The Boy and the Sunday School Part 6

=Possible Present Use of the Graded Lessons=

=Departments Years Courses of Study=

Beginners Four Five A Unit of two years.

Six Primary Seven A Unit of three years.

Eight

Nine Lower--A Unit of two Ten years.

Junior Eleven Upper--A Unit of two Twelve years.

Thirteen Lower--A Unit of two Fourteen years.

Intermediate Fifteen Upper--A Unit of two Sixteen years.

Seventeen A Unit of one year.

Senior Eighteen A Unit of two years.

Nineteen Twenty

Lesson Committee Leaflet No. 2, International Sunday School a.s.sociation.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PUPILS OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL, AND CHARACTER OF GRADED LESSONS FOR EACH DEPARTMENT

=Divisions Departments Age or Grade Themes of Lessons=

/ /Four --1st year --G.o.d the Heavenly Father, BEGINNERS / our Provider and Protector.

Five --2d year --Thanksgiving, prayer, helping E others.

L /Six --1st year --G.o.d's power, love and care, E awakening child's love, trust M and confidence.

E Seven --2d year --How to show love, trust and N PRIMARY / obedience, in Jesus' love and T work for men; how to do G.o.d's A will.

R Eight --3d year --People who choose to do G.o.d's Y / will; how Jesus revealed the Father's love and will.

/Nine --1st year --Stories of beginnings, three patriarchs, Joseph, Moses and Jesus.

Ten --2d year --Conquest of Canaan, stories of New Testament, life and JUNIOR / followers of Jesus.

Eleven --3d year --Three Kings of Israel, divided kingdom, exile and return, introduction to New Testament.

Twelve --4th year --Gospel of Mark, studies in Acts, winning others to G.o.d, Bible the Word of G.o.d.

/ / /Thirteen --1st year--Biog. studies in Old Testament, religious leaders Lower / in N.A. salvation and service S Fourteen --2d year--Biog. studies in New E INTERME- / Testament, Christian leaders C DIATE after New Testament times.

O /Fifteen --3d year--Life of the Man N Upper / Christ Jesus.

D / Sixteen --4th year--Studies in Christian A living.

R /Seventeen--1st year --World as a field for Christian Y service; problems of youth in social life; Ruth; James.

Eighteen --2d year --Religious history and SENIOR / literature of the Hebrew people--Old Testament.

Nineteen --3d year --Religious history and literature of the New Testament.

Twenty --4th year --

ADULT Grading and Cla.s.sification and Courses now being studied by a Special Committee of the International a.s.sociation.

Prepared by Professor Ira M. Price, Secretary International Sunday School a.s.sociation Lesson Committee.

These International Lessons are undoubtedly the best on the market at the present time, although they are very far from being perfect. Gradual changes, coming from experience in the local Sunday school, will modify them considerably in the next few years, and they may actually prove to be forerunners for an almost entirely new series of courses and lessons.

They have been generously received by the eager workers in the local Sunday school, as an advance on the Uniform Lessons, and where they are now being tried satisfaction, for the most part, is being evinced. A great deal of dissatisfaction has been found with the treatment of these Graded Lessons in some quarters, the Lesson Helps being too mature for teen age boys. _However, in appraising the value of these Graded Lessons, two things should be kept in mind, viz.: the selection of the Lesson Material, and the Lesson Help Treatment of the selected material._ Opposition to the lessons should never be taken because of the Lesson Helps. These can be remedied by the denominational publis.h.i.+ng houses, if their attention is called to the weakness or mistake of treatment, and the teen age teacher can give great a.s.sistance to the denominational editors by counseling with them.

Here and there the suggestion has sprung up for a Graded Uniform Lesson.

That is precisely what the treatment of the Uniform Lesson was for a number of years, and is yet. It is not adaptation of treatment that is needed, but adaptation of material that is demanded--courses of study that fit the religious, spiritual need of the various stages of development. This much is positively settled.

There is, however, some good reason and very strong ground for uniform cycles, based on seasonable development rather than on chronological years and intellectual rating. In some places the present Elementary International Graded Lessons are being used just this way, although they do not yield themselves readily to this usage. Cycles of four courses for the three main divisions of boyhood, nine to twelve years, thirteen to sixteen years, and seventeen to twenty years, four courses to each period, based on the general, seasonable development of each period, have much in their favor. Thus we might have four courses built on Individual Heroism, four on Altruistic Heroism, and four on the Social Adaptation which marks the reflective period between seventeen and twenty. Boys do not mature by years. Growth and development is a jump from plateau to plateau.

This would fit in also with the general objective of the Sunday school, and is not the mere impartation of information, but the letting loose of moral and religious values in life. The latter is produced more by contact of personality with personality than by intellectual processes.

Should such a plan ever be adopted the courses of study must be pedagogically arranged and in keeping with the best findings of psychological usage.

At any rate, whatever be the course of study, the teen age boy needs to have his life and activity center about the dynamics of the Bible. "The Art of Living Well" can only be learned out of the textbook of the experience of the ages. The ordinary tasks and interests of boys, as well as daily conduct, can be made great channels for life's best achievement only in proportion to the dynamic throb of the Word that has inspired men to heroism amid the commonplace and the uncommon, to self-sacrifice and peace.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON BIBLE STUDY

Alexander.--Sunday School and the Teens ($1.00).

Horne.--Leaders.h.i.+p of Bible Study Groups (.50).

Starbuck.--Should the Impartation of Knowledge Be a Function of the Sunday School? (.65).

Use of the Bible Among Schoolboys (.60).

Winchester.--The International Graded Sunday School Lessons (_American Youth_, April, 1912) (.20).

X

THROUGH-THE-WEEK ACTIVITIES FOR BOYS' ORGANIZED CLa.s.sES[5]

The Sunday school has at last begun to realize that a boy demands more than spiritual activity to round out his life into symmetrical development. It also comprehends that religion is more than a set of beliefs--_that religion is a life at work among its fellows._ "For to me to live is Christ"--to live, play, love, and work. Because of these two reasons, the Sunday school a.s.sumes its obligation to direct and foster the through-the-week life of its boys, as well as the Bible period of the Sunday session of the school.

_Contact_.--Of course, for a long time the leaders and teachers of Boys'

Organized Bible Cla.s.ses have felt the need of a through-the-week contact with the members of the cla.s.s. The school period of one hour or an hour and a half has been found by most teachers to be too meager for a healthy cla.s.s life. Then, too, most teachers are realizing that really to touch the life of the boy more contact than the teaching of the Bible lesson is necessary. Some teachers are taking an interest in the school or working conditions of the teen boy. Quite a few teachers are now deeply interested in the leisure time of their pupils, and have begun to direct the physical, social and mental activities of the teen years, as well as the spiritual. They have realized that the teen age is not made up of disjointed and disconnected activities, but is in a continual process of development, and that its growth is normally symmetrical and its activities intertwined.

_The Organized Cla.s.s._--The great majority of Sunday school teachers have no desire to try any auxiliary organization in combination with their cla.s.ses. They are somewhat dubious of the machinery, ritual, etc., which are concomitants of these schemes. Again and again they have voiced a demand, not for new organizations, but for activities to deepen interest in the organization that the teacher understands--the Bible Cla.s.s.

The Organized Boys' Bible Cla.s.ses operate in the Secondary Division or teen years of the Sunday school, from 13 to 20, and include both the younger and older boys. The earlier and later adolescent periods are separate and distinct groups. Plans and activities that have proven successful with one group will prove to be ineffectual with the other.

All things should be planned to meet the development of the group. In the following list of activities the group interests have not been separated as they intermingle with each other. _If the cla.s.s be allowed to choose and voice its sentiment, the right activity will always be selected._ Besides, if the members make their own choice, there can be little complaint at results, and they will work harder for the success of their own plans. All this develops character, which is one of the real reasons for these through-the-week activities.

=Activities for Teen Boys' Organized Bible Cla.s.ses=

#Physical#

ATHLETICS