V
THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE GRADED SUNDAY SCHOOL
General Scheme. The four departments essential to a graded Sunday school, whether large or small, have already been named by anticipation. But it is necessary to give to the subject a closer consideration, and to add the names of other departments which are needed either as departments or subdivisions in the school. Following the analogy of the secular schools, the great divisions of a Sunday school may be named as Elementary, Secondary, and Advanced or Adult. The Elementary Division will include the Cradle Roll, Beginners, Primary, and Junior, taking the scholar up to twelve years of age. The Secondary Division will include the Intermediate and Senior Departments, also the Teacher-training Class, and will embrace the scholars between twelve and twenty years of age. The Advanced or Adult Division will include all the classes wherein the average age is above twenty years, including the Home Department. Beginning with the youngest children, the departments of a thoroughly organized school are the following:
1. The Cradle Roll.[6] This should include all the little ones in the families of the congregation who are too young to attend the school. Their names, in large lettering, in plain print rather than script, should be recorded upon a list, framed and hung upon the wall in the Primary room. A separate card catalogue should be kept of the names alphabetically arranged, with ages, birthdays, parents' names, and the street address of each family. Every effort should be made to keep the list complete; children should inform their teachers of new little brothers and sisters for the Cradle Roll; the pastor in his visitation should take their names and report them; and the teacher or conductor in charge of the Cradle Roll should occasionally visit every family on the list. Whenever gifts are made to the pupils of the school, as at Christmas or on birthdays, toys and dolls for the little ones of the Cradle Roll should not be forgotten. In a small school the care of the roll and the visiting of the families may be assigned to the Primary superintendent; but in a large Sunday school it will call for a special conductor, and recognition as a separate department. Let no one suppose that this is an unimportant, sentimental matter. The Cradle Roll, maintained as it should be, will awaken interest in every family having a name inscribed upon it, and in due time will lead many little feet to the Sunday school.
2. The Beginners Department. At about three years of age the little children should be brought to the school, and be regularly enrolled as attending members, their names being now taken from the Cradle Roll. They should remain in the Beginners Department from the age of three to that of six years—the Kindergarten period in the public school. Here they should be told simple Bible and nature stories, without effort to place the stories in chronological order; for children of this age have only a faint conception of the sequence of events. They may be taught simple songs, marching exercises, etc. It is a mistake, however, to give them much, if any lessons, to tax the memory, beyond a few short sentences of the Bible and verses of children's songs. If they can meet in a room by themselves, with their own teacher, it will be better than to have them in the Primary room; for the work in this grade should be constantly varied, and the stories very brief, in order not to weary the little ones. If they must meet in the room with the Primary children, they should sit by themselves as a separate section, and not with their older brothers and sisters.
3. The Primary Department. This department should be the home of little children between six and eight or nine years of age. They should remain in it until in the day school they have begun to read. Boys and girls may be placed in the same classes, which should be for those six years old, seven years old, and eight years old, respectively. With each year their seats should be changed, indicating their promotion from the lower to the higher classes. In this department the simpler stories of the Bible and other helpful stories adapted to the grade should not only be told but taught, and the children expected not only to learn but also to tell them. The Twenty-third Psalm, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, a few other selected passages of Scripture, and some standard hymns of the Church should be memorized.
In many well-organized Sunday schools both the Cradle Roll and the Beginners class are recognized as subdivisions of the Primary Department, and are under the direction of the Primary superintendent.
4. The Junior Department. This department will care for the children from the ages of eight or nine until the full age of twelve; except that boys or girls who are especially advanced in intelligence may be promoted upon examination at eleven years. In a very small Sunday school all the pupils of this department may form one class, provided they can have a room by themselves. If they must meet with the rest of the school, they may be organized either in two classes, one of boys, the other of girls. If, however, the number of scholars will admit, it is far better to place the pupils in separate classes for boys and girls, with different classes for each year of the period. To scholars of the Junior grade the great characters and events of Bible history should be taught in their order; also the most important facts about the Bible, and in a simple form the lands and localities of the Bible. In churches which use a catechism this should constitute a part of the teaching in the Junior Department, for at this period the child's verbal memory attains its greatest strength.