their relation to Christianity might also well be considered after this. Grade II.-Post Graduate School. (About 19 or 20 years old.) Methods of Church Work. This should embrace all our distinctive Church Organizations for general Home, Foreign, and Diocesan Mission Work, preparing the scholars to intelligently enter the various Societies with which most working Parishes are equipped. Strictly speaking, the proper way would be for the entire Sunday School to be the Young People's Society, with each organization, separate to an extent in its aims, its part of the machinery of the Sunday School at Work, carrying out in practice the principles it spends sessions in discussing. Everyone a member of the Sunday School ought to be a member of some one or more of the Societies, and not the meagre few. The divorcement of the Societies from the active organization of the Sunday School is largely to blame for this estrangement between principles and practice. Each person and each class should have material and spiritual altruistic work to do for God. If a General Society does not exist, form a local one. Grade III.-Post Graduate School. (About 20 or 21 years old.) Modern Missions. After a brief review of the Organizations of the Church, doing Missionary Work of varied phases, it would be well to take up more definitely the study of the Rise and Spread of Modern Missions. Grade IV.-Post Graduate School. (About 21 or 22 years old.) Sociology. A finishing touch is yet needed in order that the child of God may be thoroughly furnished to every good work, and that is a glance at Modern Movements, Institutional and Sociological. Grade V-Post Graduate School. (About 22 or 23 years old.) History of the Prayer Book. If, perchance, the subject of the Prayer Book has not been covered sufficiently, either in the study of Grade I., Grammar School, or in short Supplementary or Summer Course, and if "the thirst for knowledge" has been instilled enough that the students are held effectively until this age, a delightful Adult Course will be the Rationale and History and Use of the Prayer Book. The Best Practical Way to Set About Grading. Many so-called graded schools fail in a few months and sometimes throw out the graded system as the result, because neither officers, teachers, pupils, nor parents understand what they are doing, or what the graded system is, or what part they play in the curriculum of the school. Printer's ink here is money well expended and the suggestions given below are those that all practical experience has proved to be the very best. Grading should be done by Day School Grades, which show the ability of the pupils to handle the material of Education, rather than by Ages or Height, as is often the case. Make a List first of all pupils, arranged alphabetically, by name. Indicate age, address, and Day School Grade. Arrange in Classes by the Day School Standing, all third grades together (i. e., about 8 years old); all fourth grades, etc. If the school be too small for single grades of separated boys and girls, either place boys and girls together, or combine the two adjoining grades in one class, thus the third and fourths together, making a two-year Course for that Class, one year in the topic that would naturally come for the third grade and the second year in that set forth for the fourth grade. In this way, the complete Curriculum is covered with but half the number of classes. Then next, do not fail to use a little Printer's Ink. Most schools fail right here. After a year the teachers and pupils become discouraged and want all one subject. Or Miss Jones wants to teach the "interesting book Miss Brown has," and sees no reason why her class may not have it. It is because the Teachers and Pupils do not know what the system is, do not grasp the Curriculum, do not see what wheel each one is in the general machinery. Therefore issue a little folder like the sample below. Print an abundance of them. Circulate them freely. Give one to every scholar, every parent, every teacher. Sow them broadcast in the town. It is good and conservative advertising. Dozens of denominational children will flock in, being brought, oft-times, by the parents themselves, because they admire a systematic and pedagogical school. sample. Page 1. It works well every time. Here is the The Graded Sunday School of Christ Church, Bloomfield, N. Y. Our Ideals. Every Scholar present Every Sunday. Every Scholar present ON TIME. Every Scholar Saying Private Prayers at Home, Morning and Evening. Every Parent Helping the School in the Home Work. Pages 2 and 3. Our Graded Curriculum. The Kindergarten School (to 6 years). Stories from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Nature. The Primary School (to Third Grade Day School). Similar stories with older treatment. The Grammar School. Class of 1918. Catechism, Christian Year, Use of Prayer Book, Old Testament Stories. Class of 1917. Old Testament Stories Completed. Class of 1916. Junior Historical Life of Christ. Class of 1915. Teachings of Christ (Ethics) or, Early Christian Leaders. The High School. Class of 1914. Old Testament History as the Preparation for the Messiah. Class of 1913. Life of Christ the Messiah. Class of 1912. The Teachings of Christ the Messiah or Christian Doctrine. Class of 1911. Page 4. The History of the Apostolic Church. Class of 1910. Church History. Class of 1909. The Epistles and their Writers. The Post-Graduate School. Normal and Bible Classes. The Roll of the Teachers in Our School. (Here follows the list of Teachers and their Addresses, that parents of the scholars may communicate with them, if necessary.) The plan of putting "Class of," etc. is far better psychologically than Class I., Class II. etc., or even than Class A, Class B, etc. The moral effect on the pupils is to keep them banded together as a Class unit and to hold them in the School until the graduating point. They do not drop out so readily in this way. Some Schools prefer not to commence "Class of" nomenclature until adolescence (say 12 or 13 years old), using "Grade I," etc., earlier, with the idea in mind that young children may be discouraged by looking too far ahead. Other Details. There will follow special chapters towards the end of this book on Manual Work in the Grades, and under the Business End of the Sunday School will be considered practical suggestions for developing the Private Prayer life of the children. NOTE: The Organization of the School is considered in Chap. XXV. Teaching Versus Training. Trumbull remarks: "It has been said that the essence of teaching is causing another to know. It may similarly be said that the essence of training is causing another to do. Teaching gives knowledge. Training gives skill. Teaching fills the mind. Training shapes the habits. Teaching brings to the child that which he did not have before. Training enables a child to make use of that which is already his possession. We teach a child the meaning of words. We train a child in speaking and walking. We teach him the truths which we have learned for ourselves. We train him in habits of study, that he may be able to learn other truths for himself. Training and teaching must go on together in the wise up-bringing of any and every child. The one will fail of its own best end if it be not accompanied by the other. He who knows how to teach a child, is not competent for the oversight of a child's education unless he knows how to train a child. "Training is a possibility long before teaching is. Before a child is old enough to know what is said to it, it is capable of feeling, and of conforming to, or of resisting, the pressure of efforts for its training. A very young child can be trained to cry for what it wants, or to keep quiet, as a means of securing it. And, as a matter of fact, the training of children is begun much earlier than their teaching. Many a child is well started in its life-training by the time it is six weeks old, even though its elementary teaching is not attempted until months after that. QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION. 1. What is the best practical system of grading? Why? 2. What subjects would you suggest for study in your School? Why not others? Why just that list? 3. How could you improve your Kindergarten and Primary Depart ments? 4. What studies and methods come best in the ages from 8 to 12, or thereabouts? 5. What special lines should be left until Adolescence has been well advanced? Why? |