How to Teach Religion | Page 7

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.
The teacher of religion should therefore ask himself: "What is my
craftsmanship in instruction? Do I know how to present this material so
that it will take hold upon my class? Do I know the technique of the
recitation hour, and the principles of good teaching? Have I read what
the scholars have written and what the experience of others has to teach
me. Have I definitely planned and sought for skill? Is my work in the
classroom the best that I can make it?"
The teacher must continuously be a student.--The successful teacher of
religion must, therefore, be a student. He must continually grow in
knowledge and in teaching power. There is no possibility of becoming
"prepared" through the reading of certain books and the pursuit of
certain courses of study and then having this preparation serve without
further growth. The famous Dr. Arnold, an insatiable student until the
day of his death, when asked why he found it necessary to prepare for
each day's lessons, said he preferred that his pupils "should drink from
a running stream rather than from a stagnant pool." This, then, should
be the teacher's standard: _A broad background of general preparation,
constant reading and study in the field of religion and religious
teaching, special preparation for each lesson taught_.
The churches of each community should unite in providing a school for
teacher training. Where the community training school cannot be
organized, individual churches should organize training classes for their

teachers. Such schools and classes have been provided in hundreds of
places, and the movement is rapidly spreading. Wherever such
opportunities are available the best church school teachers are flocking
to the classes and giving the time and effort necessary to prepare for
better service.
Even where no organized