Part 4 (2/2)

[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 ed 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, elistic, and if instruction is to be given there are many principles of instruction which have been worked out in our systeht 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 ieneral ter is that it should be progressive and adapted in succeeding years to the nore child, and this relates to the iven 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 hich 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 Departht years old; the Interh 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 departeneral character custoraduate 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 diploraduates

The Interrades, 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 Departrades It contains only three classes, na 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 depart therades

In addition to the International Lessons Suppleht 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:

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Age | Grade | International Lesson | Supplemental Lesson[B]

----------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | 9 | I | Learn and recite the | First half of Catechism | | memory verses | No 1

| | | 10 | II | Same as Grade I | Last half of Catechism | | | No I

| | | 11 | III | Learn ht | | | | 12 | IV | Study persons (if any) | Studies about the | | and one thought | Bible

| | | 13 | V | Study places (if any) | Bible Geography

| | and two thoughts | | | | 14 | VI | Study hts | | | | 15 | VII | Teachings of the lesson | History of Christian | | having special reference | Church

| | to manhood and | | | womanhood | | | | 16 | VIII | Same as Grade VII | History of M E