Training the Teacher Part 24

Perseverance in faith and good works; punishment of the impenitent; certainty of the Second Advent.

#1 John#

The first of three Epistles of Love. A doctrinal discourse, especially to Gentiles in Asia Minor, aiming to show the true doctrine as to the Person of Christ, and communion with him as necessary to a holy life, and intended to confirm them in their faith.

#2 John#

"To the elect lady" (of whom nothing certain is known) and her children--an exhortation to love, faith, G.o.dliness, and a warning against false teachers.

#3 John#

To Gaius, of whom nothing certain is known, commending him for hospitality and piety, warning him against Diotrephes, and asking his help for Demetrius.

#Jude#

Remarkable for an otherwise unrecorded saying of Enoch (v.

14). Warns against false teachers. Cites examples of impenitence, and affirms certainty of judgment and punishment of the wicked.

Prophetical

#Revelation#

The only prophetical book of the New Testament. The visions of John the Apostle on the Isle of Patmos, in his old age.

THE PUPIL

ANTOINETTE ABERNETHY LAMOREAUX

LESSON PAGE 1. Knowing the Pupil 139 2. The Beginners Age--Three to Six 143 3. Beginners Age (concluded) 147 4. The Primary Age--Six to Nine 151 5. Junior Age--Nine to Twelve 155 6. Junior Age (concluded) 159 7. The Intermediate Age--Twelve to Sixteen 163 8. The Intermediate Age (concluded) 167 9. The Senior Age--Sixteen to Maturity 171 10. Maturity 175

Teaching Hints

Leaders of cla.s.ses, and individuals pursuing these studies apart from cla.s.ses, are urged to read the chapter ent.i.tled "Teaching Hints," on page 259, before beginning this section

Lesson 1

Knowing the Pupil

#1.# There never was a time when so many people were students of human life as to-day. Professional men, business men, politicians, educators, parents, indeed the whole thinking world has apparently matriculated in a college of life. What is it, how does it develop, how may it be influenced, how led to action? These are typical questions to which answers are sought. There would be no value in this study were it not for the fact that life, like all other of G.o.d's creations, is under law, and the laws are unchangeable and universal.

Certain causes will always produce certain results under normal conditions.

#2.# Since these laws of life may be known, two conclusions follow: first, results which are desired in a life can be intelligently planned for; second, haphazard, ignorant work with a life becomes culpable in proportion to the issues at stake and the opportunity for acquiring skill in the work.

#3. Why the Sunday-school Teacher should know the Pupil.#--Next to fathers and mothers, the duty of understanding life is laid most imperatively upon Sunday-school teachers. Four unanswerable arguments present themselves as proof.

(1) _The issues are the most vital in the world._ The case the lawyer seeks to win is important, but the case the teacher seeks to win involves character, not reputation, and the outcome is eternal.

(2) _A mistake with a life cannot be wholly rectified._ There is a best time for each phase of work with a life--a time to form habits and store memory, a time to shape ideals and to crystallize life purposes, a time to broaden sympathies and to lead to service; if this best time be pa.s.sed, the results, if obtainable at all later, come with greater effort and with less success.

(3) _The time is short._ Measured on the dial, an hour in a week or a lifetime out of an eternity is too brief to allow of one wasted moment, one experimental or ignorant touch upon a soul. But measured by the duration of a given opportunity the time is shorter still.

Conditions in the life are constantly changing, never to return in the same way again. What is done in "buying up the opportunity," must be done quickly.

(4) _Success is largely conditioned upon obedience to G.o.d's laws._ Only the Holy Spirit can make spiritual work effective, but he always operates in accordance with G.o.d's laws. There are conditions between the teacher and G.o.d which must be met before he can work, and conditions between the teacher and the pupil. These conditions or laws are not hidden and mysterious, but may be definitely known, and in proportion as they are obeyed will G.o.d have access to the soul of the pupil.

#4. What the Teacher Should Know about the Pupil.#--Every teacher owes to G.o.d and to the life he seeks to touch a twofold knowledge: first, a knowledge of the general laws in all life, and second, a knowledge of the individual life of each pupil.

(1) _General knowledge._ Since the purpose of this study of the pupil is to afford a general knowledge of life, four preliminary statements will suffice in this connection.

(a) Life is constantly changing. This change is evident in growth or increase in size and development or increase in power. It occurs not only in the body but the soul as well, or that part of life which is not physical, and is a result of nouris.h.i.+ng food and proper exercise. The Sunday-school has recognized this fact of change by its division of the life of the pupil into six periods, Beginners, Primary, Junior, Intermediate, Senior, and Adult. These periods mark different stages in development.

(b) Each period has certain predominant characteristics and out of these characteristics arise definite opportunities and needs. To meet these opportunities and needs is the goal of work for each period. The final goal of developed Christian character can be attained only through reaching the goal of each period.

(c) Development is gradual, constant and progressive. The soul comes into the world containing infinite but undeveloped possibilities. The unfolding is gradual and constant as the possibilities are called out by the needs of the life. There is also an order in unfolding. The soul develops power for simple mental processes first and for the complex later: interest in self first and in others later; consciousness of the natural first, the spiritual later. The teacher who knows G.o.d's order, obeys his laws and waits his time is the teacher whose seed sowing is reaped in the hundredfold harvest.

(d) It is impossible to ignore the physical and mental side of the pupil and be successful in spiritual work with him.

The lesson cannot reach the soul save by way of physical senses and a physical brain and mental processes identical with those necessary in apprehending a history lesson. The Holy Spirit applies the truth to the life but he has only so much to apply as has been received into the mind. Therefore pure air and bodily comfort, acute senses and obedience to the laws of the mind are as surely linked with spiritual work as prayer.

(2) _Specific knowledge._ Though all lives possess the same general characteristics and are under the same general laws, no two lives are identical. Some unfold more rapidly than others, some have larger capacity and more latent possibilities than others and all are in differing circ.u.mstances. It is this variation that makes individuality, and the more perfect the adaptation of the teacher's work to the individual the greater the teacher's success.

Again, each life is immeasurably influenced by its environment. No teacher can understand a pupil without knowing what has entered into his life. "I am a part of all that I have met." The home and the daily surroundings are the explanation of what the pupil is and an index to what he needs. This specific knowledge can come only through close personal observation and sympathetic intimacy with the pupil. In this intimacy is revealed the pathway to the heart, as it winds through ambitions and interests and love. Unless the teacher find this path to the tender, responsive place whose gateway each soul keeps for itself, the seed must fall on the stony ground where germination is impossible.

Test Questions

1. Since laws of life are known, what two conclusions follow?

2. Give four reasons why the Sunday-school teacher should know the pupil.

3. What twofold knowledge about the pupil should the teacher have?

4. How has the Sunday-school recognized the changing life of the pupil?

5. Give three characteristics of development.

6. How may specific knowledge of the pupil be gained by the teacher?