RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 23497, 10 February 1940, Page 6

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

[By Foil ward.]

Help me, 0 Lord, to see rny task aright! These fair young lives, so full of keenest zest, » The paths of careless childhood left behind, Help me to lead them to the Highest, Best. The sunlit peaks of life are far ahead, The upward climb will test both brain and nerve; They need to know the Source of boundless strength ; To hear the words “ Not to be served, but serve.” Help me, dear Christ, while guiding these young feet. To keep my own firm in the narrow way, That through no unsuspected fault of mine May one be lost, or even go astray. —lda Reed-Smith. S.S. PROGRESS. The editor of ‘ S.S. Progress’ has a timely paragraph in the latest issue, which has recently come to hand. In his editorial, Mr A. H. Reed says: “ In the midst of .a troubled world Sunday School people, knowing the vital importance of their vocation, both to the Kingdom of God and to the well-being of the State, will be currying on with fortitude and faith their divinely-appointed work. May it be the experience of all to find that inward peace which the world, can neither give nor take away. And though we cannot tell what a day may bring forth, we may always hope and pray for good tidings to come with no delay, and come they will soon or late.” The articles published in this little magazine will help Sunday school workers in this task of carrying on in the best possible way. It is full of useful suggestions to the teacher, and will well repay a thoughtful reading. ACHIEVING CHRISTIAN PERSONALITY. Achieving Christian personality is the “ raison d’etre ” of the Sunday school movement and the sole objective of the Christian church. So wo must grapple with the varying aspects of our subject. The raw material of our personality in itself is a vast subject. I shall consider only one, and probably the most vital phase of it, and the one which has been most neglected. We people in the Sunday school movement are compelled to consider the pre-school child, because when children come to us they have a certain history which has already left an abiding mark upon individuality. Outstanding psychologists to-day agree that the first three years of life are the most determinative in the formation of character and personality. This being so, we must probe into the matter and discover the nature of the child. The two chief influences upon personal life are heredity and environment. A child must have a chance to have a healthy body. It has no such chance if parents are suffering from certain diseases or its environment is unsatisfactory. The Sunday school movement demands of the State the abolition of slum conditions. People must sacrifice to save children from physical and moral degradation. Things which go wrong, whether with the body or the mind, in the early years of life leave a deep and permanent impress upon personality, so that of all stages at which the child needs good and happy surroundings, the pre-school years are the most important. Even when the environment is good and happy, how often are children left by mothers to the tender care of maids and nurses! A child needs the fellowship of mother, and no substitute sufficiently adequate can be found. Wo must know what is happening in the homes of our children who come to Sunday school. If we know* the history of the pre-school child wo shall be able more adequately to help him on the way to personality. In homes where real affection is not found, the children run to teacher, wanting constant attention. This is a compensatory value and helps the child to face the difficulties of home. Mothers are the first educators of children. Mothers should look upon education, not as a task which to them is invariably connected with much labour and difficulty, but as a most sacred trust. It will not consist in a series of corrections and admonitions, of punishments and rewards, strung together without unity of purpose, but should be guided by a knowledge of the laws of our nature, and practised in a spirit of benevolence and firmness, leading to the elevation of man into the true dignity of a spiritual being. Indeed, the opinion of Pestalozzi that mothers should train their children “ in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” means that they should endeavour to develop in them the principles of love and faith, for without religion education lacks its coping stone. Mothers and fathers have to remember that those who discipline and train others, must discipline and train themselves. One of the most educative things in the pre-school child’s life is play. Play is a revealer of character. Play is one of the most potent and powerful factors in education. Parents should foster the play impulse in their children; they should afford it all necessary facilities. Froebel says, “ Let us live in sympathy with our "children,” and it is helpful sometimes to see how children respond to adults playing with them; but children are happier playing with other children. Children at play are in Paradise; they are perfectly natural and spontaneous. It is recognised fact ‘that a child cannot learn apart from play; that the child’s knowledge is based on the impressions made upon its senses, and in teaching children it is absolutely vital to remember this. Yet: 1 want to remind those people who talk about the sense knowledge that this is not the only type of knowledge, but simply the lowest typo, which is instrumental in leading to higher types in later life. 'A child cannot learn except through the senses. Mothers as educators of the children must ever remember that the child learns by the manipulation of things and objects. It learns by its own deeds, and its imaginative skill is brought into play in its full creative capacity upon the objects which arc surrounding it or supplied to ; it. Some parents in their over-anxiety for the well-being of little children often do more harm than good. You have probably heard the story of John, who was taken to the doctor by his over-anxious mother. John was a boy of 10, full of beans and life, with flashing eyes and flushing cheeks, muscular, active, and alert. The doctor said. “What is the matter with John?” But the mother replied, “ 1 came to ask you that.” The doctor looked at

the boy and at the mother, went round the corner to the place of mystery, put some pills in a box, and gave them to the mother. As the mother was retiring from the surgery she said: “How often do 1 have to give him one of these?” “They are not for him, they are for you!” replied the doctor. The training of the mind, however, is not the only concern of the parents.: There is the training of the moral and' spiritual aspects of child life to consider. If the instinctive and emotional life are warped it is impossible for the child to face life later. Inconsistent behaviour on the part of adults may influence the formation of character very unfavourably. How often do adults when in company re-: buke a child for what ordinarily would' be passed unnoticed? The child sees no necessary . connection , between thevisitors and the rebuke. Neither do I see it, for behaviour good enough for father and mother should be good enough for visitors. The Church of Christ is the garden of God. There are old gnarled trees which have stood many storms and yet stand firm. The little new shoots coming up from the ground look up to the big trees and wonder when they will be big. We must so feed the soil in God’s garden with the elements of graciousness. knowledge. personal charm, affection, sincerity, and conviction that the children will grow tip spontaneously into the sunshine of the face of Christ.—Uov. E. G. Brabant, M.A.