Religious Education in the Family Part 28

It is a strange spectacle, if we would stop long enough to look at it, of the church proclaiming a way of life but scarcely ever teaching it.

In any church there is a large number of young people under instruction; what are they learning? Usually a theological interpretation of an ancient religious literature. Some still are learning to hate all other persons whose religion differs from the brand carried in that inst.i.tution. In a few years these youths will be bearing social burdens, facing temptations, taking up duties; does their teaching relate at all to these things? No, indeed, that would be "worldly"; it would seem to be sacrilegious to teach them how actually to be religious. The business of the church school is still largely that of filling minds with theological data rather than training young, trainable lives to become religious schoolboys, religious voters, religious parents. How many have been at all influenced by Sunday-school teaching when they stepped into a polling-booth, when they chose a life-mate, when they guided or disciplined their children? If religious education does not at all influence us in the great events of life, of what value is it to us?

Must it not be counted a sheer waste of time?

If we would conserve the human values of the family we must train youth to a religious interpretation of the home. If we cannot do that in the church we might as well confess that the church cannot touch the sources of human affairs.

-- 3. IDEALS AND METHODS

No matter what the breadth of the interests of the public school, youth will still need training for family living given under religious auspices and with the religious aim. The day school may give courses in domestic economy, but family living demands more than ability to sweep a room or cook an egg. In fact, no one can be competent to meet its higher demands unless at least two things are accomplished, first, that he, or she, is led to see the family as essentially a religious, spiritual inst.i.tution because it is an a.s.sociation of persons for the purpose of developing other persons to spiritual fulness; secondly, that he, or she, is moved to willingness to count the work of the family, its purpose and aim, as the highest in life and that for which one is willing to pay any price of time, treasure, thought, and endeavor.

This means that the fundamental need is that our young people shall grow up with a new vision and a new pa.s.sion for the home and family. That pa.s.sion is needed to give value to any training in the economics or mechanics of the home; and that training is precisely the contribution which the church should make to all departments of life today. It is the prophet, the interpreter, revealing the spiritual meanings of all daily affairs and quickening us to right feeling, to highly directed pa.s.sion for worthy ideals.

From the general teaching, the high message of the church, directed to this special problem, there must be formed in the mind of the coming generation a new picture of the family, a new ethics of its life, a new evaluation of its worth. That can come in part by the prophetic message from the pulpit, but it will come more naturally and readily by regular teaching directed to the actual experiences and the coming needs of the young people who are to be home-makers. The soaring ideals pa.s.s over their heads, but when you teach the practice, the details of the life of the family in the spirit of these ideals, as interpreted and determined by the higher conception, then they catch the vision through the details.

We need two types of cla.s.ses in church schools in relation to the life of the family: First, cla.s.ses for young people in which their social duties as religious persons are carefully taught and discussed. Perhaps such courses should not be specifically on "The Family," but this inst.i.tution ought, in the course, to occupy a place proportionate to that which belongs to it in life. The instruction should be specific and detailed, not simply a series of homilies on "The Christian Family,"

"Love of Home," etc., but taking up the great problems of the economic place of the family today, its spiritual function, questions of choice of life-partners, types of dwelling, finances and money relations in the family, children and their training, and the actual duties and problems which arise in family living.

All topics should be treated from the dominant viewpoint of the family as a religious inst.i.tution for the development of the lives of religious persons. The courses should be so arranged as to be given to young people of about twenty years of age, or of twenty to twenty-five.

They should be among the electives offered in the church school.

The second type of cla.s.s would be for those who are already parents and who desire help on their special problems. Many schools now conduct such cla.s.ses, meeting either on Sunday or during the week.[51] Work on "Parents' Problems," "Family Religious Education," and similar topics is also being given in the city inst.i.tutes for religious workers. No church can be satisfied with its service to the community unless it provides opportunity for parents to study their work of character development through the family and to secure greater efficiency therein. Such cla.s.ses need only three conditions: a clear understanding of the purpose of meeting the actual problems of religious training in the family, a leader or instructor who is really qualified to lead and to instruct in this subject, and an invitation to parents to avail themselves of this opportunity.

The value of such a cla.s.s would be greatly enhanced if it should be held in close co-ordination with similar cla.s.ses or clubs conducted by the public schools.[52] Here all the parents of the community meet in the school building, not to discuss how the teachers may satisfy parental criticism, but to learn what the school has to teach on modern educational methods applied to the life of the child, especially in the family, and mutually to find ways of co-operation between the home and the school for the betterment of the child.

I. References for Study

Articles in _Religious Education_, April, 1911, VI, 1-77.

Helen C. Putnam in _Religious Education_, June, 1911, VI, 159-66.

George W. Dawson in _Religious Education_, June, 1911, VI, 167-74.

Cabot, _Volunteer Help in the Schools_, chap. vii. Houghton Mifflin Co., $0.60.

II. Further Reading

Forsyth, _Marriage, Its Ethics and Religion_. Hodder & Stoughton, $1.25.

Lovejoy, _Self-Training for Motherhood_. American Unitarian a.s.sociation, $1.00.

Pomeroy, _Ethics of Marriage_. Funk & Wagnalls, $1.50.

III. Topics for Discussion

1. In how far are home problems due to the ignorance of parents?

2. What do you regard as the essentials in the training of parents?

3. Where can the necessary subjects best be taught?

4. What are the difficulties in the way of teaching these subjects to young people?

5. In how far can we direct the reading of young people toward sane and helpful knowledge of family life and duties?

FOOTNOTES:

[51] Pamphlets on plans for parents' cla.s.ses: _The Home and the Sunday School_, Pilgrim Press; _Plans for Mothers' and Parents' Meetings_, Sunday School Times Co.; _How to Start a Mothers' Department_, David C.

Cook Co.; _The Parents' Department of the Sunday School_, Connecticut Sunday School a.s.sociation, Hartford, Conn.

[52] See pamphlet published by the National Congress of Mothers: _How to Organize Parents' a.s.sociations and Mothers' Circles in Public Schools_.

APPENDIXES

APPENDIX I

SUGGESTIONS FOR CLa.s.s WORK

This book is designed for individual reading or for use in cla.s.ses. It is not a textbook of the same character as a textbook in mathematics or history, but the material is arranged so as to be both easily readable and of ready a.n.a.lysis for cla.s.ses. There are two methods of following the course: one by work conducted under a regular teacher in a cla.s.s, and the other by private or correspondence study.

-- 1. THE CLa.s.s

The cla.s.s should be composed of parents and other adults, inasmuch as the work is designed for them. It may be a cla.s.s in connection with the Sunday school in a church, a cla.s.s conducted by a mothers' club or congress or by a parent-teacher a.s.sociation, or it may be organized under other auspices. Or it might be organized by a group of parents in any community. The cla.s.s need not consist of either fathers or mothers alone, as the work is planned for both. In any case the work of teaching will be facilitated if, in addition to the customary officers of the cla.s.s, the teacher will appoint a librarian, whose duties would be to ascertain for the members of the cla.s.s where the books for study and for reference may be obtained, that is, whether they are in the public library, church library, or in private collections, and also, whenever it is desired to purchase books, where they may best be secured.

-- 2. THE TEACHER

The primary requisite for the teacher will be an eagerness to learn, a sufficiently deep interest in the subject to lead to thorough study. No one can teach this cla.s.s who already knows all about the subject. A spirit sympathetic with the child and the life of the family and a mind willing to study the subject will accomplish much more than facile rhetorical familiarity with it. The best teacher will not often be "an easy talker" on the family; cla.s.s time is too precious to be occupied with a lecture. While, naturally, one who is a parent will speak with greater experience than another, the ability to teach this subject cannot be limited to fathers and mothers; physiological parenthood is less important than spiritual parenthood. The teacher must have, then, willingness to study the subject, ability to teach as contrasted with mere talking, sympathy with parenthood, and a pa.s.sion for the religious personal values in life.

-- 3. GENERAL METHOD

The teacher's aim will be to make this course definitely practical. The book is not concerned so much with theories of the family as with the present problems of the family, and especially with those that relate to moral and religious education. There must be a sense of definite problems to be concretely treated in all lessons. The teacher will therefore encourage discussion, but will also avoid the tendency to drift into desultory conversation. Direct the discussion to avoid tedious detours on side issues. Direct the discussion to avoid the tendency to treat superficially all the subject at one session. It will be necessary frequently to insist that attention be focused upon the immediate problems suggested by the lesson for the day, and to ask the cla.s.s to wait until the subjects which they in their eagerness suggest shall come in their due order.

Encourage personal experiences as sidelights and criticisms on the text, but remember that no single experience is conclusive. Beware of the over-elaboration and detailed narration of experiences.

_Insist on a thorough study of the text._ Students should be so prepared as to make a lecture superfluous and to allow discussion to take the place of review and explanation. The greatest danger in parents' cla.s.ses is that the members do not study; cla.s.s work becomes indefinite and soon loses value. Again, the members of the cla.s.s often are unwilling to be governed by the schedule of lessons, and the cla.s.s drifts into aimless conversation. Adult students especially need to be turned from the tendency to regard educational experience as having come to an end with their school days. The members of this cla.s.s will need encouragement; they must be stimulated patiently until they have re-formed some habits of study and rediscovered the pleasures of systematic thinking. The best stimulus will be a teacher so convinced of the supreme importance of the subject to be studied as to lead the members to recognize its importance and the insignificance of any price they may pay for efficient spiritual parenthood.