Seven Graded Sunday Schools: A Series of Practical Papers

Chapter II: Part 2

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This grade should be made up of scholars promoted from the Primary Grade, and all between the ages of eight and twelve years, and should be divided into classes of about seven scholars each. They should study the same lesson as the Junior and Senior Grades, and in addition to that the Catechism of the Church to which the school belongs. This may be taught by the teacher of the class or by the superintendent of the department. Promotion to the Junior Grade should be made when scholars are about twelve years of age, or upon a test of fifty questions in the Catechism, to be answered in writing, the scholars to pass if forty are answered correctly. This is the test we employ in this grade.

It is important that much should be done for these scholars. Special printed programs and reviews should be prepared for them, and they should receive much attention from the officers of the school. This department should also be a training school for teachers, who should be selected from the Seniors for their fitness for such work and after a pledge has been made that they will attend the weekly teachers' meeting for study and help in methods. These teachers should be promoted with their classes when they show they can do more advanced work. Great care should be taken in the selection of a superintendent. One who is apt to teach will find abundant opportunity to assist both teachers and scholars.

THE JUNIOR DEPARTMENT.

All scholars between the ages of twelve and sixteen should be placed in this grade. In most schools this will be the largest department. The wisest and best teachers should be selected for it, as the scholars are of that age in which we find them restless and difficult to interest. As a rule it will be in the same room with the Seniors, and should be recognized as a grade as frequently as Seniors. It may be done in many ways, but should be especially in the opening and closing exercises of the school. They may be called upon to read responsively with the Seniors, or to sing the solo part of a hymn while all join in the chorus. Special work may be given them in connection with the school, but not jointly with any other department. If you can keep the Junior Grade busy you can both educate and benefit them. They have great pride in being recognized as a separate organization. The members of this grade should be promoted at the age of sixteen to the Senior Grade. It may be on some examination, but I believe it not best, for this is the point where the boy and girl have gone away from school because they thought they were no longer children and a child's school was not the place for them. Recognize the fact that they are young people as soon as they do, and promote them because they are, into an element that is congenial. At once they are bound to the school by personal pride and by social influences that they are not quick to abandon. Use these elements wisely, and the school has won a victory. The superintendent of this department should be a person whom all the boys and girls like because he is one of them, and while he is "one of them" he should not forget above all things that he is their superintendent, with a responsibility resting upon him to secure their salvation.

THE SENIOR DEPARTMENT.

This most important grade will have in it all persons over sixteen years of age, and all classes should be on an equal footing; that is, that all should be called Senior Classes, whether the members are sixteen or sixty. There should be no "Bible classes."

In the formation of Senior Classes great care should be taken so to adjust them that there shall be no friction. The social idea must be considered, although the scholar should not know that it is being thought of. Scholars who would have no sympathy with each other, and who would never harmonize, should never be placed in the same class; if they are, one or the other will leave the class or school. In the selection of teachers for the Senior Classes great care should be taken. These scholars must be taught, not entertained; so men and women must, if possible, be found who are well informed, apt to teach, consecrated to their work, and who will give to their lesson and class such attention as is required to insure successful work. It is far better in this grade to have a few good teachers with large classes than many teachers, some of whom are incompetent to instruct, and smaller classes. Special instruction should be given in the way of courses of consecutive lessons, lectures, and anything that will supply the intellectual wants of these young people. Never allow the methods of instruction to get into ruts. Teachers should be helped by pastor and superintendent, and nothing should be left undone which would interest and attract the young people. The social element should be employed under careful supervision, but always with the Senior Grade alone. Never allow the children of lower grades to have a part in a social gathering with the Seniors unless by special invitation of the young people. This is the point where they are sensitive, and it must be well guarded.

Employ the young people in every possible way. Let the ruling members of the church recognize them and give them all the church work possible, and they will do it, not only well, but with a spirit that will be inspiring to the church.

Many years of experience convince me that from this department must come the best material for teachers for the school, and will help to settle the vexed question as to where we can get teachers. Take them from the Senior Grade and give them such Normal training as will fit them for teachers and officers. The knowledge that the superintendent is looking among the Seniors for competent persons to fill all places of responsibility is a great inspiration to them, and exalts their idea of the character and usefulness of the Sunday school.

The members of this grade are at an age when they are ready to enter upon some business, and the question as to what it shall be and where they shall get a situation is a very serious one to them. There is no way in which officers and teachers can bind the young people more closely to themselves and the school than by taking a personal interest in their business, and helping them to secure such employment as they need, and securing situations where they will be under good influences.

SUGGESTIONS.

In the Primary Grade a great effort should be made by the teachers to secure a personal acquaintance with the mothers of the children. If possible call at their homes and thereby learn something of their home life, always making a memorandum of such things as impress the teacher as having an influence upon the character of the scholar.

A Saturday afternoon reception for the mothers, who, if possible, are to bring their children, is an excellent method. It should be very informal.

Avoid in this grade, as in all others, the idea of paying scholars by prizes, or in any other way, for efforts made to learn or do what is right, but always keep before them the idea that they are to do well because it is right. This gives the little ones a self-respect which is powerful in its influence.

In making promotions from one grade to another it is not best to have ironclad rules. If a class is to be promoted it is not best to leave one or more out because they have not quite reached the age required. Neither is it wise to insist upon a scholar being promoted because he has reached the proper age, unless he is willing to leave the class he is in.

Promotion may be made once or twice a year. I think once is best, and then it should be at a special service in which all the school should take part.

If a teacher is a misfit in a class the time for promotions is the time to put that teacher where he can work without friction, without giving any publicity to the change. It is also an excellent time to place a scholar not easily controlled with a teacher who is especially fitted to handle him. The scholar should never know why the change was made.

Every Sunday school should have a Normal Class. Courses of study have been prepared which can be handled by any good teacher or pastor who will make an effort. This course will give not only teachers but scholars an exalted idea of the Bible as a book, and prepare them to expound the lessons as they could not without such a course of study. If there is not a class individuals may take the course alone and pass examinations, which will entitle them to the diploma of some of the Sunday school assemblies.

Many superintendents say they cannot grade their schools because they have not separate rooms for the departments. It is desirable to have separate rooms, but if you do not have them you should grade the school, putting each grade by itself in some part of the room, if you have but the one. An aisle or a curtain may be the dividing line. Most excellent results have been realized where the whole school was in one room.

The Home Department is for the benefit of persons who cannot attend Sunday school. The conditions upon which membership is secured are that they shall study the lesson for the day one half hour on the Sabbath; all members to report quarterly whether they have kept the pledge. Those who join this department are members of the school and entitled to all its privileges, such as lesson helps, the use of library, and all other things that other members enjoy. This department should include persons who are distant from the school, the aged, the sick, and may include persons who reside hundreds of miles away, especially those who have been members of the school in other days. This department should have a superintendent who will give it attention and look after all who become members.

THE ERIE PLAN.

BY H. A. STRONG.

THE query often arises whether the modern Sunday school is now at its maximum of efficiency in the line of its development. Wonderful is the progress already attained. The introduction of the International Lesson System marks an epoch. Before that separate schools and even teachers were a law unto themselves. Now schools are in touch one with another; sectarian barriers have been broken down; the unity of the cause is recognized. The Church is one; so are her schools. The culture and the spirituality of the Church catholic everywhere are now the teacher of the teachers. Helps to Bible study are so multiplied and improved that it is difficult to see how an advance step could be taken here. The testimony is well-nigh uncontradicted that the Bible is studied as never before in the light of modern research and science. Teachers, as a body, are measuring up to these privileges and responsibilities.

The advance movement in Sunday school work may not be in its literature, nor in the efficiency or the enthusiasm of its corps of teachers. Elsewhere must we look for the necessity for improvement.

The Sunday school is a school. The expression sounds trite and tautological; but it needs emphasis. Bishop Vincent in his latest book, "The Modern Sunday School," discusses the proposition that the "Sunday school is and must be a school." Out of the fullness of his knowledge and experience proof is there given that the organization, system of teaching, and methods of the public schools must be appropriated by the Sunday school of the day. The modern Sunday school must stand or fall as it is contrasted with the modern public school. By such a comparison alone can excellencies or deficiencies be revealed.

Wonderful has been the development of the public school system in the present generation. Great teachers have appeared in all ages and schools have gathered about them. But this age is remarkable in this, that it has adopted a system of instruction for youth and has trained teachers for that system. The combination of these two elements makes the modern common school system. Let the adults of to-day state the case of their day. Such a comparison would show the value of the present. The great boon from the State to the youth of to-day is an educational system based on scientific principles.

In that system two essentials must be emphasized: first, departments; and, second, the place of the pupil. These departments form a series that are mutually related and dependent. They each mark a step in the development of the mind of the pupil. Again, the pupil has his proper place in that system, assigned not by caprice but by a principle. That principle is the attainment of the pupil in the studies of the system. A competent instructor could find by examination the true place of any pupil in any city public school. Such a statement is so self-evident that it excites no surprise. It is as it should be. The method of assignment and promotion is the public school system. Without it that system would not be what it is.

Apply now these essentials as tests to the Sunday schools. How are pupils there assigned and promoted? The answer must be that such assignment and promotions are there unknown. Here we touch a radical defect and weakness. The statement of that weakness hardly needs elaboration.

As we study further the public school system we find there a course of study. That course of study, comprehensive and complete, the work of educators, is the glory of the system. It is this curriculum that makes its pupils students. In these points also compare the Sunday school.

A summary of these conclusions may be made. The modern Sunday school is not the peer of the modern public school. The Sunday school has a defective system of unrelated, independent departments. The modern public school has a perfect system of correlated dependent departments. The Sunday school has no system of promotions, no training school for teachers, and no course of study. Do its pupils study? Why, they are not required, nor examined.

Is there a remedy for such defects? Could its department be perfected? Yes; but the disease is deeper than that. Could a system of promotions be devised? Undoubtedly. Could a teachers' class be formed? Many schools have that. To treat these symptoms separately is not to reach the source of the disease. It is but to tamper with difficulties.

The solution lies in a "Course of Study." In the public school the system rallied around a common center--its course of study. All the agencies employed were to render that course effective. Out of a supplemental lesson system will arise conditions that will crystallize into correlation of departments, methods of promotion, a Normal Department with its commencement day, and, best of all, by the help of the home and the church, an atmosphere of study for the scholar without which a school cannot be.

It is believed that such a course of study is practicable. Is it not thus that the modern Sunday school as a school must be improved?

It is evident that the course of instruction in the Sunday school will be different from that of the day school. There, mental culture is sought; here, spiritual culture is the end in view. There, many are the text-books on diverse themes; here, one book and one theme. The Bible and its revelation must be the book and the theme of any supplemental lesson system. It may be taken as an axiom that that system will be the most efficient and acceptable which has the most of the Bible in it and whose teachings best mirror the Bible.

The writer has prepared a series of text-books to be used as a supplemental course of study in the Sunday school. These books have been compiled in connection with his work as superintendent; and as they were completed they were tested in the Sunday school at Erie, Pa. The first one was written five years ago, and since then they have been continuously used.

This school, as now graded, consists of the following departments: Primary, Junior, Senior, Normal, Reserve, and Assembly. The Primary Department has a four years' course and classes to correspond. The Normal Department has adopted the two years' course of study of the Chautauqua Normal Union. The course of study to which attention is directed is an eight years' course--four years for the Junior Department and four for the Senior Department. This course receives pupils from the Primary room at the age of about ten, and, after it is finished, passes them on to the Normal Department.

THE BOOKS OF THE COURSE:[A]

_Junior Department:_
First Year--Catechism.
Second Year--Catechism.
Third Year--Life of Christ.
Fourth Year--Church History.

_Senior Department:_
First Year--Jewish History.
Second Year--Jewish History and the Bible.
Third Year--Christian Evidences.
Fourth Year--Christian Evidences.

All these books are catechetical in form, simple in statement, and seek through the questions to give the theme a natural unfolding. They are printed uniform in series. The Junior books have each about twenty pages the size of the Church Catechism, and the Senior books have each about thirty pages.

The Catechism is the first book of the series. Experience teaches that then memory best aids in its mastery. To these text-books on the Catechism is added a supplement on the books of the Bible and its history and geography. The "Life of Christ" undertakes to tell that life in the words of the gospels. "Church History" treats of the apostolic Church and great events in that history, as the Crusades and the Reformation under Luther and Wesley. The first Senior book, "Jewish History," follows mainly the outline of the Old Testament emphasized by the lessons of the international course. The second year book completes that history, and has chapters on the Bible--its translations and geography, etc. The third and fourth years are employed in the study of "Christian Evidences."

A glance shows that the course of study is a study of the Bible, the Junior books being taken from the New Testament, while the Senior cover the Old Testament.

This system calls for regular examination in which the classes of the school participate; it creates an atmosphere of study for the scholars. They are expected and required to study, and they meet that expectation. This system further promotes harmony between the different departments of the school and forms a basis for promotion for the scholars and classes. Promotions are as regular and as judicious as in the public schools.

For what it is, and what it promises, it is brought to the attention of the Church and Sunday school.

THE GRADING.

In this work the number of departments into which the school is to be divided must be fixed. The following will probably be found requisite: Primary, Junior, Senior, Normal, Assembly, and Reserve Departments. The Primary Department may be graded in unison with the school and a course of four years' study be adopted. The Normal Department takes the Chautauqua Assembly course of study. The Assembly is the adult Bible Class of the school. Graduates of the Normal Department constitute the Reserve Department. This department studies the Sunday school lesson a week in advance of the rest of the school, and stands ready to fill the places of absentee teachers. The main body of the school constitutes the Junior and the Senior departments. The course of study is for these Departments, and covers a period of eight years. Their grading is a work of tact and difficulty.

The scholars should be formed into classes, averaging seven to a class. These classes, when organized, should be seated in the school, with the view of promotion from year to year. In a school of five hundred pupils the classes would average about five to each grade.

Where these departments occupy the same room the Juniors may be seated on one side, according to rank, and the Seniors on the other side. The position of the class, being won by merit, becomes a place of honor which the superintendent wisely uses. In the first organization a perfect grade is not attainable. Out of the material given only an approximation to the ideal can be hoped for. Time will cure defects. Each year the entire system moves. With a few annual promotions the actual attains the ideal and the system becomes perfect in its grade. In this we make haste slowly.

THE STUDY OF THE BOOKS.

The time of the introduction of the books and the method of their study are for the decision of the school. A suggestion may be offered. The Sunday school year may follow that of the public school. If so, their study would begin in September, and the examination would be the June following. But, whenever introduced, it should be made plain that the books are auxiliary only to the International System of Bible study. Each session should have an allotted period of time, at least five minutes, for their study. Each teacher can divide the given matter into convenient parts so that the whole may be mastered in nine months. This study will be tested by an examination.

THE ANNUAL EXAMINATION.

This examination is the keystone of the whole system. Without it the course of study is a failure. Its importance must be emphasized before the whole school. How to emphasize it is a problem that each school must solve. A description of the plan adopted in the school where the system originated may throw some light on that question. Some Sunday in June is selected as the day for the examination, and of that day the school is forewarned. Examination questions, twenty in number, and covering the work of the year, are furnished each scholar. These questions are so printed as to leave blank spaces under each question for the answer to be written by the scholar. The whole session of the school is given up to the examination. The papers are gathered and careful work is put thereon in marking the same. Each answer is marked on a scale of 5, and, if the answers are correct, the paper is marked 100. The marks thus make a system of percentage easily understood by all. The minimum percentage to pass the examination is 75. Those who get 75 and upward are known as honor students.

The Sunday following the examination a full report of the work of the school is read. An honor roll of students who pass the examination is placed upon the blackboard or printed in fine form and placed upon the walls of the room. These honor names are arranged alphabetically and without the percentage of standing, so that it is an equal honor to all students.

The Commencement Day of the graduates of the Normal Class occurs shortly after the examination. These exercises are given on some suitable evening of the week, and are made the event of the school year. After the exercises comes the banquet. For this occasion the Sunday school room is made by the graduates a veritable bower of floral beauty. The Normal graduates and the honor students are received as the honored guests at these festivities.

Such a description may make plain how to emphasize the examination. At least two months before the examination the superintendent should make short, pointed appeals to the scholars and try to fill them with the spirit of study. These examination honors, open to every one, should be made plain to all. Adults work with an object in view. It is the same with the children.

The written examination, its report read to the school, the roll of honor, the promotions, the Commencement and its banquet, are appeals not made in vain to the modern child. What must be the legitimate result of such an appeal to the children? They work for the examination as they do for the examination in the public schools. These last weeks are busy ones. They meet evenings at the homes of the teachers, and on Sunday they gather at the church in special session for class study.

Under such inspiration whole classes have handed in perfect papers. And yet some may and will fail. For them a second examination is given.

Then on the day of promotion the whole school moves forward and occupies the rank won. A course of study can thus revolutionize a school and create an atmosphere of genuine study.

FOOTNOTE:

[A] These books have been published in pamphlet form by the Methodist Book Concern as "Graded Lessons for the Sunday School."

THE CHICOPEE PLAN.

BY HON. L. E. HITCHCOCK.

CAN the graded system be successfully used in small Sunday schools? The plan described in this article has been in successful operation for several years in the Central Methodist Episcopal Sunday school in Chicopee, Mass., in which the membership during that time has averaged 200 and the average attendance has been about 150.

Before describing in detail the plan it may be well to stale three principles on which the plan is based:

1. A school, in order to be such, must be instructive as well as evangelistic, and if instruction is to be given there are many principles of instruction which have been worked out in our system of public schools and which have come to be accepted as right principles of teaching anything, and these principles cannot be ignored in teaching in the Sunday schools any more than they can in the day schools without impairment of the results desired.

2. In general terms, the most important principle of successful teaching is that it should be progressive and adapted in succeeding years to the normal development of the mind of the average child, and this relates to the method of teaching a given subject as well as to the selection of the subjects which shall be taught.

3. Another principle of successful teaching which is of almost as much importance as the one just alluded to is that there shall be one person at the head with a definite plan of work.

Applying these principles to Sunday school work, this school supposes that there is certain instruction which properly belongs to the Sunday school to give; that there is no reason why the Sunday school should not make use of the best methods of instruction which are known to educators so far as applicable; and that when the superintendent is elected to his place the church in effect commits to him or her the entire care of that part of the work of the church, and that it is perfectly proper for him to direct his teachers in the work which he will have done in his school during his term of office.

PLAN OF ORGANIZATION

The school is divided into three departments, Primary, Intermediate, and Senior. The Primary Department keeps the children until the New Year after they are eight years old; the Intermediate takes them through a ten years' course of study, and then the Senior Department receives them into the Bible classes.

The Primary Department, which meets in a room by itself and has its own order of exercises, is divided into as many classes with separate teachers as may be necessary for the proper care of its little folks, and all under the care of a superintendent of that department. The usual exercises of this department are of the general character customary in such grades.

In July the class which will graduate at the end of the year is formed and placed in the care of a certain teacher, whose special duty is to see that the class is prepared to graduate. The graduating exercises are public, and a neat diploma is presented to each scholar who thus graduates.

The Intermediate Department is divided into ten grades, each representing a year of study and each containing two classes, one of boys and one of girls, although there is no reason why boys and girls should not be together in the same class. There is no division of the Senior Department into grades. It contains only three classes, namely, the Young Men's Bible Class, the Young Ladies' Bible Class, and the General Class.

COURSES OF STUDY.

The principal work of the school is done along the lines of the International Lessons, which are used in all the departments, although the method of teaching them varies in the different grades.

In addition to the International Lessons Supplemental Lessons are taught in the Primary and Intermediate Departments. In the Primary Department these include the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Twenty-third Psalm, the Beatitudes, and the Apostles' Creed.

The following schedule will show at a glance what are the specific studies of each grade in the Intermediate Department:

Some explanation of the above is needed:

1. The study of the International Lessons. In all the grades the first things to be learned in each lesson are the title, the Golden Text, and the lesson story, and after these are learned the teachers take up the specific grade instruction as above. The lesson thought, which appears first in Grade III, is carried through all the remaining grades as the central thought for the session. These thoughts are selected by the superintendent, and by him indicated to the teachers at the beginning of each quarter. To illustrate: Take the lesson for September 11, 1892, the title of which was Philip and the Ethiopian. After learning the title, Golden Text, and lesson story the different grades will study as follows:

Grades I and II. Learn the memory verses: 35-38.

Grade III. Learn the memory verses and study thought: "Philip preached Jesus."

Grade IV. Study about the persons: Philip, Candace, the eunuch, and Esaias, and also the same thought as in Grade III.

Grade V. Study about the places: Jerusalem, Gaza, Ethiopia, Azotus, and Cesarea, and the two thoughts: "Philip preached Jesus," and "Prompt response to call of duty."

Grade VI. Study customs: going to Jerusalem to worship, ceremony of baptism, riding in chariot, and the same two thoughts as in Grade V.

Grades VII and VIII. Thoughts--
"Philip preached Jesus."
"Prompt response to call of duty."
"Habit of reading."
"Understand as you read."
"Act up to your knowledge."

Grades IX and X. Thoughts--
"Philip preached Jesus. I can do the same."
"Prompt response to call of duty. How these calls come."
"Fulfillment of prophecy."
"Immediate conversion and baptism."
"The new-found joy."

2. The Supplemental Lessons. The aim of these lessons is to furnish systematic instruction upon the subjects indicated, which are matters that every well-informed person ought to know, but which cannot be taught from the International Lessons. Each year contains thirty-six lessons which can easily be memorized and recited in the twenty minutes usually allowed for this study. The titles readily suggest the nature of the lessons.

A weekly teachers' meeting is held under the direction of the superintendent for the purpose of assisting the teachers in the right understanding of the things required to be taught on the succeeding Sunday, and instructing them in methods of teaching that particular lesson. It is a sort of teachers' meeting and normal class combined.

EXAMINATIONS AND MARKS.

Written examinations upon the International Lessons are held at the end of each quarter, and one upon the Supplemental Lessons is held near the close of the year, upon each of which the scholars are marked. Each scholar is also marked at each session of the school upon a scale of five credits, as follows: one for attendance at the opening of the school, one for attention during school time, one for attendance at closing the school, one for attendance upon preaching service, and one for lesson study at home. These marks, taken in connection with the examination marks and the knowledge of the general work of the scholar during the year, determine his promotion at the end of the year. The scholar who completes the course satisfactorily is awarded the diploma of graduation and admitted to the Senior Department of the school. No special work other than that usually taken up in Bible classes has been attempted in any of the classes of the Senior Department.

SPIRITUAL WORK.

Although great stress is laid upon the work of instruction in the school, it must not be concluded that the spiritual work is overlooked. This is attended to in two ways: first, in the lesson thoughts in connection with the International Lessons, which are selected, as far as possible, to enable the teachers to illustrate and enforce spiritual truths; and, secondly, each teacher is expected to do all she can in the way of personal example and influence to bring the members of her class to Christ. Of course, if any special religious interest at any time in the church seems to call for it, the work of the school is suspended and all the energy is brought to bear upon the evangelistic part of the work.

RESULTS.

The actual working of this plan has demonstrated that many things which might seem to be objections have been only imaginary. At the start the scholars were classified according to their ages, with occasional modifications with reference to their places in the public schools, and the teachers were placed in the different grades with reference to their relative abilities, and they were asked to teach certain specific things, which of course they cheerfully did. The scholars, who are accustomed to this method in the public schools, at once caught the idea, and their parents became interested to see that their lessons were learned before coming to the school. The attendance of teachers became more regular, for each teacher, having his own specific work to do, very soon realized that if he were absent his work could not be fully done by a substitute, and the attendance of the scholars was much improved, for they could see actual advancement from Sunday to Sunday.

The attendance of scholars in the Intermediate Department averages fully twenty per cent more than in any other department. Of course, the adoption of any system of graded work means considerable work for a superintendent at the start, and this to a busy man is a serious matter; but after the system is fairly started it works easier and with less friction to annoy than any other plan, and the cause is worthy of the effort required.

Two reasons why schools should be graded may be given: 1. Children will be interested in what they can understand, and if the instruction both as to form and substance is adapted to their growing intellectual abilities it will easily be received and taken care of, while, on the other hand, if it is not comprehended it excites no interest in the mind of the child, and he is glad to get out of the school as soon as he can.

2. The teachers do not go on with their classes from year to year indefinitely, and by this means it is possible to bring ten succeeding classes under the teaching of the ablest teacher you can get in a particular grade, instead of confining that able teacher to only one class for ten years. There can surely be no question as to which is the better course.

FOOTNOTE:

[B] These Supplemental Lessons have been published by Hunt & Eaton, New York, as "The Ten Minute Series."

THE LYNCHBURG PLAN.

BY IRVINE GARLAND PENN.

IT was early in the year of 1890 when it became a positive fact, to the superintendent who is now leading our Sunday school, that we had accomplished practically nothing as a school during the twenty years of our existence. In this school our superintendent was entered when but a lad of five years. He had shifted from class to class, not by reason of any promotion by the superintendent, teacher, or any other officer of the school, but as he advanced in age from five to eight, eight to ten, and ten to fifteen years he correspondingly grew in size, and of his own free will and accord he moved from class to class, with no other recommendation for promotion but age and size. At the age of fifteen he was made secretary, and in that official capacity he took account of the pennies collected, disbursing them as the board might order.

Our future superintendent was then promoted to be the teacher of Bible Class No. 3. It was not Class "Three" because its members knew more or less than Class 1 and 2, but because its members were a class of misses, while Classes 1 and 2 were masters and young men. In fact, Class 3 was as much entitled to be Class 1 as Class 1 was to be Class 1. He was then promoted to his present position. His career is related in order that it may be shown that the conclusion which he had reached was founded upon personal experience and observation, which he took no account of then, but which served to demonstrate more forcibly to him that the Sunday school was accomplishing nothing save the one fact that it met on Sunday mornings ostensibly for religious instruction. It must be said, however, in justice to other superintendents, that, whatever inclination he had to seek and ascertain the defects and best needs of the school, he was led slightly in that direction by those who had shown that something was needed, and who knew that a change must take place if our Sunday school would maintain her standing as a large and growing one in the community. We numbered four hundred, in round figures, and while during the boyhood of our superintendent the corps of teachers were not efficient, by reason of the lack of advantages necessary to proper qualification, yet when he came into office he found himself surrounded by a corps of teachers nearly all of whom were prepared by intellectual and divine strength to teach anything that could possibly be put into a Sunday school course with propriety.

No longer were there "blind leaders of the blind" in the school, but intelligent leaders in mind and heart. It was a proposition that needed no demonstration to our superintendent that he now had the opportunity to present the one thing needful in the school, namely, method and system in instruction and the adaptiveness of work to the susceptibility of the pupil, which is the essence of the grade idea. As soon, then, as this idea was clear, our superintendent at once began inquiry and to hunt literature bearing on this subject.

"The Modern Sunday School," by Bishop J. H. Vincent, was the first book consulted, and the first sentence of Chapter XII, on Gradation, gave the idea which settled the conviction. The sentence reads: "The Sunday school is a school." Nothing is truer than this one sentence, and the sooner our superintendents and teachers get this one idea ineradicably fixed in their minds the better it will be for our Sunday school interests. Most assuredly the "Sunday school is a school" to teach the things of God, to instill his truths and impress his good deeds and loving favors to the children of men upon the mind and hearts of those who must grow up in the admonition of the Lord, if they would make valiant soldiers and good citizens. It was evident that our Sunday school was a school, though poor in order, poor in work, and poor in everything but singing and the giving of picnics. Dr. Vincent's book was further consulted, with others, and our superintendent reserved several months to mature his plans and present them.

In the meantime several articles in the "Sunday School Journal" of May and September, 1890, greatly helped him. A plan of action was finally decided upon; first a new registration, giving name, age, educational fitness, and some minor matters, was gotten of each pupil as accurately as possible. In the meantime our plan had by this time been told the school, and the taking of a new registration, preparatory to the gradation, created a genuine revival of interest in the work. And, too, when the fact was known that the school was undergoing a change which would give larger and better opportunities to the children, fathers and mothers who could not themselves read, but who knew what it was to have John and Mary to go from Catechism to Catechism, from class to class, every time higher and higher, gave vent to their feelings in many "Amens" and "God-bless-yous." To these expressions of approval and the prayers of this class the success of our system may be greatly attributed.

The registration having been taken, our superintendent was intrusted with the gradation of the school. On the one hand the burden was light; on the other heavy. The labor was light, for no amount of it could seem a burden, so great was the interest in the four hundred souls who were now for once to be put into the shape of an ideal Sunday school.

On the other hand, it was for once a burden to do duty as he saw it, because there were large boys and girls who had been hitherto neglected in this ghost of a school, and now had to suffer the worry of doing a thing over when it might have been done well at first. But our superintendent had no time now to indulge in sentimentality; the work was to be done, it was given him to do, and he knew it was for the best good of the school; hence he went at the work in the fear of the Lord. During three weeks of incessant prayer and labor the work was done, submitted to and approved by our board. What a change to be made during the next Sunday! John, who could not read, used to be in Bible Class No. 1; now he is to study the Catechism.

During the next Sunday the grading was done, classes rearranged, teachers replaced to suit the departments; and after all was done we looked calmly upon the scene, and never in all the history of our Sunday school did it look so well, and never have we seen children with such bright and happy faces as were in that school on that morning. It will never be forgotten even by the smallest pupil. As I have said, they were always good singers, but with new life in them they sang the praises of God on that morning until it seemed we were all tasting of the riches of God as never before. The three departments arranged were Primary, Intermediate, and Normal, with provision for a Normal Training Class. It may be said here that we have seen the necessity very clearly for the introduction of a Junior Department or Course on account of the length of our now existing departments. This will be done on "Promotion Sunday" after our January examination.

A course of study was carefully arranged to cover the three departments, consisting of seven years: Primary Course (provided child entered at the age of three), ages from three to ten years; five years' Intermediate Course, ages from ten to fifteen years; five years in the Senior Course, ages from fifteen to twenty years. These departments, and the years in each, will be slightly modified by the introduction of the Junior Course.

The course embraces in our Primary Department the International Lessons in the form of the "Picture Lesson Paper." The Lesson Paper is, however, not taken up until the pupil has been in this department for four years, presuming that he enters at three years of age. The lessons during the first four years are orally taught, and consist of selected verses of the Bible, Lord's Prayer, Beatitudes, and selected portions of Catechism No. 1. Since the day school system only admits pupils at six and seven years, it is presumed that they are not prepared to be classified in any way as students of the International System on account of their inability to read.

Thus all of the pupils from three to six years are put into one class and taught orally, as explained above. There are sometimes exceptions to this general rule in the case of children who may have had early training around the fireside.

The pupils in the Primary Department, having received the Lesson Paper at seven or eight years, have only from two to three years to remain there before the proper age is reached, all other things being equal, for their transfer to the next department. During the last two or three years of the Primary Course the pupils have for supplemental lessons selected Psalms and verses, Catechism No. 1 to Question 25, inclusive. It has been demonstrated to our board in our promotions that this Primary Course is well conceived and serves admirably well the purpose intended, which is to lay a foundation upon which a structure might be reared without fear of tottering.

In our Intermediate Course the International study begins the first year with the "Beginner's Leaf" and is used during three years of the five years' course. In the remaining two years the "Berean Lesson Leaf" is used. In the use of the Beginner's and Berean Leaves the course of teaching is laid down by the Examining Board, and the teacher directs her talk and instruction in that direction. This is to avoid what may be termed "splatterdash" teaching--the teaching of everything with special reference to no one particular thing, the teaching of what is understood and not understood. The supplemental lessons for the Intermediate Course include the Ten Commandments, Catechisms Nos. 1, 2, and 3, and the Old Testament read and thoroughly considered from Genesis to Numbers, inclusive. In this department special effort is made to impress the Baptismal Covenant, the Ten Doctrines of Grace, Ten Points of Church Economy, etc.

The pupil is now fifteen years of age, and, all things being equal, he is ready for the Senior Course.

In this department the "Senior Lesson Quarterly" is used. The supplemental work consists of a completion of the Old and New Testaments thoroughly read and considered during the five years. In addition to this, McGee's "Outlines of the Methodist Episcopal Church" is studied the first year; "The Teacher Before His Class," by James L. Hughes, in the second year; "Normal Outlines for Primary Teachers" in the third year; "History of the Sunday School," by Chandler, in the fourth year; Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and "Christian Baptism," by Bishop S. M. Merrill, in the fifth year.

Our pupils are then entered in the Normal Training Class, where they read such books as "Open Letters to Primary Teachers," by Mrs. W. F. Crafts; "Hand Book for Teachers," by Dr. Joseph Alden. They also consider more fully the doctrines of our Methodism and the history of "that great religious movement," as one has termed it. The pupils of this class subject themselves to much training for Sunday school teachers. They are permitted and are expected to meet the teachers in their weekly meetings in order that they may go over the lessons with the teachers and be prepared in case of an emergency. Our examinations are held semiannually. In the supplemental work the examinations are conducted in written form. As to the International studies, the recommendation of a pupil by a teacher is sufficient to determine his work and his ability to pass to a higher grade. The teachers conduct their own examination and make tabulated results, the whole of which is submitted to our Examining Board, consisting of eight members, who carefully pass upon it and order the promotion. The promotion is then made by the superintendent according to the tabulated results.

As an encouragement to pupils we have found it wise to issue certificates to everyone as they complete the course of study of each department, and finally, when the Senior Course is completed, to issue a diploma. The assembly idea also obtains in our school as a part of our system. This has been found indispensable as an incentive to devotion, because it makes our higher Intermediate and Senior classes feel their importance in a measure when they are called together every fortnight to hear some talk or paper upon some religious topic, apart from the Primary and lower Intermediate classes. In order that the teachers might be more thoroughly interested in the success of the system, and thus influence their children, our superintendent has very wisely introduced the social feature into our work, and very often in our consideration of Sunday school matters we find ourselves in the midst of a pleasant and agreeable reception. This has worked well, for we are all creatures of humanity with the same innate social tendencies. The day of days, yes, the red-letter day, is "Promotion Sunday." These Sundays will never be forgotten. The enthusiasm is equal to that of Children's Day in every respect. Boys and girls with eager hearts pass from class to class. As a means necessary to the success of our system our superintendent very carefully presented the necessity of a larger library than we had. The plans for raising the money were arranged, and, to use the popular expression, "they worked like a charm." Hundreds of dollars were raised, with which we now have over one thousand volumes and a neatly built library case of twenty feet in length. It would be a pleasure to tell how that money was raised.

As to the results accomplished in our school by the system, suffice it to say they are manifold. Order, system, interest, care, study, regular and punctual attendance by officers and teachers, have been some of the results. In conclusion, let us pray that our superintendents and boards will see the necessity for this system in their schools, and that before long the schools of our Methodism may be one of continuous gradation.

THE PLAINFIELD PLAN.

BY JESSE L. HURLBUT, D.D.

TWO years have passed since our Sunday school was graded, and the results of the system are now so apparent that we can safely recommend our plan, for it has met and endured the test of time. Our Sunday school, before the grading was accomplished, embraced about four hundred scholars of all ages, with an average attendance of two hundred and seventy-five. Its officers and teachers were fifty in number. It was by no means an ideal school, though above the average in the efficiency of its work and the interest of its exercises. Its building, however, is a model of convenience and adaptation to the work of the Sunday school, having around the main hall eighteen class rooms, all capable of being either secluded or opened together at a moment's notice.

We found in out Sunday school certain evils and defects, all of which may be seen elsewhere. Some of these were: 1. "Skeleton classes" in the Senior Department, consisting of four or five scholars, being the remains of what had once been large classes of boys and girls. 2. A constant tendency among the young people to fall away from the school after reaching the age of sixteen or eighteen years. 3. Great discrepancies of numbers in the classes; large and small classes side by side in the same grade. 4. In almost any given class a lack of unity in the age and the intellectual acquirements of its members. 5. Great difficulty in obtaining suitable teachers for new classes, or to take the places of teachers leaving the school.

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Seven Graded Sunday Schools: A Series of Practical PapersChapter II: Part 2

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