RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22610, 29 June 1935, Page 27

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

By AurLius

A GARDEN PRAYER. 0 Tliou, Who first a garden made And loved its quiet evening shade, Grant us the strength to dig and sow, And bless the seeds, that they may grow All fair and straight, as in Thy sight Thev grew, when first the world was i light. When spring begins with timid pace, Her footsteps on the earth to trace, Open our eyes, that we may see Thy Hand in every flower and tree, And give us grace each day to find Fresh tokens of a Father's Mind. —M. Findlay. S.S. PROGRESS. The latest issue of Progress has, as usual much to commend for all engaged in church work, whether among the children or voung people. "A-Good Story: How to Tell It," contains much practical help and advice, while " What Am I Accomplishing? " will help to cheer and encourage many disheartened teachers. An article containing much food for thought and reflection i«s " The Wi delScope of the Teachers' Conference,' and "Meditation and Mental Prayer' provides good nourishment for the spiritual life. The whole magazine has something of worth on every page. Our copy comes from Mr A. H. Reed, editor and publisher. PORTRAITS IN YOUR SUNDAY SCHOOL. Do not hang portraits in your Sunday school. It is the wrong place tor them. They handicap the work for which the school was built. To perpetuate the services of a good worker by making the task of hie successors more difficult is a poor tribute. , Pictures and portraits hanging on the walls of a room in which children worship exert a constant influence. Silently but continuously they contribute to the impression which the environment makes upon the mind, and especially upon the mood, of the scholars. They help to determine that powerful factor called atmosphere. The right sort of picture can help greatly. The wrong sort hindere. Portraits of former workers are a hindrance because in a very short time they cease to have any meaning for the children. To the youngsters they are just "dead people." If you could make I eroes of them it would be different, but in the vast majority of cases, no vivid story of their doings can be told. A portrait of a Livingstone or a Florence Nightingale is a different matter. If a great story hangs around the portrait a story that will thrill the boys and girls you'invite to worship in its presence, tell it and make the portrait live. Then it will help. But don't line your school with meaningless faces. Line it with living subjets, whether men or mountains, pictures that inspire young souls. Unfortunately, old portraits to the children and youth of a later generation generally look grotesque. They not only fill the place which might be occupied by realiy worshipful and inspiring pictures; they often provoke irreverent merriment. Who ■ has not seen the merry gleam in the eye of some 10-year-old as he nudged his neighbour, nodded in the direction of a portrait, and whispered " Beever." And why should the lad be rebuked for what we all do at home when we laugh over the odd-looking fashion in our old photographs? Let the portraits be removed with all due respect to some vestry or special room, where the children are not expected to worship. Or let your annual church meeting ballot on them and dispose of those no longer widely desired, for many of them remain on view long after those to whom they were precious have passed away. In rooms where they must_ remain, move them to the rear or sides, so that they will not constantly confront the scholars. If that be impracticable take them down or _ drape them tastefully with curtain during the service. In an age when the Sunday school if. fighting for its existence we want no hindrance that can be avoided. Let us teplace our portraits with really beautiful pictures like "The Angelus," "Go Ye," " The Vigil," the central figure of the '• Sistine Madonna," " The Matterhorn," and many others that are full of worship and aspiration.'. —T. A. Jefferies.

INTRODUCING TEACHER TRAINING Let us remember that teacher training is itself teaching, and therefore must follow sound pedagogical methoda. Several things are involved, therefore, in the introduction of teacher training, but the most important of all is interest. Now interest needs to be stimulated. Teachers must be interested in teacher training before any group can be a success in the study of teaching. This can be done in several ways. Ihere is, first of all, a stimulation which comes from emergency conditions in the Sunday school. Examples of this are as follows: —The forced withdrawal from the school of a very successful teacher and the problem of securing a successor; the erection of a new Sunday school building calling for an enlarged programme of religious education and more teachers; a sudden enlargement of the school by the addition of large numbers of new members. Conditions such as these arouse an interest in teacher training, and so are very favourable to the introduction of .such a course of study. But interest may well be stimulated in other ways. The teachers may be awakened to a sense of need of training. A frank survev of the community which the Sunday school has the responsibility of reaching, an honest realisation of the leakage in the teen age period, a comparison of Sunday school and day school efficiency, a knowledge of certain' standards or forms by which a teacher can judge his own work, all these are very important elements in awakening a sense of need in the teachers and so arouse interest in teacher training. By still another way can interest be aroused. There have been many experiments in teacher training productive oi such splendid results that no one who is familiar with them can' fail to be startled by them. Here are teachers by the score, wrestling for years with the same problems we are facing unsuccessfully, and they have solved these problems. How did* they do it? Let us see. No teacher who is really interested in his class and is awake to the problems of his class will fail to respond to such an appeal as that. Visits to other schools, reflective observation, and discussion about ones own problems help to awaken interest. Above all, we must not forget the widespread appeal which the Christian motive of unselfish service makes to the parental instinct in every one of us. No one can resist the appeal of a little child. We can make use of this appeal, along with other methods, in awakening a very deep interest in the introduction of teacher training. We have the interested teachers now. Leaving aside all details of organisation which.must depend on local conditions, let us enumerate some general principles which must be followed at the beginning of our group study. The programme must be related to the principal needs of the teacher. This has its implications for the introduction of teacher training. It implies, for example, that two or three teachers may meet together and discuss practical problems, and so constitute a teacher training group in a very helpful, beneficial way. While without a doubt a large class under a skilled teacher following a standard course of teacher training as suggested by the denominational boards is the better in that a more systematic and orderly programme is carried out, if conditions render such a class impossible, very efficient teacher training can be carried out in the simple manner I have suggested. The programme must be correlated to the actual work of teaching. Observation and experiment must go hand in hand with teacher training; the teachers learn by doing. This implies that the group selected for teacher training shall not only be interested but shall be teachers. In cases of young people who are training to be teachers in the future, this suggests that they be given occasional opportunities to teach and thus put into practice what they are learning. The programme must be efficient. By that I mean that through the training from week to week the teacher must be solving problems in practice, and must realise that he is solving those problems by methods which can be viewed, analysed, and controlled. _ The programme must be intensive. Do one thing at a time, and do it well. There is a great danger that we shall endeavour to cover too much ground and so be superficial. Start with one problem, lack of"attention, lack of interest, irregularity of attendance, etc., and stay with that

problem until it has been .analysed from every angle and solved in practice. l<or this conference and discussion are essenFinally, we must remember that teachers' are busy people, with other interests and other responsibilities. The training class must be kept to the point, irrelevant matter must be laid aside. Time must be conserved. The future of our Sunday schools depends upon teacher training. These are practical suggestions as to how it can be introduced into any school.-—Rev. Ear- . vey G. Forster, B.D.