14. What are special points to look out for in beginning a session?
15. How would you plan to secure good singing?
Lesson 6
The Sunday-school Teacher
72. The Teacher's Office.—Next to the minister of the gospel, the Sunday-school teacher occupies the highest office in Christian service. The central and most important feature of every Sunday-school session is the Bible-teaching period. All the other exercises of the school should be so arranged as to make the teaching period as effective as possible. The teachers do the teaching; hence the importance of the office. The character of the teacher and the efficiency of the teaching usually determine the efficiency of the school; like teacher, like school.
73. The Teacher in Prospect.—Probably the greatest problem in Sunday-school work, at present, is that of securing a sufficient number of good teachers. The only solution of this problem is for every school to have at least one teacher-training class each year. Any school which sets itself definitely to the task of training its own teachers, from its own ranks, for its own classes, will reduce the teacher problem to a minimum. Such a class should be composed of young men and women between the ages of sixteen and thirty, specially chosen by the pastor and superintendent because of their interest in the work and apparent fitness for it. The class should be taught by the best teacher obtainable, though he need not be an expert. It should meet at the church, at the regular Sunday-school hour, thus solving the difficulty as to time and place. Substitute teachers should never be drawn from this class. A teacher's diploma should be issued to each student completing the course and passing the required examination.
74. The Teacher Trained.—Many who are now teaching desire to take a teacher-training course. Difficult though it is to maintain a class for such workers, it can be done. Evidently it cannot meet at the Sunday-school hour, as the teachers are already occupied. A full week-night is preferable, if it can be had; if not, it may come before or after the Workers' Meeting or prayer-meeting, though this arrangement is always more or less detrimental to both meetings. Interdenominational training-classes are much better than none, but the training-class in the local church is the ideal, and should be maintained wherever it is possible. When it is impossible to attend a teacher-training class, or there is none, individuals may take a course alone, and this is often done.
75. The Teacher Chosen.—The teacher should be chosen and appointed by the proper authority representing the church and the Sunday-school. The committee for appointing teachers should be composed of three persons: the pastor of the church, the superintendent of the Sunday-school, and the superintendent of the department where the teacher is to teach. If there is a separate superintendent of teachers in the Sunday-school, he may represent the superintendent of the school in this capacity. No one should be set over any class as teacher whose appointment is not satisfactory to the three persons named above.