Religious Education

casy of accomplishment. In the old days we taught the words first and explained them afterwards; just as in geography lessons we commenced with definitions and later dealt with concrete instances. This is both to make memorizing an unintelligent act and to disregard entirely the method by which the human mind increases its experience and knowledge. We need to implant the ideas first and surround them with beautiful and inspiring associations, then, just at the moment when the child halts in expression for lack of words in which to clothe his thought, our form of words comes in to crown and make explicit the already implicit idea."

Some of the ideas contained in the Church Catechism are entirely beyond the experience of children of seven and eight years old: but the ideas contained in it which do appeal to little children are so great and important that we have all we can do before the child leaves the infant school to fill these ideas with content and set them in an atmosphere of reverence and love. For instance, in order that a child may grasp something of the meaning of the phrase "Communion of Saints," the word "Saint" must have meaning and associations for him. Thus we do not think time wasted if we devote six lessons to filling with content the word "Saint" or half the year to the first two paragraphs in the Creed, before the children have presented to them the words of either one or the other. I do not mean to say that little children should never learn by heart what they do not fully understand; they do not fully understand the Lord's Prayer-who would stay them from that? But there, and in similar cases, we have a form of words of permanent value, which will fill with ever-increasing content as life goes on, and of which the child has already a vague and misty notion concentrated round the ever-familiar word "Father."

The Catechism.

One exception is nevertheless made by Professor Fitch, and that is to the Church Catechism. He says that it is particularly well-balanced, systematic, orderly, and well-worded as to the form of answers. So far as he will admit the use of Ques

tion-and-Answer Lessons at all, he favors the Catechism. This however brings up another mooted point, which we will dispose of here.

Drawbridge says: "The Church 350 years ago provided the Catechism; that is sufficient; the problem has been solved, once for all, by those who drew up the Catechism." He will then simply tell the teachers to compel the children to commit it all to memory, from N. or M. to the definition of the Sacraments. The teachers, however, who for the most part are apt to follow the line of least resistance, will probably, as far as possible, avoid taking this course, because it is most strongly objected to by their pupils. Some of the teachers will carefully avoid forcing the children to commit the Catechism to memory, because of the great difficulty of doing so. Others will persistently avoid this irksome task, because they feel that the very essence of the art of education is to interest, and to hold the attention of the pupils; and that the Catechism bores children intensely, and is always very much objected to by them. Others will neglect to teach it, on the ground that every modern educationalist maintains most strongly, as the chief axioms of this art, that examples should precede rules; that the concrete should be taught before the abstract; that experience must come before education; that the simple must be learned before the complex; that facts should be taught before their definitions; ideas before phraseology; religion before theological dogmas; and so on. Other teachers will endeavor to shirk the teaching of the Catechism, on the ground that the capacity to repeat words and phrases (however excellent they may be) is not synonymous with saintliness. They will contend that the essence of religion is relationship with God, rather than a feat of memory. They do not believe in the "parrot-like repetition of unintelligible words." Others will consistently avoid teaching the Catechism on the ground that the requirement of the child should suggest the subject to be taught; and that the fitness of any subject to the needs of the pupil may be measured by the latter's interest in it, and attraction towards it. That is to say, that Nature is the best guide; intellectual and spiritual appetite being God's own hint as to what will benefit the pupil most.

Should Anything be Learned that is not Fully Understood?

Professor Hubbell says, "Yes," but with caution. “It is not necessary for a child to wait until he is able to understand everything which he commits to memory." This should not be carried to excess. The amount that he learns before fully comprehending it should be well-nigh infinitesimal, as compared with the total amount of memoriter work. Granted that the age from 8 to 11 is the best time for memorizing, what position should we take as to the Catechism? For, of course, we know that at least the Sacraments Part cannot be even half taken in by the child at that age. It is far too abstract. For ourselves, we are inclined to commit to memory then, and, save for the simplest explanation, leave the exposition of it until the Confirmation Period, that is, until the age of Reflection is reached at Adolescence. We find the wording of the Catechism too hard to be handled late in youth, and the harm of non-understood memorizing to this slight extent, too insignificant, to reverse this procedure.

W. C. Hewitt says that the child needs a philosophy of life. At best, with most of us life is very imperfect, but without some noble conception of duty beyond us and above us, it is bound to be worse. Teachers should not ask children to learn selections which they themselves do not know. In the writer's experience much of the failure to make memory work inspiring is that teachers do not move forward in front. It has been a very common experience to find teachers of the grades unable themselves to recite the amount they have required of their pupils. Where such a condition exists memory work is sure to be a fizzle. Only a few lines should be given at a time. This will make the task easy, and give pupils a chance to think over the idea. If the teacher learns the selection with the class, there will be little danger of assigning too much to be learned. Experience shows that the pupils who commit to memory very simple things do great things with them: they quote them to others, use them in writing, and in hours of silence or temptation, turn them over in their minds. If a thing is read but once or twice, there is very little to think over, indeed much reading destroys thinking, just as two pictures on the same

negative blur each other. What is in the memory is in the mind, and is independent of book, teacher, or circumstance.

Mr. Charles B. Gilbert remarks: "There is no learning without corresponding expression. Memorizing is not, necessarily, learning in the true sense. Unless the whole mind is employed there is no nutrition. Consequently, there is enormous waste in our educational processes. Where expression is ignored the learning is bogus; it does not enter into the makeup of the mind. In such schools, only when acquisition in the school is supplemented by the activities of the life out of school is there true learning at all."

The Importance of Youth.

Prof. Minot says: "For if it be true that the decline in the power of learning is most rapid at first, it is evident that we want to make as much use of the early years as possible-that the tendency, for instance, which has existed in many of our universities, to postpone the period of entrance into college is biologically an erroneous tendency. It would be better to have the young man get to college earlier, graduate earlier, get into practical life or into the professional schools earlier, while the power of learning is greater.

"Do we not see, in fact, that the new ideas are indeed for the most part the ideas of young people?"

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION.

[SUGGESTED BY DR. HERVEY.]

1. "Illustrate from your experience how Memory depends upon the associative process."

2. "Along what lines must we work to strengthen the child's Memory?" 3. "Why does a boy remember the baseball scores, or the girl the details of her friend's new dress, when both forget the text?" 4. "Can everybody be trained to concentrated Attention? What effect will differences in power of Attention have on our dealing with different members of a class?"

5. "What are the advantages of Verbal Memorizing, and how is it best done? Illustrate."

CHAPTER XXI.

THE INCULCATION AND TRAINING OF HABITS.

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