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Page 16
The conduct, or application, aim.--The third and ultimate aim of
education has been implied in the first two; it is _conduct, right
living_. This is the final and sure test of the value of what we
teach--how does it find _expression in action_? Do our pupils think
differently, speak differently, act differently here and now because of
what we teach them? Are they stronger when they meet temptation from day
to day? Are they more sure to rise to the occasion when they confront
duty or opportunity? Are their lives more pure and free from sin? Do the
lessons we teach find expression in the home, in the school, and on the
playground? Is there a real outcome _in terms of daily living_?
These are all fair questions, for knowledge is without meaning except as
it becomes a guide to action. High ideals and beautiful enthusiasms
attain their end only when they have eventuated in worthy deeds. What
we _do_ because of our training is the final test of its value. Conduct,
performance, achievement are the ultimate measures of what our education
has been worth to us. By this test we must measure the effects of our
teaching.
Summary of the threefold aim.--The _aim_ in teaching the child
religion is therefore definite, even if it is difficult to attain. This
aim may be stated in three great requirements which life itself puts
upon the child and every individual:
1. _Fruitful knowledge_; knowledge of religious truths that can be
set at work in the daily life of the child now and in the years
that lie ahead.
2. _Right attitudes_; the religious warmth, responsiveness,
interests, ideals, loyalties, and enthusiasms which lead to action
and to a true sense of what is most worth while.
3. _Skill in living_; the power and will to use the religious
knowledge and enthusiasms supplied by education in shaping the acts
and conduct of the daily life.
True, we may state our aim in religious teaching in more general terms
than these, but the meaning will be the same. We may say that we would
lead the child to a knowledge of God as Friend and Father; that we seek
to bring him into a full, rich experience of spiritual union with the
divine; that we desire to ground his life in personal purity and free it
from sin; that we would spur him to a life crowned with deeds of
self-sacrifice and Christlike service; that we would make out of him a
true Christian. This is well and is a high ideal, but in the end it sums
up the results of the religious _knowledge, attitudes_, and _acts_ we
have already set forth as our aim. These are the parts of which the
other is the whole; they are the immediate and specific ends which lead
to the more distant and general. Let us, therefore, conceive our aim in
_both_ ways--the ideal Christian life as the final goal toward which we
are leading, and the knowledge, attitudes, and acts that make up
to-day's life as so many steps taken toward the goal.
SELECTING THE SUBJECT MATTER
After the aim the subject matter. When we would build some structure we
first get plan and purpose in mind; then we select the material that
shall go into it. It is so with education. Once we have set before us
the aim we would reach, our next question is, What shall be the means of
its attainment? When we have fixed upon the fruitful knowledge, the
right attitudes, and the lines of conduct and action which must result
from our teaching, we must then ask, What _means_ shall we select to
achieve these ends? What _material or subject matter_ shall we teach in
the church school?
The subject matter he presents is the instrumentality by which the
teacher must accomplish his aims for his class. Through this material he
must awaken thought, store the mind with vital truths, arouse new
interests, create ideals and lead the life to God. As the artist works
with brush and paint, with tool and clay, so the teacher must work with
truths and lesson materials.
Guiding principles.--Two great principles must guide in the selection
of subject matter for religious instruction:
1. _The material must be suited to the aims we seek._
2. _The material must be adapted to the child._
The tools and instruments the workman uses must be adapted to the
purpose sought. Ask the expert craftsman what kind of plane or chisel
you should buy for a piece of work you have in mind, and he will ask you
just what ends you seek, what uses you would put them to. Ask the
architect what materials you should have for the structure you would
build, and he will tell you that depends on the plan and purpose of your
building.
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