them dead stones and dry husks, which
cannot feed their souls! Let us adapt our subject matter to the child.
The use of stress and neglect.--That the lesson material printed in
the Sunday school booklets is not always well adapted to the children
every teacher knows. But there it is, and what can we do but teach it,
though it may sometimes miss the mark?
There is one remedy the wise and skillful teacher always has at his
command. By the use of _stress_ and _neglect_ the matter of the lesson
may be made to take quite different forms. The points that are too
difficult may be omitted or but little emphasized. The matter that best
fits the child may be stressed and its application made. Illustrations,
stories, and lessons from outside sources may be introduced to suit the
aim. Great truths may be restated in terms within childhood's
comprehension. The true teacher, like the craftsman, will select now
this tool, now that to meet his purpose. Regardless of what the printed
lesson offers, he will reject or use, supplement or replace with new
material as the needs of his class may demand. The true teacher will be
the master, and not the servant, of the subject matter he uses.
HOW SHALL WE ORGANIZE AND PLAN THE LESSONS?
When the _content_ of the subject matter has been decided upon then
comes its _organization_. How shall we arrange and plan the material we
teach so as to give the children the easiest and most natural mode of
approach to its learning?
The great law here is that _the arrangement of subject matter must be
psychological_. This only means that we must always ask ourselves how
will the child most easily and naturally enter upon the learning of this
material? How can I organize it for the recitation so that it will most
strongly appeal to his interest? How can I arrange it so that it will be
most easily grasped and understood? How can I plan the lesson so that
its relation to immediate life and conduct will be most clear and its
application most surely made?
The psychological mode of approach.--I recently happened into a junior
Sunday school class where the lesson was on faith. The teacher evidently
did not know how to plan for a psychological mode of approach to this
difficult concept. He began by defining faith in Paul's phrase as "the
substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen." He then
went to the dictionary definition, which shows the relation of faith to
belief. He discussed th
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