Part 6 (2/2)

In the Junior Department sixteen classes were formed Those of the lowest rank, the first year, took the front row of seats; the second year the second row, etc Those of the fifth year Junior were in two classes, one for boys and another for girls, each having a room The teachers of these two classes ree their scholars every year; but during the first four years of the grade the teachers advance with their scholars, changing their seats every year, but retaining their classes

The Intere classes, each in a separate room One class is of little children just promoted from the Primary Department; the other, of those who have been in the Intermediate Grade a year The teacher rerade We are inclined to favor a three-year ter the age at admission to the Senior Department seventeen instead of sixteen years

Our Primary Department formerly consisted of nine or ten sanization we constituted it as one class, with a teacher and an assistant This change released a number of teachers for service in the school, and was on the whole an improvement Whether it would be desirable everywhere depends on circuht be easier to find ten teachers, each of whom can teach ten scholars, than one who can teach one hundred

When the roll of the school had been fully called every teacher and every scholar had been assigned, except one boy, who had joined the school that day, and was left standing in the middle of the room in a bewildered state ofon around hied classes fro ave it the appearance of having twice as many adult scholars as forotten The superintendent announced that each departe of its members

The Senior reception was appointed for Monday evening of the next week, and was to include upon its progra people were eager to be counted in, and hence willing to leave their old classes for the new ones A fortnight later the Junior Department held its reception, with a stereopticon entertainment and the refreshments Even if a boy can obtain a superabundance of cake at home he will be drawn by the prospect of another slice to the Sunday school sociable Each depart ladies and gentlee of an institution adapted urated has been in operation two years What have been its results?

There were at first some complaints by teachers, scholars, and parents

But only one teacher left the school; the classes settled down to work and soon becaes, but only a very feere nments of the scholars, as, for exae of a pupil; and soon everybody was satisfied with the new arrange:

1 The Senior Depart nu, an ”esprit de corps,” in a large class which is not found in a se is less

And whatever loss is met is more than supplied from the new blood infused each year on ”Promotion Sunday”

2 The scholars in the Junior Department have an aim and a hope before them They look forward to their promotion with earnest expectation, and are on this account the es are iven time they are prepared for For threefor ”Promotion Sunday” If a teacher can be better fitted with a class, a change is es are made at once the friction of each is reduced to a minimum Classes are made more nearly uniform in their constituency, and the school is kept up to an evenness of organization which greatly increases its efficiency

4 There has been a marked increase in the anization of aaway several workers and some scholars, the school has an attendance froo

After a trial of two years we are sure that the establishraded systereatly benefited our Sunday school

A MODEL SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOM

THE Sunday school is the door to the Church through which enters the great majority of itsinterest that the Church now manifests toward the school As the institution which trains the young for the Church, and leads both young and old into the Church, the Sunday school is entitled to the Church's support and care

The housing of the Sunday school is one of the most iuardian of the school Too often the work of the school is impeded by unsuitable and inconvenient quarters Just as the public school building now claiineers, the Sunday school hall is also attracting notice

It is only twenty-two years since the first building thoroughly adapted for the uses of the Sunday school was erected at Akron, O This building, the joint conception of the Hon Lewis Miller, superintendent, and Mr Jacob Snyder, architect, has furnished most of the ideas peculiar to Sunday school construction, and is therefore entitled to preeminence in the record Others have improved upon the details of the Akron plan, but its fundamental principles have never been superseded, and can never be Those principles are only two, and they seem almost incompatible with each other They have been called ”aloneness” and ”togetherness;” that is, that each class in certain departments shall be isolated in a separate rooether into one rooeneral exercises without delay, without confusion, and without the change of seats by the classes

[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR PLAN

VINCENT CHAPEL]

As on the Akron plan one of the most convenient and most complete, yet not one of the most expensive, is that connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church in Plainfield, N J As this was for twenty years the church home of the Rev Bishop John H Vincent, the Sunday school bears the appropriate name of ”Vincent Chapel” The plans were drawn by Mr Oscar S Teale, architect Mr Teale was at that time the efficient secretary of the school, and added to an architect's knowledge a worker's practical acquaintance with the needs of the Sunday school The chapel, as hteen smaller class rooms around it, nine upon each floor The partitions of the class rooed as to offer no obstruction to the line of vision fro to the superintendent's desk and the blackboard fastened to the wall back of it Thus the superintendent can see and be seen by every pupil and teacher in the building He can also be heard with perfect ease in every class roo are excellent

The main room is used by the Junior Department, in which the scholars are froe The classes are seated according to grade, the ”first year Juniors” on the front row of classes; the ”second year Juniors” on the second row, etc, for four rows, the boys on the superintendent's right, the girls on his left

Each year, on ”Promotion Sunday,” the classes move one row farther from the desk, and the new classes formed from the Intermediate Department take the front row of seats

The nine class rooround floor are used as follows: In the left-hand corner, just where the , is the secretary's rooirls enter after four years in the Junior Grade, leaving their former teachers for a new one In this class they stay either one or two years, according to age and acquirements, and from it are promoted to the Senior Department The third room is that of the ”Ladies' Bible Class;” the fourth, the ”Reserve Class” Next co a hundred people, and used by a large Senior Class The next room is for the ”first year Intermediate,” that is, those just advanced from the Primary Departhth, a ”young men's Senior Class;”

the ninth, and last, the boys' section of the ”fifth year Junior,” the largest class of boys in the Junior Departround floor are four entrances, one at each corner As the chapel stands at the rear of the church it was necessary to have the principal entrance on each side of the rooht drawback, as a rear entrance would be preferable, in order not to distract attention to the late comers