Discuss the value of margins in equipment. Why is it proper to say that our pupils are not all normal in their unfolding? What is judgment? Form a group of judgments relating to the words sheep, shepherd, love, kindness, John, John Baptist, and teaching. How does a negative judgment arise? How does a positive judgment arise? J 66 XII FACTS ABOUT JUDGMENT ESUS declares to his followers that "with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." This is an eminently fair proposition. We have no right to demand, or even to expect, from others, what we are not willing to accord to them. The same central idea is in the proverb, "People that live in glass houses should not throw stones." It is also found in the saying, Chickens come home to roost." It is a general judgment, universally accepted, that in the game of life we should "play fair." We are all too willing to form opinions; that is, to formulate judgment upon almost every matter of moment that arises. This is especially true of matters of education and of religion. In some range of knowledge we like to think our judgment best. We usually select the ranges in which exact determinations are least likely to be thrust forward. A Fair I saw a teacher once take a group of children out for an afternoon of what she called nature study. She made the children walk behind her with their hands behind their backs, quietly, in perfect line, and occasionally she would stop and pick up a flower, or a leaf, or a bug, and, beckoning to the children, say, "Form a circle around me." Then she would say, "Children, here is a flower which I have just discovered growing amidst the grass. Notice its One Way color, notice its odor, notice the shape of the petals. Now, come on." And so, again and again, this monotonous thing was repeated until every child was sick of the so-called lesson in nature study. I saw another teacher with a group of children on a similar mission. The teacher walked behind, and the children ran in every direction, happy, free, active, unrestrained; and the moment their bright eyes lighted upon a flower, or a leaf, or a bug, or any other object that interested them and caught their attention, they ran with their find to the teacher. The teacher smilingly said, "Tell me about it. Where did you find it? What was it doing?" And some one would start with a most interesting and enthusiastic statement of all Way the facts which they were able A Better to gather concerning the object. Then the teacher, with wise questions and helpful suggestions and prudent guidance, led the child, step by step, to discover all that in its haste and immaturity it had failed at first to note. I felt in my soul concerning this latter teacher that "of such are the kingdom of heaven." Let us apply this to the Sunday-school lesson. Some teachers come before the class with everything ready, as they should, and then, following a command that they be quiet, or sit just so, their feet just at a certain place, their shoulders thrown back, their little hands folded in their laps, and their eyes glued on the teacher, the children await the mysterious and marvelous utterances which the teacher alone voices. How tired the children are when the lesson is over, and how glad that they can shake themselves and forget! I have seen other classes in which the children are crowded respectfully around the teacher, but not military in attitude; not dis orderly, but not statuesque; and The Application the children are telling the teacher out of the depths of their own souls how the language of the lesson has impressed them. The teacher, pleased but reserved, guides the minds of the children, point by point, to the great issues, and helps them to discover the great truths. Nobody is tired, nobody wearied, everybody surprised, when the tap of the superintendent's bell hints to them that time has been consumed in a most interesting, helpful, inspiring way. We talk too much to the child, as if somehow it were our duty to establish in his mind an impression of our great resources, our marvelous skill, and our profound knowledge. Let the teacher understand that it is his function to bring into class the concepts which he desires to have compared, and then trust the child to act upon these, to discover their relations, and to announce their agreements in fitting language. I have no patience with that teacher who wants things done just so, who marks it down against a child every time the child shows the least inclination to put original thought into his statements, and who seems in some mysterious way to feel congratulated when the children grind out replies in language memorized from books and from their teacher. What are we trying to accomplish? Are we seeking to educate machine-made products, or are we endeavoring to develop a machine which, under God's guidance, will be able by its own inherent powers to build truth and enjoy truth? The activity occasioned is worth more than the product, and the training of a soul is of more moment than the correct language of the answer to a question. When these judgments are once set forth as a result of the pupils' own discernment of essential relations existing between objects of thought, these judgments themselves become the funda |