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Page 67
THE DEDUCTIVE, OR APPLICATION, LESSON
Not all teaching can be of the inductive, or discovery, type. It is
necessary now and then to start with general truths, rules, or
principles and apply them to concrete individual cases. Rules and maxims
once understood are often serviceable in working out new problems. The
conclusions reached from a study of one set of circumstances can
frequently be used in meeting similar situations another time.
For example, the child learns by a study of particular instances the
results of disobedience, and finally arrives at the great general truth
that _disobedience to the laws of nature or of God is followed by
punishment and suffering_. This fact becomes to him a rule, a principle,
a maxim, which has universal application. Once this is understood and
accepted, the child is armed with a weapon against disobedience. With
this equipment he can say when he confronts temptation: This means
disobedience to God's law and the laws of nature; but _disobedience to
the laws of God and of nature brings punishment and suffering_;
therefore if I do this thing, I shall be punished, and shall suffer--_I
will refrain from doing it_.
Making the application.--A large part of our instruction in religion
must be of the deductive kind. It is impossible, even if it were
desirable, to rediscover and develop inductively out of observation and
experience all the great moral and religious laws which should govern
the life. Many of these come to us ready-made, the result of the
aggregate experience of generations of religious living, or the product
of God's revelation to men. Consider, for example, such great
generalizations as: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also;" "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy"; "No man
can serve two masters"; "With what measure ye mete it shall be measured
unto you"; "The wages of sin is death."
These are illustrations of the concentrated wisdom of the finest hearts
and minds the world has seen, words spoken by Inspiration, but true to
the experience of every person. It is our part as teachers to make the
great fundamental moral and religious laws which underlie our lives
living truths to our pupils. To do this we must not teach such truths as
mere abstractions, but show them at work in the lives of men and women
and of boys and girls. We must find illustrations, we must make
applications, and discover examples of proof and verification.
Teaching that fails from lack of applying truth.--The object, then, of
the _inductive_ lesson is to lead the learner to _discover_ truth; the
object of the _deductive_ lesson is to lead him to _apply_ truth. There
can be little doubt that much of our teaching of religion suffers from
failure to make immediate and vital application of the truths we teach.
When we teach the youth that no man can serve two masters, we should not
be satisfied until we have shown him the proof of this truth at work in
the everyday experience of men. When we teach him that the wages of sin
is death, we must not stop with the mere statement of fact, but lead him
to recognize the effects of sin's work in broken lives and ruined
careers.
Nor should we confine our proofs and illustrations to examples taken
from the Bible, valuable as these are. Too many, perhaps half
unconsciously to themselves, carry the impression that religion belongs
rather more to Bible times and peoples than to ourselves. Too many
assent to the general truth of religion and the demands it puts on our
lives, but fail to make a sufficiently immediate and definite
application of its requirements to their own round of daily living. Too
many think of the divine law as revealed in the Scriptures as having a
historical significance rather than a present application. One of the
tasks of deductive teaching is to cure this fatal weakness in the study
of religion.
THE DRILL LESSON
Teaching religion does not require as large a proportion of drill as
many other subjects. This is because the purpose of drill is to make
certain matter automatic in the mind, or to train definite acts to a
high degree of skill. For example, the child must come to know his
multiplication table readily, "without thinking"; he must come to be
able to write or spell or count or manipulate the keys of a typewriter
without directing his attention to the acts required. Wherever automatic
action or ready skill is required, there drill is demanded. Drill
provides for the repetition of the mental or physical act until habit
has made it second nature and it goes on practically doing itself. There
is no way to get a high degree of skill without drill, for the simple
reason that the brain requires a certain amount of repeated action
before it can carry out the necessary operations without error and
without the application of conscious thought.
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