MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD DOROTHEA PAY MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD BY DOROTHEA DAY NEW YORK STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT Copyright, 1909, by Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 1 I -THE LEADER’S IDEAL N the strenuous life of to-day aimless work is an anachronism. And however much we may decry the utilitarian spirit that asks at every turn, “Of what use is it?” yet the spirit is of unquestioned value if it makes one unwilling to start upon an enterprise the end and aim of which is wrapped in obscurity. Furthermore, though this spirit may be trying in its seeming commercialism, yet, strange as it may appear, it may in truth actually produce ideals—definite conceptions of the “whither” and “how” of an undertaking. If, therefore, this disposition inclines the mis¬ sion study class leader to seek, at the outset, a clearly con¬ ceived purpose and ideal, it is well; for a worker without aim or ideal is doomed to failure. It is not unlikely that, as he considers this matter, the memory of a class he once attended may for a moment fill his mind, a class in which the leader eulogized the missionary, or, with eye upon the text-book, asked desultory questions, the answers to which the members who were not dreaming sought for in vain in the unfamiliar material of “the lesson for the day.” It is to be hoped that he will turn from such recollections 1 An outline of this pamphlet is given in “Hints on Mission Study Class Methods.” 2 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD with genuine dissatisfaction, and determine with vigor that he will never be false to his office of leader and that, fleeing the temptation to merely lecture to the class, he will lead the mem¬ bers into independent study and thought. 1. So the first point of his ideal is settled. Co-opera¬ tion must be the rule. They must study before the class hour and think during the session. Pouring information into empty minds, however receptive they may be, is not leading at all, for it produces no mental activity on the part of the recipient. And, furthermore, a method which fails to arouse independent thinking may be positively harmful in its benumbing influence. 2. Yet though he thus determines to firmly request, not to say exact, some work from the class, he must clearly foresee that, unguided, they will in all probability waste their time. There is much in any text-book that a class need never learn, and there must be discrimination and judgment on the part of the leader if he is to direct them into advantageous effort. They will probably recount glibly the pathetic tale on page 50, but ignore the crucial facts on page 5 1 ; or some mathematical soul will recite a paragraph of unimportant statistics, yet be dumb and unintelligent as regards the salient features of a given situ¬ ation. The leader must train the class to recognize what is worth learning. 3. And then, the essential, once determined, must be learned; there must be acquisition of knowledge. It should not be possible for the members to go from the class session to meet the skeptic’s question: “Well, did you learn anything to-day?” with such an answer as, “Oh, yes; many things—about the re- MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 3 ligion of China; it is quite different from ours and very strange.'* Such a reply reflects great discredit upon any leader, for at the end of each class hour some facts ought to be further than the “fringe" of consciousness, ought to be on the lips as well as in the minds of the members of the class. If a leader is to lead others to think, he must see that they have material for thought, facts. A medley of indefinite and incoherent impressions is not a thought-producing state of mind, but, given a few clear facts, thought will follow. 4. Furthermore, in the process of thought there must be mental assimilation. Acquisition is the necessary preparation for intelligent consideration on the part of the members of the class. They must be possessed of facts and must then use these facts in their thinking to form sensible opinions of their own. Facts used in reaching conclusions will have been men¬ tally digested, and will be remembered with the conclusions. For instance, when once a class has discussed whether or not the belief in Nirvana be an inspiring belief, those who took part in the discussion will probably retain a comparatively clear conception of the meaning of that doctrine. 5. But there is one more point to be considered. Suppose the members of the class learn and ponder; perchance they be¬ come truly intelligent on the subject of the course, has the leader arrived whither he set out? Not unless there has been personal application of knowledge to life; for it is not mere intelligence or interest, but a devoted zeal for missions on the part of the individual that must be the ultimate aim of a leader. To the accomplishment of this end no 4 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD pedagogy or mental gymnastics will suffice; only faithful prayer and effort, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, can enable a leader to lead others to discover the parts God has for them in His service. Before such an ideal a leader may well pause, not in faithless paralysis, but in trustful prayer for its realization through the power of the Holy Spirit. MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 5 II—THE LEADER’S PREPARATION The preparation of the leader for the class session must have its beginning in prayer. He must be wary of the temp¬ tation of asking God’s blessing on plans already made rather than first ascertaining God’s plans and making these his own. It is only when the leader’s intellectual powers, being God- given, are given back to God for direction that he can afford to make his plans. With firm trust in God for a clear mind and true percep¬ tions, the leader should next read the chapter through care¬ fully, noting its general aims. He should read attentively and thoughtfully, yet not too slowly, the purpose being to get an impression of the chapter, as a whole, its general substance and aim. It may be well to jot down, in reading, the various topics treated, in order the more readily to think back over the con¬ tents of the chapter. The wise leader will not dash along now into further reading and the construction of plans—he will lay the book down and thinly; for fifteen minutes of genuine thinking will usually advance him further in his preparation than two hours of impetuous, aimless reading. His thought should concern itself with these three questions: “What are the strong points of that chapter?’’ “What are the tastes and the powers of those persons in my class?’’ “How can I best present those points to those persons?’’ Very likely he will see that certain topics in that chapter are more appropriate than others for the individuals in his class, and he must be governed in all his planning by those he is to lead. The leader’s starting point is 6 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD not the material, but the class, for he is not to teach that lesson to those persons, so much as to lead those persons to think on that lesson. Hence he must select for emphasis and treatment those points which, through his knowledge of the members of his class, he believes will be for them especially interesting and thought-producing. Thus, for mature students who have studied more or less philosophy, the doctrinal or philosophical aspect of a religion will probably prove a more congenial and stimulating topic than a consideration of the practical fruits of that religion, a subject more suitable for treatment in a less advanced class. Again, the freshman novice in mission study will enjoy a discussion of strange customs, while the senior expert, to whom these customs are an old story, may prefer a contemplation of sociological problems. The class, its nature and ability, must therefore greatly influence the leader’s plans. When thorough, careful thought has led him to see how he will treat the chapter, then, and not until then, is it time to prepare his assignment of the lesson and his special references for reports. With these made he is ready to give out the lesson to the class; and as this must be done a week in advance, it is obvious that this much of the leader’s preparation must be done more than one week previous to the lesson. The rest of his work may be done during the week preceding the class hour. The next step should be downright study, according to the assignment he has made. He should study until he has mastered the subject-matter of the chapter and is so inde¬ pendent of the text-book that he would not be in dire distress if he should forget the book when he goes to the class. This study should also include outside reading on obscure points MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 7 and the collection of fuller information on the points to be em¬ phasized. A little reading will count for much if it bears directly upon the lesson, while the mere feat of reading one book a week, bearing upon the course as a whole, will not necessarily qualify the leader much more to present a given chapter to his class. The weekly reading must be related to the subjects under consideration at the time; it is useless and foolish to read pages 20-50 of some book the week it would avail to read pages 100-120, just because pages 20-50 come first in the book. The importance of economy of time should constrain a leader to make all his reading count for the next lesson. This will be accomplished if it is done topically, ac¬ cording to the assignment, with the central aim of the lesson ever in view. And, as he studies and reads, he should prepare compre¬ hensive notes for the class hour; an outline of the topics to be considered, in their best order; questions; the introduction of the reports; in short, an exact program for the entire session. He may be master of the subject, but he should not trust to that mastery for inspiration on the spur of the moment, but should prepare his notes in such detail that he will not lose a moment in confusion or hesitation. His notes should be such as will enable him to guide the class through the lesson in an orderly, thorough and coherent manner. Finally, upon the plans made—God’s plans worked out through his human intelligence—he should pray for the bless¬ ing of the Holy Spirit, that the session may be for the class an hour of enlightenment and inspiration, and in an attitude of prayer should go up to the class session. 8 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD III—LESSON-ASSIGNMENTS Possibly there may be some persons who do not perceive the value of any other form of lesson assignment than the old- fashioned “the next chapter for the next time.” For the en¬ lightenment of such let it be said that the raison d'etre of the lesson assignment is the simple fact that people are apt to see what they expect to see. Experience shows that, without the assignment as a pilot through the study of a lesson, discrimina¬ tion and useful acquisition can scarcely be expected. Essential Features There are four features of a good assignment which are essential. 1. The assignment should show the connection between the lesson assigned and the preceding one. Every course of study is, in a sense, a unit and the student should be led to see the logical, inherent connection between the material already considered and the new material before him. To illustrate: in passing from the study of the physical features of a country to a study of the people of that land the probable effect of that environment upon the race and its development should be wisely hinted, and the interest aroused in the people should, in turn, become the basis of a sympathetic consideration of their religion. 2. The assignment should emphasize the aim of the lesson and the main points to be studied. Such aim and topics will, of course, be determined by the leader’s careful MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 9 thought concerning the tastes and powers of his class. To lead the class members to discriminate, he must show them where to omit, where to skim and where to study; he must give exact references and directions. This plan may appear to some almost puerile; but it has often been found that minute, detailed directions are necessary for profitable study. “Omit that page of statistics, read rapidly those paragraphs on historical facts, but study carefully those pages on present conditions”—some such preview of the lesson should set the class to work on the right track. 3. The assignment should arouse curiosity; it should put questions and propound problems. The questions should frequently be hypothetical, presupposing a knowledge of the material to be studied, thus stimulating one to a search for facts for the hypothesis. For instance, the question, “If you believed in Karma would you strive to attain your ideals?” which can¬ not be even pondered until one has ascertained what Karma is, might well be given to a class to induce study and thought concerning that Buddhist doctrine. The question, “What is the difference between ancestor worship and our custom of decorating the graves of the dead?” is a question of the same nature, requiring for its consideration some familiarity with the meaning of ancestor worship. The problems presented must likewise be such as require for solution the information given in the lesson to be studied, thus proving an allurement to the study of the lesson. 4. Every assignment should be followed, at the next session, in the treatment of the lesson. If a leader asks a 10 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD class to study according to a special plan, he is in duty bound so to conduct the class hour that the members of the class will feel the benefit of that prescribed study. To diverge widely in the session from the line of thought indicated in the assign¬ ment is to discourage the student from following an assign¬ ment the next time. If the leader does not honor his own as¬ signment, certainly the class will not. Faults There are several faults frequently found in poor assign¬ ments against which the leader should guard. 1. He should avoid being too general. Such vague directions as, “Study the next chapter, learn the main points, watch for interesting facts, form an opinion on the subjects treated,” do not constitute an assignment. 2. He must avoid being too specific. He is to sug¬ gest topics, but should not give an outline of the lesson sub¬ stance. In studying missionary biography the topic, “The call; how it came,” is suggestive and stimulating; but stated thus, “How the call came from reading the life of Living¬ stone”—it is valueless as an incentive to study, for the ques¬ tion is answered. 3. He should not attempt to cover every point in the lesson. He must discriminate, assigning only sections and topics which he believes will be of value to the class. 4. He must never forget to work from the standpoint of the class. As he prepares the assignment he must prayerfully and sympathetically think of those he is leading. MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 1 I Practical Directions In regard to the actual preparation of assignments a few practical directions may be given. 1. The leader should read the chapter rapidly, to get a general view of it. 2. He should read it again, carefully noting the aim, the important points, making an outline, studying its natural divisions. 3. He should thoughtfully determine the topics to be emphasized. In choosing these he will, as has been said, be governed by his knowledge of the class. He should think of the different members individually, and should seek to intro- duce into the assignment some topics or questions that will prove stimulating to certain definite persons whom he wishes to reach. The topics chosen must also be clearly related to the aim of the session and must be logically arranged for the development of that aim. 4. He should carefully prepare questions of the kind suggested above, which will involve the points he wishes to bring out, and these questions he should combine with a brief topical lesson outline as a final assignment. Such an assignment, prayerfully and carefully made, can¬ not fail to help the class members to study, to think, and, by guiding them wisely in preparation, to bring them to the class hour ready to contribute as well as to receive. 12 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD IV—QUESTIONS (For a valuable treatment of this subject, the reader is referred to an article by Dr. Sailer in The Inter collegian, January, 1906, entitled “The Framing and Putting of Questions.”) In considering the subject of questioning one is at the heart of mission study class method, for the recitation method and the lecture method have, in the field of mission study, given place almost entirely to the plan of conducting the class session as a time for discussion aroused and carried on by questions. It is a method which demands, on the part of the leader, more thought and careful preparation than either of the other two; for, on the whole, it is far more easy to listen to others recite or to declare one’s own knowledge than to set minds to think¬ ing, and so to guide discussion that it will result in the pro¬ duction of certain definite impressions on the minds of those who have taken part. Yet this is the aim of the question method. To the uninitiated onlooker it may appear a discon¬ nected, desultory way of treating the subject; but that is be¬ cause its art is so great as to be concealed. A question put apparently with a casual, spontaneous, it-just-occurred-to-me air may be, in reality, the result of hours of thought and study, wherein is to be found the explanation of the wonderfully stimulating effect the question has upon the class. It is, therefore, of primary importance that the mission study leader should see clearly, first , his ideals in the matter of questioning; that is, what kind of questions he should ask; second, faults to be avoided; and third , how to proceed to make his questions. MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 13 In connection with the first of these topics there is, in the article above referred to, a very clear setting forth of the characteristics of good questions. This aspect of the subject will not, therefore, be discussed here. Three Classes of Questions The author, however, after explaining the nature of good questions, proceeds to make a division of questions into three classes. These are “testing” questions, “development” questions, and “impressive” questions. Now it is of vital importance that these three classes of questions and their uses should be clearly distinguished. A “testing” question is one which tests one’s knowledge of definite facts. It can have but one right answer, as: “What is the population of China?” “When did Carey begin his work in India?” A “development” question is one which suggests a certain line of thought, propounds some problem, or demands the ex¬ pression of individual opinion in regard to certain facts assumed to be known; it probably can have no definite, final answer, as: “How far has the Chinese conception of the five grades of so¬ ciety an economic basis?” “Which, according to your mind, lives more consistently with his religion, the American Christian or the African pagan?” An “impressive” question is one which gathers up the lines of previous discussion and focuses attention on the con¬ clusion the discussion should lead to. It can usually have a definite answer, though the substance of the answer may vary 14 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD according to the different conclusions reached by different per¬ sons from the discussion, as: “In view of the present advance of Mohammedanism in Africa, how would you suggest that the Church meet the emergency in that field?” In general, it may be said that the “testing” question should be used only in the class hour; the “development” ques¬ tion in assignments and class-hour discussion, and the “impres¬ sive” question in review work and in summing-up discussion in the class session. Faulty Questions Though the ability to make useful, stimulating questions can come only with practice, certain kinds of poor questions can easily be avoided. 1. A careful leader need never make unintelligible ques¬ tions which center attention on their own complexity rather than on the subject they concern, as: “In the intermingling of the two native faiths of the Celestial Empire and its alien faith which might predominate and supplement the other two?” The subject of Buddhism’s fate in China is with difficulty discerned in this confusion of words. 2. Nor need any leader waste time asking questions whose answers are comparatively valueless, as: “By what ship did Morrison reach China?” “How many books did Confucius write?” 3. Questions that can be answered by “yes” or “no,” and do not, therefore, produce any discussion, can also be MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 15 avoided. A class should not be given the chance to settle back on a monosyllabic answer. 4. Perhaps the fault hardest to escape, however, is that found in questions which require for their answers knowl¬ edge and ability beyond that which the class has. It is such a temptation to use a question that sounds well, regardless of its value to the class! Yet it would be folly to ask a class of freshmen “to state the doctrine of Nirvana in terms of modern psychology,’’ or “to discuss the economic origin of the caste system.” It must never be forgotten that the worth of every question must be tested by the standard of its ability to stimu¬ late thought and produce discussion in the particular class for which it is designed. In preparing questions for class use the leader should pro¬ ceed as follows: He should first think of the class and the points in the lesson that are likely to appeal particularly to its members. These special points to be emphasized are the bases for his questions. He thus begins with his answer and makes the question to fit it; that is, he prepares a question the answer to which will bring out or involve the point he wishes to empha¬ size. For instance, he desires to lay stress on the fact that the Hindus, like ourselves, are Aryans, and accordingly prepares the question: “Among which of the races of India would you probably feel more at home, and why?” Clearly, his point will be brought out in the answer. Having made several such questions for use in assign¬ ments and class discussion, the leader should prepare himself to use them by considering the possible sub-questions involved 16 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD in each. He should be ready to split his question into many smaller ones, if the class need to be thus coaxed to express itself; for, unless he does this, he will probably, in desperation at their silence, weakly succumb and tell them his answer, and the pur¬ pose of the question—to arouse thought—will be unattained. It may be necessary to ask, “What are the races of India?” “To what race of mankind do we belong?” “Whence came the early inhabitants of Europe?” and other questions in order to extract from the class the statement that a common Aryan inheritance should make us especially sympathetic with the Hindu; but one such question, properly used and answered by the class, is worth more than a dozen answered by the leader, for the simple reason that only that information is likely to be retained which has involved mental activity in its ac¬ quisition. MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 17 V-REVIEWS The value of the review is based on two pedagogical principles. The first of these is the fact that a person is able lo express that which he really knows, and that, therefore, the only test of a teacher’s work is the ability of the class to give back the information he has helped them to acquire; and the second is the rule of proceeding from the known to the unknown, according to which the review of one lesson should be the starting point of the next. Essential Features A good review must have four characteristics: 1. It must follow the line of previous study and dis¬ cussion. New material should never be introduced. A review is a seeing-the-thing-again, not a seeing something else, or some¬ thing extra. It is simply a glance back over ground already covered. 2. It must touch upon only the main points of the material under review. All details and matters of secondary importance should be omitted. The review is not a hurried reproduction of the former lesson, and unless it distinguishes clearly between major and minor points it will inevitably be as wearisome as the recital of events by a victim of the psychologi¬ cal habit of total recall. 3. It should test both the actual knowledge of the subject and the intelligent understanding of it by the student. The review should reveal to the leader whether the class have 18 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD retained in memory the salient facts of the lesson, and also whether these facts were assimilated mentally; whether a cor¬ rect, definite and valuable impression was thoroughly made in the previous class session. 4. It should be brief—about ten minutes in a session of an hour. Brief and brisk are the adjectives to be ap¬ plied to a review. A lengthy and desultory repetition of former discussions is not worthy the name of a review, and is usually a soporific, rather than a stimulating introduction to the lesson of the day. Cautions To the leader anxious to avoid a disastrous beginning of the class session, a few cautions in regard to the review may be given. 1. Do not omit it, or treat it as a bore. Perhaps leaders would be less prone to regard the review as a burden did they realize that a dogged use of it, or its omission alto¬ gether, simply casts reflection on their leadership, since difficulty with the review usually arises from the impressions of the last session being so vague and meagre as to make a review almost impossible. 2. Do not attempt to cover all the ground of the last class hour. To do so is a temptation, because, when the points of the previous lesson have been chosen with great care on the leader’s part, they all seem to him of great and equal importance, and for his own satisfaction he would like to make sure that the class has grasped them all. He must always MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 19 remember that the true review is not a reproduction on a small scale of the previous session. 3. Do not adapt it to the person who missed the last lesson. A leader is sorely tempted to do this when he sees the uninterested expression of those to whom the review is unintelligible. If, however, for the sake of gaining their at¬ tention, he says to such, “Last week, you see, we talked about so-and-so,” he will almost certainly lose the attention of those who, having been present, have heard the full discussion of the lesson and are not eager to hear a summary of stale news given to their less faithful classmates. To adapt the review to the former absentee is to make it worthless to those who were present, for a good review tests the knowledge of the class by questions based on facts assumed to have been learned in the preceding lesson. Furthermore, the giving of a summary of the previous lesson each week makes absence less objectionable, for a class session missed seems no great loss if the leader gives the gist of the last lesson each time before proceeding further. It is better that the absentees should suffer for their absence, and, during the review, should be filled with regret over their irre¬ parable loss and their consequent ignorance of the matter in hand. 4. Do not be lazy and mechanical, using exactly the same questions asked before. The interest and value of a question are gone when it has provoked all the discussion it can provoke. And its use at second-hand results only in the repe¬ tition of previous discussion and is stale, flat and unprofitable. 20 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD Practical Hints In the preparation of a review the leader should observe certain important points. 1. Determine carefully the facts of the last lesson that should have been ineffaceably impressed on the minds of the class, and prepare a few testing questions to cover these. Such facts as the population of a country, the proportionate following of various religions, the approximate date of mis¬ sionary beginnings, the strength of the present forces in the field are facts that the class should glibly give back to a leader in the review. 2. Think over the points which most interested the class and were most emphasized in the last lesson and having recon¬ sidered the discussion of the previous sessions, determine the points to be reviewed accordingly. 3. Make new, impressive questions to cover these points. For instance, if, one week, as a result of the question, “In what section of Africa would you prefer to live, and why?” the great differences in the geographic divisions of the continent have been made clear, he may, the next week, use in the review the question, “Why will the question of the influence of environment be likely to be of special interest in the study of the races of Africa?” Or, if the question, “In what respect is the Mohammedan idea of God superior to the Hindu conception of deity?” has emphasized to the class the monotheism of Mohammedanism, then this fact could be brought out in review by the question, “To which could you most easily explain the Christian idea of God, a Hindu or a MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 21 Mohammedan, and why?” Thus fresh questions presenting old points from new angles should be made for the review. 4. He must decide upon the transition to be made from the review to the lesson of the day, for the review is re¬ lated to the future as truly as to the past. One reviews the doctrines of a religion that he may better understand the mis¬ sionary problems; he reviews the missionary problems that he may better judge of the adequacy of missionary methods. So each lesson should be linked to its predecessor and to its suc¬ cessor; and the review, rightly used, is the means whereby the unity of the whole course is preserved. 22 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD VI—REPORTS Although the report has established itself as an integral part of the mission study class session, yet it is frequently so misused as to make the results of its use very unsatisfactory. Essential Features 1. Reports should have a definite aim, and should bear directly upon some point in the lesson. For example, in the study of a country there may be reports dealing definitely with such sub-topics as the healthfulness of the climate or the trade relations of the country. 2. Reports should be general, net detailed, and should amplify, supplement and illustrate the lesson. A report may amplify the statements of the text-book in regard to an¬ cestor-worship by a fuller explanation of its significance; it may supplement the meagre historical data given in the text¬ book by a brief sketch of the country’s history; it may illus¬ trate the working of the caste system by stories of specific cases. 3. Reports should be logical in arrangement, and at the end should give a summary of the conclusions reached and their bearing upon the lesson. This is of the utmost im¬ portance if the class is to receive a clear and valuable impres¬ sion from the one reading of the report. The person making the report is responsible not merely for collecting information, but also for arranging it for presentation to the class. With his hearers in mind, he must group his thoughts in a clear, logical order and prepare, as a climax, a concise statement MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 23 of the conclusions he has reached, in order that there may be left on the hearers’ minds the exact impression he wished to convey to them. 4. Reports should be brief, and should be read or spoken clearly and intelligently. A brisk, three-minute re¬ port is much more impressive than a ten-minute dissertation; and only when the topic is one of special interest, and the per¬ son giving the report an expert, should it be longer than five minutes. All of these features of a successful report should be carefully impressed by the leader upon those to whom such assignments have been given. Cautions The disastrous mistakes made in report work are not hard to discover, and some definite warnings may be given. 1. Never have reports simply because it is the custom to have them. The report is not essential to good class- work. To have reports simply for convention’s sake is folly; for a class may do excellent work with the text-book alone if, through discussion, its members thoroughly assimilate the mate¬ rial therein given. 2. Never introduce a report before there has been created a need for it, or, rather, until there has been aroused a consciousness of that need in the minds of the class. This matter of the proper method of introducing reports is of crucial importance. If the leader, with the desire to make sure of including them all, calls for the reports at the beginning of the 24 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD session, the class members frequently do not really turn their attention to the lesson until the reports are over; and the con¬ tents of the reports have, of course, fallen on deaf ears. If, on the other hand, he waits until the end of the hour to intro¬ duce them, he may have to cut short the discussion which is desirable in the light of the interest that may have been aroused; and the class will probably settle back, done with the lesson for the day, their attention dissipated, and the hour will close with a wearisome reading of undesired information. Both these methods are wholly bad. When the class has not yet considered together the religion of a country, for instance, they will scarcely be interested in a comparison of that religion with Christianity; neither is it enlivening to have a comparatively interesting discussion of the opportunities of medical work stopped for the giving of a report on educational work. In both cases the report is isolated, unrelated to the lesson and almost certainly burdensome. The leader should introduce the report at the one point in the lesson where it logically belongs after he has, through wise questioning, led the class to feel their need of the very material that the report contains. When the train of thought is thus kept un¬ broken, the introduction of a report is not the occasion of a mental jar and consequent lapse of interest, but altogether the reverse. 3. Never allow a report to run overtime or to continue a moment if it cannot be heard. If a member is sure he will really be limited to five minutes he will make a much more careful preparation of his report than he will if he knows he may MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD 25 ramble on indefinitely. On the other hand, a class will usually give close attention to a person speaking under a time limit. Furthermore, feeble or unintelligible reading is such a waste of lime and such a dispiriting influence that it should never be permitted. 4. Do not leave the one who is to give the report to his own devices, but indicate to him the thought to be brought out. Many a report painstakingly prepared is valueless in the class hour because the leader did not give specific enough direc¬ tions in his assignment of the report. It misses the point, be¬ cause the one who prepared it never knew what point he was expected to emphasize. Practical Hints The preparation of report assignments is a most impor¬ tant part of the leader’s work and certain considerations should always be kept in mind. 1. He should determine the topics of special interest, or any obscure points in the lesson, on which reports would be of value. As always in planning for the class session, he must be guided in his choice of subjects for reports by his knowl¬ edge of the tastes of his class. 2. He should find references where the desired material may be found, and note the gist of it for his own reference. 3. He should hand a statement to the person who takes the report, indicating the main point to be brought out, the exact references, the time allowed, etc. This involves, of course, at least a superficial knowledge on the leader’s part of 26 MISSION STUDY CLASS METHOD the contents of each report, which will enable him to fill in the breach if the one who takes the report is absent, has to be cut short for time, or gives the report unsatisfactorily. 4. He should decide how the report shall be intro¬ duced and make a note of this in his outline for the conduct of the class hour at the point where it should naturally be intro¬ duced. For instance, if he wishes to introduce a report on the Swadeshi movement in India, he may decide to ask the ques¬ tion: “How far can you sympathize with the cry, ‘India for the Indians’?” with the idea of calling for the report when he has guided the discussion to a point where the appeal of the National party of India is clearly felt by the class. Such preparation of the minds of the class for the report will insure for it a hearty welcome and an attentive hearing. Copies of this pamphlet may be ordered from the Student Volunteer Movement, No. 125 Eaft 27th Street, New York, at 5c. each, 40c. per dozen, $2.50 per hundred, express charges prepaid. / m- . - ; iw ' sA *. ' . ■ - - . - r; '. ' fe ■ . .-■ : ' -f- ‘ ' ' -' ' :T' S , : Vi' - rl: i 'i-., .-V.- 7 V.- .. 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