RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21040, 31 May 1930, Page 5

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

By Amplius. A' SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER’S CREED. “I believe in the glorious possibilities of young lives brought into living touch with the Christ of the children. In the efficacy of intercessory prayer; in the influence of a Christian life; in the value of thorough preparation of the lesson; in the Gospel of smiles; and in the unceasing presence of Omnipotent Love.” Sunday School Literature in Burma.— The preparation of a suitable literature for Sunday school work in the various countries is always a problem which is being studied by the World’s Sunday Schools' Association. The Burma Sunday School Union, is issuing a second book of the Group Graded Lesson Series in Burmese for Sunday schools of that land. They are purposing to print it in Karen also. There are more Karen Christians in Burma than there are of any other race. A third book in this aeries of Graded_ Lessons will be prepared as soon as possible. Work is already in progress on a similar coure of primary lessons. The first book is now in use. The World’s Sunday School Association has rendered some financial help to make this literature possible. Sunday School _ Items From Bible Lands. —The beautiful silk banner which represented Bible lands at the ’ Los Angeles Convention was on display for two months last year in the Sunday School Office in connection with the Diocesan Book Room in Jerusalem. The large map of Sunday schools in Bible lands is now bung on the walls in the beadquarters office in Beyrouth. On Amman, iu Trans-Jordama, a young man has opened a Sunday school for boys, but the school meets on Friday, which is the Government holiday, instead of Sunday. THE TEACHERS THAT MAKE GOOD. By W. E. Raffety. The old saying, that teachers are horn, not made, is about as far from the full truth as to say the same about doctors, lawyers, ministers, farmers, mechanics, and merchants. The atom of truth in the statement is that there seems to be an hereditary or instinctive twist toward the chosen business or profession, which makes training in it easier. Perhaps the born teacher responds more readily to the joy of teaching than one who must overcome disinclination or other difficulties. The teachers that really make good' in public school or Sunday school must be made through well-known processes of training. After all, is there any such thing as a born teacher? Yes; if we mean one who is born to be made a teacher, and who is willing to pay the price of training. ENRICHED PERSONALITY PLUS. Isn’t it strange that good people in a community who get “ fighting mad ” about an incompetent public school teacher, or an inadequate text-book, will calmly sit by with never a question about the competency of the teacher, or suitability of the lesson materials , which their children have at the Sunday school. If it is important that those who teach our children the “ 3 R’s ” be trained and certificated by the State, of how mnch more importance is it that those who teach the “ fourth R," Religion, be skilled in the use of the best materials and methods. Surely religious education is

essential to the full rounding out of char* acter. The school that meets on Sunday is, or should a be, a school in the best sense, and, being a school that deals with the spiritual verities of life, should guarantee to its pupils, in simple justice, trained workmen “that needeth not to be ashamed.” The fact that week-day teachers are paid, and Sunday school teachers are not does not change the other fact, that the very nature of the Sunday school task may well call for even a higher grade of intelligence and teaching ability. .Because in front of the word “school,” we place such sacred names as “ Sunday.” “ Sabbath,” “ Bible,” Church,” does not for one moment mean that a special providence will make it unnecessary for the teachers to be prepared, Rather let such prefixes lift us to the higher reaches of obligation to make good. Granted that a Sunday school teacher may have three things; (1) Christian life and experience; (2) native ability: (3) and education in the "3 R’s,” there must also be education in the “ fourth R,” with training to make it effective in the lives of others. Then, too, that, Christian life and experience must be made intelligent and vital; that native ability must be conserved, developed, and channelled; that knowledge °f the “3 R’a" must be captured and made the willing servant of religion. WHAT IS TEACHING? Most of all. Sunday school teaching is a sharing of religious knowledge and experience, the mature person with the immature, the older with the younger, in close and happy fellowship. In the fullest finest sense to make our Sunday schools more educational is to make possible better spiritual results. The Heavenly Father has His purpose set for every human life. The Sunday school teacher who makes good is the one who somehow discovers God’s purpose for his individual pupils, and then moves quietly, prayerfully, skilfully, into the inner circle of their lives, there exposing them to the eternal truths of God that transform and Christianise all human motives, attitudes, habits, and ideals into His likeness, John Ruskin long ago gave his conception of education, which may help us who are interested in religious education, “ Education does not mean teaching people what they do not know. It mean's teaching thorn to behave as they do not behave. It is not teaching youth the shapes of letters and the tricks of numbers, and then leaving them to turn their arithmetic into roguery, and their literature into_ lust. It means, on the contrary, training them into the perfect exorcise and kingly continence of their bodies and souls. It is a painful, continual, and difficult work, to be done, by kindness, by watching, by warning, by precept, and by praise, but, above all — by example.” ESSENTIALS IN THE TEACHER THAT MAKES GOOD. There are three essentials for the teacher that makes good. The teacher must know, observe, do. He must know: (1) The nature and needs of the pupils served, in their several stages of growth and development; he must know their general and specific characteristics, their normal, experiences, and how these react. (2) The materials of instruction, the Bible, its content, message, geography, etc.; Christian truth in pictures, music, biography, story, and other life-influcnc-ing sources. (3) Principles and methods of instruction to make the lesson live by making the content-materials contagious in character transformation. (4) The Sunday school as an organisation where fellowships are formed and group wor-

ship made possible, should be well understood by the teacher in order that he may appreciate its great objectives and its far-reaching influences as an' institution. The teacher must also learn that mere knowledge acquirement, even of fhe Bible, is not in itself training. He must observe keenly the good teaching of public school teachers haying the same age pupils as his own. Visits to other Sunday schools for the observance of class work known to be good, will give added zest to his own tasks. His own theory and practice will be checked up by watching a fellow-teacher. Unconsciously he will absorb much of the spirit and method of one whose high-grade work commends itself to him. Thirdly, he must “ learn to do by doing”; that practice tends to- perfect one in teaching, provided the teacher profits by accurate knowledge, sound theory, and wide observance. The public school teacher, trained in normal schools and universities, studies, observes, and teaches under supervision. So must the teacher in the Sunday school, in a simpler but no less real scheme of training, come to the place where he can make ■ good, Many an adult Christian in the country, or in the town, often thinks. “If 1 were only living in the city with all its advantages, what a faithful and useful Sunday school worker I would be.” Or, “If I only lived in the country, where Sunday school teachers are few and far between I’d roll up my sleeves and go to work.” No, she wouldn’t, for she is a D.P.O.—a duty-put-off-er.” Many such as she are content to take it out in talk, and shrivel their - own .soul by a lazy let-it-alone spirit. They are their own big cheats—time stealers. Because they rob self, they rob others who could profit by the full investment of their best self'; then, too, they arc eternally unfair to God. “God has His biggest things in life For .the few who dare to stand the test; God has His second choice For those who will not have the best; And some there are who never make the highest choice, And when by trials pressed, They shrink, they yield, they shun the cross. And so they lose the best. I want in this short life of mine Just as much as may be pressed Oi service true to God and man, So help me. Lord, to be my best."