Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

CHAPTER XI. .

HOW TO PREPARE THE LESSON.

BIBLE CLASSES. See.

SUGGESTED READINGS.

pp. 11, 17, 96, 130, 153.

CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL. Butler. pp. 42, 97, 124, 144, 150.
THE TEACHER AND THE CHILD. Marks. pp. 69ff, 81.
SEVEN LAWS OF TEACHING. Gregory. p. 17.

THE TEACHER THAT TEACHES. Wells. p. 26.

How To PLAN THE LESSON. Brown. pp. 27ff, 45, 52.
Thorndike. pp. 160-258.
pp. 109, 113.
Adams.

PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING.
BOY PROBLEM. Forbush.
A PRIMER ON TEACHING.

ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. DeGanno.

ADULT CLASSES. Wood. All.

*SUNDAY SCHOOL SCIENCE. Holmes. pp. 28-33.

*How To CONDUCT THE RECITATION.

McMurray.

CHARACTER BUILDING. Color. pp. 123-127.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION. Seeley. pp. 154-162.
*A SYLLABUS TO THE POINT OF CONTACT. Hervey. Preface.

How to Prepare to Study the Lesson.

1. There is one tremendous, primordeal "First Step" for a Sunday School Teacher to take, in commencing the preparation of the Lesson Study; and yet, strange to say, it is the one step above all others that many teachers entirely omit. It is Prayer, for if ever we require the help of God's Holy Spirit, "to guide us unto all Truth," "to take of the things of God and show them unto us," it is here, where we are preparing to guide other immortal souls than our own into "the way of Truth," into the plains of peace. The words of Holmes on this point are most inspiring.

The first law of the lesson is that of Prayer, not a prayer. Between prayer and a prayer there is all the difference that there is between heat and cold. A Prayer may be dead, cold, formal, lifeless. Prayer is the spirit permeating the character. Prayer is a state; an atmosphere surrounding a life. The right knowledge of the Sunday School Lesson is possible only

through the help of the Spirit. Prayer is the breath of the Spirit.

What a teacher ought to do is to kneel down at first and, as it were, bury the head in the arm and shut out the world. It may not be so much what the teacher says, but the atmosphere that will pervade her, as a result of that five minutes of communion with God. There will be a zeal, an interest, an alertness, an application, a patience to dig out details and go into the deepest research. The practical application of the spiritual truth to the lives of the scholars will never come from mere cold, intellectual preparation. It needs God's Spirit. And the shorter the time for preparation, the more necessary is this primal period of Prayer.

There is another period of Prayer that will come later on, at the close of the lesson. The first was the communion with God, the getting in touch with Him, obtaining His guidance, and the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit. The closing Prayer, after the work has been done, is a Prayer of Application. The teacher now kneels, and, with the lesson material in mind, and the individual scholars, their natures and their needs, in view, she bears each name personally before the Throne of Grace, that His Spirit may prepare the hearts of the scholars to receive the ingrafted word and guide the teacher into the selection of the right material, the right treatment, and the right words to make God's work most effective.

The teacher herself will be spiritually uplifted and will gain perhaps more than the scholars as the result of these Periods of Prayer. "It is axiomatic," says Professor Burton, "that the teacher who gains no spiritual help from his study will impart none in his teachings." If his method of study is such that it brings him no uplift or strength, it can hardly have a different effect upon his pupils. Dr. Trumbull adds: "The teacher's spirit, the teacher's character, and the teacher's life impress and influence the pupil quite as much as the teacher's words."

2. The second recommendation is "Read, read, read!" There is no way to absorb the general, all-round knowledge necessary for teaching any lesson for a half-hour without prolonged, patient Reading. Sunday School Teaching is no place for "shirkers." It is no place for the lady of fashion, who desires

merely the "honor" of being a teacher in Church, and has "no time to prepare the lesson until Sunday morning." Read much and read widely. Do not be content with just enough knowledge to answer the printed Questions. Do not be content either with the small condensed summary, contained in the Teacher's Aid. Get other books recommended, either by purchase, or from some library. There are few schools that will not gladly make a strenuous effort to supply books to any teacher who is really willing to study and perfect knowledge.

The difficulty is that the generality of teachers take up teaching as a "side play." Ask any rector to tell you the truth, and he will frankly say this is so. Know more than the brightest of your scholars; know just as much as you can possibly find out on the subject. Thistleton Mark rightly states that: "None but the few born teachers can safely leave their method of treating a lesson to take care of itself; indeed, it is more likely than not that the best teachers will be amongst the first to become, either consciously or unconsciously, students of method, by experimenting, by comparing notes with other successful teachers, or in some other way. No amount of lectures or text-books on method can take the place of the teacher's own effort and practical ingenuity. Yet reading and conversing on the subject are helpful, for ideas and knowledge certainly influence practice, and right ideas are better than either wrong ideas or no ideas."

According to See: "The teacher's preparation in method may be of two kinds: (1) There are what are called natural teachers. These men have the preparation of native endowment. A common illustration of such endowment is found in persons who can play the piano by ear, although they may be unable to read a note of music. Paul speaks of those who are 'apt to teach,' and says that Bishops should have that qualification.

"(2) There is also a preparation in acquired methods of teaching. It is possible to apply the elementary principles of pedagogy, or the science of teaching, to Biblical instruction and secure more effective teaching of the Bible. We have a recognized religious pedagogy. One of the objects of this study is to familiarize ourselves with the elementary principles and methods of teaching which are observed in so-called secular instruction. It should be borne in mind as a fundamental proposition

that the mental faculties employed in the reception of spiritual truth are the same as those employed in the reception of any other knowledge. The teacher of Sunday has to do with the same minds as the teacher of Monday. It is true that there are added elements in the reception of the spiritual truth that are not at work in the impartation of intellectual knowledge, but in so far as the mental powers are engaged in the reception of spiritual truth, they are governed by the same laws and subject to the same conditions as in the reception of any other form of truth.

"It must not be supposed that the study of the best methods of teaching will be either unnecessary or detrimental to him who has native ability as a teacher. If by reason of native capacity a teacher has fallen into right methods of teaching, an acquired knowledge of the principles which he has been unconsciously practising could hardly make him less effective as a teacher. If he has proved efficient in spite of his lack of formal knowledge of the fundamental laws of teaching, how much more efficient should he prove to be with that knowledge! It is only the teacher who places too great reliance on the mere knowledge of correct methods of teaching who is injured thereby."

The word KNOW stands central in the law of the teacher. Knowledge is the material with which the teacher works, and the first reason of the law must be sought in the nature of knowledge. What men call knowledge is of all degrees, from the first dim glimpse of a fact or truth to the full and familiar understanding of that fact, or truth, in all its parts and aspects-its philosophy, its beauty, and its power. (1) We may know a fact so faintly as merely to recognize it when another tells it; (2) we may know it in such degree as to be able to recall it for ourselves, or to describe it in a general way to another; (3) better still, we may so know it that we can readily explain, prove, and illustrate it; or (4), mounting to the highest grade of knowledge, we may so know and vividly see a truth in its deeper significance and wider relations that its importance, grandeur, or beauty impresses and inspires us. History is history only to him who thus reads and knows it; and Scripture is Holy Writ only when seen by this inner light. It is this last form of knowl

edge which must be read into the law of the true teacher. This is the way Gregory puts it in his Seven Laws of Teaching.

According to Dr. Butler, The Teacher's Teaching Plan is not the same as her notes of preparation. The notes are mainly for herself, the plan is for her pupils. Often the order of the teaching plan is the reverse order of the teacher's notes. Why? Because the notes usually begin at the adult end, and the plan must begin at the "small-boy end." His end, therefore, must be our introduction, and his point of view must decide our method of telling the story. Indicate, near the middle of the story, where you will rest them by instructive activity; e.g., after the garden has been planted they can stand, as trees, with outstretched branches (arms) protecting the animals who seek their shade; then with upright branches, swaying in the wind; and then, as children, they can pick up the fallen fruit to refresh them during the last half of the story. Put at the top of the card-the Moral must, by suggestion, be woven into the story, not tagged on at its end. The purpose of all instruction is action; therefore, ask them to re-tell the story at home, and remind them that you will ask them to tell you the story on the following Sunday.

"For example, a map of Palestine, four inches by eight, would be likely to give him the idea that the country was just the size of the map. The picture of a camel, or of any other object which he has not seen, would be more liable to convey wrong ideas than right ones. Yet in his relation to the human life and activity of which he is a part, he knows instinctively much that he does not understand, and feels even more than he knows. His mental powers have developed, his activity is more intentional, and he is more influenced by others. His spontaneous imitation includes everything, deeds and words, dress and manners.

"Our Method should be informative, and, still more largely, suggestive. A healthy boy does not want his teacher to climb the tree and hand him the apples; the boy delights to climb and get the fruit for himself. Even if he be too small to climb, he only asks his teacher to pull down the limb; picking the fruit he enjoys as much as eating. That is why one truth, suggested by his teacher, and mentally picked by the boy himself, is worth

« ForrigeFortsæt »