Principles of Reform in Sunday Scbool Work

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 4, 1 October 1915, Page 42

Principles of Reform m Sunday Scbool Work

THE' PROBLEM OF THE ADOLESCENT

The ideal of our Sunday Schools is no doubt that every scholar should continue to attend the School (unless his parents remove to some other district) until he reaches the top of the School, and then, after having been confirmed, should become a full Church member, a regular communicant, and an active Church worker. As a matter of fact, there is a continual leakage going on from the School and , from all the classes, but especially from the upper classes of boys, and, to a lesser degree, of girls, and the percentage of our Sunday School scholars who became regular worshippers, givers and workers, is comparatively small, m most parishes. There comes a time m the life of most adolescents when they feel : 41 I am too old for Sunday School," and; unless parental authority is •strong or the influence of teacher or vicar is great, the young person ceases to attend School. Many pf these young people are below the age at which it is customary to present them for confirmation and many of them, if not most, have never formed the habit of Church going. (By the way, why is it that so many of our choir boys cease to attend Church when they leave the choir because their voice has broken ?) These young people, leaiving the Sunday School, drift Tight away from Church influence sX least for many years.

Why do lads attend Sunday School m less numbers than do the girls ? Evidently because what is offered the boy m Sunday School is not sufficiently attractive to him. And when is it that the lad throws off parental restraint, if any, a nd ceases to attend School ? When he feels that he is no longer a child but would like to be treat•ed as a man. He is no longer content to sit still and be talked at, to learn his catechism and sing children's hymns— hie wants to be up and doing. Great and vital changes are happening m his body and equally great changes are happening m his spiritual nature. He becomes one of a gang of lads, if allowed to follow his own inclination, and he will do much and sacrifice much for the good of his gang. In his heart, at a certain stage of his life, there is the desire to be somebody, to do something for others, to be a hero. In nothing has the reformed Sunday School departed more from| long established usage than m its treatment of the adolescent. At the time when the young person, boy or girl, feels that he is too old to be any longer simply a learner, and is longing to do something for others, the reformed Sunday School provides work for him and makes him the offer : " Come and help m the primary department ; we want teachers there — all you will have to do. at first is to take a class of little ones and tell them a story." And a considerable percentage of our young people respond to the offer, if you take them young enough. One learns much when organising for the first time a primary department on reformed lines. You must have a good supply of teachers or helpers — elder brothers and sisters we call them— at least one for every four children m the department. So you go to the Bible Class, if you have one (m many places, all the young people have drifted away before they come to Bible Class age), and say.: "Will you come and teach m the Kindergarten ? " and as a rule, the members, with one consent, begin to make excuse. You go then to the senior class m the Sunday School and make the same offer— with the same result, ; perhaps. You are now m despair — these are the young people on whom you had

been relying for help. What are you to do ? In desperation, you go to the class of quite small lads below the top class, andj to your surprise, almost every lad wants to help. They fall over each other m their eagerness to be taken, and among the volunteers are some of the naughty boys of the School, yet, withal, lads who are always willing to do anything for yoiu before School. Is it because they are dreadfully bored by having nothing to do ? And then you begin to think. What is the explanation of all this ? Simply this, that every faculty, almost, that we have atrophies if not used. And this is true of the desire to work, to do something for others. Keep the scholar as a passive listener beyond the time when he, by nature, desires to be an active doer, and very soon the desire to dp vanishes altogether. Is this the reason why so many of our adult Church members do practically nothing to help forward the work of the Church ? It may be, and it may be that relormed methods m the Sunday School will not only do much for the Sunday School but for the Church as well. . The problem of the adolescent resolves itself into finding work for each lad and girl such as appeals to them and then training them to do it. Of course, at first, they can do little to help — they cannot even tell a story well— but then, how few adult Sunday School teachers can. But you have got them into active Church work ; their part is to act the elder brother and sister to some of Christ's little ones and YOU have to train them for their work. They come once a week to the training class, where, apart from the lesson for next Sunday, they learn as much, if not more than they would m their class m the Sunday School— they learn to cooperate with the leader by bringing to the class maps to illustrate the lesson ; they read up commentaries, descriptions of life m the Holy Land and bring a note on what they have read for the benefit of the class. ; •• In the Sunday School itself they receive the little ones on arrival, help them to take off their outdoor things, and gather them around them. They march into School with their class, and. take

part m all that goes on, being always careful. to set a good example because they know that example speaks more loudly than precept. At tfie lesson time, they gather their little ones around them and tell them the story arid then watch with interest while the little ones picture the story m sand or on paper or with plasticine. In .th? training class they study their Bible, their Prayer Book, their Church History, the history of Missions ; m the School they learn to teach by teaching and withal they are always unconsciously studying the child. Is this not where we have made the mistake m time past ? We have not sufficiently studied the child attd so we have tried to force him to take what we believed to be good for him instead of leading him along the road that God desired him to follow. There is plenty of work for the lads m 'connection with the Kindergarten Sunday School or any Sunday School organised on reformed methods. Apart from the duties of secretary, librarian, etc., there is a host of activities always at work. Every week the room has to be got ready, the sand trays and plasticine prepared. Then you want models to illustrate your lessons. Chairs have to be put together, painting of blackboards and plasticine boards done (and what boy does not revel m using a paint brush .?) and a hundred and one other things that an average boy rejoices to help you m. And so you gather your lads and maidens around you. They work with you and for you, and all the time you are making them feel that they are working for the School, for the Church and for the Master, and, learning the joy of giving by giving, and the blessedness of service by service, they become m deed doers of the Word and not hearers only. H. H. ROBJOHNS.