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Page 8
The teacher and his Bible.--The teacher should know his Bible. This
means far more than to know its text and characters. The Bible is
history, it is literature, it is a treatise on morals, it is philosophy,
it is a repository of spiritual wisdom, it is a handbook of inspiration
and guidance to the highest life man has in any age conceived.
To master the Bible one must have a background of knowledge of the life
and history of its times. He must enter into the spirit and genius of
the Hebrew nation, know their aspirations, their political and economic
problems, and understand their tragedies and sufferings. He must know
the historical and social setting of the Jewish people, the nations and
civilizations that surrounded them, and the customs, mode of life, and
trend of thought of contemporaneous peoples.
Not all of these things can be learned from the Bible itself. One must
make use of the various helps and commentaries now available to Bible
students. The religions of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Greece,
and Rome should be studied. Ancient literatures should be placed under
tribute, and every means employed to gain a working knowledge of the
social medium out of which the Christian religion developed.
The teacher's knowledge of children.--Time was when we thought of the
child as a miniature man, differing from adults on the physical side
only in size and strength, and on the mental side only in power and
grasp of thought. Now we know better. We know that the child differs
from the adult not only in the _quantity_ but also in the _quality_ of
his being.
It is the business of the teacher to understand how the child _thinks_.
What is the child's concept of God? What is the character of the child's
prayer? How does the child _feel_ when he takes part in the acts of
worship? We talk to the child about serving God; what is the child's
understanding of service to God? We seek to train the child to loyalty
to the church; what does the church stand for to the child? We teach the
child about sin and forgiveness; just what is the child's comprehension
of sin, and what does he understand by forgiveness? We tell the child
that he must love God and the Christ; can a child control his
affections as he will, or do they follow the trend of his thoughts and
experiences? These are not idle questions. They are questions that must
be answered by every teacher who would be more than the blind leader of
the blind.
Coming to know the child.--How shall the teacher come to know the
child? Professor George Herbert Palmer sets forth a great truth when he
says that the first quality of a great teacher is the quality of
_vicariousness_. By this he means the ability on the part of the teacher
to step over in his imagination and take the place of the child. To look
at the task with the child's mind and understanding, to feel the appeal
of a lesson or story through the child's emotions, to confront a
temptation with the child's power of will and self-control--this ability
is the beginning of wisdom for those who would understand childhood. The
teacher must first of all, therefore, be a sympathetic investigator in
the laboratory of child life. Not only in the Sunday school, but daily,
he must _observe, study, seek to interpret children_.
Nor should the teacher of religion neglect the books on the child and
his religion. Many investigators are giving their time and abilities to
studying child nature and child religion. A mastery of their findings
will save us many mistakes in the leadership and training of children. A
knowledge of their methods of study will show us how ourselves more
intelligently to study childhood. Comprehension of the principles they
represent, coupled with the results of our own direct interpretation of
children, will convince us that, while each child differs from every
other, _certain fundamental laws apply to all childhood_. It is the
teacher's task and privilege to master these laws.
Knowledge of technique.--Teaching is an _art_, which must be learned
the same as any other art. True, there are those who claim that anyone
who knows a thing can teach it; but often the teacher who makes such a
claim is himself the best refutation of its validity when he comes
before his class. Probably most of us have known eminent specialists in
their field of learning who were but indifferent teachers. It is not
that they knew too much about their subjects, but that they had not
mastered the art of its presentation to others.
The class hour is the teacher's great opportunity. His final measure as
a teacher is taken as he stands before his class in the recitation. Here
he succeeds or fails. In fact, here the whole system of religious
education succeeds or fails. For it is in this hour, where the teacher
meets his pupils face to face and mind to mind, that all else
culminates. It is for this hour that the Sunday school is organized, the
classrooms provided, and the lesson material prepared. It is in this
hour that the teacher succeeds in kindling the interest, stirring the
thought and feeling, and grounding the loyalty of his class. Or, failing
in this, it is in the recitation hour that the teacher leaves the
spiritual life of the child untouched by his contact with the Sunday
school and so defeats its whole intent and purpose.
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