DEC 3 1920 
 
 BV 1475 .C67 1919 
 
 Cope, Henry Frederick, 1870 
 
 1923. 
 The school in the modern 
 
 church 
 
THE SCHOOL 
 
 IN THE 
 
 MODERN CHURCH 
 
 By 
 HENRY FREDERICK COPE, A.M., D.D. 
 
 General Secretary ot The Religious Education Association 
 
 Author of • Efficiency in the Sunday School," "The Modem 
 
 Sunday School in Principle and Practice," "Evolution 
 
 of the Sunday School," etc. 
 
 NEW ^>l2jr YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
Copyright, 1919. 
 By GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
PREFACE 
 
 *' Sunday School'' is the title to which four gen- 
 erations have been accustomed ; no one who knows 
 the field of religious education can doubt that the 
 next generation will use a new title. The change 
 to the name ''Church School" is significant, how- 
 ever, only because it indicates developments in the 
 scope and functions of the school. These develop- 
 ments seem to call for a practical exposition which 
 will aid any school to enter into the fulness of its 
 opportunities. 
 
 These chapters on the ideals and the practical 
 problems of the new type of school are not written 
 so much for the schools consciously marching in 
 the vanguard, and those schools which know they 
 are *'new" and up-to-date as for those which, 
 while accepting and f olloT\dng the newer methods, 
 still must struggle ^vith inadequacy of equipment, 
 meagre support, and ignorance and indifference, 
 resulting in a lack of team-play on the part of 
 their churches. I have tried to keep in mind 
 schools which I have kno^vn in suburban areas, 
 in the country-side and in villages, the kind of 
 schools that would include probably between 
 eighty and ninety per cent of all the Sunday 
 schools in North America. 
 
 The larger schools can often find expert lead- 
 ership; but the smaller schools — ^which constitute 
 the larger aggregate number of pupils and 
 
vi PEEFACE 
 
 churches — must be aided and encouraged. There- 
 fore, instead of endeavoring to describe, as the 
 title might lead some to expect, an ideal school, 
 a paper organization prophetic of the school-to- 
 be, I have thought it more profitable to look at 
 actual situations, to bring together a number of 
 answers which have been given to actual, specific 
 questions and to suggest practical plans for 
 schools seeking better and wider work. 
 
 ''The School in the Modem Church'' is not an 
 essay in religious pedagogy, nor does it maintain 
 any special thesis. It is simply a series of dis- 
 cussions of those problems which have developed 
 in actual practice as certain schools, distinctly of 
 the ** average" type, have sought to apply modem 
 methods. It is designed to direct those schools 
 that desire to go forward, to encourage and aid 
 the schools that are conscious of new ways and 
 new days and to help them to enter into both. 
 
 Chicago: May, 1919. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Cbaftbb Faob 
 
 I. Why Make New Ventukes? .... 13 
 Changes in purpose determining work. Changed 
 conditions in modern life. Sole responsibility 
 for religious instruction. Facing the complexity 
 of modern life. 
 
 II. What Has Been Accomplished ... 24 
 
 The old school sketched. The significant changes. 
 New relations to church. New agencies of pro- 
 motion. A new Hterature. The approach to 
 reaUty. 
 
 III. The New School in a New Day ... 37 
 
 The new demands on life and rehgion. Making 
 the motives of a new world. Accepting the respon- 
 sibiUty for the mind of youth in spiritual and 
 moral affairs. Controlled by a social purpose. 
 Looking to a new world. 
 
 IV. The School and the Church .... 46 
 Recognizing the rights of the school. The denomi- 
 national conscience. New relations in church 
 organization. The concept of an educational 
 program. 
 
 V. The Scientific Basis of the New School 56 
 The new reverence for truth. A factual basis as 
 to the school's community. The survey. The 
 factual basis as to the pupil's life. Knowing the 
 lesson process. 
 
 VI. Educational Direction 77 
 
 The Church Board of Rehgious Education. The 
 Community Board. The Directors of Education 
 in a church. The training of directors, 
 vii 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 Chapteb PaQ" 
 
 VII. The New Program of Teaching ... 88 
 New purpose and ideals in teaching. Graded 
 social instruction. Lessons in the realities, base- 
 ball and daily Uving. The work of teaching and 
 learning as a social enterprise. 
 
 VIII. Ventures that Lead to the Great 
 
 Venture 99 
 
 The pioneering churches need a platform. The 
 processes of rehgious education. The forces 
 which the church must organize. The direct 
 and the indirect responsibiUties. The field. The 
 task. 
 
 IX. Steps Forward 117 
 
 Providing a general leadership; converting the 
 minister. Providing a corps of trained educators. 
 A directing body of experts. A suitable equip- 
 ment. The construction of an adequate program; 
 its extension. 
 
 X. The Week-day School 130 
 
 The need for more time. The Gary Plan. The 
 New York City Plan. Other experiments. The 
 accredited Bible-study plan. 
 
 XI. The School and Play 145 
 
 The new point of view on play. Athletics or play? 
 The gymnasium question. Purpose controls. 
 Plans for the \allage school. Cooperation in the 
 community. Recreation in the rural school. 
 
 XII. Engaging the Child's Active Powers . 162 
 The new place of expressional activities. Learning 
 
 to Hve the group life. Activity and the program 
 of the church. The field of action. Relations to 
 environment. Directing activity. 
 
 XIII. The Library of the School .... 176 
 An old institution still needed. What every 
 library should seek to do. What should be in 
 
 the library? The City school library. In the 
 rural church. The Library Committee. The 
 
CONTENTS ix. 
 
 Chaft£b Fa.qb 
 
 religious aim. Getting results from the workers' 
 library. 
 
 XIV. The School Training for Service . . 208 
 The new attitude to a world to be redeemed. 
 Preparation. Training as education. The adult 
 worker. Training youth. The school as a training 
 agency. The lay-worker's vision. 
 
 XV. A Field of Work for the Adult Class . 230 
 The department and non-church families. Reach- 
 ing the homes. Developing the efficiency of the 
 family. 
 
 XVI. Crises in School Management . . . 244 
 Getting rid of the superintendent. Losing the 
 incompetent superintendent. Retiring a teacher. 
 Deahng with the school-wrecker. 
 
 XVII. Crises as Opportunities 266 
 
 The crisis of standing still. The crisis of over- 
 crowding. When graded lessons fail. The 
 strength of vision. 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 I hereby express my gratitude to the editors 
 of The Sunday School Journal, The Pilgrim 
 Teacher, and The Sunday School Executive 
 for the right to use, with certain changes which 
 I have made, articles appearing in these publi- 
 cations. 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 WHY MAKE NEW YENTUEES? 
 
 Why are educational methods, in our day, so con- 
 stantly subject to revision? To the uninitiated 
 who do not discern what is really happening it 
 seems that every teacher, like the men of Athens, 
 is continually seeking some new pedagogical faith, 
 and every school is simply an experiment station 
 for would-be educational experts. Is this condi- 
 tion simply the result of our appetite for novelty? 
 It affects education wherever it is found in insti- 
 tutions; the school of the church is not exempt; 
 on the contrary we find greater change, by far, 
 there than in any other institution for teaching. 
 Taking this one agency, why should we, appar- 
 ently with complacency, assume that change is 
 normal, that new methods must be tried and new 
 ventures in the application of revised theories 
 be attempted? 
 
 The answer scarce needs to be stated to those 
 who understand what our modem world means 
 by education and who regard the school of the 
 church as an educational agency. They know that 
 education is one of the youngest of the sciences, 
 that, while it has a fairly sound body of knowledge 
 as its basis, that body of knowledge is growing 
 fast; discoveries of the greatest importance are 
 
 13 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 being made — ^not as one discovers a new star or 
 a new element, but slowly, dimly at first and with 
 clearness step after step. The scientific principles 
 of education deal with materials so varied, in 
 many respects so subject to change, that we can- 
 not expect rigidity in them. Educational methods 
 always will change because education itself 
 changes these materials. If it effects its work it 
 will have to deal constantly with a changing and 
 improving society. It works on the world of liv- 
 ing beings and these are never the same today 
 that they were yesterday. 
 
 But there is a reason for new ventures which 
 stands out even stronger than the law of growth 
 and consequent change following the adoption of 
 scientific method; it is the fact that the school is 
 in a new world. It must either venture new things 
 or die. It is called to new tasks, the tasks of a new 
 day. 
 
 Why should the church school for the twentieth 
 century differ from the school for the nineteenth 
 century? For precisely the same reason that the 
 Sunday school of the nineteenth was entirely dif- 
 ferent from that of the eighteenth century? The 
 school must change for the same reason that the 
 school came into being, because of the demands 
 of a developing civilization. Seventeenth-century 
 society neglected the child ; eighteenth-century so- 
 ciety put the child in the factory; nineteenth- 
 century society put the child to school; in the 
 twentieth we recognize the child as a person liv- 
 ing a real life and acquiring the abilities of social 
 living. The Sunday school is society at work real- 
 
 14 
 
WHY MAKE NEW VENTURES 1 
 
 izing its ideals ; it is one of the institutions in the 
 mechanism of modern life. The Sunday school is 
 the means by which the church discharges its so- 
 cial responsibility, for it is designed to prepare 
 the child for complete living. 
 
 I. THE PURPOSE WILL DETERMINE THE CHAEACTER 
 OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 Any advance that we have made in the Sunday 
 schools in the last two decades has been due to 
 the clearer conception of the function of this in- 
 stitution. Robert Raikes organized the schools 
 to take children off the street. The American 
 church of one hundred years ago organized to 
 teach the catechism to children or to fill up the 
 period between the two long sermons. The early 
 schools in England paved the way for popular 
 education there. We have come to a closer divi- 
 sion as to the functions of social institutions. We 
 see the home existing to propagate, nurture and 
 train lives for Society, the schools existing to train 
 for efficient citizenship and social living, the 
 churches to elevate an ideal and to motivate all 
 our life with the religious spirit. Then the Sun- 
 day school, as a part of the church, uses the edu- 
 cational method to train youth in life in a re- 
 ligious society. There is precisely the function 
 of this institution. It is a school of Christian so- 
 cial living for the young. As surely as the fac- 
 tory exists to produce goods and the bank to facili- 
 tate exchange this school exists to produce an 
 efficient religious society. Its product will be boys 
 
 15 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 and girls growing into manhood and womanhood 
 in a society competent for the life of the future. 
 This purpose, the production of Christian charac- 
 ter, will determine the details of methods and 
 organization. The great immediate need is to 
 get the church to realize the real purpose of the 
 school. 
 
 n. THE CONDITION'S OF MODEEN LITE, THAT IS, LIFE 
 
 IN THE TWENTIETH CENTUEY, WILL DETEEMINE 
 
 THE CHAEACTEE OF THIS SCHOOL 
 
 Its efficiency vnll be measured, not by whether 
 it makes the hojs acquainted with the life of the 
 first century, nor fit to enjoy the asceticism of 
 the third century nor fit to live in heaven, but 
 whether it makes them fit to live and able to live 
 right in their own century. 
 
 Three conditions are determining the charac- 
 ter of the Sunday school of our day: 
 
 (1) The Svmday school must take up those 
 duties which the home now neglects. Whatever 
 our regrets may be, we face the fact that the 
 home has almost given up family worship and 
 entirely given up any systematic religious instruc- 
 tion. The Saturday afternoon catechism is gone 
 and almost the only religious discussion is the 
 criticism of the preacher's sermon, served as a 
 side-dish at the Sunday dinner, or general la- 
 mentations over the Sunday school the parents 
 know so well because they never see it. Perhaps 
 more important than all this, however, is the gen- 
 eral fact that the home has been so caught up in 
 
 16 
 
WHY MAKE NEW VENTUEES? 
 
 the whirl of modern life as to appear to be able 
 to do nothing more for the child than to give it 
 clothes and meals, while in the modem city apart- 
 ment where the child lives in a pigeon-hole, no 
 one seems to think that children were made to 
 grow at all, still less to grow as religious per- 
 sons. 
 
 (2) The modern school of the church must 
 adapt itself to larger requirements rising out of 
 its civil responsihility. Because the public schools 
 cannot teach religion these private schools, con- 
 ducted by religious people, have this sole respon- 
 sibility of formal instruction in religion. The 
 church school must face this situation with the 
 utmost seriousness and ask, what is required of 
 us in order to meet all the child's religious needs! 
 Those needs are not being met ; no other institu- 
 tion can meet them. At present the church school 
 endeavors to meet the situation with a single 
 period of instruction conducted in a most ineffi- 
 cient manner; that is, it holds that the relative 
 importance of religion to all other subjects in 
 the child's curriculum is as one hour to twenty- 
 seven. Surely some change will have to be made 
 here, not because the all-important consideration 
 is that children shall know more about religion, 
 but because this formal religious teaching is also 
 the only teaching designed and directed toward 
 developing religious character. If, in order to 
 meet the need, the church must enlarge the time 
 for teaching, must use other days than Sunday 
 and must provide more proficient teachers, then 
 that development must come speedily. 
 
 17 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH' 
 
 But the fact that tliis school is solely responsi- 
 ble for a department of instruction also sets it 
 into comparison with general education. We re- 
 joice in the religious freedom that prohibits the 
 public agency from affairs so personal. But our 
 liberty lays on us all a large responsibility, no 
 less than that of making the work of teaching 
 religion fully as efficient as the work of general 
 instruction. 
 
 Now the point is not only that practically all 
 teaching about religion and all formal training 
 in the life of a religious society which any child 
 can expect will come from this school of the 
 church, it is that the standards of public educa- 
 tion are laid upon this school. "We are accustomed 
 to insist that religion is the most important inter- 
 est of our lives ; it is time to be consistent with our 
 insistence. If it is ever to become the foremost 
 power in the life of society it must take the fore- 
 most place early in lives. It must be foremost in 
 time, foremost amongst impressions, foremost in 
 its impressiveness at the time that feeling-judg- 
 ments are being formed. Religion always will be 
 negligible in the lives of many when it has been 
 neglected in their early lives. The secondary 
 issues in life rise from secondary impressions in 
 youth. 
 
 Here we will be met by the objection that it is 
 unfair to lay on the voluntary workers of the 
 church school demands parallel to those proper 
 to the professional workers of public education. 
 That is to confuse an incident of our method of 
 conducting religious education with the essential 
 
 18 
 
WHY MAKE NEW VENTUEES? 
 
 issue of its importance. If our system of volun- 
 tary workers is an insuperable obstacle to effi- 
 ciency, if it stands in the way of the school being 
 sufficient for the task before it, then either the 
 school will go, or the voluntary system. The prob- 
 lem we face is not that of doing the best we can 
 with things as they are ; it is that of making things 
 fit to do that which has to be done. If the tools 
 we have cannot be made fit we must get new 
 ones. The present system of a one-hour-a-week 
 school with voluntary, amateur teachers is an in- 
 heritance from other days ; it is not an organiza- 
 tion designed for these days. The one-room, one- 
 teacher ungraded schoolhouse was an inheritance 
 that our fathers revered ; but it had to go. There 
 can scarcely be a doubt but that, if the churches 
 really intend to train the young so that we may 
 have a society governed by religious ideals the 
 present type of Sunday school will have to give 
 place to another and much more efficient organiza- 
 tion. Either slow decay, indiif erence, dishearten- 
 ing disappointment and oblivion await, or we will 
 open our minds — and our purses — ^to plan a sys- 
 tem of religious education for the young which 
 shall stand on a level of competency with the pub- 
 lic school system and shall soar far above it in its 
 aims and purposes. 
 
 New ventures we cannot escape, if we would; 
 new ventures we must make if we would not fail 
 utterly. This is true, not alone because the school 
 leaves us the field of religion, but because life calls 
 for more religion. 
 
 (3) The School must face the complexity of our 
 
 19 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 modern life. We have passed from the quiet ways 
 of yesterday because modem commerce and trans- 
 portation have woven our lives into a new intri- 
 cacy and, life pressing on life, crowding, and com- 
 peting, accelerates the pace more and more. Life 
 is crowded and complicated, and, since this school 
 of religion trains for life it mnst change in order 
 to meet changing conditions. It must adapt it- 
 self to meet the needs of contemporaneous life, 
 or die. 
 
 Often schedules and plans must be changed to 
 fit into our crowded programs. The school has to 
 meet the present-day competition for the mind and 
 energy of youth. The strenuous life is the normal 
 life. Not only has the adult adopted the schedule 
 of social engagements and business duties which 
 often postpones aU interviews with the Almighty 
 until just before death — or after, but the child 
 seems likely to be equally pr^e-occupied. The 
 public school pre-empts thirty hours per week; 
 music-teacher, dancing-class, parties and all the 
 other penalties of a superficial generation tend to 
 make the child a mechanical doll never intended 
 to play nor to grow as a person. 
 
 Another condition of our modem complexity 
 which the schools must face is the variation in the 
 types of our life, as for example, suburban, mral, 
 industrial and leisure. The primary needs may 
 not vary but, if the school is to equip for life, it 
 is evident that there are differences in the life 
 of the mral child and the child in the factory 
 district; that we will not only need the graded 
 
 20 
 
WHY MAKE NEW VENTURES? 
 
 Sunday school, but we will need the adapted Sun- 
 day school. 
 
 Above all, for our consideration, must stand 
 out the fact that the Sunday school exists for 
 spiritual purposes in the generation having the 
 most highly efficient organization for material 
 purposes. The wonder of our day is not in libra- 
 ries, museums, poems and prophets ; but we make 
 our boasts in the concrete things of industry and 
 trade, in the efficiency with which we build bridges 
 and factories, turn out goods, hurl ribbons of steel 
 across a continent and do the work of a giant's 
 hands. We care not whether we have the soul 
 of a giant or not. We accordingly demand that 
 our public schools shall turn out workmen suffi- 
 cient for this day of material miracles. We de- 
 mand vocational training that there may be 
 enough giants to handle our engines and to do it 
 competently. We spend about $37.00 per capita 
 or considerably over four hundred million dollars 
 on public schools annually, and have no hesitation 
 in increasing the expenditures that they may be 
 made more efficient in agricultural and industrial 
 training while, as yet, no voice speaks to us warn- 
 ing us of the fools who build bigger bams and 
 starve themselves. The Sunday school is the one 
 institution organized in recognition of the fact 
 that the children even of our day are more than 
 bread-winning machines, wage-earners and slaves 
 of the modem rage for material greatness. If the 
 higher life is greater than the lower, if the per- 
 son is to be master of his possessions, there rests 
 on this school no less than the demand to meet the 
 
 21 
 
THE SCHOOL IX THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 needs of the soul in an age engrossed with the 
 body. 
 
 All these needs mean that the boys and girls 
 in Sunday schools are going up into a life that will 
 make greater demands on them than our own 
 times have made. This is not a reason for des- 
 pair. It is a challenge to greatness. We do not 
 lament the easier days gone by, but we do re- 
 joice in the advantage of a higher task than has 
 ever yet fallen to human hands. Whatever may 
 have been the methods of the past we must dis- 
 cover methods competent to the present. This 
 Sunday school, which we have too often regarded 
 as a sort of appendix to the church, a toy with 
 which a few people may amuse themselves, must 
 be taken seriously. We must see it as the institu- 
 tion in which we are making the men and women 
 of the coming Kingdom. The church fails to make 
 progress for lack of a program. Let our imme- 
 diate program be to get people ready to live the 
 life of the Kingdom. The society of tomorrow is 
 in the school of today. We determine today what 
 the coming day shall be and we determine this in 
 our schools. We have the task of making good 
 men and women, able to do good and to make 
 good, able to bring about a society of good will, 
 efficient for work, informed of the needs, and in- 
 spired for the service of their day, capable of 
 solving its social problems and realizing its pos- 
 sibilities. 
 
 These are amongst the considerations that force 
 us, not alone to new ventures in the school, but 
 to regard the school itself as a new venture. It 
 
 22 
 
WHY MAKE XEW VEXTUEES? 
 
 passes from being a weekly affair in the chiircli 
 to teach something abont the Bible to children 
 and it becomes the agency throngh which the 
 church carries forward a program of religions 
 edncation, a program determined by two factors : 
 the purpose, that the next generation shall be 
 trained in the life of a society governed by re- 
 ligions ideals, so organized as to realize the de- 
 mocracy of the family of God — actnally to realize 
 it and not alone to dream abont it, sing abont it 
 and pray abont it: and the plan, determined by 
 the laws according to which hves develop their 
 powers and are trained to a common social life, the 
 life of the spirit 
 
 33 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED 
 
 Lest the program sketched seem so novel and so 
 large as to produce only entire discouragement 
 it is well to remember, first, that it leads in an 
 easier path than the old one because it is the 
 path of life; it follows the laws that life lays 
 down and it has both the experience of education 
 in the past and the cooperation of all its forces to- 
 day to aid in its realization. Second, some of the 
 most important steps toward its realization have 
 already been taken. We are far from the ideal, 
 far from competency for the task that belongs to 
 the churches ; but competency is not to come in a 
 single hour ; no united, Herculean effort will bring 
 it about. But it is coming; it is already on the 
 way. And the signs of its promise we may see, 
 for our heartening, and our direction, by a glance 
 at the changes that have taken place within the 
 past two decades. 
 
 A new Sunday school is an accomplished fact; 
 even to the remotest regions the old type has 
 passed away. New life has brought forth the new 
 type. The facetious have lost one of the butts 
 for their ridicule, the serious one of the bases of 
 their despair. In fifteen years we have ceased 
 to regard the school that seriously endeavored 
 to follow educational methods as an exception; 
 
 24 
 
WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED 
 
 it has become a commonplace. No longer does the 
 platform orator deride the ^'faddists and the- 
 orists'' who established the first insurgent schools, 
 who demanded real teaching and better lessons. 
 Now the echoing orator, the convention spell- 
 binder seeks to work his incantations with edu- 
 cational phraseology. The new school, as an edu- 
 cational institution, is an accomplished fact. 
 
 THE OU) SCHOOL 
 
 Before they have all passed from our knowledge 
 some one ought to give us, for historical purposes, 
 a picture, complete in all details, of the old type 
 of Sunday school. ,It originated for excellent 
 purposes: it accomplished a splendid work, but 
 it ceased to develop with its task ; it failed to keep 
 pace with the general advance of its people. 
 Suffice it to say that two decades ago the typical 
 Sunday school was no more than a body of chil- 
 dren gathered by adults who assembled them for 
 worship and who divided them into groups to 
 which they tried to teach something out of the 
 Bible. That was about all that could be said, 
 except that one might add it exerted some good 
 influences, it taught something about the Bible 
 to some of its ' ^ scholars, ' ' and it kept them from 
 bothering their parents for at least one hour of 
 the week. On the other side, considered as a 
 school, it was no more than a number of small 
 groups scattered about a church auditorium, desti- 
 tute of teaching equipment, without trained or 
 expert teaching staff and innocent of teaching 
 
 25 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 consciousness. All the classes, from the primary 
 to the pulpiteers, were studying the same les- 
 son, it made no difference whether it happened 
 to be milk or bare bones that was chanced upon 
 in the course of travel through the Bible ; all must 
 take it as it came. Everyone was satisfied if only 
 the attendance grew in numbers and the order, 
 or '^discipline,'' did not fall greatly below that 
 of the street. 
 
 WHAT IS NEWf 
 
 Now, superficially, what are the changes that 
 justify the title, *'new school T' Of course, the" 
 really significant changes are not superficial; but 
 to state the most evident ones first: The school 
 now seeks to be a teaching mstitution. 1. It is 
 expected that teachers will be trained for teach- 
 ing, that they will prepare their lessons and will 
 really teach. 2. The school seeks to place classes 
 under conditions more favorable to teaching, 
 either with each class in a separate room or as 
 near to that ideal as possible. What more definite 
 evidence could one produce than the fact that it 
 is impossible to keep an up-to-date record on the 
 churches that are erecting special buildings for 
 their Sunday schools? 3. The pupils are now 
 grouped according to their stages of development. 
 4. The school is organized so that study means 
 progress, from grade to grade, advancing through 
 an orderly arranged course of study. 5. The les- 
 sons are graded. The school world has thoroughly 
 accepted that principle, even though it loudly de- 
 clared through its official leaders that it never, 
 
 26 
 
WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED 
 
 no never, would abandon its cherished uniform 
 lesson system. Perhaps this is the most impor- 
 tant superficial evidence of the new school, a 
 common following of the educational principle 
 that the materials of study must be determined 
 by the needs and abilities of the pupils. Nothing 
 short of a new spirit of life could have effected 
 a change so profound as this, one accomplished 
 in the face of the stoutest, united opposition of 
 traditionalism, vested interests, publishers' 
 profits and organized Sunday-school forces. 
 6. The pupils are divided, not only for purposes 
 of class recitation but for all their activities and 
 interests into departments which are simply the 
 broad life-areas of infancy, childhood, boy- and 
 girl-hood, youth, young manhood and womanhood, 
 and adult life. 7. Churches choose persons of 
 educational fitness to guide the schools. Pur- 
 posely we stop here, even though many other evi- 
 dences of development might have been cited, be- 
 cause we wish to stand on the level of the average 
 school, to show that the new school is not here 
 and there, an occasional, sporadic affair, a school 
 exceptionally favored, but it is the average school 
 of today. 
 
 SCHOOL AND CHUECH 
 
 The evidences of the fact that we have a new 
 Sunday school are perhaps more impressive in 
 the less obvious aspects, and in movements that 
 are not quite so well known as those which have 
 been briefly stated. The first of these is the new 
 denominational consciousness of the Sunday 
 
 27 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 school. The interest of the denomination in the 
 old school was principally that of establishing 
 new schools, increasing attendance at old ones, 
 and, apparently, making as much profit as pos- 
 sible out of school supplies. Those schools with 
 their millions of cheap ^^quarterlies.,'' cheaply 
 edited and poorly printed, were gold mines to 
 denominational boards. But those days are gone. 
 Now the church board consists of men and women, 
 chosen because they know something about re- 
 ligious education, devoted to the realization of 
 educational programs through the schools and 
 leading in educational endeavors. They do not 
 regard the school as a mine to be worked, but as 
 a responsibility. Nearly all the church com- 
 munions now have their boards of religious edu- 
 cation, usually composed of persons selected for 
 educational fitness, sometimes persons of recog- 
 nized standing in the general educational pro- 
 fession. They are the real directors of the schools 
 of each communion. These boards employ edu- 
 cators, trained men and women, to carry on the 
 educational direction of the schools, to train lead- 
 ers and to elevate standards. They require not 
 alone enthusiasm, not alone convention oratory, 
 nor alone organization ability; they require edu- 
 cational leadership. Some of the boards estab- 
 lish rules requiring their workers, the travelling 
 and field secretaries, for example, to continue their 
 studies, to read certain books every year. More- 
 over, in spite of all that the habitual alarmists 
 have said, the schools have prospered under this 
 sort of leadership. 
 
 28 
 
WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED 
 
 THE AGENCIES OF PROMOTION 
 
 The next general, and superficial evidence of 
 the new school lies in the changes in the agencies 
 of general leadership. Old organizations have 
 been completely changed and new ones have been 
 created. Formerly the general promotion of Sun- 
 day school interests was in the hands of two as- 
 sociations, both without controlling educational 
 consciousness, one sought to organize new schools, 
 the other endeavored to maintain high-pressure 
 enthusiasm. One must, in fairness, say that both 
 were animated with religious ideals ; both sought 
 the highest good for the child; but neither real- 
 ized that, in the school, that good must be at- 
 tained by the educational method. The Interna- 
 tional Association was, for a long time, frankly 
 hostile to the ideals and method of education. It 
 is not worth while to rehearse its opposition to 
 graded lessons. Eather, we all rejoice in the fact 
 that this Association later committed itself to the 
 educational program. The fruits of conversion 
 are evident in its organization, in the topics of its 
 conventions and in the plans it is promoting. It is 
 now in process of reorganization into close affilia- 
 tion with the Council which represents the church 
 boards of religious education. 
 
 But new organizations have arisen to stand 
 back of the new school. The Sunday School Coun- 
 cil of Evangelical Denominations was organized 
 as a syndicate of the larger, evangelical church 
 boards, promoted and guided by their educational 
 leaders to carry forward the new program of the 
 
 29 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 school. It came into being partly in protest and 
 impatience against the unwillingness of the Inter- 
 national Association to adopt modern methods. 
 Its power has been used to improve the school 
 as an educational institution, and to carry out a 
 common program of religious training in the vast 
 numbers of churches, of many communions, which 
 it represents ; it has been led by men of vision as 
 to future developments in a wider program for the 
 schools. The Federal Council of Churches has a 
 Commission on Christian Education. The Re- 
 ligious Education Association was organized in 
 1903, to protest against the neglect of the re- 
 ligious element in education and the neglect of 
 the educational method in religious work, and to 
 develop and promote the right use of these two. 
 It met an immediate response. It had a range of 
 general educational interest, embracing colleges 
 and other schools, but it vigorously criticized the 
 old type of Sunday school, then— sixteen years 
 ago — ^in its almost unbroken slumbers. Its work- 
 ers established new schools, applied educational 
 methods and began to publish articles, pamphlets, 
 magazines and books calling for the passing of 
 the old and the beginning of the new school. They 
 conceived this as a part of a general program 
 of instruction and training in the religious life 
 which should run through all the experience of 
 the growing person and should have a place in 
 every institution of education and of nurture. 
 Here was the real background of the movement 
 that made the new school not only possible but 
 
 30 
 
WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED 
 
 imperative. This Association organized the great 
 body of general educators who were keenly in- 
 terested in religion ; it conducted a common propa- 
 ganda for intellectual integrity in religion, for 
 educational methods in the work of the churches, 
 and for instruction in religion in colleges and 
 higher schools. It organized leaders and special- 
 ists into groups studying the specific problems 
 that arose, preparing curricula materials, con- 
 ducting experiments and determining right 
 methods. There was developed a recognized lead- 
 ership, which spoke with authority, aroused the 
 opinion of the worlds of religion and education 
 and brought these two together to cooperate for 
 the realization of ^^the educational ideal in re- 
 ligion and the religious ideal in education.'' It 
 was that reciprocal ideal that made the new school 
 possible. 
 
 All this means that the school and its working 
 force — ^teachers and officers — ^have back of them 
 large bodies doing two things : stimulating a gen- 
 eral recognition of the importance of the school, 
 and applying trained experts to solve its prob- 
 lems. It means that every worker has available 
 a new reserve force especially valuable because 
 of specialized knowledge of the problems with 
 which the school deals. 
 
 A NEW LITERATUKE 
 
 The development of the new Sunday school has 
 been marked by a new and remarkable literature. 
 Sixteen years ago the school was at least one 
 
 31 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 hundred and twenty-five years old in the United 
 States ^ and, as an institution, it had to show at 
 the end of that time not half a dozen books deal- 
 ing seriously with its work; today it is the cus- 
 tom to prepare lists of ^'the one hundred best 
 books on the Sunday school. " ^ In the past six- 
 teen years the awakened educational conscious- 
 ness has produced at least fifty books which treat 
 the school with seriousness. And even that takes 
 no account of the vast amount of ephemeral lit- 
 erature, in pamphlets and magazine articles and 
 the rise of a number of periodicals, some of them 
 of elevated character, devoted to religious educa- 
 tion in the church.^ 
 
 One other external fact may be mentioned; in 
 some respects it is the most significant of all. 
 One notes everywhere today a hesitancy to use 
 the word or phrase ^ ^ Sunday school' %• writers and 
 speakers apologize for it, for the school has broken 
 connections with its past, and they substitute for 
 the old name others which better express its mod- 
 ern purpose. The commission on Religious Edu- 
 cation of the Northern Baptist Convention for- 
 mally recommended that the school be known as 
 the '^school of the churcW and this title has been 
 
 *See, for the earlier date in the United States, Chap. V & VI 
 of ''The Evolution of the Sunday School/' by Henry F. Cope. 
 (Pilgrim Press, 1911.) 
 
 ' An excellent longer list is published — for free distribution — by 
 The American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, and a 
 nshort, selected list by The Eeligious Education Association, Chi- 
 <;ago. 
 
 ' Lists of books mil be sent free on application to The Eeligious 
 Education Association, Chicago. 
 
 32 
 
WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED 
 
 adopted quite generally, both by schools and in 
 their leadership.^ 
 
 THE APPROACH TO REALITY 
 
 But the new school has significances which are 
 more important than all its phenomena; they 
 evade description as phenomena. The modern 
 school comes, first of all, nearer to the facts of life. 
 The old school was often, with some propriety, 
 called a ^' Bible School;'' it existed to tell chil- 
 dren things out of the Bible. The new school 
 exists to develop abilities to live the Christian 
 life in society and to make the world Christian. 
 This has entirely changed the center of the 
 school; its character and methods are no longer 
 determined by a fix:ed body of literature, but by 
 a purpose, to realize through trained lives the 
 democracy of God in society today. This change 
 can be easily traced in the courses of study. They 
 have moved from the simple purpose of studying 
 biblical narratives to the purpose evident in re- 
 cent studies in the Kingdom of God, to those seen 
 in ^^The "World as a Field of Christian Service'' 
 and to the plain intent of the courses now being 
 projected as studies in Christian Reconstruction. 
 The school has an immediate purpose in lives, to 
 develop Christian character and an ultimate pur- 
 pose, a Christian society. 
 
 But the approach to reality has roots deeper 
 than the immediate purpose of instruction; it 
 
 *As in Professor Athearn's *' Church School.'' 
 
 33 
 
THE SCHOOL IX THE MODERX CHURCH 
 
 develops ont of the principle that the school, as 
 an educational institution, must be determined hy 
 the lives of children, and all growing persons, 
 considered socially. In order that this principle 
 might prevail, it became necessary to know these 
 lives, and hence arose the careful study of the 
 psychology of religion and its application to the 
 school. Scientists, investigators and laboratory 
 workers, moving with reverence, with the spirit 
 of religion, in the field of psychology, laid the 
 foundations of the new school. The literature of 
 this modem movement includes a very respectable 
 amoxmt of scientific material, books on Child 
 Study, on the Psychology of Religion and on So- 
 cial Psychology.^ 
 
 So that the new school has come nearer to the 
 life of children. Apparently, formerly it was the 
 custom to think of ' ' the child, ' ' as though aU chil- 
 dr^i were alike, and this hypothetical creature 
 was really only a miniature adult — the principal 
 differences being that the child magnified or gave 
 free rein to his inheritance of Adam, that he 
 had no right to freedom of action and that he 
 learned, as no other human beings learned, by 
 listening. Sunday-school pedagogy gind discipline 
 was aU aural-centric, the one thing needed was to 
 commandeer ears; then the lessons might be 
 poured into the hypnotized ears, and the task was 
 done! Xow the children are seen as active per- 
 sons; aU their powers must be engaged and di- 
 
 * See titles in tlie General BibHography at end of volume. 
 
WHAT HAS BEEX ACCOMPLISHED 
 
 rected. The sdiool edncates by directing actions, 
 by organizing experiences.^ It is concerned ^th 
 their play, their v^-ovk. By directing their activi- 
 ties it develops their wills and stininlates them to 
 discover and follow ideals: it helps to form mo- 
 tives and develop efficiencies in living. It is devel- 
 oping the lives of children in their world. And 
 this has bronght the school out into new areas of 
 reality, for the child lives in a wide and varied 
 world; he is living his life as a religions person 
 at home, at school, in play and work, all the time. 
 The school has come into fhe plain realities of 
 social living; it is concerned with the child's 
 round of life, with the community in which he 
 lives, with the play that means so much to him, 
 with the amusements which the school once con- 
 demned wholesale and without discriminatiom 
 Xow it uses the means it formerly denounced; 
 play, social organizations, dramatics, the pageant 
 and the movies have their place in the program of 
 the school as weU as such forms of activity as 
 organized groups for social usefulness, for com- 
 munity direction and for the pure joy of social 
 living. This is a long step from. the school of 
 two decades ago: surely it justifies the phrase 
 **the new School in the Church." 
 
 Evidently the old name is no longer adequate : 
 it. is not a Sunday school; it is a school of the re- 
 ligious life, and we can use the old title only as a 
 
 * See an excellent pamphlet * * Eeligions Edoeation Through "Ac- 
 tivities, ' ' published bv The American Baptist PaUieation Sodetj, 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 35 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 link with the past, a means of mental contact, a 
 suggestion that the school of the past, passing 
 through these many changes, now goes on into its 
 new opportunities. 
 
 36 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE NEW SCHOOL IN A NEW DAY 
 
 It has become a commonplace to say tliat we are 
 now living in a new day, a world that has been 
 changed so greatly by the war that it is like a 
 new world. So that we not only have a new 
 school, but we have a new social order in which 
 the school has to work. What does that mean 
 for the school? 
 
 If the school accepts its responsibility to train 
 the young for religions living in a religions so- 
 ciety it means that the school has a very definite* 
 relation to the new world, that its program will 
 be determined by the needs of that world. The 
 chnrch school is not preparing young people to 
 live in some imaginary society which never 
 existed outside of a certain type of pious fiction. 
 It is not preparing them to live in the quiet world 
 of our grandfathers with its fixed social castes 
 and its mechanized morals. It is engaged in re- 
 ligious training for life in a democracy. If it 
 really believes in the Kingdom of God it is keenly 
 conscious of the tremendous problems of our 
 newly congested world life and it believes that 
 these are capable of solution; it believes that it 
 has, in its work and purpose, the means of solu- 
 tion. The new school faces the new world, not 
 
 37 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEJST CHUECH 
 
 with fear and doubt, but with confidence to train 
 the young to live its life in social love, in co- 
 operative service, in democratic social realization. 
 More than all other reasons that can be ad- 
 vanced for taking the school seriously this is the 
 strongest, that it is the one single agency which, 
 at present, is directly engaged in preparing 
 people, at the time when they can be prepared, 
 to live the life of a religious society, and that this 
 life of a religious society is the one hope for all 
 social living in the future. The simple fact is that 
 a world without the social control of the spirit of 
 religion is unthinkable. The only motive under 
 which men can live together in the future is that 
 of unselfish love. Self-seeking, greed, competition, 
 commercial and industrial efficiency have failed; 
 they have brought us into rivalries that have de- 
 veloped tragic conflicts ; they have no promise of 
 anything better m the future. Our world is too 
 crowded for competitive living; under modern 
 conditions, controlled only by man's desire to 
 gain, that means but taking the bread from one 
 man's mouth to put it into another man's store- 
 house. We have learned the need for cooperation. 
 In order to avoid world waste, in order to secure 
 equitable distribution of power and of food we 
 have been practicing cooperation on a w^orld scale. 
 Never will we go back to the old order. But, to 
 be effective, this cooperation must have a sus- 
 taining motive. If it means cooperation only to 
 insure bread and shelter, then it breaks down as 
 soon as it appears that one can get more bread or 
 better shelter by disregarding its principles and 
 
 38 
 
THE NEW SCHOOL IN A NEW DAY 
 
 ignoring the rights of others. It must have a mo- 
 tive larger than my food and shelter and larger 
 than our immunity from the disturbance of war. 
 It must be a motive that embraces all action and 
 sweeps all other consideration before it. 
 
 MAKING THE MOTIS^ES OF A KEW WOKLD 
 
 The school is dealing with the one motive that 
 makes the world life possible. What is the mo- 
 tive this modem world needs? It must have the 
 elements of joy, grandeur, inclusiveness and moral 
 compulsion. It must make cooperators, social 
 livers, idealists. It is the motive of social love, 
 the motive that finds life's joy and purpose in the 
 well-being of others. This is the principle back 
 of democracy, the idea of life as our opportunity 
 to live with and for all, the idea of all social or- 
 ganization, including the state or government, 
 as existing for the good of all and as led by the 
 good-will of all. It is the motive that rises in an 
 interpretation of life in terms of universal love. 
 It is the motive that rises when men cease to 
 live for the things of life, for bread and clothes 
 and houses and lands, when they see these as the 
 tools by which mankind realizes the higher pur- 
 pose of a richer and completer life of social joy, 
 of human fellowship, the life of the spirit. Now 
 is not this precisely the motive which we call 
 rehgious? Is not this the ideal which Jesus 
 taught? and is not the duty of any institution of 
 religious instruction that of training persons to 
 live under this motive? 
 
 39 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 The importance of the church school — ^in the 
 light of the needs of our modem democracy — is 
 enhanced when we remember that it is the only 
 institution which can deal with freedom with the 
 young in the realm of religion. It is the only in- 
 stitution which can train them to take life in re- 
 ligious terms of love, and which can habituate 
 them to the life of a spiritual democracy. The 
 family does not do this, for it has largely lost sight 
 of its educational responsibility and its religious 
 function. The public school cannot formally 
 touch the subject of religion, and it would be ex- 
 ceedingly difficult to instruct the young in a re- 
 ligious way of life while debarred from mention- 
 ing religion or using any religious literature. 
 True, many public schools do develop essentially 
 religious motives, but they are, even in the few 
 cases where they have a spiritual aim, seriously 
 limited by necessary and proper civil restrictions. 
 The church is the single social institution of re- 
 ligion, and its schools are the only agencies train- 
 ing children in religious living. That is to say, 
 that the schools of the churches — Sunday schools 
 and week-day schools — are the means upon which 
 our democracy depends to give the citizens of to- 
 morrow training in the one spirit which makes 
 life possible in the future. 
 
 That point of view ought to give new dignity 
 and seriousness to our work. It ought to pro- 
 voke grave thoughts whenever we look out over 
 children assembled for religious instruction. Here 
 something is being done which goes far beyond 
 imparting knowledge about the Bible, here the 
 
 40 
 
THE NEW SCHOOL IN A NEW DAY 
 
 state of tomorrow is being educated in those mo- 
 tives, ideals and habits which will, if fully ap- 
 plied, make tomorrow a world of the family of the 
 most high, will make men a true brotherhood. 
 
 But such considerations have most practical 
 applications. They lead one to study the con- 
 tent of teaching in this school. How far are the 
 courses modified by the thought of tomorrow's 
 need? How far are the lessons designed to pre- 
 pare for living in a Christian order of society? 
 To what degree is the concept of the Kingdom 
 of God brought into a realizable fact for the child? 
 How many teachers think of their pupils as per- 
 sons who will make, or mar, tomorrow's world? 
 Does the Sunday school get people ready to real- 
 ize the will of God in a common, cooperating so- 
 ciety of good-will, or is it still seeking only to 
 *^save souls," to get them ready for some kingdom 
 beyond the skies? No mechanisms, new or old, will 
 avail much unless there is serious endeavor to 
 make the school function for a religiously minded 
 citizenship. No reputation of up-to-dateness nor 
 of bigness in a school will long avail unless that 
 school is really producing socially minded per- 
 sons who take life in terms of love and service. 
 
 A KEW BB9P0NSIBILJTY 
 
 Here we must freely and fully accept our re- 
 sponsibility; the school is answerable to the world 
 to give it rightly mifided youth. It does not exist 
 to make a sect grow in numbers ; it does not exist 
 to glorify a church; it does exist in the highest 
 
 41 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 sense to save the world through the children, 
 to save the world from sectional hatred, to save 
 it from feud, from suicidal rivalries, from selfish- 
 ness that breeds conflict, from low aims, from the 
 loss of its soul. It has the children ; it has a clear 
 field in religion. If it devotes itself directly to 
 preparing their lives for the future it can and it 
 must give us men and women who will think bet- 
 ter, more wisely, see farther, plan more with the 
 wisdom of love and make a better business of this 
 world life than we have done. 
 
 But how is the ideal to he realized? The an- 
 swer lies, principally, not in specific details of 
 this course of lessons or the other on democracy, 
 nor in methods of organization along social lines, 
 but in the application, at all points, of a single 
 guiding principle : The main business of the school 
 is to train in living the life of a loving, righteous 
 society. 
 
 The new school is controlled hy its social task. 
 The school that faces the new world life will put 
 this test to aU its activities, to lessons, worship 
 and service of all kinds; in what ways does this 
 help these children to understand and practice the 
 life of a religious world? Does this lesson point 
 to life? Does this worship move toward life? 
 No new courses of lessons will help much unless 
 we apply this test ahvays. No courses of les- 
 sons, old or new, are likely to be entirely value- 
 less when this test is applied to them, when an 
 endeavor is made to direct them toward actual 
 living. The prime essential is a group of men, 
 officers and teachers, who habitually think about 
 
 42 
 
THE NEW SCHOOL IN A NEW DAY 
 
 all the school in this way, who are always looking 
 for living realities, who see children as people 
 who are living lives and who can be trained to 
 live religious lives. 
 
 We must often remind ourselves that there is 
 nothing more sacred than this present life, that 
 the past is hallowed only as it serves to inspire 
 and lead the present. We must often call to mind 
 the fact that the great teacher, Jesus, taught men 
 about their own lives, about their social relations 
 and about the future of society. We must picture 
 him as he talked of common-place things, of every- 
 day events, of fishers, and house-wives and farm- 
 ers. That was intensely real to all who listened ; 
 it was their real life. How different from the 
 feeling of the boy whom we try to carry back, 
 through the vehicles of literature and archeology, 
 into the days of Abraham. For one thing we 
 never get him back and, for another, he does not 
 have to live back there; he is living here. Ke- 
 ligion is for the here and now to make the pos- 
 sible tomorrow. The new school will not shrink 
 from the world in which it finds itself. It must 
 teach the life of this world. It must teach, for 
 example, community living with the vision that 
 Isaiah had of a splendid world, a place fit to live 
 in, crowded with the joy of life. It must teach the 
 real steps by which communities and states like 
 that may be realized. It must teach what it actu- 
 ally means to be a Christian in the factory, as a 
 worker at the bench, in the office or the direc- 
 torate; what it means to be a Christian, a mem- 
 ber of a society of common love, in a grocery, in 
 
 43 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 a railroad-engine cab, in the mines and the fields. 
 These are the realities of life to the young. It 
 must teach children their own social relations, in 
 the family, the school, the community life. 
 
 One word of caution may be necessary. We 
 have spoken much of the future, but the only way 
 to educate for the future is to train by life in the 
 present. The only way to make a child an ef- 
 fective religious social person in the future is to 
 train him in the experience of religious social liv- 
 ing as a child. In teaching for world life we must 
 teach by aiding the child to realize his own imme- 
 diate child life in religious terms. Do not burden 
 him with the weight of coming years. If he really 
 lives his present life religiously he will grow in 
 the power to live every new stage as it comes in a 
 religious spirit. The whole school may be made 
 an experience of living in a world devoted to kind- 
 ness, to the enriching, harmonizing and lightening 
 of all life. 
 
 THE FORWARD LOOK 
 
 The Sunday school of any age must he a pro- 
 phetic institution. Its duty is to the future; its 
 business is to prepare lives for coming days. The 
 Sunday school of this day must prepare boys and 
 girls for living in the new day that awaits them. 
 We have been praying ^'Thy Kingdom come^' so 
 long that we have forgotten that the prayer may 
 be heard, is being answered and the kingdom is 
 coming. It may be much nearer than we expect. 
 It eludes our observation. Yet no man can survey 
 the signs of the times without believing that we 
 
 44 
 
THE NEW SCHOOL IN A NEW DAY 
 
 are entering on a new era, the era of social living. 
 The church has at last an awakened conscience 
 for social conditions; she is beginning to gird 
 herself for a warfare against all that hinders the 
 full and free life of every man; she sees coming 
 the day of which angel songs long ago prophesied, 
 when there shall be peace on earth because there 
 is good-will amongst men. We must believe in 
 the progi'am of the kingdom which shall substi- 
 tute the spirit of Jesus for the rampant spirit of 
 modem commercial greed, which shall substitute 
 the helping hand for the mailed fist, which shall 
 lift little children to bless them instead of grind- 
 ing them in cotton and glass mills to curse them. 
 
 The new Sunday school is getting ready for the 
 Kingdom. It is teaching children the program of 
 the Kingdom. It has recovered from a false em- 
 phasis which made it more important for children 
 to memorize the Israelitish wanderings in the 
 wilderness than to avoid wandering in the modem 
 moral wilderness. 
 
 The new Sunday school believes that it is mak- 
 ing the new day. Its work is based on the prin- 
 ciple that the heart of all problems is in the hu- 
 man heart and the hope of any progress lies here, 
 too. The new day comes through lives renewed 
 in purposes, in spiritual power, directed by vi- 
 sions of a future of love and righteousness. The 
 school makes the new day by training lives in a 
 new power and a new spirit. 
 
 45 
 
CHAPTEE lY 
 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHURCH 
 
 The Sunday school differs from the public school 
 in many respects; one of the most important is 
 the fact that it is not an independent institution; 
 it is part of a much larger one. The Sunday 
 school is the school of the church. It is the church 
 engaged directly in discharging one of its funda- 
 mental functions, that of education. The school 
 is responsible to the church, when the church is 
 considered as an agency for realizing the divine 
 society on earth, and the church is responsible for 
 the school. 
 
 In many respects the school is leading the 
 church. The propaganda conducted by its lead- 
 ers has compelled the church to give a new and 
 more fitting place to childhood. Often it has quick- 
 ened the church to a keener realization of the 
 practical aspects of Christian living. It has held 
 aloft the educational ideal. But, on the other 
 hand, the progress of the school is conditioned 
 on the leadership of the church. It is often re- 
 tarded by the ignorance and indifference of pas- 
 tors and leaders. Its activities are limited by the 
 adult attitude, essentially a selfish one, which re- 
 gards the church as existing primarily for the com- 
 fort and nurture, and sometimes for the entertain- 
 ment of adults. The school cannot discharge its 
 
 46 
 
THE SCHOOL AISFD THE CHUECH 
 
 serious duty in society until it is supported fitting- 
 ly by the church, until it is sustained by an in- 
 telligent appreciation of the importance of its 
 work and a thorough understanding of its educa- 
 tional processes. 
 
 THE RIGHTS OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 In view of the large tasks outlined for the mod- 
 em school the church must treat it seriously. The 
 churches must own the schols, not as annexes but 
 as integral parts. The school is the church edu- 
 cating youth in religious living. Whatever the 
 church does for the school is not an act of charity, 
 a donation to the needy, but an act of self-preser- 
 vation, self -perpetuation and promotion, and it is 
 more, it is a discharging of the function of the 
 church to save the world. 
 
 1. The church must treat the school seriously 
 enough to give it adequate physical equipment. 
 The test of an edifice used to be its acoustic prop- 
 erties ; it will come to be its educational facilities. 
 We will design churches, not simply to impress 
 the denomination nor even to humiliate our sec- 
 tarian neighbors, but specifically for their place 
 and service in society. We will cease to put ninety 
 per cent of our money into a large lounging room 
 for the grown-up saint and ten per cent of our 
 money, with ninety per cent of our furniture junk, 
 into a basement for the youthful saint. Until the 
 building is really designed for the needs of grow- 
 ing boys and girls the churches are not taking 
 seriously the society of tomorrow. 
 
 47 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 If the Sunday school has so large a task the 
 churches will be willing to invest in the school. 
 The public school is a public investment. Nobody 
 expects to get his taxes back from the school fund 
 with six per cent interest in c-ash. No one is 
 foolish enough to propose that public schools 
 should be made financially and directly productive 
 so as to help pay the salaries of the official orna- 
 ments in the city hall. . The public asks not for 
 direct, but for indirect results. It freely invests 
 taxes in the public school for the profit in per- 
 sonality. Does the religious public take as rea- 
 sonable an attitude toward the Sunday school? 
 On the contrary it frequently tends to measure the 
 school by its contribution to the pastor's salary 
 or to some other special fund in the church. 
 
 2. The church must invest through workers and 
 the maintenance of the schools. It is not right 
 to demand that men and women should give so 
 large a proportion of their time as the Sunday 
 school now requires unless they are set free from 
 other responsibilities and the burden of Sunday 
 school service is lightened for them by providing 
 them with proper facilities both for study and for 
 service. 
 
 Each denomination must come to see that its 
 Sunday-school organization, its denominational 
 Sunday-school machinery, is not simply a means 
 of making money with which to carry on other 
 enterprises, but is an opportunity for wise in- 
 vestment. So great a task demands the invest- 
 ment of mind and energy in study and experi- 
 mentation. There alwavs were fools to laugh at 
 
 48 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE CHURCH 
 
 men like Edison and Diesel because they puttered 
 in workshops instead of hiring themselves out and 
 making wages. So there are always those who 
 scoff at the Sunday-school people who work out 
 new theories, schemes, curricula and plans for 
 better work, but, if we are to do with any degree 
 of efficiency the work of the kingdom, we will 
 have to do what every great organization does, 
 devote men and devote money to laboratories for 
 experiments which will pave the way for progress. 
 3. So large a task demands that we take se- 
 riously the equipment of the worker. The pastors 
 must be trained to at least a sympathetic under- 
 standing of this institution under their guidance. 
 They cannot lead an educational agency while they 
 remain ignorant of modern education, ignorant 
 often of the very existence of its large body of 
 technical literature. Of course, teachers must be 
 trained and the times demand efficiencies not 
 easily acquired. The Sunday school of today de- 
 mands a teacher who really can train child life. 
 It will not be satisfied with one who has dawdled 
 through twelve juvenile lessons on the Old and 
 the New Testament and twelve childish per- 
 formances in memorizing platitudes about psy- 
 chology and pedagogy. To train workers and to 
 get such institutions there must be an adequate 
 corps of experts who devote their whole time to 
 that. Instead of a few churches here and there 
 — not over two hundred churches in the whole 
 country having trained educators devoting their 
 whole time to the Sunday school — the average 
 village and city church will see the necessity for 
 
 49 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 such a worker. Churclies are so poor because they 
 have failed to train enough competent workers to 
 handle the equipment. They are so near ship- 
 wreck often because they do not hire enough hands 
 for the boat and so often expect the same man 
 to be pilot, engineer, stewart, band-master and 
 ship doctor. 
 
 4. Another condition of adequate service will 
 be a neio alignment in the local church orgamiza- 
 tion, an alignment based on functions. If we 
 admit that the function of the Sunday school is 
 by educational processes to develop Christian 
 character in the young, then we must commit that 
 task wholly to this school. All work under that 
 function belongs to it. Churches are attempting 
 the religious education of youth by the Sunday 
 school, Junior Societies and Young People ^s So- 
 cieties, Boy Scouts, King's Daughters, Girl Scouts, 
 Kjiights of Arthur and the innumerable array 
 of defunct fraternities to be found in every school. 
 They are attempting the functions of the school 
 of religion every day of the week through various 
 agencies such as these. The Sunday school must 
 cease to be simply a weekly round-up of restless 
 youngsters and become the school of the church. 
 Let the church ask of all these organizations, 
 knocking at her doors and bidding for the time of 
 her people, what right have they to admittance. 
 Why should we have Young People's Societies! 
 Simply because once there was a place for such 
 societies and now there is a national organization 
 to keep them in existence, fortified with buttons, 
 badges, banners, conventions, and constitutions? 
 
 50 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE CHUECH 
 
 Why should we have a Junior Brotherhood? Sim- 
 ply because we have a senior Brotherhood and 
 the one must be the knickerbockers to the other's 
 trousers! If these and other organizations serve 
 the great purpose of the church in religion, in 
 what way do they serve? By instruction, inspira- 
 tion, by activity, or by social grouping? Where 
 do they belong? 
 
 What about the function of the Young People's 
 Societies? Are they to be imitations of the eve- 
 ning service which beat the preachers to the post 
 and have the satisfaction of seeing the crowd slip 
 out before he can begin, or are they to be the 
 groupings of youth in the divisions of their 
 natural social integration for the purpose of Chris- 
 tian culture and service ? If the latter they belong 
 in the educational work of the church and there- 
 fore they are a part of the school of the church. 
 Their special opportunity is to design and guide 
 religious activities for the life of the young people 
 at precisely the time when they need religious 
 activities. The chance here is to take these young 
 people who have been taught the ways of the 
 kingdom and let them go out into their communi- 
 ties and realize the good of which they have 
 learned and for which they pray. The Young 
 People's Society ought to be the Sunday school 
 at work. 
 
 What of the various boy and girl organizations ? 
 Are they any more than varied groupings of boys 
 and girls in order to accomplish the proper pur- 
 poses of the Sunday school? A school fully con- 
 scious of its task would embrace all the life of 
 
 51 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 youth and find scope for all their activities in the 
 church life. Scouts, Guilds, social organizations 
 or whatever they may be, all either have a place 
 in the school's full program or they have no place 
 at all. At present churches are choked with ma- 
 chinery, some of which came over in the ark 
 and some of w^hich is marked '^patent applied 
 for,'' very little of it fitting together; very much 
 of it simply ' ' wheels within wheels ' ' without work- 
 ing efficiency. Has not the time come at least to 
 group together all that a church is doing for the 
 life of the youth and all that it is doing directly 
 for the development of religious character and to 
 put all this into one department to be known as 
 *^the school of the church f Then examine that 
 department thoroughly to see if it has adequate 
 facilities, sufficient workers, correct methods and 
 material for its task. 
 
 AN EDUCATIONAL PEOGRAM 
 
 5. Yet another condition of adequate service 
 is that the church should really adopt an educa- 
 tional program for the life of youth. We must be 
 prepared to meet the criticisms that we are no 
 longer engaged in organizing Bible schools. The 
 Sunday school does not exist to teach the Bible; 
 it exists to teach boys and girls. It uses the Bible 
 as its material. The Bible will continue to be its 
 principal text-book; but the aim of the school is 
 not people who know their Bible, but people who, 
 because they know and love their Bibles, know 
 how to live. The school will be determined, not 
 
 52 
 
THE SCHOOL AXD THE CHUECH 
 
 by literature but by the demands of life. The 
 Sunday school is not a miniature theological semi- 
 nary. It is a school of the religious life. Always 
 its course of action and its methods Trill be de- 
 termined by the needs of the religious life. It 
 will teach the Bible, not in order to repeat texts, 
 but in order to repeat in our day the power and 
 glory of the Bible. Of course, this means the 
 graded curriculum. But that means more than is 
 generally conceived. 
 
 The graded curriculum is not simply the adapta- 
 tion of a certain selected body of material to the 
 developing mind of a child, it is the selection of all 
 material according to the developing needs of a 
 life. It involves looking at the child and asking, 
 what does this life need ? TThat are the problems, 
 temptations, and dangers of his daily living? 
 And how may the Sunday school meet them ? The 
 graded curriculum means teaching boys to be 
 truthful, honest, lovers of their fellows and ser- 
 vants of their day. The graded curriculum means 
 that we have to prepare them for the life of pub- 
 lic school and high school, for the moral test and 
 strain of the street and home and playground, 
 that we have to help them gain the ideals and mo- 
 tives that make good citizens and neighbors, good 
 fathers and mothers. The graded curriculum 
 means a systematic leading of all lives out into the 
 full experience of a God-willed society. It has a 
 vei-y definite object, so clearly conceived as a 
 society according to the Christian ideal that teach- 
 ing never loses sight of it nor fails to find expres- 
 sion in the deeds characteristic of the members 
 
 53 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUBCH^ 
 
 of such a society. The church is concerned al- 
 ways, not alone with the adherence of class teach- 
 ing to its doctrinal formulas, but with the question 
 whether the school is really sending youth out into 
 a world which they will see as God's world, which 
 they will be able to make more and more the world 
 where his will of a loving, cooperating society is 
 being done. In this school the church is most of 
 all responsible for the society of tomorrow. 
 
 The new school is the principal opportunity, 
 and therefore the chief responsibility of the church 
 in realizing those social ideals upon which she has 
 been insisting in recent years. The so-called so- 
 cial gospel must be more than a declaration of 
 good news on a possible better world; it must 
 show the way to its realization; it must make the 
 reality possible. The twentieth century opened 
 with a splendid enthusiasm for social righteous- 
 ness; the church called men to go out and set 
 right the world's ancient wrongs. Much has been 
 done ; much more will be accomplished, but all our 
 experience throws us back on the fact that things 
 never will be right until men are right. It forces 
 us back on the religious method, determining the 
 world without by the world within. The world 
 lies in the wills of men ; what it shall be is being 
 now formed in our hearts. Here rise not only 
 right ideas and right motives but here rise also 
 right conditions, for conditions do not make them- 
 selves ; they are the answer to our purposes ; they 
 reflect our ideals. If we would have a new earth 
 it must be first established in the wills and ideals 
 of men. 
 
 54 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE CHURCH 
 
 Something we can do with the men and women 
 of today, but the supreme opportunity is with the 
 young; they are tomorrow. Is this what Jesus 
 meant when he set a little child in the midst, 
 when he said, ^^Of such is the Kingdom of 
 Heaven f ' ' That new world-order lies already here 
 in these wills that may be guided and developed, 
 in these persons who may be devoted to its ideals. 
 Has the church the faith, that is, the forward 
 look to make its largest investment in lives that 
 are in the making? We may know how sincerely 
 a church believes in the social gospel, how earn- 
 estly it desires to make the new society by what 
 it does for the society that is in its hands, this so- 
 ciety that is not yet fixed in its ways, that is 
 forming its purposes and acquiring its habits. 
 
 How large, then, becomes the place of the school 
 in the church when it is seen as the means by 
 which the church accomplishes its supreme pur- 
 pose of causing a society of godlike love, justice 
 and goodness to come on earth. Surely it is in 
 the light of this opportunity, this investment in 
 faith, that the church must determine what it will 
 do for the school, what the budget provision shall 
 be, what its place in the entire program shall be 
 and what working forces it shall have. "What right 
 has a church to use money unless it place first 
 such claims as these? What sort of stewardship 
 is it that provides for all the desires and needs 
 of adults before it makes provision for the so- 
 ciety of tomorrow! 
 
 55 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 The new school of the church is one of the chil- 
 dren of our modem scientific era. It differs, to 
 its advantage, from many other modern applica- 
 tions of science in that it stands for science ap- 
 plied to lifers highest aims. Modem science has 
 contributed very little to the enriching of human 
 character, but the work of the school has taken 
 that little and made the most of it. The forces of 
 the school were the first to see the importance of 
 the scientific study of psychology; they were the 
 first to apply the findings in this field to the proc- 
 esses of the development of persons in the school. 
 They led the church in using the work of investi- 
 gators in the psychology of religion. It is doubtful 
 whether in any other scientific field one could find 
 a larger number of lay students than have been 
 enrolled, in the name of Sunday-school work, in 
 the subject of psychology applied to teaching and 
 to religious work. It is true that much of the 
 work has been very elementary, but it is no fault 
 to begin at the beginning provided one does not 
 stop there. It is true that some of the material 
 produced in the name of science has been simple 
 nonsense, but it is to be expected that there will 
 arise imitators and those who profit by the cre- 
 
 56 
 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 dulity of beginners. The significant fact is tliat the 
 world of Sunday school workers has taken to 
 study the scientific facts in personality and in 
 religion. 
 
 This scientific interest, even though it be in its 
 beginnings, has a significance for the modem 
 church. Is it measuring up to the standard set by 
 its school? There must be a scientific basis for 
 the whole work of the church. Are the workers 
 in churches, especially the ministers, trained in 
 science, the science of their work? Are they 
 trained to recognize the facts of religion and to 
 organize those facts? Do they come into their 
 work with anything like the attitude of the mod- 
 em, well-trained physician, confident of the facts 
 of his profession, capable of understanding the 
 phenomena which will be presented to him in his 
 work? If not it is time for the whole church to 
 learn what the school is now accepting, that there 
 is a scientific basis for religious work and that it 
 would be an irreverent act to try to work in 
 ignorance of the facts. 
 
 There is still so much prejudice, especially 
 amongst the ignorant, in regard to this word 
 science, and particularly when it is used in rela- 
 tion to religion, that it may be well to make sure 
 that we understand what the word means. When 
 we speak of a scientific basis for Sunday-school 
 work we mean a basis in established and organized 
 facts. The scientific attitude is one of simple rev- 
 erence toward facts ; but it asks for all the facts in 
 any case and for their relation to other facts. 
 When the school proceeds on a scientific basis it 
 
 57 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 means that the methods it employs are determined 
 by the facts which have been ascertained and 
 understood regarding the processes involved, that 
 is the processes in the minds and wills, in the lives 
 of the people who are being trained in the school. 
 A scientist is not one who worships a theory; he 
 is one who walks obediently in the path of knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 Now there is no need to rehearse the argument 
 for the training of school teachers and officers in 
 the psychology of religion and in pedagogical 
 method. That has been emphasized many times in 
 pleas for teacher-training courses. We now take 
 it for granted that none will be so irreverent as to 
 dare to approach and handle the sacred structure 
 of human souls in ignorance of their laws. But 
 there is one area of scientific knowledge which 
 the school does often neglect. It tends to ignore 
 the facts which immediately condition its work. 
 The scientific worker is not only the one who has 
 grasped the facts which have been organized into 
 laws concerning the pupils' lives;, he also grasps 
 those facts which are a part of the pupil's passing 
 experience. He recognizes that his work is de- 
 termined by the conditions under which pupils 
 live, by their health, by their school experience. 
 He follows the procedure of a good physician who 
 must know, not alone what his text-books have to 
 say on general principles, but also what are all 
 the conditions which modify the patient's health. 
 Perhaps many of our failures are due to a single- 
 hearted faith in the general principles that led 
 us to forget the factors working in the life of the 
 
 58 
 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 pupil ; we forgot that we do not have them segre- 
 gated, set apart for an unhindered working of re- 
 ligious processes. They are set in life and life is 
 making them all the time. "VYe cannot understand 
 them, nor can we understand what is taking place 
 in them until we have all the facts of the pupils' 
 lives. 
 
 It is never easy to work in the dark unless one 
 is trying to work mischief. Then why should 
 Sunday-school teachers be satisfied to work in the 
 dark as to practically all the factors in their work 
 except the material of the lesson? In the 
 processes toward the teacher's ultimate aim of 
 Christian social character there are at least three 
 factors lying almost wholly under our observa- 
 tion; they are : the lesson experience, the daily life 
 of the pupil, and his community environment. We 
 have assumed we could reach our ends by knowing 
 only one of these factors, the lesson. But we 
 are learning how small is its fraction of interest 
 and influence, like the fraction of time it occupies. 
 All the others — ^practically one hundred and sixty- 
 seven hours at work to one for the lesson — are 
 working always, naturally and steadily determin- 
 ing the kind of person this boy or girl will be. 
 
 I. KNOWING THE school's COMMUNITY 
 
 The teacher's work is conditioned by the pupil's 
 total environment. It will be determined very 
 largely by a knowledge of the factors that work 
 on the lives of pupils. Ultimate success in our 
 work waits for the organization of these many 
 
 59 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 factors into cooperation with the work of the 
 school. But before we can secure that cooperation 
 and even before we can successfully undertake 
 our immediate tasks we must know what are the 
 forces with which we may cooperate, what are 
 those we must oppose, and, if we would under- 
 stand the child, we must know all that environs 
 him and therefore enters into him and makes 
 him. 
 
 Here is a report of a community survey, under- 
 taken by twelve schools occupying a well-defined 
 area in a large city. Glance, first at some of the 
 general and striking facts revealed by this sur- 
 vey: It covers an area of a little over one mile 
 square, embracing a population of over 45,000, in 
 a district having no saloons. The church mem- 
 bers number 16,285; the Sunday-school members 
 7,285, considerably less than half. The member- 
 ship of the local Masonic lodge is only 50 less than 
 the total membership of the eight Protestant 
 churches involved. The seven theaters have a 
 seating capacity about equal to the churches just 
 mentioned; but there is a striking difference be- 
 tween the waiting lines outside the theaters and 
 the waiting pews inside the churches. This 
 survey also includes some others of the different 
 sets of facts which we may mention as part of any 
 thorough study of the soil in which boys and girls 
 grow. 
 
 What are the facts the school worker needs? 
 First, to determine the geographical area. How 
 much of the city or country-side is this school to 
 be held responsible for? Make a large outline 
 
 60 
 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 map, showing the bounds and the included streets 
 or highways. 
 
 Second, people. How many are there? How 
 fast is the population growing? This should give 
 a clue to the provision the school should make in 
 its plant for the future. What nationalities and 
 languages? Here is another clue to measure the 
 real ministry of the school to the community. In 
 some way the facts gathered ought to show the 
 general grade of intelligence. There is a differ- 
 ence between the type of school needed in a col- 
 lege community and one needed in a strictly in- 
 dustrial section. The study of people should, of 
 course, include the census of Sunday-school pu- 
 pils, making special lists of those who are receiv- 
 ing religious instruction in parochial schools, in 
 synagog classes and Hebrew schools and the like. 
 
 Third, should come the study of cooperating 
 agencies. Under this, first, the churches and the 
 facts of their membership, a survey of buildings, 
 Sunday-school buildings, recreation facilities and 
 working forces. Then the public schools with the 
 facts of their enrollment. Here, too, is the place 
 for a discriminating study of the schools. We 
 cannot expect them to do the work of the churches 
 in teaching religion, but we do rightly expect that 
 they will not oppose or antagonize that work; we 
 have a right to expect a friendly and cooperative 
 spirit. 
 
 Other cooperating community agencies would 
 be the public libraries, colleges and like institu- 
 tions, daily and weekly papers, clubs and societies. 
 The first should be studied as a directly cooperat- 
 
 61 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 ing agency capable of a tremendous power in di- 
 recting the reading of the young. Local news- 
 papers are forces, not alone of publicity as or- 
 dinarily understood, but of educational possi- 
 bilities, still unused by the schools. The clubs 
 should include the different forms of social or- 
 ganizations which offer entertainment to the 
 young. The Mothers' clubs and similar groups 
 will often enter into real cooperation with the 
 school through reading courses, series of lessons 
 and lectures on religious education. The educa- 
 tional groups, such as reading circles, may be co- 
 ordinated to the work of the school with youths 
 and adults. 
 
 Next come community agencies of the recrea- 
 tional groups. We ought to know how much play- 
 space the city provides, whether it is adequate 
 for all its boys and girls that they may get the 
 free education that comes through play. Then 
 whether it is supervised and properly directed. 
 What is the relation of school playgrounds and 
 of church gymnasiums and similar facilities to the 
 whole recreational plan of the community? Has 
 any one thought that there could be a unified pro- 
 gram of recreation based on definite ideals for 
 youth character? The playing opportunities are 
 one of the most important allies of the Sunday 
 school. 
 
 The survey must include the commercial amvse- 
 ment agencies of a social appeal, the theaters and 
 ''movie'' houses, poolrooms and dance halls. Take 
 them all in, get as much of the statistical mate- 
 rial as you can, but get also the color material so 
 
 62 
 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 as to be able to show with fairness their influence 
 on the ideals and habits of youth. Seek to dis- 
 cover both allies and enemies, the forces that may 
 cooperate and those that must be counted on to 
 oppose. 
 
 Perhaps this looks like a general community 
 survey. No; so far it omits many details that 
 would be in a community survey ; but if the gath- 
 ering of the facts of the community life of Sun- 
 day-school pupils can be done as part of a general 
 survey of the community so much the better. The 
 main point is to get it done somehow, so that we 
 may no longer try to work out a big problem 
 with three of the four factors unknown. 
 
 What shall he done mth these facts? First, 
 chart them. Put them on your outline map. By 
 colors show densities of population; that may 
 show your school stranded on an island of respect- 
 able childlessness. In colors show the schools, li- 
 braries and recreational agencies that can be 
 counted on to help ; put all your allies in one color 
 with designating signs. Then put your enemies 
 in another color, showing up the saloons, pool- 
 rooms and dance halls. Next, put your facts into 
 graphic form with large diagrams and set the 
 story into such a form that any one can see what 
 are the things making for better boys and girls, 
 and just what the needs of the community are 
 from the character-growing and religious view- 
 point. Put all these graphic presentations into a 
 public exhibit in order to educate your commu- 
 nity. 
 
 But, for the immediate purposes of the teach- 
 63 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 ers, the two must important steps yet remain; 
 they are, first, to analyze the reports so as to de- 
 termine the equipment, policy, program, curric- 
 ulum and the plans of cooperation for the school, 
 and, second, to put the facts at the command of 
 every teacher through a series of group studies 
 and by a classification of the facts in a ready- 
 reference form, as on cards and in scrap books, 
 so that any teacher may always have before him 
 or her a fairly definite and accurate picture of the 
 environment in which the students are growing 
 and the forces which are daily touching and mak- 
 ing that life. But do not let the facts on paper 
 fail to draw you often to know the facts at first- 
 hand in person. 
 
 n. KNOWING THE PUPIL 'S UFB 
 
 We have already spoken of the need for a sur- 
 vey and study of the community environment in 
 which the pupils live and grow. The next step 
 is a more difficult and exact one, and one even 
 more necessary. It brings us much closer to the 
 ultimate task and aim of all Sunday-school teach- 
 ing, the growth of persons into godlikeness and 
 into a godwilled society. We need to know just 
 how, in all his life, this person is grooving. With- 
 out that knowledge it is quite impossible for us to 
 work intelligently toward his development as a 
 religious person. 
 
 No one can teach who cannot get beyond the 
 pupiPs ears and, in imagination, beyond the row 
 of faces around the class. Getting at what we call 
 
 64 
 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 the real boy and girl does demand imagination, 
 bnt it cannot be done by the imagination alone. 
 Imagination has value only as it vitalizes facts. 
 A brilliant imagination cannot atone for ignor- 
 ance ; it is efficient only in leading us astray if it 
 is innocent of acquaintance with facts. 
 
 We try hard to teach the real boys and girls; 
 but what a surprise it would be if we could fol- 
 low some of them for a week. We would find that 
 they lived in another world, spoke another tongue 
 when they were spontaneous and free, and came 
 to Sunday school only to wonder what it was all 
 about and to bear with what patience they could 
 the time that would elapse before they could go 
 out and live again. In such a case any benefits 
 derived are usually accidental. 
 
 What are the facts which imagination needs as 
 a basis and what are the facts which we need in 
 order to note the whole process of the pupil's 
 growth as a life? Perhaps some of the most-de- 
 sired facts are not obtainable; still there will be 
 enough remaining to furnish a reasonable basis 
 for work. 
 
 First, the facts of environment. Given his name, 
 age and race, in addition to the general wider 
 environment of the community already described, 
 we need to see the immediate setting of this life, 
 the things that daily touch him most intimately. 
 This will include : number of living parents, their 
 nationalities, general characters ; names and ages 
 of brothers and sisters; number of wage-earners 
 in the family; family customs (as ^'prayer"), 
 playing together, excursions, vacations. The 
 
 65 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 home; number of rooms, general health condi- 
 tions, type of neighbors, do children play at 
 home? Books in the house? Music, pictures, 
 habits as to amusements. As to meals, is there 
 a real family life here 1 
 
 The immediate personal factors: Height, 
 weight, health condition, any special features of 
 physical condition (as adenoids, enlarged tonsils, 
 deformities). While this is not a physician's sur- 
 vey, remember one is dealing with a person whose 
 conduct is determined, whose habits may be 
 formed by such handicaps as these mentioned. 
 It is necessary to know whether this boy, or girl, 
 has his full right of physical foundations for the 
 efficient life. Further, without prying inquisition 
 but in the pure confidence of a real friend, any 
 teacher who really is a leader to boys or girls 
 can know many of the most intimate facts of their 
 lives, revealing the need of helpful guidance and 
 counsel. 
 
 Next come the facts of the pupil's wider world. 
 Here, first, the school ; his grade, record of prog- 
 ress and present standing, as indicative, in a gen- 
 eral way, of the intellectual factors. It would help 
 the Sunday-school teacher immensely if he might 
 have always before him the lists of the studies 
 his pupils are taking in day school and elsewhere. 
 He would have, in a measure, their intellectual 
 background; he could coordinate his teaching to 
 their knowledge and present interests; he would 
 find in their studies many a point of contact for 
 his teaching. 
 
 Next, the facts of the pupiVs life of action; his 
 66 
 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 everyday experiences outside of the home and the 
 school. This wonld include : hours of play, groups, 
 kinds of play, special hobbies and interests. Be 
 sure to get in the special phase of the collecting 
 tendency, the keen interest in aeroplanes, wire- 
 less, or it may be, dolls, domestic economy or poli- 
 tics, clubs, societies, groups and gangs, general 
 use of leisure hours. Perhaps the members of the 
 class are wage-earners, then get the group of facts 
 on types of employment, hours, wages and forms 
 of expenditure. 
 
 The facts should cover the life of the pupil, this 
 life he lives in the one hundred and sixty-seven 
 hours when he is not in the class. They should 
 be gathered, not as a dry tabulation of barren 
 figures but in the light of the fact that all that 
 happens in all those hours, whether in school or 
 out, is part of his real educational experience, is 
 working in growing him either into a finer, 
 stronger, cleaner man or toward a lower, menac- 
 ing type. Here is where imagination should play 
 its part in helpiQg us to see the facts as sjnnbols 
 of forces which are always working, forces which 
 are as close about the life as soil and sunshine and 
 shower to the plant. 
 
 ! Now what shall we do with these facts of the 
 pupil's life? There are two immediate uses for 
 the teacher. First, they form the material from 
 which there may be constructed a typical schedule 
 of every pupil's week. Devote a large sheet to 
 each one and divide it into generous spaces of 
 days and hours. Then put into each space the 
 occupation of that time. If you want to make it 
 
 67 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 graphic show the proportions of work, study and 
 play. Of course the form of proportions would 
 vary greatly according to age. But the results 
 will indicate where the life needs guidance. 
 
 Another use will be in the preparation of a care- 
 ful, sympathetic analytical study of each pupil. 
 Suppose you take them up with a physician's 
 care, as cases. Write down in a note-book all you 
 know about each one. The book is not an analysis 
 of detective material; it should be, for your own 
 guidance and illumination, an attempt to under- 
 stand the life you are seeking to lead out and up. 
 Of course, it will have value only as, at every 
 point, it gains vitality from your personal associ- 
 ation with the real boy. It has value only in so 
 far as it shows you what material you work with 
 and what is happening all the time in that mate- 
 rial. 
 
 One might make a survey of this kind on the 
 basis of the ^^ Standard Efficiency Program" 
 Charts for Boys used by the Canadian Young 
 Men's Christian Associations and now being re- 
 vised for use in this country. These set up a 
 number of standards in particulars, activities, in- 
 terests and needs, classifying them under the 
 heads of Intellectual, Physical, Religious and 
 Service. The whole plan, which is quite elaborate, 
 will furnish a number of excellent suggestions 
 particularly as to points at which one may watch 
 the elements in character development. Sunday- 
 school teachers would do well to study this plan 
 and cooperate with it as far as possible. But it 
 must be supplemented by the detailed study of the 
 
 68 
 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 boy's daily, actual experience which has been out- 
 lined above. 
 
 The one thing most important is to be sure that 
 one is dealing with a real person, not with the 
 hypothetical being constructed by imagination lib- 
 erated from the thralldom of facts. Know the 
 particular boy; he is the teacher's hardest lesson, 
 not to be learned without much painstaking labor. 
 But it is labor that will pay a thousandfold, in the 
 joy of discovering a life in its processes, in really 
 finding a person and in gaining a sure hand in the 
 work of growing such a person toward the Christ 
 ideal. 
 
 An analysis of this character fails if it does not 
 lead to a closer personal knowledge of the pupil 
 and of the conditions under which he lives. If you 
 have the cold facts go and see them where they 
 glow with life and reality. Combine the com- 
 munity study and the personal study in an en- 
 deavor to know the conditions under which boys 
 and girls actually live. Try to determine whether, 
 and why, conditions are favorable or unfavor- 
 able to the purposes of the school. See the human 
 being in all his growth environment and the teach- 
 er will find himself teaching in a new way because 
 he is teaching actual people in the light of their 
 actual lives. 
 
 The third area of actual knowledge includes the 
 work of a class. It is an easy matter to take a 
 class, another matter to teach one. How may one 
 know whether he is teaching? How know whether 
 the things that ought to take place in the class 
 are happening? How know whether the process 
 
 69 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 of teaching is achieving the purpose of teaching? 
 Since the real purpose is a remote one, not im- 
 mediately realized, the most he can jmow is 
 whether the steps being taken are those that lead 
 to the desired end. He who grows apples can 
 never fully know his results until the fruit is 
 picked, but he can know all along whether every 
 condition is right, whether his processes are lead- 
 ing to the perfect fruit. This knowledge is not 
 vague or general to him; it is part of an exact 
 order of things. 
 
 in. KlTOWmG THE LESSON PROCESS 
 
 Here is a teacher and a class ; a lesson is being 
 taught; precisely what is happening? Until the 
 teacher can answer that for himself he cannot be 
 sure of what he is doing. The only way to an- 
 swer with certainty is to study in careful detail 
 just what takes place in every teaching period. A 
 systematic analysis of the experience of every 
 teaching period, a classification and study of the 
 facts will secure certain desirable results. It 
 will (1) increase consciousness that something 
 very real is taking place, (2) discover characteris- 
 tic relationships between certain conditions in the 
 class and certain attitudes or responses in pupils, 
 (3) discover similar relationships between certain 
 presentations of the lesson and responses on the 
 part of pupils, (4) furnish a basis for discrimina- 
 tion amongst methods, (5) gradually substitute 
 certainty of action in teaching for blind hit-and- 
 miss, (6) simplify habits of teaching, (7) con- 
 
 70 
 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 tribute toward definite knowledge of the laws of 
 teaching and of the life-growth of the pupil. 
 
 There are a number of items to be observed in 
 order to secure a real basis of fact in the teaching 
 process. Not all will be found in every lesson ex- 
 perience. Some may be noted by means of checks 
 made against certain written items in a note-book 
 at the time of teaching; some may be noted be- 
 fore actual teaching begins, and others must be 
 set down in a retrospect of the period. 
 
 The first group of facts are relatively simple 
 and rather like those gathered up in the study 
 of the community and of the pupiPs life. Yet they 
 are exceedingly important. They relate to the 
 conditions under which teaching is being done. 
 In order to understand what takes place in teach- 
 ing we must be able to see the whole process, all 
 the factors involved, including the conditions of 
 work. We must see all that enters into the process. 
 The total result of a teaching period for a boy 
 may hold more of what he has seen across the 
 room than of what has seeped into his ears. 
 
 I. An Observation of Conditions: First, the 
 conditions of the class as a whole, and, under this, 
 first, the physical. This will include : temperature 
 of room, ventilation, lighting, weather conditions 
 as affecting light, humidity, conditions of class 
 assembling, seating, tables — as to suitability, 
 room, comfort, light — or desks, posture of pupils, 
 general health conditions. 
 
 Next, mental and social conditions. Under this 
 note particularly the organization of the routine 
 of class arrangement, whether there is any rou- 
 
 71 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 tine as to seating, passing material, getting set- 
 tled for class work. Then note whether the class 
 has social unity, works well together; then note 
 any special emotional condition, cause of excite- 
 ment, general feeling or interest. 
 
 Following this comes the more detailed observa- 
 tion of individuals. This need not be taken in 
 every item every week. But be sure of having a 
 record of the physical conditions, at class period, 
 of each one. Note the general condition: ani- 
 mated, vigorous, depressed, indifferent, phleg- 
 matic, calm. Under mental condition note the 
 general intellectual abilities, responsiveness, acu- 
 men, diligence of each. Note any special forms 
 of response, particularly? the unlooked-for an- 
 swer. 
 
 II. "An Observation of Processes. Coming 
 now to the actual work in the class, bearing in 
 mind the many differences between a Sunday- 
 school class and others, particularly as to the 
 purpose of teaching, what is it we are trying 
 to do? We must have some clear notion on this 
 before we can analyze what we are doing. We are 
 trying to present ideas so that pupils will see 
 them clearly, feel about them rightly, act upon 
 them definitely. Presenting ideas in a common 
 medium of language — or visual medium — we ex- 
 pect these ideas to be seen by the pupil by the aid 
 of ideas already in his mind, to be strengthened 
 by his emotions, to be clarified and illuminated as 
 we study them further, to be deepened in force 
 and meaning by repetition, and then by experience, 
 and to pass into life, to become conduct and mo- 
 
 72 
 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 tive, by repeated willing into acts and thus into 
 habits. So that we are doing more than telling 
 facts; we are getting results in people. Now to 
 observe what takes place in seeking to get these 
 results. 
 
 The first step is that of securing attention. Set 
 down in your analysis of the lesson experience just 
 the nature of the problem of getting attention 
 each time. What method did you use I What was 
 your reason for it? How account for its suc- 
 cess or failure? Was it a method that worked 
 toward your ultimate end? Then holding atten- 
 tion. When did it begin to flag? Why? Were 
 the causes external to class? Remediable in con- 
 ditions? How was attention regained? Did it 
 come by your eif ort alone, or through some forms 
 of class cooperation? 
 
 On attention an interesting question for the 
 teacher is whether the method used was that of 
 simple primary attention (based on immediate 
 need, appetite or simple interest at the moment on 
 the part of the pupil) or secondary attention (ap- 
 plication to the lesson for the sake of some other 
 end).^ 
 
 Lesson Presentation, Note down the facts of 
 your presentation of ideas, of the lesson. Was 
 your language understood? Did you secure a 
 natural restatement from pupil? What mental 
 pictures did you create, as judged by responses? 
 What emotional responses ? To what actual habit 
 
 * Observation work of this character presupposes familiarity with 
 the principles of interest and attention, particularly the discussions 
 by Thorndike, Bagley and Colvin; see the Bibliography. 
 
 73 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 of life, to wliat possible action was your idea 
 addressed, what could one do about it? What 
 concrete situations, or possibilities of action 
 seemed to be in the pupil's mind, as evidenced by 
 his response? Did he narrate any incident show- 
 ing the presented idea had reality? What mo- 
 tives were addressed ? What motives were in your 
 own mind as to the action described or idea pre- 
 sented? Did any motives appear in the pupiPs 
 response? If not, how did you know what mo- 
 tives were felt? Note particularly steps in pupils' 
 minds as you tried to stimulate them to form 
 their own judgments, to state some general prin- 
 ciples or to work the lesson into a unity of ideal. 
 Put down their responses. How did any express, 
 after your teaching the lesson, the real ^^ lesson." 
 Of course one does not expect pupils to moralize, 
 but they will give the best tests of teaching in 
 their spontaneous statements of the lesson as a 
 whole. 
 
 Tests of Teachmg. So far as possible analyze 
 the lesson experience as to the relative time used 
 by yourself and by pupils, the proportions be- 
 tween their activity and yours. Note what pupils 
 desire to do about it, both in class and after, 
 whether you succeed in stimulating to action. Note 
 whether the ideas taught have reality, so that they 
 are applied to men and things today. In your 
 analysis show not only whether this is so, but 
 how. 
 
 Tests in Life, Keep a record of the work of the 
 class with each pupil. In the class: demeanor, 
 social habits toward others and toward class as 
 
 74 
 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 a group, accuracy of thought, of statement, mem- 
 ory, expression of ideas, tendency to act, tendency 
 to lead or to foUow. Note the lesson going over 
 into his wider life: development of habits, espe- 
 cially of service, altruism;; daily habits as in 
 school, family; does the religious teaching any- 
 where carry into everyday life! Test teaching 
 by affording opportunity to do things, inviting to 
 service, revealing opportunities, giving chance to 
 **take a stand'' on issues. 
 
 From time to time one may well review his 
 teaching as to its results. In teaching geography 
 one expects not only a body of knowledge of 
 islands and seas retained in the pupiPs mind, but 
 it is right to expect the geographic mind; so in 
 teaching religion the real thing to look for is the 
 religious mind, the attitude toward life. If one 
 can get this, all the time and trouble is worth 
 while and never a whit of it wasted to secure that 
 end. 
 
 Does all this observation and note-taking seem 
 a lot of weary detail? It would be too much if it 
 were the task of a week or a month. We have 
 been outlining a method and an ideal, not a day's 
 work. The main point is to make up our minds 
 that in the realm of truth and in its work we can 
 never afford to attempt to take steps until we 
 have our feet on facts. We do walk by faith, but 
 that is the inner propulsion and the outer com- 
 pelling vision; under our feet we must have the 
 solid ground of facts. The great need in methods 
 in religious education today is the real facts of our 
 work. Every teacher who will take time to gather, 
 
 75 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 study and record the facts will not only greatly 
 strengthen his o^vn work and lend to its definite- 
 ness and certainty, but will also greatly aid all 
 other workers in discovering the science of teach- 
 ing religion. 
 
 KNOWING THE EDUCATIVE PKOCESS 
 
 Of course this does not come last in importance ; 
 it is fundamental, but the full recognition of one 's 
 need in this respect does grow out of attempts 
 to follow the pupil in his life and to follow him as 
 he learns. Then the religious educator begins to 
 ask, what is happening in this person, and how 
 may that which takes place be directed, stimulated 
 and controlled so as to develop the abilities and 
 characteristics that are desirable? Then is the 
 time for a study of the educative process. A 
 good way to begin would be to take, first, Colvin 
 and Bagley's ''Human Behaviour'' and to fol- 
 low this with Coe's ''Social Theory of Religious 
 Education." The point of view is not the same 
 in the two books, but they serve to balance one 
 another. If the teachers of a school study these 
 two books there will be no further question as to 
 their recognition of a scientific basis for their 
 work, they will have taken the first great step to- 
 ward professional ability. 
 
 76 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 EDUCATIONAL DIRECTION 
 
 The educational emphasis distinguishes the lead- 
 ership of the new school. Because it is an edu- 
 cational institution it requires direction by per- 
 sons familiar with educational methods. One of 
 the facts we often seem to forget in American life 
 is that it takes more than either enthusiasm or ap-' 
 petite for office to make an expert. In politics 
 we apparently assume that running for office 
 equips one with administrative ability. And we 
 have long assumed in the church that willingness 
 to carry the honors of office-holding was the only 
 qualification necessary for a life-long position. 
 Men were elected superintendents of Sunday 
 schools because they wanted the job, and they were 
 re-elected for many years after they had thorough- 
 ly demonstrated their inefficiency because the 
 church feared ^'to hurt their feelings.^' That 
 was possible only so long as the school and its 
 interests could be regarded as less than the in- 
 terests of individuals. 
 
 But when the school is seen to be seriously en- 
 gaged in the most important task of the church, 
 then the church must treat with seriousness the 
 selection of its directing staff. The consciousness 
 of a new task, together with the earnest endeavor 
 to discharge that task, has won for the school its 
 
 77 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 new leadership, selected and organized for the 
 purposes of the school. It is now the custom, in 
 modem churches, to furnish, first, general edu- 
 cational direction by means of an elected Church 
 Board of Education. This Board usually consists 
 of from ^Ye to seven members who have the edu- 
 cational qualifications necessary to direct a school. 
 They may be professional teachers, school prin- 
 cipals, or persons who have studied the educa- 
 tional problems of the church. The Pastor and 
 the superintendent are members ex officio of the 
 Board. 
 
 THE CHUECH BOARD 
 
 The Church Board is the general supervisory 
 body responsible for all educational work in the 
 church, and particularly responsible for the school. 
 It determines the type of organization, super- 
 vises the course of study, plans for the training 
 of teachers, correlates other activities for the 
 young to the work of the school, prepares and 
 becomes responsible for the budget of the school, 
 and engages any employed workers. 
 
 The work of the Church Board of Education is 
 usually divided into sub-committees, such as Offi- 
 cers, Teachers, Curriculum, Gradation and Pro- 
 motion, Recreational work. Budget, Missionary 
 activities, Church relations. From time to time, 
 as special problems arise, the Board either be- 
 comes a committee or it appoints special conomit- 
 tees to study the particular problem. For in- 
 stance, when the time arrives to erect a special 
 building for the work of the school, the responsi- 
 
 78 
 
EDUCATIONAL DIRECTION 
 
 bility for selection of plans should fall on this 
 committee. The Church-school building consti- 
 tutes a problem in education ; its design should be 
 determined by considerations with which this com- 
 mittee is familiar. 
 
 The Board serves as the general committee co- 
 ordinating all the educational activities of the 
 church. Nowhere can that board be of greater 
 usefulness than here. Commonly in the church 
 there are about twenty, or more, different organ- 
 izations and activities for boys and girls ; each one 
 goes its own way, lines cross and recross, and 
 energies are wasted in the duplicated efforts. One 
 boy may be reached by a dozen activities, another 
 may be totally neglected. One day is crowded 
 with activities, another is empty. The present, 
 chaotic conflict needs the authoritative hand of a 
 coordinating body. The church Board must de- 
 termine what societies and organizations are 
 necessary and what ones should be excluded — not 
 because they are evil, but because they only cum- 
 ber the ground, or they duplicate work already 
 being done. It must assign each activity or so- 
 ciety its place and its time. It must prepare pro- 
 grams of work and schedules of activities that 
 present a balanced, fairly continuous series or 
 scheme, each part filling a designed place in the 
 process of training boys and girls. 
 
 COMMUITITY COOKDINATION' 
 
 The Board must look beyond its own church. 
 It is only one of a number of Boards working 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 in several churches ; all are working* for the lives 
 of boys and girls. They must cooperate. We 
 need today community programs of a religious 
 education. We need, first, the programs that are 
 very simple and easy to secure, community co- 
 operation in all kinds of work that can be done 
 unitedly in the community, such as the training 
 of teachers,^ the conduct of community surveys, 
 organizing united Christmas entertainments, 
 choruses, picnics and relief work. In no way are 
 we likely to hasten church unity better than by 
 practicing community cooperation in church work. 
 There is no reason on earth why all the teachers 
 of a neighborhood should not receive their train- 
 ing together. If the churches cannot cooperate to 
 this extent there are some sadly misplaced em- 
 phases in their relig-ion. If their faiths keep them 
 separate at the points of practical, common in- 
 terests, then they are not the faith of Him who 
 prayed that they might be all one. Church Boards 
 do well to remember that everything that brings 
 the forces of religion into cooperation not only 
 greatly strengthens the force of their appeal to 
 the young but it presents a definite picture, more 
 forcible than words, of Christian love in opera- 
 tion. 
 
 But the modem Church Boards of a community 
 will look beyond the details of coordinated activi- 
 ties in religious instruction ; they will unite for the 
 supervision of community life in terms of religious 
 education. Knowing that their program of train- 
 
 *See *'The City Institute/' by Prof. W. S. Athearn. (Univer- 
 sity of Chicago Press.) 
 
 80 
 
EDUCATIOXAL DIEECTION 
 
 ing lives in righteousness cannot be acMeved in 
 the brief term of the Sunday school alone, that 
 if boys and girls are to grow up members of a 
 religious society, then society must give them 
 continuously religious training, these Boards will 
 unite to make the whole life of the community 
 count for righteousness. The united church 
 boards of any neighborhood could clean up all 
 its plague spots, tear down its debauching bill- 
 boards and provide recreational facilities for all 
 its boys and girls. 
 
 The Church Board that seriously undertakes the 
 direction of the educ-ational work of a church soon 
 finds its need of expert direction. Now churches 
 are employing professional educators to carry out 
 the work of the Boards. There are employed in 
 the United States and Canada, at the time of 
 writing, over two hundred trained men and 
 women as ^^ Directors of Religious Education.'' 
 They differ from the so-called ^'paid Superin- 
 tendents^' in that their work includes all the edu- 
 cational task of the church. They dift'er also in 
 that they have been especially trained for this 
 vocation. They have had a professional train- 
 ing with dual emphases, in religion and in edu- 
 cation. 
 
 THE CHUECH DULECTOR 
 
 There are two principal types of the director's 
 work. One is that in a single church. Here the 
 director is the executive officer of the church board 
 of religious education. He carries out their plans 
 of coordination. The school and all classes and 
 
 81 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 forms of activity which deal with the people in 
 any educational manner come under his care. This 
 embraces more than classes for instruction. With 
 the young it will include their recreational life, 
 though often, in larger churches, a special recrea- 
 tional leader will be engaged in charge of the 
 g^nnnasium and the play activities. But this offi- 
 cer will be under the supervision of the director; 
 his work is conceived in educational terms and is 
 fitted into the complete scheme of religious train- 
 ing. 
 
 The director is the supervisor of all instruction. 
 He not only has in hand the matters of curriculum, 
 organization, gradation, promotion, supplies and 
 finances; he also directly watches the teaching. 
 He knows what work is being done in classes. He 
 is able to advise with teachers, on the basis of 
 his observation ; he can change teachers, adapting 
 them to classes or retiring them if they are ineffi- 
 cient. In a word, it is his task to organize and 
 conduct, under the board, a unified, comprehen- 
 sive program of religious training by educational 
 means. It is important to state that, while the 
 phrase of the masculine gender is used here, many 
 directors, some of them highly efficient, are 
 women. 
 
 The director is not an assistant pastor in the 
 ordinary sense, still less is he the pastor's clerk 
 or errand boy. Churches engaging directors 
 should hold his educational specialty clearly in 
 mind. In not a few instances his work has been 
 a failure simply because the pastor has regarded 
 him as the additional member of the staff on whom 
 
 82 
 
EDUCATIONAL DIRECTION 
 
 might be unloaded aU the drudgery, the minor de- 
 tails of pastoral work. The assistant-pastor- 
 director plan will not work. This is the day of 
 specialization; the pastor is a specialist in his field 
 and should not dishonor it by expecting that one 
 trained in another field can lightly step in and do 
 his particular work. The director is a specialist 
 and the advantages of his special training should 
 be conserved for his own field, a difficult and suffi- 
 ciently important one, calling for all his powers. 
 Some of the most successful work by directors 
 is being done in relatively small places as, for 
 instance, at "Winnetka, Illinois, where a complete 
 program is provided for all the boys and girls of 
 the community in the church which employs a di- 
 rector. Here the young people are busy in games, 
 classes and social gatherings for as many hours 
 as they may desire to spend every day in periods 
 outside the regular public school work. In addi- 
 tion there are classes for all the different groups 
 of adults, directed social activities and forms of 
 educational stimulus according to their needs. 
 
 THE COMMUNITY DIBECTOB 
 
 The other type of director is the one engaged in 
 work for the schools, or churches, of a community 
 or a neighborhood, and, occasionally, for the 
 churches of a particular communion in a larger 
 district, as a city or a county. The work of the 
 community director is relatively new. It has been 
 tried in but a few places. Yet it needs but a 
 little reflection to realize that this is not only a 
 
 83 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 simple solution for those churches which are too 
 small, or too limited in resources to employ the en- 
 tire services of a man or a woman, but it is more, 
 it is the simple application of the plan of super- 
 vision employed in general education where a 
 superintendent directs a number of schools. The 
 work differs somewhat from that of the local di- 
 rector, as the work of a principal in a school dif- 
 fers from that of a superintendent. The com- 
 munity director is less of an executive and more 
 of a supervisor. His duties will include the train- 
 ing and guidance of the leaders in each church, 
 the direction of the plans of organization in each 
 church and the coordination of the plans of all the 
 churches under his care into community unity. 
 He can have a very important function in the life 
 of his village or city. In time he can bring it to 
 a sense of united purpose in making its entire life 
 count for the well-being of all its boys and girls. 
 He has an especial opportunity in rural com- 
 munities. Nowhere is his work more seriously 
 needed or likely to bring larger results. Its op- 
 portunities are rich and immediate. The country- 
 side especially needs a wise, sympathetic man or 
 woman to bring its youth life together to organize 
 their scattered energies, to give them a sense of 
 unity as they play together, organize choral so- 
 cieties, entertainments, clubs and recreational 
 activities. Scarcely any of the privileges of city 
 and village life need be denied the countryside if 
 only there is the right kind of personal leadership 
 to secure united action. And if this is true in 
 these more general interests the advantages would 
 
 84 
 
EDUCATIONAL DIRECTION 
 
 not be less in the immediate work of the church 
 schools. The benefits of expert training, of super- 
 vision and of united action are all possible here 
 under the right kind of prepared leadership. 
 
 The emphasis of the director's work is on the 
 religious educational side. He may direct play, 
 but it is with the purpose of developing religious 
 character; he may superintend moving picture 
 presentations, but the aim is the same. He is an 
 educator, a specialist in the church, interpreting 
 and guiding all activities under the educational 
 method and ideal, and toward the religious ideal 
 of boys and girls learning the life of a religious 
 society. 
 
 The Association of Directors of Religious Edu- 
 cation — a section of The Religious Education As- 
 sociation — is the professional organization of this 
 group. The conditions of membership in this sec- 
 tion indicate the professional requirements; they 
 are as follows: 
 
 ^^ Membership. The membership of the Asso- 
 ciation of Directors shall be of two kinds : Active 
 and Associate. 
 
 ^^1. Active Members. All who have had a four 
 years' college course, or its equivalent, and have 
 also had a full three years' theological course in 
 a seminary, with courses in religious education, 
 or who have had in addition to the college course 
 two years of study in an approved School of Re- 
 ligious Pedagogy, shall be eligible to Active Mem- 
 bership in this Association. Only Active Mem- 
 bers shall be entitled to vote or to hold office. 
 
 ''2. Associate Members. All who, though not 
 
 85 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 having had a college education, have had a high 
 school training and two years of post-graduate 
 work in an approved School of Religious Peda- 
 gogy, or its equivalent, shall be eligible to Asso- 
 ciation Membership, with the privilege of partici- 
 pation in the discussions of the Association, but 
 not of voting. 
 
 ^^In all cases, however, eligibility to member- 
 ship, both Active and Associate, shall depend 
 upon the giving of one's entire time as an em- 
 ployed worker in the cause of Religious Educa- 
 tion, either as a Director of Religious Education 
 in a local church or school or as Educational Sec- 
 retary of a denomination. ' ' 
 
 There are several institutions offering the 
 necessary professional training for directors of 
 religious education.^ 
 
 The training schools are also offering courses 
 in religious education for those who would come 
 into the '^Associate membership '^ in the organ- 
 ization mentioned above. These courses cor- 
 respond, in general, to the normal training work 
 in the different state institutions preparing teach- 
 ers for the grade schools. They are designed to 
 give to pastor's assistants, parish workers and 
 other lay workers in churches familiarity with the 
 
 ^ Notably Yale, Chicago, Boston, Union Theological Seminary, 
 New York, and Hartford, many other seminaries — too many to 
 mention in detail — have chairs of Eeligious Education and are 
 not only giving courses for ministers but are also offering special 
 training for Directors. A fairly complete list of training agencies, 
 together with a careful study of professional courses and facilities 
 in this field, is given in ''Religious Education" for February, 
 1915. 
 
 86 
 
EDUCATIONAL DIRECTION 
 
 general principles of religious education, with the 
 organization and pedagogy of the Sunday school 
 and with methods of work with children and 
 youth. Such courses are to be found in nearly 
 all the denominational schools and in the training 
 colleges of the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. 
 
 This new profession offers decided attractions 
 to young men and women. It is a chance to en- 
 gage directly in forms of religious work which 
 are based upon modern ideals and scientific 
 methods. It gives promise of contributing to the 
 greatly enlarged usefulness of the churches and of 
 solving some of their most serious problems. The 
 work, since it deals principally with young lives, 
 offers a field of the richest promise. Directors 
 have an opportunity not alone to improve the 
 Sunday schools, but to bring together in one 
 organization all the youth life of the community 
 in the church. 
 
 The rise of the directorship of religious educa- 
 tion is a striking indication of the new earnestness 
 and seriousness of educational purpose that has 
 come into the modem Sunday school, or, more 
 exactly, into the program of the churches for the 
 education of the young. The modern church ac- 
 cepts its responsibility for religious instruction 
 and with graded classes and curriculum, trained 
 teachers and special buildings it is seeking to 
 place its work on a level of efficiency with the 
 public schools. 
 
 87 
 
CHAPTER YII 
 
 THE NEW PROGRAM OF TEACHING 
 
 The fire of criticism against the old type of school 
 was directed principally at the teaching; the re- 
 forms which came in time concentrated at the 
 same point, dividing into two emphases, the 
 method of teaching and the content or curriculum. 
 Improvements under both aspects are still going 
 forward. No one is satisfied today, although a 
 few years ago, when the completely graded sys- 
 tem of lessons was inaugurated, a large majority 
 of workers declared that its completion would 
 satisfy all the requirements of the schools for 
 many years. 
 
 CHANGING LESSONS 
 
 The new school has seen a new vision; it has 
 come into its responsibility for lives and for so- 
 ciety. Formerly the principal responsibility which 
 it felt was for the Bible. The improvements it 
 labored to effect were in the reorganization of 
 lesson materials from the Bible. Some of the 
 most elaborate of the curricula which were pre- 
 pared in answer to the demand for graded lessons 
 were simply skilful arrangements of biblical ma- 
 terials according to the child's developing inter- 
 ests and capacities. Now the school, in view of its 
 
 88 
 
THE NEW PKOGRAM OF TEACHING 
 
 task of training lives, demands courses of lessons 
 whicli have been arranged in view of the needs of 
 persons, of the needs of those who are being 
 trained to efficiency in the life of a spiritual so- 
 ciety. It is no longer content with producing a 
 boy or a girl who can pass any sort of intellectual 
 tests regarding the history and literature in the 
 Bible ; it seeks to develop boys and girls who can 
 pass the tests that the school, the street, business, 
 social relations and daily work put on them, who 
 can come through such tests clean, strong and in 
 love with their fellow men. 
 
 These are the reasons that Sunday-school les- 
 sons are today constantly in process of re-making. 
 And the fact that these courses have a purpose 
 so vital and practical as the training of lives 
 means that they will always be in the making, for 
 the demands which society makes on lives and 
 the demands made by changing conditions will 
 always be developing. 
 
 A CHANGED PURPOSE IN TEACHING 
 
 The changes that are taking place in the courses 
 of lessons are highly important, and they are 
 likely to be most helpful; but there is something 
 more important than these changes, and that is the 
 change in the purposes of the teachers. Here lies 
 the very root of the efficiency of the modern school 
 for its enlarged task. In every class, in every 
 lesson the purpose looks toward life and society. 
 The Bible is used as a means ; it is the tool in the 
 teacher's hands; it is the stimulus which acts on 
 
 89 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 the mind and will of the pupil. The teacher does 
 not teach the Bible ; he teaches persons. He does 
 not teach about the Bible; he teaches life by 
 means of the book which, above all other litera- 
 ture, steadily takes life in religious terms. The 
 new school is recovering from bibliolatry. There 
 was a time when it seemed that many Christian 
 people showed more reverence to the Bible than 
 they did to God ; they worked harder to defend the 
 book than they did to do the will of God; they 
 resented much more bitterly aught that seemed to 
 slight the Bible than they resisted all that op- 
 posed the will of God. 
 
 Today the teacher approaches the class con- 
 cerned, not so much with whether all the facts of 
 biblical archeology, geography, history and 
 exegesis are in mind, but concerned with the task 
 of aiding people in the problems of their lives. 
 The wise teacher thinks more about how people 
 have to live today and how they might live to- 
 getJier in doing the will of God than about how a 
 certain people lived three thousand years ago. 
 The teacher who would really teach thinks prin- 
 cipally on the problems of living people. The his- 
 torical setting of a chapter in Kings may be high- 
 ly interesting, so far as it can be determined, 
 but the teacher is not dealing with lives set in 
 that day. He deals with people who are most 
 definitely in the setting of this vital period of 
 time, the present. And no one can teach these 
 people who does not understand their lives and 
 their circumstances. 
 
 Some have said that the modem lesson courses 
 90 
 
THE NEW PEOGEAM OF TEACHING 
 
 drive out the Bible and substitute sociology and 
 philanthrophy. We might as well face this accu- 
 sation. If it means that we must choose between 
 applying to the life of today the sociology of 
 Deuteronomy or of Judges and the sociology of 
 our day, we can hardly hesitate in our choice. If 
 it means that we must choose between teaching 
 people ancient history and teaching them modern 
 religious duty and ideals, here also we cannot 
 hesitate. If it means that we must concentrate 
 on the spiritual problems of a people of long ago 
 and ignore the real spiritual issues of today, which 
 are in our social relations, in our current human 
 affairs, then all we can do is to take up the life 
 we have given to us, do our present duty and let 
 the dead bury their dead. Truly the modern les- 
 sons are disturbing the ancient peace of some in 
 Zion. If we teach social duty, the duty that deals 
 with taxes, wages, houses, working conditions, 
 every-day affairs in streets, factories, stores and 
 homes, some forms of business will be required 
 to make new adjustments, to think of workers and 
 consumers — and that would never do 1 
 
 But the issue is somewhat different. It is not a 
 question of giving up the Bible. It is a matter 
 of setting first all the time the great purpose of 
 the school and using for that purpose whatever 
 will most effectively aid in accomplishing its ends. 
 To the degree, and it is a very large degree, that 
 the Bible will aid in bringing on the active stage 
 of life a generation who will live by spiritual 
 ideals, who will actually put Christian brother- 
 hood into practice, who will make this world the 
 
 91 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 place where the will of the God of love is done, 
 then to that extent the Bible will be used. To 
 the extent that social studies, discussions of the 
 actual conditions, and of the practical ideals of a 
 righteous society will help, we will use this form 
 of material. It will not be a choice between bibli- 
 cal and extra-biblical material ; it will be the frank 
 acceptance of a new standard by which any ma- 
 terial of study is adopted, that standard being 
 the purpose of leading lives to ability to live in 
 and produce a Christian order. 
 
 GRADED SOCIAL INSTRX^CTIOU 
 
 A program of this character begins with the 
 lowest grades in the school. Social problems are 
 not peculiar to either youth or maturity; they 
 exist as soon as lives are brought together any- 
 where. The relations between little children in 
 their groups, the relations of the members of a 
 family are simple forms of social problems. This 
 Christian type of life is to be lived by the little 
 child in the family, amongst playmates and school- 
 mates. But that does not mean that the course 
 for the primary is called ^'The Social Problems 
 of Little Children." It means that the teacher 
 deals with the real, present facts of the lives of 
 little children. By means of the ideals that lead 
 conduct they are taught the right life in the 
 family, the life of the children of the family of 
 God in all relations. Such courses are now ar- 
 ranged and in use in many schools. 
 
 All through the grades teaching is adapted, not 
 
 92 
 
THE NEW PEOGRAM OF TEACHINa 
 
 only to the development of interests and in- 
 tellectual abilities, but to the facts of the life- 
 experiences of those who learn. Imagine the dif- 
 ference it makes to a boy when the lessons of the 
 school actually deal with his real life ! Think of 
 the boys and girls of from fifteen to eighteen at 
 different times discussing in the class such sub- 
 jects as the choice of occupation, recreations, 
 cheating in school, honesty in business, what does 
 one owe to his office or employer? Take that first 
 topic, would there be any sleepy heads in a group 
 of boys who were being led to think of the different 
 occupations and professions, to discuss their 
 forms of human service and to see the ways of 
 preparing for them? Or supposing we have the 
 vision to see the real place of play in a boy's life 
 and the courage to discuss the ball game, or any 
 game, would the class be voted a ''dead one'' if 
 it were taught by a man who knew the game ? But, 
 you object, would not the subject run away with 
 the boys or the boys with the subject? Certain- 
 ly, and, if the subject is, not the baseball ''dope" 
 in the newspapers, but the game itself, the game 
 as a real experience in life, is not that just what 
 you want? Is it not the teacher's splendid chance 
 to show, without labels, the art of living the life 
 of a religious person on "the diamond?" 
 
 Perhaps this sort of teaching needs a further 
 word; it sounds so revolutionary to many to talk 
 of teaching about base-ball in a Sunday school. 
 We must hold ourselves to a few facts. Base- 
 ball, and the round of games, is a part of the boy's 
 experience of life ; it is as much life to him as the 
 
 93 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 factory or office to the man. It is the active life 
 in which he forms the habits of aU living. Its 
 problems, its ethical and social questions are the 
 big questions to him. They are his social-prob- 
 lem realities. In the game his conscience will be 
 tried, his will tested, his ideals strained. If the 
 school cannot help him in the experience that is 
 so real, so vital and so potent for his life, how can 
 it help him to live as a religious person? 
 
 Baseball is cited as a sufficiently outstanding 
 example of the principle that the school must deal 
 with the realities of life. In so doing it is in con- 
 formity to the practice in general education. More 
 and more the child's lessons pass over from the 
 remote to the near, from the theoretical to the 
 actual. Even in the formal subjects he deals with 
 the realities of his own experience. He begins 
 geography with his own back-yard and his own 
 neighborhood ; he learns square root by measuring 
 the rug or carpet or wall-paper at home. He ap- 
 plies all he learns to realities. The child now 
 takes domestic science with an apron on and his 
 mathematics he acquires very largely with a 
 square and a saw in hand in the carpenter 's shop. 
 The school prepares for life by real experiences 
 in life. 
 
 When we come to adults, what a refreshing 
 change this new point-of-view effects ! The adult 
 class that used either to listen to a sermon by 
 the popular talker, called a teacher, or to spend 
 its hour in heated discussion over doctrinal sub- 
 tleties now takes a look at the world in which it 
 lives through the eyes of prophets of righteous- 
 
 94 
 
THE NEW PEOGEAM OF TEACHINa ' 
 
 ness and through the eyes of the Son of Man. 
 It studies the city right at hand, its problems and 
 its needs. It studies the grave questions of a 
 world that is finding itself and working out new 
 social relations. All its studies so deal with the 
 realities of life that they are bound to be inter- 
 esting and they are bound to lead men to think out ^ 
 the present social order in terms of a democracy ** 
 of the spirit. The subjects, too, are such that they 
 are bound to lead to programs of action. The 
 class, in the light of the realities of life, in view 
 of the degree to which they fall short of the ideals 
 which Jesus presented, and for which we pray, 
 cannot long sit contemplative or be content with 
 discussion. There is work to be done and the 
 class turns to learn how to do that work. 
 
 The practical studies lead to practice. The 
 school reaches out into the realities of present- 
 day life. And so the phrase ^ ' expressional activi- 
 ties '' comes to have a new significance; it stands 
 for all those forms of activities which inevitably 
 grow out of reality in teaching, for the living of 
 the life which is taught. 
 
 TEACHING AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 
 
 A still more significant change is taking place ; 
 it has had three stages of development ; the class 
 has become a social unit working together in a 
 common task, or enterprise; the teacher has be- 
 come a member of the group ; and the task of the 
 group has moved out from the mastery of certain 
 information into united endeavors to accomplish 
 
 95 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 certain purposes. Perhaps, for those who desire 
 to bring about the modern methods of class work, 
 the order should be reversed, for if the class is 
 guided into common enterprises, or social activi- 
 ties, they will realize their unity and will find 
 themselves, including the teacher, simply stand- 
 ing, moving and working together. A class in re- 
 ligion is no longer a little group, either volun- 
 tarily or under a compulsion it does not under- 
 stand, meeting periodically to study certain fixed 
 lessons. It is rather a group, guided by the pur- 
 pose of the school to develop in persons the 
 abilities of the religious life, and immediately 
 guided by its own desires to accomplish certain 
 purposes belonging to that life. It is a group co- 
 operating in learning through experience the 
 abilities of the religious life. 
 
 The first significance of this change, at least 
 the one most evident, is the new place of the 
 teacher. Formerly, here on one side was one who 
 knew and could tell ; on the other side were those 
 who were receiving knowledge. Now all are on 
 one side, commonly engaged in discovery. True, 
 the teacher will know much the others do not 
 know — and the class will know that the teacher 
 knows — ^but the teacher will so lead and so share 
 in the process of learning that he — or she — ^will, 
 with the class, know more and more as each step 
 is taken. The members of the class will feel that 
 the teacher is working with them, rather than on 
 them, in a common endeavor to do things and thus 
 to know things. 
 
 The second great significance lies in the experi- 
 96 
 
THE NEW PEOGEAM OF TEACHINa 
 
 ence every member of the class has in working 
 in a common effort. Class purpose takes the place 
 of individual pride and personal competitions; 
 cooperation supersedes competition. Our former 
 plans had some passing advantages for the bright 
 students who were spurred on to excel; they had 
 decided disadvantages for the others who were 
 discouraged. They had the disavantage, also, of 
 making only one standard of excellence, an arbi- 
 trary one, either of simple memory abilities or of 
 pure intellectual powers. Now the class life be- 
 comes a social experience. All learn to live and 
 work together. It becomes a practical training in 
 the art of democratic living under religious ideals. 
 The strong help the weak, and soon it is found that 
 all have elements of strength and each can play a 
 full and fair share in the life of all. This social 
 experience is largely possible in following regu- 
 lar schedules of lessons; the tasks in the field of 
 book knowledge may be socially shared ; they must 
 be if they are to have any reality. But the next 
 step in the development of teaching brings the 
 lessons over into larger reality and makes the so- 
 cial experience complete. 
 
 That next step is the direction of class activity 
 toward specific enterprises. By enterprises is 
 meant purpose and projects which are large 
 enough to take in the services of all, sufficiently 
 practical to have meaning and to call out their 
 powers, and which have the elements of the ideal, 
 of aims expressing the purposes of a religious 
 society. These are not simply so-called ^^expres- 
 sional activities^' tacked on to the regular class 
 
 97 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 program and carried forward outside the class. 
 For little cMldren they will be, usually, the work 
 which the class does in at least a large part of 
 its periods at all meetings. They will he things 
 actually done together in the class as well as at 
 other times. It will be hard to distinguish be- 
 tween the class times and the other times. And 
 for all classes they will be those purposes, plans 
 and activities which bind the class together, give 
 meaning to their studies and make the group really 
 a class. All this means not alone that the lesson 
 impressed in the class may be expressed in ac- 
 tion, but that cooperative action will be the means 
 by which the lesson is discovered and learned. 
 The teacher will not think, as we have been doing, 
 in this order: First, what lesson shall I teach in 
 the class ; and, second, what work shall I suggest 
 to express the lesson. The teacher will rather 
 plan : what work shall we undertake together as a 
 means of discovering together the way of the 
 Christian life? That brings all teaching over to 
 life; it makes us think every lesson out in the 
 essential terms of religion for the young, as a way 
 of living. And, since the work of the class is 
 done together, it makes all learning an experi- 
 ence possessing the essential characteristic of re- 
 ligion, social living. 
 
 Teaching of this character is not possible to 
 pedagogical cripples who cannot teach without 
 the crutches of lesson systems and lesson helps. 
 It is only possible to those who can see learning 
 as a process of life, religion as a way of living 
 together in the common human family of God. 
 
 98 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 VENTURES THAT LEAD TO THE GREAT 
 VENTURE 
 
 The last four chapters have discussed the appli- 
 cation of modern educational principles, by sim- 
 ple methods, to the work of schools commonly or- 
 ganized on the voluntary basis, with weekly ses- 
 sions. But the first chapter urged that that type 
 of school would be found to be entirely inade- 
 quate ; why then go on improving that which must 
 ultimately be discarded? One answer would be 
 that the way to get a modern public school plant 
 in a village would be to show that the one-room, 
 ungraded school was not big enough to hold mod- 
 em education when it got to work. Another an- 
 swer would be that, in social institutions, evolu- 
 tion has many advantages over revolution. A 
 further answer: the best way to convince the 
 church of the need for a wider plan is for the 
 school to take over its full program and thus dem- 
 onstrate the inadequacy of the present plan. The 
 improvements we make by the adoption of modern 
 methods are not efforts to save an institution; 
 they are endeavors to fulfil a duty ; they are steps 
 toward the accomplishment of the ultimate task 
 of the school. 
 Two things must be done : First, the whole task 
 
 99 
 
THE SCHOOL IX THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 mnst be held constantly in vievr so that every 
 change is directed toward a more efficient accom- 
 plishment of that task; second, the situation, as 
 it is, must be used to the fullest possible advan- 
 tage; whatever new methods, aiding toward the 
 ultimate ideal, are now possible must be insti- 
 tuted without waiting for the complete machinery 
 of the new to be established. 
 
 There are many churches and communities now 
 ready to thoroughly reorganize their work of the 
 religious education of the young. They are ready, 
 if only they saw the need, to organize in a man- 
 ner that would provide a program, comparable in 
 the light of the task to be ac-complished with the 
 program of general education, comprehensive 
 enough to embrace all the child's life as a re- 
 ligious person and as one growing into the life 
 of a society, adequate to take up the youth life of 
 a community and saturate it with the ideals, train 
 it in the habits, develojD it in the efficiencies and 
 abilities of a common social life realizing a divine 
 society. Such a progi^am involves the employ- 
 ment of several trained educators, a schedule of 
 work for all the week, a special physic-al equip- 
 ment, plans of coTTim unity coordination with the 
 educational activities of all sorts in the environ- 
 ment of the church, and the backing of an educa-r 
 tional-religious consciousness in the church. 
 
 But the number of such churches is not large. 
 This book is not designed specific-ally for them. 
 Their new tasks will not be exactly outlined in 
 books ; their programs will be worked out by the 
 educational experts whom they employ. Standard- 
 
 100 
 
VENTUEES 
 
 ization must not precede experience here. A nmn- 
 ber of schools are working out plans such as we 
 contemplate; they are the pioneers. They have 
 no stereotyped methods of organization or sched- 
 ules of work. But it is possible to state some of 
 the general features of an adequate program as 
 they have been discovered in the past few years 
 of experimentation under the realization of a 
 greatly enlarged responsibility. A brief sketch 
 of these general requirements will be a means of 
 indicating definite goals for all schools and stating 
 particular steps which schools may make toward 
 the full acceptance of their tasks. 
 
 A PLATFOEM FOB A CHUKCfi 
 
 Ventures will be limited by vision; we strike no 
 higher than we aim. Here is a standard toward 
 which almost any modern church might work. It 
 has been prepared with the possibilities of an 
 average church in mind. 
 
 I. THE NATTJEE OF EELIGIOTJS EDUCATIOIT 
 
 Education is the directed development of per- 
 sons into their full social experience. Eeligious 
 education is the directed development of per- 
 sons as determined by their religious nature and 
 by the aim of a religious society. 
 
 The immediate aim of religious education is the 
 training of persons to live completely and effi- 
 ciently as religious beings ; the uUiinate aim is the 
 realization, through such persons, of a religious 
 
 101 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 social order. Religions education looks toward 
 men and women whose lives are controlled by 
 spiritual standards and values, whose social rela- 
 tions are those of Christian love and good-will 
 and whose purposes in life are to realize the de- 
 mocracy of God in a common social order con- 
 trolled by spiritual standards and values. 
 
 The concern of the church in religious educa- 
 tion is revealed in the fact that the purpose of the 
 church and the aims of religious education may 
 be stated in similar terms. The church exists * ^ to 
 give to the world godlike men and women and a 
 God-willed society. ' ' This is the aim of religious 
 education. It is the process by which persons, as 
 religious beings are developed, as to their powers, 
 abilities and efficiencies. It is the process by which 
 the purpose of the church is normally realized. 
 Religious education, in its many aspects, is the 
 normal constant process by which the evangelistic 
 aim of the church is realized.^ 
 
 The process of religious education is that of in- 
 spiring, instructing and training human persons 
 in the ideals, motives, habits and efficiencies of 
 religious living. It develops the efficiencies of 
 lives. It uses teaching as a means, the Bible as a 
 means, the ^ 'faith' ^ as a means, and the school as 
 an agency, but the purpose and product is the 
 religious person and the religious society. 
 
 The field. The religious life is simply the whole 
 life as it is qualified and enriched with spiritual 
 ideals and power. Religious education is not di- 
 
 * This is the theme of the author 's ' ' Religious Education in the 
 Church," Scribners, 1918. 
 
 102 
 
VENTUEES 
 
 rected to the mind alone, as with the purpose of 
 storing it with knowledge about religion, nor to 
 **the soul" alone, as with the purpose of develop- 
 ing some separate life ; it is directed to the whole 
 of lives so that they may, in all their powers, in 
 every instinct, abihty and relationship, feel and 
 think, will and act in that characteristic way 
 which we call religious. Eeligious education is 
 not confined to instruction; it is not confined to 
 children nor to the Sunday school. It is operative 
 in every experience and in every range of life. 
 But there is a distinction between its formal and 
 its informal processes, between those which arise 
 incidentally and those which are organized spe- 
 cifically. The churches are interested in both 
 kinds of processes ; in an ideal society all the con- 
 ditions of life will be such as to contribute always 
 to the development of religious character, and we 
 shall count very largely on the informal methods 
 of education, through social experience in home 
 and school and playground. But the formal 
 processes lie immediately under our control and 
 it is possible at once to organize and direct them. 
 
 Standard: A check, of information, on every 
 young person in the community, and a plan of 
 training which reaches all for all their religious 
 needs. 
 
 The Means, What are the means of edncation 
 which now lie under or can be brought under the 
 direction of the churches so that they can become 
 methods of formal religious education? A review 
 of the activities of persons which contribute to 
 the educational process would help to answer this 
 
 103 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 question, and also would serve to suggest tlie 
 breadth of the field of religious education. The 
 statement of these activities does not pretend to 
 completeness, exact logical order nor scientific 
 accuracy. The formal process of education has 
 been defined as *Hhe organization of experience." 
 Now, taking the common types of experience or 
 forms of activity, which are those which the 
 churches can direct in a process of religious edu- 
 cation? Active experiences fall into two groups, 
 those which the churches can immediately direct, 
 and those which they can cause other agencies to 
 direct. 
 
 It is of prime importance to remember that di- 
 rection here does not mean arbitrary control; it 
 means stimulation and guidance so that persons 
 increasingly exercise their own powers of direc- 
 tion ; it must involve for all actual democratic ex- 
 perience in organization, selection and develop- 
 ment of activities. 
 
 a. Direct, The Church can organize and di- 
 rect the following activities (or experiences) of 
 persons : 
 
 Social groupings, both earlier and later. 
 (Will include social organization and directed 
 social living, training in development group 
 relations or causing normal social relations of 
 sexes, revelation of personal values.) 
 
 Instruction. (Will include Class Teaching; 
 Communicativeness. Conference. Discus- 
 sion. Leading to appreciation of values. 
 Training in mental abilities. Directed Labora- 
 104 
 
VENTURES 
 
 tory experience, developing powers of instruc- 
 tion.) 
 
 Play. (Including Recreation, Athletics, 
 Amusement, Pageants, Dramatics.) 
 
 Cooperative Social Enterprises. (Will in- 
 clude Group Activities, Service Enterprises, 
 Training in Cooperation, Expressional Activi- 
 ties.) 
 
 Worship. (Will include Stimulation to pri- 
 vate Worship. Training in group forms of 
 expression. Cultivation of aesthetic apprecia- 
 tion of nature.) 
 
 b. Indirect, The Church can aid the officers 
 responsible for the provision and guidance of the 
 following activities (or experiences) : 
 
 Training the child ^s physical life in the fam- 
 ily. Play, General Instruction, Helpful service, 
 Social living, including enterprises, coopera- 
 tion. Daily Work, Community Work, Citizen- 
 ship, Parenthood, Developing social relations 
 between the sexes. Appreciation of Nature. 
 The two groupings (a and b) are not rigidly 
 exclusive; responsibilities which the churches 
 have directly in their own work often reach over 
 indirectly into the work of other agencies. 
 
 II. THE DIEECT EESPONSIBILinES OP THE CHTJECH 
 
 The direct responsibilities of the church in re- 
 ligious education are not difficult to define. But 
 they must be determined by principles which are 
 fixed and uniform. They are not established by 
 institutional needs; they are determined by (a) 
 
 105 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 the purpose in view, (b) the needs of those who 
 are to be educated, (c) the laws under which their 
 lives grow, and (d) the social conditions under 
 which the work must be carried on. The group 
 of activities which the church can immediately 
 organize and direct (described above) are the 
 ones which it must use in constructing its pro- 
 gram of religious education. Therefore it will 
 organize and direct: 
 
 Social groupings. As a part of its task a church 
 will bring persons together in groups in order 
 that they may learn to live together, that social 
 coordination and habituations may be effected, 
 that social appreciations — of the values of per- 
 sonality and of society — ^may develop, that the 
 young may play together, work together and be 
 instructed together. It is the duty of a church 
 to train children for and to bring them into its 
 organization. The groupings will take place not 
 only in meetings, classes and societies, but in 
 definite efforts to associate persons of like stages 
 of development in small groups for acquaintance 
 and cooperation. A church will lead its youth into 
 an actual experience of living in the society of 
 God's children, in a true democracy of the spirit. 
 Meetings, classes, Young People's Societies, Boys' 
 Clubs, Girls' Clubs, Scouts and all fitting organ- 
 izations have their most important bases here. 
 
 Such groups will be largely and increasingly 
 autonomous ; activity in them will be an experience 
 in social self-control. 
 
 Standard: No child outside of an organized 
 group ; no group instinct neglected. 
 
 106 
 
VENTURES 
 
 Play, A church will organize and direct the free 
 and ideal activities of its people. It mil recog- 
 nize in play a most effective means of education 
 because it is the growing person's most natural 
 activity, the happiest one, the one into which most 
 of his powers are projected, in w^hich he most 
 freely and variedly practices social adjustments 
 and the one in which he acquires his own habits 
 and forms his ideals. Youth always will play and 
 men and women are playing more than ever ; the 
 church, seeking an ideal life for them, must pro- 
 vide for these ideal experiences. It must not only 
 take an interest in play and cooperate with other 
 agencies; it must furnish opportunities, facilities 
 and guidance. It must arrange a definite pro- 
 gram of play as a means by which persons learn 
 to live together. It must train through play. 
 
 Standard: Facilities, time, guidance for play 
 and general recreation of all. 
 
 Instruction, A church will provide all facilities 
 needed for learning the way of religious living. 
 It will establish learning groups, furnish leaders, 
 arrange an articulated curriculum, supervise in- 
 struction, coordinate it to activities and unify all 
 its work into an educational organization. In- 
 struction will be provided for the follomng pur- 
 poses: (1) Cooperative discovery of truth. Every 
 class is a social experience in the discovery of the 
 mental forces and tools of life. (2) Stimulation 
 through truth, Eeligious instruction will aim to 
 lead to familiarity with the ideas and ideals which 
 guide and stimulate to religious living. Instruc- 
 tion in the Bible mil be planned to stimulate to 
 
 107 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUBCH 
 
 religious character, to religious action, and to re- 
 ligious social organization. (3) Enrichment of 
 personality through truth. Courses will be 
 planned so that each one, through instruction, 
 ^may obtain his spiritual heritage. Lives are to 
 be enriched through the ideals and motives of 
 leaders, developing ethical concepts, enlarging vi- 
 sion of the universe and of life's meaning, and the 
 impulse of the rich tide of the past which must 
 come through the teaching of religious history, 
 through the Bible and through later history, 
 through literature and tradition. (4) Realization 
 of full social universe. By experience the church 
 leads each one into his full environment. Step 
 by step his enlarging life must be opened up to 
 him ; he must be helped to understand and to con- 
 ceive religiously the life of the family, the life of 
 the neighborhood, the school, work, business, play, 
 social living in all its phases, going out into the 
 widening circles of state and nation and the world, 
 reaching out until the universe is united in the 
 love and power of God. He will be taught to dis- 
 cover and know his world as the world in which 
 he is living and will go on to live as a religious 
 person, as the world that may become a religious 
 society. This instruction, then, will include in its 
 scope the family, the church, civics, social duty, 
 right living. Home and Foreign Missions, Inter- 
 national or World Living ; it will lead to the ideas 
 of God and what we have called the doctrines of 
 the church. It will have numerous forms of or- 
 ganization: Sunday schools. Young People's 
 Classes and Society, Men's and Women's Clubs 
 
 108 
 
VENTURES 
 
 and Societies, week-day schools of religion, Lec- 
 tures, Correspondence and extension courses. But 
 all forms of Instruction must be coordinated and 
 directed by a central authority in each church, the 
 Board or Committee on Religious Education. 
 
 Standard: A graded curriculum based on life 
 and social needs of all; opportunity for all neces- 
 sary subjects at some time and for development 
 of all necessary abilities. 
 
 Cooperative Social Enterprises', The church 
 will develop, as a part of its task in religious edu- 
 cation, these forms of experience which modern 
 education tends most to stress. It will provide 
 for the learner's way of discovering truth through 
 experience. It ►will plan cooperative activities 
 definitely on the principles of education, that we 
 learn through experience, that only that is real 
 which is realized through all the powers, in action 
 as well as in contemplation, that working together 
 we develop powers of cooperation and of social 
 living, and that the ideal end develops vision, en- 
 larges ideals and strengthens high loyalties. It 
 will organize classes as forms of cooperative en- 
 terprise. All the service activities of the school, 
 the young people's society and the various organ- 
 izations of the church will come under this head. 
 Ail service will be treated as important not alone 
 for what it accomplishes (as in relief, reform, 
 etc.), but for its effects on those who serve. The 
 life of service mil be part of the program of re- 
 ligious education. Whatever service activity in 
 the church — relief, conununity work, missions, 
 charities, national service — is socially organized 
 
 109 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 must be coordinated in the program of religious 
 education. The work in which a group engages 
 can never be considered per se, nor can it be con- 
 sidered solely as to the ends sought; it must be 
 studied and guided in the light of its effect on 
 those who do the work. 
 
 Standard: Activity a conscious, organized di- 
 rected element of varied forms. 
 
 Worship. As a part of its duty in religious edu- 
 cation a church will (a) train in the art of wor- 
 ship, and (b) provide all necessary experience in 
 worship as a means of religious development. 
 Fundamentally worship is the cultivation of the 
 sense of spiritual values in the universe. Back of 
 all services of worship there must be a conscious- 
 ness of worthful ends and objects. Then the 
 service of worship will become the social stimulus 
 of our joy in that which is highest and best. Di- 
 vine worship will be our search for the society of 
 God. But it must include many forms of appre- 
 ciation of beauty and of joy. It has an element 
 of the joy of human fellowship. It is strengthened 
 by the fitting beauty of edifice, stimulated by mu- 
 sic and other aesthetic appeals, intensified by uni- 
 fied expression of sentiments in connnon prayers 
 and song, and illuminated and guided by the mes- 
 sage from the pulpit. Worship, so conceived, 
 is essential to the program of religious education, 
 though from this viewpoint, it has been almost 
 wholly neglected by the churches. It will include 
 not only the formal services of the church and 
 the school but attention to (a) private prayer, and 
 devotion and meditation, (b) training in family 
 
 110 
 
VENTURES 
 
 worship, (c) graded worship, by forms or methods 
 suitable to the developing stages of young lives 
 and to the needs of small groups ; classes will be 
 trained in worship, (d) congregational worship. 
 It will involve the careful designing of all our 
 present orders of worship with reference to their 
 effects on the spiritual lives of the worshippers. 
 It will call for careful instruction in the elements 
 of worship, for the intelligent appreciation of 
 hymns, or prayer and the scriptures. 
 
 Standard: Varied t}i)es of worship designed to 
 meet needs according to age, temperament and 
 circumstance. 
 
 III. INDIEECT KESPONSIBILITIES OF A CHUECH 
 
 What of the indirect responsibilities of the 
 church in Religious Education? There are cer- 
 tain forms of teaching and training in which 
 churches cannot directly engage, and yet these 
 forms affect most directly and potentially the de- 
 velopment of the characters of persons. In these 
 cases it is essential that the agencies which do di- 
 rectly teach and train shall be guided so that their 
 work may be directed to the same spiritual aim as 
 that of the church. 
 
 1. The family must be inspired with a sense of 
 its place as a religious institution and its educa- 
 tional responsibility for the religious character 
 of its members. 
 
 Parents must be trained in classes, to under- 
 stand the duties of parenthood, to become religious 
 educators of their children. Here the responsi- 
 
 111 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 bility of the church is very grave, very clear and 
 sadly neglected. If children cannot be reached 
 in their early lives, in their homes and there 
 trained in religious living, the outlook is dark in- 
 deed. There is no other agency, beside the church, 
 to guide parents in the duty and joy of training 
 their children to live as God's children. Classes 
 must be provided and courses conducted. Meet- 
 ings should be held frequently of a conference 
 nature for parents. Small groups should be or- 
 ganized for young people looking forward to 
 marriage and home life. 
 
 2. Public schools must be supported and guid- 
 ed by a public opinion which demands a moral 
 product, which demands that the young shall not 
 become hostile to spiritual ideals nor indifferent 
 to them through school experience. The school 
 does not and cannot teach religion formally, but 
 its experience may lead to the interpretation of 
 life in terms of social love and service. It can 
 strengthen the love of beauty, the spirit of ap- 
 preciation of spiritual values, the habits of com- 
 munion with nature and wdth high thoughts. The 
 church should become the inspirer and cooperator 
 of the school. 
 
 3. In the commimity, where a thousand influ- 
 ences are operative to make character, the church 
 cannot directly determine conditions, but, as a 
 religious educator, she is responsible for opinion, 
 for the spirit of the people and the ideals of the 
 town. She, further, can directly train her people 
 to do the work which makes the community a 
 
 112 
 
VEXTUEES 
 
 place favorable to the growth of spiritual lives. 
 She can cause conditions to prevail favorable to 
 religious home. This responsibility spreads out 
 into the world community. The church has an ex- 
 tensive as well as an intensive program of re- 
 ligious education. Her task is not only to teach 
 and train her own people, young and old, but, 
 also, to convert the world so that all its life may 
 be turned to a force for godliness. 
 
 TV. THE riELD OF A CHirECH rs- EELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 1. The field as to persons , all those within the 
 parish, or within the area of a church who are not 
 already related to other churches. The primary 
 responsibility is for the young, because : they are 
 educable; all life is before them; they are the 
 future church and the future society. But no 
 person lies outside the educational responsibility 
 of the church. 
 
 2. As to area: Each church is commonly re- 
 sponsible for the entire life of a parish, but with 
 tasks so large and common as religious education 
 churches will find coperation not only feasible but 
 highly desirable. 
 
 3. ^5 to field of instruction and training: All 
 that in any way directly contributes to the de- 
 velopment of religious character and efficiencies. 
 Under our civil ideals the church is the social 
 agency peculiarly responsible for religion; the 
 state commits religious education solely to the 
 churches. TVhen the churches take their educa- 
 
 113 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 tional task as seriously as the state has taken its 
 task, then the world will take seriously our as- 
 sertion that religion is the most important of all 
 life's concerns. 
 
 By religious instruction and training we mean 
 not only instruction about religion and not only 
 training in its work, but all forms of directed ex- 
 perience that are socially designed to develop the 
 religious qualities and powers of lives, to make 
 persons live as God's children, to render them effi- 
 cient to make this world His home. 
 
 V. THE TASK 
 
 In the United States we can conceive the pro- 
 gram of the church with peculiar clarity because 
 it is the only institution in the community which 
 exists specifically for religious purposes and it 
 is the only one which has entire freedom in mat- 
 ters of religious teaching. 
 
 1. The task is a definite one. While it is here 
 conceived in those broad terms of life which any 
 modem concept of education must inevitably use, 
 it is also purposely limited to certain specific 
 activities in the church. In a word, it is the pro- 
 gram of the church so far as it has to do with 
 the orderly, designed development of a Christian 
 society through training the lives of persons. 
 
 2. The task is a comprehensive one. But it is 
 evident that this task is so comprehensive and so 
 important that it will call for a large proportion 
 of the time of those who are being trained, a large 
 
 114 
 
VENTURES 
 
 portion of tlie time-program of chnrclies, special 
 trained leadership and special equipment. The 
 realization of these needs and the attempts, in 
 many ways, to meet them will effect a complete 
 reorganization of the program of churches in the 
 next few years. 
 
 3. The task is a complicated one; it is no longer 
 the simple one of conducting a weekly Sunday 
 school which taught a series of lessons in the 
 Bible. It now includes many classes, often fully 
 organized week-day schools, professionally trained 
 and employed teachers and supervisors, a cur- 
 riculum that embraces the Bible, church-history, 
 social service, missions, philanthropy, vocational 
 guidance, family life, community life, temperance, 
 hygiene, scouting, forms of church usefulness, 
 ethical problems, theology and pliilosophy. Its 
 activities are no longer confined to class work^ 
 they spread through all the week and reach out 
 into every phase of social and community living; 
 they reach to the comers of the earth. The task 
 is also complicated by the fact that its increas- 
 ing demands on time must be adjusted to life- 
 programs which tend to become crowded more 
 and more. This is true, especially, in the case 
 of the school child. One problem for the church 
 is to secure for the child a fair measure of time 
 for religious training. 
 
 4. The tash calls for coordination. It calls for 
 the establishment in each church of a program, 
 (a) for all lives, (b) for all the needs of lives, 
 
 (c) for all the demands of the kingdom of God, 
 
 (d) adapted to social and community conditions,, 
 
 115 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 (e) graded in order of need and development. 
 There are at present many programs of instruc- 
 tion, but none of education. Not only are there 
 serious wastes and duplications under present 
 conditions, but there are large areas untouched 
 and larger ones unorganized. There are phases 
 of education in the church which are left entirely 
 to fortuitous circumstances; there are forces un- 
 developed and, so far, we have scarcely touched 
 the formation of a program in which all the va- 
 rious activities would be coordinated, related in 
 the unity of a common purpose, each discharging 
 its due function. This can only be effected by 
 educational leadership. This is the prime need in 
 respect to religious education in the churches. 
 
 116 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 STEPS FORWARD 
 
 The realization of tlie ideals outlined in the last 
 chapter will depend on a number of factors, many 
 of which are at once controllable in almost every 
 church, some of which may be immediately at- 
 tacked and brought into power and under control, 
 and some of which call for a long program of pa- 
 tient development. The fact that a church can- 
 not at once reach the ideal is a double reason for 
 proclaiming that ideal and beginning to move to- 
 ward it. The larger program is here stated not 
 to discourage those who can realize but a small 
 portion of it, but to enable any school anywhere 
 to take the next step forward from that point in 
 the program which they have already reached. 
 
 The principal, larger factors toward competency 
 in a church program of religious education are : 
 
 A general leadership conscious of the task and 
 meaning of religious education. This involves 
 an educated ministry ; the personal, spiritual lead- 
 er must know what religious education means ; he 
 must not catch at empty, current phrases, either 
 of commendation or of condemnation; he must 
 not think of the school as a fifth wheel of his ma- 
 chine ; it must be simply the form of organization 
 through which an essential part of the whole work 
 
 117 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 of the churcli is performed. If the chnrch takes 
 its work seriously it will include these qualifica- 
 tions amongst those essential for its minister. It 
 will insist on general education — as contrasted 
 with either limited or narrow special preparation 
 — and it will insist on sufficient knowledge of re- 
 ligious education to give sympathy and under- 
 standing for the work as it develops in the church. 
 Few considerations are of greater importance 
 than this one ; the minister is still the leader, and, 
 as all who work in religious education will testify, 
 he is still the most serious problem. No doubt the 
 ultimate blame rests on the church; but, even 
 then, he is the shepherd, and for their guidance, 
 their intellectual training in religion, he is re- 
 sponsible. If they insist that his task is a pulpit- 
 centric one ; if they tie him down to the tread-mill 
 of parochial trivialities, then he must shepherd 
 them into better concepts. But he has his shep- 
 herds ; the Theological Seminaries make him what 
 he is with their traditional systems. The people 
 who see the problem of the church at first hand 
 need to insist that the seminaries shall train men 
 in the light of the real fields in which they are to 
 work, train them for the tasks they have to per- 
 form, train them into abilities in the highly spe- 
 cialized forms of professional service before them. 
 With some notable exceptions the minister is not 
 a professionally trained man ; he has a schooling, 
 often super-imposed on a college course, in the 
 subjects he is supposed to use in preaching. He 
 faces a professional task which lasts all through 
 the hours of every day, and he is trained for a 
 
 118 
 
STEPS FORWAED 
 
 duty wHcIl lasts but an hour or two once a week. 
 He has to ^ide the lives, organize the experi- 
 ences, stimulate the minds and feelings, form the 
 ideals of many, always with the aim of a religious 
 society and world — and he is trained principally 
 in linguistics, history and philosophy! The great 
 venture for the v/hole church today is to look the 
 present hour in the face, to look at the streets and 
 highways where men are, and then, asking what 
 God would have us do with all this, to insist that 
 the schools of the ministry shall prepare men who 
 can carry out the will of God with the ways of 
 men. "We will have a real leadership when the 
 seminaries are forced to look at life as it is and at 
 lives as they are and, especially, to recognize the 
 lives of the young.^ 
 
 But the need for general leadership implies 
 more; it means an educated church, a society 
 understanding the meaning of religious education 
 and hospitable to its methods. While the educa- 
 tion of the church is the first duty of the minister 
 we have seen that the situation is complicated by 
 the fact that the minister is often lamentably 
 ignorant and often helpless in this field. Then it 
 becomes the duty of every one who has any light 
 to pass it on. The missionary obligation rests on 
 every advantage. The duty to labor for the con- 
 version of others applies to every sort of conver- 
 sion that would make them better people, better 
 to live with and better workers. Help the minis- 
 
 * Before the Pulpit Committee calls a new minister, let every 
 member read "A Voice from the Crowd,'* by George Wharton 
 Pepper. 
 
 119 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 ter to get for his library table the best books deal- 
 ing with the larger aspects of his work. See that 
 he gets the new books in religious education even 
 though you have to pass them on to him from your 
 own reading. Be sure that the school library is 
 properly supplied with the books that lead to in- 
 telligent service. The writer has visited thou- 
 sands of churches and he has never seen a good, 
 modem, workers* library in a poor church. Be- 
 sides, there are excellent magazines which ought 
 to have wide circulation in every church. Church 
 boards, and other organizations publish for free 
 distribution highly valuable pamphlets on modem 
 ideals and methods. The materials are now avail- 
 able for campaigns of promotion and the stimula- 
 tion and guidance of the thought of the people.^ 
 
 A CORPS OP WORKERS 
 
 The second general factor is the employment of 
 trained educators. The educational task of the 
 modern church is so highly specialized that it re- 
 quires the direction of those especially trained for 
 that task. This need has been recognized in the 
 development of the profession of ** Church Di- 
 rectors of Religious Education.'* ^ 
 
 Besides the director there will be needed pro- 
 fessionally trained teachers to carry out parts of 
 the full program of the church ; they will take over 
 the larger part of teaching, arranging a program 
 
 ^Get the Circulars of The Eeligious Education Association, 
 Cliieago. 
 
 * Described in Chapter VI. 
 
 120 
 
STEPS FOEWAKD 
 
 of classes so that each teacher will have different 
 classes a nnmber of hours every week. No one 
 any longer questions the propriety of paying 
 teachers who give the whole or the greater por- 
 tion of their time in this work. Every laborer is 
 worthy of his hire and the work of teaching the 
 religious life to the young is surely worthy of the 
 dignity of employed service. 
 
 But what can the *^ average'' church do toward 
 such an ideal? It means the enlargement of the 
 employed staff from one, the minister, to at least 
 three and perhaps many more. First, there are 
 many churches that would find it just as easy to 
 pay the salaries of two or three people, as they 
 now find it to pay one, if each one of those three 
 really had a clear-cut, definite, necessary task. 
 There are thousands of churches ready for Direc- 
 tors if only the people had faith enough to begin. 
 When they see that the child is a responsibility at 
 least as immediate as the adult they will employ 
 a minister, an educator, for the children just as 
 naturally as they now employ one for the adults. 
 The community that engages twenty or thirty per- 
 sons solely for the general education of children 
 can, if they believe in their children as religious 
 persons, afford at least half that number, if 
 needed, for the religious training of their chil- 
 dren. 
 
 At least this step may be taken in any church : 
 see that the actual direction of work in education 
 is in the hands of people who know what the work 
 means. There are always some godly educators — 
 often there are more than we imagine — in every 
 
 121 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 community who will give tlieir voluntary services. 
 The program of the church for the young should 
 be in their hands. Let them use their specialized 
 training and experience. But they must remem- 
 ber that the task of religious education is differ- 
 ent, in many respects, from the task of the public 
 schools. It cannot be narrowed down into their 
 present mechanizations ; it cannot be accomplished 
 wholly, nor even principally by classes and in- 
 struction routine; it embraces the widest reaches 
 and greatest depths of every life ; it has a purpose 
 higher than general education has yet stated for 
 itself. But the general educator, with a religious 
 vision and purpose, is a worker that every church 
 ought to use and follow. Under such guidance the 
 work of religious education would so develop that 
 its significance would be evident; its program 
 would soon become so convincing that support for 
 adequate specialized leadership would be supplied. 
 
 A DIEECTIVE BODY 
 
 The third factor toward efficiency will be the 
 organization of a special, responsible directing 
 body in the church. This now usually takes the 
 form of a Board or Committee on Religious Edu- 
 cation. This is a step possible in every church. 
 It is obligatory on churches of the Methodist com- 
 munions according to their Discipline. It has 
 been formally adopted as the standard by several 
 of the denominational boards. The Board is sim- 
 ply the group officially appointed in the local 
 church, selected on the basis of their qualifications 
 
 122 
 
STEPS FOEWARD 
 
 in religious education, to be responsible for the 
 entire program in their field, for school, curricu- 
 lum, teaching staff, program of activities, recrea- 
 tion, community coordinations, budget, physical 
 plant, all employed and voluntary workers neces- 
 sary to the entire program of religious education.^ 
 
 EQUIPMENT 
 
 The next step forward will be the provision of 
 physical facilities for a program of religious edu- 
 cation. That simply means that there will be the 
 buildings, rooms, equipment and open spaces 
 necessary to accommodate every form of organ- 
 ization and activity for the young. 
 
 The ideal requirements as to physical equip- 
 ment can only be briefly stated; they are so in- 
 tricate as to details and so varied according to 
 types of work to be done that special books are 
 devoted to this subject.^ Many churches now have 
 school buildings, various degrees of which have 
 been designed for educational purposes. These 
 provide a separate classroom for every class in 
 the school, with two to four assembly rooms for 
 departments, and with other larger rooms for 
 social and recreation purposes. The whole plant 
 seems to be so large as to be beyond the means of 
 the average church. It involves an expenditure 
 calling for most careful thought, for these rooms 
 for classes will, under current plans, be used only 
 
 ^ Described in detail in ' ' The Modern Sunday School and Ita 
 Present-Day Task," Henry F. Cope. 
 
 2 ''The Sunday-School Building and Its Equipment," H. F. 
 Evans. 
 
 123 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 once a week and then only for about one hour ; the 
 assembly rooms will be nsed only a few times each 
 week. One would hesitate to put up a public 
 school building — or any other building except a 
 lodge or a church — to be used only one hour a 
 week. When the school assembles each class needs 
 a separate room, needs it so badly that even this 
 heavy expense seems to be justified. But the 
 whole plan is wrong; it concentrates all religious 
 instruction in a single hour and demands equip- 
 ment for that single hour adequate to carry the 
 entire load at once. It is like an expensive plant 
 which runs at peak-load for one hour and then 
 shuts down the rest of the week. Why not spread 
 the load? Would it not be possible for the church 
 to arrange a schedule of classes so that every child 
 should have more than one hour of instruction 
 and yet at no time would there be more than a 
 small proportion of the students in classes ? Thus, 
 instead of, say, 20 class rooms, three to five would 
 be sufficient. 
 
 So far, then, as physical provision for classes is 
 concerned a step forward may be taken by se- 
 curing four or five properly equipped rooms, and 
 these will be sufficient for many schools, provided^ 
 that the step mentioned above, the employment 
 of a professional leader has been already taken, 
 and that the step to be next described, the pro- 
 vision of a week-long program, has been made. 
 For the school which has a week schedule, instead 
 of crowding all activities into one day, wiU dis- 
 tribute them with some equality through the week, 
 
 124 
 
STEPS FOEWARD 
 
 and that school will need a much smaller build- 
 ing and fewer rooms than the one-day, peak-load 
 school. 
 
 But the modem school needs more than class 
 rooms; it organizes its work with instruction as 
 incidental; it will need rooms and equipment for 
 a great variety of activities, for social gatherings, 
 clubs, societies, orchestras, bands, play, recrea- 
 tion, hobbies, shopwork and facilities for forms of 
 service. Red Cross, sewing bands, Scouts, devo- 
 tional and worshipping groups. But the accom- 
 modations of so great a variety of activities de- 
 pend very largely on wisdom in planning the 
 rooms, in equipping them and in the arrangement 
 of a schedule which keeps them all in use. Leav- 
 ing out of consideration for a moment such special 
 purposes as the gymnasium and workshop, for the 
 church of from two to four hundred members 
 eight or nine rooms would be ample, four to six 
 of which could be smaller rooms arranged for 
 classes, while all the rooms could be used for so- 
 cial and similar purposes. 
 
 An adequate physical plant means more than a 
 building; it means equipment for all rooms for all 
 their purposes, and it means proper maintenance 
 and care. The selection of the equipment calls 
 for patient study of needs and of present possi- 
 bilities on the part of the Board of Religious Edu- 
 cation; to keep the plant at its highest level of 
 cleanliness, healthfulness and efficiency is not only 
 a general duty, it is one of the most effective 
 means of training the minds of those who use it. 
 
 125 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 A PEOGRAM 
 
 An ideal situation in a churcli will have as its 
 organizing center a comprehensive program. We 
 have worked for a long while at a program of in- 
 struction, with the result that we have a highly 
 complicated institution called the Sunday school; 
 it is time that we worked out a program of edu- 
 cation. Those who develop this will come to see 
 the life of children in its entirety; they will con- 
 sider the processes of the development of religious 
 character and abilities as going on all the time; 
 they will recognize the possibilities of co5peration 
 in every institution and occasion that touches the 
 lives of children at any time. That committee 
 will recognize especially the tremendous impor- 
 tance and value of the leisure hours; they will 
 seek to use them, not to drive children from the 
 free outdoors into classes, but to direct their free 
 play so that they may get the greatest joy and the 
 greatest possible good out of it. They will rightly 
 estimate the hunger for recreation and for amuse- 
 ment and the power of the present commercial 
 amusement agencies. In a word they will look 
 out on the whole community and see it as a con- 
 stantly operative school of life, and they will 
 look out on the whole of every child's life, his 
 complete time program and his range of interests 
 and activities, and see all as means of realizing 
 the purposes of the church in religious educa- 
 tion. Then that committee will sit down and plan 
 a community program of religious education. 
 
 126 
 
STEPS FOEWARD 
 
 A COMMUNITY PKOGRAM 
 
 The construction of a program mil involve : (a) 
 a survey of the field, the community, its people 
 and their needs (for details see Chapter Five) ; 
 of the resources of the community ; of the church, 
 its persons, working forces, organizations, equip- 
 ment and present program; (b) a survey of the 
 means by which the purpose of religious educa- 
 tion may be developed in the community, present 
 activities — of play, study, work — which may be 
 utilized; social gatherings, meetings, worship, 
 schools, libraries, lodges or clubs; materials of 
 study, literature, facts of current life, history, 
 natural phenomena; (c) an attempt to effect co- 
 ordination amongst the agencies now at work. 
 The committee will select, determine the places, 
 time-schedules and work of the different agencies 
 and organizations which can best do its work. It 
 will study all the societies in the church and seek 
 to effect an orderly program, free from overlap- 
 ping and competition or duplication, in the 
 Brotherhoods, Women's Societies, Young People's 
 Societies, Junior Societies, Pastor's Classes, 
 Scouts, Camp-Fire Girls, Knights, Bands, Guilds, 
 Leagues, Missionary Circles and like organiza- 
 tions. Training Classes, Service agencies, Mercy 
 Bands, Play, Recreation and Athletic organiza- 
 tions and the many other organizations within the 
 church. Their program will be conditioned by 
 programs which are made up of activities out- 
 side the church, by school-work, societies, educa- 
 
 127 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 tional duties, as music, etc., by clubs and social 
 interests, by recreation plans. 
 
 No matter how large and strong a church may 
 be it will not accomplish a program of this char- 
 acter over night; in any case it will take a long 
 time. No matter how small a church may be there 
 is essentially nothing in the program which it 
 cannot attempt. In fact, the small church has ad- 
 vantages in making this venture toward greater 
 efficiency. It has a smaller number of factors to 
 deal with and therefore it has a simpler task. It 
 should begin by seeing that its committee or Board 
 of religous education will seriously take up this 
 responsibility. Let them begin by gathering the 
 facts.^ The community may seem to be so small 
 and compact that every one already knows the 
 facts; a survey will reveal the fallacy of that 
 impression. It will furnish the facts necessary to 
 plan any organization of forces. 
 
 All this organizing and planning will have little 
 value unless the next simple step is taken: adver- 
 tise your program. Make a plain plan and then 
 make it plain to every one. Whatever programs 
 are arranged should be known to all so that fami- 
 lies make their plans to fit into the general scheme 
 for all. Do not fear printer's ink, even though 
 you know your plans are imperfect. Your printed 
 programs are like railroad schedules, far from in- 
 spired but wholly essential. Let every one know 
 everything that is available in the church and in 
 the community of a character helpful to the lives 
 
 *A good guide will be found in ''A Survey of Religious Educa- 
 tion in a Church/' by W. C. Bower. (Univ. of Chicago Press.) 
 
 128 
 
STEPS FOEWARD 
 
 of the young. The church calendar may do, as a 
 medium, if it is thoroughly revised. It ought to 
 be the ^' house-organ" of this concern of several 
 hundred workers. It ought to present every week 
 a fairly complete program of healthful, helpful, 
 interesting opportunities and activities, all making 
 for finer boys and girls, better men and women 
 and a more truly divine society. 
 
 The last step to be mentioned — ^not the last to 
 be taken — must be evident by this time: secure 
 community cooperation and coordination. The ulti- 
 mate purpose is to make the whole of social liv- 
 ing a means of training in religion. Our pro- 
 grams may be adjusted to the programs of schools, 
 libraries, park-boards and recreation agencies and 
 they must work toward a common program for the 
 entire community. 
 
 Now we can turn to look at the detail of the 
 program of instruction looking toward a program 
 requiring more time or affording a richer pro- 
 gram than is now possible on the Sunday schedule. 
 
 129 
 
CHAPTER X 
 THE WEEK-DAY SCHOOL 
 
 I. THE NEED FOE EXTENSION 
 
 The greater the efficiency of the modern Sunday 
 school the keener will be its realization of inade- 
 quacy. It is only when we are not trying to do 
 all that we ought to do that we are satisfied with 
 what we have done. Only the school with a short- 
 measure standard will be content with its work. 
 When the school realizes that its program is not 
 less than that of adequate preparation of the 
 young for life in a religious society, that it looks 
 forward to the realization of the kingdom of God 
 through its training for the young, then it will 
 see that a program so large as this cannot pos- 
 sibly be accomplished in a series of weekly meet- 
 ings or a series even of the most intensive and 
 efficient class periods. 
 
 It may be that the school could, if the condi- 
 tions of instruction were favorable, give the chil- 
 dren a fairly adequate knowledge of the Bible in 
 the time afforded by its present schedules. That 
 was the old ideal, the school would be satisfied 
 with itself when its schedules of instruction and 
 its management of sessions permitted the teacher 
 to take a child through the Bible in so many years. 
 
 130 
 
THE WEEK-DAY SCHOOL 
 
 Now we have a much larger task, one in which 
 biblical instruction is a means to an end. The 
 task is no less than the training of lives in all 
 the knowledge, ideals, habits, efficiencies and 
 motives of life in a society which is guided by- 
 spiritual ideals. The school is to take almost the 
 entire burden so far as schoohng goes, of train- 
 ing this child so that he will live the life of Chris- 
 tian goodness, kindness, social love and truth, 
 so that he will be efficient to work in society to se- 
 cure Christian conditions of living for others, so 
 that he may be able to do his full part to make his 
 age a truly Christian age. Can that be accom- 
 plished by a series of weekly lessons each about 
 thirty minutes long? 
 
 Society is not mistaken in devoting about 
 twenty-seven hours a week for nine months of 
 each year of the growing child's life to his gen- 
 eral training. Is society right in devoting only 
 one-half of one hour each week to his training in 
 the motive and spirit of right living? With the 
 whole burden of religious training resting on the 
 churches, since the schools are excluded from the 
 work and the families have abandoned it, surely 
 we must see the folly of a program of education 
 that gives often fifty times as much time to train- 
 ing in the method of making a living as it does to 
 the motives of life. ^g 
 
 It is evident we cannot get more time, or at th , 
 best we can get but little more time for religi:^ ^ 
 instruction on Sunday. Even though t ^ -" ^ 
 arrange two sessions of Sunday school. ^^^^^ ^ 
 long been the custom in England, that f^^^^ Boards 
 
 131 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 be one calling for most careful deliberation. One 
 wonders whether it is wise to add to the school 
 burdens on the day of rest. As the Sunday school 
 becomes more truly a school it must more and 
 more carry over some of the work-emphasis of the 
 day school and so tend to make this day less truly 
 a day of rest. 
 
 All our needs point to a method which is not 
 entirely new; it has been tried for years in the 
 past, rarely in North America but frequently in 
 Europe. That method is to provide for regular 
 classes in religious studies during the week. We 
 cannot have such classes in public schools in the 
 United States. It is best that the churches should 
 be solely responsible for them because they are to 
 carry forward the work of the churches. It would 
 be a serious mistake, so far as the future of the 
 churches is concerned, if they should commit to 
 other agencies the responsibility for the religious 
 training of the young. 
 
 Week-day religious education is a relatively new 
 
 phrase. It represents the new consciousness on 
 
 the part of the churches of responsibility for a 
 
 full program of religious instruction. It has had 
 
 practical demonstration in a number of instances. 
 
 In brief, it can be described as the system by 
 
 which a church, or a group of churches, arrange 
 
 that the children of a parish or a community shall 
 
 'ij instructed in religion in classes which are held 
 
 ^^tated times during the week. It looks to some- 
 
 with i^Tich more comprehensive than the occa- 
 
 its man^^s^Sj as for catechumens, which churches 
 
 to take a cY^ provided. It provides a series of 
 
 132 
 
THE WEEK-DAY SCHOOL 
 
 classes, with work usually graded parallel to the 
 public school grades, for all children. The plans 
 usually contemplate at least one week-day full 
 recitation period of from thirty to forty-five 
 minutes under expert teachers, in regularly or- 
 ganized classes, for every child each week. In 
 many instances children are offered from two to 
 three such periods a week. 
 
 n. THE GAEY PLAN OF INSTRUCTIOlSr 
 
 At the time of writing there are enrolled over 
 sixteen hundred children in schools for week-day 
 instruction in religion in Gary, Indiana. It is 
 fair to say that these schools have passed beyond 
 the experimental stage. Communities everywhere 
 are beginning to ask, Just what are the features 
 of the Gary schools of religion? 
 
 The Gary religious schools constitute a system 
 to provide instruction in religion for pupils in 
 elementary schools, the whole being managed by 
 a city Board of Eeligious Education. They are 
 under the control of no particular church and are 
 often called community Church schools. But it is 
 the churches that take the lead in organizing the 
 city Board; every cooperating church is repre- 
 sented by its pastor and Superintendent who are 
 ex officio members of the City Board of Eeligious 
 Education. The rest of the Board is made up by 
 each church electing, or selecting — as it may 
 choose, two laymen. The distinctive features of 
 general organization then are: a city Boards 
 
 133 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 elected from the churclies, conducting a com- 
 munity series of schools. 
 
 Supervision is provided through, first, generally, 
 an Executive Board, owning property and making 
 contracts, and, second, immediately, through a 
 City Superintendent of Religious Education and 
 a regular supervisor of school work. The Super- 
 visor received a salary; the Superintendent serves 
 without salary. Nine teachers are employed, all 
 on salaries. They give full time every week-day 
 to the work, each taking, as a rule, one or a group 
 of grades, not more than two at a time, in the 
 different buildings. 
 
 The schedule of classes is arranged on the basis 
 of the program of the public schools. In Gary the 
 schools are twelve-grade schools, each having a 
 program which alternates between class recita- 
 tions and some other form of activity, as gymna- 
 sium, outdoor work, nature study, shopwork and 
 auditorium. Now the periods of the latter group, 
 that is, those which are not regular recitation 
 periods, are called ^'free periods.'' The school 
 authorities have arranged that any child may be 
 excused, at the request of his parents, to go, dur- 
 ing a free period, to any other educational work ; 
 he may go to a private music lesson or to any- 
 thing which the school can recognize as having 
 educational value. The Gary system takes ad- 
 vantage of this arrangement by having the chil- 
 dren excused, at the parent's request, during free 
 periods to take religious instruction. The class 
 schedule provided that every child may have two 
 
 134 
 
THE WEEK-DAY SCHOOL 
 
 hours of religious instruction each week ; this in- 
 cludes the high school grades. 
 
 It is important that the peculiar arrangement 
 which prevails in Gary should be perfectly clear. 
 It has been asserted often that the Gary school 
 children receive instruction in religion; they do, 
 but only so far as their parents send them to the 
 church schools. It has been said that Gary has a 
 system of public schools teaching religion or that 
 religion is taught in the Gary public schools; 
 either statement is entirely false. The public 
 school system has no official connection in any 
 way with the church school system. The public 
 schools would go on with their program just the 
 same if the church schools did not exist, as they 
 did before the church schools were organized. 
 The simple fact is that the churches have taken 
 advantage of a unique and quite successful feature 
 of the public school schedule. 
 
 The Gary church schools are working out a 
 curriculum of their own ; the leaders are awake to 
 educational ideals in this field, and they are con- 
 scious of the practical needs of children. The 
 methods of work naturally are correlated to those 
 used in the public schools; that results in some 
 correlations of materials and curriculum. But, 
 in thinking of the curriculum, two facts have to 
 be borne in mind : First, that these are the schools 
 of a community; they have enough to do to give 
 general religious instruction; whatever may be 
 peculiar to each church can be taught in that 
 church in its Sunday school. Second, that the 
 scholars in these week-day schools are not the 
 
 135 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 same people as in the Sunday schools; they do 
 include most of the latter, but they number many 
 others. Rev. W. G. Seaman, the Superintendent, 
 says: ^^A partial survey of the enrollment, made 
 when it stood at 1,268 (that is about three-fourths 
 of the total) showed that just 300 children did not 
 know the religious preferences of their homes, and 
 that 143 of those who gave a religious preference 
 were not attending any Sunday school. More than 
 one-third of our total enrollment was, therefore, 
 of children who were getting no other religious 
 instruction. ' ' 
 
 The pupils include Roman Catholics, Jews and 
 many other faiths. It is evident that such schools 
 cannot traverse the civil right; they do not use 
 or depend on public funds in any way. 
 
 Financial support for the system is secured 
 through the city organization which makes a city- 
 wide appeal. The money comes from parents of 
 children being instructed, from the local churches 
 which raise funds or put the schools on their bud- 
 gets and, to some extent, from general denomina- 
 tional boards which see the importance of this 
 work. 
 
 One must not think of the Gary schools as 
 unique altogether. It would be possible to ob- 
 tain some free hours in the week's schedule wher- 
 ever the community demanded it. And there re- 
 main also the hours immediately after school. 
 Something of what may be done, on lines of re- 
 ligious instruction for elementary school children, 
 by the use of the periods following school, is re-^ 
 vealed in the experience of other cities. 
 
 136 
 
THE WEEK-DAY SCHOOL 
 
 in. NEW YORK CITY PLANS 
 
 Next to the organization for week-day instruc- 
 tion in religion under tlie church-community Board 
 of Eehgious Education at Gary, Indiana, the va/- 
 rious forms of work in New York will rank in 
 importance. Here week-day religious instruc- 
 tion is promoted by an Inter-denominational Com- 
 mittee consisting of the most prominent educators 
 in all the churches of the city. The types of 
 classes and schools include a few on schedules 
 similar to the Gary church schools, a number meet- 
 ing on regular schedules after the afternoon ses- 
 sions of the public schools, some private schools 
 usually for children in private general schools 
 and a large number of Jewish community schools 
 principally on a religious basis. It is estimated 
 that, amongst the Protestants, there are over 800 
 children of the Dutch Reformed church alone in 
 week-day classes, 8,000 of the Roman Catholic, 
 outside of the parochial schools, 25,000 in the Jew- 
 ish community schools and 15,000 in private 
 schools. 
 
 A number of churches in New York city conduct 
 regular classes for their children on several after- 
 noons of each week. Most of these meet about 
 3 P. M. ; sometimes the younger grades are able, 
 on the city school schedule, to meet earlier. Teach- 
 ers are employed ; but the schedule does not per- 
 mit of full-time teaching. The lessons are usually 
 independent of the Sunday school program. 
 
 The inter-denominational committee in New 
 York is now engaged in securing funds with which 
 
 137 
 
THE SCPIOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 to make a thorough survey of needs and conditions 
 in the city and, under the guidance of recognized 
 experts, to prepare a series of reconnnendations 
 looking toward a comprehensive, unified system 
 of week-day religious instruction for the city and 
 for the needs of all faiths. 
 
 17. THE TOLEDO PLAN 
 
 Toledo, Ohio, has a plan in which the week-day 
 instruction is promoted by the city Federation of 
 Churches. The city Board of Education recently 
 passed a rule that ^^any parent may request the 
 school principal to permit his child to attend the 
 classes in religious instruction one hour a week 
 out of the school time.'* A postal card was sent 
 to every family inviting them to enroll the chil- 
 dren in the fifth and sixth grades, these being the 
 only ones for which provision has been made so 
 far. No fees are charged and enrollment is with- 
 out respect to church affiliation. 
 
 V. OTHER EXPEEIMENTS 
 
 In many places classes are conducted under the 
 auspices of the Y. M. C. A. for boys and under the 
 Y. W. C. A. for girls; usually these have been 
 for high school students and are without ref- 
 erence to school training. The classes meet after 
 the school, engage the boys and girls in leader- 
 ship and follow simple biblical courses. Two new 
 tendencies now appear; the organization is pro- 
 moting, here and there, classes for the upper 
 
 138 
 
THE WEEK-DAY SCHOOL 
 
 grades of the elementary school, and the cnrricu- 
 lum includes the study of religious problems of 
 modern conduct and duty. 
 
 ^^Eeligious Day schools" have been held be- 
 fore the public school sessions in a number of 
 communities. At Eavenswood, HI., a suburb of 
 Chicago, the classes were highly successful. The 
 hour was early, but children attended with regu- 
 larity. The greater part of the time was spent in 
 worship ; but this may be just as valuable a means 
 of religious education as direct instruction in 
 classes would be. 
 
 At Elgin, 111., two schools of an experimental 
 nature were conducted recently on Saturday af- 
 ternoons, each school being equipped with a full 
 staff of paid teachers and supervisors. The term 
 was eight weeks in length. Each school had two 
 sessions of three hours each, morning and after- 
 noon, every Saturday. Of course, attendance was 
 purely voluntary. And yet, with such a heavy 
 schedule, on the recreation day, there were 139 
 enrolled in one school and 142 in the other; the 
 attendance showed an average of 92 per cent in 
 one school and 89 per cent in the other. 
 
 The week-end schools will seem to many to of- 
 fer either a comparatively easy solution of the 
 problem or, in other instances, a ready means of 
 experimentation. In one comparatively small 
 church in a Western state the pastor tried the 
 Friday afternoon class as an experiment, inviting 
 the lower four grades at their hour of dismissal, 
 and the upper grades at their hour, which came 
 forty-five minutes later. He was surprised to 
 
 139 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 have his class accommodations crowded and, still 
 more, to have the attendance keep up through the 
 winter. 
 
 Some other plans of week-day instruction may 
 be briefly mentioned: First, the Community Sum- 
 mer School of Religion, or ^'Religious Day 
 School," as it is often called. These schools have 
 been promoted by the Rev. Howard Vaughan, the 
 first being organized by him at Elk Mound, Wis. 
 A special organization exists to foster these 
 schools. These are conducted on very much the 
 same schedule as the week-day schools through a 
 part of the summer recess. Expert teachers are 
 employed and the school is maintained by an in- 
 terested group in the community. The work is 
 graded with emphasis on story-telling. 
 
 The Daily Vacation religious schools, promoted 
 originally in the congested district, have the pos- 
 sibiHty of adaptation to any community, offering 
 regular school experience in which religious in- 
 struction predominates through the summer vaca- 
 tion. Their work is now being closely correlated 
 to that of the churches, and the general promo- 
 tion of the plan is in the hands of the church 
 boards. 
 
 VI. ACCEEDITED BIBLE STUDY 
 
 The plans of week-day instruction in religion 
 which have been described above have been, al- 
 most universally, designed for children of the 
 elementary grades. Yet the interest in the work 
 of this kind has been greatly stimulated by cer- 
 
 140 
 
THE WEEK-DAY SCHOOL 
 
 tain practical plans which have been carried out 
 by educators interested in the instruction of 
 students of the high school grades. 
 
 The late Eev. D. D. Forward, then in Greely, 
 Colorado, and Prof. Vernon P. Squires, of the 
 state University of North Dakota, both worked 
 out, independently, plans by which high school 
 students might receive credit in course for work 
 of a satisfactory academic grade carried on in 
 their church school. Their plans have been tried 
 in practically every state in the Union, they have 
 been improved and modified and have been the 
 subject of earnest study and hearty cooperation 
 on the part of public educators. Two types of 
 work now stand out distinctively; in both the 
 underlying idea is the same, that high school 
 students shall receive their biblical instruction in 
 the churches during their high school course. The 
 first plan provides that the work shall be standard- 
 ized and its academic worth maintained by re- 
 quirements as to the professional abilities of the 
 Bible teachers in the church school, qualities of 
 instruction, equipment and suitability of class 
 room and content of the course of study ; these are 
 the classes which, on the whole, follow the Colo- 
 rado plan. The other type requires a certain 
 number of hours of recitation work, a certain 
 number of hours of home study, a final examina- 
 tion, and the work is based on a syllabus of study ; 
 this, in general, is the North Dakota plan. Both 
 plans are widely used in many states, notably in 
 Iowa, Oregon, Indiana and Illinois. They have 
 received valuable cooperation from the state or- 
 
 141 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 ganizations of public school teachers and general 
 educators. 
 
 The high school credit plan usually provides to 
 give for each year — forty weeks — of satisfactory 
 work in the church-school course a credit, usually 
 of one-fourth of a unit, on the student's high 
 school work, so that he can secure one entire credit 
 by four years ' work. Some provide work so that 
 two whole credits may be earned. So far, practi- 
 cally all the courses are purely biblical. 
 
 In some places it has been proposed to adapt 
 the high school credit plan to elementary school 
 children. The experiment is under way, or has 
 been tried, in Oregon, Montana, Oklahoma, Ala- 
 bama and Washington. It is predicated on the 
 idea that advancement in the elementary grades 
 is based on credit. But this is not the custom in 
 many schools today. The principal advantage 
 which would come out of the high school plan 
 would be a sense of unity between the day-school 
 work and the church-school work and, possibly, 
 an added seriousness and dignity in biblical 
 study. 
 
 Vn. PEINCIPLES OF WORK 
 
 It may be worth while to consider a few prin- 
 ciples with references to any plans of week-day 
 instruction in religion and certain conditions 
 which seem to be essential to success. The prin- 
 ciple of entire independence of religious instruc- 
 tion from the state, from the taxing power, and 
 therefore from the public schools should be main- 
 
 142 
 
THE WEEK-DAY SCHOOL 
 
 tained. It t\^11 be noticed that none of the ex- 
 amples cited depend on the power of the state or 
 the public schools, that none of them are by the 
 authority of the schools; they do not use the 
 school building, its money, its staff or its civil 
 power. Even in Gary, where there seems to be 
 coordination, the church schools and the public 
 schools have no official relations in any degree. 
 
 This independence does not involve the separa- 
 tion of the school teachers and superintendents 
 from this work, except in their official capacities ; 
 as private citizens they may encourage and aid 
 this work precisely as they would work with the 
 churches in which they are interested. But the 
 coercive powers of their official positions must 
 never be used for the religious schools. 
 
 The next principle would be that if we ask for 
 a part of the child's week-day program, we must 
 make good with it, the work must be of the high- 
 est possible educational and religious quality. 
 The week-day school of religion has to do two 
 things: it must be educational and it must be 
 religious. It fails altogether if it lacks either of 
 these qualities. 
 
 Success depends on more than enthusiasm. One 
 had better wait until the equipment can be se- 
 cured, schedules arranged and workers secured 
 rather than to attempt this work in a half-hearted, 
 inadequate manner. A failure in a new field like 
 this will set back the possibility of worth-while 
 work. One must remember that educational work 
 requires a specialized kind of knowledge ; it does 
 not follow that because a man is a good preachet 
 
 143 
 
3:he school in the modeen chubch 
 
 the Lord lias endowed him with the educational 
 specialized knowledge that others have had to 
 acquire with long and painful effort. The pastor 
 must be willing to be a learner before he begins 
 on this new kind of work. It would be more than 
 a pity, it would be a tragedy, if he should, by 
 blundering, ignorant methods, even with the best 
 of intentions, spoil the beginnings of a work so 
 important as this. 
 
 Week-day instruction will take money. If the 
 Sunday school has been worth anything to the 
 church, then doubling the working capacity of the 
 school by week-day sessions ought to double its 
 worth to the church, and that ought to be worth 
 a good deal of money. But that is not the main 
 consideration; if we intend to give the child his 
 rightful religious heritage and training, we must 
 be willing to give more than words and wishes; 
 we must be willing to pay all that a work so im- 
 portant needs. 
 
 Note: A full report of the New York plan will be found in Re- 
 ligious Education for June, 1919; reports of the Gary plan are 
 also published la this magazine. 
 
 144 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 THE SCHOOL AND PLAY 
 
 The lathers would shake their heads at some of 
 the features of the new Sunday school, prohably 
 most of all at its attitude toward play and recrea- 
 tion. It has ceased to expect a child to be as 
 solemn as an undertaker, even on Sunday, and it 
 has taken a positive attitude encouraging play 
 and directing and providing recreation through 
 the week. Modem education has changed the at- 
 titude of the church and it has effected this chiefly 
 by what it has been able to do with and for little 
 children in the kindergartens and primary depart- 
 ments. The interest of the school in play and 
 recreation is based on the fact that these are the 
 most normal activities of a child's life and they 
 are the ones in which he most freely realizes his 
 ideals. Play is a child's idealization of experi- 
 ence. He plays that he is what he wishes to be. 
 Even formal plays have this characteristic; they 
 represent some situation that is ideal or that 
 children, in their play, idealize. Team plays are 
 also experiences in ideal social relations. No- 
 where is the idea and mode of cooperation better 
 expressed, nowhere can one more freely and help- 
 fully sacrifice himself, and in few occupations 
 
 145 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 beside are there like opportunities for the aban- 
 don of entire self-forgetting. 
 
 All this means that play is a means of personal 
 development and of social training. It is in it- 
 self a means of moral and spiritual training. 
 Therefore, while it is true that play and recrea- 
 tion are highly attractive to children, the motive 
 for using them, for providing for them, is not 
 that children may be won to the school through 
 these attractions, but that they may be trained 
 through them. 
 
 Whatever the school does by way of provision 
 for this free life of play ought to be well done, 
 under intelligent direction, and as a part of the 
 school's program. It ought to be made the espe- 
 cial resiDonsibility of certain persons, a committee 
 or a small group of capable men and women. The 
 recreational needs of youth seem to afford just 
 the opportunities for service for which men have 
 been sighing in the adult Bible class. They would 
 find joy for themselves, discipline for themselves 
 and a field of service in planning and immediately 
 directing all that may, for convenience sake, be 
 grouped under the '^Athletic Work'' of the 
 school. 
 
 ATHLETICS OR PLAY? 
 
 There has been a tendency to use the phrase 
 ^^ athletics" for the program of directed play in 
 the church. This is rather unfortunate, for ath- 
 letics usually implies a formal scheme of exercises 
 for the body, or may have the wider meaning of 
 intensively cultivated special physical abilities. 
 
 146 
 
THE SCHOOL AND PLAY 
 
 The work in which the chnrch leads the child 
 should be more free and spontaneous than gym- 
 nasium drills and more simple and inclusive than 
 high school or college athletics. The principal 
 purpose should be the encouragement of forms of 
 play which will develop team cooperation, will af- 
 ford the joy of free expression and exercise and 
 will develop physical health, strength and beauty. 
 Xo term seems wholly satisfactory; play appears 
 to limit the scope and is likely to be attractive only 
 to children; recreation is a less common word 
 often implying an elaborate plan. Perhaps it is 
 best to use both terms in the church so as to con- 
 vey both to children and adults the comprehen- 
 siveness of the general plan. 
 
 ^^Vhatever the phrase may be the plan should 
 include under one head all physical training and 
 the direction of play and recreational activities. 
 It should provide for the use of persons familiar 
 with the modem methods of play to direct all the 
 range of those church enterprises that are usually 
 so puzzling to the pastor and the church school 
 workers. Churches have installed expjensive gym- 
 nasium plants, swimming pools, and lockers ; they 
 have organized ball teams, and a number have pro- 
 fessional workers specially trained to direct these 
 activities. But there remains over all such work 
 a rather thick cloud of uncertainty as to its value, 
 streaked with banks of suspicion here and there. 
 
 "We all know that something must be done for 
 our youth; we have learned that play is a real 
 part of their lives, and so today many a church in 
 village and small town is either trving to do 
 
 147 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 sometlimg in directed athletics or is wishing it 
 could have a gymnasium or something of the 
 kind. 
 
 It is well, first, to realize that we are not alone 
 in an interest in this matter. Indeed, the interest 
 of the church in education through physical train- 
 ing has developed slowly and long after other 
 agencies have been in the field. Because of this 
 awakened interest outside, thejre may be com- 
 munities, though they certainly are but few, in 
 which there remains nothing for the church to do 
 directly. In such cases it is wrong to waste energy 
 in duplicating forms of ministry, in providing 
 overlapping and wasteful competition. The whole 
 work is so great and the issues so grave that we 
 dare not waste energies even for the sake of 
 glorifying our own institutions. 
 
 But even where the community has other agen- 
 cies doing good work in physical training for all 
 its boys and all its girls, the responsibility of the 
 church in this field does not cease. The important 
 point is not whether we have a gymnasium or 
 whether we have this or the other advertising 
 feature of physical work or organization, but 
 whether the work is being done and we are doing 
 our share toward its full accomplishment. 
 
 THE GYMNASIUM QUESTION 
 
 **If we could only have a gymnasium for the 
 boys, our problem would be solved." More than 
 one pastor has said something very like that. 
 And when the good brother hears that the church 
 
 148 
 
THE SCHOOL AND PLAY 
 
 over at B — ^town has been able to build a special 
 plant for the recreational activities of young peo- 
 ple, lie liberates a sigh of intense longing; when 
 he looks over the plans and pictures of such build- 
 ings, his desire and envy, happily innocent and 
 free from covetousness, are none the less ardu- 
 ous. Now the question is: Is he justified in the 
 assumption that a gymnasium would be such a 
 highly valuable aid, so nearly a panacea f Or, bet- 
 ter, is the gymnasium, as he has seen it over at 
 B — town, just the best provision his church can 
 have for her young people? 
 
 You cannot think very far into the work of the 
 Sunday school without running into this question. 
 All serious plans for the work of the Church for 
 youth must face it. If young people are to grow 
 as Christian persons, they must grow all over. 
 The body must be trained, educated in the 
 spirit of Jesus, to become the servant and 
 instrument of the will of God. Nor does this 
 physical work minister to the body alone; it de- 
 velops the whole person by the disciplines and 
 joys of the body. It seeks to insure control of 
 conduct, love of noble ideals, willing service, so- 
 cial cooperation, and the development of the whole 
 self on a high level. 
 
 There can be no other valid reason for any 
 Church planning for physical training. It is true 
 that other reasons are operative, but they are 
 bound to lead to disappointment. Many, con- 
 sciously or unconsciously, argue in this way : Boys 
 and girls will play ; they cannot be cured of it. The 
 boys, at least, love sports and athletic contests ; if 
 
 149 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 we yield to their inclinations and provide the 
 facilities for gymnastic and athletic work, we may 
 get hold of them and get them interested in the 
 Church. To put it a little more precisely, we will 
 bait our Church-membership hook with a gym- 
 nasium or with athletic sports. Did you ever see 
 any fish stay on the hook of his own free will? 
 Our modern young fish are wise and wary. If 
 you are only baiting a hook, they will nibble away 
 at the bait for a while; they will get as far as 
 the gymnasium, but no farther ; they will go ^^fifty- 
 fifty" with you; you keep the hook, and they keep 
 the bait. 
 
 A study of the gymnasium problem in Churches 
 in every state persuades one that the most com- 
 mon cause of either success or failure lies in the 
 matter of the actually operative reason for 
 existence. You may call them what you will — ^play 
 facilities, athletic, recreational — ^the big question 
 is: Why do you have them! Unless you can an- 
 swer that in plain terms that relate the work to 
 the real program of the school, as part of the 
 work of the Church engaged in growing youth 
 toward godlikeness, it were better that you left 
 the work of amusing the young to others. Use 
 them as a bait, and you will find the expected 
 process reversed; the fish will pull you into the 
 stream. 
 
 This is a matter of interest to the small school 
 as truly as to the large. Both deal with youth of 
 the same period and the same inclinations and 
 needs ; both have the same purpose and program. 
 The physical program of the Church's educational 
 
 150 
 
THE SCHOOL AND PLAY 
 
 work does not grow out of the congested city life 
 alone; in fact, today the np-to-date city is likely 
 to provide better facilities for physical training, 
 so far as the formal kind goes, than the open 
 country. The program belongs to the Church 
 everywhere because we have the work of taking 
 the whole of lives and leading them Godward. If 
 the direction and development of play, the train- 
 ing of the body, the experience of happy social 
 contacts and cooperation in sports and games, the 
 development of a sound and efficient body that 
 obeys the will and serves ideal ends is part of the 
 making of a whole man, we can afford neither 
 to treat the process as a device to some other end 
 nor to ignore its possibilities. 
 
 THE PERSPECTIVE OF PURPOSE 
 
 The Church needs to see the place of physical 
 education in the whole program of growing the 
 full person, to cease to think of it as a conces- 
 sion to the playing weakness of the child, as a 
 mere fad of the times or as a bribe to catch youth. 
 
 What, then, should we do? First, help our 
 people to understand what physical training means 
 in the program of education today. Perhaps we 
 will have to help ourselves to know this first. It 
 means that, since most people have bodies, and 
 since the higher life functions through this physi- 
 cal, we seek to follow nature ^s laws, the divine 
 laws, in the orderly development of all the physi- 
 cal powers in their relation to the person who 
 feels and thinks and wills and acts; and we find 
 
 151 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 that whenever we follow these laws we are so in 
 harmony with the growing young lives that they 
 delight in what is being done. Youth plays be- 
 cause it is learning to live. 
 
 Then we must seek to discover what are the 
 peculiar responsibilities of the Church in rela- 
 tion to physical training, and how these are re- 
 lated to the functions of the family and the school. 
 We may well try to develop in our communities 
 the different responsibilities and try to secure a 
 coordinated program in which each will bear its 
 part. 
 
 For the church any work of physical training, 
 whether it be a gymnasium, athletic club, or play 
 provision, must be under a purposeful program. 
 At present it is something we do because we think 
 it will pay, because it seems to be popular. Com- 
 monly, it is without conscious purpose toward the 
 great plan of the Church to grow people into 
 Christian character and toward usefulness in 
 God's society. Many a fine plant represents a 
 sad waste of money because no one has any real 
 religious plan for its use. A gymnasium is not 
 a means of grace unless it be a part of the plan of 
 grace. It is not strange that, contrasted with the 
 innocent envy of those who have them not, there 
 is the earnest desire of some to be rid of them. 
 Unless you know exactly what you are doing, you 
 are likely to find yourself doing things you would 
 rather not know. It may seem to be pleasant to 
 boast that you have a fine gymnasium or splendid 
 Bible class athletic clubs ; but how will you look 
 when One comes seeking for fruit on these trees? 
 
 152 
 
THE SCHOOL AND PLAY 
 
 What did you plant them for, and what fruit do 
 you expect? 
 
 Then, too, by way of further general considera- 
 tions, we have to determine our plans for work 
 and our tools by the conditions in which we work, 
 by the type of community life and the special 
 needs of youth there. While we must profit by 
 the experience of other places, all such experi- 
 ence must be modified by the facts in your own 
 field. There are no ready-made, hand-me-down 
 schemes ; what you need does not come by whole- 
 sale. It will be much better to call in, even at 
 some expense, some trained person, one who is 
 really something of an expert, who can spend 
 several days at least studying your needs and 
 prescribing for your work. That may cost some 
 money, but it is better to spend a little in getting 
 started right than to waste a whole lot in going 
 wrong. This matter is worthy of profound study. 
 
 IN" THE VILLAGE SCHOOL 
 
 Perhaps the first duty of the village Church is 
 to find out just what is being done in the direction 
 and use of the physical and play life of its youth. 
 Put down in black and white the results of a 
 study of your community in this respect. Analyze 
 the situation and discover whether the needs of 
 all, both boys and girls, are being met; whether 
 the available time of all is being wisely used; 
 whether there are adequate facilities and wise 
 direction ; and, above all, whether the ultimate ef- 
 fect is toward right character — ^whether the pres- 
 
 153 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 ent program fits into a program of religious edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Having carefully gathered the facts, let the 
 people know them. "We must develop a church 
 intelligence on the place of physical training for 
 youth — not the development of athletics nor the 
 winning of pennants, but the concept of growing 
 youth in character, in right living through direc- 
 tion of play and games and all recreation and 
 physical activity. Then we can try to bring the 
 whole community into planning for such a pro- 
 gram. 
 
 COMMUNITY PLANS 
 
 In many places we will have to realize that we 
 can do things together that we can never do 
 separately. We must use as good common sense 
 here as we have used in developing a general 
 school system. Well might we all wait on the Lord 
 for grace and sense enough to work together to 
 control this wonderful play instinct, this vig- 
 orous activity of youth so as to grow our boys 
 and girls toward God. Might it not be worth 
 while at least to try, on the basis of an educated 
 community sense of responsibility, some com- 
 mon cooperative, unified program of play and 
 recreation for all the churches of a village? All 
 together could have a trained worker giving di- 
 rection to this enterprise. 
 
 The churches could work through a Christian 
 Association, if only it would be a clearing house 
 for them and not an agency and end in itself; if 
 
 154 
 
THE SCHOOL AND PLAY 
 
 it would be the real servant and conamon process 
 of the churches. The failure to work on such a 
 plan has been not all on either side; perhaps 
 hitherto we have not been ready for it. But sure- 
 ly we ought to be. In any case the prime re- 
 sponsibility of the Church lies here, to see that 
 somehow throughout the whole village life play 
 and sport and games make for righteousness and 
 are so directed as to secure their full religious 
 educational value. 
 
 COOPEKATIOIT 
 
 No other place offers quite as fine an oppor- 
 tunity to take a forward step as does the village. 
 The churches are likely to be but few in number; 
 the community is commonly fairly unified; there 
 are certain places about which its life centers. It 
 would be easy to make one of these centers the 
 common clearing-house for all directed physical 
 training conducted by the churches. Imagine 
 something very like the Y. M. C. A. ; indeed, why 
 not the Association so broadened that the play 
 and recreation of boys and girls, young and old, 
 could all be ^^ rounded up'' here? It seems as 
 though both the Association and the churches are 
 missing a magnificent opportunity. How much all 
 the churches of a village might do together 
 through some one central plant ! In many places 
 the Y. W. C. A. is doing this sort of work in close 
 conjunction with churches and for girls and 
 women. Whether it shall be these Associations 
 
 155 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 or some other form it will not long; be possible 
 for churches to command community respect 
 while they attempt to maintain duplicating, un- 
 necessary plants which accomplish most efficient- 
 ly a work that all together could efficiently accom- 
 plish at half the present cost. The play program 
 is an immediately easy avenue on which to begin 
 cooperation and combination for practical pur- 
 poses. There is no divisive theology in play ; there 
 are no historic creeds to separate the volley-ball 
 team into debating groups. 
 
 If the churches of a village could agree to- 
 gether on a program of play for the community, 
 they would not only demonstrate the possibility 
 of religious unity, that would not only furnish 
 their people an experience that would lead to 
 other forms of unity, but they would be able to 
 dominate the whole play, recreation and amuse- 
 ment situation in the village. 
 
 There will still remain many places in which 
 the Church must make a special provision for its 
 own young people. Then be sure you have a pro- 
 gram and not some advertised or popular specific. 
 Specifics are bought; programs grow. A ''physi- 
 cal plant" may only be a dead tree, cumbering 
 the ground. The most common delusion is that 
 a fine gymnasium, crowded with shining appa- 
 ratus (dumb bells, bars, ladders, swings, etc.), 
 will ''turn the trick." And usually all that splen- 
 did outfit spells an expense so heavy that the vil- 
 lage church gives up before it begins. 
 
 Even in the formal gymnasium the present ten- 
 156 
 
THE SCHOOL AND PLAY 
 
 dency is away from apparatus and toward free- 
 dom for games and play. Nearly every church can 
 get all the best work that is now being done in 
 physical training outside of any special building, 
 right in its back lot, on a playing ground or, in 
 bad weather, in a vacant hall. Get hold of that 
 young man and that young woman who have had 
 some of this work and give them a chance to do 
 the very thing they would like to do in guiding 
 boys and girls in physical development. 
 
 But the formal training is a very small part of 
 the educational program in this field. Our larger 
 task is to gather up, encourage, and direct the 
 spontaneous recreational and play life. For young 
 people playing together is learning to live to- 
 gether. At present they live more really in this 
 area of experience than in any other. We would 
 make that living a part of the training in living 
 as religious persons. To this end we must know 
 how play makes for character; we must seek to 
 organize and direct play in healthful, happy ways, 
 simply dropping out the debasing and developing 
 the helpful. To accomplish such an end the vil- 
 lage church needs more than sermons on ^^ques- 
 tionable amusements" and more than a sporadic 
 Bible class baseball team; it needs a group of men 
 and women who give themselves to seeing that 
 all the boys and girls have the chance to play, have 
 time and places, and have informal direction in 
 forms of play that develop body and character. 
 That involves not so much plant and machinery 
 as planning and people. 
 
 157 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 EECKEATION IN THE RUKAL. SCHOOL 
 
 Many assume that there is no problem as to 
 rcreation in the country church because the young 
 people in the open areas have all the athletic train- 
 ing they need in their every-day experience. It 
 would seem that when a boy gets up before day- 
 light to do the chores, walks a few miles to school, 
 and then loads up the crops or feeds the stock 
 after school, he has had about all the athletics 
 he desires. 
 
 Just you give the country boy a chance with a 
 ball-club, even if he has done the chores, and see 
 whether he can stand any more athletics ! More- 
 over, the fact is, that for a very large proportion 
 of the country boys and girls the days of exces- 
 sive, wearying chores are past — would that a rea- 
 sonable program of chores might return for all 
 children! Not many of them are getting up be- 
 fore daylight; at least a good many of them are 
 riding to the country high school in automobiles. 
 They turn in many directions for guidance in the 
 recreational life. They are as hungry for play 
 as the city boy or girl. Life in the open may be- 
 come as monotonous and as dangerous to body 
 and moral character as life in the city. 
 
 The assumption that the city is the home of 
 vice and the country the garden of virtue is not 
 altogether supported by observed facts. There 
 is just as much need for the discipline of the 
 physical controls, for the training and mastery 
 of the body which athletics should give in the 
 
 158 
 
THE SCHOOL AND PLAY 
 
 country as in the city. Hedge-rows do not change 
 human nature. 
 
 What, then, shall we do for boys and girls in 
 the country church? First, find out what they 
 need. This is discovered by study in two direc- 
 tions: by a survey of the needs of young people 
 and by a survey of the conditions and provisions 
 for their needs in the community. The first in- 
 volves much more than can be given even in out- 
 line here, and yet it is fundamental to any wise 
 recreational work. Pastors and leaders must 
 undertake it. They will find it helpful to asso- 
 ciate others with them in this study. Why not tell 
 some of your brightest men, or women, too, what 
 you are doing? Get them around you to study the 
 physical needs of young people. Two or a dozen 
 together thus learning the basic principles will 
 not only make better and pleasanter progress, 
 they will be preparing that supporting body which 
 the pastor or leader will later need. 
 
 The survey of the community will discover just 
 what is now being done, how worthily it is done, 
 what are the fixed programs of young people's 
 lives, what are the hindrances and menaces and 
 what are the cooperating forces and persons. Do 
 not try to establish a program except as it is re- 
 lated to these facts. 
 
 DOING THE POSSIBLE NEXT THINGS 
 
 What next? Why the next possible thing. Do 
 the simple piece of work that is possible under 
 your ascertained program. Do not wait for an 
 
 159 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 elaborate equipment. It is the cup of cold water 
 that counts ; if you wait for a filtration plant and 
 a serving tray the sufferer may die in the mean- 
 time. Especially in providing for the physical 
 training of youth we will find that to begin with 
 the immediate possibility, if it is a sane one, is to 
 gather your group about you, to discover your 
 leaders and to begin that spontaneous group or- 
 ganization which will be the principal factor in 
 carrying your work forward. 
 
 Perhaps the immediate thing is a ball team. 
 That is good in so far as it means real play for 
 all; it will not help much, perhaps it will hinder, 
 if it means a few star performers doing stunts 
 for the glory of the place. But that of which ball 
 games are a part will be your clue to really help- 
 ful athletic work, that is PLAY. Organized su- 
 pervised play is the great opportunity for physi- 
 cal direction and moral, religious training. A 
 gymnasium is only a mechanism for organizing 
 the kinds of play possible to very large numbers 
 and where the free games are impossible. The 
 tendency is to take the trappings of formal exer- 
 cises out of the gymnasiums and to use them more 
 for play. 
 
 You have no special building ; but you have the 
 church yard, and the open road and the level 
 fields. Now divide your young people up into 
 grades according to the plays and groups of 
 plays or games natural to each group. Then dis- 
 cover persons able to organize these groups and 
 direct their play. Usually you cannot count on 
 your habitual office-holders for this sort of work. 
 
 160 
 
THE SCHOOL AND PLAY 
 
 Get your imagination unlimbered and think of 
 the young men and women who have not found a 
 niche of service in the Sunday school and who 
 would really enjoy such work as this. All these 
 leaders should be led. Led of God first, for char- 
 acter is their largest teaching potency. Then led 
 by the common purpose of the school. They should 
 be organized into an athletic group which would 
 meet regularly to agree upon its plans and to 
 confer on its work. Be sure they have a program 
 to follow, that they are doing more than amusing 
 youngsters, killing time for them. They must 
 have a consciousness of definitely seeking the re- 
 ligious education of youth through the disciplines 
 and controls of his bodily life. 
 
 In the country, as in the city, too, the essential 
 things are not buildings or apparatus, but vision 
 of purpose and ability to discover and direct lead- 
 ers. It is not worth while trying athletic work 
 unless you see it as part of religious education, 
 its program an integral part of the whole work of 
 the church in growing Christian persons. 
 
 When you get that vision you will find, through 
 games, hikes, stunts, drills, pageants, exercises 
 and all that boys and girls love to do, the chance 
 to secure their growth in wisdom and stature and 
 in favor with God and man. 
 
 161 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 ENGAGING THE CHILD'S ACTIVE POWERS 
 
 I. A PROGKAM OF ACTIVITY 
 
 Not only does the modern school encourage and 
 direct the child's play but, for the same reasons 
 that it sees in play a means of religious training, 
 it encourages and directs the activity of the child 
 in the school. The manner in which the school 
 now accepts as normal the development of activity 
 suggests the degree to which this school has 
 changed from the time when the chief end of a 
 school seemed to be the achieving of distinction 
 as an institution in which activity never was per- 
 mitted. That school endeavored, Sunday after 
 Sunday, to pass the ^^ pin-drop" test. Its atti- 
 tude was that activity had nothing to do with re- 
 ligion; everything in that reahn had been done 
 long ago ; even morality might be dangerous with 
 its tendency to substitute works for faith. To 
 put religion into action might promote pride in 
 the flesh. The only exception was that activity 
 might be a means of forestalling the devil who 
 was always active, therefore one must give the 
 child a task so that his hands might not be idle. 
 But if a child could be found who did not need a 
 
 162 
 
THE CHILD'S ACTIVE POWEES 
 
 pre-empting task lie was a saint fit for a Sunday- 
 school book. 
 
 Somehow the program of inactivity never suc- 
 ceeded until people grew up and began to die. 
 Especially it failed with children. Activity is as 
 necessary to them as food^ it is the means by 
 which they learn and gain control of their pow- 
 ers. Modern education accepts the activity of 
 the child as the means by which schooling be- 
 comes a real experience to him. It holds that 
 nothing is known until in some sense it is ex- 
 perienced, until it is woven up into the real facts 
 of life. It trains in the art of social living by 
 the experience of cooperative activities. This is 
 the new basis on which the modern Sunday school 
 develops its plans of activities. They are not only 
 means of learning through the muscles, not alone 
 means of expressing that which is learned; they 
 are the means by which children really live a life, 
 by which they experience ideals in action. 
 
 n. CHUECH WOEK AlTD EXPEESSIONAL rEAINIlTG 
 
 Much that is being said about expressional ac- 
 tivities seems to grow out of very mechanical 
 concepts ; much that is being attempted or planned 
 in training for church-service has an equally me- 
 chanical basis. In the first case activities are de- 
 signed and classified as series of things to be 
 done, they are often trivial and even more fre- 
 quently they are divorced from real religious mo- 
 tives; in the other case the purpose often Icxiks 
 no further than enlisting otherwise indolent per- 
 
 163 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 sons to do tlae work that now weighs so heavily 
 on a few. 
 
 Eightly conceived service in the church has a 
 large and useful place in the program of what 
 are called expressional activities. That place can 
 be seen, however, only when we understand cer- 
 tain general principles in the religious training 
 of the young. The fundamental difficulty that 
 blocks our progress in enlisting people in church 
 work is a failure to see how such work is related 
 to every stage of religious education. The two 
 are not connected because we have so limited a 
 plan of education. 
 
 A Sunday school or a church are not things out- 
 side the pupiPs life which by extraneous applica- 
 tions do certain things for him; on the contrary 
 they constitute a social experience through which 
 he acquires the habits, the ideas and the motives 
 of living in a religious society. They are the 
 pupiPs life for the time being. 
 
 Now the value of such social training as the 
 school and the church afford depends on the ex- 
 tent to which one participates in their life. The 
 experience of society gets over to us only as we 
 experience what it experiences, as we do its work. 
 Social training must include doing one's full share 
 in social activity; it must include active partici- 
 pation in the life of the group. This is the kind 
 of training that every child needs in religious 
 living. 
 
 The child's training, or the youth's, in the work 
 of the school and the church are not merely de- 
 signed attempts to prepare him to be useful as a 
 
 164 
 
THE CHILD'S ACTIVE POWEES 
 
 church officer in the future ; they are an essential 
 part of his experience of participating in the fuU 
 life of his religious social group. "Whatever keeps 
 these growing persons from a share in the actual 
 work of the school and of the church deprives 
 them of their rights. Somehow we must swing 
 the emphasis from the right of the church to be 
 sustained by voluntary labors to the other side, 
 the right of all, especially the young, to actually 
 experience the work of religion, to a share in the 
 real life of the church. 
 
 We have a similar situation in our families. In 
 some homes mistaken indulgence shields children 
 from any sort of domestic duty ; in others domes- 
 tic tasks are assigned to the child as the contri- 
 butions he must make to family support; but in 
 others, where thought is given to children's real 
 needs, the child is gradually admitted through the 
 experience of activity into full social sharing of 
 family life. That experience is the most vital, 
 helpful part of his education. It trains him in 
 life as self -giving service ; it establishes habits of 
 social usefulness; it prepares him for his own 
 home-life later and it makes real the sense of 
 belonging to the family group. 
 
 On the basis of church-school life as a real so- 
 cial experience, we must give each member a 
 share in the active life of the school. The same 
 principle will carry over into all the life of the 
 church. It is a principle that can only be applied 
 where the school and the church are seen as a 
 religious society, and as a society which is re- 
 ligious not in its aim alone, but essentially in its 
 
 165 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 nature. It is religions because it is seeking the 
 fulness of life for all, and it is determined in its 
 methods by the needs of lives, by their ways of 
 growth and their spiritual possibilities. 
 
 That means that in order to have real expres- 
 sional activities in the school we shall think of the 
 school as an experience of life. The pupils will 
 not be the submissive recipients of such instruc- 
 tion as we design for them ; they will be the active 
 factors in an organized life. That does not mean 
 that the form of life will be designed by them 
 altogether. It means real democratic experience 
 in organizing religious living. 
 
 in. TRAINING IN DEMOCRACY 
 
 The first step of participation will be the child's 
 natural learning to live the life of his little group, 
 his class. At the very beginning, all in the group 
 must become accustomed to think of that group 
 life in active terms. So long as we continue to 
 organize and conduct Sunday-school classes on 
 the over-head-absolutism, pupil-passivity plan, we 
 will have adult church members habituated to 
 passivity. Habit as to participation begins early. 
 
 The younger classes of the school have much 
 to do with determining the character of adult 
 church life. At present many of these classes 
 have no opportunities for social experience, no 
 chance for the child to participate because, first, 
 their programs are rigidly set; no initiative is 
 encouraged; second, their group experience is 
 limited to a single short period devoted to a set 
 
 166 
 
THE CHILD'S ACTIVE POWERS 
 
 program of instraction and, third, the instruc- 
 tion has little, if anything, to do with what the 
 pupil might do as an actual experience in the 
 group. The basic need, in order to train persons 
 to a life of active participation in the work of the 
 church is early training and experience in the 
 entire social life of the church group which we 
 call a Sunday-school class. That sort of experi- 
 ence would mean freedom for children to plan 
 more of their own work in the department, the en- 
 couragement of initiative in the group, developing 
 responsibility on the part of pupils for the prop- 
 erty of the group and of the school, developing 
 ability to carry on the necessary work, such as 
 care of books, papers, pictures, chairs, provision 
 of flowers and decorations. 
 
 The principle works out with especial signifi- 
 cance in the conduct of worship, where children 
 not only select the hymns, but prepare their own 
 prayers, their class prayers, their orders of read- 
 ing, singing and other exercises. This is a type 
 of real social experience. In the degree that any- 
 where the actual life of the group is self-directed 
 activity, real voluntary workers are being trained. 
 
 IV. THE PRINCIPI^ES OF ACTIVLTY 
 
 But in order to prepare a program wisely di- 
 recting activities it is necessary to understand 
 clearly just the function of activity in the de- 
 velopment of a religious life, in realizing the pur- 
 pose of the school ; it is necessary to look into the 
 processes by which we promote religious growth 
 
 167 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 in persons. One speaks of growth in natural 
 terms without at all losing sight of the fact that 
 * ^ it is God that giveth the increase. ' ' Our concern 
 just here is only with those processes for which 
 we are responsible. 
 
 1. Christian character grows under social con- 
 ditions. This is true because that which grows is 
 the life and powers of a person, and persons grow 
 only amongst persons and by personal influences. 
 Social conditions for the growth of the religious 
 life are afforded by the church. Here character 
 is stimulated by being associated with fine, noble, 
 and elevating persons. Persons grow by the very 
 fact of belonging to and mingling with the group 
 of those who seek richer and more godly lives. 
 Further, this social group, the church, impresses, 
 moves, and guides other lives by many means, by 
 the inspirations of worship, by the stimulating, 
 guiding teaching from the pulpit, by regular in- 
 struction, by associated work. Out of the social 
 life rises all effective instruction. The activities 
 of a church are the means by which its social 
 forces reach the lives of its own people and influ- 
 ence them. 
 
 2. Christian character grows hy active re- 
 sponse to its society. In a society lives are 
 influenced only in the degree that they react to 
 whatever stimulus is offered. Persons grow in a 
 church, not alone in the degree that the church is 
 active for their good, but in the degree that they 
 participate in the active life of the church. 
 Activity is simply life putting the ideal or the 
 
 168 
 
THE CHILD ^S ACTIVE POWERS 
 
 idea into reality, realizing it in need. Until that 
 is done, ideas have no real value to those who hold 
 them. Experience is simply normal participation 
 in the life of the social group to which we belong. 
 Through that participation we really share the 
 life of the group, and so receive life from it. The 
 measure of the value of church relations is that 
 of reality through active participation. This ap- 
 plies to the life of every part of a church, to re- 
 lations in a church school for children as well as 
 to the relations of adults. If the chilcVs life is to 
 grow in the society of the church, the child ynust 
 he offered normal ways of sharing that life 
 through active participation, 
 
 V. THE FIELD OF ACTION" 
 
 The child's activity, then, is not some scheme of 
 occupying his energies to keep him out of mis- 
 chief; it is not some device for pre-empting his 
 powers lest Satan find some mischief still for his 
 idle hands. It is simply the child living in the 
 full social relations of his group, which is usually 
 the church school as a part of the church. Here 
 activity will mean a share in maintaining the 
 worship, the services, the group relationships, and 
 the full ministry of the school. It will mean a 
 share in carrying out the program of the school, 
 as a part of the church, to grow Christian lives 
 and to cause conditions to prevail in the world 
 favorable to the growth of such lives. 
 
 But all lives are in real and continuous rela- 
 169 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 tions to a wider society than that of the church, 
 the society of the world itself, and this society is 
 tremendonsly potent in developing character. 
 Lives are growing all the time as they are stimu- 
 lated by their environment. The church school, 
 at its best, controls but a very small fraction of the 
 whole circle of a child ^s life. For longer periods, 
 and in even more intimate relations, he lives at 
 home. For longer periods he plays in playgrounds 
 or on the streets. For much longer periods he is 
 with his school group and under the influence of 
 civil institutions. All this time he is growing, 
 and it is exactly the same person who is growing 
 in this larger life of the world as in the life of the 
 church school. Character is being determined in 
 one as truly as in the other. 
 
 The same laws of life development hold in the 
 life of the every-day hours and experiences as hold 
 in the life of the church. Character grows as the 
 person participates in the life of this larger so- 
 cial group. But the great difference lies in the 
 fact that the specifically religious group is organ- 
 ized for the specific purpose of growing religious 
 character — at least it ought to be — and the largei? 
 group is not commonly conscious of any such 
 dominant purpose; frequently it seems to be 
 wholly unconscious of the fact that wherever lives 
 are, whether in school, home, street, factory, store, 
 picture-show, or play, there, by their very activi- 
 ties, character is being determined, or, in other 
 words, souls are being saved or lost ; life is grow- 
 ing up toward God or dying down away from him. 
 
 170 
 
THE CHILD'S ACTIVE POWERS 
 
 VI. ACTIVITY DETEEMINING ENTIEONMENT 
 
 This social whole of life is like a soil in which 
 souls grow. It is our imperative obligation to 
 make that soil fit for souls, to make this world the 
 kingdom of our Lord and his Christ. That comes, 
 not by wishing it were done, but by working to do 
 it, by praying with heart and also with hand. 
 The need for this work makes the world the great 
 field for religious activity. Even very young 
 people can have a share in this activity ; they must 
 have it if they are to live in normal religious re- 
 lations to their world. They wiU want to do some- 
 thing, not as reformers who would set a world 
 right so much as those who, seeing the world they 
 know as the home in which they live with others, 
 will seek to make it more like the home of a 
 happy family, the family of their father God. 
 "Whatever children are led to do in service for the 
 larger social life must be as natural as what they 
 do in their homes, making them happier and 
 brighter in love for their brothers and sisters. 
 Giving to social causes, participation in ^^ relief," 
 service for the sick, or whatever it may be, must 
 be not an external ministry to others, a kind of 
 religious snobbery, but simply and naturally a 
 part of the life of the world, doing their share in 
 the world's work, just as they would — or should 
 — do their share in the whole life of a home. 
 
 The dual processes are working in all this ; the 
 life is finding itself through activity, through nor- 
 mal expression in deeds of its dreams and ideals, 
 and at the same time it is making for itself and for 
 
 171 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 all others the Letter and more favorable environ- 
 ment; personal character is growing under these 
 social relationships and a world of conditions 
 favorable to the religious life and society is being 
 created. The very needs and demands of life 
 call out the activities which develop lives. 
 
 Whatever forms of ^ ^ activities ' ' are planned in 
 the program of a church must be tested, indeed 
 must be determined, by their natural growth out 
 of the general program of the church — ^growing 
 Christian people in a Christian society — and by 
 the natural social needs of these people. Mere 
 schemes of activity will not work. To have value 
 any activities must be real, must be a normal part 
 of life itself. 
 
 In urging the provision of activities as a part 
 of the program of religious education in a church 
 we are not proposing anything new or anything 
 extraneous to the normal life of a church. Rather 
 we are seeking to make clear what is actually go- 
 ing on wherever churches are really discharging 
 their religious functions. They are grooving the 
 lives of active persons, and by directing action 
 toward the realization of the divine ideal in the 
 church, in world conditions, and in the social or- 
 der, are carrying forward the two great processes 
 — persons growing more godlike in a world more 
 fully doing His will — toward the one great aim of 
 the kingdom and family of God. 
 
 Vn. DIRECTING ACTIVITY 
 
 Accepting the principle of the -leading place of 
 activity in the program of the church school, what 
 
 172 
 
THE CHILD'S ACTIVE POWERS 
 
 steps should be taken to develop and direct tlie 
 activities of children! Two things, at least, are 
 necessary: First, to develop in all teachers and 
 workers an intelligent appreciation of the func^ 
 tion of activity. Second, to commit to a special 
 group the special study of this subject so that 
 they will develop opportunities for general activi- 
 ties and special forms of service. 
 
 The first method suggested is of prime impor- 
 tance, for all forms of activity must have real 
 and natural connections with the general life of 
 the school ; they cannot be set off in a department 
 by themselves or have a special place in the time 
 schedule. The teacher will be the guide into 
 activities that really express the ideals that de- 
 velop in the class. The class will be an active 
 group engaging in enterprises under the guidance 
 of the teacher. One must never separate activity 
 from the purposes of instruction. 
 
 The work for the special group will be that of 
 preparing the way for and supplementing the 
 services of the teacher. They will constantly 
 watch for opportunities of service which children 
 may render; they will maintain a perpetual sur- 
 vey of the church and the neighborhood with this 
 in mind. They will prepare lists of special op- 
 portunities. By making a specialty of the subject 
 they will be prepared to advise teachers who may 
 come to them with class problems in this field. 
 When the teacher is organizing the class for some 
 enterprise, something the class will select as a 
 purpose and which they will do together, the com- 
 
 173 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 mittee on activities ouglit to be able to give ex- 
 pert advice to the teaclier. 
 
 This committee would .also act to grade and co- 
 ordinate the more formal activities of pupils. 
 Some overhead direction is necessary, especially 
 when the forms of service rendered or work at- 
 tempted enter into the organization and activities 
 of the local church. It is necessary to have co- 
 ordination lest all the classes should be moved 
 to fill the pulpit vases with calla lilies on the same 
 Sunday. 
 
 The special committee can render other valuable 
 services. They should be the means of stimulating 
 the teacher's study of this subject. They should 
 be able to bring the latest light on this matter to 
 the entire school. They can save activity from 
 running into ruts. Sometimes those ruts are ex- 
 ceedingly narrow; the mention of flowers for the 
 pulpit suggests the tendency to set limits in 
 ecclesiastical routine. Teachers and pupils, both, 
 keenly need the consciousness that religious activi- 
 ty is any activity which is prompted and guided 
 by the religious spirit. It is the living of an active 
 life as a Christian person. Somehow this is what 
 the school must help the child to discover, that 
 religious service, religious activity is that which 
 goes on all the time in the life of an active per- 
 son, that the ^^expressional activity" of the re- 
 ligious life is not some special deed, such as carry- 
 ing provisions to the needy, not some '^holy'^ act, 
 as making an altar scarf, but it includes these 
 and goes on to include all action, so that what- 
 
 174 
 
THE CHILD'S ACTRTG POWEES 
 
 ever I do is an activity of a religious life. Thus 
 the school, through activity, must carry forward 
 and extend its work of training in religion into 
 all the life and through all its hours. 
 
 175 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 THE LIBRARY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 Frequently the school library is a good deal 
 like the buttons on the back of a man's coat; few 
 have the courage to cut them off and few know 
 why they are there. A library that is not a neces- 
 sity is a nuisance. A library is a necessity when it 
 has a worth-while purpose. 
 
 The school library is simply the extension of 
 the great purpose and work of the school into the 
 leisure and study hours of the pupils' lives by 
 the vehicle of reading. It is the church reaching 
 out her arms to guide the thinking, stimulate the 
 imagination, enlighten the minds and form the 
 wills of her people, especially the young, through 
 the printed page. Young people will read; their 
 reading determines what they are in no small de- 
 gree; the church must determine that reading as 
 far as possible. This necessary service takes on 
 three aspects, furnishing the material, stimu- 
 lating its use, and so guiding the reading as to 
 secure the largest possible results in religious 
 character and usefulness. 
 
 WHAT EVERY LIBRARY SHOULD SEEK TO DO 
 
 The first aim of every library will be: to see 
 that no person, young or old, in the care of the 
 
 176 
 
THE LIBRARY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 church is destitute of the reading material which 
 they need for their religious development. 
 Whether you have a public library or not this 
 responsibility will exist. The church will recog- 
 nize the good work of the public institution and 
 will cooperate with it to the fullest possible ex- 
 tent; but she cannot leave to that institution the 
 spiritual welfare of the people. A true ^'library'' 
 is something far greater than a collection of 
 books; for the purposes of the church it is an 
 organized responsibility for the reading of the 
 parish. If the church is responsible for the spirit- 
 ual welfare of the people she ought to know what 
 nurture, or poison, they are getting through read- 
 ing. 
 
 Second, the library will be the agency of the 
 church promoting religious education through 
 reading. The library, in this wider sense, will 
 be the group in the church caring for religious 
 culture through the printed page and the related 
 story. Next to securing material sufficient for 
 present demands the library will seek to develop 
 the demand; it will seek to have every person 
 who is able to read enrolled on a list of readers. 
 It would be a valuable and a fascinating task for 
 some young people to prepare a list of all the 
 people in the parish and to try to keep a record 
 of their reading. Why should not a church seek 
 this standard: every member reading at least 
 three really worth-while books in the religious 
 realm every year and every reader (including 
 those not in membership) reading something 
 which will make his life better? 
 
 177 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 Third, the library will seek to furnish every 
 worker with the tools, now existing in literary 
 form, for his work. It will also seek to furnish 
 those who are yet to be workers with the means 
 of their preparation. The school library is the 
 church library; it is the training library more 
 than the entertainment library. If the church 
 would have workers she must equip them. Vol- 
 unteers have a right to demand of the institution 
 which they serve such assistance as they need. 
 "We have no right to criticize their work until we 
 have made it possible for them to do it aright. 
 Something will be said later as to the material 
 which should be in the worker's library. 
 
 Fourth, the library will use a wide variety of 
 means, all the methods of the modern city library, 
 the story hour, pictures, exhibits and book con- 
 tests, all will be brought to serve the common 
 end of growing religious character. 
 
 Fifth, the ideal library will make the most of 
 its community opportunities. Where there is a 
 good public library the function of the church 
 library will be largely that of cooperation, sug- 
 gesting good religious books, guiding the school 
 pupils in their reading and aiding the public li- 
 brary in securing the highest possible character 
 results. This will not mean the elimination of ac- 
 tual library work from the school. 
 
 The aim of this library, dominating all other 
 considerations, will be to bring to all, young and 
 old, the aims, ideals, motives and methods of the 
 teaching and work of Jesus through the printed 
 
 178 
 
THE LIBRAEY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 page, the magazine, tlie book and picture, to 
 make literature a means of life eternal. 
 
 WHAT SHOUIJ) BE IN THE LIBRAIIY^ 
 
 Just what material should be found in a school 
 library would depend principally on the purpose 
 of the library, on just what the school expects 
 to accomplish through it, and that would depend 
 on the environment of the school, on the com- 
 munity it was serving. 
 
 There are at least three types of school 
 libraries : First, the general library ^ designed to 
 meet all the literary needs of its own community, 
 second, the library complementing an incomplete 
 public library, and, third, the library cooperating 
 with a public library. The recent development 
 of public libraries in cities and larger villages has 
 reduced the necessity for the first type, the one 
 which used to be the prevailing type. Yet there 
 remain many smaller villages where the church 
 must render this community service and accept 
 this responsibility. It presents a gTeat oppor- 
 tunity, a splendid chance of service. 
 
 A general library should contain three distinct 
 sections, in the following order of importance: 
 
 (1) books of general literature chosen because 
 of their power to inspire, enlighten and lead lives ; 
 
 (2) books on methods of religious work; (3) books 
 on specifically religious subjects, including the 
 work and principles of the church maintaining 
 the library. 
 
 The first section will include the great literary 
 179 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 classics, the books without which no life is really 
 furnished. There is no need to secure the latest, 
 ephemeral books ; too many look on a loan library 
 as a plan to save idle readers the price of each 
 new sensation. A good library will minister first 
 to children, on the principle that, if you rightly 
 educate the child ^s taste the adult will buy good 
 books for himself. To guide in the selection of 
 general books for children one might consult ^^A 
 Mother's List of Books for Children'' by G. W. 
 Arnold, or '^ Fingerposts to Children's Reading" 
 by W. T. Field. For shorter lists see the required 
 reading in English under the curricula of the 
 school systems of the different states. But, in 
 practice today, it is seldom necessary to compile 
 the lists of classics for such a library; it is better 
 to enter into relations with the nearest city li- 
 brary for the loan of these books on the travel- 
 ling plan or for the establishment of a branch 
 library. 
 
 The section on methods of religious work is 
 most important. Whatever other sections the li- 
 brary may have this will be the most valuable one. 
 The duty of providing these books must fall on 
 the church. Whenever the church asks for vol- 
 unteer workers the least it can do is to provide 
 them with the tools for their work. The demand 
 for greater efficiency means that we must give 
 workers a chance to study, to know what is being 
 done in other places ; we must put into their hands 
 the human means of attaining efficiency. Until 
 that is done we have no right to criticize them 
 for failures and short-comings in their methods. 
 
 180 
 
THE LIBRAEY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 Every church-school library then must engage 
 in training workers for religious service by means 
 of the right books. 
 
 The workers ' library should be placed for ready 
 reference. The books should be divided into sec- 
 tions approximately as follows: The Bible; Re- 
 ligion; Christian Theology; The Church; General 
 Education; General Works on Religious Educa- 
 tion; General Works on the Sunday School; 
 Psychology of Religion; Pedagogy and Method; 
 Departments (one section to each); The Family; 
 Boys; Girls; Recreation; Social Studies. These 
 divisions will be sufficient for a relatively small 
 library. It would be no mean beginning to have 
 four good books in each of these sections. 
 
 The sections should be plainly labelled, and 
 arranged with the more comprehensive, practical 
 books set first in each. If the school must build 
 the library gradually then let the first two books 
 in each of the topic-divisions above be first pur- 
 chased. A capital selection is published by the 
 Commission on Religious Education of the North- 
 em Baptist Convention. This list and a smaller 
 one may be obtained at the office of the Religious 
 Education Association, 1440 East 57th Street, 
 Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 The third division, books on general religious 
 subjects, is the most difficult to choose. The pur- 
 pose should be that the youth in particular should 
 know the great facts and ideals of his faith. It 
 should include the standard works on biblical 
 knowledge. By standard works we mean, not sim- 
 ply those that are sold in sets, nor even alone 
 
 181 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 those sold with the imprint of our own chnrch, 
 but those written by recognized authorities. For 
 example, the work of George Adam Smith in bib- 
 lical geography is essential to any good library, 
 public or private. Let the committee have clearly 
 in mind the needs of young people and the de- 
 termination to secure for them all the light pos- 
 sible on the word of God.^ 
 
 THE CITY SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 Is the library in the city Sunday school to be 
 an historic memory only? The rapid develop- 
 ment of the public library has been accompanied 
 by the decadence of the church library in the 
 same communities. The former has done its work 
 so well that the latter — really its forerunner and 
 parent — now appears to be unnecessary. Scarce- 
 ly anywhere do we find an efficient library in the 
 plans of the modem religious school. But, if we 
 believe that the school ought to use every agency 
 of extension which it efficiently can control, we 
 ought to ask whether the school library is not such 
 an agency. 
 
 It would not be worth while attempting to re- 
 vive the church-school library unless we really 
 need it and unless it can accomplish certain ends 
 which are not already being accomplished. The 
 question is whether the public library is able to 
 
 * For exhaustive lists of books in these fields see the bibliographies 
 on the Old Testament by Prof. J. M. P. Smith, on the New Testa- 
 ment by Prof. C. W. Votaw; for a shorter popular list see the 
 American Library Association's list under * * Eeligion. ' ' 
 
 182 
 
THE LIBEAEY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 minister to the community in those spiritual needs 
 which may be met by literature. The former has 
 certain limitations at points where the latter has 
 advantages. The public library, which is usually 
 a public institution, has in its support and conduct 
 the limitations inherent in all public agencies. It 
 cannot serve any one faith or any one church 
 alone. It is usually very careful to avoid de- 
 nominational bias or leading in its selections of 
 religious books. Indeed many libraries are so 
 nervous on the subject as to exclude all religious 
 books, confounding religion with sectarianism. 
 This timidity is especially noticeable in books and 
 work for the young. The library seldom attempts 
 in any way to teach them religion, although some 
 of its books for children have large religious val- 
 ues. As an institution it is unconscious of any 
 direct responsibility in this respect. This is not 
 said in criticism for it is a condition unavoidable 
 in any public institution. 
 
 On the other hand the church school is a pri- 
 vate institution. Its specific purpose, of the re- 
 ligious development of lives, gives it a direct re- 
 ligious responsibility for the young. It not only 
 may but it must see that their reading is directed 
 for religious ends ; it must see to it that through 
 reading, just as through class teaching, they come 
 to know life as a spiritual matter. The direct 
 selection of books and the promotion of their dis- 
 tribution with a view to the religious needs of 
 readers is a service for which the home and the 
 church are responsible and which these two agen- 
 cies best can render. 
 
 183 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 The churcli-scliool library has advantages of 
 individual contact. The public library deals with 
 the community as a whole; the church-school li- 
 brary deals with a special section of it. The 
 work of the latter becomes more direct and per- 
 sonal; it may be specialized and made individual. 
 True, the public institution of a modern type 
 tries to come as close to its people as possible, 
 but it cannot know their individual needs, it can- 
 not follow a book into the homes nor can it re- 
 view its teaching personally as can the church 
 school through its teachers. A church school 
 forms an ideal social unit in which the ministry 
 of a library to the religious life by literature may 
 be promoted and directed. 
 
 The church-school library is a convenient type 
 of localized work. It brings the library closer 
 to the people. The modem public library wel- 
 comes to its aid all smaller libraries when they 
 are efficiently conducted. It does not regard them 
 as competitors. It knows we cannot have too 
 many agencies for the provision of good reading 
 and its promotion. It will usually plan methods 
 of cooperation, provided the smaller library will 
 do business seriously. 
 
 The truth is that city library work today needs 
 closer contact with the people. We need more 
 small libraries. Just as the schools must be scat- 
 tered through the city so should these other agen- 
 cies of education be brought nearer to the differ- 
 ent community groups. Much has been accom- 
 plished by branch libraries and by distributing 
 stations. But there still remain many groups who 
 
 184 
 
THE LIBEAEY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 do not use the public library because of its in- 
 accessibility. An ideal would be : at least as many 
 libraries as there are school houses. But in order 
 to minister to community needs it must be evi- 
 dent to all that the small local library is doing 
 business seriously, that it is just as efficient in 
 its sphere as the larger library. 
 
 Just there lies the crucial question: can a 
 church-school library be efficiently conducted in 
 a city school? Certainly it can, provided the 
 school is willing to take this opportunity with 
 a seriousness worthy of its possibilities. The 
 church-school library usually fails because it is 
 left to run itself. No one thinks it is t^orth work- 
 ing at. The books are not selected, they are 
 bought wholesale and haphazard. Pupils' selec- 
 tion is usually without guidance and book distri- 
 bution is crowded into odd moments of an already 
 overloaded program. The library itself is never 
 really open and it only distributes once a week. 
 The librarian is regarded as a negligible officer 
 receiving neither counsel nor encouragement. 
 
 An efficient church library will be first of all 
 hacked by the church realizing the immense pos- 
 sibility of this opportunity of instruction into 
 homes and leisure hours. The church will see that 
 this open door must be entered and mil not hesi- 
 tate to furnish the necessary money and facili- 
 ties. 
 
 A library if it is to be worth while needs just 
 what the public library has : men and money. Al- 
 most all the public institutions are supported by 
 taxation and few are they who complain of the 
 
 185 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 financial burden of their support. Yet we hesi- 
 tate when it is proposed to spend money on a 
 church library. We suggest that the funds should 
 be secured by a concert or entertainment or some 
 other form of anesthetizing the money nerves. 
 Then the church-school children must give the en- 
 tertainment. In other words the church, as the 
 spiritual parent of these children says, *^Yes, we 
 will feed them provided they will earn the money 
 to pay for the food.'' Fond parent; does she 
 wonder later if many of these children are lack- 
 ing in affection for her? 
 
 It is hardly wise to attempt a city school-library 
 unless it has a place in the church budget. A 
 place in the budget depends on a recognized place 
 in the business of the church. Let those who be- 
 lieve in a library plan its work in detail and be 
 prepared to prove to hesitating church officers 
 that the library will actually serve the business 
 of the church in definite ways. 
 
 Such a library will, second, seek to supplement 
 or complement the work of the public library; it 
 will not duplicate it. It vAW not fill its shelves 
 with the same kind of fiction to be found in the 
 other library. It may properly call attention to 
 all material in the public institution which will 
 aid in its own purposes of character development. 
 It may properly bring its influence to persuade 
 the public library to secure a due portion of re- 
 ligious books. It may establish a branch public 
 library in its own walls and so render a valuable 
 service. But it will specialize in its ministry to 
 the religious needs of its community. It may 
 
 186 
 
THE LIBEAEY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 well call into counsel the experts of the public 
 library to aid in its organization and manage- 
 ment and especially to aid in the selection of 
 books. 
 
 Third, this library will furnish the tools for its 
 oivji luorkers. It will haye a strong section of 
 reference works and of books on the methods of 
 religions education. 
 
 Fourth, it will magnify its mission by making 
 its purposes and its opportunities known to all 
 the church. It will do this through the church 
 seryices, special bulletins and by the cooperation 
 of the school and its teachers. 
 
 Fifth, it will serye as a commimity cejiter of 
 reading. The room should be open often, as Sun- 
 day afternoons and in the week. Much that has 
 been already suggested for tha rural library can 
 be done in the city. The times for distribution 
 should be for at least thirty minutes before 
 school, thirty minutes after school and at other 
 times of week-day openings. This will inyolye 
 the use of a larger working staff, and where or 
 in what way could they be better employed? It 
 will afford new opportunities of seryice for young 
 people who are craying work. 
 
 Sixth, this library will use every possible means 
 of extension, circulating pamphlets, periodicals, 
 pictures, phonograph records and music, making 
 itself a clearing-house for the best things of re- 
 ligious art and literature. Here is the oppor- 
 tunity for an enthusiast who can see it, who can 
 be left free to organize and direct this seryice and 
 
 187. 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 who will have the support of the school and the 
 church. 
 
 THE LIBEAEY IN THE BUKAL CHUECH 
 
 Looking over the books of a country school-li- 
 brary recently, one soon discovered why it had 
 been pronounced a failure; it consisted wholly 
 of curiosities of old-time literature. It was evi- 
 dently a relic, and any attempt to use it today 
 would be based on the foolish, yet too prevalent 
 notion that country people either do not know 
 what they want or do not want what they ought 
 to know. If we compare the people of the city 
 and those of the open country we will surely find 
 a higher average of intelligence in the latter. 
 Therefore the rural library ought to be a good 
 one. 
 
 In facing problems it is worth while to make 
 an inventory of the advantages. A pessimist is 
 one who keeps his ledgers only on one side. The 
 first advantage is that people in the country have 
 larger opportunities for reading. Not that they 
 have fewer working hours ; by no means ; but that 
 they have fewer distractions outside of those 
 working hours. When the long evenings set in 
 they do not find the motion-picture just around the 
 comer ; it is often difficult to visit with even neigh- 
 bors, and folks gather about the lighted lamp and 
 reach out toward the wide world opened by read- 
 ing. 
 
 The rural church is the one that most easily 
 justifies a library, for this is a form of needed 
 ministry to its community. Good books populate 
 
 188 
 
THE LIBEARY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 the country side with great souls ; they bring the 
 great thinkers into the homes, just as city folks 
 may occasionally go out of their homes to hear 
 them in the churches and halls. Where the leisure 
 exists the country church has a splendid chance 
 for valuable service in promoting good reading. 
 
 The true rural church, loyal to its mission, to- 
 day sees itself as servant to the whole comitry 
 side. Its library goes out into that life like ar- 
 teries of vitality to cheer, stimulate and educate. 
 If you know how papers and magazines are wel- 
 comed, devoured and cherished in the farms and 
 rural homes you will realize how the church serves 
 its people and earns their gratitude by providing 
 a supply of good reading. 
 
 The contents of the rural library will be de- 
 termined hy the needs of the cowimunity. The 
 first need will often be stimulation to the joy of 
 reading. This will take two directions, first, fol- 
 low up the reading of the school children; find 
 out just how far the school takes them and be- 
 fore the reading habit has been allowed to die 
 see that the kind of books that would come next 
 are in the hands of these young people. 
 
 Next, help older folks to regain the reading 
 habit. Try to get them to see that newspapers 
 are only a convenience, but the soul in a book 
 is a necessity; lead them on from the ephemeral 
 in magazines to the permanent and substantial 
 in books. This will mean that at first some books 
 must be selected that come rather near to the 
 brevity of the magazine. It will also mean that 
 special steps are taken to get these folks to know 
 
 189 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUEGH 
 
 more than the covers of books. Try giving read- 
 ings from great and simple classics, stories pre- 
 ferably at first. Call your people up on the tele- 
 phone and ask, with the zest of a new discovery, 
 if they have found the pleasure you experienced 
 in a certain book. Keep on bringing the joys 
 of books to their minds. This suggests a gen- 
 eral principle that holds for all libraries, that 
 only one who knows and loves books can lead 
 others to them, only a book-lover — ^not a biblio- 
 phile — can make a real librarian. 
 
 The special interests of rural life will also de- 
 termine the books in the library. They should 
 include books which directly aid the life of the 
 people, books that deal with the farm and coun- 
 try-side. The church is not falling from its high 
 mission if it serves the community by supplying 
 books on scientific, practical farming, dairying, 
 gardens and forestry. Books of outdoor recrea- 
 tions and sports should be included. You will 
 find these people are naturally interested in books 
 that deal with the outdoor life of the Bible, the 
 scenery and especially the plants and animal life 
 of biblical lands and times. 
 
 All this does not for an instant assume that 
 the level of reading in the country is lower than 
 that in the city. Indeed you can usually count 
 on a lower percentage of light fiction in any rural 
 library; and you will need to include, along with 
 the serious, practical works mentioned, the best 
 literature available. Nor should the shelves be 
 depositories for the out-worn junk of city li- 
 
 190 
 
THE LIBEABY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 braries. The town church cannot play Lady 
 Bountiful with old clothes for country minds. 
 
 Some special methods of library use are possi- 
 ble in the rural communities. Arrange your li- 
 brary if possible as a rest and reading room, help- 
 ing to make the church a real social center. Have 
 it open as much as possible, especially at times 
 when the folks come to the center. Foster the 
 habit of reading there and the habit of carrying 
 home a book with the same pleasures that new 
 goods and groceries are carried home. 
 
 Try a meeting in this library room at regular 
 intervals when some one will talk on books and 
 reading, when a reading may be given or the 
 evening spent in a discussion of a book which 
 has been generally read. Such a meeting might 
 develop into a reading club; but keep the gath- 
 ering open to any who would come. The chil- 
 dren may be gathered for story hours, in the li- 
 brary, just as school is dismissed. 
 
 Neglect no opportunity of maintaining contact 
 with lives by means of books. Use the telephone 
 and the county papers to advertise. Use the rural 
 delivery to circulate. Take advantage of the 
 neighborhood gatherings and journeyings of coun- 
 try folks to the church center. Keep the books 
 going; if they are worn out in service you will 
 have developed appreciation ample to buy new 
 ones. 
 
 Enter into the opportunity of your rural life 
 by socializing the library. Seek out every way 
 possible of making it of service to all the people, 
 helping them to think of it as a center from which 
 
 191 
 
^THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 flow out streams of pleasure and helpfulness. It 
 is doubtful whether any other situation affords 
 finer opportunities for the usefulness of the li- 
 brary. 
 
 And now we can imagine some one saying, All 
 this sounds like advice and plans for a general 
 library, rather than a church-school library for 
 children. "Well, if ever the library ought to be 
 general it is here. After all is not the oppor- 
 tunity of the church-school library just that of 
 the school reaching out, hy extension work into 
 all the homes and all the leisure hours of all the 
 community? This is especially the social religious 
 opportunity of this library. 
 
 THE CHUECH-SCHOOL LIBRARY COMMITTEE 
 
 Many libraries die for lack of any management 
 and others from excessive management at one 
 particular point. But the highest mortality is 
 due to a combination of these two causes ; a total 
 neglect of some duties of management with over- 
 emphasis on others. The popular idea as to a 
 church-school library is that the duties of the 
 management are discharged as soon as three 
 things are provided : books, facilities for receiving 
 and disbursing them and space for their housing. 
 This requires relatively little management and, 
 save for the selection of books, when once a sys- 
 tem has been established for their distribution 
 and return, the management committee might as 
 well resign and let the library run itself. 
 
 But a library is more than a warehouse of 
 192 
 
THE LIBEARY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 books, and it is more than a banking system of 
 books. The modem library exists to stimulate 
 the nse of books, to cultivate tastes and to guide 
 reading. It is likely to interpret its function still 
 more broadly, so that public libraries keep and 
 loan musical records for piano-players and phono- 
 graphs, conduct story hours, hold exhibits of pic- 
 tures, of illustrations of commercial processes, 
 and, by every means in their power, minister to 
 the needs of their constituencies. Public libraries 
 are increasingly conscious of a definite mission. 
 Once they were dignified repositories of books 
 appreciated by the few, now they are missionaries 
 of the joys of literature to the many. They ad- 
 vertise, agitate and stimulate. 
 
 A school library with a mission will need a spe- 
 cial committee of management animated with the 
 missionary spirit, clearly seeing the printed page, 
 the appeal to the eye, as the great opportunity 
 of reaching the mind and persuading the judg- 
 ment. It will be as zealous to teach, inspire and 
 stimulate lives by this means as others are to do 
 the same by the spoken word. Perhaps for the 
 working basis of their mission their conception 
 of a library will go farther and will include in 
 the field of the library ^s instruments whatever can 
 be used to develop the religious life in a form 
 that permits of public distribution and of re- 
 peated use, so that the library might include mu- 
 sical records, pictures for loan and even toys and 
 games. The public library at Evanston, 111., has 
 a large collection of records, with a player piano, 
 in a special room ; the records may be loaned. 
 
 193 
 
JTHE SCHOOL IN THE MODEKN CHURCH 
 
 Tlie committee of management will think of its 
 duties just as the general manager of a factory 
 or store would think of his duties. If he is worth 
 his wage he will not need to be told that he is 
 engaged not to hold the business at its old level 
 but to promote, advance and extend it. He must 
 make it grow. He is more than the safety-valve 
 or the controller on the engine; he is the engi- 
 neer. The business of the committee of man- 
 agement in the library, or the ^'library commit- 
 tee '^ as it is usually called, will be to devise the 
 plans by which it may serve the purposes it holds 
 in common with the school and the church, to 
 select the materials by which it may best serve 
 these ends and to direct its activities so as to ren- 
 der the largest possible service. 
 
 There are then three duties which the commit- 
 tee may readily set before itself, first, planning 
 the ministry of the library to the community, 
 second, selecting the materials which the library 
 will tise, books, etc. ; third, management of the de- 
 tails of storing, receiving and distribution. Prob- 
 ably it will b'e found that the simplest division of 
 labor mil be under subcommittees on Propaganda, 
 Accessions and Management. 
 
 The Committee on Propaganda. The first of 
 these committees will be the most important for 
 all else will depend on the special activities in 
 which this library is to engage. As suggested in 
 the first section of this chapter these activities will 
 depend largely on the type of community to which 
 the library is to minister. Therefore the commit- 
 tee will determine, first, what the needs of the 
 
 194 
 
THE LIBRAEY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 conuniiiiity are and how the library may aid in 
 meeting them. It will also determine its field as 
 it may be hmited by the work of other similar 
 agencies, such as public libraries, already at work. 
 
 Then this subcommittee on propaganda will 
 make a careful statement of the kinds of ma- 
 terial needed, passing this over to the subcom- 
 mittee on ^'Accessions" for their guidance in the 
 selection of books and other material. Next this 
 subcommittee will come to the task at which it 
 must work all through the years, that of devising 
 plans to enlarge the ministry of the library. Per- 
 haps its most difficult task, the one calling for- 
 most imagination and courage, will be that of 
 stimulating the habit of using the library. 
 
 Stimulation will lie in two directions, at least, 
 first, that of encouraging the use of the custom- 
 ary material of the library, books; second, that 
 of adopting and discovering new methods, other 
 than the circulation of books, to accomplish the 
 general purpose of the library which is surely the 
 nurture of the higher life of the spirit by every 
 kind of teacher and guide which can be taken 
 into the homes and the leisure hours. 
 
 Stimulate by advertising. Let the pastor ad- 
 vertise by direct endorsements of special books, 
 by incidental references to good reading, by in- 
 quiries and suggestions in the course of his fam- 
 ily visitations. Let the Superintendent advertise 
 from the desk, in any church publications and by 
 suggestions to teachers on their reading. Let 
 the teachers advertise; tell them what books to 
 recommend to their classes; urge them to come 
 
 195 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 into the library and select books during tbe week. 
 Let the books themselves advertise by inviting 
 pupils and people of the community into the li- 
 brary to spend as much time as they will there. 
 "Whenever possible follow in this library the open- 
 shelf plan. Get people accustomed to seeing and 
 handling books ; let them know them, not only by 
 catalog names but by sight, by examination into 
 contents. Let the committee advertise by posters, 
 placards and by reading notices in the local pa- 
 pers. Often the publishers will be glad to send 
 attractive posters of new books. Space does not 
 permit to give details of all the plans this com- 
 mittee might use; reading circles, special read- 
 ings, excerpts from striking passages, all the de- 
 vices of the up-to-business public library. 
 
 New plans of service demand courage, but this 
 committee must not be afraid of new methods, 
 provided they are to be useful. Keep in mind 
 that this library is to be the school projecting 
 itself by any suitable portable means into homes 
 and leisure hours. If the library could lend to 
 every family having a phonograph some of the 
 best religious music we could soon write our 
 happy obituary notices of the too-popular rag- 
 time which bears the name of religion and dis- 
 graces it. If the committee could lend good re- 
 productions of great religious paintings how 
 many families would be inspired to substitute pic- 
 tures of value for the prevalent meaningless 
 chromes ! 
 
 The committee on Accessions has the duty of 
 keeping the tools of the library up to the effi- 
 
 196 
 
THE LIBRAEY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 ciency standard. It will be watching all the time 
 for the right books. The selections will not be 
 hastily made once or twice a year, biit members 
 of the committee will ask publishers to send them 
 their announcements and will be compiling their 
 lists of proposed additions all the time. Do not 
 confine yourselves to a few publishers ; all makers 
 of books are glad to send you their announce- 
 ments regularly if you really intend to exercise 
 discrimination in selection. As the needs of th© 
 community are reported by the committee on 
 Propaganda this committee on Accessions will be 
 able to go over all the field of available material 
 and make suitable selections. The unfortunate 
 and lazy custom is to order church-school library 
 books in a hurry, from a few lists furnished by 
 denominational houses or by some publisher who 
 has offered a gambling discount. 
 
 This committee will need ability to refuse ; pub- 
 lishers know the laziness of Sunday-school library 
 committees and succeed in unloading trash on 
 them in many cases. We have long since passed 
 the day when anything in print would do, when 
 the ignorance of Sunday-school pupils made the 
 preposterous, milk-and-water, goody-goody book 
 acceptable to them. This library is in competi- 
 tion with a world of books in a reading age. True, 
 people read too largely the froth and scum of 
 the daily press ; but the merely trivial, the wishy- 
 washy will not compete with it nor eradicate the 
 perverted taste. This committee should consist 
 of people who know both books and the youth 
 mind of today, and, also, those who know what 
 
 197 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 the ideal aim of the school is in religious educa- 
 tion. 
 
 The work of the committee on Management is 
 that of the direction of the actual work of dis- 
 tributing, receiving and recording books and other 
 material of the library. It will provide the rooms, 
 select the furniture, tools and supplies. It will 
 arrange as to the hours of opening, rules and 
 regulations, corps of workers and methods of 
 operation. Whenever possible it should have as 
 chairman one who has had actual experience in 
 public library work. Lacking this anyone accept- 
 ing the chairmanship should be willing to study 
 modern methods of library work. This is reaUy 
 a highly technical subject in some departments, 
 but the wise worker will study to simplify it and 
 to bring the manifold operations of the library 
 into a working and efificient unity. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS AIM OF THE LIBKAET 
 
 All that has been said on the school library is 
 predicated on its religious purpose. There is 
 just one clear and sufficient reason for a school 
 library: that the school may extend itself for the 
 accomplishment of its purposes into the homes 
 and the leisure hours of all its people. If we 
 hold that the purpose of the school is the develop- 
 ment of Christian character and training in Chris- 
 tian usefulness by educational processes, it is 
 surely evident that good literature may serve this 
 end and may be used educationally. 
 
 It is worth while to see that the broad purpose 
 198 
 
THE LIBKAKY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 of developing Christian character is serv^ed h^ 
 good reading. We seek to grow lives ; whatever 
 stimulates those lives toward larger, richer, higher 
 living aids our purpose. All reading furnishes 
 some sort of stimulus ; it is all food of the inner 
 life. But by selecting the good and furnishing that 
 which is healthy and good we aid higher growth, 
 we help to secure spiritual health, strength and 
 manhood. This is true of all reading. It either 
 builds up or it tears down and whatever in any 
 way builds up helps to serve God's purpose of 
 growing men and women into fulness of life. Not 
 all literature ministering to the life of the spirit 
 is labelled religious. Many of Browning's poems 
 count more for spiritual ends than most printed 
 sermons. You cannot read Dickens without hat- 
 ing meanness and hypocrisy and loving human 
 kindness, without a quickening pity for the under- 
 dog. There are many writers of fiction today who 
 are putting Christ's social teachings on the king- 
 dom of God into their stories. God still speaks in 
 divers ways through men. 
 
 All that is said of the power of general litera- 
 ture does not disparage that which we think of as 
 specifically religious literature. The point is that 
 we must appreciate the religious potentialities of 
 all literature that takes life in truly spiritual 
 terms ; this u the test to be applied to the religious 
 and the so-called secular both. And then to see 
 that whoever reads this literature and feels its 
 stimulus is being brought under an influence of 
 religious education. Wherever the church uses the 
 printed page she is establishing new messengers ; 
 
 199 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 she is extending her ministry of teaching and 
 preaching. The library book in the home may be 
 as though the wise and good pastor dwelt there 
 as a friend and daily counsellor. 
 
 The library serves the religious purpose by 
 extending the period of teaching. We recognize 
 the insufficiency of the present brief period, once 
 a week. The time is coming when we will have 
 more time for regular class teaching. But with- 
 out waiting for that desirable day we may have 
 now much more time for teaching. We may enter 
 into the pupils ' homes and our teaching, usually in 
 far better and more attractive forms than we can 
 put it, will be readily received by them hour after 
 hour. The book can go where the teacher cannot ; 
 it can stay longer and count for more. It does not 
 supplant the teacher — nothing can supplant per- 
 sonality — but it does complement and carry for- 
 ward the teaching all through the week. 
 
 The library helps the school to overcome an- 
 other of its limitations; it extends its teaching 
 corps to include all the great teachers of all times. 
 The school finds its work seriously hindered by 
 a lack of trained teachers. The library sends 
 great teachers, by the pupil's hands, into his home 
 to be his friends and guides through many pleas- 
 ant hours. It takes a new school-force into the 
 home and furnishes perennially attractive teach- 
 ers to the child. It enlists into the teaching force 
 of the school the authors whose presence would 
 make a red-letter day in any school and they be- 
 come the every-day teachers of these children. 
 They include the world's great religious leaders. 
 
 200 
 
THE LIBRARY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 Such teachers become real friends. Blessed be 
 the library that leads to buying books ! Whoever 
 has found a great teacher in the pages of print is 
 not satisfied until that house of a great soul is 
 set on a shelf close to his hand, ready at his call 
 at any moment. 
 
 The library gives direction to religious teaching. 
 We cannot always know what the teacher in the 
 class is actually teaching; but we can be sure of 
 the content of books. Their message is always the 
 same, and yet with the prophetic books it is new 
 to every age. This opportunity of selecting the 
 material is also the opportunity of determining 
 the reading habit. A good hbrary exists prin- 
 cipally to establish in lives the habits of drinking 
 at the world's great wells of refreshing. The 
 school library working to this end seeks to secure 
 the religious result of persons who know where 
 the food of the spirit may be found and who de- 
 light to obtain it. 
 
 The library pushes hack the walls of every-day 
 life. Do you appreciate what an enriching comes 
 to lives from the world of books? The enlarged 
 horizons, the lofty friendships and the heightened 
 ideals all make themselves the joy of youth-life 
 through the printed page. This solace and 
 strength of books our hurried age greatly needs. 
 Perhaps the need is greater than we realize in the 
 city. Here the child life is shut off from the great 
 open book of the fields and the woods. It is a bar- 
 ren picture of life which they get from brick walls 
 and hard pavements, from the hurry and noise of 
 congested living. Surely if any need to withdraw 
 
 201 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 at times to quiet fields of thought and to levels of 
 wider vision, it is those who dwell in cities. 
 
 But wherever folks are living they need these 
 treasures of a higher life. If we know where liv- 
 ing waters are we must show them the paths there. 
 
 Imagine a room in your church devoted to the 
 library. Shelves are all around the room and 
 built out into alcoves between the windows. On 
 these shelves are books in number four times the 
 number of pupils in the school ; to these new books 
 are added at the rate of about ten per cent each 
 year. The room is well lighted by day and every 
 night. It is comfortable and cheerful. It is open 
 every afternoon and every night, while some one 
 is in charge at all times. Tables for reading and 
 comfortable chairs are there. The ^^ Silence" rule 
 is in force only at certain specified hours. On 
 some afternoons a story-telling hour is conducted, 
 on others mothers' clubs meet here and use the 
 books. Any one at any time may come in and take 
 a book from the shelf and spend an hour in read- 
 ing. The books may be taken home under the usual 
 conditions. Modem helpful periodicals are on 
 hand. Do you not see the groups of people, young 
 and old, forming the habit of spending an hour 
 here? Would you count the space of that room 
 wasted? Would the more frequent touch with the 
 church and the consciousness of some gratitude to 
 her have any influence on those using the library? 
 Would not such service be a real ministry to the 
 life of the spirit and might it not, at least for some 
 of the youth, be a step toward the solution of the 
 problem of their leisure hours ? 
 
 202 
 
THE LIBEAEY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 Is not the school library a neglected opportunity 
 of religious education, waiting only those who have 
 the vision of a school extending itself into all the 
 lives of all its people! In every community there 
 are hundreds of barren homes ; there are hundreds 
 of children hemmed in by petty things of every- 
 day living, whose lives are filled with the ephe- 
 meral, the tinsel and show of our boasted triviali- 
 ties of civilization. Yet they hunger for the world 
 of ideals and if they find it not in our offerings 
 seek it in other ways, the printed page of sensa- 
 tion and delusion, the exciting spectacle or fever- 
 ish amusement. Save for the few hours when 
 church and school reach a few of them they are 
 as sheep without a shepherd. And the green pas- 
 tures are so near, so many and so rich, if we would 
 but take time to lead them. 
 
 Can we look beyond the minutes of teaching into 
 all the hours of a pupil's life and beyond the peda- 
 gogy of spoken words into the teaching power of 
 a book that speaks like a friend and the picture 
 that prints its own story on memory 1 To think 
 of pupils in all their hours and all their needs will 
 help us to see the library as one of the school's 
 great agencies of extension. 
 
 GETTING EESULTS OUT OF THE WOEKER's LIBEAEY 
 
 One of the greater denominations in the United 
 States now requires all its Sunday-school workers 
 —called *' Directors of Religious Education"— to 
 give evidence every year of a certain amount of 
 reading in prescribed books dealing with their 
 
 203 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 work. Some Sunday schools set up a similar 
 standard for their teachers, though few insist on 
 the standard being reached. 
 
 No one doubts that the efficiency of teachers, 
 other things being equal, is in the measure of 
 their intelligent acquaintance with the best ideals 
 and methods. Their ^^ reach'' of power depends 
 on their reach of interest and knowledge, on their 
 getting out mentally into the activities of other 
 schools and into touch with experienced workers. 
 
 The Workers' Library gives them a chance to 
 do this; every up-to-date school, no matter how 
 small, has at least a few really modern books on 
 the methods and ideals of Sunday-school work, 
 books written within the past eight years or so. 
 The trouble is that many of these books lie wast- 
 ing their usefulness on dusty shelves ; the problem 
 is to get the good in the books working in the 
 minds and methods of the teachers. 
 
 We might as well face two facts that seem, in 
 a measure, to offset each other. First, every good 
 teacher is a busy person. No really useful per- 
 son has idle time on his hands today. We must 
 go slow in suggesting additional duties. Second, 
 when one accepts the teacher's task, he accepts 
 the teacher's duties and one of the first of these 
 is to learn. No one can teach who will not take 
 the time to learn. Not to learn the lesson only, 
 but to learn the science that is wedded to the art 
 of teaching. 
 
 The learning, for the teacher, can come through 
 classes for some ; but there are many who simply 
 cannot take another meeting on their schedule. 
 
 204 
 
THE LIBRAEY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 But they do have short periods, half -hours, when 
 they might study, if only their study could be di- 
 rected for them. 
 
 At least two plans are possible. Both have been 
 in use in schools, and in some both can be used at 
 the same time. Both have the same aim. to get 
 teachers and workers to go to the books in search 
 of definite help and to follow up their reading in 
 definite ways. They seek to demonstrate the value 
 of books at particular points rather than to per- 
 suade to general reading. 
 
 Both plans will be worked best in the hands of 
 the right kind of a person made responsible for 
 them, rather than as an extra duty laid on the 
 superintendent or the pastor. In nearly any com- 
 munity it is really easy to find a man or woman 
 who is thoroughly interested in education. The 
 writer has so far failed to find an instance in which 
 either the local superintendent of schools, or the 
 principal could not be interested in this ques- 
 tion: How can we improve the teaching in our 
 Sunday schools by getting the teachers to read 
 educational material! 
 
 Having enlisted such a man, or woman, get him 
 to pick out a chapter in some book — it may be dif- 
 ferent chapters dealing with the same problem in 
 several books — and prepare a very brief analysis 
 of the chapter, showing particularly how it deals 
 with a specific, concrete problem in teaching or in 
 administration. Then send copies of his short 
 statement to each teacher, or officer, as the case 
 may be, with this sort of a request: ^'Please read 
 the chapter very carefully; think it over in the 
 
 205 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 light of the problem suggested, and try it out ; see 
 how it works ; see whether the author is right. At 
 the end of this month let us know what you think 
 about it." The ^^let us know'' may be, as may 
 seem best, by letter or in a monthly conference. 
 
 The main point of the plan is that a very defi- 
 nite problem, one that is real to the worker, is sug- 
 gested, and he is expected to try out the theory 
 of the book in practice. If the desired response 
 does not come in letter or at a conference, then 
 the director of this work will seek out the teacher 
 and personally check up on the reading. Taking 
 one problem after another it will not take long 
 to get the very heart out of a book. Moreover, 
 every teacher who finds help at one point will read 
 through for further help. 
 
 The other plan is similar, but seems to require 
 less machinery. At regular intervals, say every 
 other Sunday, the Director of Teacher-Training, 
 or the Superintendent, should put up a ' 'Bulletin" 
 where every teacher will see it. This will read 
 something like this : *^How Can I Get Better Home 
 Study? — Blank in ^Sunday School Ideals' an- 
 swers that at Chapter Six — Read that chapter." 
 So with many other practical problems. Suppose 
 the Bulletin could get only half the teachers to 
 read Bagley's three chapters on ^'Interest" in his 
 *' Classroom Management," a really valuable ac- 
 complishment would have been reached for that 
 school. 
 
 But the Bulletins will not work of themselves. 
 In many schools they must go to the teachers by 
 means of post-cards. In large schools the topics 
 
 206 
 
THE LIBEAEY OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 will have to be selected according to departments 
 or there would not be enough books to go round. 
 In every case the invitation to reading must be 
 followed up. Under the post-card bulletin plan a 
 space may be left on the card in which the teacher 
 will check the fact that the passage has been read. 
 But the principal pressure to secure reading 
 must be that of interest, based on recognized 
 needs. Make sure that teachers know their actual 
 problems are discussed in the books ; help them to 
 think of the contents of the books, not as a solid 
 bulk of the whole book, but as parts meeting their 
 specific needs. And then be sure there is ample 
 opportunity for them to discuss their attempts to 
 work the book advice into actual use. 
 
 207 
 
CHAPTER XIY 
 THE SCHOOL TRAINING FOR SERVICE 
 
 I. THE VISION- OF THE TASK 
 
 OiTE of the most encouraging signs in the life of 
 the church today is a larger and more comprehen- 
 sive vision of its task. Canon Freemantle a num- 
 ber of years ago wrote a book entitled *^The 
 World, the Object of Eedemption''; the church is 
 taking that phrase as its slogan. It is evident that 
 the details that have engrossed our attenion^ such 
 as pew-rents, pastor's salary, pulpit furniture, 
 etc., will all take care of themselves when the wider 
 work is undertaken seriously. The regeneration 
 of humanity and the reconstruction of society con- 
 stitutes an undertaking too broad for a group of 
 narrow-minded persons, but wherever churches 
 are catching this vision men are seeing that there 
 is a man's work for a man in the church and a 
 full-sized task for every man. It may be a sim- 
 ple matter to maintain here and there preaching 
 and praying stations, but to push the force of the 
 church through all society, to lift the world's 
 ideals, to change its motives and to bring it to a 
 new life, is a work so great as to call for heroic 
 service. • Men are ready to answer that call ; they 
 are waiting for it. But there is need of a new 
 
 208 
 
THE SCHOOL TEAINING- FOE SEEVICE 
 
 type of heroism, a type that hesitates not to toil 
 and suffer in order to be technically trained and 
 efficient. 
 
 The church must train its workers. It has no 
 right to ask men to do things unless it is willing 
 to show them how they are to be done. If the 
 minister of the church demands the energies of all 
 its men and women it must develop for their 
 trained powers for that ministry. Where shall 
 they be trained? 
 
 The training of any man or woman for an under- 
 taking so tremendous in its possibilities and broad 
 in its scope as this cannot be done by a series of 
 sketchy sermons nor in a brief course of half a 
 dozen lectures or studies. As a matter of fact it 
 takes a life-time to produce a life equipped 
 for God's service; we cannot wait for perfection, 
 but to do the best we can, we had better begin early 
 the training of his servants, and the earliest be- 
 ginnings are with children. 
 
 The church school is the specific agency of the 
 church for the training of all its workers. The 
 school must set before itself this definite duty of 
 preparing boys and girls, men and women, as in- 
 telligent, efficient workers in the kingdom. No one 
 who knows the Sunday-school world today will ac- 
 cuse its people of general indifference, but the 
 accusation of indirection would hold. "We are not 
 yet quite sure what we are trying to do in the 
 school. Many schools are apparently organized 
 for the purpose of training theologians and 
 exegetical experts. Whatever else may come ulti- 
 mately clearly into the field of vision of Sunday- 
 
 209 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 scliool workers, may we not take this as one of 
 the specific things that can be done, namely, the 
 religious education of boys and girls so that they 
 are desirous to do and capable of doing the work 
 of the kingdom and through the church? 
 
 Of course it is a good thing for children to study 
 the Bible, but if its text is in itself the object, you 
 find great difficulty in persuading the boy of the 
 value of the class exercise. Take the boy of fif- 
 teen; Golden Texts are a bore, but speak to him 
 of some detail of the Golden Age and he responds 
 with enthusiasm. Boys and girls, men and women 
 are hungry to do things that are worth the doing. 
 There will be no trouble either in enlisting their 
 interest or in securing their energies if we but set 
 out definitely to show them how to do any great 
 work. The way of saving society and making this 
 world an ideal kingdom may be made definite and 
 simple for them. Two things are needed: first, 
 that all teachers and officers shall catch the vision 
 of the greatness of the work, that somehow they 
 shall see, through the trees to the forest, through 
 the petty details to the divine proportions of this 
 whole business of saving a world in which the 
 church is engaged; and, second, that the school 
 shall begin at some definite point actually to train 
 boys and girls, men and women for a part in this 
 magnificent enterprise. The way to begin is to 
 begin. Take whatever group you can and begin 
 to study whatever they most need to know in rela- 
 tion to this work. If they are men, then begin to 
 study the church, briefly its history, more fully its 
 activities, very carefully its local organization, 
 
 210 
 
THE SCHOOL TKAININa FOR SERVICE 
 
 duties of officers, and its place in the life of the 
 community. That will lead out to studying social 
 conditions, philanthropies and world-wide work. 
 If they are boys or girls, then you must ask, what 
 are the things that boys and girls are interested 
 in, where does the kingdom touch them, and what 
 are the things they can do? 
 
 The school for youth is the church in the mak- 
 ing. What it is today the church will be tomorrow. 
 If there are men and women in the church who do 
 not understand its business, who are therefore 
 unwilling to attempt its duties it is in no small 
 measure because when they were in the mentally 
 acquisitive stage they were not made acquainted 
 with its organization and operations. One can 
 almost always trace failure in individuals either 
 to a lack of native ability or to a lack in adequacy 
 or in timeliness of preparation. It is not possible 
 to go back and remedy these defects in today ^s 
 men and women ; there is no such a thing as post 
 preparation. But the church can provide for to- 
 morrow ; it can furnish for every coming man and 
 woman a period of apprenticeship to its compre- 
 hensive task. 
 
 Now such an apprenticeship will mean a good 
 deal more than formal instruction. It will mean 
 participation in the work itself. Boys and girls 
 under the direction of the school will begin to do 
 those things which they can do for the church. 
 It is necessary to discover just how many things 
 there are that boys and girls could do by way of 
 active participation in church service and so by 
 that participation accomplish two highly desirable 
 
 211 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 and related ends, namely, give natural spontane- 
 ous expression in action to their religious life, 
 and secure through doing, training toward effi- 
 ciency in religious service. In view of the great 
 business of the church what can it do better now 
 than furnish apprenticeship experience through 
 the school to those who must do its work? 
 
 n. TRAINING YOUTH IN CHUECH WOEK 
 
 If we approach the problem of enlisting workers 
 for the church rather practically we might ask. 
 How do persons give themselves to other forms of 
 voluntary service*? For example, how does the 
 young man give himself to the service of the com- 
 munity and the state 1 Examining with some care 
 the steps taken by youths, one is led to believe that 
 the response which expresses itself in political and 
 civic interests, while it is a part of the social 
 awakening, rises particularly out of appreciation 
 of the reality of the civic life. The young lad who 
 has known the streets and the city life as a boy's 
 experience readily realizes how immediately they 
 depend on civic affairs. Politics comes out of the 
 realm of theory into the living real. 
 
 But why are they real! Because they are part 
 of his life, of everyday experience. And why are 
 they vital to him? Because his awakened sense 
 of society reveals their importance; he is begin- 
 ning to see how they affect the welfare of people, 
 how they determine the growth of society toward 
 its ideals. He could not — or would not — tell you 
 
 212 
 
THE SCHOOL TRAINING FOR SERVICE 
 
 this. But these are the processes usually taking 
 place in his mind. 
 
 Does this mean anything to the church? Does 
 it not mean that youth must have tJie sense of so- 
 cial reality in the work of the church? By this is 
 meant that he must feel that in the church is one 
 of the social groupings of which he is a part, in 
 its work there is that which must be done and that 
 which he may do as his part in society. To this 
 is added the deeper significance that, in the church, 
 life is viewed in religious terms. The work is of 
 larger importance because it is that of a society 
 organized for the spiritual life. 
 
 Now what does the youth do in response to his 
 civic quickening? That is the vital question. The 
 trouble is that he so often does nothing, because 
 nothing is presented which he can do. If some 
 task appears, if somewhere there is that which hisi 
 hands can grasp he may go on to give a very large 
 part of his life in service; he may be either the 
 devoted civic servant or the professional politi- 
 cian. The task is here the vital thing. But * ^ task' ' 
 is the wrong word ; it must be opportunity in the 
 form of activity. The sense of reality and of 
 belonging are quickened and maintained by par- 
 ticipation. In a church that has a real life toward 
 the community the interest of youth is sure to de- 
 velop ; the vital question for us is, have we an op- 
 portunity of service for him? 
 
 Youth is the time of opportunity as to service. 
 They are making their vocational choices and their 
 avocational choices, too. They are eager to do 
 things, things that give them a chance to express 
 
 213 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 those ideals that youth is ever reluctant to put 
 into words. The problem of the church is not that 
 of distributing the offices among the aged saints, 
 but that of so ministering to life that there is a 
 place of service for every one who wishes to min- 
 ister. But, remember, youth will wait to be asked ; 
 it is modest as to its own powers. The way must 
 be pointed out and the first step guided. 
 
 What are the hinds of service which youth can 
 undertake! It might seem that a helpful answer 
 here would be in the form of an enumeration of 
 the specific offices and duties. But such a list 
 would be misleading. Even if it were fairly ac- 
 curate it would hinder rather than help, simply 
 because one cannot lead into such service unless 
 he is able to see the forms of service which prop- 
 erly arise out of his own church and which prop- 
 erly belong to different classes of workers. The 
 forms of service depend on the very life which the 
 group, the church, is living. They are not 
 '^stunts;'' they are normal expressions of life, 
 and therefore they grow out of social conditions 
 and needs, out of special realizations of ideals, out 
 of the stages of development of persons and of 
 the church. 
 
 One factor in developing the sense of reality in 
 work is that whatever is done shall point to some 
 definite purpose. It must have some of the char- 
 acter of an enterprise. It must be seen as a part 
 of the realization of some purpose or ideal. This 
 will suggest that, especially for younger persons, 
 group enterprises are desirable. That which 
 needs to be done can be presented as an oppor- 
 
 214 
 
THE SCHOOL TEAINING FOR SERVICE 
 
 tunity to a group. Some forms of individual ser- 
 vice need explanation in order that their contri- 
 bution to ideal ends may be clear; this is espe- 
 cially true of what may be called permanent rou- 
 tine. 
 
 The sense of reality depends in part on instruc- 
 tion. Work must be intelligent. The invitation to 
 activity merely for the sake of exercise will profit 
 little. Young people have in civic affairs the 
 marked advantage of rather thorough instruc- 
 tion. They learn not only the government of the 
 state but also the nature and affairs of their city 
 or village. That instruction comes best at a time 
 when the active powers can go into the life of the 
 community. So with the church, along with and 
 largely growing out of the experience of doing 
 things in its social life should come the explana- 
 tion of that life. 
 
 We cannot expect intelligent work in a church 
 from those who do not know what a church really 
 is. But this is precisely the condition of by far 
 the greater number of church members. They 
 have never received instruction as to the nature 
 of a church, its form of social organization, the 
 principles underlying its forms of work. To them 
 that which it does is either accepted blindly, tra- 
 ditionally, or is seen only as to immediate pur- 
 poses. Somewhere in the life of youth the ex- 
 perience of living in the church society must re- 
 ceive illumination. It must become an intelligent 
 experience. 
 
 The instruction that is necessary cannot be re- 
 garded simply as a new subject to be added to the 
 
 215 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 curriculum of the Sunday school. A single course 
 in civics will not make the citizen. The intelligent 
 church worker grows up through a developing ex- 
 perience which is illuminated by developing in- 
 struction. All through our course of lessons, 
 through every grade, we need a keener conscious- 
 ness of an application to the reality of life which 
 would include this reality of the church and its 
 work. "We need explicit instruction in the art of 
 living in a religious society, a course which would 
 include all the active life of the church. 
 
 ni. THE SCHOOL AS A TEAINING AGENCY 
 
 The more fully the church enters into her pres- 
 ent-day task the more clearly she realizes two 
 great needs: that of an educated, adequately- 
 trained leadership, and that of a trained, compe- 
 tent laity. The second need is not less than the 
 first. No matter how devoted and expert the min- 
 ister may be he cannot do all the work of a church. 
 His capable leadership may go for naught if those 
 who are to follow cannot understand his methods 
 or are incapable of carrying out his plans. The 
 very large and growing investment which the 
 church communion properly makes in the training 
 of a leadership may be largely wasted unless there 
 is proper provision to train efficient followers. 
 
 No one who knows the life of the churches can 
 doubt that those which have entered on their mod- 
 em task have a new era of greatly extended power 
 before them. They have passed from being only 
 preaching stations to become community forces 
 
 216 
 
THE SCHOOL TRAINING FOE SERVICE 
 
 with a recognized function in the life of today. 
 The modern church has not lost out and it is not 
 looking around for a job. It has so clear and so 
 large a task that its greatest need is that of com- 
 petent workers. 
 
 The training of the lay workers takes on an 
 aspect of new importance when we realize how 
 essential that training is to their own growth as 
 religious persons. Religious education must in- 
 clude training in living, in doing; it must bring 
 into its disciplines all the active powers of every 
 life. No one can be like Christ who does not so 
 learn to live his life as to do his work. The very 
 life of the church also demands this. It is not a 
 matter of finding tasks which will interest people 
 and so hold them ; it is a matter of finding, in the 
 experience of the church, the opportunity for each 
 one to engage all his powers in religion, in re- 
 ligion as an experience which is lived and becomes 
 a part of life's work, of its reality. 
 
 TRAINING CHURCH WORKERS 
 
 Teacher-training has been the answer of the 
 church to the call for an efficient laity for one 
 form of work. But there are many other duties 
 in the church which require trained and expert 
 powers. Perhaps none is more immediately im- 
 portant than that of teaching; but many are 
 equally vital to the maintainence of the general 
 work of the church. Teacher-training ought to be 
 but one aspect of a general program of church- 
 officer training. We would do well to recognize 
 
 217 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 that no official duty in a chnrcli can be slighted, 
 that none can be regarded as though it made no 
 difference whether or not it were preperly dis- 
 charged. 
 
 The offices in a church are not honorary posi- 
 tions, awarded as flattering marks of esteem ; they 
 are posts of duty which call for the highest devo- 
 tion, application and skill. To get this view clear- 
 ly established will be the first step toward the 
 training of officers. The greater the call which 
 the office makes for devotion and sacrifice, the 
 greater its demands on one's powers, the more 
 attractive it will be to those who can be trained 
 and the clearer will be their recognition of the 
 need of training. Eeally magnify the offices and 
 the greatness of the task will bring to them the 
 best men and women, the ones who will seek to 
 grow fit. 
 
 A great task always appeals to youth ; they are 
 looking for the high things to do. We deprive 
 them of one of their largest opportunities when 
 we reserve the offices for the aged. We too 
 commonly assume that one cannot serve the king- 
 dom officially until his powers are declining. Some 
 of the present fixtures have been in office ever 
 since they were young. The church fears to change 
 for two reasons : it might hurt the fixture 's feel- 
 ings — as though so wooden a thing as a fixture 
 could have any feelings ; and a change might bring 
 in a novice. But novices are needed in all pro- 
 gressive work. New blood must come in, bring- 
 ing new life and new vision. Every occupation 
 
 218 
 
THE SCHOOL TEAINING FOE SERVICE 
 
 must have apprentices. All the experts were once 
 novices. 
 
 THE CHUKCH SCHOOL FURNISHES THE WOKKERS 
 
 If the church of tomorrow is to have an efficient 
 officiary she must look for it in the young people 
 of today. The time to pick out the officers of the 
 church is long before they can hold office. Then 
 help them to see the dignity and worth of a re- 
 ligious avocation. Help them to hear its high 
 call. An efficient church makes efficient workers 
 by its constant preaching of the worth of church 
 work. 
 
 Train your young people by work. The way to 
 learn to swim is to get into the water ; the way to 
 teach church work is to put them into the work. 
 Give them experience before you give them text- 
 books. Trying to do a thing is the best teacher of 
 the need of training. The work itself, when under 
 direction, is the best form of training. 
 
 Young people are capable of much more than 
 we commonly expect of them. Sometimes we com- 
 plain that they seem to be irresponsible, but have 
 we ever laid on them real responsibilities? Give 
 a young man a real task, lay on him a heavy load 
 so that he will know you are not ^ ^making-believe ' ' 
 to keep him amused, and you will find his back 
 stiffen and his lips tighten up as he buckles to 
 meet your expectations. 
 
 We have had too much make-believe for young 
 people. They soon tire of the petty offices in 
 play-societies; they know they are not the real 
 
 219 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 thing. Making a young man the presiding genius 
 of a dolPs house does not prepare him for parent- 
 hood. What does prepare him, then! Sharing 
 the responsibilities of the home as the friend and 
 companion of Father and Mother. This is the 
 best preparation of all. Eesponsibilities make 
 people responsible. But what of their lack of ex- 
 perience 1 Experience can be gained only through 
 experiencing. The only way to have experienced 
 workers is to give them the experience while they 
 are most capable of profiting by it. 
 
 Of course we would not turn out all the older 
 officers. But in many instances it would be pos- 
 sible for officers to take an associate, a younger 
 person who would work with him, sharing the 
 labor and the honor and becoming proficient 
 through experience. 
 
 With the experience instruction should go. In 
 the church school young people are drilled in the 
 details of the work of the tabernacle, the duties 
 of priests and Levites while they remain abso- 
 lutely without instruction on the work of the 
 church today. Is it because we believe the taber- 
 nacle was more religious than the church? Do 
 we not see that if we might have regular instruc- 
 tion in the work of a modern church given to 
 young men and women these things would follow ; 
 to them religion in action would be more real, 
 immediate and possible as an experience; we 
 would have more persons ready to do church work, 
 and we would have better workers, persons who 
 had learned this great task as they would learn 
 any other great task. 
 
 220 
 
THE SCHOOL TEAINING FOR SERVICE 
 
 THE ADULT WORKER 
 
 In the first two sections we have been thinking 
 of training workers as a part of the life experience 
 which every one ought to have in the church, an 
 experience which would run all through life. But 
 in every church there are many who have arrived 
 at years of maturity without such an experience, 
 who for their own sakes ought to be sharing in 
 the activity of the church. How can they be 
 brought in, and how can they be trained? 
 
 Perhaps a prior question is : Is this a duty for 
 the school? Yes, if we think of this school as the 
 school of the religious life, if we think out the 
 task as that of training in religious social living. 
 The religious life cannot find fulness for any of 
 these adults until they project themselves into its 
 work, until they belong through active coopera- 
 tion. Their life can grow only as their powers 
 grow, and their powers are retrogressing if they 
 are not being properly used. 
 
 For adults the first need is that of understand- 
 ing and vision on the duty, the function of the 
 church. This should be a part of the proper 
 process of receiving and training members. The 
 average adult has been only partially received 
 into the church. His name has come in ; in a meas- 
 ure his affections have come in; but, commonly, 
 his mind has come in only in part. He does not 
 fully understand the church. His active powers 
 have been but little received, for they have gone 
 only as far as his knowledge has led. At least one 
 reason we see so little of people at church is that 
 
 221 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 so little of them is ever there. We have been more 
 anxious for their names, their pledges, and their 
 presence than for their whole selves. They can 
 come in fully only as the intelligence comprehends 
 the work and nature of the church and the entire 
 person, will, and affections are freely given to it. 
 
 The first step in the training of the adult must 
 lead him to see just where the church fits into 
 life's plan, just what its purpose is and what it 
 seeks to do. Its work must be clearly, evidently, 
 intelligently worth while. His feelings of loyalty 
 must be led and strengthened by light. He needs 
 a deep, solidly founded conviction as to the defi- 
 niteness of the function of the church in the life 
 of today. He must be instructed as to the manner 
 in which that which is done in and by the church 
 meets real social needs of today. 
 
 Meanwhile, along with developing understand- 
 ing, there has been an enlistment into some forms 
 of activity. Specific duties have been undertaken. 
 Now comes the opportunity for instruction in 
 these duties. In experience the worker finds his 
 weaknesses and discovers difficulties. Again, the 
 conference method of instruction would seem to 
 be the best one. It not only avoids the stumbling 
 block of formality, but by taking the case method, 
 considering projects that are being undertaken, 
 discussing each special duty and difficulty, it re- 
 lates the instruction immediately to experience. 
 
 The danger of training and instruction under 
 the discussion plan lies in the tendency to a wide- 
 spread generalization. The discussion groups can- 
 not cover the whole ground ; they must divide up 
 
 222 
 
THE SCHOOL TRAINING FOR SERVICE 
 
 into either fields of work or types of service. The 
 smaller groups would each then discuss its own 
 problems. The closer attention that would be 
 given here would naturally lead to a study of 
 fundamentals, and that would suggest to many the 
 need for careful consecutive study. This may seem 
 a long way to lead adults to study, but it is to be 
 doubted if any shorter way would do any more 
 than lead them to classes. The consciousness of 
 need has to be developed and also an understand- 
 ing of the exact nature of the need. You can lead 
 a horse to a trough, but you do not have to lead 
 a thirst there. 
 
 One must not suppose that the kind of study 
 courses here suggested require a large amount of 
 elaborate educational machinery. Students who 
 have come up to the course in the manner sug- 
 gested need little stimulus from organization. An 
 occasional opportunity to meet as a class will have 
 back of it earnest persons seriously reading in 
 their respective fields. The one thing that is 
 needed is the local general direction, and then over 
 that the intelligent provision of suitable material 
 on the principles of church work in a community. 
 
 One form of conference will be especially of edu- 
 cational value — that is, that in which those hav- 
 ing similar tasks in different churches come to- 
 gether. It would help not only to solve problems 
 but to create pride in one's work to meet and con- 
 verse with those doing like work through a wide 
 area. 
 
 To have educational value all work for adults 
 must be in itself educational — that is, it must be 
 
 223 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 part of a program of directed development. It 
 cannot stand still. Each kind of responsibility 
 must lead to a larger one. When expertness in 
 one duty is attained powers must not atrophy by 
 being limited to that duty. Pastors need to look 
 often over their workers to see that they are hav- 
 ing a fair chance to grow. One form of growth 
 we often overlook : tliat which comes from having 
 the responsibilities of instruction placed upon us. 
 Those who know how should teach those who do 
 not. The younger workers should be in training 
 under the more experienced ones ; both will grow 
 through the relationship. 
 
 If the worker is to grow, his vision must be 
 quickened, he must be stimulated to look beyond 
 his immediate task to the w^hole enterprise. The 
 work must be interpreted to him so that he sees 
 its breadth, its significance, and its glory. Unless 
 the minister in the pulpit is a prophet, unless he 
 is one who so teaches that men see the divine mean- 
 ing of their lives, so that they look forward to a 
 divine social order, no amount of instruction will 
 make efficient workers. For efficiency is not of the 
 hand or the brain alone ; it is of the affections ; it 
 is strong and swift and sure because it has a vision 
 of far heights, of great things to be done. The 
 heart counts for quite as much in one's work as 
 skill and intelligence. 
 
 THE LAY worker's VISION 
 
 One cannot say that the difficulty in enlisting the 
 services of men and women is due entirely to their 
 
 224 
 
THE SCHOOL TKAININa FOR SERVICE 
 
 indifference, nor can the blame be laid wholly on 
 conditions that engross the powers of men in our 
 rushing day, nor even to a combination of these, 
 for we all know men and women who are exceed- 
 ingly busy and who yet throw themselves with 
 marvellous abandon into projects entirely outside 
 their own personal and family interests. Recently 
 a company of eight hundred business men went 
 out in one city giving hours to a piece of patriotic 
 service. It appealed to them. Church work does 
 not appeal to them; that is a large part of the 
 difficulty. 
 
 But in the case of the eight hundred men just 
 mentioned there were few of them to whom their 
 project appealed when it was first mentioned. It 
 won them only when they were fully informed on 
 it. They were enthusiastic because they were in- 
 telligent. There lies one suggestion for the 
 church. It raises the question, Do our laymen 
 understand fully the work they are asked to do 1 
 
 It takes a completeness of information seldom 
 appreciated to carry one forward in tedious work 
 without tangible reward. It requires that kind of 
 information which reveals all the meanings and 
 values of the duty and task. It is not enough to 
 describe the ^'how;'' the whole judgment must be 
 persuaded with an adequate WHY, such a vision 
 of the need for the work, of its meaning, its re- 
 sults and the opportunity it offers that workers 
 are deeply moved and constantly sustained. With 
 all our teaching of method we must not forget 
 motives; they must be developed and trained. 
 
 A sustaining motive will be based upon that 
 225 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 which makes an appeal wide enough to engage our 
 broadest sympathies and ideals. Normally, 
 where effort is required, it is easier to reach out 
 and forward than it is to withdraw or go back. 
 The remote and difficult is always more attractive 
 than the near and easy. The large project calls 
 for large endeavors. Perhaps that suggests one 
 reason for failure ; we have presented the projects 
 in which we would have men engage as much 
 smaller than they really are. We have talked 
 about work for the church when what we have 
 meant really has been work for the whole world. 
 We have seemed to call folks to save the church 
 when what we wanted them to do was to make 
 the church an efficient instrument and use it to 
 save the world. 
 
 LAUGE PROGRAMS 
 
 It is to be doubted whether large men can ever 
 be enlisted in a program so little as that which 
 centers in the immediate organization and satis- 
 fies itself there. We need to catch Jesus' vision 
 of the whole world as the field ; we need to see that 
 all Christian work is part of the program of mak- 
 ing a new heaven here. Instead of asking men to 
 serve in this office or the other, what would be 
 the effect if we called them to take part in Chris- 
 tianizing this world of ours f Such a call would be 
 effective only in the degree that we helped them 
 to see what it really meant, what the Christian 
 program is for the world. 
 
 Into the spirit of Wesley we must come and, 
 realizing that for every Christian leader the world 
 
 226 
 
THE SCHOOL TRAINING FOR SERVICE 
 
 is his parish, call all men about us to have a part 
 in making this world-parish the very kingdom of 
 God. Then it will be no longer service of the 
 church to which they are invited; it will be the 
 service of humanity by means of the church or by 
 any other means. We shall make divine service 
 mean any kind of work anywhere that makes life 
 divine, that fulfils the divine will for men, that 
 accomplishes the divine purpose of a divine so- 
 cial order. 
 
 Our programs are too small and too selfish. We 
 have been thinking so long in terms of the means 
 and the machinery that we have lost sight of the 
 splendid ends. Meanwhile men have caught some 
 vision of those ends, they have had quickened in 
 them the hope of a redeemed society; then when 
 the church has called them to her work they have 
 answered. We cannot come ; we have larger tasks 
 in trying to work out some practical good in so- 
 ciety. 
 
 We shall not be able to use and develop the 
 motive that enlists and sustains unless it is really 
 our own motive. We cannot win the modern work- 
 er if we are simply talking about world-wide pro- 
 grams while we have in mind no more than the 
 perfecting of our own little machines. We must, 
 if we would lead others, be ourselves led wholly 
 by this vision of the work of the church as but a 
 means of accomplishing the divine purpose for 
 the world. We accept this purpose not to save 
 the church by aligning it with current thinking on 
 social matters, but because this is the essential 
 purpose of Christianity. As Jesus said He came 
 
 227 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 to save the world so He called all His followers 
 to carry on that work. 
 
 When those who are doing divine service feel 
 the glow and catch the vision that comes with work 
 so splendidly and significant they will see, too, the 
 value of the part which the church plays in that 
 work. The larger vision will rightly evaluate 
 the dependent means. To all forms of necessary 
 activity in the church they will contribute with 
 complete intelligence. 
 
 But how shall we train men to accept such a 
 thrilling concept of religious work? First, and 
 most important of all, by accepting it ourselves. 
 We can persuade others only when we are so per- 
 suaded that all our actions, our policies, our whole 
 plan of work is dominated by that ideal. When 
 we organize our work, using the church as a means 
 to Christianize the whole social order, we set be- 
 fore young and old the most effective form of 
 teaching imaginable. The boy who grows up in 
 a church that is loyal to such a task will come 
 naturally to think habitually of life in like terms. 
 He will get the vision from what he sees of the 
 regular program of the church. That is the fun- 
 damental thing. But such a program fully ac- 
 cepted will determine the entire curriculum of 
 study and will direct all the activities of the 
 church. So that all the time the unconscious 
 teaching by the very life of the church, by what 
 it does, will be confirmed and illuminated by what 
 is taught in classes and what is done in every 
 activity. 
 
 We will have laymen working in all forms of re- 
 228 
 
THE SCHOOL TRAINING FOR SERVICE 
 
 ligious service when they see that the way of re- 
 ligion is the one way in which the appalling prob- 
 lems of society can be met, it is the one way in 
 which we can make the world fit for our children 
 to live in, it is the one way in which the Christian 
 ideal of love and brotherhood can be realized, and 
 a man's best chance to bring such hopes to pass 
 is to work with the forces that make for righteous- 
 ness, justice and holiness. 
 
 229 
 
CHAPTER XT 
 
 A FIELD OF WORK FOR THE ADULT CLASS 
 
 Having taken the position that there is a place 
 for the adult in the educational program of the 
 church, and having cleared ourselves from the 
 old error that his, or her, place was exactly the 
 same as the place of the child, that there was 
 nothing for the adults to do but to sit in classes, 
 we turn to ask, what are the enterprises which be- 
 long most naturally to the educational program 
 for adults 1 There ought to be no difficulty in an- 
 swering that; they are those in which the adults 
 learn the way of Christian discipleship by doing 
 the things that the first disciples did, working for 
 other disciples. The natural educational activi- 
 ties for adults are distinctly missionary. 
 
 But the immediate assumption, commonly, is 
 that this means they must either organize classes 
 on Missions, or, if the work is really to be prac- 
 tical, they must go out in the streets and highways 
 after the outsiders, the indiiferent, wandering 
 crowd. While this task is attractive, highly im- 
 portant, and likely to become the special duty of 
 some who have peculiar fitness for it, there is 
 another and more important task closer at home, 
 one which will need more workers, one which is 
 much simpler and will yield much larger and richer 
 
 230 
 
FIELD OF WOEK FOE THE ADULT CLASS 
 
 results. It is that of discovering means of win- 
 ning, training and holding those who are already 
 very near to the churches, already in some ways 
 related to its life. It includes strengthening, for 
 the program of the divine society, the agencies 
 which cooperate with and further the work of the 
 church. It is a program, in part of conservation. 
 It may well begin with the home and family. 
 
 At present the church school is reaching only 
 a minor proportion of the whole number of boys 
 and girls. Out of the total population of school 
 age in the United States the Christian church 
 schools reach less than one-third. In fact, their 
 total enrollment is about one-third of that of the 
 public schools, while the former includes a very 
 large number of adults not included in the latter. 
 The startling fact is that not more than one child 
 in every three in the United States receives any 
 formal religious instruction. That fact is a chal- 
 lenge to every adult Christian. 
 
 Here is a situation that ought to interest the 
 members of adult departments. Adult Christians 
 ought to be concerned with the great problem cre- 
 ated by the fact that two out of every three per- 
 sons know practically nothing about the Christian 
 social ideals. The fundamental problem in work- 
 ing out Christian ideals in society is that we are 
 dealing with people who have never learned these 
 ideals. At best they have vague notions about 
 them. 
 
 If we demand that every incoming citizen shall 
 know what our country means and what it stands 
 for, ought we not to hold it as the right of every 
 
 231 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHTJECH 
 
 child coming into the world that he shall know 
 what the Kingdom of God means and how it is 
 to be realized? We can never have a Christian 
 social order otherwise, and one wonders how long 
 we can have a Christian church when so few know 
 what its life really means. God's will in society 
 will come only as men learn to will it ; it will not 
 come by compulsion. It will come when both of 
 two things are secured, that all know His will and 
 all will to do it, and the first is essential to the 
 last. We dare not lose sight of the two out of 
 every three who have practically no opportunity 
 to know that will. 
 
 If the adults in the school wish to do the largest 
 possible service for the world the best place to be- 
 gin is with the children. We think of the task of 
 changing the minds of men, but how much bet- 
 ter to train the minds of children ! 
 
 What can the adult department do for the un- 
 schooled two-thirds? First, find out who they 
 are and how many there are of them. There is 
 a practical job, to make a complete census of all 
 children not attending some kind of a church 
 school for religious instruction. Know your facts 
 first. Know not only the total numbers, but also 
 the geographical distribution, the prevailing so- 
 cial conditions, the general causes, and, most par- 
 ticularly, the names of all cases. Put the facts in 
 graphic form. Make a color map of your district 
 or parish, showing by different colors the propor- 
 tions of non-attendents. Can you show whether 
 the condition is getting worse or better? 
 
 To a certain extent, however, the gathering of 
 232 
 
FIELD OE .WORK FOR THE ADULT CLASS 
 
 facts has been done in commnnities before; but 
 the work has stopped there. The facts have been 
 fruitless. What shall be done with the facts? 
 Change them. Make them different. Call all 
 your adults together and show them the big job. 
 Take such an aim as *' Change the two-thirds out 
 to a two-thirds in.'' If you can do that the first 
 year, you will be ready to try for a three-thirds 
 in the year following. 
 
 A good many experiences lead one to doubt 
 whether the spectacular, hurrah campaigns ever 
 accomplish much; frequently they only shift en- 
 rollments from one school to another, sometimes 
 they cultivate habits of joining and unjoining one- 
 self from schools. Better the sort of work that 
 adult departments can take up seriously and 
 quietly. Assign the families to members. Have 
 weekly meetings of the department, on some week 
 night, and get reports from each member as to his 
 work and success. Personally call on families 
 just as you would call to sell life insurance or a 
 washing machine. The direct contact with the 
 family counts. It will often win all instead of the 
 children alone. Printed invitations and cor- 
 respondence schemes will not succeed here ; shoe- 
 leather will count rather than letters. 
 
 This kind of work will call for patience, faith 
 and endurance. There will be no high tide of 
 enthusiasm to carry the regiment over the 
 trenches. You will have to go alone and again and 
 again. Those who carry the work on will find it 
 more complex than at first appears. Parents will 
 show you special situations that seem to forbid 
 
 233 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 sending children to school. They will reveal deep- 
 seated prejudices toward the churches. Alto- 
 gether it will be a real man's job. 
 
 But could any adult department set before it- 
 self a finer piece of service than this or one more 
 far-reaching, to see that every child in all the com- 
 munity shall have his entire religious rights? 
 What greater social ministry could there be than 
 to guard the rights of the child to religious train- 
 ing and to prepare for the welfare of the future 
 by making sure of the right instruction of those 
 who will be its citizens 1 
 
 In addition to the sustained enlistment cam- 
 paign the adult department may undertake, as part 
 of this work, one special enterprise. Those who 
 visit the homes will soon find that there are large 
 numbers of children who are spiritually orphans ; 
 they have physiological parents but are without 
 spiritual parents. The fathers and mothers seem 
 to be devoid of religious responsibility for their 
 children. Here is where wise men and women 
 must serve, by taking these spiritual orphans and 
 furnishing them the religious guidance they need. 
 We have had a ^'Big Brother" plan and a ^^Big 
 Sister" plan; now we need a plan of spiritual 
 parenthood. Wliat a chance, especially for those 
 who, hungry for children and having none of their 
 own, by this means can have their own children in 
 the highest sense, and what a chance for us all ! 
 
 What right have we to be adults if we do not 
 play the man's part in the world, especially in the 
 religious world, if seeing these many outside, 
 fatherless in soul and perishing for eternal bread, 
 
 234 
 
FIELD OF WOEK FOR THE ADULT CLASS 
 
 dying at the top of life, we reach not out to them 
 hearts of love and hands of guidance ? 
 
 THE ADULT DEPARTMENT AND THE HOME DEPARTMENT 
 
 The Home Department is the orphan in the 
 church school; no one seems to care to claim it, 
 so it is, with rare exceptions, stunted in growth, 
 neglected and impoverished. It is hardly ever al- 
 luded to in polite church-school society. All this 
 is due to two causes : First, we have not thought 
 out an exact place, or function, for the depart- 
 ment; and, second, we have no special group re- 
 sponsible for it. 
 
 If we were to call this neglected child * ' The Ex- 
 tension Department of the Church school,'' we 
 would at least give it a respectable and meaning- 
 ful name, a name that would show where it be- 
 longed and what it was supposed to do. It is sim- 
 ply the school extending itself into every place 
 where a student may be found, the school teaching 
 by correspondence studj^ Here is a mother who 
 cannot leave the tiny baby to go to school and so 
 we arrange that she shall study at home ; here is 
 an invalid for whom a like provision is made, and 
 here are men employed in factories, mills and 
 trains who want to belong to the school and to do 
 its work though they may be many miles away 
 from it at the time of the sessions. The Home De- 
 partment, or why not call it what it really is, the 
 Extension Department, extends the school to them. 
 
 But extension must be a real thing ; it demands 
 the provision of means of contact. Something 
 
 235 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 must be extended. Many of tlie departments have 
 been more active in good intentions than in effec- 
 tive extensions; they have wished the members 
 well and, very soon, the members have wished 
 them *^Good-by.'' Unless the members of the de- 
 partment know that the school is being extended to 
 them so that it reaches them effectively, helpfully 
 and therefore personally, they will soon lose any 
 sense of belonging. 
 
 If the Home Department consists so largely of 
 adults separated from the school they should 
 naturally be in nearest relations to the adults now 
 in the school; the home department consists of 
 the adults outside ; the Adult department of those 
 inside. The two ought never to be separated in 
 our thought, and they ought never to be separated 
 in our plans for action. The group immediately 
 responsible for the shut-ins is the adult depart- 
 ment. 
 
 This relationship is not one of responsibility 
 alone; it is one of opportunity. Here is one of 
 the best service opportunities for adults, best be- 
 cause it is simple, it is practical, it is evidently a 
 part of the work of the school and it can be car- 
 ried forward all the year. "Whoever else may have 
 a share in the work the men and women in the 
 adult department are the ones who must see that 
 the involuntary outsiders feel that in all the es- 
 sential relationships they are inside. There are 
 a number of practical ways in which this feeling 
 can be created and under which the members of 
 the adult department will find real exercise in do- 
 ing religious work. 
 
 236 
 
FIELD OF WOEK FOR THE ADULT CLASS 
 
 Suppose we take all the outsiders, the Exten- 
 sion Department members, and divide them up 
 into as many groups as there are persons in the 
 adult department willing to work in this field. 
 When the number is determined then classify the 
 groups according to their localities, assigning each 
 local group to some individual who can readily 
 call on them. This is the provision for the first 
 form of extension, through visitation. 
 
 Let no one shrink from visiting, as though you 
 were about to make a ^ ' pastoral call. ^ ' What these 
 people want, after all, is just a plain visit, not an 
 official interview. They want to see your face and 
 to talk things over with you. It may be they will 
 talk about the lesson, but not with the idea that 
 you are to teach it to them. You are there sim- 
 ply to carry the school, as a society, personally to 
 them. 
 
 In these days of improved means of transpor- 
 tation it will often happen that the visitor can 
 do more than represent the school, he can take the 
 ''shut-in'^ to the school. There are often enough 
 automobiles in an adult department to gather up 
 half the outsiders and bring them inside the school 
 session. If a gallon of gasoline will make some- 
 one happy, or bring them to the means of grace, 
 it would seem to be a good investment. 
 
 Every Sunday each member of the adult depart- 
 ment should turn in a report as to the times he 
 has seen the members of his group at their homes. 
 If he is a human Christian, a creature who likes 
 folks just as the Master liked them, he wiU soon 
 count the chance to visit others one of his great- 
 
 237 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 est joys. If he doesn't like to go to see them you 
 can be sure they do not care to have him. A duty 
 face is never welcome. 
 
 Can the adult department help in the matter of 
 lesson study for the shut-ins? The members can 
 check up in each case to see that the necessary 
 helps for study are provided. They will, as occa- 
 sion offers, be able to tell from their own class 
 experience that which will help the home students. 
 If the plan provided that all home students should 
 be studying their lessons a week later than those 
 in the school the visitors would at least have some 
 helpful familiarity with the lesson which, while 
 it would not mean teaching it in any formal sense, 
 might be highly valuable. "With the background 
 of the preceding Sunday's work the lesson could 
 be talked over in a way that might be more ef- 
 fective than much formal class work. 
 
 Two other suggestions of relationships practi- 
 cal aud helpful between the adult department and 
 the home department : The visitor will often find 
 it possible to have his little group — it will sel- 
 dom be more than three or four — meet at some 
 convenient place during the week. Supposing one 
 is a shut-in, it will often happen that others can 
 find a free hour on some afternoon and can meet at 
 the home of the shut-in. If possible a teacher 
 should be provided; but wdth or without teacher 
 three or four will certainly do better than one 
 alone. 
 
 In many places, especially in rural communities, 
 the telephone can be called in as one of the con- 
 necting fibres of the extension plan. Each mem- 
 
 238 
 
FIELD OF WOEK FOE THE ADULT CLASS 
 
 ber may be reached by a telephone call; he will 
 want to know the news of the school session, who 
 was there and what they did, then he will want 
 to know about the plans for his week's work as a 
 member of the school ; it is a good time to remind 
 him of his lesson. It will be possible, also, to 
 arrange that all the members of the group can 
 call on some certain person on the circuit for help 
 in the study of the lesson, a provision for a type 
 of correspondence study by telephone. 
 
 Let the whole adult department get together 
 to take over its orphan brother, the home depart- 
 ment, and bring him really into the family by 
 devising every means possible to render the ser- 
 vice that shall make the school effectively Ms 
 school. 
 
 FAMILY 
 
 The motto of an adult department might be 
 stated as ^ ' Study and Service. ' ' Without further 
 inquiry as to the careful study of the religious life 
 and welfare of the family which every adult ought 
 to take,^ the question arises, what direct service 
 can the members of this department render in the 
 same field? 
 
 Christian men and women are concerned in 
 every aspect of human affairs as they affect the 
 making of men and women; the social service of 
 the church has this single aim, to bring about con- 
 
 *See the author's text-hook on this subject: "Eeligious Edu- 
 cation in the Pamily.'^ 
 
 239 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 ditions in wliicli men may grow iowsLvd God, in 
 which His will may be done. Nowhere are the 
 conditions of life more potent in regard to re- 
 ligious character than in the family. No other 
 environment has as much to do with determining 
 our ideals and habits, with moulding us into the 
 kind of people we are to be. Whenever we look 
 out on a community and think of its social ills 
 and needs, all our problems go back to families, 
 to home living. 
 
 If the adult department would attack the vital 
 points in preparing for the divine program on 
 earth it must begin with the home. Here lies the 
 root problem of American life. Here is the 
 earliest, most potent educational agency; here the 
 school of life, the culture beds of the spirit are 
 here. How little can church and school do if the 
 family life does not count for righteousness? 
 
 The greatest service that can be rendered for 
 any family is to bring parents to God. There can 
 be no religious product where there is no personal 
 religious leadership in the home, where the nur- 
 ture and atmosphere of religion is lacking. Noth- 
 ing can approach in importance the program of 
 saving the home by insuring that it have Christian 
 parents. This work, of course, the adult depart- 
 ment undertakes as it seeks to bring all adults 
 under the leadership of Jesus. But there are some 
 other things that wonderfully help which ought 
 not to be forgotten. 
 
 Have you ever thought how greatly the effec- 
 tiveness of the family in growing religious per- 
 sons may be hindered by circumstances over which 
 
 240 
 
FIELD OF WOEK FOR THE ADULT CLASS 
 
 it has little control! Where labor takes the toll 
 of all the father's hours, from early mom till late 
 at night, where the mother must go out to earn 
 bread, what chance have the children for religious 
 training? It is not only a matter of time but of 
 strength, of energy and spirit. Every parent has 
 a simple human right to enough freedom from 
 labor to know his children and to train them. In- 
 deed it is more than the right of the parents ; so- 
 ciety, as a whole, has a fundamental right to de- 
 mand that no child shall grow up deprived of the 
 personal culture of parents. For the sake of the 
 coming world every child must have full parent- 
 hood, the mothering and the fathering of the spirit 
 in the home. 
 
 SOCIAL. STUDIES 
 
 Surely the duty of the adult department is very 
 plain here ; its members should thoroughly under- 
 stand the social and economic factors that de- 
 termine the life of families; its members should 
 endeavor to create a sound and insistent public 
 opinion that will not permit conditions to exist 
 which rob parents of the possibilities of full men- 
 tal and spiritual parenthood and children of free 
 opportunity and stimulus to full development. An 
 adult department ought to be an active agency in- 
 sisting on social justice in order to save our home 
 life. 
 
 Here at this vital point of interest there will 
 arise those studies of our everyday life upon which 
 any intelligent program for work for the salva- 
 tion of the world must be based. The courses of 
 
 241 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 study in this field are already numerous and many 
 of them are of first-rate value both as to their so- 
 cial soundness and their religious significance. 
 Some are issued by the denominational houses and 
 some by the presses of the Y. M. C. A. and the 
 Y. W. C. A. They are not only highly interesting ; 
 they are essential to the religious education of 
 every Christian man and woman. But the point 
 particularly urged here is that the social studies 
 in adult classes should give larger emphasis to the 
 life of the family and to social and economic con- 
 ditions affecting the family. No field of study 
 could come closer to our nearest interests and 
 none is of greater importance. 
 
 As a program of study and service for the adult 
 department begin with the home and family. It 
 is the logical place to begin. Such study will not 
 end there ; it will lead out to all those conditions 
 that make up our social life; it will lead to a 
 realization of the still often overlooked fact, that 
 if the kingdom of God is ever to be realized here 
 it will mean religious ideals so applied to the 
 everyday, practical affairs of men as to make con- 
 ditions of living in which it is possible for the will 
 of God to be done. Social studies in the adult 
 department of the school simply mean the study 
 of the conditions under which men may live as 
 members of the one, common divine family. If 
 any one suspects such studies of being *' merely 
 secular'' he would do well to consider the teach- 
 ings of Jesus and of the New Testament writers, 
 and of the prophets, too, on social justice, on 
 righteousness at work in everyday affairs. One 
 
 242 
 
FIELD OF WOEK FOE THE ADULT CLASS 
 
 furtlier advantage of such studies : tliey render it 
 impossible for a genuine student to remain only 
 a student ; they compel action ; they stimulate pity, 
 indignation, hatred and passion for a better world 
 that will force every honest lover of his fellow men 
 to attempt something to end the day of social or- 
 ganization on the bases of greed and competition 
 and to bring about the day of true fellowship and 
 good will. 
 
 243 
 
CHAPTER XYI 
 CRISES IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
 
 I. GETTING KID OF A SUPERINTENDENT 
 
 It may often be just as important for the health 
 of a Sunday school to get rid of a bad superin- 
 tendent as it is to secure a good one ; but there can 
 be no question but it is a good deal more difficult. 
 
 Many a school is dying for lack of courage to 
 face this situation. We all know schools which 
 have been putting off the dread event for years. 
 It is feared more than a surgical operation be- 
 cause it will give pain to more than one person; 
 in fact, many firmly believe that even though the 
 operation should be successful the patient — in this 
 case perhaps both church and school — ^would die. 
 The irritating question in such a church is, ^ ^ Is it 
 better to get along with a superintendent who kills 
 the school or to risk the very life of the whole 
 church in order to get a new one?'' Usually the 
 question is decided in favor of the first alterna- 
 tive. Is this the right decision? If not, how may 
 the church and school face their duty and rightly 
 perform it? 
 
 There are two outstanding reasons for dis- 
 missing a superintendent : Immorality and Incom- 
 petency. There may be many other reasons for 
 
 244 
 
CRISES IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
 
 changing superintendents, such as the wisdom of 
 rotating officers ; but just now we are discussing 
 dismissing an officer or securing a change on ac- 
 count of quahties inherent in the present incum-* 
 bent. 
 
 The indictment of immorality includes the other. 
 If a superintendent is not a man of Christian char- 
 acter he cannot be competent to lead a religious 
 institution and he must be indifferent to its true 
 and ultimate aims. If a man is admittedly of im- 
 moral character what room is there for discus- 
 sion as to whether it be right to permit him to 
 lead a religious enterprise? The superintendent 
 is a leader ; if he lives wrong he must lead wrong. 
 He is the leader of an institution guiding lives 
 into Christian character ; the greater his powers of 
 leadership the more dangerous he is, the more 
 likely to lead in the wrong way. He is a leader in 
 an institution of leadership for youth, people who 
 cannot separate the lesson from the teacher, the 
 personal from the philosophical, who feel and fol- 
 low the leadership of personality more than any- 
 thing else. An immoral man may sometimes be 
 highly successful on the mechanical side of Sun- 
 day-school management, just as he would be suc- 
 cessful in managing a business enterprise; but, 
 remember, the stronger he is as a man the stronger 
 he is as a bad man, a force to mislead youth. He 
 may delight the church by gathering large num- 
 bers into the school, but the more he gathers the 
 more he influences for evil. 
 
 When the people of the church or of the school, 
 in plain view of the immorality of a superin- 
 
 245 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 tendent's character, nevertheless endorse his con- 
 tinuance in office it is evident that that chnrch it- 
 self is an innnoral institution ; it professes to stand 
 for righteousness, for religion and character;, but 
 it actually stands for success at any price, even 
 superficial success at the cost of the lives of 
 youth. "When a church would rather endorse the 
 personal, potent example of immorality and stamp 
 it with the name of religion it does not need to 
 face the question of whether a split oyer the su- 
 perintendency would kill it, for it is dead al- 
 ready. 
 
 Now a word of caution is needed just about here : 
 let everyone beware of insisting on his own habits, 
 tastes and inclinations as a standard of Christian 
 morality. The fact that Mr. B — does some things 
 which you have neither taste nor desire to do, 
 perhaps even some things which are quite dis- 
 tasteful to you, may by no means prove that he 
 is an immoral person. There are even some who 
 insist that wearing a necktie is a sign of irreligion. 
 There is no safe standard other than the Master's 
 standard, applied in the Master's spirit. Does 
 this man's conduct cause **one of these little ones 
 to stumble?" It is not a question of v^hether he 
 eats peas with his knife or smashes the precise 
 fences of syntax when he speaks. Piety is not a 
 matter of prunes and prisms. To the last de- 
 tail all good manners have importance; but they 
 must not be mistaken for morals. "We must not 
 let the mote get in our eyes. 
 
 The officer who most of all injures a school, un- 
 does its work and turns its powers into evil, is he 
 
 246 
 
CRISES IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
 
 whose conduct makes religion mean pretense, sel- 
 fishness, injustice and uncleanness. His life speaks 
 so loud to youth they never hear what he says; 
 they feel what he is. The dishonest, avaricious 
 and unclean we dare not make the teachers of the 
 young. 
 
 But, how get rid of them? They are intrenched 
 in social prestige, friendships, the power of 
 money and, most of all, the dread of a fuss. First, 
 we have to remember that the school itself is not 
 a body for the trial and discipline of church mem- 
 bers. It is not the business of the school to pre- 
 fer or to prove charges of immorality. But it is 
 the business of that school to concentrate all its 
 powers on developing Christian character and to 
 rid itself of all that hinders this purpose. The 
 first step in the process of purification is a clear, 
 compelling conviction of this dominant purpose in 
 the school. Schools tolerate bad men because they 
 think the institution exists for other and lesser 
 ends. They usually test leaders by the wrong re- 
 sults, by their power to get numbers instead of 
 their power to make religious lives. The first 
 step in the process must be a clarification of our 
 judgments and a deepening of our convictions un- 
 til we put the welfare of the child and the purpose 
 of Christian character ahead of everything, in- 
 cluding the very institution itself. It were better 
 to smash a school and have to begin all over again 
 than to perpetuate it as a power to advertise and 
 endorse and lead in evil living. 
 
 Second, the school will have to look to the lead- 
 ership of the leader of all the church, the pastor, 
 
 247 
 
THE SCHOOL IX THE MODEEX CHURCH 
 
 to cultivate a cliurch opinion that will stand solid- 
 ly back of a program for removing the stumbling 
 block from the way of youth and, also, to take the 
 necessary initial personal step to remove the dan- 
 gerous obstacle. This is not a case of ''making 
 a goat" of the pastor. He is the one man who 
 ought to speak free from all partisan, personal 
 feeling. If he is truly a prophet of God he must 
 leave fear behind nor take counsel of policy when 
 he would remove this kind of an obstacle. As 
 spoke prophets of old so must he go quietly, pri- 
 vately to the offender and say, ^'It is not fitting 
 that you should mislead our youth. It is your 
 duty to resign immediately.'^ You would hardly 
 characterize that as a pleasant job. Yet, if ever 
 it has been yours, you have felt its discipline and 
 its moral bracing. 
 
 But, suppose the obstacle refuses to leave the 
 path? Then again the pastor must take the steps 
 required by his church method of procedure, or- 
 dinarily leading to a similar request or order com- 
 ing from an official board of the church. 
 
 Third, upon the church there must be laid the 
 responsibility of securing the right leaders for its 
 school. Xo school c-an aff'ord, if it is a church 
 school, to be independent of its church. It not only 
 needs the personal and financial support of the 
 church but, what is of at least equal importance, 
 the church needs the responsibility for the school. 
 This dreaded struggle over an officer is not the 
 bitterness of the school; it is the business of the 
 church. 
 
 But supposing the church is indifferent, or that 
 248 
 
CEISES IX SCHOOL MAXAGE^^EXT 
 
 the pastor is cowardly or unwiUing to take the 
 right steps ? It is evident that the process of edu- 
 cating that kind of a church into moral conviction 
 and a sense of responsibility for the school will 
 be a long one. It will be a necessary one ; bnt it 
 will be too long to allow the evil man to continue 
 as leader of youth during its process, too much 
 damage would be wrought while the church was 
 being educated. Two processes must be under 
 way within the school itseK; first, counter-action 
 of the evil influence behind the superintendent's 
 desk by the means of the teacher's power, and 
 second, substitution of a man for good instead of 
 the man of evil. 
 
 Fourth, the school must not only covet a good 
 leader; it must become in itself a leading force for 
 good. Xo matter how zealously we may long to 
 pitch-fork the unfit man from his position we must 
 remember that success in landing him where he 
 belongs would be valueless unless we, the teach- 
 ers and officers, are actually counting just as posi- 
 tively for good as such an action would count 
 negatively. If you fling out the evil you must fur- 
 nish the good. Are we as anxious to fortify our 
 students with good as we are to fight evil people? 
 After all, the teacher's lesson and life is mightier. 
 than the superintendent's. In getting rid of the 
 unworthy do not lose sight of the need of strength- 
 ening the greater worth in your teaching. 
 
 Fifth, the program for person<il suhsfifutlon 
 means finding a good man in place of a bad one. 
 Let the teachers and other officers simply band 
 together to select exactlv the right person for 
 
 249 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 superintendent and to insist that lie shall serve in 
 the office. Have your man ready; agree on him 
 and then demand of the church that he be chosen. 
 Insist on him because he is the best, fittest man. 
 By all means avoid the evil effects of a school 
 campaign on his election. The school should not 
 elect its officers any more than the children in the 
 public school elect the principal and superin- 
 tendent of education. The desired change should 
 come about either through the church official 
 board or through the act of the church congrega- 
 tion, the method depending on the type of church 
 organization. Let the church take its proper re- 
 sponsibility here. Just in this last suggestion is 
 the very heart of the solution of the problem of 
 getting rid of the bad man in the superintendent's 
 office ; do it, not through the school, but through a 
 church properly educated to see the importance 
 of a fit man for the position and through officers 
 made wisely alive to the need. 
 
 II. LOSING THE IN"C0MPETEN-T SUPERINTENDENT 
 
 The best way to get rid of an incompetent su- 
 perintendent is to either leave him behind or to 
 lose him. But neither process is as easy to exe- 
 cute as it is to write the prescription. 
 
 An incompetent officer — and, by the way, this 
 discussion applies with but few changes to a sec- 
 retary or any other officer as well as to a super- 
 intendent — an incompetent officer is one who is 
 either destitute of ability to learn how to manage 
 a school efficiently or who is too indolent to ex- 
 
 250 
 
CEISES IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
 
 ercise his mind and his muscles at the desk. 
 Ought he to go ! Should be go under persuasion, 
 inspiration, propulsion or substitution? By all 
 these means if necessary but by no more than 
 needful. If he stands in the way of a school 
 achieving its purpose, if he is a drag on its wheels 
 and even, by his negative qualities, defeats its 
 plans and purposes, can there be any doubt as 
 to the duty of the school! Yet there is no error 
 more common than the one that creeps in just 
 here, that of regarding the feelings of the officer 
 as of greater importance than the effectiveness 
 of the office. 
 
 One would think that some schools exist to 
 amuse and console childish minds with harmless 
 jobs. "When everybody knows that Spoofkins is 
 making a miserable failure of his work, there are 
 still many w^ho say, ^'He'd just break his heart 
 if he lost his position as superintendent." Usually 
 the fact is that it would only crack his vanity. And 
 so we allow a school to go to pieces rather than 
 that one man's self-complacency should be 
 broken. 
 
 We all know officers whose proudest boast is 
 that they have held office ten, twenty, forty years ! 
 Not that they have put in so many years of work; 
 that would advertise itself ; but that they have been 
 on the high seat these years. There is much dif- 
 ference between office fillers and office farces. 
 They fight for office, not for service. They are 
 concerned for the school only at annual elections 
 and the only problems they consider are those of 
 looking dignified at the desk and putting up a 
 
 251 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 startling imitation of the preacher's work in the 
 other pulpit. 
 
 Now we ought to be sure, however, that we really 
 apply the test of efficiency when considering a 
 change of officers. Is the undesirable superin- 
 tendent really any less competent than the rest of 
 us? Is he incompetent judged by the real work 
 and aims of a church school? Perhaps we are 
 demanding that he make bricks without even clay, 
 not to mention straw. Perhaps we are demanding 
 that he succeed as a circus agent instead of as a 
 superintendent of a school. Is he leading the 
 school to produce results in Christian character 
 in youth? Does he give his time and brains to its 
 work? Is his face turned to making a better 
 school with every passing season? Is he the best 
 man available and has he those qualities of holy 
 consecration to a high task, executive planning and 
 practical application which so important an in- 
 stitution has the right to have? The officers who 
 must |go are those who either cannot or will not 
 work at their real tasks. 
 
 There are many communities where even the 
 best man, or woman, available will be incompetent 
 if judged by the standards of more favored places. 
 The point for consideration is whether your offi- 
 cer is the most competent you can have and prob- 
 ably this is best tested by whether he is at all 
 alive to the possibility of improvement and 
 whether he really gives himself to his job. 
 
 If it is certain that the work of the school would 
 be advanced by removing him then plans for se- 
 lecting the right substitute and placing him in 
 
 252 
 
CRISES IN SCHOOL MANx^GEMENT 
 
 nomination and securing liis election or appoint- 
 ment by the church are of primary importance. 
 Yet they must not engross our attention to the 
 exclusion of such a program of development in 
 the school itself as would automatically lose and 
 leave behind any officer who is not efficient. Let 
 the teachers themselves know what efficiency 
 means ; let them study better methods and become 
 so familiar with competent school organization 
 and management that they will really know the 
 weak spots in their own schools. Let them be so 
 well posted, so thoroughly grounded in the work 
 of the school that they will fairly put to shame the 
 lazy and ignorant superintendent. If he insists 
 on hanging on to his office simply leave him high 
 and dry on his pedestal of personal pride while 
 the school sweeps on in its tide of improvement. 
 
 Whenever we are persuaded that the leading 
 officer is incompetent the very first thing to do is 
 to examine into the competency of those who 
 should support him. It is so easy for all others 
 to lean back and expect the superintendent to pull 
 them forward. "When the school does not ^*go'' 
 they forget that they not only have not pushed it 
 forward, they have pulled it back because of their 
 ignorance of how and where it should go. If the 
 critics of officers would make themselves really 
 efficient, their criticism would often expire in co- 
 operation. 
 
 Sometimes the indifferent superintendent is 
 stirred to endeavor and achieve better things 
 when he catches the contagion of improvement in 
 his working force. If the school is saturated with 
 
 253 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 an atmosphere of earnest effort after better ways 
 lie will either have to submit to some of the satura- 
 tion or get out. In season and out of season let 
 his cooperators cooperate to push the school along. 
 If he has any qualities of leadership he will not 
 be content to drag at the tail end of progress. If 
 a moving, progressive school does not compel him 
 to undertake leadership in an adequate way, then 
 he never can be a real superintendent no matter 
 how much he may insist on standing up in front. 
 Nothing then remains but the program of a change 
 of leaders. 
 
 Even then we must remember that the whole 
 problem of efficient leadership in the school is one 
 which goes very much deeper than any immediate 
 scheme of changing officers. We do not have effi- 
 cient officers and we are constantly under the 
 necessity of attempting the retirement of the in- 
 competent because we have no provision for mak- 
 ing and training officers. We have just made a 
 fairly good start in the work of training teachers ; 
 is it not now time we made a serious beginning in 
 the work of training officers and leaders? 
 
 The officers now in service in any school should 
 be always on the alert to discover young men 
 capable of developing powers of leadership. Just 
 as the good old dominie always had his eyes open 
 to discover and encourage the possible minister 
 of the gospel, so we ought to take delight in dis- 
 covering young laymen who will become efficient 
 in religious leadership. Then these young men — 
 or young women — ought to be trained for that 
 work both by courses in theory and by experience 
 
 254 
 
CEISES IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
 
 in practice. The young people who are not called 
 to teach — and there are those who are certainly 
 not so called — should be encouraged to study the 
 business end of the school and the executive side 
 of church and school work. There ought always 
 to be for young workers a class in school organ- 
 ization and management. 
 
 Then we would be ready to see the opportunities 
 for training future officers in the present work of 
 the school. There is a chance to train young 
 lads, looldng forward to this service, both in the 
 minor offices, such as assistant secretaries, li- 
 brarians and ushers, and also by creating the 
 office of *^ Assistants to the Superintendents."' 
 These latter should be a First Assistant, one 
 capable of doing the work and taking the place 
 of the Superintendent, and then others who are 
 to undertake such duties as he may assign them. 
 These duties would include many of the details 
 which now take up the superintendent's time. 
 
 There is therefore a duty not only before the 
 school facing the crisis of getting rid of a poor 
 superintendent, but before all schools or rather 
 resting on all churches to train up efficient and 
 competent workers for positions of leadership. 
 Trained leaders would solve the problem before 
 it arises. 
 
 in. RETIKING A TEACHER 
 
 It is true that one-half of the problem of the 
 church school is the difficulty of securing teach- 
 ers, but when you come to the task of dropping an 
 
 255 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 old teacher it often turns out to be more difficult 
 than picking up a dozen new ones. 
 
 No superintendent is likely to go very far with 
 an intelligent interest in the real needs of his 
 school before he discovers at least one teacher who 
 has no right to even occupy the time of a class. 
 Such a teacher may seem to have the utmost devo- 
 tion to her task, but she is usually mistaken as to 
 the nature of true devotion and even more serious- 
 ly in ignorance as to the nature of her task. A 
 sympathetic superintendent must keep his head 
 clear as to the characteristics of the teacher ^s 
 consecration. When he realizes that the class is 
 profiting nothing and is even being hindered in 
 its work by the teacher he must not allow the well- 
 meant pleading of others about the teacher's de- 
 votion to keep him from his duty. 
 
 The school has a right to demand consecration 
 in the teacher. But consecration is much more 
 than a feeling of ^'laying all on the altar''; it is 
 the unreserved endeavor not only to give all that 
 you have but to have all that you ought to give. 
 Consecration is the endeavor to be all that you 
 may be in efficiency, competency, ability for your 
 work. It is consecration to the service of lifting 
 up your own powers for the sake of larger service ; 
 it seeks to have gifts worthy of the altar. The 
 best of the teacher's consecration is more than 
 fidelity to a place or a job, it is fidelity to an ideal. 
 
 The superintendent exhibits consecration by his 
 fidelity to the ultimate usefulness of the school for 
 the good of the child and the development of the 
 kingdom. When he must choose among debatable 
 
 256 
 
CEISES IX SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
 
 courses of administration the ultimate purpose 
 must dominate even considerations of peace in his 
 faculty or the goodwill of his co-workers. His 
 efficiency is manifest in securing with the least 
 possible waste of effort the largest results in 
 Giristian character in his school. The peaceful 
 school may be only sleeping — while children are 
 growing and days of life-determination are pass- 
 ing. The superintendent must not shun the un- 
 pleasant tasks when the welfare of youth calls him 
 to them. Indeed he is called to conduct the school, 
 not simply to have a pleasant, dignified, pride-min- 
 istering position. 
 
 Yet no superintendent ought to be alone in this 
 responsibility of engaging and removing teachers. 
 Even in the smallest school he should have some 
 one with whom to advise, the pastor at any rate. 
 He should have also the committee appointed by 
 the church as a ^^ board of religious education '* to 
 ser^'e as would any board of education or school 
 board in the village. They must share the respon- 
 sibility of determining the fitness of teachers on 
 the superintendent's recommendations. No church 
 is too small to have such a board nor too large to 
 get along without it. 
 
 Ordinarily the crises in a school differ from 
 those we meet on the street or in a railroad acci- 
 dent. They are not best met by a sudden, im- 
 petuous grappling with them, nor by hair-trigger 
 decisions. The custom of deliberation over prob- 
 lems in the council of a board of education will 
 not, or ought not to be a method of evading them 
 
 257 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 but a means of syndicating brains and taking time 
 to meet them wisely. 
 
 A fair sized school ought to have others co- 
 operating with the superintendent in meeting his 
 difficulties. Where there exist several ^'dejDart- 
 ments^' each one ought to have its Principal, an 
 officer for the immediate supervision of all its 
 work. These principals would form the advisory 
 body to the superintendent. 
 
 Still the problem remains : how shall we remove 
 this teacher 1 First, carefully determine why this 
 teacher must leave the class. Is this a case of 
 sheer inability to teach? Then practice the prin- 
 ciples of conservation ; do not throw away a ham- 
 mer because you cannot saw wood with it. Dis- 
 cover its compensating talents. Save both class 
 and teacher by giving the latter something she 
 can do. Many an excellent manager, recruiting 
 officer, or office worker has been spoiled trying 
 to be a teacher. Perhaps it is only a case of 
 inability to teach that particular class. It does 
 take different persons to teach boys and to teach 
 the adult Bible class. Do not try to use a sledge 
 to drive tacks nor a chisel to dig post holes. A 
 simple change of teachers may solve your problem. 
 
 Sometimes the case is simply one of physical 
 weariness or nervous breakdown. God has to 
 have bodies with nerves for his work among boys 
 and girls. A vacation may save the day or a 
 temporary change of occupation. It is a poor 
 kind of consecration to keep the tool at the job 
 when it is getting red hot. Many a load laid on 
 our consciences ought to be carried by our con- 
 
 258 
 
CRISES IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
 
 stitutions. Give every teacher a chance to regain 
 that essential to any harmony and helpfulness to 
 youth, health. 
 
 If the foregoing considerations are canvassed 
 more than half the cases of changing teachers 
 will be met. But there remains the most difficult 
 one, that of the indifferent teacher, the indolent 
 teacher or the one who is fit neither to teach nor 
 to work in the school because of unworthiness of 
 character. There is only one thing to do here; 
 the difficulty lies not so much in the case as in our 
 irresolution, our dread of disturbance. The 
 teacher who will not perspire and cannot be in- 
 spired must be fired. But we must be careful not 
 to do it with a hot head. Nor is it necessary to set 
 the school afire to do it. It is hardly worth while 
 to burn the barn to get rid of the rats. 
 
 The best way to dismiss a teacher who must be 
 dismissed is to dismiss her, or him. But still the 
 method may have gradations of usefulness. It is 
 best to m^e several changes at the same time. 
 Let the re-adjustment be a part of a general re- 
 organization. Since the school is not a discipli- 
 nary institution it is not necessary to bring for- 
 mal charges of unfitness against a teacher; leave 
 that to the church. But be gently frank if frank- 
 ness be demanded. Do not judge character in 
 itself but judge the person's fitness to lead, to 
 teach the group in the class. Give the principal 
 reason for the change, that this class needs a 
 teacher able to fit into the whole purpose and 
 plan of the school. State this first; then if pos- 
 sible, if you can be helpful, state plainly and 
 
 259 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUKCH 
 
 kindly that the habits of this teacher are not the 
 ones that these pupils should imitate. Why not 
 put the case plainly before the teacher, showing 
 how life is more than the words, how the whole 
 purpose of the school will be defeated if it en- 
 dorses a wrong life by continuing such a teacher 
 in office. Even though the teacher be only in- 
 dolent that is a vice which, emphasized by the 
 responsibility voluntarily undertaken in teaching, 
 becomes hypocrisy and is exceedingly dangerous 
 when endorsed in religious work for youth. You 
 can be frank with the delinquent teacher when 
 and only when your purpose is really to help and 
 not at all to censor or scold. It may be, it has 
 often happened, that a plain, tender talk has 
 helped the teacher not only to give up the class 
 but to give up the damaging vices. 
 
 After all, one would a good deal rather deal 
 with the bad person than with the wholly negative 
 one. No teacher presents a greater difficulty than 
 the one who is neither good nor bad, the one who 
 is only ^'good,'* that is good for nothing in par- 
 ticular. The type is familiar. But you cannot 
 afford to waste youth ^s years of opportunity by 
 leaving them in the hands of such a person. You 
 will have to face the objection, **But I do love 
 my class so much.'' You vnll have to decide 
 whether that personal bond is bringing larger 
 character results to the pupils than would come 
 with an efficient teacher. It may be this teacher 
 would be able to plus affection with efficiency in 
 some other class, perhaps of younger ones. Has 
 she grown up with her class for years? Can 
 
 260 
 
CRISES IX SCHOOL MAXAGEMEXT 
 
 she be brought with patient tact to see how much 
 more valuable she would be in another position? 
 It is no enviable task to transfer teachers, still 
 less to retire them. But it can be done if, first, 
 we keep our own minds and the minds of all work- 
 ers steadily on this consideration, that the largest 
 possible efficiency is the development of Chris- 
 tian character in youth, and, second, if we pro- 
 vide teachers ready and capable of taking the 
 places of those who must leave classes. The duty 
 of the superintendent is to see that every class 
 has the very best teacher available or procura- 
 ble ; for this he will be held eternally responsible. 
 
 IV. THE SCHOOL WRECKEB 
 
 A Sunday-school worker, speaking at a local 
 convention, once referred to the superintendent as 
 an '^ex-e-cutive^' officer. Doubtless he was think- 
 ing of the wholly natural inclination of the su- 
 perintendent to execute that boy who, when he 
 gets wound up, bids fair to wreck the whole 
 school. 
 
 What shall be done with the apparently incor- 
 rigible boy, the disturber of the peace, the trig- 
 ger for every mischief explosion in the school? 
 
 If one were prescribing for the case from theory- 
 alone the answer would be easy. We would say, 
 *4ove him; make a friend of him; pray with him" 
 — or some such smooth and easy advice. But hav- 
 ing seen the boy many times ; perhaps having been 
 the boy at times, and having noticed that the boy 
 is sometimes a girl, altos:ether some twenty odd 
 
 261 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 years of first-hand acquaintance with the problem 
 in actual schools prohibits a facile and warranted 
 prescription and confines us to some considera- 
 tions that may be helpful. 
 
 Some schools seem seldom or never to have 
 these boys. Not that they do not have live, bois- 
 terous, normal fellows, but they do not give them 
 a chance to let in the clutch at the wrong time. 
 The lawless boy is not in evidence in the school 
 that is under law. The more completely and con- 
 stantly all parts of the school are engaged in or- 
 derly activity the less the temptation for any in- 
 dividual to get into lawless activity. These schools 
 that seem to be immune are always really live 
 affairs, under direction and with a life of action 
 that enlists the respect and activities of these 
 boys. They are actually superintended. 
 
 Probably the first question to ask when deal- 
 ing with the case of a boy found wantonly dis- 
 turbing the school is, ^ * what else was there for him 
 to do?'' If the answer is, *' nothing except to sit 
 still,'' then you were asking the impossible of 
 the boy. A chance to do niching is an invitation 
 to stir up something. If there is one condition 
 more intolerable to young people than all others' 
 it is that of *' nothing doing." I remember the 
 glistening eyes of a ten-year-old as he explained 
 that the principal attraction of a certain summer 
 vacation was that ^Hhere was something to do 
 every minute." If you would have cahn in the 
 school, let it be the calm of ordered action, the 
 constant direction of attention in definite avenues 
 all the time. 
 
 262 
 
CRISES IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
 
 Next, some teachers seem always to have *^bad 
 boys''; others take them and we forget the boys' 
 badness. A young creature will seldom disap- 
 point you. If you look for meanness he will do 
 his best to satisfy you. The teacher who is a pes- 
 simist on the subject of youth should be sent to 
 the old folks' class; he may be safe in polemics 
 and helpful on eschatology but he is not to be 
 trusted with boys. Nagging, faultfinding people, 
 martinets and smile-less souls must have a place 
 in God's world but not in the Intermediate depart- 
 ment of the Sunday school. 
 
 The disturber is usually a leader. One quality 
 always marks a leader, he is being led himself; 
 some ideal — it may be a foolish or a bad one — or 
 some person is before him. He is capable of large 
 loyalty. You can lead him, but you cannot drive 
 him. He needs a friend; he needs to know you 
 better than a once-a-week contact permits. If 
 you can know him in the week, and show him how 
 to do some manly things by doing them with him, 
 you can lead him on Sunday. If he can really 
 know you — and you are worth knowing, he will 
 follow you. Then the others will follow him. 
 
 Whatever you do don't plead with that unruly 
 boy; don't beg him to give you peace. Whining 
 and begging for pity will get you nowhere with 
 him. He expects you to do your job and cannot 
 respect you if you do not make good. Appeal- 
 ing to his sympathy is one thing; but calling out 
 his service is another. If he is a leader depend 
 on him to lead; call on him to work; count on 
 him for definite tasks as in preparing the class 
 
 263 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 room, its chairs, books and papers. He is look- 
 ing for a chance to do something; give him a 
 good chance before he finds a bad one. 
 
 With all this, memory suggests that there are 
 cases not reached by any of these suggestions. 
 Not that the boy is incorrigible but that the Sun- 
 day school is not the place to effect his reform. 
 This school meets for only an hour; it meets to 
 worship and study. The process of reforming 
 boys who have had long training in vicious habits 
 or who are without any training in the habits of 
 school and social cooperation is too large and 
 long for the school period. This boy is in the 
 school for an hour and for all the rest of the 
 week in a home, on the streets or in workshops 
 that train to lawless viciousness. The contest 
 is too unequal. You will have to get a longer 
 period of influence in order to change him. He 
 cannot be changed save by a fundamental change 
 in his whole being and to meet that need the church 
 must set itself. 
 
 You face the question, shall we turn a boy out? 
 When that means the alternative, shall he wreck 
 a school or even a class, there can be but one 
 answer. The one boy must be sacrificed to the 
 many. The school must go on with its work. But 
 when you turn him out turn him out into some- 
 thing. We dare not exercise the power of cast- 
 ing into outer darkness. If society has reform 
 schools should not the church employ special agen- 
 cies for these special cases. The boy cannot go 
 into the school unless he will submit to its laws 
 and fit into its life. But we must not give him 
 
 264 
 
CRISES IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
 
 up, we must get him ready for that life. If he 
 can understand it tell him that. In any case 
 quietly and privately arrange to put him in charge 
 of a '^big brother" who will get his friendship, 
 persuade him to go his ways, and particularly, 
 bring the boy into the play and club life of the 
 church. Let him get his first schooling in the 
 organizations of boy life where he will learn the 
 rules of the game. Give his big brother freedom 
 from other tasks so that he may have time for 
 the larger curriculum this boy needs. The trouble 
 with him is that he is a laggard in the school 
 where the art of living with others is learned. 
 This lesson he must begin to get before he can 
 come into the Sunday school. His attitude of 
 rebellion shuts the doors of his life to religion 
 in the school. The school must designate one 
 who will secure its entrance through doors of in- 
 terest opened in companionship through play and 
 under direct, personal friendship. Commit your 
 problem boy — not to the hopele«5s outside — ^but to 
 the larger, wider school of a friendship that 
 touches many sides of his life. 
 
 265 
 
CHAPTER XYII 
 
 CEISES AS OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 At some time in its history every Sunday school 
 comes to a halt; at some time in his experience 
 almost every superintendent who is awake and 
 at all sensible to facts asks himself, ^'Why are 
 we at a standstill?'' Others say, ^^We did run 
 well; what doth hinder?" Every observer has 
 seen more than one school, having earned laurels 
 for its development, its increase and efficiency, 
 appear to die in its tracks, like an athlete who 
 has spent all his powers. Schools that once were 
 generally admired are standing on the track like 
 engines with only enough steam left to blow the 
 whistle once in a while. When this comes to pass 
 it is a good thing if there are enough people, 
 conscious of the situation, who get down on the 
 ground and look the whole concern over in an 
 etfort to discover the causes and apply the rem- 
 edies. 
 
 FACING THE CRISIS OF STANDING STILL 
 
 Probably the most common cause of this par- 
 alysis is that in Sunday schools, as elsewhere, we 
 forget the law of the passing generations; we 
 forget that every thirty years brings a new race 
 of people, a new human equipment to the work- 
 
 266 
 
CEISES AS OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 ing point. We fail to provide for the retirement 
 of those who have passed their maximum efficiency 
 and for the enlistment of those who are coming 
 into it. Few schools deliberately plan to develop 
 the forces that must do their work in the future, 
 to enlist the life of the church when it is at its 
 best and to keep a working force always at the 
 high tide of its powers. Great business concerns 
 achieve marked success under the push, spirit, 
 vim and initiative of young men; they stand at 
 a high place until those young men become old 
 men, behind the methods of the new day; their 
 powers decline while the young men, the possible 
 engines of advance, stand halting behind. 
 
 The halt that comes when we seem to have ex- 
 hausted our old resources, when the program be- 
 comes flat, stale and uninteresting is the very 
 opportunity the school should welcome. No one, 
 in that hour, is disposed to question attempts at 
 reformation. Minds are ripe for it. But before 
 reformation comes patient study and much in- 
 quiry into the task of a school. Often it is better 
 not to attempt a diagnosis of the local case; a 
 study of healthy success will take you farther 
 than any amount of pathology of the sick school. 
 The wise leader will seize the moment to bring 
 to all the workers every possible fact regarding 
 better methods, regarding the type of work being 
 done in other schools, especially those that have 
 kept up with educational advance. The hour of 
 school anaemia is the hour to administer plenty of 
 iron in the form of facts on modem methods. 
 
 267 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 Then instead of a reformation there is likely to 
 be a transformation. 
 
 Next, it is the one finest opportunity to get an 
 infusion of new blood. Most schools that stand 
 still do so because of official decrepitude. 
 
 It is not a question of discarding old and tried 
 servants, but it is a question of training up in 
 each new generation those who shall carry on 
 the work of that generation. Let each school that 
 stands still ask whether it has the energy of a 
 fair share of young men. When the school went 
 forward with vigor was it not under the leader- 
 ship of a group of people who came to its work 
 with the enthusiasm and hope of youth and early 
 manhood? At the time when those people were 
 doing their great work there were in that school 
 snub-nosed boys and girls with pig-tails who now 
 are of the age and the powers that those leaders 
 then had; did the school plan to make sure that 
 the boys and girls were drafted into the service? 
 Is the school giving them now the same chance 
 that it gave to its present leaders when they first 
 put their hands to the plough? 
 
 If the school is suffering from the lack of young- 
 er leaders, of those who belong in the tide of 
 their strength to this day, the cure is not imme- 
 diately to turn out all the older folk. The seri- 
 ous question is as to whether the younger ones 
 can be used, whether they have been held to the 
 school by ties of interest and to its work by any 
 degree of intelligent preparation. One of the 
 most serious shortcomings of the average school 
 is this failure to get ready for tomorrow, a failure 
 
 268 
 
CEISES AS OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 to prepare its boys and girls to do their work as 
 men and women in the school. 
 
 Now, since you must have some of these young- 
 er workers, and since there is no such thing as 
 post-preparation, the first step is to enlist some 
 of these younger men and women in the new task 
 of gathering and guiding those who are still 
 younger in preparation for Sunday-school useful- 
 ness. Get young men and young women to look 
 at this problem, suggest this line of solution, in- 
 vite them to pick out the youth of fifteen up and 
 gather them in groups to talk over the ^^How 
 and Why and What'' of the different kinds of 
 things the school is doing. You will find the boys 
 and girls easily gathering about these younger 
 leaders. Even though the leaders may not be 
 experts they quickly get into the work, become 
 so interested that they will study hard on its pro]> 
 lems and become both efficient and enthusiastic 
 teachers. This plan also enlists them in work at 
 once, tries them out and prepares them for fur- 
 ther service. It gives the young men and women, 
 those of whom we hear that they have refused 
 to work in the school, the kind of a task they 
 want. It has been often found that the very 
 people who have repeatedly refused the blank in- 
 vitation to ^^Come in and help in the school," 
 or to '^Take a Class," would accept with alac- 
 rity the opportunity to undertake a definite new 
 piece of work. 
 
 Other younger people will be found ready for 
 definite tasks in the school itself. Why should a 
 mature man or woman continue to act as secre- 
 
 269 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 tary, often going round as mechanically as a caged 
 bear in his tracks, when two or three youths would 
 be delighted to take the work, would do it with 
 efficiency, would show the people who are just 
 a little younger that it was nothing foolish or un- 
 manly, but the contrary, to do religious work and, 
 in the service, would themselves grow in Chris- 
 tian character? 
 
 The first remedy, then, is to draft in more of 
 the life of today into the work of today. And in 
 applying the remedy let some of us who have 
 forgotten how swiftly the last ten or twenty years 
 have passed ask ourselves whether we might not 
 be doing good service to take hold of people ten 
 or twentj^ years younger and get them ready for 
 our jobs. 
 
 Another cause of schools dying on the track is 
 that, having earned reputation, having been 
 adorned mth laurels, they are satisfied with the 
 reputation; they sit down and repose on the 
 laurels. The price of making progress is that we 
 have to keep it up. We may not be able to keep 
 a unique position of leadership, but we must put 
 the same energy into the task of today that won 
 for us success in the task of yesterday. Beware 
 of the temptations of a great name. It might be 
 said that giving a school a good name at least 
 subjects it to grave danger of losing it. 
 
 Some schools stand still for lack of adaptabil- 
 ity. They went forward with remarkable speed 
 under one set of conditions but as soon as those 
 conditions changed they came to a halt. It is 
 necessary to ask whether the school is working 
 
 270 
 
CEISES AS OPPOETUNITIES 
 
 "imder the same conditions as in its palmy days. 
 Is it now ministering to a changed population with 
 the methods that worked well before the change? 
 Has the neighborhood changed from the village 
 to the city type? Has it changed in racial char- 
 acter? Have all the new conditions that rise so 
 rapidly in growing villages and cities been taken 
 into consideration? Here, then, is another op- 
 portunity, the opportunity, in the hour of apathy 
 to re-discover ourselves. This is to be accom- 
 plished by means of the type of survey suggested 
 in Chapter V. 
 
 THE CRISIS OF OVEKCROWDING 
 
 A crisis can be an opportunity. It is a turn- 
 ing point and usually there are two ways open at 
 such a time. You have heard superintendents 
 say, ^*Our trouble is we are too successful, we 
 have more people than we can take care of. ' ' The 
 implied boast is, in most instances, a confession 
 of failure to live up to one's opportunities. No 
 school has a right to have more than it can care 
 for; it must care for them, and that quickly, or 
 it will not have them long. 
 
 Whenever a church is regularly filled to over- 
 flowing — and usually before — the minister recog- 
 nizes his chance and begins a campaign for a new 
 building. We seem to think of the Sunday-school 
 as an institution that may go on perpetually grow- 
 ing, but never needing new and larger quarters. 
 That is because we are still under the strange de- 
 lusion of giving the very best in religion to adults 
 
 271 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 and letting children shift for themselves. We 
 invert the order of the family and even of human 
 society which more and more realizes that if we 
 make our largest investment in the child the adult 
 will bring the increase. 
 
 When the school is crowded, what practical 
 steps should be taken to relieve the situation? Of 
 course there are those schools where no relief 
 can be found in a new or even in another building. 
 But they are really exceedingly few. More suffer 
 from lack of imagination and lack of faith than 
 from lack of opportunity. Even those meeting in 
 country schoolhouses have found it possible to 
 persuade trustees to build better quarters, and 
 the district has been grateful to the agitators. 
 Those meeting in stores and rented quarters have 
 found that when they boldly went out to labor, in- 
 stead of lamenting, they found the money for 
 larger rooms. But, given the school in a church, 
 what shall be done? First, determine what you 
 really need, not for a makeshift, but to do work 
 properly. How many classes, how much room for 
 each, classrooms, rooms for accessories, place for 
 supplies and what is needed for assemblies and 
 for social and recreative purposes? Be exact. 
 Let the superintendent meet often with officers 
 and teachers, working over detailed plans. Pre- 
 pare a precise statement of needs, based on pres- 
 ent conditions and on probable developments. To 
 determine the latter, study your neighborhood 
 with great care. Do not agitate until you know 
 what you want, then agitate and argue with facts. 
 Turn on the light when it will do the most 
 272 
 
CEISES AS OPPOETUNITIES 
 
 good. The school is the responsibility of the 
 church. Plan definitely to educate your church. 
 Begin with the pastor. With sympathy for all 
 his other cares show him so plainly the needs of 
 the school that he will be your strongest ally. 
 Make him — and through him, or in some other 
 way, all the people — acquainted with the facts; 
 not the facts of the building yet, but of the vital 
 interest of the church in the school. Show the 
 ratio between Sunday-school graduates and others 
 in the church, the losses through inadequate quar- 
 ters, the ratio between the cost of gaining a child 
 through the school and that of holding the saints — 
 who should be servants in the church — ^the ratio 
 between the cost per member of the two plants, 
 school and church. It is possible to show that 
 a dollar invested in Sunday-school plants earns 
 as much for the Kingdom as fifty dollars invested 
 in a church plant. Show this, not so much by 
 way of reflecting on the church plant as to em- 
 phasize the wisdom of Sunday-school investments. 
 Put the facts in form to attract, to convince; 
 and use means that reach the people. That is ad- 
 vertising. Put your facts before the eyes, in the 
 form of exhibits^ that is diagrams and graphic 
 figures. Put them on large cards in the church 
 rooms as well as in the school. Get pictures of 
 modern school buildings, like Lake Avenue Bap- 
 tist, Eochester, N. Y. ; the Congregational of Win- 
 netka. 111.; St. PauPs Methodist, Cedar Eapids, 
 and the pictures and diagrams in Evan's ^'The 
 Sunday-School Building.'' Persuade your local 
 editor to tell the story of some of these practical 
 
 273 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 plants. It will do no harm if all the boys and 
 girls get to talking about it, the old folks will 
 w^ake up some day. It will not be long before 
 some are inquiring for details and particulars. 
 
 Now you are ready. Your plans are ready for 
 the public eye. Show drawings of your build- 
 ings, pictures of them. Make folks hungry for 
 them and start your campaign. There is only one 
 way to get what you need, that is to go after it. 
 Dreaming is good to begin on, and agitation to 
 break up the soil, but the dream is never a reality 
 except through faith put into action. Have you 
 seen or heard of the many splendid buildings of 
 the Y. M. C. A. rising all over the country? They 
 did not drop from heaven ; they were dug up out 
 of pocketbooks. Men knew what was needed ; they 
 had faith to believe that men would respond, and 
 they simply went out after the funds. 
 
 No one need hesitate to ask for money for 
 schools. Why hesitate to ask for the schools of 
 the church! No one needs to apologize for an 
 appeal on behalf of the child. Why hesitate to 
 appeal for the religious life of the child? No one 
 need apologize for trying to do business efficiently. 
 Why hesitate to do the King^s business efficiently? 
 
 Take the people of your community wholly into 
 your confidence. Tell them precisely, by facts 
 and pictures, what you need and just what work 
 you are going to do in the new quarters. Be sure 
 you have a work planned that is worthy of the 
 investment sought. Put the appeal in terms of 
 an opportunity, not as a matter of pity or charity. 
 
 Be sure to keep your methods up to the level 
 274 
 
CRISES AS OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 of your plans for the school. Do not drop a 
 great enterprise down to the level of dime sup- 
 pers and catch-penny devices. Ask boldly for 
 money gifts because this is an enterprise which 
 will do the largest amount of good with those 
 who are most susceptible to help, because it is 
 a better thing to make one good boy or girl than 
 it is to restrain many bad men or women. 
 
 Count on the answer of a community to the 
 higher good, to the religious welfare of youth, to 
 the appeal of a child. But remember you are deal- 
 ing with hard-headed folks. Be sure your plans 
 have been so carefully considered that it is evi- 
 dent this school building is worth investing in, 
 that it is modem and efficient. You need more 
 than room, you need a plant designed exactly for 
 the work you are to do in it. No time is wasted 
 in finding out just what is needed, what are the 
 best plans. Do not be misled by architects' pic- 
 tures. The average architect knows as much about 
 a church-schooPs needs as you know about navi- 
 gation on Mars. Find out plans that really work. 
 
 The whole matter resolves itself into a few 
 questions : Do you need a building? Do you really 
 desire it 1 Can you make your church — or its lead- 
 ers — see the need? Can you put your plans into 
 practical form? Have you faith enough to go out 
 after it? 
 
 WHEN GRADED LESSONS FAIL 
 
 One hears so much regarding graded-lesson 
 problems that it is evident we have already passed 
 the period of argumentation on their fundamental 
 
 275 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHURCH 
 
 rightness and have come to that of the study of 
 their place and adjustment. To many ardent ad- 
 vocates of graded lessons, and to others perplexed 
 and disappointed after experimentation with these 
 lessons, one feels inclined to suggest two simple 
 propositions : first, one plum is not the whole of 
 a cake; and, second, you cannot cure corns with 
 cod-liver oil. 
 
 The first error is that of regarding the graded 
 lessons as a medicine ; they are to be classed not 
 with drugs, but with diet. They are not a chemi- 
 cal nor mechanical process of remedy ; they are a 
 return to natural law, an application of the sim- 
 ple proposition that, since children are naturally 
 at varying stages of development, they should 
 be grouped according to these stages, and appro- 
 priate food for mind or feeling should be pro- 
 vided for these groups. We must insist on the 
 naturalness of graded lessons ; they must be kept 
 out of the category of mental calisthenics. 
 
 The second and more serious error is that doc- 
 tors and friends expect too much of the diet. 
 Whole-wheat bread is a good article of food, but 
 it will cure neither corns nor myopia. Do not 
 expect the most scientific dietary to wholly over- 
 come bad housing in dismal quarters with junk- 
 pile equipment. Graded lessons for pupils often 
 need to be complemented by lessons to janitors 
 and church boards in physical decency, by the 
 gradation of church budgets according to needs 
 rather than according to voting powers. Before 
 we can cure a sick school we must diagnose the 
 case. 
 
 276 
 
CRISES AS OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 Again, food will not feed itself. Graded lessons 
 have no inherent power of transition to the pupil's 
 consciousness. They do have the most decided 
 advantage that they are so near and so normal to 
 the pupil's common experience that the approach 
 is wonderfully facilitated. They are food for 
 which he does not need to acquire a taste ; he has 
 it already. They have all the advantages of ap- 
 ples over caviar to the lad of twelve. But in this 
 case children must be aided to discover the ap- 
 ples. Teachers must know how to lead young 
 lives to where the food is waiting. Graded les- 
 sons are easier to teach than others because we 
 have the cooperation of the pupils' interest. But 
 we must be willing to learn the secrets of that 
 interest and the ways of that cooperation. "When 
 you meet the objection that *^ graded lessons are 
 so much harder to teach than the others," you 
 will usually find that neither these nor the others 
 have been taught ; they have all been talked about. 
 Of course, it is much easier for everybody to talk 
 everlastingly about everything that has always 
 been talked about than it is to teach even one 
 simple thing. But, after trotting around that well- 
 worn circle, where are you? Exactly where you 
 were. Graded lessons do demand teaching instead 
 of talking. 
 
 The third error is to suppose that diet or food 
 is the whole of life. There are schools with cur- 
 ricula that look wondrously impressive on paper; 
 well may they point proudly to these works of 
 academic art. But should you visit some of these 
 schools you would justly conclude that any one of 
 
 277 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 the pedants who prepared and apply the curri- 
 culum would, if he had a child to nurture at home, 
 chain him in a high chair, install a grim dietetic 
 nurse, who, following precisely a printed schedule, 
 should pour the prescribed food into his pa- 
 tient's mouth at the prescribed period. No play 
 should be his, no happy toil, no romping with 
 father, nor songs by firelight, nor tucking and 
 kissing into bed at night. That school is conducted 
 purely for academic purposes, and children are 
 wandering warehouses, woefully, wickedly empty, 
 who must be arrested once a week and gradually 
 laden with textbook lore. Now no man or woman 
 ought to prepare Sunday-school curricula who 
 has forgotten to play or ceased to joy in mus- 
 cular exertion or is afraid or ashamed of an emo- 
 tion. A child's life, on the physical plane, con- 
 sists much more in activity than in eating. He 
 cannot live by bread alone; he must have play 
 and friends. His religious development is equally 
 conditioned on activity and social relations. No 
 matter how scientifically you may arrange his re- 
 ligious dietary, he cannot live by this bread alone, 
 he ^^must do the will,'' he must ^^love the breth- 
 ren." No hearing the word will help even in a 
 Sunday school without doing the will. 
 
 This criticism does not invalidate a scientific- 
 ally based curriculum of study; it does insist that 
 it cannot alone constitute a curriculum of life, 
 that lessons and teaching in classes cannot alone 
 achieve the ultimate purpose of the church school, 
 the development of Christian character. The 
 academic method must be seen as but a single 
 
 278 
 
CRISES AS OPPOETUNITIES 
 
 process in the larger life aim. To neglect youth ^s 
 passion for activity, to fail to direct it into ideal 
 service, to neglect youth's hunger for friendship, 
 and to fail to provide social life under ideal con- 
 ditions, these are apt to render futile the values 
 in the best curriculum of study. 
 
 For schools which are so fortunate as to have 
 available the serv^ices of professional educators, 
 probably no other danger is so common and so 
 serious as this, that the informational ideal shall 
 hide the larger educational ideal. Workers in 
 higher education are especially liable to make 
 learning more important than life and to take edu- 
 cation in terms of the acquisition of information. 
 When these excellent people dominate a Sunday 
 school, they soon come to marvel that *^so few 
 people are interested in biblical study." They 
 wonder why boys and girls fall out of their per- 
 fectly articulated scheme of study; why Miss 
 Brown, who is not especially highly educated, 
 holds her young people, while Miss P. Haighdee 
 loses hers; why the kindergarten, which ^^ really 
 has no academic standards, '^ is crowded and the 
 college grades are desolate. Their curriculum of 
 study is not at fault, but their vision is. The 
 school must mean more than study; it must in- 
 clude all that will develop life normally and effi- 
 ciently into the Christian ideal. Not that play 
 and social life and service need occupy the study 
 periods, but that they must have their own place 
 in the complete program. Graded lessons will 
 serve their full purpose when they are a part of 
 a larger plan of life-training, when they are sub- 
 
 279 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODERN CHUECH 
 
 sidiar}^ to a whole comprehensive scheme which 
 hy all the activities of life in normal proportion 
 seeJcs to develop the whole person into the full- 
 ness of the Christian ideal. 
 
 The success of graded instruction is condi- 
 tioned, then, not alone on the quality of the 
 courses, but equally on (1) an intelligent appre- 
 ciation of the purpose of the school, (2) an ade- 
 quate provision for its physical needs, (3) prep- 
 aration and ability really to teach the course, and 
 (4) wise provision for the activities and the so- 
 cial life which will give vitality and reality to 
 the lessons for the pupils. 
 
 THE STEENGTH OF VISION 
 
 The new school, adequate to its large task, will 
 never be realized in fact until it has been seen in 
 faith. We travel no farther than we see. The 
 substance we hold in our hands is that which we 
 have long held in our hearts. Schools will con- 
 tinue to be picayune affairs so long as we think 
 of them in small terms and so long as we attempt 
 only small and immediate purposes. No matter 
 how discouraging the circumstances may be, no 
 matter how inadequate the equipment, how indif- 
 ferent the church and how inefiicient the working 
 forces, the task remains the same, the opportunity 
 is none the less. And it is this task and oppor- 
 tunity that we must cherish and enlarge. Only 
 as we keep steadily before us the splendid re- 
 sponsibility resting today on this school will it 
 
 280 
 
CEISES AS OPPOETUNITIES 
 
 be possible to make the new ventures that lead 
 toward the realization of its task. 
 
 The school worker must acquire the habit of 
 thinking of the school in terms of its social func- 
 tion and purpose. It is an essential part of this 
 world in its movement toward a righteous so- 
 ciety. It is a real, essential, indispensable part 
 of this world of politics, social life and interna- 
 tional affairs that seems to be so real and large. 
 Who does not know the sensation when coming to 
 the school from a busy week in the great world, 
 that one is coming into a quiet back-eddy of life? 
 The struggles and problems of men have been 
 left behind; this hour of teaching has nothing to 
 do with the great strife of life, with labor and 
 industrial affairs, with jangling human passions, 
 with questions of civic betterment. But that is 
 an entirely mistaken notion; it has everything to 
 do with them if it is loyal to its work. The school 
 is not in a back-eddy of life ; it is at its sources. 
 
 Here the teacher touches and affects human 
 affairs where they rise in the hearts of the com- 
 ing men and women. What a world this would 
 be today if all its people were guided always by 
 the best ideals the school of religion could pre- 
 sent to them! What a world that of tomorrow 
 may be if only we can insure that its people know 
 and love and will the way of social righteous- 
 ness! Is it nothing that, in this school, we may 
 teach how life is to be lived on divine terms? Is 
 it nothing that this is the principal thing this 
 school is expected to do? The xeacher is not 
 
 281 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 here alone to save souls but, through these souls, 
 to save society. 
 
 But sometimes it seems almost a hopeless task 
 to determine the future through the minds of the 
 young today; they will soon forget all that we 
 teach them. While that is not altogether true, 
 we must remember that it is not what we say 
 to them that counts nearly so much as what they 
 experience here and what they here discover for 
 themselves. Living, working and learning to- 
 gether in a class, and living, playing, worship- 
 ping and working together in a school is an ex- 
 perience in living in the ideal family of God. A 
 school may be made, when it is seen in all its 
 reaches and possibilities, a realization of the very 
 kind of society that we hope to see for all men 
 some day. The experience of being in such a 
 society, playing a natural part in it, is what counts 
 most of all in determining the trend of these young 
 lives. 
 
 Then, in all the work of this school, we need to 
 enlarge our own vision, not to think alone of 
 methods and means, but to think of the world we 
 are making. There is no problem of humanity 
 that is not being touched here ; there is no path- 
 way of the future that may not be broadened and 
 illumined here. Take with you, in all thinking of 
 the school, this larger picture of the new world 
 we are making, a world wherein dwelleth right- 
 eousness. Think, when this school makes heavy 
 drafts on mind and heart and time, how much 
 it may do to make a world where men shall work 
 together in common love instead of commonly 
 
 282 
 
CEISES AS OPPORTUXITIES 
 
 striving in competition that breeds hatred; think 
 how much may be done to make a world where all 
 children shall have sunlight, human love, freedom 
 to play and be children ; how much the school may 
 do to make a world where the cities shall be places 
 of health, of freedom for pure happiness, and 
 where lives shall be blessed with leisure, and love 
 shall have its way ! 
 
 All this we may do through the school of re- 
 ligion, if it fully ministers to the lives that are 
 now growing into their powers, acquiring their 
 habits, forming their ideals, shaping their con- 
 cepts of life and their principles of action. This 
 makes work in the school the supreme oppor- 
 tunity of religion, for this school is the one in- 
 stitution which has entire freedom to deal with 
 children, a free opportunity to deal with them as 
 religious persons, a recog-nized responsibility to 
 develop their religious ideals, to interpret life to 
 them in spiritual terms and to bring out in them 
 the abilities necessaiy to live in a society funda- 
 mentally religious and to make a world of spirit- 
 ual, divine goodness and love. 
 
 Surely no ventures are too great, no price too 
 high and no endeavor too taxing if only we may, 
 through the children of today, bring about the 
 kingdom, the human society of love, for which we 
 so ardently hope and pray. 
 
 2S3 
 
A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RELIGIOUS EDU- 
 CATION 
 
 I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 
 
 * Bushnell, Horace, * ' Christian Nurture. ' ' Revised edi- 
 
 tion by L. A. Weigle, with a biographical sketch by 
 Williston Walker. (Charles Scribner's, $1.50.) 
 The classic on the basic principles of child nurture 
 and religious education. 
 
 * Coe, George A., ** Education in Religion and Morals." 
 
 (Revell, 1916, $1.35.) ''A popular and fairly com- 
 prehensive treatment in the light of educational 
 methods.'' 
 ** Coe, George A., ''A Social Theory of Religious Edu- 
 cation." (Charles Scribner's, 1918, $1.50.) Funda- 
 mental, vital and scientific. 
 
 Colvin, Stephen Sheldon, "The Learning Process." 
 (Macmillan, 1911, $1.25.) 
 
 Conde, Bertha, *'The Human Element in the Making 
 of a Christian." (Charles Scribner's, $1.00.) A 
 text-book on personal evangelism. 
 
 * Dewey, John, *' School and Society." (Univ. of Chi- 
 
 cago Press, $1.00.) 
 Welton, J., *'What Do We Mean by Education?" 
 (Macmillan, $1.25.) A thorough study of educa- 
 
 * A single asterisk signifies high, value; the entire list should 
 be in every worker's library. 
 
 ** A double asterisk marks the indispensable books according to 
 the judgment of two or more bibliographies. The evaluations are 
 not the work of the author of this text; they were made by a 
 church commission on Eeiigious Education. 
 
 284 
 
A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 tional theory in the light of ideal and personal 
 aims. 
 Cope, Henry F., " Eeligious Education in the Church." 
 (Charles Scribner's, $1.25.) A study of the or- 
 ganization and work of the church from the educa- 
 tional point of view. 
 
 n. PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 
 
 ** Coe, George A., **The Psychology of Religion." 
 (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1917, $1.50.) The best to 
 date. Scholarly and clear. Modem and helpful. 
 *Waterhouse, E. S., ''The Psychology of the Chris- 
 tian Life." (Charles H. Kelley, 35c.) A valuable, 
 simple introduction. 
 Waddle, Charles W., ''Introduction to Child Psychol- 
 ogy." (Houghton, Mifflin, $1.50.) Non-technical, 
 biological point of view. 
 Woodworth, Robert S., "Dynamic Psychology." (Co- 
 lumbia Univ. Press, $1.50.) 
 ** Moxcey, Mary E., "Girlhood and Character," pp. 400. 
 (Abingdon Press, 1916, $1.50.) The latest and best 
 book on the study of the adolescent girl. Contains 
 carefully selected bibliographies. 
 * Harrison, Elizabeth, "A Study of Child Nature." 
 (Kindergarten College, $1.00.) Principles of the 
 kindergarten applied to the home. Charming and 
 helpful. 
 Lamoreaux, Antoinette A., "The Unfolding Life." 
 (Revell, 50c.) 
 ** Cope, Henry F., "Religious Education in the Fam- 
 ily." (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1915, $1.25.) "A 
 series of careful studies designed to aid the parents 
 in the religious training of their children. * * * 
 contains lists of references and topics for each chap- 
 285 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEKN CHURCH 
 
 ter, and an up-to-date annotated list of books for a 
 working library." 
 
 m. PEDAGOGY 
 
 Adams, John, ''A Primer on Teaching." (T. T. 
 Clark, 25c.) 
 
 * Gregory, John Milton, ' ' The Seven Laws of Teach- 
 
 ing." New and revised edition by W. C. Bagley 
 and W. K. Layton. (Pilgrim Press, 1917, 75c.) 
 ''An elementary treatise on the art of teach- 
 ^g # * * Q^Q q£ ^j^g clearest and simplest state- 
 ments of the teaching process that has ever ap- 
 peared." 
 *Peabody, Francis G., *'The Religious Education of 
 an American Citizen." (Macmillan, 1917, $1.25.) 
 Knight, Edgar W., ''Some Principles of Teaching as 
 Applied to the Sunday Schuol." (Pilgrim Press, 
 1915, 75c.) "One of the best elementary texts in 
 the field of religious pedagogy." 
 
 * Galloway, Thomas W., "The Use of Motives in Teach- 
 
 ing Morals and Religion." (Pilgrim Press, 1918, 
 $1.25.) "An application of modern principles and 
 methods of education, based on the fundamentals of 
 human nature, to the whole development of per- 
 sonality, including morals and religion." 
 *Weigle, Luther A., "The Pupil and the Teacher." 
 (Doran, 50c.) 
 
 IV. CHURCH-SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 
 
 Athearn, W. S., "The Church School." (Pilgrim 
 Press, $1.00.) Gives principles and detailed direc- 
 tions for each department. One of the best texts 
 available, excellent for training classes. 
 
 Athearn, W. S., "Religious Education and Ameri- 
 286 
 
A BEIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 can Democracy." (Pilgrim Press, 1917, $1.50.) 
 Discusses the present situation and its remedies. 
 
 Brewbaker, Charles W., ''The Sunday School in Ac- 
 tion." (Otterbein Press, 75c.) 
 
 Bninner, E. D., "The New Country Church Build- 
 ing." (Library of Christian Progress.) (Mission- 
 ary Education Movement, 1917, 75c.) ''A simple 
 statement of the physical plant required for the 
 modem rural church." 
 **Cope, Henry F., ''Efficiency in the Sunday School." 
 (Doran, $1.00.) "The writer has a thorough ap- 
 preciation of the idea of efficiency. He has the ad- 
 vantage of knowing the Sunday School as few ex- 
 perts today. The result is a book that is construc- 
 tive and practical." 
 ** Cope, Henry F., "The Modern Sunday School and Its 
 Present Day Task. ' ' (Revell, 1917,^$1.00.) ' ' Prac- 
 tical and scientific." 
 
 Fergusson, E. Morris, "How to Eun a Little Sunday 
 School." (Revell, 60c.) 
 
 Lawrance, Marion, "How to Conduct a Sunday 
 School." (Revell, $1.25.) Good suggestions of 
 methods for organization. 
 
 Meyer, Henrj^ H., "The Graded Sunday School in 
 Principle and Practice." (Eaton & Mains, 75c.) 
 The best review of the history of the graded move- 
 ment, with a discussion of its application today. 
 
 V. CURRICULUM 
 
 Pease, George W., "Outline of a Bible School Cur- 
 riculum." (Univ. of Chicago Press, $1.50.) "A 
 good treatment of the characteristics of the dif- 
 ferent periods in child-life and suggestions for 
 graded courses." 
 
 287 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHUECH 
 
 Myers, A. J. 'Williain, ''The Old Testament in the 
 Sunday School/' (Teachers College, $1.00.) 
 
 VI. SPECIAL METHODS 
 
 Littlefield, IVIilton S., ''Handwork in the Sunday 
 School.'' (S. S. Times, $1.00.) 
 
 Wardle, Addie Grace, ' ' Handwork in Religious Edu- 
 cation." (Univ. of Chicago Press, $1.00.) "An ex- 
 cellent treatment of the various forms of manual 
 work. ' ' 
 
 Bovard, W. S., "Adults in the Sunday School." 
 (Abingdon Press, 1917, $1.00.) 
 ** Evans, Herbert P., ' ' The Sunday School Building and 
 Its Equipment" (Univ. of Chicago, 75c.) The 
 one up-to-date hand-book on this subject. 
 
 Chappell, Harriet, "The Church Vacation School." 
 (Revell, 75c.) "A handbook on the work of the 
 Daily Vacation Bible Schools, giving statistics of 
 operation." 
 * Beard, Prederica, ' ' Graded Missionary Instruction in 
 the Church School." (American Baptist, 1917, 
 75c.) 
 ** Gates, Herbert W., "Recreation in the Church." 
 (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1917, $1.00.) "A prac- 
 tical manual on methods of meeting the recrea- 
 tional needs of the child in the community through 
 the local church." 
 
 Rankin, Mary E., "A Course for Beginners in Re- 
 ligious Education." (Scribner's, 1917, $1.25.) 
 "The 'Social Theory' of Kindergarten education 
 applied to the kindergarten of the church." 
 t Richardson, Norman E., & Loomis, Ormond E., "The 
 ■ Boy Scout Movement." (Scribner's, 1916, $1.50.) 
 
 ' ' Approved by the National Boy Scouts of America, 
 and recommended to all students of boyhood. Con- 
 288 
 
A BEIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 tains numerous practical suggestions of the ways 
 in which boys may be safely trained to play their 
 parts in the world. A practical handbook for scout 
 leaders." 
 
 Winchester, B. S., *' Religious Education and Democ- 
 racy." (Abingdon Press, 1917.) A discussion of 
 the historical and practical bases of week-day in- 
 struction. 
 
 Beard, Frederica, ''The Beginners' Worker and 
 Work." (Abingdon Press, 1917, 75c.) ''A sug- 
 gestive manual for Beginners* superintendents and 
 teachers. ' ' 
 
 Diffendorfer, Ralph E., ** Missionary Education in 
 
 Home and School." (Abingdon Press, $1.50.) 
 
 *'A comprehensive, well-arranged text." 
 
 * Hutchins, William Norman, * ' Graded Social Service 
 
 in the Sunday School." (Univ. of Chicago, 75c.) 
 
 McEntyre, Ralph W., ''The Sunday School Secre- 
 tary." (Abingdon Press, 1917, $1.25.) 
 
 Brewbaker, Charles W., ' ' Devotional Life of the Sun- 
 day School Worker." (Revell, 1917, 75c.) A lit- 
 tie book filled with helpful suggestions for Sunday- 
 school teachers and religious workers. Supplies 
 a long-felt need in the field of religious education. 
 The author is a most practical Sunday School man. 
 *McFarland, John T., Winchester, B.S., et al., "The 
 Encyclopedia of Sunday School and Religious Edu- 
 cation." 3 Vols. (Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1915, 
 $15.00.) 
 *Bowen, W. C, "A Survey of Religious Education in 
 the Church." (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1919, 
 $1.00.) Plans, directions and analyses for a thor- 
 ough survey. 
 
 Fergusson, E. Morris, "How to Run a Little Sunday 
 School," pp. 128. (Revell, 1916, 60c.) "A com- 
 pact and valuable handbook for workers in a small 
 2S9 
 
THE SCHOOL IN THE MODEEN CHURCH 
 
 Sunday school, maintaining a high educational 
 standard throughout.'* 
 
 BrjTQer, Mary Foster, "The Elementary Division Or- 
 ganized for .Service." (Revell, 1916, 50c.) A valu- 
 able handbook for teachers of children in the local 
 church school. 
 
 Thomas, Marion, ** Primary Manuals." (Methodist 
 Book Concern, 1915, 50c.) A manual suggesting 
 ways and means of introducing and using the In- 
 ternational Primary graded lessons. 
 
 Baldwin, Josephine L., **The Junior Manual." 
 (Methodist Book Concern, 1915, 50c.) A manual 
 for junior teachers, using International graded les- 
 sons. 
 
 Athearn, Walter S., *^The City Institute for Religious 
 Teachers." (Univ. of Chicago, 75c.) 
 
 Herbert, Clara W., ''Children's Books fOr S. S. 
 Libraries." (H. W. Wilson.) 
 
 Alexander, John L., ''The Sunday School and the 
 Teens." (Association Press, $1.00.) 
 
 Vn. WORSHIP 
 
 ** Hartshorne, Hugh, "Worship in the Sunday School." 
 (Columbia Univ., $1.25.) A valuable, careful study 
 of principles with definite suggestions for programs. 
 
 McElfresh, Franklin, "The Training of Sunday 
 School Officers and Teachers." (Pilgrim Press, 
 75c.) 
 
 Hartshorne, Hugh, "The Book of Worship of the 
 Church School." (Scribner's, $1.00.) 
 
 290 
 

 Date Due 
 
 
 ^ ^A . 
 
 L 
 
 
 
 Ilr27'4( 
 
 
 
 
 Jl 80 •4( 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 FACUi ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 01035 2435