Do you know what it means to suffer for your pupils? What reward have you if you love only the loving? If you love the loveless? Point out the evils of spasmodic control. In what way may the saying, "The eye of the master is worth both his hands," apply to the Sundayschool teacher? If the end of control is freedom through what means do you seek to achieve this end? Compare the relative worth of the seven elements of control here presented, and determine in which of these elements you are weak and in which you are strong; then answer the question, What are you going to do about it? XIX CONCERNING THE COURSE OF STUDY WE E HAVE considered some of the aspects of soul growth and some of the elements in teacher equipment. We have seen so far what a teacher should know of the child and what he should be. What next is to be considered? We have not yet recognized an element of teachertraining that seems to hold commanding place in the thought of many. That element is the knowledge of the subject-matter. What of that? Should not the teacher know his subject? We have already stated why scholarship is an aid in the control of the class. Has it no other use? Let us see. A Threefold There are three parts to the problem of teacher-training: (1) there is a young and growing soul to be instructed and trained; (2) there is a world of religious truth to be known and presented to this young and growing soul; and (3) there is an intermediate agency-a living, disciplined, and equipped teacher-whose function it is to interpret this world of religious truth to the young and growing soul. There are things of the spirit, spiritual; and there are things of the earth, earthy. The spiritual things are subjective and intangible. The things of the earth are objective and tangible. The teacher must translate this objective world into terms of the spirit. How can he do this if he is unfamiliar with this objective world? How can he cause to arise in another soul knowledge that has never crossed the bounds of his own? Surely he can give only as he possesses. It is evident then that a knowledge of the subject-matter to be taught is an essential equipment of the teacher. But his knowledge of the subject-matter makes him only a scholar. To understand how to transmute this scholarship into terms of nutrition for another soul, and to know also how to fit it to the precise needs of the learner, adds to his scholarly ability the ability to teach. To Scholarship pause at scholarship is to defeat Scholar the ends of teaching. Thus many good-intentioned persons fail to teach. They assume that when one knows a thing he can teach it. This is pedagogic heresy. I have known great scholars who were miserable teachers. I recall now an authority of world-wide renown in a certain science whose attempts to teach were pitiful. He frankly confessed that he did not know how to present his knowledge to the pupil. He usually sat upon the teacher's desk and requested his pupils to ply him with questions. He was a A Contrast veritable encyclopedia of information in his chosen field, but he was not in any sense a real teacher. I recall also a teacher of mine, years ago, whose alert eye caught the first sign of indifference in any pupil. I have known her to stop one pupil in the middle of a sentence, and ask another pupil to conclude the sentence and proceed with the recitation. She was cruelly exact, but she was a teacher. We learned things in her classes. She knew how to hold the whole class absolutely under the domination of her own. purpose. The Sunday-school teacher has turned of late to a study of the many excellent outlines of the subject-matter of religious instruction. He has been led to think that the mastery of some course in Bible history, Bible geography, and Bible materials generally, will give him the guidance and equipment necessary to teach successfully. Teachers are He knows, if he knows enough to know his own procedure, that his guidance and equipment are by no means adequate. He does not get the results he longs for, labors for, prays for. Why? He has been misled. Mere familiarity with the subject-matter is but one of the three elements of his equipment. He must master all these elements before he is a real teacher. An old gentleman in my native village, whose occupation was that of carpenter, frequently said to us," Boys, you must not play with sharp tools. Only trained mechanics should handle them. Play, if you like, with the dull ones." Do you agree with the opinion of the old carpenter? He was a man of such kindly sympathy and fair An Illustration judgment that we all loved and respected him. He was a modern John Pounds. As he drove nails into furniture he also drove many a helpful thought into the souls of the group of curious boys that crowded his shop. I incline to accept his opinion and to follow his advice. The discerning old man was wise enough to accept a great truth. Fine tools for skilled workmen. I recall also that my father never allowed me to drive the spirited horse, but interposed no objection to my using an old family horse that was so docile that he never did shy, back, kick, or run. As a child these restrictions annoyed me. I can see now that these men were wise with years of actual experience. They understood that the finest agents alone are fit to handle the finest agencies,-that, in short, these are complementary compensations in the economy of things. We are admonished not to cast our pearls before swine. A good reason is given. The swine |