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Page 48
The uniform lessons.--Although many churches still employ the _Uniform
Lessons_, we shall not hesitate to say that no church school is
justified in this day of educational enlightenment in using a system of
ungraded lessons. Such lessons are planned for adults. They ignore the
needs of the child, and force upon him material for which he is in no
sense ready, while at the same time omitting matter that he needs and is
capable of understanding and using. For example, some of the topics
which primary children, juniors, and all alike find in their ungraded
lessons of current date are, _man's fall_, the _atonement_,
_regeneration_, the _city of God_, _faith_--splendid topics all, but too
strong meat for babes.
Why should we thus ignore the educational progress of the age, starve
our children spiritually, and hamper them in their religious development
by this obsolete system of education which has been long since outgrown
in the public schools? Why should we not ignore tradition, prejudice,
and personal preference, where these are in the way, and _let the needs
of the child decide_? Why should thousands of church schools to-day be
using the Uniform Lessons?
Some use them because they are cheaper; others because they always have
used them and do not like the trouble and disarrangement of a change;
others because of the doubtful theory of the inspiration that comes from
having all the members of the family studying the same lesson at the
same time (we do not expect all the family to read or study the same
material in other lines); and perhaps others because they have not been
accustomed to thinking of religious education following the same
principles and laws as other education. But whatever the explanation of
the use of the Uniform Lessons in our church schools in the past, let
us now see to it that they give way to better material. Let us not be
satisfied, even, when the ungraded uniform lessons are "improved"; they
should not be improved, but discarded.
Graded lessons.--A large and increasing number of our best church
schools are now using some form of graded lesson material based on the
topics supplied by the International Lesson Committee. Each great
denomination has its own lesson writers, who take these topics and
elaborate them into the graded lessons such as we know in the Berean
Series, the Keystone Series, the Pilgrim Series, the Westminster Series,
etc. All such lesson material, which seeks to adapt the material to the
needs of the child as he progresses year by year from infancy to
adulthood, is infinitely superior to any form of ungraded material. It
is easier and more interesting for the child to learn, less difficult
for the teacher to present; and its value in guiding spiritual
development immeasurably greater.
Some form of closely _graded lessons_ is the only kind of material which
should be used in our church schools; the children have the same need
and the same right to material graded and prepared to meet their
understanding in religion as in language or in science. But when we
employ graded lessons we must make sure that _the child, and not the
subject matter; is the basis of the grading_. We must make certain that
the writer of the lessons knows the mental grasp, the type of interests,
the characteristic attitudes, and the social activities of the child at
the different stages, and then arranges the material to meet these
needs. We must not simply aim to cover so much biblical material, even
if we select it as well as we may to come within the child's grasp; we
must have his real religious needs, his religious growth, and his
spiritual development in mind, and provide for these.
Adapting graded lessons to young children.--In the graded series of
lessons now most commonly used in the church schools the material is, on
the whole, fairly well selected to meet the needs of the _beginners_ and
the _primary section_. Interesting stories are told, and much nature
material presented. The work is, of course, all presented to the pupils
by the teacher, as the children cannot yet read. In some cases the
stories used are undoubtedly too difficult, and not a few of them lack
the elements of good story-telling.
Yet the instruction usually centers about the topics most needed by the
child at this time--the love and care of God both for our lives and in
the world of nature about us; the Christ-child and his care for
children; lessons of kindness, obedience and love in the home, etc.
Because of this directness of appeal the child responds to the material
and the teacher finds her task much easier and more fruitful than with
the difficult topics of the ungraded lessons.
Graded lessons not all well adapted to ages.--As the graded lessons
pass on into the _junior_ age, the adaptation of material is generally
less successful than for the primary grades. The topics are based less
on the interests and spiritual needs of the child, and more on the
material. The lessons for the greater part consist of biblical material
only, and are often too difficult for the child to be interested in them
or to understand them. No coordinating principle relates the topics to
each other, and the material consequently comes to the child in rather
disconnected scraps. Too frequently this material, because it belongs to
a later stage of development, is without any particular or direct
bearing on the learner's experience, and hence not assimilated into his
life.
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