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Page 13
And so the schoolmaster's friend was well answered.
Unsafe measures of success.--It is possible to lodge much subject
matter in the mind which, once there, does not function. It is possible
to teach many facts which play no part in shaping the ideals, quickening
the enthusiasms, or directing the conduct. And all mental material which
lies dead and unused is but so much rubbish and lumber of the mind.
It plays no part in the child's true education, and it dulls the edge
of the learner's interest and his enjoyment of the school and its
instruction.
It is possible to have the younger children in our Sunday schools from
week to week and still fail to secure sufficient hold on them so that
they continue to come after they have reached the age of deciding for
themselves. The proof of this is all too evident in the relatively small
proportion of youth in our church-school classes between the ages of
fifteen and twenty-five.
It is possible to offer the child lessons from the Bible throughout all
the years of childhood, and yet fail to ground sufficient interest in
the Bible or religion so that in later years the man or woman naturally
turns to the Bible for guidance or comfort, and fails to make religion
the determining principle of the life.
The child the only true measure of success.--Let us therefore be sure
of our objective. Let us never be proud nor satisfied that we have
taught our class so much _subject matter_--so many facts, maxims, or
lessons of whatever kind. We shall need to teach them all these things,
and teach them well. But we must inquire further. We must ask, What have
these things _done_ for the boys and girls of my class? What has been
the outcome of my teaching? How much effect has it had in life,
character, conduct? In how far are my pupils different for having been
in my class, and for the lessons I have taught them? In how far have I
accomplished the _true objective_ of my teaching?
Let us never feel secure merely because the children are found in the
Sunday school, and because the statistical reports show increase in
numbers and in average attendance. These things are all well; without
them we cannot do the work which the church should do for its children.
But these are but the externals, the outward signs. We must still
inquire what real influence the school is having on the growing
spiritual life of its children. We must ask what part our instruction is
having in the making of Christians. We must measure all our success in
terms of the child's response to our efforts. We must realize that we
have failed except as we have caused the child's spiritual nature to
unfold and his character to grow toward the Christ ideal.
1. As you think of your own teaching, are you able to decide
whether you have been sufficiently clear in your objective? Have
you rather _assumed_ that if you presented the lessons as they came
the results must of necessity follow, or have you been alive to the
real effects on your pupils?
2. Are you able to discover definite changes that are working out
in the lives of your pupils from month to month as you have them
under your instruction? Are they more reverent, more truthful, more
sure against temptation, increasingly conscious of God in their
lives? What other effects might you look for?
3. Do you think that the church is in some degree overlooking its
most strategic opportunity in not providing more efficiently for
the religious education of its children? If more attention were
given to religious nurture of children, would the problems of
evangelism be less pressing, and a larger proportion of adults
found in the church? What can the church school do to help? What
can your class do?
4. Do you love the matter that you seek to teach the children? Do
you love it for what it means to you, or for what through it you
can do for them? Do you look upon the material you teach truly as a
means and not as an end? Are you teaching subject matter or
children?
5. Do you feel the real worth and dignity of childhood? Do you
sometimes stop to remember that the ignorant child before you
to-day may become the Phillips Brooks, the Henry Ward Beecher, the
Livingstone, the Frances Willard, the Luther of to-morrow? Do you
realize the responsibility that one takes upon himself when he
undertakes to guide the development of a life?
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