Sunday-School Success
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Easter Lilies.—A few cents invested in lily bulbs will make a beautiful Easter for your school. Give one to each scholar for him to raise, or, possibly, one to each class. The flowers, after Easter Sunday, are to be sent to the aged, the sick, and the poor.
An Easter Gift.—Some Sunday-schools give each scholar, on Easter day, a little rosebush or a package of seeds, that they may be tended and urged to bloom by Children's Day, when they are all brought in.
Vacation Transfers.—Some schools, when their scholars leave for a vacation, give them letters to schools where they will visit. These are printed forms, and include a detachable blank report, which, when filled out and returned, will show the scholar's attendance on the other school during his absence.
Planned Prayer-Meetings.—It will greatly promote the devotional character of your school if you take twenty minutes each month for a prayer-meeting. Select four or five to offer prayer, and have them sit on the platform. A brief, tender talk from the superintendent and bright singing will complete a memorable meeting.
A Carryall.—I have heard of Sunday-schools that maintained omnibuses or large carriages, to gather up and carry to the school children whose homes were so far away that they could not otherwise attend.
Neighborhood Schools.—Distant groups of farmers' families, and others that cannot reach the school, should be organized in neighborhood Sunday-schools.
A New Object Each Month.—The scholars' offerings should be an education not only in the instinct of giving, but also in the intelligent choice of objects for giving. Every Sunday-school should have a benevolence committee, which carefully selects for each month a new object of beneficence. On the last Sabbath of each month a word should be said about the object that appeals for the gifts of the next month. This brief account should, of course, be supplemented by the teachers in their classes.
The Envelope System.—This plan of giving, which has done so much for our churches, should be used everywhere in the Sunday-school. Give each class a number and each scholar a set of dated envelopes, one for each Sunday, bearing his class number. Call for a contribution from each scholar each Sunday. Urge that all absent scholars send their contributions, or bring them the next Sunday. From this systematic giving you may go on to proportionate giving by impressing on the scholars their duty to set apart for God some regular proportion, say one tenth, of all the money they receive. If the school takes up monthly collections for special benevolent objects, the envelopes for these Sundays may be of a different color. If, as should always be the case, the expenses of the school are met by the church, leaving the entire school collections to be devoted to missions and charitable causes, the school committee on benevolences may select a different object of giving for each month. This object should then be written on each envelope for that month.
A Jug-Breaking.—One of the best ways of teaching children the value of little gifts and the importance of weekly savings for Christ's cause is by the collection of money in jugs. Set before them at the start some object for their gifts, that they may think and talk about it while they are saving; otherwise their minds are lifted no higher than their money. And how they will enjoy the jug-breaking!
Class-Books.—Not records of class attendance, but books for the library, paid for by the various classes, selected by these so far as their choice seems wise, and each of them bearing an inscription telling what class presented it to the school. Such gifts give the scholars a personal interest in the library they have helped to create.
Loan Libraries.—Instead of giving away the books your school has thoroughly read, loan them, in groups of fifty or so, to poorer schools. They will return them in good condition, and by that time there will be many new scholars in your own school to whom the books will be fresh.
Exchange Libraries.—There is no reason why neighboring schools, if their library funds are low, should not arrange to buy different books, and then exchange them after the original purchasers have used them for a year. All the schools in a town or township might well combine in an arrangement so economical.
Receiving the New Books.—The library will be advertised if the reception of new books is made an event. They may be put in a public place, all at one time, and formally presented to the school by pastor or superintendent, with a word about each. This may be done at Christmas, Easter, Children's Day, Thanksgiving, at any one or all of these holiday seasons.
Honor the Donors.—A special and attractive label for books presented to the library, with a space for the name of the person that makes the gift, will greatly increase the number of books received in this way.
Their Own Paper.—A large Sunday-school may publish a little weekly or monthly paper, the advertisements paying the bills. The older scholars will be interested in doing the work. The notes about the various classes, the library, the contributions, the school work, will all prove stimulating.
Sunday-School Calendars.—A good standing advertisement of the school in any home would be a neat calendar of the year, bordered with facts about the school, invitations, pictures of church, pastor, Sunday-school officers, and the like.
A Bulletin Board.—A conspicuous bulletin board, placed at the entrance, will save giving out many a notice.
The Notices.—The wise superintendent will plan every word he is to say before the school, even—yea, especially!—the giving of the notices. These notices will be the fewest possible; don't let the Sunday-school be used as a bill-board. Announce only what you want the scholars to remember, and in such a bright way that they can't forget it. And don't discredit your perspicuity and their attention by announcing it more than once.
Protect the Teacher.—One of the most important of the superintendent's duties is to protect the teacher from interruption during the recitation hour. A similar duty is to see that the time for the recitation suffers no diminution through the tardiness or prolixity of himself or any one else.
Substitute Groups.—The work of "substituting" may well be divided up. Ask a set of older scholars to be ready to substitute on the first Sunday of each month, another set on the second Sunday, and so on.
The Pastor as Substitute.—Certainly the pastor should not take a Sunday-school class of his own. That would be unfair to the rest of the school and the church. But he would get into helpful contact with a large number of people, young and old, if he should act every Sunday as a substitute teacher, now in this class and now in that.
A Five-Minute Meeting.—A few minutes of conference, immediately after the session of the school, will be a great help and stimulus to the teachers. One will ask help in a difficulty, another will report a method just proved successful. Everything will come fresh and vital from living experience.
How Many Absent?—Often let the secretary, in his report to the school, state only the number absent from each class and department. He will thus change the emphasis, and arouse a new and profitable interest.
A Roll-Call.—It takes time, but at long intervals a public roll-call of the entire school is worth while. Of course it should be well advertised beforehand, and the entire membership will wish to be present. Then make the hour so delightful that they will not think of staying away thereafter.
Honor Rolls.—Hang a large sheet of paper in a conspicuous position, and announce that you will print upon it the name of every one that brings in a new scholar. A red paper star after the name signifies one new scholar, a blue star a second scholar, and so on. A similar roll may be used to honor perfect attendance, stars of different colors being used for the different quarters.
Gold and Silver Stars.—There are well-based objections to any distinction of one class above another, but a plan that will be found very valuable, at least as a temporary stimulus, is this: Honor with a large silver star every class that has all its members present, and with a gold star each class that reports all its members bringing Bibles, and that all have studied the lesson at least twenty minutes.
An Asterisk.—If by banners or in other ways you honor regular attendance, there will be a tendency to drop absent scholars from the rolls too quickly, because they lower the standard of their classes. An excellent way of getting around this difficulty is to "star" the name of every scholar that has been absent a month. This asterisk means that the name is not to be counted in making up the report, but the presence of the name on the list means that the scholar is not to be forgotten or neglected.
To Console Him.—One bright superintendent scorns to give a reward or prize for new scholars, but presents a nice leather-bound Bible, by way of compensation, to each scholar that for any cause is luckless enough to leave his school!
A Spur.—Enforce punctuality by a large placard hung in front of the school, and reading, "You are early." When the school opens the card is turned, and now reads, in staring letters, "You are late!"
A Question Drill.—This is a good plan for teachers' meetings. The teachers should ask questions on each verse, turn about, and the leader should criticise the questions.
Teachers'-Meeting Roll-Call.—To insure previous study of the lesson, and to accustom the teachers to take part in the meeting, let the roll be called every week, and require each teacher to respond with some thought concerning the lesson, usually a comment on some particular verse.
Attendance on the Teachers' Meeting.—It will prove a helpful spur if this attendance is recorded regularly, and incorporated in all the reports made by the secretary to the school.
Union Teachers' Meetings.—If you cannot have a teachers' meeting for your Sunday-school alone, because you have no good leader, you can probably find a good leader in some neighboring church, and can give him and yourselves the stimulus of a large union gathering. This plan has many advantages, notably the opportunity for the comparison of methods. It has one great disadvantage: the work cannot apply so particularly to your individual school.
A Reception Class.—New scholars may all be placed in a "reception class," until their ability, knowledge, and character can be learned.
A Visitors' Register.—This is for the names and home addresses of all visitors. The little attention required to obtain these autographs pleases them and their friends, and breaks the ice for further acquaintance. The register should be kept open on some table in a central spot, with pen and ink always at hand.
An Address-Book.—This should contain, under proper and convenient classifications, the addresses of all scholars, teachers, and officers, past and present. It should always be kept in the church, and many will be the references to it.
A Cradle Roll.—This contains the names of the babies of the church, for each of whom his mother is given a certificate of membership. This roll is read once in a while before the primary class.
Individual Histories.—At least one school has enough personal interest in its scholars to keep a history of each, in a book properly arranged for that purpose. This history includes the date of the scholar's joining the school and of his promotion to the various higher departments thereof, his birthday and the names of his parents, their church-membership, where the scholar lived when he joined the church, whom he married and when, his business, the date of his removal and the city to which he went, together with other and special facts.
District Reporters.—Appoint one scholar or teacher to watch each street in town,—preferably, of course, the street on which he resides,—and report promptly all newcomers, that they may be invited to the Sunday-school.
The Opening Prayer.—Let the ushers admit no one till it is over. Do not begin, or permit any one else to begin this prayer, till every head is bowed. Do not ask any one to offer this prayer without giving long notice; no haphazard prayer will answer.
Their Own Bibles.—A Bible in the hands of every scholar,—this alone makes possible variety and zest in the opening of the school.
Lesson Introductions.—In small schools it has often been found profitable for the superintendent to spend ten or fifteen minutes teaching to the entire school (with the exception of the primary department) the historical and similar details of the lesson. The teachers then add the lesson truths, teaching their individual classes.
Varying Programmes.—If the opening exercises of the school get into a rut, it is hard for the teachers to lift the school out of it. Some wise superintendents plan these exercises for weeks ahead, keeping careful record, and thus avoid monotony.
An Impressive Close.—One school closes its service with the Lord's Prayer, repeated by all as they stand. Then the school is seated, and waits in silence while the ushers, walking slowly up the aisles, dismiss each class in turn.
A Closing Prayer.—Here is a beautiful prayer to be repeated in concert at the close of school: "May the light of thy Word, O Lord, dwell in us richly, and guide us day by day. Amen."
Scripture in Closing.—To incite to Scripture memorizing, close the school with Bible verses repeated by all the scholars. Let each class in turn select the subject, such as "temperance," "obedience," "love," and announce it a week in advance.
The Teachers before the School.—Now and then ask some teacher to say a few words to the entire school at the close of the session, summing up the most important teachings of the hour. This gives the whole school a bit of inspiration from each teacher in turn, and gives to each teacher the inspiration of talking to the whole school.
Chapter XLIV
From a Teacher's Notebook
Birthday Letters.—Little children will prize highly a cordial, loving letter written to them by their teacher on their birthday. Doubtless the very oldest scholars in the school will prize such a letter as much, if not even more. There should be no preachment in these letters, no hitting at peculiar sins; just fill them with Christian sunshine. A birthday prayer in the class, short, simple, earnest, will clinch to the scholar the lessons of the day.
Class Letters.—When the teacher is away on a vacation or for other reasons, a letter sent each week to some member of the class, taking the scholars in order, will be shared with the other scholars, and will strengthen the bond that the absence might have weakened or broken.
Teaching by Correspondence.—When the teacher must be absent, if she cannot find a good substitute, and the class is of a suitable age for the plan, let her send a letter containing a few thoughts on the lesson, together with many questions, which the class are to discuss, and for which, after joint consultation, they will prepare written answers, to be sent to the teacher.
The Lesson Message.—Do you fear that the central truth of the lesson may not be impressed on your class, either through your forgetfulness or because you lack time? Then write out for each scholar a sentence or two of exhortation, with a request that he read a certain appropriate passage of the Bible. Place these messages in envelopes, and distribute them at the close of the lesson.
A Teacher's Loan.—If you have found a book that would be especially helpful to your class, by all means, if you can afford it, buy a copy, circulate it among the class, and, after all your scholars have read it, present it to the library.
Birthdays of the Great.—Utilize in your teaching not only Washington's birthday and Lincoln's, but the birthday of any great man whose life may help to point the moral of the day's lesson. For this purpose, one of the many "birthday-books" is of value for reference.
A Magazine Club.—The members of a Sunday-school class have similar interests, and an ideal magazine and paper club may be organized among them. Incidentally, it will enable the teacher to direct much of their reading. The periodicals subscribed for are to be passed around in a specified order, kept at each house a definite time, and each finally retained by some member of the class.
Class Names.—It will prove an inspiration to any class to have a good name, such as "Earnest Seekers," "Willing Workers," "The Joshua Band," "Daughters of Ruth."
Five-Minute Preludes.—Brief preludes on current topics or practically helpful points connected with the lesson theme may be found valuable in the Bible class, just as similar preludes have proved useful in the preaching service.
Independence.—Occasionally request the class to prepare so thoroughly that they can leave at home the quarterly, lesson leaf, even the Bible itself. The teacher also will do this; and if he improves his opportunity, this thorough storing of the mind may result in a recitation so delightful that the class will adopt the plan enthusiastically for the future.
Her "Funny Box."—A teacher tells how she lightened the occasional sickness of her scholars by carrying to them what they called her "funny box," which held fruit and flowers, with scores of merry jokes clipped from the papers, peanuts marked with comical faces, and a Bible verse or two on the inside of the cover.
A Review Picture-Gallery.—If you have been using the blackboard during the quarter, try a blackboard review. Draw twelve picture-frames, and call up the scholars one by one, asking each to fill in one of the frames with what he remembers of the blackboard work of that lesson. It may be necessary for the teacher to remind the scholar what the design was, and to help him draw it, or the entire class may be asked to give this assistance.
An Essay Review.—Divide the lessons of the quarter among your scholars, so that each will write an essay on some one lesson; or, if your class is too small for that, assign two lessons apiece to some of the scholars. Limit them as to time, but let each choose his line of treatment.
Silent Prayers.—If we always word the children's prayers for them, they will be unlikely ever to word prayers for themselves. Often request them to bow their heads and in silence to ask the Father for what they need and thank him for his kindness.
Class Prayers.—Why should not every class recitation be opened with a brief prayer, and often close with one? Yes, and when the talk in the middle of the lesson becomes especially earnest, prayer is the best means of binding the truth to the lives of your scholars.
A Prayer Calendar.—This is a list of the scholars in your class, plus the name of the teacher, divided among the days of the week, that of the teacher falling on Sunday. The whole is headed with a promise to pray each day for the persons named for that day. Each of the scholars has a copy, and signs it.
Pegs.—Draw a good-sized map of the country you are studying, and mount it on a board. With a gimlet bore holes wherever there is an important town, mountain, lake, or other geographical feature whose location you wish your scholars to learn. Fit pegs into these holes, and color the pegs white for the mountains, red for the cities, blue for the bodies of water. Teach the scholars, as you call for Hebron, for instance, to place a red peg in the proper hole, and thus to use the map.
Dissected Maps.—Paste a good-sized map of the desired country on thick cardboard or pasteboard. If you cannot get a large enough map, draw one yourself, and in the process you will learn much geography. Then cut the map into irregular pieces, and present it to the younger classes for them to fit together.
Putty Maps.—With a board foundation and a good map for a guide, any teacher can build up a relief map of Palestine out of putty. Paint the water blue, the sandy portions yellow, the fertile plains green, the mountains white or gray, the cities red. Letter with black.
Colors and Places.—A good way to aid the children's memory as to the location of the various lessons of the quarter is to write on the blackboard the title of each lesson as it comes, using each week a different color, and pinning to an outline map, at the same time, a scrap of paper of the same color. Of course, if a later lesson falls at the same place, the old color will be used in writing its title.
Home Drawings.—Some teachers wisely require their scholars to reproduce at home what they can remember of the blackboard work of the day, and bring in the result the next Sunday. The test is one for the teacher's blackboard work as well as for the scholars' memory.
Utilizing your Reading.—Every teacher should keep either a wide-margin Bible, or an interleaved Bible, solely to note the helps on Bible texts he may note in his reading. If the book or periodical is your own, simply set down the page opposite the Bible verse. Some may prefer a system of envelopes, one for each book of the Bible, in which clippings may be filed, as well as slips of paper containing references to books.
One Way of Preparing.—Cut up the Scripture text found on a lesson leaf, and paste the verses on large sheets of paper, leaving liberal space around each. In this space write your own comments, and the suggestions you glean from your reading.
On the Spot.—If one of your scholars is reported sick, why not pen—or pencil—a little note immediately, with the aid of the class, and send it to the sick scholar at the close of the school? A message thus written will move graciously upon the class as well as upon the recipient.
Prompt Investigation.—"A stitch in time saves nine." Apply this maxim to your scholar's first absence, and look him up at once.
Lookout Committees.—Divide each class into three companies. Company A will seek recruits for the class, Company B will hunt up absentees, and Company C will do hospital service among the sick. Require regular reports.
Reports of Study.—Some teachers issue to their scholars blank reports, which they return, filled out, each Sunday. These reports tell whether they have studied the lesson for ten minutes each day, and what verses of the lesson they do not understand.
Reports to Parents.—The work done in Sunday-school should be so definite that it can be reported. Certain points should be required to be learned in each lesson, and when they are well recited, or when they are not recited, the parents should know of it. Regular monthly or quarterly reports, sent by postal-card, will stimulate the scholar to learn better, the parents to help him study, and the teacher to teach with system, definiteness, and persistency.
Collection and Record.—Give the mother, for her child, fifty-two little envelopes in which to put a year's pennies or nickels. Each child's envelopes are given a number, so that the collection is also a record of attendance.
More than a Straight Mark.—A simple but complete record may be made by a few strokes of the pencil. A cross has been suggested. The upper arm signifies "present"; the lower arm, "prompt"; the left-hand arm, "the lesson learned," according to a definite standard; the right-hand arm, "present at church." If the scholar has failed in one or more of these points, the corresponding arms are omitted from the cross.
Class Photographs.—With your own camera or some friend's take a group picture of your class once a year. You may give them at that time a pleasant "photograph party," or take an excursion together to some place, there to be photographed. Each scholar should have a copy of the resulting picture. It will be delightful if all the classes can thus be photographed, and an exhibition arranged of the entire series of pictures, which then becomes the property of the school.