How to Teach Religion Part 11

MATERIAL FROM HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY

G.o.d is to be found in the lives of nations and of men not less than in nature, and the evidences and effects of his presence there should be taught our children. The spirit which Jesus revealed in his life upon earth is exemplified in the lives of many of his followers who joyously spend themselves in the service of others. Men who set the standard for manliness, and women whose character and lives are the best definition of womanliness, are as much a revelation of G.o.d's work and power as a constellation of stars or the bloom of the rose.

The example of great lives.--So, along with the great Bible characters we will bring to the child the men, and women of other generations. We will bring to him the great souls who, as missionaries, have carried the Light to those who sit in darkness; those who in honesty and integrity of purpose have served as leaders of nations or armies or movements to the blessing of humanity; those who, with the love of G.o.d in their hearts, have gone out as ministers, teachers, writers of books, singers of songs, makers of pictures, healers of sickness; or those who, in any field, of toil or service, have given the cup of cold water in the name of the Master.

And we will bring to the child the story of the nations, showing him one people growing in strength, power, and happiness while following G.o.d's plan of human justice, mercy, and kindness; and another going down to destruction, its very name and speech forgotten, because it became arrogant and perverse and forgot the ways of righteousness. At the proper time in their development we will bring to our pupils the life and problems of the present--the wrongs that need to be righted, the causes that need to be defended and carried through to victory, the evil that needs to be suppressed, the work of Christ and the church which is, awaiting workers. Thus shall we seek to bring the challenge of life itself to those we teach.

PICTURE MATERIAL

No discussion of the curriculum can ignore the use of _pictures_ as teaching material. Teachers of religion have long recognized the value of visual instruction, and every lesson series now has its full quota of picture cards and other forms of pictorial material.

In this picture material may roughly be distinguished three great types: (1) the _symbolical_ picture; (2) the rather _formal_ picture, often badly conceived and executed, always dealing with biblical characters or incidents; and (3) the more universalized type drawn from every field of pictorial art, representing not only biblical personages and events, but also typifying aesthetic and moral values of every range adapted to the understanding and appreciation of the child.

Types of pictures.--Representative of the first, or symbolical, pictorial type are found the more or less crude pen drawings of such things as the _heart_ with a key, an open _Bible with a torch_ beside it, tombstone-like drawings representing the _Tables of the Law_ or three _interlocking circles representing the Trinity, etc._

Not only are all these abstract concepts beyond the grasp or need of the child at the age when the pictures are represented, but the symbols are in no degree suggestive to the child of the lesson intended; they are devoid of meaning, without interest, possess no artistic value, and lack all teaching significance. Such material should be discarded, and better pictures provided.

The second type of pictures, or those dealing with Bible topics, contain teaching power, but should be merged with the third, or true art, type.

That is to say, biblical subjects, moral lessons, and inspiring ideals should be treated by _true artists_ and made a part of the religious curriculum for childhood. Wherever suitable masterpieces executed by great artists can be found, copies should be made available for teaching religion. Hundreds of such pictures hang in our art galleries, and not a few of them have already been incorporated into several excellent series for the Sunday school.

Further, the pictures offered children should be as carefully selected with reference to _what they are to teach_, and should be as carefully graded to meet the age, interests, and appreciations of the child as are other forms of curriculum material. Some otherwise excellent picture sets of recent publication lose the greater part of their usefulness as teaching helps through the lack of this adaptation.

MUSIC IN THE CURRICULUM

Music as a part of the curriculum of religious education offers a peculiarly difficult problem. No other form of expression can take the place of music in creating a spirit of reverence and devotion, or in inducing an att.i.tude of wors.h.i.+p and inspiring religious feeling and emotion. Children ought to sing much both in the church school and in their wors.h.i.+p at home.

Yet most of our hymns have been written for adults, and most of the music is better adapted to adult singing than to the singing of children. The ragtime hymns which find a place in many Sunday school exercises need only to be mentioned to be condemned. On the other hand, many of the finest hymns of the church are beyond the grasp of the child in sentiment and beyond his ability in music. The church seriously needs a revival of religious hymnology for children. In the meantime the greatest care should be used to select hymns for children's singing which possess as fully as may be three requisites: (1) music adapted to the child's capacity, (2) music that is worthy, interesting and devotional, and (3) words within the child's understanding and interest, and suitable in sentiment.

1. Many persons think that teaching the child religion and teaching him the Bible are precisely the same thing. Do you think it is possible to teach the child parts of the Bible without securing for him spiritual development from the process? Is it possible to make the Bible itself mean more to the child by supplementing it with material from other sources?

2. Do you ever find lessons provided for your cla.s.s which are not adapted to their age and understanding? If so, do you feel free to supplement or subst.i.tute with material which meets their needs? Do you have sufficient command of the material of the Bible and other sources so that you can do this successfully?

3. Do you know a considerable number of stories adapted to the age of your pupils? Are you constantly adding to your list? Are you a good story teller? Are you studying to improve in this line? Even if your lesson material does not provide stories, do you bring such material in for your cla.s.s?

4. What use do you make of nature in the teaching of religion?

President Hall thinks that nature material is one of the best sources of religious instruction. Do you agree with him? Are you sufficiently in love with nature yourself, and sufficiently acquainted with nature so that you can successfully use the nature motive in your teaching?

5. Do you constantly make use of stories and ill.u.s.trations from the lives of great men and women in your teaching? Do you take a reasonable proportion of these from contemporary life? Do you bring in stories of fine actions by boys and girls? What use have you been making of events in the lives of nations in your teaching? Are you reading and studying to become more fully prepared to use this type of material?

FOR FURTHER READING

Houghton, Telling Bible Stories.

Raymont, The Use of the Bible in the Education of the Young.

Brace, The Training of the Twelve.

Drake, Problems of Religion, chapter IX.

Athearn, The Church School.

CHAPTER VIII

THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL

The organization of material to adapt it to the learner's mind and arrange it for the teacher's use in instruction is hardly less important than choosing the subject matter itself. By organization is meant the plan, order, or arrangement by which the different sections of material are made ready for presentation to the child. The problems of organization may apply either (1) to the _curriculum as a whole_, or (2) to any particular section of it used for _a day's lesson_.

It is possible to distinguish four different types of organization commonly used in preparing material for religious instruction:

1. The _haphazard_, in which there is no definite plan or order, no thread of purpose or relations.h.i.+p uniting the parts, no guiding principle determining the order and sequence.

2. The _logical_, in which the nature and relations.h.i.+ps of the material itself determine the plan and order, the question of ease and effectiveness in learning being secondary or not considered.

3. The _chronological_, applicable especially to historical material, in which the events, characters, and facts are taken up in the order of the time of their appearance and their sequence in the entire situation or account.

4. The _psychological_, in which the first and most important question is the most natural and favorable mode of approach for the learner--how the material shall be planned and arranged to suit his power and grasp, appeal to his interest, and relate itself to his actual needs and experience.

TYPES OF ORGANIZATION

Haphazard organization.--The _haphazard_ plan, which is really no plan at all, is, of course, wholly indefensible. No teacher has a right to go before his cla.s.s with his material in so nebulous a state that it lacks coordination and purpose. It is this that results in chance and unrelated questions, irrelevant discussions, and fruitless wanderings without definite purpose over the field of the lesson, such as may sometimes be seen in church cla.s.ses.

The outcome of such instruction hardly can be more than occasional, disconnected sc.r.a.ps of information, or fragmentary impressions which are never gathered up and bound together into completed ideals and convictions. The haphazard type of organization may result from incompetence, indifference, and failure to prepare, or from taking a ready-made and poorly prepared plan from the "lesson helps" which is not adapted to our cla.s.s. Pity the child a.s.signed to a cla.s.s presided over by a teacher who esteems his privilege so lightly as not to make ready for his task by careful planning.

Logical organization.--In the _logical_ arrangement of material, the first care is not given to planning it in the most favorable way for the one who studies and learns it, but, rather, to fit together the different parts of the subject matter in the way best suited to its logical relations.h.i.+ps. The child is pedagogically ignored; the material receives primary consideration. The logical order of material fits the mind of the adult, the scholar, the expert, the master in his field of knowledge; it begins with the most general and abstract truths. But the child naturally starts with the particular and the concrete. It gives rules, principles, definitions, while the child asks for ill.u.s.trations, applications, real instances, and actual cases.

The logical method is adapted to the trained explorer in the fields of learning, to one who has been over the ground and knows all of its details, and not to the young novice just starting his discoveries in regions that are strange to him. The logical plan will teach the young child the general plan of salvation, man's fall and need of redemption, the wonder and significance of the atonement, and gracious effects of divine regeneration working in the heart--all of which he needs finally to know--but _not as a child just beginning the study of religion_. The child must arrive at the general plan of salvation through realizing the saving power at work in his own life; he must come to understand the fall of man and his need of redemption through meeting his own childhood temptations and through seeing the effects of sin at work around him; he must understand the atonement and regeneration through the present and growing consciousness of a living Christ daily strengthening and redeeming his life.

Chronological organization.--The _chronological_ order of material is desirable at the later stages of the child's growth and development. But in earlier years the time sequence is not the chief consideration. This is because the child's historical sense is not yet ready for the concept of cause and effect at work to produce certain inevitable results in the lives of men or nations.

The sequence in which certain kings reigned, or the order in which certain events took place, or in which certain books of the Bible were written is not the important thing for early childhood. At this time the great object is to seize upon the event, the character or the incident, and make it real _and vital_; it is to bring the meaning of the lesson out of its past setting and attach it to the child's immediate present.

Psychological organization.--It is the _psychological_ organization of material that should obtain both in the curriculum as a whole and in the planning of the individual lessons. We must not think, however, that a psychological order of material necessarily makes it illogical. On the other hand, the arrangement of material that takes into account the child's needs is certain to make it more logical _to him_ than any adult scheme or plan could do. That is most logical to any person which most completely fits into his particular system of thought and understanding.

If we succeed in making our plan of presenting material to the child wholly psychological, therefore, we need not be concerned; all other questions of organization will take care of themselves, and _the psychological will constantly tend to become logical_.

What is meant by a psychological method of arranging material for presentation has already been discussed (Chapter III). Suffice it to say here that it is simply _planning the subject matter to fit the mind and needs of the child_--arranging for the easiest and most natural mode of approach, securing the most immediate points of contact for interest and application, remembering all the time that the child speaks as a child, thinks as a child, understands as a child.

Jesus' use of the psychological plan.--The teacher who seeks to master the spirit of the psychological presentation of religious material should study the teaching-method of Jesus. Always he came close to the life and experience of those he would impress; always he proceeds from the plane of the learner's experiences, understanding, and interests.

Did he want to teach a great lesson about the different ways in which men receive truth into their lives?--"Behold a sower went forth to sow."

Did he seek to explain the stupendous meaning and significance of the new kingdom of the spirit which he came to reveal?--"The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed," or, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal," or, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field."

And with this simple, direct, psychological, homely mode of approach to great themes Jesus made his hearers understand vital lessons, and at the same time showed them how to apply the lessons to their own lives. So throughout all his teaching and preaching; the lesson of the talents, the prodigal son, the workers in the vineyard, the wedding feast, placing a little child in the midst of them--all these and many other concrete points of departure ill.u.s.trate the highest degree of skill in the psychological use of material.