Beginners Age (Concluded)
7. Opportunities of the Beginners Age.—(1) Shaping character through influence. There are two ways of touching a life—the one through definite instruction, which must be understood to avail anything; the other through unconscious influence which is felt, not necessarily comprehended. The mind of the beginner is awake and active, but he can grasp little instruction beyond simplest facts about concrete things. Right and wrong, unselfishness, love, all the abstract standards and principles of life, he cannot comprehend intellectually, but he absorbs the influences that go out from them, and what is felt is always more powerful than that which lodges only in the head. During the first six years of life the child is peculiarly sensitive to every influence that comes to him out of his environment, and these,—not instruction,—determine what he shall be. No amount of teaching upon the subject of flowers and birds and trees can arouse the joy and gratitude which a drive through the country on a glorious spring morning awakens. No number of lessons upon self-control will make the impression upon the heart which the sight of it in another makes. The child cannot understand the nature and necessity of reverence, but he will feel it, if that be the influence of the Sunday-school hour.
(2) Shaping character through imitation. The actions in this period which result from instruction are few compared to those which come from the instinct of imitation; therefore what the teacher is unable to do through precept she can accomplish through the power of example and story.
(3) Imparting simple spiritual truths. These must be truths with whose earthly likenesses the child is familiar. This will make possible stories of God's power as Creator, his love and care as Heavenly Father, stories of Jesus as the loving Friend and Helper of little children, and the necessity of obedience to his commands.
8. Needs of the Beginners Age.—If the opportunities of this period are to be realized, four things are necessary:
(1) A Christlike teacher. While influences go out from everything,—people, circumstances, conditions, even inanimate, senseless things,—a human life radiates the strongest influence. It has a twofold effect upon a little child: he not only feels the influence, but it also moves him to imitate the person. He may forget the lesson, he may not have comprehended it at all, but he has absorbed the teacher during the hour and he will try to reproduce what she has said and done even to her very tone, expression, and manner. If his model be a gentle voice or a loving word, the very act of imitating it makes him gentler and more tender, and what exhortation may not secure, influence and imitation will bring. Therefore a teacher will do her strongest work with a beginner by being like Jesus Christ.
(2) A suggestive atmosphere. Atmosphere represents the sum total of all the influences at a given time. The soft music of the organ, the dim light, the stillness, the attitude of prayer, all create an atmosphere to which reverence and worship are the natural response. In confusion and bustle, with loud voice and impatient movement on the part of the teacher, there could be only restlessness and irreverence and inattention on the part of the child. The atmosphere must suggest to the pupil that which the teacher desires from him, be he beginner or adult, for feeling and action are more influenced by atmosphere than admonition. The greatest work for the hour will have been accomplished if the child shall feel that the Lord was in that place, though he knew it not, intellectually.
(3) Right direction of activity. The activity of the child may prevent his receiving any benefit from the instruction, or it may be the most effective means for fastening impressions. It is such a constant and prominent factor in the problem of the hour's work that the teacher must plan beforehand just how it shall be directed. In addition to opportunities for general movement, such as rising for songs, or marching, every thought given to the child should have some action immediately connected with it as far as possible, both to help him remember it and make it easier for succeeding actions to follow. For example if the lesson is upon helpfulness, each child should be led into doing something for his neighbor before he leaves. A prayer attitude should accompany prayer. As this is the rhythmic period, motions which the children themselves suggest may accompany the songs. The results of directing the activity into helpful channels will be found in better memory of the lesson and in the starting of right habits of action.
(4) An imitable activity in the lesson. In simplest facts set forth in a story of a person, not in exhortation, the lesson must make vivid and attractive an activity which the child can imitate. The more realistic the portrayal, the more surely will the child attempt to reproduce it.
9. Difficulties in the Beginners Age.—The difficulties of this period arise largely from the child's immaturity and are to be overcome by adaptation of methods and instruction.
(1) Restlessness and lack of self-control, making sustained attention impossible. A program consisting of brief exercises, varied in character, full of interest, and permitting frequent movement, will meet this condition.
(2) Limited experience and scanty store of ideas. This necessitates careful selection of teaching material, that spiritual truth outside the child's comprehension be not forced upon him, since he can grasp only that which is like something that he knows.
(3) A limited vocabulary. This calls for watchful care in language, particularly lest a familiar word be used in a sense unfamiliar to the child.
(4) A conflicting home atmosphere. When the child absorbs influences that lack Jesus Christ during seven days in the week, only a teacher filled with Divine life and power can effect counter-conditions more powerful in the brief time of her contact.
10. Results to be Expected in the Beginners Age.—Summing up the results already suggested, the work in the Beginners department will make its impress upon the feelings of the child, primarily. He will have learned some truths about the Heavenly Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, and there is an intellectual value in these. But this value cannot compare with that of the love and trust which come unconsciously, yet really, into his soul, if the teacher has done her work with God.