The Boy and the Sunday School / A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age Boys

by John L. Alexander

The Teacher can do his best work when working in conjunction with the home. It is a good plan to visit the father and mother of the boy. It is also a pretty good thing to occasionally drop in to see the father and mother personally, telling them how the boy is getting along. An invitation extended to the parents through the boy himself to attend a week-night meeting of the class will also afford a valuable means of contact with the home and parents.

The Teacher should by no means try to become a father to the boy. The responsibility and duties of parents must not for one moment devolve upon him. The following editorial from a New York evening newspaper puts this idea in a very clear manner, and it should be given careful consideration by every teacher:

"It takes time to point a boy right. The great merchant can touch a desk bell to give orders for a steamship or a draft of a million dollars. But the merchant's young son, age fourteen, cannot be touched off in that way. The lad has just begun to move out among other boys. They do a world of talking, these young chaps. The father must watch that talk, and he can, if he will take the time.

"The older man has every advantage, for he is looked up to and beloved. It is not so much the 'don'ts' as the 'do's' that constitute his power. He can inspire with high resolve. He can narrate his own victories over sore trials and fiery tests of his integrity. He can draw the sting of poisonous suggestions, moral disheartenings and malice which his child has been cherishing in his young heart. But this means time, and time may be money. Yet no money can buy this sort of instruction, nor put a price on it. The coin is struck in the soul. It is the costliest barter, the very exchange of the soul.

"Boys who go right have invariably had a world of time spent on them in this way. Boys go wrong because the father would not take the time from the market. In after years the same parent will take vastly more time to try, in tears of sorrow, to straighten out that boy."

The Teacher and the School

The Teacher must keep in mind that it is his business to work in cooperation with all of the forces that are trying to help the boy to live rightly in his community. The work of the public school must continue to go on without a break if the ideals of our American citizenship are to be maintained, and it is the business of the Teacher to give his support, encouragement and cooperation for the carrying out of the idea for which the school stands. The public school seeks to give the boy the necessary education toward his earning a livelihood, and the business of the Sunday school Teacher is to give him the right impulses for his moral and religious life—to inspire him to seek the best in everything. The Sunday school Teacher is in partnership with the public school teacher in the education of the boy.

Several well-defined and exceedingly clear principles of action underlie the successful handling of groups of boys:

First, there must be a clear plan well thought out, progressive in its stages with an aim for each stage. In other words, no man need try to work with a group of boys unless he knows what he wants to do, not only in outline but in detail. He must have these details in mind and so well worked out in his thought, knowing exactly what comes next and just what is to be added to that which he has already accomplished, as to be master of the situation at all times and to be the recognized leader. Not only this, but the boys must feel that he really knows what he is driving at in everything that he attempts.

Secondly, before the leader of a group of boys tries to do anything with the group, if he is to be successful, it is necessary for him to make a frankly outlined statement of his plan. That is to say, he should tell the boys what the game is and how it is to be played, getting their approval, and agreement to get in on the deal. He can explain this to all of the boys at one time or singly to each boy. There is no question but that he will succeed best if he will go over the matter first with each individual boy personally, finding out his individual impressions and opinions, and also having discussion before the group. This being done the boys know the plan, the leader knows what he is working toward, and the leader and the boys are partners in the work. Too often groups of boys are brought together and the aim is so hazy in the leader's mind that all the boys can possibly see in the scheme is a "good time."