(2) Classes. The number of classes should be fixed for each department, and their relationship established, so that when a group of scholars is promoted to a higher grade in the same department, or in the next department, they do not enter as classes, but as individuals; not to form new classes in the department, but to be placed in classes already formed. This plan will keep the classes in the Senior Department always full, and avoid the unfortunate skeleton classes of the ungraded school. It will also impress upon the pupils the importance of faithful work.
(3) Promotions. There should be annual and simultaneous promotions throughout the school. One Sunday in the year should be set apart as Promotion Sunday; and on that day all promotions should be made. Those who are to be advanced from the Intermediate to the Senior Department are called out by name and placed in their classes, which are not new classes, but old classes replenished with new members. These promotions will vacate the seats of the Fourth Year classes in the Intermediate Department. But these seats will at once be filled by the Third Year now becoming the Fourth Year, and taking their seats; the Second Year pupils becoming the Third Year; and the First Year the Second Year. The First Year of the Intermediate Department will be left vacant, to be filled by promotion of the Fourth Year in the Junior Department, and the moving up of classes to the year above in the same department; and the First Year of the Junior Department will be filled by promotion from the Primary Department.
(4) Teachers. As groups of scholars pass either from one grade or from one department to another there must also be a change of teachers. This constitutes the crux of the entire system, and in its inception is apt to prove the most formidable obstacle in grading the school. The pupils, however, are accustomed to a system of promotions in the day school, and expect to leave their teachers when they change their grades; but many of the teachers in the Sunday school, not being trained under the system, dislike to lose their scholars, and show their dissatisfaction in ways that affect their pupils. This difficulty must be overcome by tact and an appeal to unselfish motives; teachers must consent for the sake of the common good to give up their old classes and take new ones which begin in the department. The teacher may remain in the grade and receive a new class each year as his pupils advance to a higher grade; or he may remain with the class and advance until the pupils pass from their former department to a higher one, as from Primary to Junior, from Junior to Intermediate, and from Intermediate to Senior. He should then return to a new first year's class in his own department and lead it through the course. If any teacher asks, "Why cannot I go with my class into the Senior Department?" the answer is that if the plan be permitted for one it must be recognized for all; and in the Senior Department there will follow an increasing number of classes, with a relatively diminishing membership in each class. The scholars also need the inspiration of contact with different teachers. Furthermore, the teacher who is adapted to the Junior or Intermediate Department is rarely a suitable teacher for Senior scholars. Hence there is need of a careful assignment of teachers no less than of pupils. Therefore, to maintain a graded school the pupils must change teachers when they change departments.
(5) Lessons. There should be graded lessons for each department. If a graded system be followed in the school, as it should be, with different subjects, text-books, and lessons for each department, giving to the entire school a regular, systematic, progressive curriculum, this requisite will be met. If, however, the uniform lesson for all the school be followed, as at present is still the case in many Sunday schools, the graded teaching must be given in the form of supplemental lessons, taught by the head of the department where it has a separate room, or by the teacher if the departments must be assembled in one room. In some form the graded teaching is an absolutely essential requisite of the graded school. Most schools, when once thoroughly graded, will realize the need of the next step in the evolution of the institution—lessons graded in subjects as well as in methods for the several departments.
(6) Basis of Promotion. The question is often asked, "Should promotions be made on the basis of age, or as the result of examinations?" The examination system may be regarded as desirable in the Sunday school, but there are as yet few schools where thorough examinations can be rigidly insisted on as a part of the school system, and promotions invariably made to depend upon standing. A school which meets only once a week, for a session of less than an hour and a half, and with but one lesson period of forty minutes or even less, cannot maintain the same strictness in its standards as the public school. Moreover, new scholars are continually entering the schools, and, while most of them begin at the foot of the ladder in the Primary Department, yet others enter at various ages and in various grades. Any system of promotion based merely upon acquirement attested by examination is sure to become in many instances a meaningless form when applied to the Sunday school. Yet acquirements and examinations need not be ignored in the graded Sunday school. There may be certain ages at which the pupils shall by right pass from a lower grade to a higher. But it may also be arranged that pupils who are exceptionally bright, well-informed, and studious can be promoted a year in advance of their classmates by passing examination. Let the examination be given in writing to all the pupils, and let all be urged to take it; with the promise that those who pass will be promoted, even though they be less than the required age. But let it also be understood that failure to pass the examination will not keep the student for more than one year from promotion. In other words, the examination may well be made the door through which earnest students may pass on, and so keep abreast of their equals in training and ability.
IV
THE GRADING OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL