INSTRUCTING THE CHILD

Southland Times, Issue 23773, 22 March 1939, Page 12

INSTRUCTING THE CHILD

STUDY OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT TWO ADDRESSES GIVEN BY DR J. D. SALMOND The session of the Institute for Sunday School Teachers and Bible Class Leaders was continued in the First Church Hall last evening. Two addresses were delivered by Dr J. D. Salmond, Director of Youth Work. Dr. Salmond chose as his first subject “Child Study and Development,” and at the outset, raised the question “Why study child-nature?’’ In his answer he stressed the importance of early impressions and the necessity for adapting the handling and teaching of children to their ages and stages of development. Dr Salmond then discussed the importance of home environment. Early home impressions went very deep, a fact which made the spiritual unity of the home so important, he said. In their own homes children were entitled to that protective love which gave them that sense of security from which should grow a natural faith in God. The unhappy situation of many so-called “problem” children could be traced directly to divided homes and unhappy family relationships. The speaker traced the development of children from birth to adolescence. “The most outstanding characteristic of the child under five years is his activity. This activity should not be repressed, but rightly directed. Boisterous behaviour is often an expression of super-abundant energy,” said Dr Salmond. “Sunday School teachers should foster the child’s love of nature and of pictures and seek to impart religious truth through stories. Young children should be trained in simple prayer habits and should have their questions honestly answered.” Discussing the child from five to eight, he said that children at this stage of life were sensitive to atmosphere, endowed with great bodily energy and keenness of sense. They were also very imitative and imaginative and were not always concerned with the canons of truth. Their religion could be described as a “natural religion” and the Biblical material used should be in line with the children’s understanding. The period of eight to 11 years, said the speaker, was very significant. Children during these years were persistent in asking questions and scorning the credulity of smaller brothers and sisters. They displayed a spirit of independence and the “gang” instinct asserted itself. Of particular interest to Sunday school teachers were the powers of memory and the propensities for hero-worship such “junior” children display. This period should be used to store the minds of the children with some of the great passages of scripture and other memory work and with the hero stories of the Bible. The next period from 11 years onwards was the bridge-period in life when the child was dying and the man and woman being born. It was a time of physical and emotional development of enlarging interests and widening horizons. It was sometimes spoken of as the period of “storm and stress” which might express itself in day-dreaming, doubt and reckless self-assertion. Young adolescents responded to the impact of interesting personalities, were sensitive to the atmosphere of worship and were frequently great Ireaders. Adolescence was the time when lifedecisions are made, said Dr Salmond, a fact which had to be carefully noted by all Christian workers among the young. He declared that adolescents required and deserved careful handling and wise and sympathetic guidance on the part of parents and leaders. BIBLE STUDY Dr Salmond’s second address dealt with the subject of Bible study. He declared that Bible study was important because (1) the Bible gave a view of God and of human life essential to the development of personality and (2) the history of humanity in our modern age was showing us that supreme truth was to be found in Jesus Christ. But the study must be made always in a spirit of thoughtfulness, teachableness and trust, he said. Discussing the methods of Bible study Dr Salmond said that Bible students must bear in mind the following suggestions:—(l) Do not go to the Bible with preconceived notions; (2) do not read into the text what is not there; (3) do not study portions of scripture apart from the context; (4) study any portion in the background of the time when it was written; (5) read occasionally a book of the Bible through at one sitting and (6) remember that “the New Testament unfolds the old and the Old Testament enfolds the new.”

Commenting on devotional Bible study the speaker quoted Dr J. R. Mott as declaring: “It is my practice to carry slips of paper in the Bible constantly, on which to write points which come to me in my study. I would rather part with the notes taken when listening to the most distinguished lecturers I have ever heard than with these little papers, which contain the record of my soul’s struggles and of God’s personal dealings with me.” In regard to group Bible study the speaker stressed its great value, but said that to achieve its maximum value this type of study required the cooperation of all the members of ’ the class. Dr Salmond concluded his lecture with the following quotation from John Ruskin.—“ Read your Bible, making it the first morning business of your life to understand some portion of it clearly and your daily business to obey it in all that you understand.”