The Boy and the Sunday School: A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age BoysAlexander, John L.
Religion
The Boy and the Sunday School: A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age Boys
Alexander, John L.
Sunday schools
Let it be repeated that sex instruction should be undertaken with great
tact and thoughtfulness. The one who gives the instruction--whether
parent or teacher--should post himself thoroughly and he should be
practical, go slow, not forcing the lad's development by unnecessary
knowledge, avoiding gush and sentiment. He should not seek confession or
allow the boy to confess to him, for confession will raise a barrier
between the two later on; he should help the boy without invading the
lad's innermost life, his soul; he should learn that there are recesses
in the boy's self that are his own and that bear no invasion, and he
should respect this right of privacy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON SEX
Alexander, Editor.--Sunday School and the Teens. (Chapter 14.) This is
the official utterance of the Commission on Adolescence, authorized by
the International Sunday School Association in convention at San
Francisco, and contains a complete, classified bibliography. ($1.00.)
_American Youth_ (April, 1913. This entire magazine number deals with
Sex Education) (.20).
XVI
THE TEEN BOY AND MISSIONS
No more difficult subject faces the Sunday school today than that of
really vitally interesting the teen age boy in the missionary
enterprises of the church. Missionary enthusiasts, here and there, have
doubtless had success in interesting numbers of boys, but, in spite of
this, the average, red-blooded, everyday, wide-awake fellow that
inhabits our homes, fills our streets, and honors our Sunday schools,
has little or no conception of missions, or even cares enough to make
any effort to discover what missions really signify. To the average boy
missions spell heathen and a collection and little more. There is no
real life interest, or even contact enough to develop an interest in the
subject. This is a Hunt, harsh analysis of the situation, but it is
both honest and true.
Giving money is not a genuine criterion of interest. I have known lots
of boys who contributed two cents a week to help the other fellow, not
because it was a conviction, but because it was a necessary thing to
keep in good standing on the posted bulletin, and thus to maintain the
regard and esteem of leader and comrades.
Business men and social leaders have been known to hesitate in
subscribing to funds until the subscription list had been perused by
them, when the list of names already secured has caused them to make
generous additions to the fund. The Sunday school offering is a poor
index of Sunday school enthusiasm. Giving money--even more than one can
afford to give--is not always real self-sacrifice. Sometimes it is
self-saving. At any rate, it is not the reliable guide of a boy's
interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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