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
"The most of my boys were arrested a couple of months ago for breaking
into summer camps and looking around. Today three of them came to my
office with one of their friends who had cut his foot and told me all
about their trouble, owning up to the whole business and ending by
saying that if I would take their Boy Scout society they would cut all
that kind of business out. I wish to God I had the time to take up this
Boy Scout job, but I have not; but I will do the next best thing by
taking them hiking on Thursday, which is my day of rest.
"One can't teach boys like these the beauties of religion any more than
he can teach Greek to a puppy. They are not up to this kind of thing, so
I am trying to teach them to be men, and when we get that lesson we
will try the higher one. Of course, I give them the moral side of every
lesson and point out how God has worked through some mighty mean
material.
"We still have a fight once in a while during class hours, and I call
time when they get too near the stove, but this is to be expected in a
class which is entirely self-governing. I never have said one word about
anything they have done in the class, except to impress upon them that
they should be men and the lesson is working slowly.
"Now, my good sir, don't try to reply to this letter. I know you get a
good many just like it, and I am writing just to give you my experience
in the hope that it may help some one else; also because I promised to
let you know what progress the class was making.
"_If you will drop into ---- in a year from now I hope to be able to point
to a much larger class than the first six months has shown and to show
you the majority in the church_.
"Thanking you for reading this far and
with kindest wishes, I am
"Very truly yours."
=The Boy the Main Issue=
The idea that must continually be kept in mind is the boy's good and the
boy. A lot of our teachers in the public schools are trying to teach the
subject-matter of the book when they ought to be teaching the boy. They
employ static methods. You can get up a goal for attainment and the boy
will reach the goal. Generally, however, he will go no higher than you
point. Your teaching should be dynamic rather than static.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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