A Manual for Teaching Biblical History — John Shaqi
A Manual for Teaching Biblical HistoryKohn, Eugene
Religion
A Manual for Teaching Biblical History
Kohn, Eugene
Jewish religious education of children -- United States
=Dramatization of lesson.= Beside the repetition of the lesson
by the child in the form of a recitation and the answering of
questions, there are many stories, in which the interest centers
chiefly in the dramatic dialogue, that children might be encouraged
to dramatize in class. The dramatization must be made by the
children themselves in the spirit of free play, the teacher merely
offering general suggestions but the dialogue being the spontaneous
creation of the children. The natural imitative instinct of children
which makes so much of their play the mimicry of the activities
and occupations of their adult environment, takes very kindly to
this sort of make-believe. At the same time this exercise enables
them to enter into the motives of the Biblical characters and to
understand and remember the incidents of the Biblical narrative
as few exercises can. Nor need the teacher be discouraged by the
lack of accessories to dramatization such as scenery and costume.
The child's imagination, which can convert a rocking chair into a
boat or a table into a mountain, can easily dispense with those
accessories which the sophisticated mind of the adult requires.
Stories that lend themselves to such treatment are Esau's sale of
the birthright, Isaac's blessing of Jacob and Esau and the various
episodes of the Joseph narrative.
=The teacher's preparation.= It follows from the above discussion
that the teacher of Biblical history who wishes to do justice to
his subject must give careful preparation to each lesson, not only,
as we have already suggested, with a view to understanding the
significance of the Biblical passages that he wishes to teach, but
also with a view to teaching them effectively to the child. This
preparation must include 1. inquiry as to object in teaching that
particular lesson to the child, 2. the effort to find some point of
contact between the theme of the lesson and the previous knowledge
and experience of the child such as would appeal to his interest,
3. the study of the subject from the point of view of literary and
oratorical effectiveness in the presentation, 4. the attempt to find
the best possible illustrations and applications of the lesson to
the life of the child, 5. preparation of questions and other devices
by which the child is made to work over the lesson in his own mind
and give proof of having assimilated it. In the chapters of this
manual the object of each lesson according to the author's opinion
will be pointed out and suggestions will, from time to time, be
given as to the other points that have been here enumerated. This
book refrains, however, from giving a detailed plan of each lesson
as it is deemed important not to put restraints on the originality
and initiative of the teacher but on the contrary, to encourage
free and spontaneous expression of personality both on the part of
teacher and of pupil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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