A simple and rather satisfactory way of grouping is by the school boy or wage-earning boy standard. If the boy happens to be in the grammar school he may be grouped with boys of his own educational advancement; so with the boys who are in the secondary or high schools, and the same may be said of working boys who are forced to earn their own livelihood.
Possibly the best and most satisfactory way of grouping boys is by their interest. Some boys will be mutually interested in collecting stamps, riding a bicycle, forming a mounted patrol, working with wireless, in music and orchestra work, etc., and boys grouping together according to such kindred interests as they manifest has proven most satisfactory in general boys' work.
Problems of Boy-handling Simplified by Natural Standard Grouping
Grouping the boys according to natural standards makes the problem of handling them much simpler. Boys between twelve and fourteen are in the age of authority, and the word of the Teacher will settle most difficulties that arise. Boys between fourteen and sixteen are in the age of experience, and an opportunity must be given them to check up what they are told by what they are experiencing. Between twelve and fourteen authority may be rigid. Between fourteen and sixteen it must be giving way to reason. Authority will still continue to settle the boys' disputes, but it will be the authority that gives reasons for its action. Boys between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years can only be handled on the basis of cooperation. They have passed from the stage of blindly following what they are told. They have experience enough to know that they are able to do things themselves, and they have discovered enough things to give them a basis of doing things on their own account. The way to handle boys rightly in this group will be by tactful suggestion and cooperation on the part of the teacher. There will be very little difficulty with the groupings if the Sunday school superintendent or teacher respects the natural, group "ganging" of the boys. The boys themselves group, not according to mental efficiency tests, but according to physiological development. Thus we find boys of various chronological ages in the same gang. A little common sense will prevent many blunders.
Securing Teen Age Teachers
As soon as Sunday school teaching becomes a dignified, worth-while job, men will be attracted to the task and privilege. The unemployed male members of the church will then be led to see that there is something real to be achieved. The vision of a symmetrically developed boy is all that is needed to get most men. Of course, they demand a plan, and the organized Sunday school class with through-the-week activities will supply that.
Sometimes it is a good thing to send the boys themselves after the teachers. This has been found to be of great profit in several places. The request coming from the boys means a lot more than coming from the superintendent. The following extracts from two letters of a teen age superintendent give point to this idea.
"On Sunday a bunch of the younger boys came to Mr. Ball, and said, 'We have no teacher; will you get one for us?' Mr. Ball looked at them, and said, 'Who do you want, fellows?' They looked at each other—this was something new. 'Who do we want?' and the leader turned around and said to the fellows, 'Say, fellows, who do we want?' A hurried consultation revealed the fact that they wanted, of course, one of the prominent men of the church. Mr. Ball said, 'All right; get hold of my coat-tail'; and the crew got hold, and formed a snake line, and out of the school they went, upstairs to one of the class-rooms, in search of Mr. B. They found that he had left for home, and the boys looked at Mr. Ball and said, 'Now, what shall we do?' Mr. Ball said, 'Well, fellows, you know where he lives. I can't go with you, but you fellows go to his home and camp there until he says yes.' Off they started. Several men were telling me this story, and one is a neighbor of Mr. B's. He said that when he got home from Sunday school last Sunday—a bitter cold day—he went out into his back yard, and, glancing over the fences, he saw a bunch of twelve boys lined up on Mr. B's back porch, stamping their feet. He called across to them, 'Say, fellows, what's the matter?' 'We're looking for a Sunday school teacher,' they yelled back. He said he thought he'd drop.
"The next morning Mr. Ball met Mr. B. in the street car, and he grinned across at him and said, 'Did a group of boys call on you yesterday, Mr. B.?' 'They certainly did,' he replied, with a broad grin. 'Well, did they get you?' 'Did they get me? Yes, they sure got me, and from now on I'm going to teach their class; there was nothing else for me to do.'"
The story of another teacher acquired in this way reads as follows: