Chapter X: A Coöperative Study 87 (2)

We are here at the very heart of the science of teaching. A little two-year-old child will serve us as an example. He is to be put in bed in a strange room, and is to go to sleep alone. Spring the idea upon him and he will reject it. Prepare him for it, by telling him a story of a little boy who went to bed in a new room, a new bed, and all alone, and he is eager for the hour of bed-time. When the time comes, the picture already in his mind, of a little boy, a new room, a peaceful going to bed, welcomes the actual experience, point for point. The wise mother has made a nest for the experience.

So might a teacher prepare the minds of his pupils to receive the idea of ninety millions of miles.

"If any one there in the sun fired off a cannon straight at you, what should you do?"

"Get out of the way," would be the answer.

"No need of that," the teacher might reply. "You may quietly go to sleep in your room, and get up again; you may learn a trade, and grow as old as I am--then only will the cannon-ball be getting near, then you may jump to one side! See, so great as that is the sun's distance!"

So writes a German teacher--explaining the law of apperception, of making a nest for the idea.

We cannot understand--cannot even see or hear--the absolutely new. Every new plan or way of looking at things, or doctrine, is received into the mind on one condition only--that it be introduced by a comrade already there. Then when the new idea calls from without, its fellow answers from within, and an entrance is effected.

The bearing of this upon our theme is illustrated by the plan of a school principal, recently described to me, to eradicate the plague of stealing that had broken out in the school. He talked to the pupils of giants, drew out the children's ideas, and by effective picture-work made the creatures out to be an ugly, uncanny crew. He then was ready to declare to the children that he had discovered a giant in the school, and in due time told them his name--Selfishness, I think it was--and then described his evil works. The moral of this story is that the plan worked, and stealing disappeared from the school from that day.

Who of us teachers might not be emulous of becoming thus skilful in mellowing the soil and making it warm in the genial sunshine of true picture-work?

2. Gathering the crop: Taste.

qIf deliberation is a virtue at the start, brevity and patience are a necessity at the finish. When the teacher has planted an interest-awakening picture in the minds of the children, his main work is done. He may safely leave them to make the application. He has supplied the cause; the effect will take care of itself. It is often convenient and suggestive to remember that children are not fools. "A child knows a thing or two," 'tis said, "before he knows much of anything." And one of the very first things he knows is how to put his finger on the moral in a story; and he can feel it long before he knows it. But that is when he is left to himself. If you take the helm, ten to one he'll know without feeling, which is the curse of us all. Better, if we must choose, that he feel without knowing in terms, than indulge in mere intellectual casuistry.

In your childish haste to have a crop or to see what was going on under ground, did you ever unearth the newly-planted row of peas? And was that row ever so green and straight and thick-standing as those that had been let alone? But the plants of love to God and moral taste are tenderer than these. They must be shined upon, warmed, and watered many days before they are ready to give an account of themselves. Love is a silent thing before it is outspoken. True feeling has few words, is not self-conscious, likes not to be asked questions. In its own good time it wells up and finds vent in deeds, and even in words.

The deepest thing a teacher does is to form taste. But all taste grows slowly, by unconscious accretion. The Chinese money-changer sets his apprentice at work handling good money only. For ten Years he touches nothing else. He can then detect a counterfeit coin. How? Perhaps he cannot tell how. His way is surer, deeper. He feels it. He has taste. So with the building of the taste for good books, for pictures, for nature. It is a slow process--many a book to be absorbed, picture seen and loved, and mountain and flower and sunset gazed upon, before taste is formed.

And the taste for godliness, for religion, is no exception. It is the finest and rarest of all tastes, and hence is the slowest and quietest of all in its development.

But did you ever see, in the hot house, shall we say, of the Sunday-school, seed sown, harvest reaped, yes, and cakes taken from the oven, within the limits of a single half hour? Does the figure halt, or was it a miraculous quickening of the processes of nature, or was it in truth a great mistake and a sin against natural spiritual growth?

There need be no fear, then, that the children will not feel, and in time know, the meaning, for them, of their stories and pictures. And a wise teacher well knows the ways of helping them: by questioning, _not_ directly, and by hiding the moral so near the surface that it will come forth of itself.

VII.

HOW TO LEARN HOW.

The foregoing chapters have dealt chiefly with the theory of picture-work, answering the questions what and why. But practical teachers will go a step further and ask where to find and how to use materials, what to do first, what next, in becoming expert in using and making pictures, stories, and illustrations; in short, how to learn how. Those who are not of the practical sort should omit this chapter, and no one should expect to enjoy or profit by it who has not the time and the will to go through the exercises described.

_Models._ A study of some of the remarkable pictures of secular literature will reveal many points in story-telling.

Mark how Chaucer made such a picture of his Canterbury pilgrims that not only the color, the action, and the characters of the scene, but also the very atmosphere of the jolly crowd has been clear and vivid for more than four centuries.

Macaulay boasted that he would write a history which would supersede the latest novel on the tables of the young ladies of the day. How did he accomplish this? Read his "History of England" and learn the secret of the power to picture.

Study George Eliot's "Silas Marner" to learn how to tell a story. The interest never flags, the proper perspective is always maintained, light and shade are in due proportion, and the lesson to be learned is taken, not as a bitter dose, but as one drinks in the fresh air of a clear May morning.

Study pictures of Bible scenes by great masters to see what aspect of the scene--what moment of the event--the painter chose as the climax of interest and meaning. Although the aim in Sunday-school work is spiritual and not artistic, the heart will be reached more surely if the eyes are appealed to and a subordinate artistic aim is kept always in mind.

What is the favorite view-point in picturing Noah's ark (the procession--a source of never-failing interest to old and young--is a conspicuous feature); in Abraham's sacririfice (Andrea del Sarto seizes the moment when Abraham is about to slay Isaac and the ram appears in the thicket); in the early life of Moses? Note also the subjects in the life of Christ oftenest chosen by the artist.

In what parables does Christ choose a definite locality well known to his hearers, definite characters, a definite point and only one, a definite purpose, and a clearly defined and applied moral? In the presentation of which parables do we _not_ find simple language, direct discourse, a dramatic style, and a question in order to drive home the point?

Try the effect of substituting in any one of the parables indirect discourse for direct, statements for questions.

Make a study of the Sermon on the Mount with a view of finding opportunities for picture-work.

On how many and on what occasions did Jesus use objects in his teaching? Might he not have gotten along without using the objects themselves on those occasions? What seems to have been his purpose? What was the result?

_Seeing._ Suppose that you were an artist searching in the Bible for scenes to paint:

1. What picture would you find in Matthew VIII., verse 1? verse 2? verse 3? verse 4? Can you see (and hear) each of these?

2. What is _the_ picture in the whole passage (verses 1-4)? How many elements has it, in respect of number, form, color, sound, atmosphere?

3. Which of these should be chosen in telling the story to children, and in what order?

4. How many pictures are there in verses 5-13? What is the central picture?

5. In verses 23-27. How many pictures are there in this passage? Which is the central picture? How would you lead the pupils to see it? What first? what next? what last?

6. In Matthew, chapters ix. and xiii. How many separate pictures are there? Which are the most important to try to see? What objects, pictures, drawings, maps, would you use in making it real to your class?

_Construction._ In the previous chapter there was brought out the need of adapting the stories of the Bible to the comprehension of modern hearers. Suggestions were given both for cutting down and filling in.

Choose a story, as of the brave Hebrew boys who stood by what they thought was right even in captivity; the young king who asked God to give him wisdom and whose way of ruling showed that his request had been granted; the shepherd boy whom the Lord chose; or choose an incident, or a period of a year of the life of Christ (as the "Year of Beginnings," the "Year of Popularity," the "Year of Opposition").

Subdivide each of these into smaller stories or incidents (Daniel, for instance, had three great tests, each complete in itself, and lived under three kings), then combine into a whole, applying the principles of story-telling and of adaptation.

Test your story by telling it to a child or a group of children. Tell the same story not once but many times.

_Choice._ Do not pad. Avoid diffuseness. Put in only those details that are salient--that leap out at you--that are necessary to the picture and the meaning. Any one can put in everything. It is only the born story-teller, or the one who will sit down by the side of a child and patiently observe the points that the child sees and likes to hear, that can be trusted to put in and to leave out just the right points.

Try writing out the story of Jonah, without the book. Compare your work with the original. How might you have been less diffuse? What necessary points did you omit? Did you use more or fewer general terms than the original? Were your words and expressions so picturesque as those in the text?

_Examples._ By way of illustrating the meaning of the foregoing points, it may be interesting to note the difference in concreteness, _i.e._, in the _picture_, to be found in the following paragraphs, all of which are intended to mean practically the same thing.

(_a_) One bidden to obey and refusing, but afterward obeying, is a better example of obedience than one who obeys in word but not in deed.

(_b_) Some one who was requested to do something refused in word, but obeyed in deed; another complied, but only in word. Which was the better example of obedience?

(_c_) If some one in authority should tell some one to do something and he should refuse but afterward comply, and should tell another to do something and he should say that he would without doing so, which of these really would perform the will of the one who gave the command?

(_d_) A certain man had some children. One day he told one of them to go and do some work that he wanted him to do. But the child said that he wouldn't, etc.

(_e_) Compare with these the same thought clothed in the concrete and picturesque words of our Lord himself:

"But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.

"He answered and said, I will not: but afterwards he repented, and went.

"And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.

"Whether of them twain did the will of his father?"

It would be equally possible to take the same clear-cut, dramatic picture and load it down--smother it--with words. But this kind of picture-work it is unnecessary to illustrate.

_Expression._ Read each of the parables of Jesus, picturing in your mind everything that can be seen, heard, or felt. "Put yourself in his place" regarding every one spoken of. When you have thus pictured the story, and while you are picturing it, read aloud, or tell the story. The expression will take care of itself--_if only you see and hear_. In this simple principle is contained the whole art of expression, _i.e._, of giving forth something which is within.

_Environment._ What kind of country was Palestine? If Palestine were taken up from the shore of the Mediterranean and planted on your state, where would Dan and Beersheba lie respectively? Wherein did its divisions differ, in respect of people, surface, products, occupations?

The four routes of Christ's principal journeys are given as follows: Bethlehem to Jerusalem, 6 miles north; Bethlehem to Egypt, 250 miles southwest; Nazareth to Jericho, 60 miles southeast; Nazareth to Jerusalem, 65 miles south. Trace these routes on a sand map and on the blackboard. Describe the country passed through, the occupations of the people, the mode of travel, the length of time required.

Account for the roughness of the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

What kind of place was Cæsarea Philippi, and what kind of stream is the Jordan at that point?

_Sketching._ The teacher should practice until he can make, with the flat crayon, something that looks like a mountain, a road, a tree--a scumble for the foliage and a stroke or two for the trunk, a man--two strokes will do for him (some teachers prefer to cut out pictures and pin them on the board). It must be admitted that this method of trial and error is dangerous. But there are self-taught teachers who do pretty well.

_Map-drawing._ To learn to sketch a map is a more hopeful task. Every one should be able to follow on pad or blackboard a campaign, a flight into Egypt, and a march up into Canaan; and to trace the journeys of Jesus and of Paul.

The following directions will be found helpful in drawing, free-hand and with only two construction lines, the map of Palestine:

Draw a horizontal line, and on it with the span of the hand, or with any convenient unit, measure three units, indicating their extremities by the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, from left to right. At the right extremity of this line, which we designate 4, draw a vertical line five units in length (4-9). From the upper extremity of this line draw to the left a line parallel to 1-4, one unit in length (9-10). Join points 1 and 10 with an irregular line, thus indicating the coast. A perpendicular let fall from 10 to 3 would indicate the course of the Jordan, the source lying nearly opposite 8, the Sea of Galilee opposite 7, the Dead Sea between 4 and 5; and Judæa, Samaria, Galilee, and Phoenicia will each occupy, roughly speaking, one and a half units. The principal mountains, cities, routes, may be indicated by initials, signs, or in any other appropriate ways. Each unit being 40 miles in length, the dimensions of Palestine and its parts may be derived. This same system may, of course, be used in drawing any map.

Miss Lucy Wheelock says that "the most satisfactory map is one which the teacher makes herself, drawing the outlines with a blue marking crayon on a sheet of white silesia, or finished cotton cloth, and putting in thin strips of wood or rollers at top and bottom, so that it will hang easily."

_The sand table_, especially with work for younger children, is indispensable. This every one can learn to make and manage and can fit out with the needed materials. Let no one shrink from the simple task of getting together the equipment and learning to model a map of Palestine.

The following description of the way of making a sand map of Palestine has been kindly furnished by Miss Juliet E. Dimock of Elizabeth, N.J., whose theory and practice in primary classes are alike admirable:

"Any carpenter will make for you a board, four feet six inches long, and two feet six inches wide, with a raised edge of one and one half inches. Paint the surface a bright blue, to represent the waters of the Mediterranean. Procure about fifty pounds of molders' sand from a stove foundry. The new sand is preferable to that which has been used for casting, owing to its lighter color. Study a good map of Palestine until you have a clear idea of the coast-line, the sea-coast plain, the mountain region, with its principal peaks, the Jordan valley, and the eastern table land."

(A relief map is desirable as a guide. The relative heights of mountains are given in Hurlbut's "Bible Geography." A cross-section of Palestine showing relief is given in the "Bible Study Union Lessons," Old Testament History, Progressive Grade, First Quarter, Appendix pp. (V.), (VI.). The Bible Study Publishing Co., 21 Bromfield Street, Boston, Mass.)

"Cut a paper pattern of the rivers and have them cut out of tin by a tinsmith. Use mirrors for the waters of Merom, the Dead Sea, and the Sea of Galilee, and white cord for the roads.

"When you are ready to go to work, place the board on a table and empty upon it your box of sand, which should be dampened until it can easily be molded by the hand. Raise the head of the board, until the children can see your work; if the sand is damp enough to keep its place, it can be inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees. At first the children will be interested in seeing you form the map; the coast-line, with its "camel's hump" for Mt. Carmel, the mountains, with snow-capped Hermon towering above them all, the seas, rivers, roads, and finally the white paper boats on the Mediterranean.

"Take five minutes every Sunday for a supplemental lesson on the history of the land, beginning with the first settlement of the country by the Canaanites, the family of Noah's grandson. Use the map also, whenever it is possible, to illustrate the lesson for the day; either as a map, or by building up the sand into a city, a garden, a temple, or a palace. The supplemental course might begin with the Garden of Eden, with as great a variety of trees, flowers, and animals, as may be easily obtained. And by turning the board around, the map of the ancient world may be made, and the stories of Noah, Babel, and Abram's journey from Ur of the Chaldees. Use small objects to make the places on the map, and replace them with initial blocks when the children are sufficiently familiar with the story to tell it to you. A very little ingenuity on the part of the teacher will suggest the objects to be used, which can be readily cut out of colored card-board.

"After school, return the sand to its box and pour at least a quart of water over it. It will then be in good condition for next Sunday's use."

_Specifics._ True picture-work has, as we have seen, a true bearing upon the question, How to help children conquer their faults. "Don't," even "Please don't," is ineffectual and unpedagogical. So is every means that is direct and negative instead of indirect and constructive. It is a thousand times easier to empty a tumbler of air by filling it with water than by the use of the air pump.

And so, just as we know that singing has a marvelous power to sweeten and calm the spirit of a young child, so a story is often the shortest and the most effective means to bring him to himself. A story is a specific. The right story will heal its proper disorder. There is danger here, 'tis true; "the intent to teach," as Herbart writes, spoils it all. Stories should be given as food rather than as medicine. There is all the greater need, therefore, for practice.

Find, adapt, make up stories to meet the needs of a child who is idle; of one who is mean, lacks self-control, is slovenly, careless, untruthful, etc.

_Texts._ On the other hand, it is just as necessary that illustrations attach themselves to their proper principles, as that principles find the concrete key that will serve as their open sesame into the child's mind.

Mr. Barrie tells of a newspaper writer who never conversed five minutes with a friend without getting a suggestion for a leader or a "story." The teacher ought to be no less fertile in finding texts, and in pressing everything he meets--whether in books, in newspapers, or on the street--into the service of the Sunday-school lesson.

For example, the street car on which you ride to school or to business in the morning suddenly stops. It stands still three, five, fifteen minutes. You are late. Twenty others are late. Reason, a careless truck-driver has driven an inch too near the track. What does this illustrate?

A pound of cotton, worth a few cents, may be made into yarn and become worth more; into chintz and be worth still more, etc. What is the truth hidden in this fact?

A thoughtful teacher, in reply to the question, "What stories have you found especially helpful?" contained in the blank on story-telling (Chapter X.), gave the following:

"Cato's words, 'Carthage must be destroyed' (the power of words); Hercules at the parting of the ways (the necessity of choice); Macbeth's 'I have lived long enough' (the end of a wasted life); The Ancient Mariner--'He prayeth best' (the secret of prayer); the parable of the wicked husbandmen (irreverence)."

VIII.

BOOKS, PICTURES, AND ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL.

The teacher should be a capitalist. He should not run dry every Sunday, and fill in during the week only enough for the next lesson; as a schoolboy who fills his mind with facts and empties it on examination day. The true teacher is independent of the "Quarterly." He uses it but does not lean on it. For the facts there given are, as a rule, isolated, and so half dead; the illustrations are at best warmed over. Neither can give a strong head of steam. There is not enough, and what there is is cold.

Other remedies for this condition are suggested elsewhere. Here it is urged that the teacher must be a reader of books. The following are given as types. They have been selected after searching the lists of many publishers, and are recommended only after a personal examination:

_Books Telling the Story of the Bible._

There are many Bible stories for children, some of them good, but most of them far from ideal when both the story and the pictures are considered. Those with highly colored, gaudy pictures should be shunned as they tend to give low ideals morally and spiritually as well as to corrupt the child's artistic taste. To publish a story of the Bible with illustrations taken only from great masters is a good work waiting for some one who wishes to be of service to the world.

"The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation," by Charles Foster. Charles Foster Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 75 cents.

Of the many Bible stories published this is the most complete and the most popular. In the matter of pictures, however, it is poor.

"Children's Treasury of Bible Stories," by Mrs. Herman Gaskoin. Macmillan & Co. Three parts, 18mo, 30 cents each.

The best Bible story we have found. It is most suggestive and interesting, showing how to picture Bible scenes.

"Stories from the Bible," Rev. Alfred J. Church. Macmillan & Co. 256 pp., $1.25.

Excellent as giving a condensed account of the Bible narrative in Bible language. The teacher who uses these stories will often find it necessary to supplement them with suitable introductions and side-lights.

"The Sweet Story of Old," by Mrs. Haskell. Dutton. 4to, 50 cents.

A small book of Bible stories for young children, with pictures which are quite good.

"First Steps for Little Feet," by Charles Foster. Charles Foster Publishing Co. 50 cents.

Bible stories told in simple language for the youngest children. Fair outline pictures.

"The Story of Jesus," by Louisa T. Craigin. Illustrated with one hundred full-page illustrations from the designs of Alexander Bida, together with many other pictures of the Holy Land. Fords, Howard & Hulbert. $10.00.

A beautiful and sympathetic account of the life of Jesus, especially rich in descriptions of Palestine and in other materials for word-pictures. The numerous pictures of landscapes and scenes from the life of Christ are helpful.

The same in paper covers in 15 numbers, 50 cents each.

"From Olivet to Patmos." The First Christian Century in Picture and Story. By Louisa Seymour Houghton. American Tract Society. $1.50.

"The Life of Christ in Picture and Story," by Louisa Seymour Houghton. American Tract Society. $1.25.

The last two books contain some poorly executed but well-chosen pictures of Bible lands, showing architecture, costumes, street scenes, etc.

_Books About Palestine._

"The Land and the Book," by W. M. Thomson. Harper & Bros. $8.00, $6.00.

Recommended by a high authority as the best book on Palestine for a teacher who can own only one.

"Boy Travelers in Egypt and the Holy Land," by T. W. Knox. Harper & Bros. $3.00.

"Sinai and Palestine in Connection with their History," by Dean Stanley. A. C. Armstrong. $2.50.

An excellent standard work.

"Pictured Palestine," by James Neill. Anson D. Randolph. $2.25.

Shows the contrast between eastern life and our own. Very good pictures illustrating many phases of oriental life.

"In Scripture Lands." Scribner's. $3.50.

Beautiful pictures.

"Earthly Foot-Prints of the Man of Galilee," by Bishop John H. Vincent, D.D., LL.D., Jas. W. Lee, D.D., Robert E. M. Bain. New York and St. Louis: N. D. Thompson Publishing Co. $4.75.

Four hundred fine, large photographic views and descriptions of places connected with the earthly life of our Lord and his apostles.

_Books on the Use of Stories and Illustrations._

"The Use of Stories in the Kindergarten," by Anna Buckland. Ginn & Co. 15 cents.

"The Place of the Story in Early Education," by Sara E. Wiltse. Ginn & Co. 132 pp., 50 cents.

Two suggestive and helpful essays that every teacher should read.

"Yale Lectures on Preaching," by Henry Ward Beecher. Fords, Howard & Hulbert. $2.00.

An inspiring book. The chapter on "Rhetorical Illustrations" is especially applicable, but the entire work, although written for preachers, has rich stores of instruction and guidance for teachers.

"The Art of Illustration," by C. H. Spurgeon. Wilbur B. Ketchum. $1.25.

A book by a master giving the secret of his art.

_Stories and Themes._

"Parables from Nature," by Margaret Gatty. Macmillan & Co. 2 vols., 18mo, $1.50.

A wonderful book, in which nature is used to typify spiritual truths. It should be owned by every mother and teacher.

"Parables. Laws of Nature and Life, or Science applied to Character," by Louisa Parsons Hopkins. Lee & Shepard. 15 cents.

Brief and suggestive.

"Stories of the Saints," by Mrs. C. Van D. Chenoweth. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.00.

Supplies a want which should be more "felt" than it is. Is it not as important that our children should know the story of Christian saints and martyrs as that of Greek gods and heroes?

"Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks," by Sara E. Wiltse. Ginn & Co. 212 pp., 75 cents.

"Stories for Kindergartens and Primary Schools," by Sara E. Wiltse. Ginn & Co. 50 cents.

"A Brave Baby and Other Stories," by Sara E. Wiltse. Ginn & Co. 50 cents.

These three books are storehouses of inspiration and models of story-telling.

"Child Stories from the Masters," by Maude Menefee. Kindergarten Literature Co., Chicago. $1.00.

An excellent selection of themes from poets, dramatists, and the Bible. The teacher will do well to study the originals and try to improve upon the stories given.

"Child's Christ-Tales," by Andrea Hofer. Woman's Temple, Chicago. $1.00.

Choice illustrations from the masters. Suggestive tales and parables.

"The Kindergarten Sunday-School," by Frederika Beard. Kindergarten Publishing Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago.

An attempt to solve the infant class problem. Three series of lessons, each having sequence and unity. Suggestive in its plan, and likely to help teachers to improve upon the models given.

_Books to be Read for the Sake of a Better Understanding of Child Nature._

"Study of Child Nature," by Elizabeth Harrison. Chicago Kindergarten Training School. $1.00.

"Children's Rights," by Kate Douglas Wiggin. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.00.

"A Boy's Town," by W. D. Howells. Harper & Bros., New York. $1.25.

"Being a Boy," by Charles Dudley Warner. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25.

"The Story of a Bad Boy," by T. B. Aldrich. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25.

"The Mill on the Floss," by George Eliot. Harper & Bros. Popular ed. 75 cents.

"Cuore, An Italian Schoolboy's Journal," by Edmondo de Amicis. N.Y. Crowell. Illustrated edition. $1.50.

_Pictures and Books from which Pictures may be Culled._

"The Life of Christ as Treated in Art," by F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S. Macmillan & Co. $8.00, $5.00.

"The Christ Child in Art," by Henry Van Dyke. Harper & Bros. $4.00.

"Sacred and Legendary Art," by Mrs. Anna Jameson. Longmans, Green & Co. 2 vols., 16mo. $2.50.

"The History of Our Lord as Exemplified in Works of Art," by Mrs. Anna Jameson. Illustrated. 2 vols. Longmans, Green & Co. $8.00.

All the above are standard works and are excellent.

"The Earthly Footprints of Our Risen Lord," by Fleming H. Revell. 4to. $1.50.

A continuous narrative of the four gospels according to the revised version, illustrated by numerous half-tone pictures. The selection is not so choice as one could wish, yet many of the pictures are by the best artists, and present a consecutive pictorial story of the life of Christ.

"The Photographs of the Holy Land." Globe Bible Publishing Co., Philadelphia. $3.00. The same in cheaper style in eight portfolios at 10 cents apiece.

Photographs of classic and modern pictures of the child Jesus and of other Biblical subjects. Unmounted, card size, 3-3/4 cents each; cabinet size, 7-1/2 cents each. A catalogue in German will be sent on application. R. Tamme, Dresden, Germany.

There is no duty on pictures.

Blue print copies of pictures of Biblical scenes by the old masters and by modern artists. Mr. Alfred A. Hart, 221 West 109th Street, New York City. Card size, one cent each.

Clear, durable, excellent; of a kind likely to develop good taste. The low price makes it possible to encourage children to make collections of their own. A single secular school has used over twelve thousand of these pictures.

The Christmas catalogues of publishers often contain serviceable pictures.

The standard histories of art are full of illustrative material. The teacher should be ever on the alert.

_Objective Helps; Blackboard Sketches._

Cards for children to prick and sew. Bible Study Publishing Co., 21 Bromfield Street, Boston, Mass.

Scroll of history. See "The Modern Sunday School," p. 297. John H. Vincent.

Sunday-school Museum. Read description of one at Akron, in "The Modern Sunday School," p. 301.

Illustrative Blackboard Sketching, by W. Bertha Hintz. E. L. Kellogg & Co. 53 pp. 30 cents.

A helpful guide designed for those entirely ignorant of the art of drawing, who nevertheless like to work out their own way of putting a lesson, for the eye as well as for the ear, in preference to ready-made blackboard exercises and "pictured truth" at second hand.

IX.

FALSE PICTURE-WORK.

A book on helps, to be truly helpful, must deal with negative as well as with positive matters--those things which we ought to leave undone as well as those we ought to do. Any treatment of true picture-work is lacking in completeness, not to say in candor, which does not say a word about false picture-work.

If there were only some way of crawling into the inside of the children's brains, and marking the effect of the alliterations, juxtapositions, and symbolisms of what goes by the name of picture-work! Can't we devise a meter for estimating the precise emotional and spiritual value of a board filled with marks in various colors in the form of anchors, hearts, keys, crosses, not to mention other less sacred things?

I once saw a "chalk talk" given to two hundred Sunday-school children. _Dramatis personæ_: three parrots; one unrecognizable, it was so badly drawn; a second, indifferent; the third, capital, a speaking likeness. The last was perched on S. T. Moral: "Honesty is the best policy." The children were as delighted as if the text had been taken from the Bible and as interested in the display as if it had possessed the slightest value.

"But," it is urged, "the children are always interested in such things." Yes, and they would be more interested still if you showed them a monkey or displayed red, green, and blue lights. The law of interest tells us what shall _not_ be placed before the children--"Nothing that is not interesting"--but as a guide to what we _shall_ give them it tells but half the story. The other half is, "_Not everything that is interesting, and not anything just because it is interesting_."

Let this caution not be misunderstood. The children must use their eyes. To expect children to follow your stories by ear, and make up their mind-pictures out of whole cloth or from the few objects and pictures that can be shown them, or to remember texts and lesson points out of hand, is to suppose them ready to graduate into the senior department. Let us have more blackboards. An individual board for every pupil, if possible, and the more use--wise use--of blackboards the better. But many "blackboardists" have yet to learn that it is possible to be apt without being alliterative, that one may be extravagant without being effective, sensational without being spiritual. In short, they seem not to understand that common sense applies even to blackboard work.

What are the points in good blackboard work? To be quite dogmatic, for the sake of brevity, good blackboard work is:

1. Simple. "Blackboard ingenuities, dissolving from acrostic into enigma, and from enigma into rhyme are not necessary" and they are harmful besides. They distract, distort, make dizzy. The best blackboard work has the fewest lines, the most unity in its variety, the least approach to anything like a maze.

2. Clear. The best blackboard work is that which is easiest to follow, hardest to forget.

3. Varied. Our stock symbols are worked to death. Is it _right_ to use the cross as commonly as you would a letter of the alphabet? Find something new or give the blackboard a vacation. It is not necessary that there be a quarter hour on every day's program for blackboard work. Who has not spent a "bad quarter of an hour" when the "exercise" was perfunctory?

4. Descriptive. All maps and plans, sketches of roads and rooms, of mountains and rivers, are good, because they help us to form for ourselves the picture which we must see in order to grasp the meaning of the story. For example, we may illustrate the Mount of Transfiguration; first with four figures, then six, then four; the winding road to Emmaus, two figures--straight lines, merely--and a little farther on, a third; the upper room, its occupants represented by marks or initial letters. Anything is helpful that gives a notion of position, number, form, contrast, sequence, change.

5. Free, living, personal. The best blackboard work is that which is freest. Children are impressionists. For them the broad side of the crayon is better than the point; two strokes better than twenty.

The best blackboard work is that which grows before the children's eyes, which is made, not unveiled. Two minutes of rough sketching in the lesson hour is better than two hours of patient putting in of finishing touches beforehand.

The best blackboard work is that which is original, personal. That which is given in the "lesson helps" is just what you should not use. It is not yours. If it does not help you to find your own way, it is useless--and worse than useless, because it tempts you to borrow without inspiring you to create.

6. In fine, the mission of the blackboard, as of all picture-work, is to help us to see the truth in the world or the truth in our own selves by showing us a truth that is easier to see or that is nearer at hand than that which we would learn.

Like all picture-work, it fulfills its mission when it serves as a scaffolding, when it is kept subordinate. It fails when it obscures the truth, not helps to build it. False picture-work is anything that stands in the way of our seeing truth; as when we cannot see the woods for the trees--cannot see the Sunday-school lesson for the bizarre exhibitions on the blackboard.

X.

A COÖPERATIVE STUDY.

In order to find out what Sunday-school teachers are doing in the matter of stories, illustrations, and picture-work generally, the writer prepared and distributed to a thousand teachers the following blank:

_One response NOW is worth twenty a month hence._

STORY-TELLING.

_To Sunday-school Teachers:_

For the purpose of devising means for the better preparation of
Sunday-school teachers, the President of the Teachers College, New
York, requests the teachers in your Sunday-school to answer the
following questions.

To save time and trouble use both sides of this sheet.

Whenever possible answer by crossing out the term that does not
apply.

In every case where the answer is based on experience with
children, state the age of the children.

Please do not hesitate to return this blank, even if you have
answered but a few questions.

_Sources._--To illustrate the lesson do you use Bible stories,
stories from good literature, or stories invented by yourself?

_Subject._--Do you find your children more interested in stories
of people or of nature?

_Kind._--Which of the stories have you found more effective, modern
or classic? Stories told or read? True or fictitious? Those based
on poetry or prose? Stories in which the moral is set forth or
hidden?

_Experience._--What stories are you going to use in the
Sunday-school lesson for next Sunday?

_Precept._--If you do not use stories, what other means do you
employ to enforce religious and moral lessons? Do you "moralize,"
and if so, with what obvious result?

_Environment._--What means do you use of making the dress,
customs, etc., of Bible people seem real to children?

_Picture-work._--Do you use blackboard illustrations? What
other objective helps?

_Examples._--What stories have you found especially helpful?

_Purpose._--What is your purpose in using stories in the
Sunday-school?

_Principles._--Do you succeed in having such unity in the lesson
that the stories all contribute to one main thought? Mention five
requisites for a good story-teller.

Mention five qualities in a good story.

To these questions fifty-eight replies were received. Very few, however, gave the ages of the children, and the smallness of the number of replies--which after all is by no means discouraging--tends to vitiate the data as bases for generalization.

Space forbids giving more than a single group of typical answers. Some of the most helpful of the suggestions have been embodied in the foregoing. Further replies from thoughtful teachers will be welcome.

_Question_--Mention five requisites for a good story-teller.

_Answers:_

Sympathetic voice, manner, and face.

More knowledge of the subject than one wants to use.

The teacher must be interested, bright, imaginative, clear in
thought and expression.

Clear apprehension of the point to be made, clear knowledge of the
subject, understanding of the peculiarities of his hearers, tact in
making application, and dramatic power.

Power in word-painting--with a sense of perspective.

Unconsciousness of self.

A gift for mimicry.

Graphic description.

Sympathy with children.

Power to hold attention and keep to the main thought.

Animation, personal magnetism, originality, wit.

Conciseness, force.

Pleasant manner.

Ability to repeat a story without hesitation.

Power to put one's self into the time, circumstances, etc., of the
story.

Love of story-telling.

Quiet manners.

Gestures, good voice.

Small [easy?] words.

Ability to make the children help tell the story, by making them
gesture, point, express sorrow, surprise, etc., and answer
questions.

A good story-teller asks intensely interesting questions at exactly
the right point.

A passage from Herbart forms a fitting close to this study:

"The intent to teach spoils children's books at once; it is
forgotten that every one, the child included, selects what suits
him from what he reads, and judges the writing as well as the
writer after his own fashion. Show the bad to children plainly, but
not as an object of desire, and they will recognize that it is bad.
Interrupt a narrative with moral precepts, and they will find you a
wearisome narrator. Relate only what is good, and they will feel it
monotonous, and the mere charm of variety will make the bad
welcome. Remember your own feelings on seeing a purely moral play.
But give to them an interesting story, rich in incidents,
relationships, characters, strictly in accordance with
psychological truth, and not beyond the feelings and ideas of
children; make no effort to depict the worst or the best, only let
a faint, half-conscious moral tact secure that the interest of the
action tends away from the bad toward the good, the just, the
right; then you will see how the child's attention is fixed upon
it, how it seeks to discover the truth and think over all sides of
the matter, how the many-sided material calls forth a many-sided
judgment, how the charm of change ends in preference for the best,
so that the boy who perhaps feels himself a step or two higher in
moral judgment than the hero or the author, will cling to his view
with inner self-approbation, and so guard himself from a coarseness
he already feels beneath him. The story must have one more
characteristic, if its effect is to be lasting and emphatic; it
must carry on its face the strongest and clearest stamp of human
greatness. For a boy distinguishes the common and ordinary from the
praiseworthy as well as we; he even has this distinction more at
heart than we have, for he does not like to feel himself small, he
wishes to be a man. The whole look of a well-trained boy is
directed above himself, and when eight years old his entire line of
vision extends beyond all histories of children. Present to the boy
therefore such men as he himself would like to be."

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* * * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed.