emotion, since one of the purposes of the story is to arouse feeling. Anger, fear, distress, disapproval, approval, joy, and happiness may be expressed by the voice and also by the face and general attitude. A flash of the eyes will suggest anger, fear may be indicated by a withdrawing or shrinking of the body, distress by a drop of the mouth and shoulders, disapproval by a frown, approval by a smile, and joy and happiness by an uplifted, happy face and smiling eyes and lips. Voice, expression, bodily attitude, and manner are means of expressing feeling and arousing it in others; for feeling is communicable.^ From this it is evident that the story-teller's understand- ing and appreciation of the story is a vital factor in the impression that is made. One enters into a story largely through the power of the imagination; the story-teller's imaginative faculty must therefore be active. It may be quickened by the reading of poetry, of poetical prose, and of children's fairy stories. Since a story portrays some part of a life, there must be sympathy with life. It is the artist who finds beauty, mystery, and wonder in the heart of the gentian, columbine, or wood violet who paints it so that the passer-by finds in the painted flower a beauty that occasions thoughts of God. It is the artist who has pene- trated to the inner meaning of life lived by certain people — the sailors on the sea, the newsboys of a city, the Arabs on the plains and deserts of Arabia, the toilers in our mod- ^ Special Method in Primary Reading, McMurray. 8 See Chapters IV and V. WORD-PICTURING 69 ern factories — who best portrays the life of that people. Similarly, the story-teller must experience life — the deeper and wider the experiences the better — and must be sympa- thetic toward all life. A story-teller needs first a friendly sympathetic attitude of mind toward all things human, and then contact with life, as Professor McMurray says, "in all sorts of acts, habits, feelings, motives, and condi- tions." Contact with nature will also add richness to one's thought powers and emotional life. There should be op- portunities for walks in the woods and for beholding sun- sets in the mountains and beside the sea. The experienc- ing of sorrows and joys and all typical life scenes, travel and art, and the reading of good books help one to find meanings in life and to make these meanings plain to oth- ers. A close acquaintance with the child and his world is necessary too, if the child heart is to be reached by the story-teller, and the child's life benefited by the story. 3. Acquiring poxirer to tell stories. Power to tell a story is said to be latent in everyone, and all that it re- quires is development by study and practice. The enrich- ment of life by experience and study, the cultivation of the imagination, and the acquisition of a suitable vocabulary are means to this end. A study of stories children delight in at different ages for the purpose of discovering reasons for their interest and joy, and experience in telling and retelling these stories to children will also help to de- velop the story-telling power. Great gain will come from the preparation and mastery of a story and experience in telling it. Sometimes it is thought that the person who is the readiest talker makes t"he best story-teller. On the con- trary, it is far more possible that it is the quiet, thoughtful, logical thinker, for such a person is apt to see and think clearly and to combine ideas into clear and connected series of thought* Special Method in Primary Reading, McMurray. 70 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK The LESso^'^ Continued 1. Read a fairy story. Note the virtue that is rewarded and what form the reward takes. Note the wrong- doing and its punishment. If possible, tell the story to a child and encourage an expression of opinion and conversa- tion about the story. Watch for any other response to the story. 2. Read a myth. What human motive does it explain, and what is the value of the story for a child? 3. Read a legend. Around what event or personality does it center? What are the fictitious elements? What is the purpose of the story? 4. Read a fable. What human characteristic is described? What truth is taught? What impulse is aroused? 5. Read a realistic story enjoyed by a child. A realistic story is one taken from history or biography, a personal reminiscence, a true story about an animal, or a story that carries the air of reality and might be true. (Note. — A teacher studying this book in connection with a teacher-training correspondence course may give the titles of the different stories read and designate them as fairy story, myth, legend, fable, or realistic.) Books obtainable in most public libraries, in which the different types of stories may be found, are: Nature Myths and Stories, by Flora J. Cooke. The Story Hour, by Kate Douglas Wiggin. In Mythland, by M. Helen Beckwith. Stories of the Red Children, by Dorothy Brooks. Fables and Folk Stories, edited by H. E. Scudder. Parables from Nature, by Mrs. Gatty, in several editions. The Golden Windoivs and The Silver Pitcher, by Laura E. Richards. Why the Chimes Rang, by Raymond McDonald Alden. For the Children's Hour; For the Story Teller; Stories for Sunday Telling; Tell Me Another Story; and Stories for Any Day, by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. WORD-PICTURING 71 Mother Stories and More Mother Stories, by Maud E. Lindsay. How to Tell Stories to Children and Stories to Tell to Children, by Sara Cone Bryant. Little Animal Stories and The Animal School, by Frances Weld Danielson. In Story Land, by Elizabeth Harrison. Heroes Every Child Should Know; Heroines Every Child Should Know; and Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know, by Hamilton Wright Mabie. CHAPTER XI THE TECHNIQUE OF STORY-TELLING A BUSINESS man who, in a friend's office, saw for the first time one of the pictures of Christ by Hofmann, is said to have asked permission to look at the picture quietly by himself. He carried it into an inner room and spent an hour or more before it. When he left it, he had given himself to the Christ the picture made real to him. We are told that before the artist Hofmann began even to sketch one of his famous pictures he spent hours thinking of Christ, studying his life, becoming repossessed by him. When ready to paint he had a message to give to the world, and with his brush and colors made his message live on canvas. The primary teacher's purpose is not unlike that of the artist Hofmann. It is to acquaint the child with Christ, that finally he may enthrone him in his child heart. She may use pictures to aid her, but her chief means for por- traying Christ and inspiring the child to Christlike acts is word-picturing. For this reason the primary teacher must know how to tell a story, must master the technique of story-telling, that she may give her message to the chil- dren who gather round her in the Sunday-school class. 1. Making the story your own. The story must 1)0 Studied for its message. The first step in preparing a story for telling is a study of the story for its message, the truth to be brought to the child, and for the response that is desired. There must he a clear appreciation of the feelings. The value of the story is in its appeal to the emotions and im- pulses. The second step is therefore a clear appreciation 72 THE TECHNIQUE OF STORY-TELLING 73 of the feelings to be stirred and a study of the story for the elements best adapted to make the different appeals and arouse the feelings that will bring a response. The result should be a good idea of the story as a whole. The climax must he determined early. The third step is a study of the events in their proper order for the pur- pose of discovering which forms the climax of the story and how the different steps or events lead up to or prepare for it. This study would include the making of a written outline of the action. The story must T)e complete in its detail. To elaborate the outline — that is, to write or tell the story in detail — is the fourth step. In this way the story is made one's own, for one's own words and expressions are used. 2. Preparing to tell the story. The Story's message must he clear and unencumhered. In the elaboration of a story one of two things is apt to happen: the story becomes either too full or too barren and brief. Its defects are to be discovered only by the severest criticism. Each word, description, or illustration that does not create greater interest, does not help to develop the story or make its meaning clear, must be cast out. On the contrary, if the story is not full enough, if the action is too rapid, or if the steps are not easy enough for the child to follow, its detail must be elaborated. The story or parts of it may need rewriting. TTie story should lend itself to vivid and impressive pre- sentation. If the story under preparation is not original or an adaptation, but is, for example, a story in a textbook, the next step is the improving of one's own story by sub- stituting the more forceful or expressive words found in the copy, adding an illustration or adapting a figure of speech. If the story is original it should be revised for the purpose of strengthening or improving it in the same way that a final polish is bestowed upon the gem that has been given its setting but has not yet been offered to the public. In the case of a Bible story there must be no violation 74 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK of facts. Descriptive and explanatory statements must be based on knowledge of manners and customs, times and seasons, and the geography of the Holy Land. Commen- taries, Bible dictionaries, historical geographies, should be consulted in the preparation of a Bible story. When these are not available, teachers' textbooks and reliable lesson helps should be followed closely for their teaching facts. The story may he mastered dy practice in telling it. The final step of preparation is the telling and retelling of the story to oneself. At first it may be told from the outline, but finally the story-teller should practice telling it as she will tell it to her pupils, not word for word as it is writ- ten, but the events in their order and as it will be possible to tell it because of the study put upon it in its prepara- tion. The well-rounded or complete story has a 'beyinning,, a plot, a climax, and an end. In every story there is always some kind of a beginning. It may be an explanatory sen- tence, a short description, or a question. Its purpose is to arouse interest, to challenge the attention, to awaken thought, or to arouse feeling. The feeling may be the same kind that it is the purpose of the story as a whole to stir. In a story for a child the beginning should be brief. There is also the movement or action or plot of the story, which prepares for or leads to the climax. We are told that "the great essential [for this movement] is that it shall be orderly, presenting the necessary facts step by step, and preparing for the climax without revealing it in advance.' The climax is the high light in the word-picture, the culmination or point of the story — that which conveys its message or truth. The end is that which follows the cli- max, completes the story, and leaves the mind satisfied and at rest. We are taught that the story should begin on the plane of the child's interest and present knowledge. ^Stories and Story Telling, St. John. THE TECHNIQUE OF STORY-TELLING 75 rise to the climax by a series of easy steps which the child will have no difficulty in following, then drop quickly back to the plane on which it began. Story's movement or plot. ■"""The cUmax. /The end. The beginning I 1/ Plane of the child's interest and present knowledge. 3. Telling the story. A story should J)e told and not read. Only so can it make its strongest appeal. In telling the story orally the teacher is not hampered by a book and the necessity of following printed words and consequently is able to give a more vivid and realistic presentation. She is free to gesture, to impersonate a character in dialogue or dramatically, to illustrate with pictures or with black- board or pad sketching. Because she does these things unconsciously, in response to feeling and sympathetic ap- preciation of the incidents or characters she is portraying, her presentation is clear, vivid, and impressive. Her feel- ing is reflected in her face; and because she is looking at her listeners, they are able to watch her varying expres- sions and to share her feelings. The effectiveness of a well-told story is unmistakable; and power to tell a story, and to tell it well, may be acquired. Time and effort are necessary, but, as one who has mastered the art says: "If motives are to be stirred, if conduct is to be guided, if character is to be formed, and, especially, if one is to have this opportunity many times, he can afford to honor his art and take such time and pains as are necessary to per- fect his technique. Skill is nothing more than the posses- sion of correct habits of procedure. If one way of doing a thing is better in the end, it pays to do it the difficult way at first because by and by that way will become the easy and unconscious mode of procedure as well as the one 76 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK that leads to the highest achievement. Practice, guided hy a well-conceived plan, is the chief secret of success."^ The Lesson Continued 1. Choose a Bible story and with the aid only of commen- taries, Bible dictionaries, and historical geographies, or such helps on the fact side as are available, prepare the story for telling to a six-, to a seven-, or to an eight-year- old child. State the age of the child to whom you would tell the story. 2. Make an outline of the story in which are given the truth you wish to bring to the child and the response that you desire. Tell what feelings would be aroused by the story. Indicate the steps leading to the climax, and show in what way you would end the story, bringing it back to the plane of the child's knowledge and experience. ^Stories and Story Telling^ St. John. CHAPTER XII USES OF PICTURES IN PRIMARY TEACHING One of the contentions of a well-known educator is that "thinking begins in what may fairly well be called a forked-road situation — a situation which is ambiguous, which proposes alternatives. . . . Thinking is not a case of spontaneous combustion. . . . There is something spe- cific which occasions and evokes it." ^ Applied to primary Sunday-school teaching this means that because children are grouped around a teacher, apparently listening to what she is saying, they do not really think unless there is in the lesson an element of the forked-road situation. Some- times this appears at the beginning in the form of a ques- tion or of a problem adapted to direct the movement of the children's ideas along one channel. In teaching by the story method "the something specific" to evoke active pur- poseful thinking may be presented by the development of events in the story. Quite frequently there is a question at the end of the story, a decision that must be made, or there is something to be done which stimulates to still more active thinking. Sometimes a picture is helpful in this connection. 1. WTiy we use pictures. One of the uses of pictures in primary teaching is to evoke thought. The superintend- ent who taught New Teacher's class ^ used the picture "In the Streets of Capernaum" for this purpose. She might have included in her story everything that she wished the children to know, but instead she showed the picture and asked, "What story do you see in this picture?" The chil- dren were obliged to think in order to answer the question, ^ How We Think. John Dewey. 2 See Chapter II. 77 78 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK and by observing and thinking tbey arrived at certain con- clusions regarding. Jesus and gained information independ- ently of the teacher. It is obvious that a similar use may be made of a picture after a story has been told. A picture may he used to give information or furnish a necessary experience. Bible stories are so remote in time and place, and some customs, manners, objects, and stj'les of dress are so unlike those with which the primary child is familiar, that he cannot understand what we tell him without the aid of an object or descriptive picture. What does he know of the Ark of the Covenant, the Bedouin tent, the room on the housetop, the custom of reclining at table, or the shepherd's dress? By means of objects and suita- ble pictures he may gain a fairly accurate knowledge of all these things. Pictures of places and of people give a sense of reality to Bible stories, but have a limited use with chil- dren, because their interest is in action or pictures that tell a story. If there is something about which the child must know in order to follow and understand the story, the picture should be shown before the story is told. To introduce a picture during the telling is apt to divert attention from the main issue and weaken its impression. If it is not necessary for the child to see the fact picture (as the descriptive picture might be called) until after the story, it should be kept until that time. It is better for the child to construct his own mental pictures with the aid of his imagination while the story is being told, and then, after it has been told, to have wrong impressions corrected and right ideas made more definite by means of a picture shown by the teacher. This same principle is to be ob- served in the use of a story picture. It should.be reserved until the story has been told. Pictures may de used to appeal to the imagination and feelings. Pictures that portray life and action are like stories because their truth is conveyed largely through the power of suggestion. In the story it is rarely that the USES OF PICTURES 79 truth is stated in so many words. It becomes apparent through the story's movement and the word-picturing of cause and effect. A picture differs from a story in that it portrays only one moment of time. It does not give that which precedes or follows that particular moment as does the story; this is left to one's imagination to create, which is one reason why a story-picture evokes thought, and why the child's enjoyment of it is so great. A story-picture appeals also to the feelings. The reason for this is because it represents thoughts, feelings, and ac- tions. Take, for example, the picture of "Christ and the Children," by Plockhorst, which suggests Christ's attitude toward children through the action portrayed. After look- ing at it a little girl of beginners' age said, "He took little children in his arms and loved them," and the quality of tone in her voice indicated that she was responding with love to the love she felt in the picture. Two principles are involved in a child's response to a picture. It is possible for a picture to hang on the walls of a Sunday-school room without the child's becoming con- scious of it. It needs to be examined and talked about in his presence if he is to give attention to it. The little be- ginner had been told the story of Jesus and had examined the picture. It is probable that this was the reason why the next time she saw it she explained it in her own beau- tiful, childlike way. Moreover, pictures used in connection with a lesson and for the purpose of arousing the child's self-activity should be handled by the child. It is said: "Effective and integral thinking is possible only when the experimental method in some form is used. ... In elemen- tary education it is still assumed, for the most part, that the pupil's natural range of observations, supplemented by what he accepts on hearsay, is adequate for intellectual growth . . . but the entire scientific history of humanity demonstrates that the conditions for complete mental ac- tivity will not be obtained until adequate provision is made for the carrying on of activities that actually modify phy- 80 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK sical conditions, and that books, pictures, and even objects that are passively observed but not manipulated do not furnish the provision required."^ It is in accordance with this principle that pictures in a picture roll are not as desirable as smaller pictures for each child in the class to handle and study. Small classes in the Primary Depart- ment with eight children to a class make the use of a picture for handling possible and desirable. There should be a picture for each class, not one for a group of classes.* The second principle referred to has its basis in the nature of the imaginative faculty, which is most active when the real is not present to the eyes of sight but is sug- gested. Take, for example, the story "God's Promise to Mary." Suppose you were telling a part of it in some such way as this: "One day an angel came to Mary. We do not know where she was. She may have been on the housetop at evening watching the stars and listening to the soft night winds. She may have been in her garden taking care of her flowers. She may have been in her own room talk- ing to God in prayer. She may have been in her own bed asleep and dreaming." As you made these different sug- gestions, what would happen? Each child would begin to create pictures with materials furnished from his own ex- perience. He would see a bit of the evening sky dotted with stars, because he had seen it, possibly, from the win- dow of his room. He would see a garden resembling one in which he had played. It is probable that he would pic- ture Mary kneeling beside a bed like his or sleeping in a style of bed he knew best. No two children would see the same pictures, but each would be busy imagining, creating, and therefore visualizing the story. If as you told the story you had showed a picture to illustrate each sugges- tion, the children's minds would not have been active in any of these ways; each child, if he thought at all, would 'How We Think, John Dewey. *See "Primary Picture Sets, No. 1, No. 2, No. 3," and the "Pri- mary Missionary Picture Set." USES OF PICTURES 81 have thought in terms of the picture exhibited. The "forked-road" element would have been entirely lacking. Our second principle, then, is this: Pictures should be used to stimulate the activity of the imagination. This means that if you are to show one in connection with a story, tell the story first. Let the child create and color his own pictures. Then, after the story has been told and its impression made, produce the picture best adapted to interpret the story. It will bring a fresh appeal and so deepen that made by the story. The picture may be such that the showing of it at the close of the story will occasion thinking. More frequently it is advisable to ask: "What story does the picture tell?" or "What does this picture say to you?" If it contains interesting details explanatory of manners and customs, these should be discovered and discussed by the children in response to questions on the part of the teacher. The aim in the use of pictures, as in all teaching, should be to cause the child to take the initiative. Pictures may 'be used to lead to the forming of judgments and to inspire to action. An act is either right or wrong; consequently, from a picture portraying action that a child understands he cannot help but form a judgment and gain an idea of right or wrong. Action viewed and understood in another tends to inspire to similar action.^ Therefore, pictures may be used to give ideas of right conduct and to lead to the performance by the child of many right acts that are desirable and helpful to character formation.^ Pictures are aids to narration and description. It is de- sirable for the child to gain the power to retell stories and to give or write original statements about a story. It is easier for him to do this from a picture. It helps him to recall details and leaves him freer to express himself. Not all children are able to retell a story orally; they find it easier to express themselves in writing. Others find it See Chapters V and VI. See Chapter XV. 82 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK easier to tell a story than to write one. In either case the picture tends to make the story vivid and the task of com- position easier. When a group of stories are to be reviewed, it is helpful to permit each child in the class to choose a picture and tell the story of which it reminds him. The use of pictures deepens appreciation of 'beauty, life, and truth. The child who lives in the midst of sordidness may have beauty brought to him by means of pictures, more especially nature pictures. Similarly, through the use of pictures the child whose world is small may be made acquainted with child life everywhere and have his love and sympathies quickened. There is scarcely an intellec- tual and spiritual need of the child which cannot be met in part by pictures; for a picture is like a story, and a story is a means for influencing life and character.^ 2. How to judge a picture. Pictures should &e suited to the purpose of the department and to the child. Our purpose in the Primary Department is to nurture the de- veloping religious life; therefore, we do not use all kinds of pictures. We eliminate the crude and grotesque and choose instead those which are beautiful and inspiring. Pictures should be beautiful; they should also be true. If they illustrate a Bible story they should be true to Bible times, lands, and customs. If they depict a moment in a life or an event, they should be true to the life and time. Pictures should also be on the child's plane of interest and understanding. "Whether the power of the object over the heart [is] to be small or great [depends] altogether upon what it [is] understood for, upon its being taken posses- sion of and apprehended in its full nature."^ The faculty with which we apprehend a picture Ruskin calls "the pos- session-taking power of the imagination"; but as great as this power is, it cannot give the idea of the unknown unless the unknown bears some relation to the known. For this reason pictures used for religious nurture must be such f See Chapter IX. ^Modern Painters, Ruskin. USES OF PICTURES 83 as the child can interpret, and to which he may respond in a way that will be helpful to him. The Lesson Continued 1. Make a study of pictures used in primary Sunday- school teaching. If possible, see those offered for use in teaching the graded primary lessons; the pictures in the folders and those in the picture sets. 2. Select and give the titles of two or more pictures adapted to evoke thought; to give information; to furnish a necessary experience; to give reality to Bible lands and stories; to tell a story; to appeal to the feelings; to bring a religious truth to the child; to lead to the forming of a judgment concerning some action; to inspire to action de- sirable for a child. Tell how this action would contribute to the child's religious development. 3. If you were telling the story of how Jesus fed many hungry people at Bethsaida, and had a picture of the event, when would you show it, — before telling the story or after- ward? Give reasons for your answer. In Bible Stories for the Sunday School and Home, Year 2, Lesson 24, a picture of a western wheat field is provided for this story. How would you use it and when? CHAPTER XIII HELPING THE CHILD TO MAKE THE LESSON HIS OWN In recent years, since a large use has been made of the oral treatment of stories in elementary education, it has been found that the story is an effective means of bringing about a healthy, vigorous action of the child's mind and physical energies. The child takes fast hold of ideas brought to him in a story and, when he is at liberty to do so, reacts to them. In his most active moments he plays the story.' In his quiet hours he represents its persons or scenes pictorially and its objects either pictorially or con- structively. The six-year-old child finds satisfaction in the pictures he draws or paints. If he has had some training in paper tearing and cutting, he may try to picture a scene or object in either of these ways. Between seven and eight years of age he is not so likely to picture action, but prefers to represent objects and to accomplish results that seem to him worth while. Primary children of all three years de« light in working with soft wood, paper boxes, raffia, con- struction paper, cloth, and clay, and in making models of real things with which to illustrate different modes of life. Theirs is the age of constructive activity and experimen- tation in an effort to understand how things are made and their uses. It is recognized that the child's attempt to express an idea gives clearness and vividness to the men- tal conception. 1. Values of handwork. Handtvork is an aid to the child 171 making the story his own. When in the Primary De- partment we permit the child, after a story has been told, See Chapter XX. 84 VALUES OF HANDWORK 85 to do something with his hands to express an idea gained from the story or to carry out some impulse, we are work- ing in harmony with his natural tendencies and desires. If it is something that he finds pleasure in doing, as it should be, we are establishing happy associations with the lesson and in this way helping the story, and therefore its teaching, to become the child's permanent possession. It is said: "Happiness, joy in the performance of the given task, an instinctive interest in the duty at hand — all this implies a happy adjustment of the learner to the lesson and also the largest measure of progress in learning."^ Moreover, the larger the number of helpful associations es- tablished in connection with the lesson, the more fixed will it become in the memory. The child who has heard a story, handled a picture illustrating it, and expressed his own idea of the story in a way to give him satisfaction and pleasure will have a much more vivid memory of it than if he had only heard it. "It is entirely certain," says Professor Col- vin, "that a very large part of our effective memory is based upon associations, and education must find its problem in forming the most helpful associations, so that the memories involved may be utilized in the most serviceable manner."^ Handwork as a method of teaching is appropriate for use in the Primary Department on Sunday. The purpose of the instruction given in the Primary Department is the development of character. The instruction is given largely by the story method. Certain forms of handwork connected with a story help the child to make the story his own and tend to deepen its* impression. Handwork used for this purpose and also as a form of lesson expression has a legit- imate place in the Primary Department on Sunday. But it is to be distinguished from busy work. (See Chapter XIV.) Handwork should he an expression of the child's idea as far as this is possible. To provide for the child's free ex- pression of the idea and at the same time make sure that " Hoiv to Become an Efficient Sunday -School Teacher, McKeever. * The Learning Process, Colvin, Chapter IX : "Memory." 86 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK what is done fulfills the purpose of the story is at times exceedingly difficult. Left to himself, the child would probably stop on a low plane of accomplishment. He needs to employ his developing powers and abilities and will do this only at the instigation of the teacher. It lies within the teacher's province to influence his decision as to what he shall do and how he shall do it, but her aim should be not to dictate. By the wise use of questions and sugges- tions it Is possible for the teacher to guide the child's thinking in such a way that while her purpose is achieved, the initiative is the child's, and the work is the expression of his own idea. 2. Examples from life. Contrast the methods of three teachers. Three first-year teachers had each been telling the story "God the Creator of All Things,"* the pur- pose of which is to direct the child's attention to things that may be clearly seen in the world of nature, to help him to think and question about them, and to respond with a feeling of reverent love for God and the impulse to be lov- ing, kind, and good.'^ One teacher said to her pupils, "Now that you have heard the story wh^t would you like to do?" They answered, "Draw pictures with colored crayons." Pa- pers and crayons were distributed, and the children bent to their occupation. One child, the leader of the group, began to draw trees and flowers, and the children nearest her began to draw trees and flowers. One child drew a flow- er she had drawn the preceding week in school. Another tried to draw an animal. The children were interested, and happy associations were being established with* the story, helping them to recall it. The teacher asked no questions, made no comments, said nothing to link the activity and lesson together; she considered it sufficient for the children to express their ideas each in her own way. Each child took her drawing home. ^ Bible Stories for the Sunday School and Home, Year 1, Lesson 1. s Each teacher had followed a different plan from the one de- scribed in Chapter VII. Handwork was not made a part of the story preparation, but was used after the lesson. VALUES OF HANDWORK 87 The second teacher was concerned with the result, be- lieving that it should be of value and tend to deepen the lesson's impression. For each of her pupils she had pre- pared a handwork page with these words written plainly across the bottom: "To help me think of something beau- tiful which God has made." She distributed these pages, saying, "To-day for our handwork we are going to paste a picture to help us think of something beautiful which God has made." Next she gave each child, to paste upon his page, a beautiful colored picture of a flower. The children in this class were as interested in pasting as the children in the other class were in drawling. They were pleased with the results, which, as results alone, had a greater value than the crude drawings; for each time a child looked at his pasted picture — and he would look at it often, because he had pasted it — and read or recalled the words written underneath, he would be reminded that it is God who "hath made everything beautiful in its time." To her pupils the third teacher said, "If you could do something with your hands about the story that I have just told 3^ou, what would you like to do?" The children had come from the Beginners' Department and spoke from their experience there. One child said that he would like to draw a picture of a flower. Another expressed a desire for a picture of a bird to paste. The other children were divided in their opinions. Some wanted to draw, and oth- ers to paste pictures. Of the children who wished to draw flowers the teacher asked, "Why do you want to draw a flower?" "To help us think of real flowers," was the answer. "Why do you want to think of real flowers? Can anyone tell?" were the next questions. "Because God makes the flowers grow," said a child who had not spoken before, but had listened most attentively to the story. At this time the teacher distributed hand- work pages and said: "Those of you who would like to draw may draw a picture to help you think of something 88 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK beautiful which God has made. Those of you who would like to paste a picture may select one from among these;" and she laid down several appropriate subjects upon the table. There were pictures of flowers, birds, and fruits. With one exception the children decided to paste a picture and spent a few thoughtful moments in choosing one. As soon as each child had selected his subject he experimented in placing it on his handwork page. After he had decided upon its position, and it had been approved by the^ teacher, be held the picture while she applied a small amount of paste near its top and bottom edges; then the child laid it properly on the page and pressed it gently with the tips of his fingers until it adhered to the paper. By the time the pasting was completed the child vv^ho had chosen to draw a picture was ready to exhibit his work, and teachers and children spent a few moments in admiring the different pictures and in talking about God's good gifts and what they themselves would try to do because they loved and thanked him. The pupils in this class, as in the preceding, fastened the handwork pages into book covers, so that, finally, each child might have an attractive book of Bible stories and handwork for use at home. The Lessoint Coxtixued 1. Compare the methods of the three teachers and give their points of likeness and unlikeness. 2. Tell what you think of each method, noting its strong points. Note weaknesses or failures. 3. Tell what you think is the real purpose of handwork done in the Primary Department on Sunday during a one- bour session. 4. What do you think is the value of giving permanency to a child's work? 5. What effect has a careless use of the child's work upon his idea of the importance of the Sunday-school lesson? 6. What should be some of the requirements of work to be preserved? CHAPTER XIV CONCERNING THE CHOICE OF MATERIALS AND FORMS OF HANDWORK The usual Primary-Department session is one hour long. Its purpose is not only to give religious instruction but also to provide experience and training in worship. Half an hour is required for the opening service, the offering and birthday services, and the teaching of new songs. This leaves half an hour for instruction. In this time there is usually a short review of the lesson taught the preceding Sunday. The review is followed by the lesson for the day. As a part of the story preparation or after the story there is handwork. It is obvious that not more than eight to twelve minutes may be given to it, and that this is too short a time in which to teach the use of materials and develop a control of tools. 1. Choice of materials. The materials used for hand- work should be those which the child knows how to manip- ulate. The work done must be something that the child knows how to do and can do quickly. What may be done in a two-hour session or in a week-day class meeting for religious instruction is another matter. Certain materials and forms of handwork are better adapted for use in Sunday school on Sunday than others. Water colors and clay are admirable for expressive pur- poses, but disastrous to Sunday suits and dresses, clean hands and faces. The distribution of materials requires so much time that little is left for working; accordingly, painting and clay modeling have been found impracticable for Primary-Department uses on Sunday. From wood, cardboard, paper boxes, and construction paper, objects, models, and gifts may be made; but con- 90 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK struction work of this kind is almost impossible because of the limitations imposed by the length of the primary session and by the arrangement of the usual Primary De- partment. Construction work requires time, the use of a variety of materials and tools, and space in which to work. In most Primary Departments classes are arranged in close proximity to each other, and the only work that may be undertaken is that which the pupils can do while seated quietly in their seats. In departments where the pupils of each year or grade go to separate rooms for the instruction, the handwork may assume a wholly different character: it may become more truly expressive work. The children may also coop- erate in playing the story and in picturing it upon a sand table by using models and objects that they themselves have made. Personification of characters, dialogue, panto- mime, and other forms of dramatic story representation are helpful to the child; but in departments where children of three grades or years must meet for the instruction, and where the session is only one hour long, it is exceed- ingly difficult to arrange for such work. It is a hopeful sign that in some Sunday schools classes for week-day re- ligious instruction are being inaugurated. In the school- where there are such classes, and the Sunday and week- day work are correlated, interesting forms of handwork, dramatic story representation, and other expressive activi- ties may each have a place to the advantage of the pupils. As our Primary Departments are now organized and conducted, about all that the children can do in class to represent a story dramatically is to assume a character and read or tell the story at opportune places. The best forms of handwork for use. on Sunday in a one-hour ses- sion are drawing, coloring, pasting,' and writing. Some teachers find it possible to add paper tearing and cutting; others some forms of paper folding and picturing on a class table by means of models and toys. 2. Desirable forms of handwork. Drawing and color- MATERIALS AND FORMS OF HANDWORK 91 ing, pasti7ig and writing, lend themselves to expressive work. The six-year-old child who, with pencil or colored crayons, pictures an event or moment in the story he has heard is giving expression to his idea. Such work adds another association with the lesson and tends to make the lesson vivid. Similarly, the six-, seven-, or eight-year-old child's thought is stimulated, and his idea of a model and object is clarified by the attempt to picture it. When re- sults are crude, and pictures portraying action ridiculous, it is advisable for the children to give their drawings to the teacher and not to preserve them in a handwork book. Drawings of flowers, fruits, objects, and certain attempts at scenery bearing a relation to the lesson may be pre- served. All children of primary age delight in the use of colored crayons. If they might have their own way, they would do little else than color, but this would be stopping on a low plane of accomplishment. They are acquiring the ability to write and should be encouraged to express them- selves in writing. Some teachers contend that seven- and eight-year-old children find writing irksome, but usually this is due to the teacher's faulty method or to a misun- derstanding of the primary child's ability. A six-year-old child is only learning to write. Toward the end of the year he may ask for a pencil and try to show what he can do; but drawing, coloring, and pasting are more nearly in line with his abilities than writing. The seven-year-old child is outgrowing story-picturing and is not skillful in drawing objects. It is not advisable for him to do coloring or pasting with each lesson. There are les- sons with which he should be asked to copy answers to questions, short sentences, stories, and memory verses. He needs a copy to follow because it is difficult for him to re- member how to spell words and the forms of written let- ters. This copying need not be mechanical; it may be an expression of the child's idea. For example: If after tell- ing a story the teacher says, "Let us think what we would 92 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK like to write about the story," writes down each state- ment made, and then helps the children to agree upon one and to write it, the written work becomes an expres- sion of the child's idea. If the statement is not the best, the teacher may write one and give it to the children to copy after they have copied their own. The value of the work is to be found in the added association with the lesson and the idea put into permanent form by means of writing and placing in the handwork book. A child eight years old is able to answer questions and to write a short original statement or a story about the lesson story, but he should do this written work after he has answered the question orally or made his statement. If possible, he should tell the story he is about to set down on paper. Writing is an absorbing occupation, and it is desirable for him to have what he is to write well in mind before he undertakes to write it. The work is then an ex- pression of his own idea and gives him satisfaction and pleasure. He is proud of his achievement; and every time he turns to it in his book of handwork the statement of truth or the story that will help him to recall the story told by the teacher is there for him to read. It must not be supposed that writing is an aid to memorization. Its value lies in the child's interest in his work and in the permanency given the idea set forth. Similarly, with re- gard to the pasting of pictures the value is not in the me- chanical act of pasting but in the act of selection. The picture should be one chosen by the child from among different subjects. In this way the pasting becomes ex- pressive work.^ 3. How to test the value of handwork. Handivork to 1)6 done in connection with any lesson should he tested hy its relation to that lesson and the lesson 'purpose. Will it prepare the child for the lesson and help him to under- stand it? Will it teach a lesson fact or deepen the impres- 1 See Chapter XIII and the admirable methods followed by the third teacher. MATERIALS AND FORMS OF HANDWORK 93 sion of the lesson truth? Will it help the child by its sug- gestion or the impulse it gives to action to carry over into his own life some right thought, word, or deed?- If the work proposed answers this test it is handwork in the proper use of the word. If it does not, if its value lies in its attractiveness alone, or if it has only a passing and not a permanent teaching value, it is busy work. A clear distinction should always be made between handwork and busy work. Busy work should be used only occasionally in the Sunday school if at all. Busy work is attractive to most children. It is some- thing that they may do by themselves and without the dic- tation or direction of the teacher, and they like to do it. Filling in outlines of letters or memory verses with cray- ons or paints, coloring pictures, tracing or filling in pic- tures in outline, are types of busy work. Such work is mechanical, has little teaching value, and may be done by the children at home. 4. Directing the handwork. The teacher should be familiar with each detail of the work she expects her pupils to do. This familiarity is to be gained only by doing it first as a part of the lesson preparation. The materials for use should be in readiness and in order. There should be no assembling of materials during the les- son period. This should be done before Sunday school.^ Proper tools should be ready for use. The Sunday-school session is not the time in which to sharpen pencils, get out pictures for pasting, or prepare handwork pages. The handwork should be directed by the class teacher, but the teacher should be under the direction of the super- intendent, director of instruction, or supervisor of the chil- dren's departments. This assumes, of course, that the one who is at the head of the department understands the theory and practice of handwork and is capable of direct- 2 See Chapter XII, on the use of pictures. 3 See Lesson II and the use of basket by the teacher who taught the lesson 94 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK ing it and supervising the teachers. Otherwise a teacher or assistant should be in charge of the handwork. Class tables on which the children may work are a con- venience but not a necessity. Heavy cardboards, a low shelf around the sides of the room upon which to lay work, or even the seats of the chairs are substitutes for tables; but it must be remembered that no makeshift gives com- plete satisfaction. The best work can be done under the best conditions. The time for doing handwork varies. With some lessons the best time is before the story; with other lessons, after the story, as a form of lesson expression. Handwork may also be used in connection with the lesson review, as a form of recall. Children should 'be encouraged to work neatly and for results that are worth while. The work, as far as possible, should quicken the child's appreciation of the beautiful, for such an appreciation will make him more responsive to that which is beautiful in character and life. Handwork has many values and is an effective means of religious education if developed in the right way and made to serve the purpose of the instruction. The Lesson Continued 1. Choose a Bible story and illustrate it by drawing. 2. With clay or plasticine construct a model with which to illustrate a detail in a Bible story. 3. With cardboard, paper boxes, or construction paper construct a model that may be used on the sand table in reproducing some mode of life about which the children should know. 4. Choose a Bible story adapted to give an impulse to action. Find and mount a picture of child life adapted to give added potency to this impulse. (Note. — A teacher studying this book as a part of a correspondence course may write descriptions of her hand- work, send her work for criticism, or send photographs of it.) CHAPTER XV HELPING THE CHILD TO BUILD THE LESSON INTO HIS CHARACTER A LITTLE girl, a pupil in a certain Primary Department, fell while at play and injured herself in such a way that when she left the hospital she would be obliged to wear a brace and use a crutch. It was learned that her compan- ions in Sunday school might assist in procuring these, and for several weeks the children earned or saved money from their allowance and gave it as a special offering. The money was deposited in what was called the "gold box" — a pasteboard box covered with gold paper to make it bright and attractive. By the time the bill was settled it had be- come a habit with many of the children to give regularly of their own mone;^, and they continued to bring contribu- tions for Sunday school and charitable purposes. 1. The significance of feeling- and impulse. Habit has its beginnings in feeling and impulse. It was the chil- dren's sympathy for their little friend in the hospital which gave them the desire to help her. This impulse led them to make sacrifices, to work, and to give. By so doing they learned what it means to do for others and to give, for "no thought is ever definite until it has been consciously lived out or wrought out,"' and they formed the habits of ready response to the need of others and of personal giving. Feeling and impulse must find expression in action. It was just a little first-year lad, the boy who listened so at- tentively to the story of the Israelites bringing gifts for the building of the tabernacle.^ His eyes still shone in appreciation of the people "who gave more than was need- ^ Dynamic Factors in Education, O'Shea. '^ Bible Stoi'ies for the Sunday School and Home, Year 1, Lesson 10. 95 96 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK ed." When the children were reminded that Christmas was approaching and were asked what they would like to do or to whom they would like to give to remember the birthday of Jesus, they decided to make two offerings: one of money to help pay for repairs on the Sunday-school building, and one of scrapbooks for children in the home for crippled children. When opportunity was given the lad to speak, he leaned forward and said: "I have a whole bank full of money at home. I will give it all." His teacher suspected that he might not be permitted to carry out his generous intention and suggested, "Bring what father and mother are willing for you to give, and bring it next Sun- day." He brought no more than his usual offering and showed no interest in what he or the other children gave that day or following Sundays. Because he did not act in response to his desire, the desire and impulse faded away. By means of this negative story a positive truth becomes apparent — namely, that if feelings are to become perma- nent attitudes, and acts are to become iixed as habits, feel- ings and impulses must find expression in action. 2. Guiding the child's impulse. The young child needs help and guidance in carrying out his impulses. It is possible that after leaving Sunday school the child who was so eager to give went away with his parents or had some experience that caused him to forget his intentions. It is far more probable that permission to take money out of his bank was refused. If his parents had understood that giving money of his own would be a helpful character- building experience, they would have made it possible for him to earn money or would have helped him to do with- out something he wanted, so that he might share in the giving. Parents need to understand that the lessons taught in Sunday school are for the children's good and their re- ligious nurture. The Primary Department also has its part to fulfill. It has been said repeatedly that the appeal of the stories we tell in the Primary Department is to the feelings. Their HELPING THE CHILD TO BUILD CHARACTER 97 purpose is to call forth desires and impulses that will lead to action and will aid in establishing habits. For the reason that not all parents understand and are able to cooperate with the Sunday school, the Primary Department should not wholly depend on the home. It should make as definite provision for expressional activities as for reli- gious instruction and worship. If the feeling stirred is one that may be expressed in Sunday school — such as praise or gratitude to God — opportunity should be given the chil- dren- to express the feeling in worship. If the impulse aroused may be expressed best in acts of service, there should be services for the children to render, errands for them to go upon, the room to be put in order at the close of the session, the blackboard to clean, books and equip- ment to replace, signals and rules to obey promptly and cheerfully, and many kindnesses to perform for others. If there are pictures to be collected for Christmas gift books for hospital or other uses, if there is money to be earned or saved, the children need to be reminded of what they are to do at home and encouraged to carry out their pur- poses. Attractive envelopes in which to place pictures, boxes or bags in which to bring their money, attractive boxes or baskets for the reception of their offerings, re- minders in the way of post cards sent to the children or notes to their parents, are among the helpful devices that may be employed. 3. The necessity of action. Action in response to right impulses is necessary for the child's training in reli- gion and growth in Christian character. By way of fur- ther illustration and to understand better what is meant, take the case of the little girl who was an only child and greatly beloved by her parents and other adult relatives. Up to the time when she was between three and four years old, her experience had been almost wholly that of receiv- ing. Her parents realized her need to experience real giv- ing — that is, the parting with something that was her own. They proposed going to see a younger child and taking her 98 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK a gift. The desire to take a toy from among the child's collection was called forth. The child made her selection, and then mother and little daughter went at once to pay the visit and bestow the toy. The experience was a happy one throughout. It was an effort toward getting the habit of giving started and of helping the child to understand what it means to give. Children of primary age are like this little girl. They need to do right, first, that desirable habits may be started; but secondly, that the concept of duty may emerge, and 'con- science may be quickened. These steps are necessary if, finally, the children are to determine their own conduct and to act in response to duty and from the motive of love and obedience to God. Neitlier the form of expression nor the specific act should 6e imposed upon the child 'by the teacher; as far as possible, toth should be of his own initiating. When the desire or Impulse occasioned by a story may be expressed concretely, the children should have an active part in proposing and discussing what may be done, in deciding what is best, and in planning for its accomplishment. The teacher's part is to guide by the skillful use of suggestions and questions and to see that the means for carrying out the activity are available. In addition she should encourage conversation about what the children will try to do at home in response to a lesson. She should help them to understand their failures and should encourage further effort, for not- all lessons can be acted on in Sunday school under the direc- tion of the teacher. Many lessons are designed to help the child meet problems and overcome temptations in his home, school, and play life; others are expressed by the child in quiet hours — when he kneels by his bed to pray, when he feels his need of forgiveness and of strength with which to be good. These are the times when the Spirit of God speaks to the child's spirit; and if in the child's heart there are love, trust, obedience, and reverence, he well ex- press these religious feelings in prayer and prayerlike HELPING THE CHILD TO BUILD CHARACTER 99 thoughts, building habits of communion with God into his character. Character has been called "the summation of habit." Habit is formed by the repetition of an act; therefore, when we deepen the child's religious feelings and help him to perform some religious and Christlike act we are helping him to build a Christian character, which is our ultimate purpose. The Lesson Continued 1. Think of something the primary pupils might do for others at the Christmas or Easter season. 2. Tell how you would proceed to awaken interest and to arouse impulses, and what you would do to aid the chil- dren in the undertaking. 3. Make a list of everyday acts of service which a child may do for others. What means should the teacher take to suggest such acts to the child? CHAPTER XVI WORSHIP IN THE PRIMARY DEPARTMENT In every regular session of the Primary Department pro- vision is made not only for instruction and its correlated activities but also for worship. The purpose of this lesson is to consider the worship in the Primary Department and its relation to the religious development of the child. 1. The significance of children's worship. Worship is an act of actual communion with God. As a consequence it is not something that may be accomplished for the child but must be the child's own act — even in a service par- ticipated in by others. Worship is necessary for the child's religious develop- ment. To the instruction given in the Primary Department, and more especially to the Bible stories that are told, the" child responds in some way. Among the stories are those that quicken his appreciation of the Fatherhood and near- ness of God. There are many that reveal to him God's infinite love and never-failing care. The child responds with purest feelings of awe, wonder, reverence, humility, dependence, gratitude, and love. These are among the feel- ings that influence the child's attitude and personal bear- ing toward God. Do you ask, "What shall be done with them?" We answer, "Make them permanent; build them into the child's character." From preceding lessons it is readily understood that if these feelings are not to pass away, as did the child's desire to give when it was not acted on,^ they must be expressed. Worship is the most fitting expression of these feelings, and we plan for the child to express them in worship. The child's worship should he suited to Mm and meet See page 96. 100 WORSHIP IN THE PRIMARY DEPARTMENT 101 some present need in his life. The songs, hymns, prayers, and Scripture should be understood by the child, or such that he can come to understand through their use. They should express his thoughts and religious feelings and at the same time lift him to higher planes of thinking and feeling, for in no other way can his worship contribute to his religious nurture. In a service of worship in which the child participates he draws near to his heavenly Father. He gains an added sense of God's reality and feels himself to be under God's observation. Such feelings tend to strengthen the child's confidence in God's care, deepen his love, call forth his efforts for self-control and right conduct, and help him to live in happy daily companionship with the heavenly Fattier. Thus, there are many reasons why worship is a religious experience which the child needs. 2. Training children in worship. It is imperative that there shall be times for worship and that these times shall occur with something of frequency and regularity. The very little child's love and gratitude overflow in joyous songs of praise and in spontaneous prayers: "Thank you, God, for my new toy. Thank you, God, for everything.'* It is natural to him to add to his finished petition: "I am sorry I was naughty to-day. Help me to be a good boy." The primary child is more reserved; he does not express himself so spontaneously. Interests crowd upon him; and unless occasions are arranged for him, he is apt to not take time for communion with God. These occasions should occur with frequency and regularity, so that he may form the habit of worship. To meet the child's need, to give him opportunities for worship and training, there should be a service of worship in connection with each reg- ular session of the Primary Department. This does not mean that the primary children are never to meet with other departments of the school, are never to go into the church for special services, or, after Sunday 102 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK school is over, are not to go into the church for a short service planned for children. It does mean that the pri- mary children should not meet regularly with other de- partments of the school and have no regular worship of > their own. Even in a one-room building, where all pupils meet together for opening and closing services, the primary children, after five or not more than ten minutes of the general service, should be permitted to go to their own screened corner, that they may still have their own service and receive the training they need. Our desire and purpose for the child are not that he shall worship only in church and Sunday school but that he shall form the habit of daily prayer. He may fail in this unless he knows how to address God and how to ex- press his thoughts and feelings in words. He needs formal prayers for certain times and occasions, but far more he needs experience in the use of simple sentence prayers with which to speak intimately to God. The child is given this experience at Sunday school and receives the training he needs when, with head bowed and eyes closed, he repeats the prayer of the leader clause by clause or sentence by sentence. That this prayer may be an expression of each child's thought and feeling the leader or teacher prepares for it by asking the children to tell for what they would like to praise or thank God. Or she gives them the opportunity to suggest the subject for a prayer. This is not done with each prayer, and possibly not each Sunday, but frequently. There are occa- sions when it is desirable for the children to listen to the leader's prayer, for they need to hear thoughts expressed which are bigger than their own. It is desirable also to give some definite training for prayer by helping the chil- dren formulate prayers for use in the different services of worship. This should be done during an instruction period, in connection with the teaching of the lesson, or as an expression of a lesson.- The children may write See Chapter VII, page 53. WORSHIP IN THE PRIMARY DEPARTMENT 103 these prayers in a book or preserve copies of them, that they may have them for personal use. 3. The primary service of \vorship. The service for each session of the Primary Department should be care- fully and thoughtfully planned. Worship is the child's thoughts going out to God and the child's feelings ex- pressed in an act of personal communion. For this reason the child's worship is not to be lightly regarded. The service in which he is to participate should be planned with great forethought and conducted in a reverent man- ner. Children sense the whole personal bearing of the leader as quickly as they do the significance of the hymns and prayers, hence the leader should be reverent in spirit and not only lead in worship but worship with the chil- dren. The primary service of worship should have an objective, a purpose. Usually this purpose should be to guide the child in expressing a religious feeling that is strong and intense because of some immediate interest in his life or some impulse aroused by the lesson teaching. Occasionally the purpose of the worship may be to awaken some feel- ing that is necessary to his religious development and to help him express it. By noting the instruction given in the classes from Sun- day to Sunday the leader can tell fairly well what feelings are being aroused and plan the service accordingly. Is it the springtime of the year, and are the children being led to think of God's wonderful power "making all things new"? Then in their worship the children should express their joy and their gratitude to him for his good gifts of opening leaf buds, baby birds in their tree-top nests, flow- ering plants, and beauty in life everywhere. Are the sto- ries telling of God's care? Then in their worship the chil- dien should express their dependence, trust, and gratitude. Similarly, all through the year, there should be a close correlation of the instruction and the worship. Religious feelings may be stirred by worshipful music, 104 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK a gloriously beautiful day, a moth emerging from its cocoon, buds bursting into flower, and other objects of nature, by appropriate verses and poetical prose telling of God's power and greatness, by hymns or worshipful songs, and by the reading or recitation of selected Bible verses. All these are means that may be used in the Primary Department for arousing religious feeling. Some of these are means by which such feeling may be expressed. The Lesson Continued 1. Imagine that the Sunday-school superintendent or some other officer does not appreciate the importance of a primary service of worship. Arrange your defense and state the reasons you would present in convincing him that the primary children should participate in a service of worship planned especially for them and conducted in the Primary Department room. 2. Arrange a service of worship such as you would use on a bright, cold day in January, when there is snow on the ground. Choose the songs and plan the prayer service with special care. 3. Plan another service suitable for a rainy day in the spring. CHAPTER XVII HOW TO PLAN A PRIMARY PROGRAM For each session of the Primary Department there should be a plan. A plan formulated step by step constitutes a program. A primary program provides for worship and in- struction. But instruction must not be part of the worship. It may precede, separate, or follow the worship, but must be differentiated from it. 1. Parts of the program.. The usual primary service of worship divides itself naturally into four parts: the opening, the offering, the birthday, and the closing services. Besides worship there must be instruction, the teaching of words and melodies of songs, hymns and responses, recita- tions and reviews of memory verses and correlated lessons, story-telling exercises, and the lesson teaching. A distinc- tion is to be made by the primary superintendent or leader between the worship and the instruction. When teaching, her voice and manner may be animated, and she may use pictures, tell stories, ask questions, and write or draw upon the blackboard. When guiding the worship the leader's attitude and manner should be worshipful. Everything said and done by her should help to make the children rev- erent, for reverence is an emotion that may be communi- cated to them. 2. The opening service. The opening service should be one of worship. The quiet music with which teachers and pupils are called to attention, the thoughts brought to the children by the superintendent or leader as a preparation for prayer, should lead the children to think of God and to have a sense of his nearness and presence. In the prayer the children should express the feelings they have for him. 105 106 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK To this end appropriate instrumental music has its values. When it is time for the primary service to begin, teachers and pupils will be in their places looking at pictures, hear- ing and reciting memory verses and correlated lessons, or talking together about the happenings of the week. Plan to call them to attention by means of reverent, worshipful music. It is said that "sounds affect us as tone and as impulse." For this reason we may call fofth, by music adapted to our purpose, almost any emotion and impulse we wish. For an opening service of worship in the Thanks- giving season use music that will be a- call to praise. At the Christmas season the music may suggest chimes. Ru- binstein's "Melody in F" or Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" may be used for spring Sundays. For each program ap- propriate music may be found. After about three minutes of the instrumental music the call to worship needs to be given more definitely by means of a song or hymn, a greeting or introductory statement by the superintendent, or a recitation in unison of appropriate Bible verses. To determine what form this further call shall take is the next step. It should be a fitting prepara- tion for prayer. The prayer should not be left to the inspiration of the moment. As the next step in program making its content and form should be decided. If it is to be a sentence prayer, it should be thought out or written out, for it must be suitable in every way. Upon occasion for a series of Sundays the prayer may be one the children have cooper- ated in framing. Occasionally it may be a prayer to which the children listen. Usually, it should be one in which they unite with their teachers in repeating or saying after the leader clause by clause or sentence by sentence. In this way they have a feeling that they are speaking to God. They need the experience of prayer for the nurture and enrichment of their religious life. The songs or hymns for the opening service should be suited to the purpose of the worship as a whole and to the HOW TO PLAN A PRIMARY PROGRAM 107 opening service in particular. For example: If the service is to be one of praise and thanksgiving, by means of the songs the children should give praise and thanks to God. The words of all songs should be suited to the chil- dren's power of understanding, and the music to their voices. When the music is too high or too low, it may be played in a different key, or a high or low note may be changed. The one who plans the program and leads the worship should choose the songs, but a list of the songs to be sung should be prepared for the pianist each Sunday and for the leader of the singing. When new songs are to be taught, it is advisable for the pianist and leader of the singing to practice them together before asking the children to sing them. When possible the children should be given the opportunity of choosing a new song to learn. If this is impracticable, they should have frequent opportunity of calling for and singing favorite songs in a special song period. 3. The offering service. The offering and its service should be acts of worship. The bringing and giving of offerings are acts of obedience and worship, for we read, "Bring an offering and come into his courts." To plan the offering service is the next step. It is advisable for it to follow the opening service, being connected with and growing out of it. Moreover, the money or the primary treasurer's report will be ready for the school treasurer when he calls for it. Whether the children bring their offering in envelopes provided by the school for that pur- pose or in their hands, there is an advantage in having it deposited in a basket or other receptacle at the entrance door. In this way the children get it out of their hands quickly, and there is no need of going to coats or pocket- books at the time of its presentation. If the children in each class place their offering in a class envelope, it should be collected early and, if possible, before the session. At the beginning of the offering service the offering bas- ket may be brought to the leader by some child, or the en- 108 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK velopes may be brought from the classes by a pupil from each class. Quiet music, a song, or appropriate Bible verses, recited as the offering is brought forward, will create a spirit of worship. It is well for the child or children to re- main standing before the leader until the close of the offering prayer, and then return to the class or classes. 4. The birthday service. This is not an act of worship, but it should nevertheless be made worshipful. Since the birthday child brings a birthday offering of as many pen- nies as he is years old, a natural time for this service is after the regular offering. In most Primary Departments the birthday money is devoted to a charitable or mission- ary object. The purpose of the offering and service is to arouse pleasurable feelings, to establish happy associations with God's house, and to have a helpful religious influence upon the children. For the last reason it is advisable to relegate birthday cakes and candles to the home celebration or to a birthday party in the Sunday-school rooms. By means of the birthday greeting, song, and prayer the child should be carried close to God and made to feel that God knows and cares what kind of a child he is. In this way he will be given a motive for right conduct. In small de- partments, where there are only a few children whose birthdays are to be remembered, each child in the room may be mentioned by name. In large departments, where each Sunday there are many birthday children, it is not advisable to do this, for the repetition of name after name detracts from the service. In departments where the ses- sion is less than an hour a birthday service may be held once a month instead of every Sunday. But whatever plan is chosen, the leader should have birthday cards ready. These may be given in Sunday school or sent through the mail. 5. Instruction. The program should include a period for instruction other than lesson teaching. Story-telling exercises, the recitation of memory verses, and the teach- ing of the words of new songs are usually in charge of the HOW TO PLAN A PRIMARY PROGRAM 109 superintendent. If there is story dramatization, it should be in charge of the class teacher or primary superintendent. Each week in planning the program the leader must decide whether a new song is to be taught or other instruction is to be given. Similarly, it is advisable to plan for the period following the class work and preceding the closing service. This is the superintendent's opportunity for unifying the teaching. If she is ready with suitable words of direction or appeal, a hymn or song, or a prayer, she may bring the instruction to an impressive close and prepare for the clos- ing service. 6. The closing service. This should be one of worship. It may be a song or prayer or both, but because of it the children should go from God's house feeling that they have been in his presence and impressed by this experience. The Lesson Continued 1. Give the titles and words of one or two songs appro- priate for an opening service of worship in the Primary Department; for the primary children to sing at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas; for an offering, birthday, and closing service in the Primary Department. 2. Give the details of a primary opening service of wor- ship, based upon the theme God's love and care. 3. Write an offering and a birthday prayer for use with primary children. 4. Visit a primary department and note the program in all its details. Were the four essential parts of the program adequately provided for? Was there evidence of careful preparation? Were the materials of the program and the manner of presentation suited to the child's needs. CHAPTER XVIII A PRIMARY PROGRAM FOR A SUNDAY IN NOVEMBER Thanksgiving is approaching. It is desirable for an appropriate song to be taught and for preparations to be made for a special Thanksgiving activity. The program must therefore be planned and conducted with thought and care, that the children may not be confused by too many ideas, and that full time may be secured for the class work and lesson teaching. 1. Important details. The following details require attention before the beginning of the session: (1) Pictures of fruits and vegetables and harvest pictures selected for use in the room and in developing the Thanksgiving song. (2) Pictures and other illustrative material chosen for use in first-, second-, and third-year classes. (3) Superintend- ent's requisites, Bible, songbooks, and birthday equipment, in readiness. (4) The words of the new song written upon the blackboard or printed on muslin and placed where teachers and pupils may see and read them. 2. Program detail. (1) Purpose of the worship. — To call forth the spirit of worship and the impulse of praise and to direct the chil- dren's expression of thanks and praise to God. (2) Opening service of worship. — (a) Instrumental mu- sic: "Sunday morning," in Songs for Little People. (6) Song: "The Church," in Songs for Little People: "The quiet Sabbath day is here. And, pealing forth so loud and clear, The chimes of church bell reach the ear, Ding! Dong! Ding! ^ 1 "Come ! Come ! Come !" may be substituted for "Ding ! Dong ! Ding :" 110 PROGRAM FOR A SUNDAY IN NOVEMBER 111 "As to the church we take our way, The bells' deep voices seem to say. Come worship God this holy day, Ding! Dong! Ding! "The quiet church is hushed in prayer. We bow the head while waiting there, And softly falls the golden light Thro' arching windows high and bright." (c) Preparation for prayer: We have come to Sunday school to-day to worship God. We do this when we think about him, when we sing songs of praise and thanksgiving, and when we speak to him in prayer. What shall we say to him to-day? (d) Prayer: (The children should ret)eat the words after the leader, who should try to embody in the prayer the suggestions made by the children.) Heavenly Father, we thank thee that we may speak to thee in prayer and tell thee the thoughts we are thinking. We thank and praise thee for this day and for all the days of the week. We thank thee for home and food, for love. and care, and for the many other good gifts about which we are learning at the Thanksgiving season. Amen.- (3) Offering service. — (a) Preparation: We may wor- ship God in still another way. It is by giving or sharing with others the good things we ourselves have received. Let us make ready to present our offering and to speak to God about it. (&) Presentation: (Choose some pupil to bring the offer- ing basket forward. If possible to arrange for it, have quiet music played as this is done, then ask the questions and lead teachers and pupils in repeating the Bible verses: ) From whom does every good gift come? "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father." What does the Bible tell us about giving? "Freely ye received, freely give." * Later in the year, after the Lord's Prayer has been explained and taught, it might be used here. 112 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK (c) Preparation for prayer: Let us speak to God about the gifts we have brought to-day. (d) Prayer: Heavenly Father, we are glad to come to Sunday school to-day and to give freely for others. May our gifts help to make someone happy, help someone to know and love thee and Jesus. Amen. (4) Birthday service. — (a) Preparation: There is a birthday child here to-day. Let us ask him to come for- ward so that we may give him our birthday greeting, count how many years he is old, and wish him joy and happiness. (After the child has come forward, lead the children in counting his birthday pennies as they are dropped one by one 'into the birthday bank, in singing the song, and in prayer.) (&) Song: "Birthday Wishes," in Carols: "Wishes true. We bring you On this happy birthday. Kind and dear, Through the year, May the Father keep you. "Like the air, Ev'rywhere, May his love surround you; In his care. All may share, He is God our Father." (c) Birthday prayer: Our Father in heaven, we thank thee for happy birthdays and for thy love and care. Guard our little friend, be near him, and bless him all through the new year. Help him to grow in goodness, to be like Jesus, and to take joy wherever he goes. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. (Usually the birthday service would be followed by the singing of some song chosen by the children; but as a new song is to be taught, the singing must be omitted.) (5) Instruction.— (a) Song: (The thought of the new song may be presented by a story or by pictures and con- PROGRAM FOR A SUNDAY IN NOVEMBER 113 versation. After its thought or idea has been developed it should be sung to the children. The children may then spend a few moments, possibly five, in learning to sing it.) (Z>) Class instruction: First-year classes — Lesson 6, "The Gift of Daily Bread"; Memory Verse: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father." (James 1. 17.) Aim of the lesson: to deepen the feelings of love and gratitude to God and the impulse to thank him and show him love. Second-year classes — Lesson 6, "Nehemiah, the King's- Cupbearer." Memory Verse: "Jehovah is nigh unto all them that call upon him." (Psa. 145. 18.) Aim of the lesson: to lead the children to talk intimately to God and to trust God to an- swer prayers in the way that is best. Third-year classes — Lesson 6, "King David's Kindness to .a Lame Man." Mem- ory Verse: "Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, for- giving each other." (Eph. 4.32.) Aim of the lesson: to arouse sympathetic feelings for those who are in trouble and distress and the impulse to show" kindness and to give aid. (At the close of the lesson period the classes are to be called to attention by quiet music.) (6) TUe superintendenf s message to the classes. — Last week in our talk together we spoke of a happy day that is coming soon. What is the day to which we are looking forward with such pleasure? What did we say that Thanks- giving Day is especially for? Thanksgiving Day is the day for giving thanks to God for his love and care and for his good gifts of food. It is also the day for showing our love and thanks to God by sharing our good things with others or by doing some special thing to make some one happy. What would you like to do at the Thanksgiving season, and for whom would you like to do it? (Encourage the children to make different suggestions. If these are not practicable, tell of other things to do or of other people to whom pleasure may be given. If the children cannot agree, have a plan to suggest and ask for their cooperation, in doing v/hat you and their teachers think is best. 114 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK (7) Closing service of worship. — (a) Preparation for prayer: Not only by doing some special thing may we show love and thanks to God, but by the thoughts we think, the things we do, and the words we speak each day. Be- fore we go to our homes let us ask for the help and strength we need with which to do right. Let us ask for these things in the words of our closing song: "Sunday school is over for another day; Hear us now, dear Father, as to thee we pray. Through the week be with us in our work and play; Make us kind and loving; help us to obey. Amen."^ (8) Dismission. — (a) Outdoor garments taken from the coat racks. (6) The children dismissed with quiet music when all are ready, (c) Story papers other than the lesson folders distributed at the door as the children pass out. The folders containing the lesson story and handwork pages should be distributed in the classes and used during the in- struction period. The Lesson Continued 1. In a primary session only one hour in length what is the advantage of having (a) a detailed program, (b) super- intendent's requisites ready, and likewise (c) the pianist's, secretary's, and class teachers' requisites? 2. How was the purpose of the worship fulfilled — that is, by what songs, prayers, and explanations or statements? 3. Why, do you think, was the word "worship" empha- sized in the "preparation for prayer" and in "the offering service"? 4. What relations do you discover between the lessons and the service of worship? 5. How was the lesson teaching unified by the superin- tendent's message to the classes and the closing service of worship? Closing Song in Carols. CHAPTER XIX A PRIMARY ROOM AND ITS EQUIPMENT A FREQUENT criticism of children of primary age is that they are noisy and mischievous and thoughtlessly irreverent in their classroom. Several causes are as a rule responsi- ble for such conduct, but one of these is apt to be the Sun- day-school surroundings. The behavior of a young child is largely a response to environment. His habits are not fixed. He has few standards or ideals of conduct by which he is influenced. His acts proceed from impulses, and these spring mostly from environing conditions. Hence we must look to the primary room itself for one explanation of the children's behavior. 1. Two primary rooms. The way into a certain pri- mary room was first through a dark hall and next through a long room with rows of unoccupied chairs and a look of disorder because it remained as it had been left earlier in the day by the Senior Department. The windows in this room were only on one side and were high and narrow and few in number. The glass in the windows was dark and thick; and as the day was gray, very little light pene- trated, and the room was almost as dark as the hall that led to it. The primary room was dingy. The carpet had seen many years of service. The walls and ceiling needed fresh paint. Because there was no cloakroom or other provision for the children's outdoor garments, these were heaped on chairs in corners and along the wall, making for disorder and confusion. It was seldom that the room was used in the evening; hence, the lighting system was- inadequate. The few flickering gas lights did not give sufficient light for the children to attempt reading or any form of handwork. 115 116 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK The room was small. There could be little change of posi- tion or movement, and no activities could be undertaken. Instruction had to be given through the ear alone, and helpful associations through the use of the eye and hand could not be established. The children behaved as one might expect. They banged the street doors, for what little child will stop in a dark hall to close doors quietly? They hurried and scurried through the hall, for with the child, darkness and unusual surroundings are incitements to fear. They arrived some- what breathless. There were no pictures in the primary room at which the children who came early might look. There were no handwork supplies to distribute or other preparations to make for the approaching session. There was nothing for these children to do after they had greeted the superintend- ent, had reported to the secretary, and had deposited their offering in the basket; so they found occupations of their own choosing. On this particular Sunday they raced each other around the chairs in the adjoining room or amused themselves by removing the hymn books from the racks, opening them to the center, then snapping them shut with terrific force and much noise. Their play was poor prepa- ration for a service of worship. In striking contrast to this primary room is another in a small chapel in a suburban district. The approach to the chapel is up a winding path between well-kept lawns. A wide door gives entrance into a small square hall with plenty of light. The floor of this hall is tiled. The wood- work is polished oak. The walls are tinted a light buff. The children may race to the chapel, they may play all the way to the door, as children will even on Sunday; but at the door a marked change is to be noticed in their be- havior. They cease from play. The boys remove their hats, and boys and girls pass into the primary room at the right of the hall quietly and with a dignity of manner that is admirable. Such manner does not proceed from A PRIMARY ROOM AND ITS EQUIPMENT 117 instruction alone, for even the most thoughtful children will at times forget to do as they have been told. There is little doubt that the children act unconsciously, and that their conduct is a natural response to feelings aroused by the dignity of the building and by its beautiful interior. The chapel is the place where the children meet on God's day, where their love for him is stirred, and where they express their love, gratitude, and dependence in song and in prayer. These associations deepen the children's feel- ing of reverence for their Sunday school, and since other children who have not these associations with the building have shown reverence upon coming into it, one cannot but conclude that the building has much to do in calling forth this feeling in the children who attend Sunday school there. It is said, "To develop a spirit of reverence is to develop a capacity for religion." If the Sunday-school surround- ings can aid in doing this, it follows that the room in which sensitive, impressionable, and responsive children meet for religious instruction and worship is of great im- portance and should receive consideration. If it does not measure up to requirements, it should be remodeled; and in these days it is astonishing what can be accomplished where there is the understanding and determination to provide for the children the equipment and surroundings that are desirable. 3. A remodeled primary room. The room has been remodeled from one of the old type — that is, one that was separated from other rooms by glass partitions. Sound- proof partitions have been substituted for the glass. The doors open not into other rooms but into a hall with wide stairs having low and easy lifts, for in this building the beginners' and primary rooms are on the second floor above the entrance hall and the junior room. It w^as only by placing these rooms on the second floor that large, light, and airy rooms could be had. The woodwork is Mission; it is without unnecessary 118 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK moldings to catch and hold the dust and has been stained a warm brown. The windows on two sides of the room have clear glass and good shades. Across the back is a large cupboard for supplies. With its glass doors and good lines it resembles a built-in bookcase. The room is equipped with a good piano, a blackboard, a table for the superin- tendent's Bible, songbooks, and other equipment, and class tables stained the color of the woodwork, each table ac- commodating from six to eight pupils. There are also chairs of different heights, so that children who are taller and those who are shorter may sit in correct positions and be comfortable. Children should sit easily erect and with their feet resting upon the floor. Chairs might seem to be a minor consideration, but they are not; for incorrect and uncomfortable positions make for disorder, inattention, and irritability. It is most desirable that both children and teachers should remove cloaks and hats before the class session. In this way greater physical comfort is assured, and fussing and restlessness are done away with. Unfor- tunately, the room being described has not a cloakroom. But a place for the children's outdoor garments is provided by means of a shelf about a foot wide and about four feet from the floor, extending along the side of the wall nearest the door leading into the halls. Under the shelf are two rows of hooks, and from the edge of the shelf a brown denim curtain has been hung, that the children's hats and coats may not be in evidence during the class session. The floor of the room is of hard wood and is uncarpeted. A large grass-matting rug in shades of brown or two or three smaller rugs would give an effect of finish and com- fort, and some time will be purchased; but at present the floor is shellacked and may be kept clean with a mop and water, which is a great improvement over dust-laden car- pets. The walls are white and there are no pictures, for first things have had to come first; but a fund is accumulating, and soon the walls will be tinted, and several good pic- A PRIMARY ROOM AND ITS EQUIPMENT 119 tures will add to the attractiveness of the room and speak to the children as only those silent teachers can. 4. Influence ot an orderly room. It is interesting to watch the children upon their arrival. They dispose of their hats and coats, then pass to their chairs and settle down for work. They seem to recognize that the room is a schoolroom — and that is what it is; for it is complete in its detail and equipment and is admirably adapted for instruction and study. The opportunity offered by the children's attitude is recognized, and there is something for the children to do from the moment they enter the room. The early comers assist in distributing supplies, arranging flowers, and performing other acts of helpfulness. Upon the arrival of the teachers memory verses are re- cited, credits are recorded, and unfinished handwork is completed. At the time for beginning the session there is quiet music, followed by the service of worship. At the close of Sunday school the children go into church to places reserved for them. They do this so that they may come under influences similar to those which are felt so keenly by the children who attend Sunday school in the chapel that has been described. These are the archi- tecture and the lights, the instrumental music, and an at- mosphere of worship. The feeling of reverence is made acute by all these things, by the act of uniting with others in a song of praise and in prayer, and by listening to a few earnest words spoken by the pastor. Then a reces- sional is sung by the choir and congregation, and the younger children retire to go home. The older pupils re- main for the church service. Not all primary rooms lend themselves to complete re- modeling, but certain improvements can be made in rooms that are not all that they may be. The rooms can be kept clean and in order. Floors can be stained and shellacked if they may not be tiled or softly carpeted, or a linoleum may be laid. The color scheme can be harmonious. There may be a place for supplies, and supplies may be kept in 120 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK order and in repair. Ingenuity and originality will dis- cover some arrangement for the children's outdoor gar- ments. If pictures may not be hung 'upon the walls, mounted pictures may be placed each Sunday upon a screen to make a bright attractive spot where the children will delight to gather. In addition to a clean and orderly primary room there should be orderly methods of procedure. A wise leader calls the department to order by means of music that will induce a feeling of quietness, a readiness of m.ind, and a spirit for the service of worship. The one who understands how much may be said to children through music prepares them for their class work, calls them to attention, and dis- misses them, not with the ringing of bells or disturbing signals, but by means of the piano. "Music can noble hints impart, With unsuspected eloquence can move And manage all the man with secret art." In addition to being an aid in creating proper conditions for teaching, music can awaken the child's soul and help him to be reverent. 5. Adequate equipment. For the teachers to do their part well there must be an adequate teaching equipment. This consists of supplies necessary for handwork — such as pencils, crayons, paste, and paper for mounting and drawing, a good pencil eraser, and a pair of scissors for each class. In addition there should be pictures for class use,^ notebooks if they are required, teachers' class records,^ and such general requisites as class teachers' boxes or baskets,^ teachers' textbooks, and pupils' folders and folder covers. 1 See "Primary Picture Sets," Numbers 1 to 3, and "Primary Missionary Picture Set." Appendix B. - See "Primary Record of Credit." Appendix B. 3 See Chapter II for the use of these. A PRIMARY ROOM AND ITS EQUIPMENT 121 6. Securing needed equipment. The larger responsi- bility for securing the proper conditions and equipment for teaching and creating the proper atmosphere is that of the department superintendent. It is the primary superintend- ent who must keep before her the vision of the ideal and work toward it. It is she who must lead and inspire the teachers and the children. To obtain results, however, it is necessary that the teachers cooperate and aid in every particular. It is the teacher's part to be instantly obedient to every signal, to take part in all the exercises, to be reverent in spirit and manner, to show courtesy to the superintendent and to the children, to be willing to accept advice, to follow directions, and to do all these things in the spirit of willing service for the Master. The cooperation of the children is also to be won. In one way and another each child must be given a sense of responsibility in maintaining order, in participating in the worship, and in the interchange of kindly deeds. Each needs to realize that he has a place and share in working for the good of the whole, and that any failure to perform his part affects others. The child may be brought to this realization not so much by teaching as by that subtle some- thing in the atm.osphere which prevails where there is unity of spirit and purpose on the part of officers and teachers. 7. The supreme necessity. It is in the Primary Depart- ment where there are perfect accord, cooperation, worship, fellowship, kindly deeds and words that the Christ atmos- phere is most apparent. Such an atmosphere is a most necessary condition for teaching. It is said, "A Christ atmosphere is a mighty power in bringing men to Christ." If it is such a power in bringing men to the Saviour, what may it not be in bringing the children? To bring the children to the Saviour and to help them to live lives of Christian service is the true purpose of the Primary Department. 122 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK The Lesson Continued 1. Handling the pictures, liandwork materials, and other requisites for teaching, and helping to care for these call forth a sense of ownership and responsibility. What, there- fore, is it desirable to ask one or two or a class of the older children to do each Sunday after the Sunday-school session? 2. Of what value will it be to the children to learn that the primary room should not be left with chairs disar- ranged, the floor and table littered with paper, pencils and other equipment returned to the supply closet in poor con- dition, unused folders tucked anywhere out of sight, the used blackboard uncleaned; but that the room should be put in order and everything made ready for the next session? What arrangement would you make so that the burden of caring for the room might not fall entirely upon any one teacher, and that the children might have a sense of responsibility for the room? 3. Describe a primary room that you have seen which is inadequate for its purpose. Give detailed recommenda- tions for its improvement and state which you would carry out first if all the changes might not be made at the same time. In choosing a color scheme state whether the room receives its light from north, south, east, or west, and at what time of day the primary class session is held. CHAPTER XX HOW TO MAINTAIN INTEREST Ax eight-year-old boy, upon returning from Sunday school one Sunday, announced to his family, "I do not want to miss Sunday school these days; the lessons are so in- teresting." At another time, in a different Sunday school, a class for week-day instruction was arranged for all the children of the Primary Department who cared to attend. Between twenty and thirty children were present at the first session. At the close of the hour the leader of the class inquired if there were any questions. Immediately one of the girls rose and asked, "When do you want us again?" The next week and the weeks that followed she was present, and the attendance on the part of the other children was almost as regular. 1. Interest the vital factor. As far as is known the children's parents neither urged nor insisted upon their attendance. Like the boy who did not want to miss Sunday school, the children were present because they found the class work interesting and pleasurable. They had no idea that they were being instructed. All that they were con- scious of was that they were having a delightful time lis- tening to stories, dramatizing them, and making scrap- books to keep or to give away at Christmas. But by means of the stories the children were brought into closer rela- tion with other persons. Their sympathies were deepened, and they received suggestions for conduct. In order to dramatize the stories — for the manner of playing them was left almost entirely to the children — they were obliged to think themselves into them. This gave them a sense of oneness with the characters. They were obliged to visualize 124 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK conditions and to appreciate motives in order to decide what to do and how to do it. In mali:ing the scrapbooks the children worked to an idea or project. It was to make books that would picture and describe things for which they were thankful. A large number of pictures of different subjects were provided, and it was interesting to watch the children make their selec- tions. One boy in particular decided that he was thankful for food, and he gave much study to his picture, trying first one and then another on the page; for to please him it had to be not only the subject he desired but nicely fitted to the space into which it was to be placed. There were children who drew pictures ajid others who wrote; for each child, as long as he kept to the project, was left free to express himself in his own way. Several adults who were present to observe the class work remarked with something of surprise that the chil- dren were so well-behaved. There were no irregularities of conduct and no need for discipline. The children were so interested in their undertaking and were so concentrated upon it that they had no thought or time for mischief or wrongdoing. 2. Hoxr interest may be maintained. Not all the chil- dren showed the same eagerness, originality, or skill. Some worked slowly and thoughtfully, and others with a dash and less thought; but on the part of all there was atten- tion to that which was being done, as well as satisfaction in the results. Herein lies the secret of maintaining inter- est in the Primary Department. A false, emotional inter- est may be created by contests, prizes, tickets for attend- ance, and other bribes. But such have no lasting effect. Readers of the chronicles of Emmy Lou ' will recall how she attended church fifty-two Sundays in succession, listened 1 Emmy Lou's Road to Grace, George Madden Martin : Chapter VII, "Pink Tickets for Texts." See also Emmy Lou: Her Book and Heart. The two books have been written to show how, in a child's contact with life in the home. Sunday school, and pulilic school, there are many conditions that make for confusion in the child's mind and affect his development of character. HOW TO MAINTAIN INTEREST 125 to fifty-two sermons that she did not understand, and learned and recited fifty-two Golden Texts in order to receive a prize. On the fifty-third Sunday she was given a book of sermons by her pastor, whereupon she wept long and bitterly, then proceeded home after Sunday school in- stead of going to church and lost all interest in texts. Albert Eddie Dawkins, Emmy Lou's friend and neighbor, who also acquired a book of sermons, went on his fifty- third Sunday to the woods in search of honey locusts. False incentives are unworthy of the child; his enthu- siastic cooperation is to be won only by the right teaching situations. These include proper equipment and instruction suited to the child's development and needs, given in a way to lead him to be self-active with regard to what is pre- sented to him. The methods used should quicken the child's observation, lead him to take the initiative and develop his will power. Once we seated children in formal rows before us and gave instruction from the platform or desk. The teacher told the story and gave the explanations, for it was she who did all or the larger part of the talking; it was she who drew the pictures upon the blackboard or constructed them upon a sand table; it was she who did whatever writ- ing was required. The children's part was to listen and observe. To-day the children of the Primary Department sit in small groups or classes around tables. A class teacher is in charge of each group, but it is now thQ teacher's part to do nothing for the children which they may do for themselves. Children are encouraged to ask questions and to talk with the teacher and among themselves about the lesson and its relation to their daily problems and duties. If there are explanations or descriptions they may give, the children give them and not the teacher.^ They are given the opportunity for telling what they would 2 See Chapter II and the use made by the teacher of the lesson picture. 126 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK like to do to express the lesson; and as far as possi- ble each child is permitted to carry out his own idea. The teacher observes and listens, giving suggestions when appealed to and direction only when it is required, for the most important factor in the learning process is self-activ- ity. It is when the child gives attention to that which is presented to him, concentrates upon it, and exercises initia- tive, originality, and judgment in relating it to himself and his conduct that he most truly learns. Similarly, in the service of worship in the Primary De- partment the children not only listen but take an active part. There are opportunities for the children to choose songs, to suggest the subjects for prayer, and to frame the prayers. In this way the worship becomes an expression of the child's own religious feelings and experiences and at the same time gives him the training in worship which he needs. 3. An example of interest. In a certain Primary De- partment on a Sunday preceding Thanksgiving the chil- dren had been thinking and talking about God's good gifts, his love and care, and ways in which children might show love and gratitude to him. The signal, quiet music on the piano, had been given for the assembling of the classes; and teachers and pupils sat facing the leader, the primary superintendent. "Sunday school is almost over," the latter explained, "but before we go to our homes let us speak to God to- gether. I want the prayer to be your prayer. Tell me how you would like to begin it and what you would like to say." One child rose and said, "Let us begin with the words 'Our Father.' " Another said, "I would like to say, 'Our Father who art in heaven.' " And this salutation was written on the board. Then first one child and another gave a clause or sen- tence. The prayer was formulated without the assistance HOW TO MAINTAIN INTEREST 127 of the superintendent. Then teachers and children read it aloud with reverence and deep feeling. It was as fol- lows: "Our Father who art in heaven, we thank thee for all thy blessings, the Bible, our Sunday school, our homes, our food. We thank thee for people and for our fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers. Amen." Appropriate prayers may be used for several Sundays or may be kept for occasional use. Those for other than opening and closing services — for example, the birthday and offering — may be prepared by the children instead of for them. It is desirable for the children to unite in re- peating a prayer and for the superintendent or teacher directing the worship to lead. For use at home the chil- dren should be encouraged to write or mount copies of the prayers in their notebooks. In the Primary Department where the children, under proper guidance, take the initiative they have no time for mischief; moreover, they quickly learn that if they waste time they forfeit much that is pleasurable. Orderly ways of doing and of thinking and a reverent manner may be cultivated through regulative and formative methods of procedure. 4. Aids to interest. Other aids in maintaining inter- est are special days, or occasions such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Children's Day, Promotion Day, national holidays, and the children's birthdays. These are the times when the children may be brought together for cooperative play at parties or socials and for cooperative service for the church and community; they may be made happy by postcards and letters and by surprises of various kinds. One of the values of such special celebrations is that the children learn to look to the church and Sunday school for their pleasure instead of to outside agencies; another is in leading children, with their different training and in- terests, to work together for the welfare and happiness of others. 128 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK The ways of celebrating these special occasions are so various that teachers must look to current magazines, to programs offered by denominational publishing houses, to books describing children's plays and games, to storybooks, to books and magazines giving pantomimes and pageants and suggestions for construction work and occupations. Books of this nature are to be found in most public libra- ries. The Primary Department budget should make possi- ble the buying of one good book each year and include the subscription price to a high-class magazine of Christian education. There should be a fund for birthday cards, materials and supplies for the children's socials, and other aids to maintaining the interest that is essential to suc- cessful teaching in the Primary Department. The Lesson Continued 1. Begin a primary scrapbook. It is advisable for it to be a looseleaf one, so that additions and eliminations may be made. Send to your denominational publishing house for samples and price lists of the primary teachers' and pu- pils' lesson helps and for a catalogue of primary equip- ment and supplies. If the samples can be mounted, mount each one upon a page by itself, and beneath or beside it write its price, stating whether or not the price includes postage or express. If the samples cannot be mounted, and a picture of the textbook, pupils' folder, or birthday card is not available, make notes of these different things and add whatever description is necessary and the price. Proceed in a similar way with other requisites until you have made a primary- equipment book. Leave pages for the addition of new sam- ples of supplies or literature describing them. 2. With the primary equipment book as a guide make up a primary budget for one year. State the number of teachers' textbooks, the number of picture sets, and the number of pupils' helps that will be required for the first-, second-, and third-year classes, and give their cost. Esti- HOW TO MAINTAIN INTEREST 12ft mate your handwork equipment, find out how many birth- day cards you will require during the year, and estimate the cost. Estimate the cost of such added supplies as you may need, the expense attached to the giving of socials; to purchasing materials for constructive work, promotion certificates and diplomas, and all the requisites of a well- conducted Primary Department.^ 3. To continue the study begin a scrapbook of ideas for special days and occasions. Write and decorate an at- tractive invitation to a children's party or social, outline the games you would play, and give the title of the story you would tell. Suggest some act of helpfulness or service to the com- munity which might be rendered by the older primary pu- pils in cooperation. Leave pages for patterns for invitations, calendars, book covers, cut-out toys, and other things that primary children may make. Leave pages for new programs for special days and occasions. See Appendix B. CHAPTER XXI PROMOTIONS AND PROMOTION REQUIREMENTS In preceding lessons statements have been made in ex- planation of the results at which the Primary Department aims, and which it seeks to accomplish by its instruction, activities, and worship. These imply that when a child is promoted from the Primary Department, it is desirable that he shall have started to form right habits of feeling, thinking, speaking, and conduct, all of which are funda- mentals of Christian character. 1, The teacher and promotion. Promotion require- ments are for the teacher before they are for the pupil. Habits the child should form cannot be required of him, nor should he be made to remain in the Primary Depart- ment until he manifests them. Hence, they should be regarded not as promotion requirements for the pupil but for the teacher, in that her effort should be to get these habits started and to strengthen them by means of all the agencies and influences at her command. The teacher should give aid when the home fails. The value to the child of having an appropriate Bible verse associated with a Bible story has been explained.' The child should learn his memory verse. Usually, the memo- rization of a verse is begun in the lesson period at Sunday school but is not perfected. That he may form the habit of Bible study the child is asked to learn it at home after the lesson story has been read to him or after he has read it for himself. The child who cannot read requires assist- ance. If he is to do any home work, the cooperation of the home is necessary. Failing in this, the teacher should give additional time to the child at Sunday school and help him See Chapter VIII, page 59. 130 PROMOTION REQUIREMENTS 131 learn the memory verses. As soon as he has the ability to read — and this may be expected the last half of the seventh year or some time in his eighth year — he may be made to feel that he can do his home work unaided. He is apt to forget it because the habit of home study is not fixed; he therefore needs frequent reminders of what to do. It is important for the child to do each week's work as it is assigned. Each week the teacher should make clear to the child what his home work is and should arouse such interest in it that he will be eager to undertake it. Sun- day by Sunday, as a part of the lesson review, she should ascertain by questions, conversation, story-telling exercises, and recitations whether or not he did his work during the week. He should be helped to find pleasure in the result — that is, in his ability to do the work" and in its successful accomplishment. It has been said: "Rewards and high marks are at best artificial aims to strive for; they accus- tom children to expect to get something besides the value of the product for work they do. . . . Success gives a glow of positive achievement; artificial inducements to work are no longer necessary; and the child learns to work from love of the work itself, not for a reward or because he is afraid of punishment."- A young child's efforts will be spasmodic because there are occasions when duty of any kind is irksome, and inter- est flags. If the teacher is watchful and sympathetic, she will follow some new method at these times, make use of attractive devices, prepare a pleasing surprise, make a fresh appeal. Then the child will of his own accord resume his home study. Another reason why he should do this is that he may learn not to evade duty but to fulfill it. Lesson assignments should be made in accordance with the child's ability. Besides the memory verses there are other longer Bible passages, certain hymns, and prayers that a child is capable of learning in the three years spent in the Primary Department. These are associated with ^Schools of To-Morrow, Dewey. 132 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK Bible stories that exemplify and vitalize them, or which they illustrate or illumine, and are called correlated les- sons. For example: Psalm 23 is memorized at a time when stories about David are being told, and the Lord's Prayer is learned after the story "Jesus Teaching His Dis- ciples to Pray." Psalm 23 and the Lord's Prayer are cor- related lessons. The learning of Bible verses is not required in the Be- ginners' Department; the week-by-week memorization of a Bible verse is something new and sometimes diflBcult for the first-year pupil in the Primary Department. For this reason the memory verses of the first-year course of study, together with a Christmas carol or hymn and a few other songs, constitute the first-year memory work. In his second year in the department a pupil is capable of learning two or more hymns, the memory verses of his course of study, and two or more longer Bible passages. The greater number of the correlated lessons should be left for the third and last primary year. The memorization that most pupils can accomplish dur- ing the three primary years is as follows: Year One: The memory verses of the first year course of study, or as many of these verses as the pupil can learn without strain. Song: Van a Little Child Like Me? Hymn: LutJier's Cradle Hymn (Away in a Manger). Additional memory work for the more rapid pupils: Songs: Little Laml)s So White and Fair; God's Work (All things bright and beautiful). A prayer for the pupil's use at home. Year Two: The memory verses of the second year course of study. Psalm 100. Luke 2: 8-14. Selected commandments. PROMOTION REQUIREMENTS 133 Songs: Little Town of Bethlehem; The Sweet Story,- (I think when I read that sweet story of old) ; Jesus Loves Me. A morning and evening prayer. A grace to say at meals. Additional memory work for the more rapid pupils. Psalms 46: 1; 62:8a; Job 14: 2, 3; selected Psalm verses about the sea, day and night, seedtime and harvest. Songs: Jesus, Friend of Little Children; A Song of Service (To give, to love, to serve, to do). Father, Lead me Day ty Bay, A Temperance Song. (We have a part in God's great plan). Year Three: The memory verses of the third year course of study. Psalm 23. Psalm 100 in review. Luke 2: 8-14 in review. The Lord's Prayer. Mark 16: 1-7. Songs: Come, All Ye Faithful; Love's Lesson (Savior^ teach me Day by Day). A morning and evening prayer. A grace to say at meals. Additional memory work for the more rapid pupils. Matthew 2: 1-12. Luke 10: 25-27. Proverbs 3:5, 6. Selected Bible verses with a temperance application. Song: Lord, Who Lovest Little Children. Children differ from one another in ability. At one time, and not so many years ago, this memory work would have been required for promotion. It would not have been con- sidered just to give a diploma to a pupil who had not given a creditable recitation of the greater part, if not all of it. To-day it is recognized that children differ from one an- 134 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK other in their ability to memorize, and that there are other individual differences. One child grasps the incidents in a story and is able to retell it after hearing it once; another child fails miserably every time he is asked to retell a story. One child excels in handwork; another is slow and awkward and cannot express himself in drawing, writing, or any kind of manual work. This means that each pupil should be permitted to do what he has the ability to do and to have the pleasure that comes from achievement. At the same time he should be encouraged and helped to un- dertake the difficult or unpleasant task and to succeed in it as far as he is able. A pupil should not be permitted to say, "I cannot do this," and to give up trying; he should realize that he is expected to do his best because it is some- thing that he needs to do and to learn, and he should be commended for the effort he makes if he is not wholly successful in the result. 2. Pupil requirements. There are promotion require- ments for the pupil. The fitness of the pupil for promotion from grade to grade within the Primary Department and from the Primary to the Junior should not depend on his ability to recite all the memory verses that are desirable for him to know or all the correlated lessons. The deter- mining factor should be the pupil himself, his need of the experience, instruction, and training of the next grade, and his ability to pursue the studies and to make response. If he is ready for the lessons of the next grade, if he needs them, he should be promoted and given a certificate of promotion. There are reasons why one child excels in doing one thing, and another child something else. Chil- dren of primary age are too young to understand these reasons and to overcome obstacles that may be hindering them from making progress in their studies. They should not be made to suffer for what they may not be able to help; therefore the children to be promoted should be treated alike, and all should receive certificates. It is equally desirable that the children who have been PROMOTION REQUIREMENTS 135 faithful and have made effort when others have not should receive the encouragement of special recognition. The cer- tificates and diplomas should provide for this. Seals or stars may be used to indicate each pupil's standing — that is, the work he has done through the year — or seals may be attached to the ribbon with which his diploma is tied. The newer forms of diploma carry a statement to the effect that the pupil therein named is promoted to the next grade and have space for assigning honors for memory verses, story-telling, home work, correlated lessons, and handwork. From our present understanding of the nature, needs, and abilities of the primary child it would seem as if the requirement for teachers and pupils alike should be the regular and conscientious performance of each week's task. These tasks may need to vary; but so far as 'possible, each week the memory verse or verses should be learned by the pupil. The correlated lessons should be memorized as they occur in the course. Memorizing should never be left to the end of the year or to just before promotion to the Junior Department. If the memory work is done when it should be done, if it is reviewed from time to time and made use of in the diffei^nt services and exercises of the depart- ment, there will be no need for examinations, tests, or cramming for promotion. The pupils will then be ready for promotion and able to do the work of the next year or grade with understanding and appreciation. The Lesson Continued 1. Read the memory work for the three years. 2. Select or prepare a morning and evening prayer for a child and a grace for a child to say at meals. 3. Ascertain what the promotion requirements are in the schools of your neighborhood. Compare them with the prin- ciples in this chapter, and if compelled to criticise adversely, state your reasons clearly. CHAPTER XXII THE PRIMARY DEPARTMENT AND THE HOME In most Sunday schools where the graded lessons are in use the annual Promotion Day is the last Sunday in Sep- tember. This practice makes it possible for the work of the new year to begin with the first Sunday in October. (The graded lessons start in October.) 1. Axirakening interest in liome w^ork. On the two or three Sundays that had intervened since Promotion Day a certain third-year teacher had assigned the home work but had not urged it. She hoped that her pupils would undertake it because it had become habitual to them to read the lesson story at home and to learn the memory verse each week. But for the two or three Sundays that the pupils had been in her class they had not known the memory verse. The teacher suspected that they had made no use of the story in the folder.^ She knew what needed to be done. She realized that when there is a task to be accomplished and it is not too difficult for the child, his interest and his zest for it are to be aroused. In bringing the day's lesson to a close she suggested to the children that since they were older and more capable than they were the year before there would be more interesting things for them to do. She referred to the handwork and to some of the activities that they would undertake as a class and 1 In the Primary Department the pupils never prepare the new story or lesson for recitation. The home study is upon a lesson after it has been taught by the teacher. The story read at home l)y the pupil should always be the one that has been told by the teacher. It is important for the elements of newness and surprise to enter into the teaching situation. If they do not, if the child knows the stor.v the teacher is telling, his interest is not keen, and his attention wanders. It is important for the teacher to teach the lesson first before it is studied by the child, that he may get from it the truth intended for him. 136 THE DEPARTMENT AND THE HOME 137 then explained the home work. Instantly the children be- came like the guests bidden to the feast in the parable: with one accord they began to make excuse. One was obliged to deliver papers for her brother one or two after- noons a week; another had a baby sister at home to whom she gave her undivided attention each day after school; a third went regularly each afternoon to the store for her mother; the others had most pressing duties, which they urged as reasons for not giving time to study. Study was irksome to them. The teacher was sympathetic but unyielding. She told them she knew that they had many things to do at home to show love for mother, and was glad that they were such helpful children. She explained that it was partly because they were so busy that there was so little studying to be done. She referred to the reading of the story as some- thing they would want to do because it was so interesting. She proposed different times for reading it — Sunday after- noon, Sunday evening, or some time during the week. Next she asked them to turn to the memory verse and read it aloud. She commented on the shortness of time the read- ing required and explained that it would take only that much time each day to read the memory verse once. She asked who had a drawer in a bureau or had a table beside the bed where the story folders might be kept. There was quick response to the appeal to the sense of ownership, and the children began to plan where to keep the folders and to read the memory verse each evening before they said their evening prayer. The thought was given that to do this would be like reading in the Bible. Finally the girls went home enthusiastic about taking upon themselves the duty of home study. 2. Enlisting home cooperation. It is important for the Primary Department to enlist the cooperation of the home. The children who were given encouragement in the home, whose parents asked to have the lesson story read to them and inquired whether or not the memory verse 138 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK was being read each evening, were those who found it the easiest to form the home-study habit. It was much more difficult for the children whose parents were unsympa- thetic or indifferent.^ Further confirmation of the need of home cooperation is to be found in the right acts at home, at school, and at play, to which so many of the lessons aim to inspire the child. The child spends only one hour a week in Sunday school; it is outside of Sunday school that he expresses his lessons in conduct. He goes home from Sunday school with a pur- pose to help, to be kind, to be patient, to be obedient, and to begin and end the day with prayer. Whether or not he does these things depends largely on the home. Many a child who offers assistance is told that he is more bother- some than helpful. It is not unusual for a contrary spirit to be aroused by uneven and unjust discipline. One day he is reprimanded for a bit of mischief that was found amusing the day before, or his intentions are misunder- stood, and he is called a bad boy when he was trying to be good. Sometimes parents permit a child who kneels in prayer to be ridiculed. What will the child do who has these difficulties to contend with? If he has a sturdy spirit, has a deep and sincere desire to do what is pleasing to God and a strong will, he may persevere and carry out his intentions. It is much more probable that he will abandon them. Frequently there are reasons for a lack of home coopera- tion. Parents are thoughtless or they do not understand what the child wants to do and is trying in an imperfect way to accomplish. They do not realize that he is acting in response to desires and impulses called forth by the teaching received at Sunday school; they know no reason why he should do these things and they do not give him the encouragement or the assistance that he needs. The right appeal to the parents will dring response. In - See Chapter XV and the story about the boy who wanted to give all the money in his banlj for church and charitable purposes. THE DEPARTMENT AND THE HOME 139 some way the home must be made to understand the pur- pose of the Primary Department, the reasons for and the value of its instruction, activities, worship, and of the child's response, and what the home may do to aid, • When a teacher has an intimate acquaintance with the parents of her pupils, much may be accomplished by talk- ing over the purpose of instruction in the Primary Depart- ment and the responses that are desired. When teachers and parents are comparative strangers, it is wiser to hold a parents' and teachers' meeting or to present the need of the department for the cooperation of the home by means of a circular letter. If, after the meeting or letter, there may be a call in the home, conversation will follow about the child and what the Sunday school and home may do for him. Parent-teacher associations, parents' classes, mothers* classes, mothers' monthly or quarterly meetings, and parents' and children's birthday socials are some of the means for bringing parents and teachers together and making an interchange of ideas and help possible. A pro- gram is not difficult to arrange. A chapter in a book on child study or a lesson from this book may be read and dis- cussed. An address may be given by the primary super- intendent or a primary worker from some other church or community. For music the primary teachers may sing several of the children's songs to the parents, or parents and teachers may learn a song soon to be presented to the children. Parents should be able to ask questions and to talk together about the child in the home, in the school, and more particularly in the church and Sunday school. The meetings may be conducted like classes or may be informal, like socials. They may be held in the Sunday- school building or in some home. Refreshments may be served or there need be none. A fee or dues may be asked to cover expenses, or these may be met from school funds. There is no one way for doing any of these things; the method that brings^uccess is the best for any Primary De- partment. The first essential is for the Primary Depart- 140 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK ment to recognize its need of the home. To indicate this has been the purpose of this lesson. The Lesson Conttnued Some parents are indifferent; others are unable to at- tend meetings or to give attention to their children. Many- parents feel that they send their children to Sunday school to be instructed and trained in religion, and that the re- sponsibility belongs wholly to the Sunday school. When these conditions exist, what may the Primary Department do to meet the needs of the child in relation (1) to read- ing the story in the folder and learning the memory verses? (2) learning the correlated lesson? (3) expressing the les- sons in conduct at home, at play, at school and in the com- munity? (4) securing materials for scrapbook and gift work? (5) caring for and serving in God's house? In an- swering these questions the teacher will find it an aid to recall or reread preceding lessons. CHAPTER XXIII THE DEPARTMENT ORGANIZED FOR WORK In a sense the whole world is at school taking lessons in organization. We are learning that the success of any whole depends on the perfection of each part, the degree of perfection with which the parts will fit together to con- stitute the whole, and, finally, the assembling of the parts in such a way that they are brought together into syste- matic connection and cooperation. This is true whether the whole is a machine, a financial undertaking, a scheme of betterment for a people, or a world league for justice and righteousness. It remains to apply these principles to in- timate and personal-life problems. It will be found that they have 'application to the Primary Department of the Sunday school. 1. Department and school. The Primary Department is one- division of the church school. Occasionally one hears it said, as if in criticism, that the Primary Department has its own program of worship, its own course of study, and its own officers and teachers. This is as it should be, for the Primary Department is a part of the school, with a definite contribution to make to the whole. Its task is to continue the training and instruction begun in the Begin- ners' Department and to carry the pupil forward to the place where he is ready for the instruction and training of the department higher than the Primary. Take, for ex- ample, the course of study. That for the Primary Depart- ment should be a part of a larger scheme of instruction which the pupil begins in the Beginners' Department and in which he may continue to progress until he completes it in the Young People's Department. It is obvious that 141 142 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK if the primary course of study is not a section of a progres- sive course, or if the courses for the departments have no relation to each other, there is no organization in that school; there can be no fitting together of the parts, no building up of the whole, no one aim or purpose for the* instruction, and therefore no unity. This principle has similar application to the worship and activities. Unless there is a good reason why it should be otherwise — a reason involving the spiritual welfare of the primary child — the Primary Department should be systematically related to other departments and should cooperate with them. 2. Organization -wHlthin the department. There should be organization within the Primary Department. Different types t)f work are carried on within the depart- ment. There is the instruction, which is given by class teachers. There is the worship, which is conducted by the superintendent or other leader. There is the instrumental music, which is played by the pianist or organist. There are materials for handwork and teachers' and pupils' les- son equipment, which must be received, cared for, and dis- tributed. There are attendance, offering, and birthday records to be kept. Apply the principles of organization. It becomes apparent that there is need in the Primary De- partment of some one who understands the work in all its details and relations and who is capable of directing and unifying the parts. The one to undertake the super- vision should possess qualities that make a good leader and administrator. The title of "primary superintendent" is given to such a leader. Other officers besides the primary superintendent are needed. One of these is the department secretary. It is the secretary's duty to keep an accurate record of the at- tendance and to report absences to the superintendent or school visitor. Some superintendents keep in close touch with the home and telephone to, correspond with, or call upon pupils who are absent. In other Primary Depart- ments the class teachers look up or get into communication ORGANIZED FOR WORK 143 with absent pupils. In still other departments pupils are called upon by the church or Sunday-school visitor. When post cards are sent to a pupil who has been absent two Sundays in succession, it is usually the department secre- tary or the secretary's assistant who does this.^ The secretary should record the name of each pupil, his age upon entering the department, the date of his birthday anniversary, his grade in public school from year to year, his address, and his father's name or initials. The card system is the best for keeping s«ch a record. The super- intendent or secretary should keep a record of each pupil's credits and the progress made by him in his studies. The reasons for keeping such a record are given in Chapter XXI, "Promotions and Promotion Requirements." If the teach- er's records are handed in and filed at the end of each quarter, they will furnish to superintendent or secretary the record desired. The easiest way to keep the birthday record is on cards filed in a card catalogue by months and under dates. Each month or week the secretary or assistant may look through the cards, learn which pupils will have a birthday during the coming week, and hand the names to the superintend- ent and class teachers. The weekly attendance may be kept in a book, on class cards, or in any way that will insure accuracy and ready reference and that will give the secretary of the school the week by week information he desires. If the department is large, it is advisable to have assistants to the secretary or a committee to share the work and responsibilities. The assistants may meet the pupils as they arrive at Sunday school, help them with their outdoor garments, in the absence of the secretary fill that position, or serve as substitute teachers in addition to helping the secretary keep and perfect her records. The office of musician to the department may be filled 1 Absentee cards may be obtained from your publisher. They are attractive and AAill make the recipient feel that he is really wanted in Sunday school. See Appendix B. 144 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK by a teacher or substitute teacher or by a pianist or organ- ist who is responsible for nothing but for the music. The pianist and leader of the children's worship should work in harmony and closest cooperation. The leader should plan the services and choose the songs for each service, but the pianist should make the music a special study, discover new songbooks and songs, and make recommendations to the superintendent or leader of the worship. Each week the pianist should be in place at the beginning of the de- partment session with the«ongbooks to be used and a copy of the program or order of service which the leader will' follow. Then no time will be lost in beginning the session' or in passing from one part of tTie service to another. If the leader of the worship has not a true singing voice, or if it has no carrying power, and if the pianist cannot play and sing at the same time, there should be some one to lead the singing. This leader may be a teacher, one who serves as a substitute teacher, a member of the work com- mittee, or one who has no duty other than that of teach- ing and helping the children to sing. Administrative committees have their advantages. Of first importance is the work committee. The members of this committee receive, file, keep in order, and, in some departments, distribute the handwork materials, the teach- ers' and pupils' equipment, and the secretary's supplies. In other departments each class teacher selects the hand- work material that she will require for the lesson period, the pictures, and the pupils' supplies. The selection is made before school. At the close of the session each teacher re- turns the materials and unused lesson helps to the files or supply cupboards. The members of the work committee may be young girls who are in training for teaching in the department, teachers, or substitute teachers. Other committees are the purchasing, the recruiting, the visiting, the social, and special-day. These titles indicate the duties of the committees. The department superin- tendent should be a member of all committees, assign the ORGANIZED FOR WORK 14b duties to each, and be the one to whom the committees report. 3. Building up the department. There should be some plan for recruiting new teachers and substitute teach- ers. When new teachers are needed, one turns first to the young graduates from the teacher-training class or to young seniors. Most young girls are sympathetic toward child life and in turn are found lovable and imitable by chil- dren. They are quick to think and act and have not lost their play spirit. If there may be developed in them a feeling of responsibility, a true appreciation of the aim of the Primary Department, and an enthusiasm for primary work, they make excellent teachers. If among them are those who are not members of the church, it is advisable 10 assign them to first- and second-year classes. The teach- ers of the third-year boys and girls should be those whose religious life is deep and strong, for the older primary pupils are influenced as much by a teacher's personality and conduct as by her lessons. In a large Primary Department, where there are several classes, it is advisable to have several persons who will substitute when called upon. In some departments there are as many substitute teachers as class teachers. Each class teacher is given the name, address, and telephone number of the teacher upon whom she may call in case of necessity. The substitute teacher has a copy of the teach- er's textbook, so that she may, unless called upon just be- fore school, prepare the lesson and teach it effectively. These substitute teachers are young mothers, members of adult classes, or members of the congregation who cannot attend Sunday school regularly but will teach upon occa- sion. In a small Primary Department where there are assist- ants to the secretary, a work committee, and where the pianist and leader of the singing will act as substitutes, it is seldom necessary to go outside of the department for substitute teachers. When there are these assistants, it is 146 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK advisable to assign each one to a grade and to provide each with a textbook for lesson preparation. It should be under- stood that these assistants are to be called upon only when necessary and are to be given notice in time to prepare the lesson. One of the requirements for teachers, assistants, primary superintendent, and other officers is regularity in attendance. For other requirements the reader is referred to preceding lessons. The Lesson Continued 1. If you were in a Sunday school that was to be newly organized for work and were appointed Primary superin- tendent, what would you aim to accomplish for the pupils? 2. In order that your purpose might be realized in the best way, what equipment would you ask for (1) if the school was a small one? (2) if the school was large? 3. How would you organize your department for work? What officers and committees would you think it desirable to have? Make a plan of organization for a department having twenty pupils, and another plan for a department having one hundred pupils. 4. How would you provide for substitute teachers? 5. How would you plan to keep your teachers in training? CHAPTER XXIV WHERE THE RESPONSIBILITY RESTS Old conditions are passing away. War has carried men and women to mountaintops and given them a vision of the walls and foundations of a new order. Like the walls of the new^ Jerusalem which John saw coming down out of heaven from God, those of the new order are great and high. In them, as a part of their construction, are all manner of precious things — an end of war, justice, brotherhood, and righteousness, burdens shifted from shoulders too weak to bear them, sickness banished and health established, life lifted and made a joyous thing, boys and girls playing in city streets and on playgrounds, peoples won to Christ, and the earth full of God's glory. There are those who say the vision is too fair, that it can never be realized. But men and women have given their lives that it might have the beginnings of reality. Upon these beginnings foundations are being laid. From among the almost numberless lines of research and effort let us select one — that which has most meaning for the primary teacher. During the war it began to be realized that the children of the nation are its greatest asset. The examining and testing of young men for service in the army and navy revealed weaknesses that were traceable to neglect in early childhood. Governments woke to the astonishing fact that the neglect of children "was silently doing damage hardly less great than enemy invasion." Plans were made for reforms to be instituted in child welfare and educational systems when the war should be over. In the United States one of the results of the war is an aroused national interest in matters affecting children. 147 148 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK Shortly after the armistice was signed, a noble group of Americans joined with representatives from Great Britain, France, Belgium, Servia, Italy, and Japan "to formulate standards of health, of nurture, of education, and a protec- tion against premature labor which possibly every govern- ment ought to assure to every child."* Science is to make it possible for children to be well-born, to have health, and to have their powers developed to the fullest capacity. Why? That the children may contribute to the success of the Nation. On the part of churches such movements as the Cente- nary and the New Era have been instituted. The aim is the fulfilling of the vision of all peoples brought to a knowl- edge of Christ. The hope and promise of its consummation are with the children; and it is now, in this present time, that a call and challenge come to the teacher. "And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers." (Eph. 4.11.) "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace." (Isa. 52.7.) Religious instruction is not permitted in the public schools. It is only in the exceptional home that any at- tempt is made to give systematic and continuous religious instruction needed by growing children. In the minds of many parents there is uncertainty and confusion as to what should be taught and as to how religious teaching should be given; within the average family utterly inadequate at- tention is given to religious training. Hence, the respon- sibility for the religious education of the child rests largely upon the church and upon the Sunday school and upon each individual worker in it. The sense of personal responsi- bility which the teacher should feel is not to be a burden; it is rather a challenge which should spur to activity and Magna Charta of Childhood, Chenery. WHERE THE RSEPONSIBILITY RESTS 149 lead to joyous, consecrated service for childhood's and the Master's sake. 1. "What is required in a teaclier. There are certain qualities that a child's teacher should possess. Among these are sympathy for child life — the ability to understand a child's point of view — and the motives from which he acts, and a love for children. This is something deeper than affection for the attractively dressed, dainty, and well- mannered child; it is a love that prompts concern for and a mothering of the unfortunate — the boy with impudent ways, grimy hands, worn clothes, and stubbed-out shoes, or the girl whose hair is untidy and who tells an untruth to avoid censure. The ability to be fair or just, to show no partiality, and to assure to each child his rights is an- other desirable trait for a child's teacher. There are certain elements of character that are desira- ble for a teacher. This is for the reason that a teacher teaches directly by the giving of instruction and also by the creating of environment and atmosphere and by per- sonality. The personality of a teacher is the whole teacher teaching. It is the teacher's faith making truth vivid and vital. It is the teacher's character imparting ideals to the child. It is the teacher's actions set up as a model for the child to imitate. The teacher is most imitable to the forming mind. The young child idealizes his teacher; what she says and does are just right, and when with her and away from her he imitates her. A student of child nature has said, "In so far as we exert unconscious influence over [the child] through our actions, words, and even our thoughts, and thus affect his point of view, we must realize the necessity of a high standard of life and thought for ourselves. "- The teacher's preparation for teaching should be con- tinuous. It can never be considered completed. Each new class will bring children to be studied. Each year will 2 The Dawn of Character, Mumford. 150 THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK bring contributions to tbe sciences of child study and pedagogy and will show applications of God's Word to life. Methods of teaching will change; courses of study will change. The teacher's attitude should be one of recep- tivity to that which is new and approved; her aim should be to find and use the best. This continued study will be a joy if her purpose is to be a coworker with God and to reach and affect child character and life. "Coworkers we with him! Were he to ask, 'Come, star with me the spaces of my night. Or light with me to-morrow's sunset glow. Or fashion forth the crystals of my snow. Or teach my sweet June roses next to blow,' O rare beatitude! But holier task, Of all his works of beauty fairest high. Is that he keeps for hands like ours to ply! When he upgathers all his elements,- His days, his nights, whole eons of his June, The Mighty Gardener of the earth and sky, That to achieve toward which the ages roll. We hear the Voice that sets the spheres atune. Help me, my comrades, flower this budding Soul!"' By W. C. Gannett ; used by permission. APPENDIX A Standard for a Primary Department The standard for a Primary Department is that which it is possible for a child to become during the years of six, seven, and eight. What the child becomes manifests itself in conduct. Conduct. I^ The conduct of the Primary child may manifest: 1. Love, trust, reverence, and obedience to God the Father and Jesus Christ the Saviour.. 2. Recognition of the heavenly Father in daily life. 3. Love for God through worship. 4. Love and reverence for God's Book, God's day, and God's house. 5. Increasing power to act in response to ever- enlarging ideas of what is right and desirable. 6. Increasing spirit of obedience and helpfulness. 7. Increasing power to give love and forget self in social relations. Aims. II. To realize these ends in conduct the child must have: 1. A knowledge of God in his love, care, might, and power to give help and guidance. 2. A consciousness of God as the heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as the Helper and Saviour. 3. Experience and training in worship. 4. Happy associations with God's Book, God's day, and God's house. 5. Instruction concerning what is right and wrong, proper examples, and opportunities for choosing the right. 151 152 APPENDIX 6. Opportunities for helpfulness. 7. Opportunities for play and service in cooperation with others. Ileans.^ III. As means for realizing these ends, provision should be made for: 1. Religious instruction and religious experience suited to the children of Primary age, secured through: (a) The use of Primary Graded Lessons. (b) Graded Primary Supplemental Lessons with the Uniform Lessons when used. (c) The story method, with pictures, blackboard, and illustrative material. (d) Graded correlated Missionary instruction. (e) Graded correlated Temperance instruction. 2. Worship which expresses the child's religious feel- ing, secured through: (a) Appropriate service of worship. (b) Reverent atmosphere and proper environment. (c) The teacher's spirit and manner. ^ (d) Contact with nature. 3. An environment which inspires order and rever- ence, and is conducive to worship and work, se- cured by: (a) A separate room (curtained or screened place, where a room is not available), light, and well ventilated.