Guides for Study and Teaching
The Teacher’s Text Book
Two text books are provided with the lessons—one for the teacher and one for the pupil.
In the teacher’s book it has been the aim to give as much material for the individual study of the lesson as is possible within the prescribed limits of the book. Bible passages that throw light either upon the truth to be taught or upon the meaning of the lesson story have been carefully selected. The quotations from the commentators will also be found valuable. The plan of study that will bring the best results to any teacher using this book is first to read carefully the lesson passage and any history intervening between the lesson and the preceding one, to study what is said by the commentators and the Bible references that are given, and to glance over the suggestions under Lesson Preparation.
When these things have been done the teacher should turn away from all books and ask himself, “How can I best present this lesson to my class?” and with the needs of his own pupils in mind, plan the lesson for presentation. After the plan is settled the method of presentation as given in this book will not prescribe a method but may be helpful in the way of suggestion. The importance of individual preparation cannot be emphasized too strongly, for no ready-made lesson can be perfectly fitted to any class.
The lessons for the first half of the quarter are taken from the “morning stories” in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. These stories nourish the soul of the child as few other stories can, because they keep the child in the presence of God. It is a God who not only creates, but guides, loves, reproves, walks, and talks with man as one friend with another. The nine-year-old child is hardly yet beyond the stage where the fancies of fairy tale and myth make a strong appeal. For that reason it seems to him perfectly natural that God in visible presence should meet and converse with his children. These stories, therefore, strengthen the God-consciousness within him, and awaken a response which results in the realization that he, too, may have personal relation with his loving, heavenly Father.
“The ancient Hebrew had no notion of science. He did not ask for the immediate cause of physical events. It entirely satisfied his instinct for ultimate truth to assume that thunder was God’s voice; that God had planted those cedars whose life reached back before the memory of man. He related all mysteries to God, and in that relationship his mind rested and his heart was satisfied.”[2]
This is equally true of the child. His heart is satisfied with God, and he is not troubled with any questions concerning whether these early stories relate actual happenings or not. They are gloriously true because they tell the truth about God. They give the child an axis for his universe, and that is what he is seeking. The teacher should not try to interpret the stories, but simply tell them as nearly as possible in the splendid simplicity of the Bible language.
The Pupil’s Book for Work and Study
This book guides the pupil in his Bible reading and study, indicates verses or passages for memorization, and through the handwork furnishes him an opportunity for making the lesson his own. There are several reasons why this book is of high educational value. One is that it serves to fix the facts clearly in mind and facts are the basis of ideas. Ideas cannot be clearly seen until the facts are mastered.
But the book does much more for the pupil than to put him in the possession of knowledge. It gives him an opportunity to practice obedience in a different way from anything to which he has been previously accustomed. In the Primary Department the children do an increasing amount of handwork, but they do it with the help and under the supervision of their teachers. The nine-year-old child must learn to work by himself and to obey printed instructions.
Teachers examining this work for the first time may think that the pupils’ books for the first year are so stereotyped as to leave no room for originality. That is true in a sense, and the work has been prepared purposely in this way, for before the pupils can do original work, they must have a certain basis of knowledge. They must learn how to follow printed instructions carefully, and be able to make themselves do the thing they are told to do at the time they are told to do it. If through the books of the first year the pupils should learn to be both accurate and punctual, we might feel well repaid even if no other results come from this study. But the fact is that while doing the work exactly as it is assigned they will get the greatest benefit from the lesson themselves, for the spirit of obedience generates an atmosphere in which all the Christian graces possible to a child can best develop and flourish.
The work book ministers to the child’s growing sense of responsibility. If he accepts the responsibility and honestly tries to meet its requirements his character is strengthened thereby. If he shirks his duty his moral nature is weakened.
No teacher can afford to allow the children to neglect the work book. If they do not do the work there outlined, they cannot learn the lessons, no matter how well the stories may be told in class. The child learns not by hearing but by doing. On the other hand the book must never be thought of as an end in itself, but only as a means to an end. In one school the most perfect work book shown in the exhibit represented the most abject failure from the standpoint of religious education. It was made by a boy whose mother had compelled him to do the work and supervised it rigidly. He hated it with his whole heart because he was never permitted to play until that work was done. The mother was exceedingly proud of the book. To have it completed and neatly done was the end she had been seeking, and that she had attained. But the book was well-nigh worthless in the teacher’s estimation because it did not represent the child’s own initiative and volition. When the pupil, incited by example and suggestion and rewarded by commendation, chooses to do the work, the book becomes one of the important means by which the great end of character building is accomplished for him.
The teacher should always have a copy of the Pupil’s Book for Work and Study and do the work in it just as he would like to have the children do it. Of course it should be better done than any child can possibly do it. If the teacher colors the pictures with water colors, uses illuminated initial letters, and writes neatly and plainly, his book will be a great incentive to the children to do the very best possible work themselves.
In the beginning of the first quarter’s work the teacher should remember that these children are still to all intents and purposes Primary children unaccustomed to working alone. It is exceedingly important that each teacher should meet the children of the class during the week after teaching the first lesson and show them how to cut out the pictures for that first lesson and paste them in the book. The children would then be certain to start right, and though it may not be true that “well begun is half done,” a good beginning is so encouraging to the child that he is much more likely to keep up the work and to find it enjoyable. But if he makes mistakes or neglects to do the work at the beginning it is doubly difficult to interest him later. The week day gathering to start the children on their handwork might be called a Work Book Social, ending with games and light refreshments. When the children arrive have them take their books and read carefully with you the instructions on pages 2 and 3 before doing the pasting and writing for Lesson 1. Suggest that the picture sheet be handled very carefully so that the pictures needed for later use may not become marred or defaced in any way. Encourage the children to keep the book clean and neat. In order that the cover may not be soiled from use, it is well to make a cover for each book from manilla paper and place the picture sheet between the manilla cover and the cover of the book so that there will be no danger that the pictures will be lost as the book is carried home. Explain that the reading is to be done each day just as indicated in the book. Great stress should be put at all times upon the doing of these specified tasks regularly and keeping strictly up to date with them, in order that the children may form the habit of daily Bible reading and study.
Incentives and rewards will be found necessary as means for inducing the children to choose to do the work. Juniors do not love work, but are interested in the attainment of results, and when wisely led will learn later to love work for work’s sake. Among the incentives there should be a department Honor Roll, and a Class Banner. The first year children who complete their books satisfactorily should be given a social or outing at the end of each quarter. They like public recognition of every kind, so the prospect of having the book appear in the exhibit on promotion day is a strong inducement for doing good work.
Because of the necessary wear and tear on the book and the danger that it may be lost in carrying back and forth, it is not best to have the pupils bring their books every week to the school all through the year; but in the beginning it is desirable to have the book brought each week so that the teacher may see how the work is being done. After the children are well started the teacher can use his own book in the class in giving any necessary instruction.
The Children’s Bible
In the beginning of this Junior work every pupil must have a Bible of his own, the American Standard, if possible. If the parents will not or cannot provide one, the school must do so, for the child cannot possibly do the work as outlined unless he has a Bible to work with. It is also essential for other reasons. No one can be interested in a book which he does not know how to handle, and it is impossible for any child to become familiar with the Bible if the only time he uses it is on Sunday during the Sunday school session.
If some of the children have a King James Version and some the American Standard, explain that both are translations into English from another language, that the King James translation was made three hundred years ago and that of the American Bible finished at the beginning of this century. Tell the children also that because we think the American Standard gives the meaning more clearly we use it in these lessons whenever any memory texts are printed.
The Rainbow Bookmark
There is no question but that learning the books and divisions of the Bible is one of the hardest tasks that the children will meet during the Junior period. Most of the books have names that are in a foreign language and therefore especially difficult to learn. But as the children commit anything to memory easily in this period, and as the interest in new words is strong, the work is not nearly so hard as adults are apt to think it. But whatever the difficulty may be it is essential, if the children are to get the best results from the Junior work, that in this first year they shall learn the names of the books of the Bible, and learn how to handle the Bible and find references quickly.
The use of the rainbow bookmark has been found helpful in interesting the children in the study and making it easier for them, and in awakening in them a desire to use their own Bibles. Its bright colors are attractive, and the rainbow standing for God’s promises has a beautiful meaning, which is joyfully recognized by the children when they hear the story of The Flood. The bookmark is also useful in conducting department or class drills.
This bookmark is made of nine ribbons in the prismatic colors with indigo and purple, darker shades of blue and violet, and a white ribbon to mark the Gospels. The colors are used in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue (light), white, indigo, violet, and purple. The ribbons put together in such a way that they will not tear the leaves of the Bible can be secured of the publishing house at 25 cents for each bookmark.
How the Bookmark Is Used
The bookmark is placed in the Bible by putting the ribbon at the end of the division for which it stands. In this way red follows Deuteronomy, and marks the five books of Law or the Pentateuch. Orange, following Esther, marks the twelve books of History. Yellow, following the Song of Solomon, marks the five books of Poetry. Green, following Daniel, marks the five books of the Major Prophets. Blue, following Malachi, marks the twelve books of the Minor Prophets. White, following Saint John, marks the four Gospels. Indigo, following Acts, marks the one historical book of the New Testament. Violet, following Hebrews, marks the fourteen Pauline Letters. Purple, following Jude, marks the other seven letters. Revelation, the one book of Prophecy in the New Testament, has no ribbon.
There is a peculiar fitness in having white, the combination of all the colors, for the Gospel story, which is the center and climax of all the Bible narratives, and it is very desirable to have the life of Christ marked in a peculiar way which will set it apart from the rest and emphasize its importance. In the regular order indigo, the darkest and least attractive of all the ribbons, would mark the Gospels, and there would be but one ribbon for the letters, which leaves a series of twenty-one names to be learned in one group.
The Bookmark as a Reward
This device is first mentioned in connection with Lesson 8. In the correlated work for Lesson 9 slips of paper of the bookmark colors are suggested as markers for the memory texts, and the children in this way begin to learn the kinds of books in the Bible. A sheet of paper for each color is not difficult to secure and would make enough strips for several classes.
If the school can afford to give them, the bookmarks make a fine reward to give to the children when they have learned the books and divisions perfectly. If the parents can afford to buy them and the school cannot, suggest that they do so but ask them to wait until the children know the names of the books, so that it will come as a reward in any case.