1 
 
 I 
 
 Training of Specialized Staff 
 
 Leadership 
 
 A Paper presented at the Council of Cities of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, Buffalo, New York 
 
 February 23, 1921 
 
 by 
 
 Walter Scott Athearn 
 
 Director , Boston University School of 
 Religious Education and 
 Social Service 
 
 Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Council of Cities of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, Buffalo, New York, February 22-24, 1921, by the 
 Department of City Work of the Board of Home Missions and 
 Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 1701 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
 
’ | 'HIS PAPER presents the standards 
 and methods which are in successful 
 operation in the Schools of Religious 
 Education and Social Service of Boston 
 University. It has been reprinted for 
 the information of students and friends 
 who are vitally interested in the develop¬ 
 ment of adequate training facilities for 
 Christian leadership. 
 
TRAINING OF SPECIALIZED STAFF LEADERSHIP 
 
 By Walter S. Athearn 
 
 Director of the School of Religious Education and Social 
 Service, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 
 
 I. Introduction 
 
 There is an increasing tendency to confine the use of the 
 term “staff” to the specialized supervisors or operators attached 
 to the chief officer of administration of an institution or of a 
 business, military or professional organization or agency; for 
 example, the staff of a hospital would be the group of specialists 
 who operate under the general direction of the head surgeon; 
 the staff of a general would be the group of men who are 
 attached to “headquarters” for special assignments; the staff of 
 a superintendent of education would comprise the experts who 
 carry the educational policies of the superintendent to the rank 
 and file of teachers and principals in the educational system and 
 who assist directly in the formation of policies. In this technical 
 sense, heads of departments, for example, having administrative 
 responsibilities which involve groups of employees or voluntary 
 workers, would not be members of the “staff.” 
 
 In a less technical sense the term “staff” is quite commonly 
 used to refer to all persons who have supervisory or administra¬ 
 tive responsibility for the work of an organization or an institu¬ 
 tion. In many cases the term is still more loosely used to refer 
 to the entire number of employees, operators, and helpers en¬ 
 gaged in an enterprise under a common leadership. 
 
 It has not seemed wise to confine the discussion of the 
 training of the “staff” of the minister in the local parish to 
 the technical connotation of that term. For the purposes of 
 this paper the “staff” will, therefore, include all persons having 
 administration, supervisory or instructorial responsibility. 
 
 In every enterprise which has continuity training in some 
 form is always going on. This training is either by absorption, 
 or by intention. The Church has ordinarily secured its leaders 
 by the absorption method. By this method prospective workers 
 pick up knowledge and skill by watching other workers. They 
 occasionally receive a friendly hint or suggestion from a skilled 
 workman but it is nobody’s business to instruct them. In the 
 industries this method is spoken of as “stealing” a trade. A 
 “green” hand after watching a trained man operate a machine 
 secures a job as an experienced workman. Once he has hold 
 of the machine he does the best he can to operate it as he has 
 seen other men do it. Friendly workmen may aid him, but 
 more often his fellow laborers “guy” him and refuse help. He 
 soon loses his job because of inefficiency, but he goes im- 
 
 3 
 
mediately to another shop and repeats the experience. Finally, 
 from his various experiences he picks up enough knowledge and 
 acquires enough skill to enable him to hold a job as a second- 
 class workman. 
 
 By this same trial and error method, with no tutoring of 
 any kind, many men and women have come to positions of 
 leadership and responsibility in the work of the local parish. 
 Industry no longer relies upon this method, because it wastes 
 time, material and tools. Remembering that the waste in the 
 workship of the religious workers is the souls of men, as well 
 as time and material, the Church should no longer rely upon 
 a method at once so extravagant and so inefficient. 
 
 Training by intention recognizes that someone must con¬ 
 sciously 
 
 1. Organize “trade knowledge,” 
 
 2. Arrange it in proper sequence for easy acquisition and 
 
 3. Direct the learner until he has acquired skill in the 
 particular trade or activity. 
 
 This training responsibility may be 
 
 1. Added to the duty of a foreman. 
 
 2. An “old hand” may be put in charge of one or more 
 helpers or apprentices. 
 
 3. A special instructing foreman may be employed for this 
 purpose, distinguished from the production foremen by 
 the fact that he produces trained laborers rather than 
 bolts, buttons, braid, etc. 
 
 4. Training shops may be established in connection with 
 the plant. 
 
 5. Separate training schools or departments may be estab¬ 
 lished. 
 
 If the Church is to train its leadership by the method of 
 intention rather than by the method of absorption, it must 
 establish a definite system of training adequate to furnish the 
 number and quality of workers necessary to completely man 
 every agency of the Church with carefully selected and highly 
 trained workers. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss such 
 a system of training. 
 
 II. The Training Agencies for Religious Leadership 
 
 To cover the wide range of demands for leadership in the 
 many types of churches, involving lay and clerical, voluntary 
 and professional workers, there must be a closely correlated 
 system of training agencies on the following levels: 
 
 1. Graduate schools of professional grade. 
 
 2. Undergraduate vocational schools of college grade. 
 
 3. Community training schools for voluntary workers. 
 
 4. Training programs in local churches. 
 
 4 
 
1. Church Colleges as Centers for Vocational Training 
 
 The first and most obvious source of trained leaders for the 
 local church is an institution already at hand—the Church 
 college. Thousands of young men and women annually go from 
 Church homes to Church colleges. They return from these 
 institutions with very little definite preparation for leadership 
 in the local church. They have been prepared to teach in 
 the village high school, but they have been given no training for 
 Sunday-school leadership. They have taken pre-engineering, 
 pre-medical, pre-legal courses; they have studied domestic 
 science and the fine arts, but they have not prepared for voca¬ 
 tional efficiency in the local parish. It is the writer’s conviction 
 that we shall never solve the problem of trained leadership in 
 the local church until we have changed the emphasis of de¬ 
 nominational colleges form solely culture to the culture of the 
 soul with a definite slant towards spiritual vocational guidance. 
 
 The standard colleges of the country now permit from thirty 
 to forty of the one hundred twenty semester hours’ work 
 required for the Baccalaureate degree to be selected from pro¬ 
 fessional or vocational subjects. If the Church college would 
 provide an equal opportunity for specialized training in religious 
 fields, the problems of religious leadership would be well nigh 
 solved. Until such recognition can be given to religious train¬ 
 ing it will be necessary for those interested in religious leader¬ 
 ship to found new training schools on a college level, create 
 their own baccalaureate, standardize their courses and demand 
 graduate recognition for their work. 
 
 The demands of vocational efficiency are not inconsistent 
 with the ideals of liberal culture. 
 
 a. A Vocational Baccalaureate 
 
 The successful religious or social service practitioner must 
 have three distinct elements in his preparation: 
 
 1. Common elements necessary to an intelligent participation 
 in a democratic society. Technical training must not be allowed 
 to create class, or vocational stratification of society. The 
 common elements necessary to the like-mindedness of a homo¬ 
 geneous citizenship must be a part of the training of all groups 
 of workers. Religious and social workers, being social prophets, 
 dealing with people of all levels, should represent the highest 
 intellectual and social ideals which the race has attained. 
 
 2. Culture of the soul. Students preparing for religious 
 and social leadership must not allow their evangelistic fervor 
 to wane while they are acquiring vocational technique. Those 
 personal disciplines that refine the spirit and keep the personal 
 life pure, clean and “God-intoxicated” should form an integral 
 part of the curriculum of a school of applied Christianity. 
 Music, art, literature, worship and the humanities all have a 
 place, if properly presented, in this connection. 
 
 5 
 
3. Vocational information and technical skill. Efficient 
 practitioners must have a full and ready knowledge of their 
 special fields, and accuracy and facility in its practical appli¬ 
 cation. 
 
 The proper combination of these three elements in the 
 curriculum of a training school represents the ideals which 
 should be attempted by such schools. Candidates for certificates 
 or degrees should be required to preserve a balance of general 
 education, personal culture and vocational efficiency. 
 
 Our difficulty arises when we give academic credit for item 
 Number 3 in the above discussion. Upon what basis shall we 
 credit vocational information and technical skill? It is here that 
 the Colleges of Liberal Arts have joined issue with Normal 
 Schools and Normal Colleges. The Colleges of Liberal Arts 
 refused to offer practical training for the public school 
 
 teachers, and the people through their representatives in state 
 legislatures established Normal Schools, and later, Normal 
 
 Colleges which granted the A.B. degree upon the completion 
 of four years of study which included a certain number of 
 professional courses, presented in proper sequence and related 
 to general courses. Such graduates were received into graduate 
 colleges on probation. They held their own with students 
 
 who had taken the regulation courses and they are now 
 admitted freely for graduate study into the leading universities 
 of this and other countries without discrimination. 
 
 The Normal Colleges are able to show that historically the 
 A.B. degree belongs to the teaching profession. This title 
 was originally applied to pupil-teachers who, at the close of 
 their second or sophomore year, were licensed to teach as 
 assistants to the regular professors. After two additional years 
 of preparation they received the Master’s degree—they were then 
 masters or teachers in their own right. The courses which 
 
 entered into this degree were vocational and professional. The 
 professional educators insist that the Colleges of Liberal Arts, 
 having ceased to offer vocational preparation to teachers, should 
 relinquish the right to offer the A.B. and A.M. degrees and 
 seek new degrees to indicate the completion of general courses 
 pursued by students having no conscious vocational purpose in 
 their study. This interesting debate is still in progress with the 
 evidence decidedly in favor of the Normal College. 
 
 4 
 
 For further study see the following references: 
 
 Swift, F. H. “The Teachers’ Baccalaureate” Teachers College 
 Record, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 25-50, January, 1920. 
 
 Gilchrist, J. C. “Professional Degrees for Teachers.” Proceedings 
 of the National Education Association. 1879, pp. 117-118. 
 
 Luckey, G. W. A. The Professional Training of Secondary Teach¬ 
 ers in the United States. 
 
 Malden, Henry. The Origin of Universities and Academic Degrees. 
 
 Paetow, Louis J. The Arts Courses in Mediaeval Universities. 
 
 “Degrees.” Article in Monroe’s Cyclopaedia of Education. Vol. 11. 
 
 O’Shea, N. V. “Is the Professional Training of Teachers Illiberal?” 
 Educational Review, Vol. 60, No. 1, pp. 35-41, June, 1920. 
 
 6 
 
But regardless of the outcome of the controversy between 
 Normal and Teachers’ Colleges and Colleges of Liberal Arts, 
 those of us who are engaged in the training of religious and 
 social leaders must create our own baccalaureate, standardize 
 it and secure its acceptance in the academic world. We can 
 gain much from the labors of leaders in other professions in 
 their efforts to gain academic recognition for vocational courses, 
 but we must make our own original contribution to the general 
 problem. Our problems involve the questions of “formal” and 
 “specific” discipline, the cultural value of vocational studies, 
 the definition of “culture”, the objectives or ends of education, 
 and a host of kindred subjects. The results of research in 
 educational psychology, the place of education in a democracy, 
 the new sociology, modern philosophy—these are the fields we 
 must master before we offer a defence for our academic 
 baccalaureate. 
 
 The historical baccalaureate provides a substantial and pro¬ 
 gressive course of study including (a) language and literature, 
 (b) history, (c) economics, (d) natural science, and (e) 
 philosophy. A new baccalaureate that shall preserve the es¬ 
 sential disciplines of the old and add values which it does not 
 possess must provide a progressive, pedagogical arrangement of 
 bodies of knowledge and types of conduct and experience which 
 will accomplish the three purposes already mentioned: viz. 
 
 L Common elements necessary to an intelligent parti¬ 
 cipation in a democratic society. 
 
 2. Culture of the soul. 
 
 3. Vocational information and technical skill. 
 
 Such a progressive sequence of courses would be worthy of 
 baccalaureate recognition. One Methodist training school has 
 announced vocational baccalaureates in the religious field, as 
 follows: Bachelor of Religious Education and Bachelor of Social 
 Science. The one hundred and twenty semester hours required 
 for these degrees must be distributed as follows: 
 
 1. Psychology, 6 hours. 
 
 2. Laboratory Science, 6 hours. 
 
 3. English Composition and Literature, 10 hours. 
 
 4. Bible, 12 hours. 
 
 5. Public Speaking, 2 hours. 
 
 6. History, Economics and Sociology, 10 hours. 
 
 7. Foreign Language, 10 hours. 
 
 8. A vocational major. From 30 to 40 hours. 
 
 9. Electives. From 24 to 34 hours, depending on the 
 
 number of hours included in the vocational elective. 
 (Young students are urged to limit their vocational 
 electives to 30 hours.) 
 
 7 
 
From half to two-thirds of these courses are designed to 
 give those common elements which should be the possession of 
 all members of a democratic society. The remainder of the 
 courses are devoted to vocational information and technical skill. 
 These courses are for the most part as worthy of academic 
 credit on the basis of their broadening, liberalizing and dis¬ 
 ciplinary values as are the traditional college courses. If this 
 assertion can be sustained this school can confidently ask, not 
 that the students be granted the B.A. degree, but that B.R.E. 
 and B.S.S. degrees be accepted by the graduate colleges as 
 equivalent to the A.B. degree. 
 
 It will be necessary to maintain, from the beginning, stand¬ 
 ards that can not be disputed, and to claim credit for no 
 course until it has been standardized in reference to the con¬ 
 tent and quality of the course. This will mean the careful 
 preparation of syllabi for new courses and a definite teaching 
 method for all new material in order that no question may be 
 raised regarding the work of any professor. 
 
 One of the major problems involved in training students 
 of college grade for religious leadership is to standardize our 
 baccalaureate. 
 
 For reference in the study of this problem the following 
 sources will be helpful: 
 
 Seerley, H. H. Report of the Inside Survey. Bulletin of the Iowa 
 State Teacher’s College, Cedar Falls, Iowa. 
 
 Morehouse, Frances. “The Method Content of College Teachers’ 
 Courses.” Journal of Educational Administration and Super¬ 
 vision, Vol. 4, No. 7, pp. 351-357, Sept. 1918. 
 
 Holmes, Henry W. “The Normal School Curriculum.” School 
 and Society. Vol. 1. pp. 550-533, May 8, 1919. 
 
 Bagley, W. C. “The Future of the City Training School.” 
 Journal of Educational Administration and Supervision. Vol. 
 6, No. 3, pp. 121-126, March 1920. 
 
 Corwin, Robert N. “The Problem of the Liberal Arts College.” 
 Educational Review. Vol. 59, No. 5, pp. 368-380, May 1920. 
 
 Society of College Teachers of Education. College Courses in 
 Education. Proceedings of meeting of the Society, Chicago 
 February 24, 25, 1919. (Marshall Printing Company, Marsh- 
 allton, Iowa). 
 
 Paetow, L. J. “The Liberal Arts.” The University of California 
 Chronicle. Vol. 22, pp. 168-173, April 1920. 
 
 Athearn, W. S. Religious Education and American Democracy, 
 pp. 255-364 Contains classified bibliographies. 
 
 b. The Distribution of Courses 
 
 There are three methods of distributing courses in a college 
 or training school curriculum. 
 
 1. Free Electives. This plan permits the student almost 
 perfect freedom in selecting from all the offerings of the in¬ 
 stitution one hundred and twenty hours of work distributed to 
 suit his own inclination, interest, convenience or needs. The 
 
 8 
 
generally recognized failure of this plan led to the wide adoption 
 of the group system. 
 
 2. The Group System. This plan groups the courses into 
 the logical divisions of knowledge, i.e. science, history, phil¬ 
 osophy, etc., and requires the student to elect “majors” and 
 “minors” from the various groups according to prescribed rules, 
 with the general provision for “distribution” in the first years 
 of the course and “concentration” during the third and fourth 
 year. 
 
 3. Prescribed Courses. In actual practice the “group 
 system” has not been satisfactory. Students are no better 
 qualified to select courses within a group than they were to 
 select them under the “free elective system”. The employing 
 of faculty or class advisors does not correct the defects. Partis¬ 
 an or departmental motives often overshadow the best interests 
 of the institution and the student. In practical operation the 
 group system results in the student “electing subjects as he 
 chooses, or under the adventitious controls represented by one’s 
 favorite class-hours, the popularity or unpopularity of certain 
 instructors, or even the place of the subject on the schedule of 
 final examinations.” (Bulletin, No. 14, Carnegie Foundation for 
 the Advancement of Teaching, p. 147.) 
 
 These facts have led many of the strongest and most care¬ 
 fully administered training colleges to adopt the system of 
 “prescribed courses.” The faculty, having in mind the needs 
 of the student, the content and purpose of each course and the 
 needs of the field of service for which the student is preparing, 
 minutely prescribes the curricula and the student is expected to 
 take the courses as they are scheduled, subject of course to 
 change upon faculty approval in order to meet unusual or 
 special situations. The student exercises his choice in determin¬ 
 ing the vocation for which he will prepare himself. Having 
 done that, he will pursue the courses of instruction which the 
 faculty has prescribed for that specialized field. This method is 
 supported by abundant precedents: it will solve many embarrass¬ 
 ing problems that have arisen under the “group system”, and 
 it will be conductive to economy in administration. 
 
 References: 
 
 The Professional Preparation of Teachers for American Public 
 Schools. Bulletin. No. 14. The Carnegie Foundation for the 
 Advancement of Teaching. 
 
 Klapper, Paul. College Teaching. 
 
 Bobbitt, Franklin. “Basis of Organization of Professional Train¬ 
 ing Courses.” Proceedings of Society of College Teachers of 
 Education, 1919. 
 
 Blodgett, F. H. “College Training for Teachers of Agriculture.” 
 School and Society. Vol. 9, pp. 493-520, April 26, 1919. 
 
 Bagley, W. C. “The Future of the City Training School.” Journal 
 of Educational Administration and Supervision. Vol. 6, No. 3, 
 pp. 121-126, March 1920. 
 
 9 
 
2. Graduate Professional Schools for Lay Religious Leaders 
 a. Nature and Distribution of Courses 
 
 While the vocational courses in the Church colleges will 
 send the great majority of their students back to the local 
 church as efficient voluntary leaders, they will also send forward 
 to the graduate schools many strong students to be trained for 
 professional leadership. For such students, professional gradu¬ 
 ate schools should be provided for lay workers on a par with 
 the standard schools of theology. These schools should be 
 designed to produce practitioners. They begin with applied 
 sciences and end with practical arts. They should be worthy 
 of the same kind of recognition from the graduate schools as 
 are the courses in a standard college of medicine. A candidate 
 for the M.R.E. or M.S.S. degrees, having once selected his 
 field of practice must submit to faculty prescriptions which 
 are not required of other graduate students. His work will be 
 as hard, as exacting, as disciplinary—but his purpose will be 
 different. 
 
 These graduate courses should be two or three years in 
 length. Groups of courses preparing for definite types of service 
 should be carefully correlated so that there should be a proper 
 balance of the following courses: 
 
 1. General Courses. These courses to be prescribed by the 
 faculty for the purpose of giving background, perspective and 
 point of view, rather than general culture, as in the under¬ 
 graduate courses. These courses would include philosophy, 
 sociology, biology, history of education, etc., depending upon 
 the student’s previous preparation and his vocational interest. 
 
 2. Vocational Information Courses. These include the 
 courses designed to give the body of special knowledge required 
 of successful practitioners. 
 
 3. Practice Courses. These courses are designed to give 
 technical skill. 
 
 For further study of this problem the following sources are 
 suggested: 
 
 Janeway, Theodore C. “Outside Professional Engagements by 
 Members of Professional Faculties.” Educational Review. 
 Vol. 55, No. 3, pp, 207-220, March, 1918. 
 
 Athearn, W. S. Religious Education and American Democracy. 
 pp. 369-390 (Note bibliography on research and graduate 
 work on pages 389-390.) 
 
 Merriam, John C. “The Functions of Educational Institutions in 
 the Development of Research.” University of California 
 Chronicle. Vol. 23, pp. 133-143, April, 1920. 
 
 Harper, R. A. “The Stimulation of Research after the War.” 
 Science, U. S. Vol. 51, pp. 473-478, May 14, 1920. 
 
 “Research vs. Teaching.” School and Society. Vol. II, pp. 687-8, 
 June 5, 1920. 
 
 (The following study of the organization and administration of 
 laboratory and practice work will apply with equal force to 
 undergraduate colleges). 
 
 10 
 
b. Academic Credit for Laboratory Work 
 
 One of the most important tasks which workers in this field 
 will he asked to perform is that of defining the appropriate 
 quantity and quality of laboratory, observation and practice 
 work for the various courses and fixing the proper amount 
 of academic credit. The easy way out is to ignore the problem; 
 but the very genius of such schools requires that we find a way 
 to give academic credit for all the disciplines which we pres¬ 
 cribe for the preparation of professional leaders. It is, there¬ 
 fore, recommended: 
 
 1. That all prescribed laboratory, observation and practice 
 
 work be granted academic credit. 
 
 2. That practice work which requires home preparation 
 
 shall be granted equal credit with regular class recita¬ 
 tion work: i.e. practice teaching which requires two or 
 three hours of library and home preparation preceding 
 the teaching under supervision in a model school 
 should have the same credit as is given for the prepa¬ 
 ration and recitation of an ordinary lesson. 
 
 3. That practice work which does not require previous 
 
 preparation but which demands concentration, and con¬ 
 scious mental application, and which is under the guid¬ 
 ance of an instructor who directs the exercise to a 
 definite end will be granted one half the credit given 
 to exercise which requires time for both preparation 
 and recitation. 
 
 4. That observation work following specific direction shall 
 
 be credited only when a carefully prepared report has 
 been presented and approved,—the amount of credit 
 being equal to that given to equivalent reports made 
 from library assignments. 
 
 5. That no credit be given for practical work of any kind 
 
 when it is unrelated to a definite course of instruction. 
 
 c. Problems of Curricula Building 
 
 1. Some Pertinent Questions. Faculties of vocational train¬ 
 ing schools must give the academic world a satisfactory answer 
 to the following questions if their graduates are to be recog¬ 
 nized by the accredited educational institutions of this and other 
 countries. 
 
 a What are the general courses which prepare students 
 to participate in a democratic society? Can these 
 courses be secured at the College of Liberal Arts, the 
 School of Education, the School of Theology, etc., or 
 must they be offered by a separate faculty? 
 
 b What are the courses which best develop the spiritual 
 life of students? 
 
 11 
 
c What specialized body of knowledge belongs to each 
 vocation for which students are to be prepared? 
 
 d What technical instruments are necessary for the applic¬ 
 ation of the specialized knowledge of each vocation? 
 
 e What types of organized and directed experience will 
 produce the skill required for each vocation and how 
 shall practice be related to theory? 
 
 f Are there common elements which underlie many related 
 fields of practice? If so, what are the common elements 
 which belong to the vocations represented by these 
 schools? 
 
 g Granted that all religious and social workers must have 
 knowledge of human nature, an insight into the nature 
 of society, knowledge of the history, philosophy and 
 psychology of religion, and knowledge of the Church 
 as an institution including its history, agencies and 
 materials—can candidates for many vocations secure 
 their training in the same courses? 
 
 2. What is an Applied Science? Dr. Snedden has ques¬ 
 tioned the propriety of calling a field of human endeavor “an 
 applied science/’ Medicine, agriculture, engineering, navigation 
 are spoken of as applied sciences. In each of them, however, 
 there are used certain elements taken from several sciences 
 and in combined form applied to the achieving of a given 
 purpose. Medicine draws from physiology, chemistry, bacteri¬ 
 ology, optics, etc. This fusion of elements from several sciences 
 to given fields of human interest gives us such combinations 
 as agricultural chemistry, engineering economics, military 
 geology, surgical pathology, industrial chemistry. If we accept 
 Dr. Snedden’s statement that the term “applied science” 
 applies to that body of data from a science which is applicable 
 to one field of practice, then industrial chemistry, toxicological 
 chemistry and agricultural bacteriology would be applied 
 sciences and medicine and engineering would not be so desig¬ 
 nated. If, on the other hand, we accept Dr. Ruediger’s 
 statement that “an applied science is one that draws its data not 
 from one but from many sources” then medicine, engineering, 
 and religious education are applied sciences even though they 
 draw data from the arts as well as the sciences. Whether or 
 not religious education and the various forms of social service 
 are “applied sciences” they are fields of human endeavor which 
 draw their data from many sciences and from many arts. 
 
 The old professional schools used to compel their pupils to 
 study the pure sciences before they would permit them to enter 
 upon professional studies. The modern and more progressive 
 professional schools ask their pupils to study just so much of 
 the “pure” sciences as they are to use in their practice. Special¬ 
 ists are employed to go into the pure sciences and get out just 
 the parts which are serviceable to practitioners and this is 
 
 12 
 
mastered by the professional student together with useful ex¬ 
 tracts from other pure sciences. Religious education draws its 
 data from biology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, history, 
 religion, sociology and art. Shall we ask our students to pursue 
 all of these courses before they begin to study religious educat¬ 
 ion or shall we go into these courses, extract the elements use¬ 
 ful in the field of religious education, and build them into a 
 new discipline called “the principles of religious education” or 
 some similar title? 
 
 It seems clear that each member of a faculty of such a school, 
 must set himself to the task of building the content of each 
 course of instruction that he teaches. The first step in such an 
 undertaking would be to list the essential facts, principles and 
 processes which should be mastered in that course and then 
 assemble them from all sources in pedagogical arrangement, 
 treatment and sequence. The future of religious education and 
 social science as major academic disciplines will depend upon 
 the success of their advocates in building and standardizing such 
 bodies of knowledge and experience. 
 
 In our study of this problem we will find guidance in the 
 following sources: 
 
 Meriam, Junius L. Child Life and the Curriculum. 
 
 Athearn, W. S. Religious Education and American Democracy, pp. 
 216-228. (Note classified bibliographies on pages 226-228). 
 
 Reudiger, W. C. “Educational Sociology.” School and Society. 
 July 17, 1920. 
 
 Snedden, David, “Educational Sociology Again.” School and 
 Society. Vol. 12, pp. 93, 94, July 31, 1920. 
 
 Mann, Charles R. A Study of Engineering Education. Bulletin 
 No. 11. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of 
 Teaching. 
 
 Learned, William S., Bagley, W. C., et al. The Professional Pre¬ 
 paration of Teachers for American Public Schools. Bulletin 
 No. 14, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of 
 Teaching. 
 
 Nolan, Aretas W. “Project Methods in Teacher-Training and 
 Vocational Agriculture.” Proceedings of National Education 
 Association, 1918, pp. 275 f. 
 
 Averill, L. A. “Child Psychology in the Normal Schools. 
 Education. Vol. 37, No. 8, pp. 373-384, April 1917. 
 
 Holt, Arthur E. “Social Justice and the Present Duty of the 
 Church.” Biblical World. Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 136-139, 
 March 1920. 
 
 Hewitt, Chas. E. “The History of Education in the Normal 
 School.” School and Society. Vol. 9, pp. 491-493, April 26, 
 1919. 
 
 Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern 
 States. Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth Annual Meeting, 
 1919. 
 
 Association of American Lazv Schools. Proceedings of Seven¬ 
 teenth Annual Meeting, 1919. 
 
 National Association of Dental Faculties. Proceedings of the 
 Thirty-sixth Annual Meeting, 1919. 
 
 13 
 
Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education. Proceed¬ 
 ings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting, 1919. 
 
 Braisted, W. C. “The Obligations of Medicine in Relation to 
 General Education.” Journal of the American Medical As¬ 
 sociation. Vol. 74, pp. 1203-15, May 1, 1920. 
 
 Pilcher, Richard B. The Profession of Chemistry. 
 
 Finney, Ross L. “Tentative Report of the Committee of the 
 American Sociological Society on the Teaching of Sociology 
 in the Grade and High Schools of America.” School Review. 
 Vol. 28. No. 4, pp. 255-262, April, 1920. 
 
 Judd, Chas. H. “Report of the Committee on Social Studies in 
 the High School.” School Review. Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 283- 
 297. April, 1920. 
 
 Starch, Daniel. Educational Psychology. 
 
 Goddard, Henry H. Human Efficiency and Levels of Intelligence, 
 
 Seashore, Carl E. The Psychology of Musical Talent. 
 
 d. Correlation of Theory and Practice 
 
 Education vs. Apprenticeship. The doctrine of “learn to 
 do by knowing’’ and the later doctrine of “learn to do by do¬ 
 ing”, have both been tried and found wanting. Instead of set¬ 
 ting theory and practice over against each other the modern 
 tendency in industrial and profession education is to provide for 
 both in such a way that each student is given “a sound, con¬ 
 structive theory upon which to base practice, since no fallacy 
 could be more suicidal than that of imitative practice alone.” 
 (Morehouse, Frances, Jr., in Educational Administration and 
 Supervision. Vol. 4, p. 351.) Modern methods seek to develop 
 theory in the midst of practice. Such schools as this paper is 
 advocating, dealing as they do with practical arts as well as 
 applied science, must produce skillful diagnosticians as well as 
 profound critics and analysts. The ends of such schools can not 
 be realized unless we can develop laboratories, clinics and 
 practice opportunities with such a close relationship to the class 
 room as to make each a vital part of the other. The faculty 
 of such schools must seek to secure facilities for obtaining 
 practical experience under conditions as nearly approximating 
 those of the actual vocations as possible and at the same time 
 so closely related to class-room and laboratory as to give each 
 the reflex influence of the other. The use of the class-room— 
 laboratory-—clinic method makes it necessary for the professor 
 to organize his teaching units out of the knowledge, processes 
 and principles which comprise the actual work of the practition¬ 
 er. It is possible to define a progressive course of this kind 
 for a student so that he will “work through” the church, school, 
 institution, etc. under faculty supervision, thus joining theory 
 and practice in the most intimate and efficient way. 
 
 The institution in which the student gains his standards and 
 ideals for future practice must represent as nearly as possible 
 the most approved method and possess the latest and best equip- 
 
 14 
 
ment, buildings, apparatus, etc. The student’s first observation 
 and practice work must be in a “going concern”, the best to be 
 found, or that can be created, not in a weak under-manned 
 plant. It is not wise to use the students of a training school 
 to bolster up the work of weak mission stations. After students 
 have established their ideals they may be given an “apprentice¬ 
 ship assignment” in a mission station for the purpose of develop¬ 
 ing their ability to initiate new programs, and adapt their me¬ 
 thods to the conditions of an actual, concrete situation. Such 
 assignments should come late in a training course. To ask 
 students to practice in institutions where inferior work is be¬ 
 ing done confirms them in bad habits from which they may 
 never recover. It can not be too strongly affirmed that practice 
 work of students should be done in the midst of the most 
 approved conditions and under expert supervisors. 
 
 Further study of this section will be suggested by the follow¬ 
 ing sources: 
 
 Dewey, John. “The Relation of Theory to Practice in the Educ¬ 
 ation of Teachers.” Third Year Book of the National Society 
 for the Scientific Study of Education. 
 
 Athearn, W. S. “ Religious Education and American Democracy .” 
 (Note bibliography on supervision of Teaching on pages 182- 
 183.) 
 
 Vedder, J. N. “Education vs. Apprenticeship.” Educational Review. 
 Vol. 59, pp. 113-123, Feb. 1920. 
 
 Sprague, H. A. “Coordination of Theory and Practice in Normal 
 Schools.” Proceedings of National Education Association, 
 1918. pp. 212-214. 
 
 Bouser, F. G. “Implications for Education from Experiments in 
 
 Industry.” Teachers College Record. Vol 21, No. 2, pp. 108- 
 110, March, 1920. 
 
 Phillips, Thos. D. “A Study of Note Book and Laboratory Work 
 as an Effective Aid in Science.” School Review. Vol. 28, 
 No. 6, pp. 451-453, June, 1920. 
 
 e. Principles Governing the Organization and Supervision of 
 
 Laboratory and Practice Work 
 
 1. Students should do their practice work in the most 
 
 successful and best equipped institutions available. 
 
 2. Apprentice work under supervision may be permitted in 
 
 mission stations during the student’s senior year. 
 
 3. Each instructor is responsible for the character and 
 
 amount of laboratory, demonstration and practice work 
 which should accompany his courses. 
 
 4. The heads of departments will coordinate the laboratory, 
 
 demonstration and practice work of all courses in their 
 departments. 
 
 5. The Director of Field Work will coordinate the labor¬ 
 
 atory, demonstration and field work of the depart¬ 
 ments. 
 
 15 
 
f. Definitions 
 
 1. The term “laboratory” is applied to an institution, church 
 
 school, or community which is used for demonstration 
 purposes and whose program and policies are to all 
 intents and purposes under the control of the training 
 school. 
 
 2. The term “experimental school” or center is applied to 
 
 institutions so organized as to secure absolute control 
 of conditions in which experimental work is carried 
 on by specialists and in which no practice or other 
 student work is done. 
 
 3. The term “apprenticeship opportunity” is applied to 
 
 positions secured for students in churches or other 
 institutions in which they are permitted to assume full 
 responsibility for a definite piece of work either on a 
 voluntary or a salaried basis. 
 
 4. The term “practice work” is applied to the performance 
 
 of practical service in a conscious effort to acquire 
 skill in terms of given standards. Reports, supervision 
 and measurements must accompany practice work. 
 
 5. The term “demonstration” is applied to any clinic or to 
 
 actual work performed in the presence of, or by the 
 student for the purpose of illustrating a principle or 
 process or to vitalize and concretize facts or truths. 
 
 g. Administrative Organization for the Supervision of Laboratory 
 
 Demonstration and Practice Work 
 
 The two factors involved in this administrative organization 
 are (a) the training staff, and (b) the supervising staff. The 
 supervisor knows the field, the church, community, institution, 
 etc. The professor knows the pupil. The supervisor and the 
 professor must work in perfect harmony if the interests of 
 both field and pupil are conserved. One supervisor closed an 
 address on the subject of co-operation with these words: 
 
 “There is need of co-ordination between the two agencies—the 
 training staff and the supervisory staff. This demands the full¬ 
 est, freest, frankest exchange of view through conference, con¬ 
 ference, conference.” 
 
 It is recommended that the initial organization for the 
 supervision of laboratory, demonstration and practice work be as 
 follows: 
 
 1. Director of Field Work. This officer will be in general 
 
 charge of all field assignments of pupils in cooperation 
 with class teachers and heads of departments. 
 
 2. Assistant Supervisors. The Director of Field Work may 
 
 have such assistance as the work demands and avail¬ 
 able funds can supply. 
 
 16 
 
3. Council on Laboratory and Practice Work. This Council 
 
 shall consist of the heads of all departments, the Dir¬ 
 ector of Field Work, and his assistants, the Dean of 
 Men and the Dean of Women. This Council will form¬ 
 ulate rules and regulations governing the administration 
 of field work not inconsistent with general faculty 
 regulations. 
 
 4. Departmental Conferences. Within each department, 
 
 there will be held frequent conferences for the purpose 
 of regulating and unifying the standards of laboratory 
 and practice work within the department. 
 
 5. A Director of Training in Each Church or Institution 
 
 in Which Training Work is Attempted Experience 
 has shown that four things invariably happen when 
 a training school undertakes to use a church or in¬ 
 stitution as a laboratory or training center. 
 
 a. The local leaders become jealous of their authority. 
 
 b. Local teachers and voluntary workers refuse to work 
 in the presence of the “experts” from the University. 
 
 c. The church resents being used as a practice ground 
 for students and 
 
 d. The burden of expense falls upon the University. 
 
 These difficulties can be overcome if a capable Director of 
 Training is added to the force of the local institution at the 
 expense of the training school. While training the college 
 students he will also train the local leadership. 
 
 The following references are of value in this connection: 
 
 Works, G. A. “The Relation Between Teacher-Training Depart¬ 
 ments Under the Provision of the Smith-Hughes Act and 
 State Supervisors of Agriculture for the State Board for 
 Vocational Education.” Proceedings National Education 
 Association. 1918. pp. 272-275. 
 
 Morrison, Henry C. “The Supervision of High School Teaching.” 
 
 The School Review. Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 13-23, Jan. 1919. 
 Power, Leonard. “A Plea for the Supervision of Instruction by 
 Principles of Elementary Schools.” The Elementary School 
 Journal. Vol. 19, No. 6, pp. 408-418, Feb. 1919. 
 
 Dunn, Fannie W. “The Distinction Between Administration and 
 Supervision.” Journal of Educational Administration and 
 Supervision. Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 159-166, March, 1920. 
 Athearn, W. S. “ Religious Education and American Democracy .” 
 pp. 182-183. 
 
 The Relationship of Graduate and Undergraduate Training Schools to 
 Churches, Institutions, Denominational and Interdenominational Boards 
 Which Employ its Graduates. 
 
 The output from training schools goes into churches, in¬ 
 stitutions, communities, or into the service of denominational 
 and interdenominational boards or associations. There is need 
 for these schools and these agencies and institutions to est- 
 lish cooperative relationships. Only as the school understands 
 the tasks its pupils are to do can it fully meet the needs of 
 the field it seeks to serve. 
 
 17 
 
During recent months, education and industry have been 
 seeking methods of cooperation in the training of recruits for 
 the great industrial organizations. The leading industries have 
 formed a Council of Management Education which seeks to 
 cooperate with the American Council of Education in the 
 development of an educational program which will enable the 
 industries to get from the colleges the type of practical training 
 which modern conditions demand. It was recognized both by 
 the industries and by the colleges that the formation of speci¬ 
 fications as to processes, types of work or “jobs” and numbers 
 of men needed were the prime responsibility of industry. When 
 these data were determined the technical process by which the 
 college produced these “types”, “qualities,” etc. was the prime 
 responsibility of the colleges. 
 
 It is clear that some such relation should be established 
 between the training schools and the employing agencies. The 
 Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Method¬ 
 ist Episcopal Church, for example, could be served much more 
 efficiently if training schools were to receive from it explicit 
 specifications as to types of service, numbers needed, qualities 
 required for successful practice in specified positions, etc., etc. 
 With these data in hand these faculties could employ whatever 
 technical processes might be required to produce these results 
 with the greatest economy of time and money. The Board of 
 Home Missions and Church Extension would judge the pro¬ 
 cesses by the efficiency of the service rendered by the graduates. 
 Employing Boards are not concerned with the technique of 
 training; they are concerned with the results of training. Train¬ 
 ing schools must be concerned with both. They should seek 
 counsel and advice from such Boards and Agencies that they 
 may be mutually helpful. 
 
 The following references will show present tendencies in 
 this field: 
 
 Godfrey, Hollis. “Cooperation Between Industry and the Colleges.” 
 Educational Review. Vol. 60, No. 1, pp. 42-51, June 1920. 
 
 Morris, J. V. L. “Separateness of Vocational Education in 
 Manufacture.” Journal of Educational Administration and 
 Supervision. Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 159-166. March, 1920. 
 
 Nichols, Henry W. “Opportunities Open to the Textile Schools.” 
 Educational Review. Vol. 59, No. 4, pp. 332-341, April, 1920. 
 
 h. Present Needs 
 
 Our present crisis in leadership training consists in three 
 vital elements. 
 
 1. We have few trained technicians in the field of church 
 
 work. Our graduate schools have not been prophetic 
 and we are not prepared with scientific experts. 
 
 2. Text books and manuals of training are not at hand. 
 
 They must be created by men already overburdened 
 with administrative and supervisory responsibilities. 
 
 18 
 
3. Laboratories and laboratory technique are almost un¬ 
 known. These constitute the most difficult problems 
 which confront those who are seriously facing the 
 training problems in our institutions to-day. 
 
 Our needs are money for laboratories and enlarged faculties, 
 and time to solve these new problems of the training schools of 
 the future. 
 
 i. The Wider Outlook 
 
 In the building of a program for the training schools of the 
 future and in the creating of policies and ideals for which the 
 various departments of these schools will stand, the faculty will 
 be tempted to cater to superficial, immediate and popular 
 demands. There are great national and international move¬ 
 ments reflecting world-wide conditions. There are fundamental 
 laws that condition social and economic movements. There are 
 profound philosophies which speak in terms of universals. The 
 policies of these schools must be formed in the light of these 
 more fundamental and more universal considerations. The 
 faculty should be students of men and events. Local, minor, 
 personal, ephemeral interests must be interpreted in terms of 
 the wider outlook and of the deeper insight. This paragraph 
 calls for a faculty of educational philosophers and statesmen 
 who seek to find what ought to be, rather than shrewd politic¬ 
 ians who keep their ears to the ground in a vain endeavor to 
 find out what will win temporary applause from the people. 
 
 III. Community Training Schools for Parish Workers 
 
 With technical schools turning out professional leaders, and 
 Church colleges sending their annual crop of trained lay leaders 
 into the voluntary service of the local churches, there will still 
 be a need for community cooperation in the training of leaders 
 for the local parish. Community training schools have been 
 in successful operation for the past ten years. They offer a 
 method of federating the training facilities of all churches of a 
 community and placing the combined resources of all at the 
 service of each. In the past these schools have been limited 
 largely to the training of Sunday-school teachers. There is no 
 good reason why their service should not be extended to include 
 other types of church workers. 
 
 For further study see Athearn, W. S. “The City Institute for 
 Religious Teachers” and Educational Bulletins 1918, Nos. 5, 6, 7, 
 8, International Sunday-school Association. 
 
 IV. Training Programs in the Local Church 
 
 1. Regardless of the facilities which may exist in the com¬ 
 munity or in the denomination for the training of leaders, every 
 local church will find need for a training system of its own. To 
 increase the efficiency of the working force “green hands” 
 
 19 
 
must be broken in and present workers must be given additional 
 training. Every progressive organization must therefore have 
 a training system. Every training system requires a trainer or 
 a director of training. This training system must do these 
 things: 
 
 a Secure the right people for training by some suitable 
 method of selection. 
 
 b Hold the learner through the training process. 
 
 c Establish standards and judge the training by these 
 standards. The training system should cover the whole 
 plant, janitors, ushers, parish visitors, teachers, club 
 leaders—all can be improved by training. 
 
 2. Training is a job for a specialist. In setting apart a 
 member of the staff for this special service four qualities should 
 be kept in mind: 
 
 a A good workman—a person not good enough to do a 
 job is not good enough to be an instructor. An ex¬ 
 perienced church worker, all else being equal, will make 
 the best trainer. A second class worker can not 
 produce first class workers. 
 
 b A good general education. The broader the general 
 culture the more likely the leader is to command the 
 confidence of capable students. 
 
 c Age—not too old to grow. 
 
 d Professional skill. An efficient teacher must be able to 
 analyze the tasks to be done, and to arrange these 
 tasks in proper sequence for easy mastery by the stud¬ 
 ent. This requires pedagogical skill. 
 
 3. When the Director of Training has been selected he 
 should be set free to develop the workers independent of the 
 regular routine of the church. Once set free for his task the 
 Director of Training would probably proceed somewhat as 
 follows: 
 
 a Make a list of all the things to be done in connection 
 with the institution. This would be a list of jobs. 
 
 b Make a parallel list of people who are now working at 
 these jobs. 
 
 c Check the names of the persons who are doing the work 
 most efficiently, most economically, most happily. 
 
 d Classify the tasks of the church in the order of greatest 
 need of improvement. 
 
 e Begin with the weakest spot in the church; make a job 
 analysis of this task. Find exactly what elements enter 
 into this job. List the facts that should be knowm by 
 those who are to do this job; list the acts that enter 
 into the doing of this job, and the personal qualities 
 required for the successful discharge of this particular 
 function. 
 
 20 
 
f Having listed the information, the acts of skill, and the 
 personal qualities necessary to success, the trainer est¬ 
 ablishes certain standards for this service. He then 
 selects from the personnel of the church those people 
 having the personal qualities required for this work, 
 and gives them the facts or information and drills them 
 in the required acts of skill until they meet the stand¬ 
 ards established. At the heart of each group he will 
 place the persons who already do this work better than 
 any other persons in the church. This plan capitalizes 
 the best talents and uses them as models for those who 
 are learning. If the director of training has begun 
 with the ushers he will give this group intensive train¬ 
 ing until they have reached the required degree of 
 efficiency. He will then go to the parish visitors both 
 paid and voluntary. The task will be studied in the 
 same way and instruction and drill will be continued 
 until a stated standard has been reached. The process 
 will be continued from task to task through the church. 
 This Director of Training will have for his special task 
 the improvement of the staff. He will study the best 
 processes, cooperate with the heads of departments and 
 other specialists who may be employed in the regular 
 work of the church. Other workers will be responsible 
 for the regular routine of the church work, he will 
 be responsible for the numbers and quality of the 
 workers. For additional study of this topic see: 
 
 Tead and Metcalf, “Personnel Administration.” 
 
 Allen, Charles R. “The Instructor. The Man and the Job.” 
 
 Galbreth, F. B. and L. E. “Applied Motion Study.” 
 
 Galbreth, F. B. and L. E. “Fatigue Study.” 
 
 Galbreth, F. B. “Motion Study.” 
 
 Tead, Ordway and R. B. Gregg. “Outline of Job Analysis.” 
 
 V. Summary 
 
 The thesis of this paper is that the training of the staff of 
 a church or religious institution is a task for a specialist. The 
 method and special technique of this specialist will be developed 
 in the laboratories of the graduate schools where specialists will 
 be trained for technical service. The Church college is the 
 logical training ground for the rank and file of the voluntary 
 workers in the local church and community and the recruiting 
 station for professional leadership. The most statesmanlike 
 method of providing a trained staff for the local church is to 
 provide adequate resources at once for laboratories and super¬ 
 visory staffs at graduate centers, and to insist on the develop¬ 
 ment of vocational courses in religion and social service in 
 all Church colleges. 
 
 21 
 
The Council of Cities of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 is composed of the Corresponding Secretary, and the Superin¬ 
 tendent of the Department of City Work, of the Board of Home 
 Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, and the Executive Secretary and two delegates from 
 each duly organized City Society. It meets annually for the 
 purpose of conference and discussion of the problems met in 
 ministering in an adequate manner the Gospel of Jesus Christ 
 to that part of city communities where the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church has undertaken to interpret Jesus Christ and to plan 
 how Methodism may meet the religious and social needs of the 
 folks of many tongues who make up our urban population. 
 
 “Training of Specialized Staff Leadership’’ was delivered at 
 the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Council at Buffalo, New 
 York. 
 
Boston University School of 
 Religious Education and 
 Social Service 
 
 A Vocational School for Religious Leaders 
 Located in the Heart of Historic Boston 
 
 * 8 ? 
 
 Courses of Instruction 
 
 Undergraduate and Graduate Courses leading to 
 the following degrees: 
 
 Bachelor of Religious Education 
 Bachelor of Social Science 
 Master of Arts 
 Master of Social Science 
 Master of Religious Education 
 Doctor of Philosophy 
 
 Fields of Service 
 
 This School prepares students especially for the 
 following fields of service: 
 
 Religious Education 
 Americanization 
 Social Engineering 
 Home Missions 
 Foreign Missions 
 
 General Church Work 
 
 (Including Deaconess and Secretarial Work) 
 
 Rural Church Work 
 
 The Fine Arts in Religion 
 
 * 8 ? 
 
 Send for Illustrated Catalogue giving description of Courses and 
 
 other information. Address: 
 
 DR. ARTHUR E. BENNETT, Executive Secretary 
 607 Boylston Street Boston, Massachusetts 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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