Part 2 (1/2)
(7) _Leakage Period_ The young people between fifteen and twenty years of age constitute the ”leakage period,”[5] when they are in great danger of drifting away from the school They will be held to the school far more firmly if they have before the people, with social opportunities, and club life, so popular with youth at the early adolescent age It has been clearly shown by practical experience that an organized Senior Departular reinforcement from the Intermediate Department, will maintain itself and hold itspeople constantly tend to disintegration
The well-organized, coreat advantages that it is certain to be established wherever thorough and efficient religious instruction is sought The sooner it comes, and the more faithfully it is maintained, the better it will be for the church of to-day and to-rave problems of our modern civilization be solved
FOOTNOTE:
[5] Dr A H McKinney, in After the Primary--What?
V
THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE GRADED SUNDAY SCHOOL
=General Scheraded Sunday school, whether large or small, have already been naive to the subject a closer consideration, and to add the names of other departments which are needed either as departy of the secular schools, the great divisions of a Sunday school may be named as Elementary, Secondary, and Advanced or Adult The Eleinners, Prie The Secondary Division will include the Inter Class, and will ee The Advanced or Adult Division will include all the classes wherein the average age is above twenty years, including the Hoest children, the depart:
1 =The Cradle Roll=[6] This should include all the little ones in the fa to attend the school
Their na, in plain print rather than script, should be recorded upon a list, fra upon the wall in the Priue should be kept of the naes, birthdays, parents' names, and the street address of each family Every effort should be made to keep the list complete; children should inform their teachers of new little brothers and sisters for the Cradle Roll; the pastor in his visitation should take their nae of the Cradle Roll should occasionally visit every faifts are made to the pupils of the school, as at Christmas or on birthdays, toys and dolls for the little ones of the Cradle Roll should not be forgotten In a s of the faned to the Prie Sunday school it will call for a special conductor, and recognition as a separate department Let no one suppose that this is an unimportant, sentimental matter The Cradle Roll, maintained as it should be, will awaken interest in every fa a name inscribed upon it, and in due time will lead inners Departe the little children should be brought to the school, and be regularly enrolled as attendingnow taken froinners Departarten period in the public school Here they should be told simple Bible and nature stories, without effort to place the stories in chronological order; for children of this age have only a faint conception of the sequence of events Theyexercises, etc It is a ive them much, if any lessons, to tax the memory, beyond a few short sentences of the Bible and verses of children's songs If they can meet in a room by themselves, with their own teacher, it will be better than to have therade should be constantly varied, and the stories very brief, in order not to weary the little ones If they must meet in the room with the Primary children, they should sit by themselves as a separate section, and not with their older brothers and sisters
3 =The Primary Department= This departht or nine years of age They should reun to read Boys and girls may be placed in the same classes, which should be for those six years old, seven years old, and eight years old, respectively With each year their seats should be changed, indicating their proher classes In this department the simpler stories of the Bible and other helpful stories adapted to the grade should not only be told but taught, and the children expected not only to learn but also to tell them The Twenty-third Psalm, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Coes of Scripture, and some standard hyanized Sunday schools both the Cradle Roll and the Beginners class are recognized as subdivisions of the Primary Department, and are under the direction of the Primary superintendent
4 =The Junior Departes of eight or nine until the full age of twelve; except that boys or girls who are especially advanced in intelligence may be promoted upon examination at eleven years In a very small Sunday school all the pupils of this department may form one class, provided they can have a room by themselves If they anized either in two classes, one of boys, the other of girls If, however, the number of scholars will admit, it is far better to place the pupils in separate classes for boys and girls, with different classes for each year of the period To scholars of the Junior grade the great characters and events of Bible history should be taught in their order; also the most important facts about the Bible, and in a simple form the lands and localities of the Bible In churches which use a catechis in the Junior Department, for at this period the child's verbal th
5 =The Intermediate Departe The classes should be sht This period in life is known as early adolescence, and calls for careful direction by wise teachers In the Interraphies of the Bible should be studied, either as the regular or the supplemental lessons; also the heroic lives of leaders in the history of the Church, of foreign missionaries, and of men and woirls in this stage of life are instinctively hero-worshi+pers, and before theh ideals of character and service
Special effort should bethe scholars to personal consecration to Christ and to union with the Church; for if the great decision be not er that it will never be reached But that decision should include more than a formal profession It should embrace a full surrender to the will of Christ, an inward, conscious spiritual life, an aim for coness to work for God and huy, a period of lofty ideals and noble endeavor All those active powers of the youthful nature should be guided into channels of usefulness The true twentieth century disciple of Christ is not one who lives alone feasting his soul on God, but one who stands aer to aid in the world's betterment
6 =The Senior Departanized schools call it the Young People's Department, and restrict the word Senior to the classes of fully adult age Still others call it the asseanization independent of the Sunday school[7] The age of entrance should be sixteen, except with some who in stature and mind are mature beyond their years It is imperative, as we have already seen, that at the door of this depart people should leave their former teachers, and should not form new Senior classes, but as individuals enter classes already established
This department includes the e; not that members of classes must necessarily leave the the school should rather join the Adult Departeer where each class can have a separate roo wo men's class should be a man whose character will inspire the respect and win the fellowshi+p of his class The teacher of the young woh oftenwoanized, each with its own officers, chosen by the members; and the class should be consulted when a teacher is to be appointed, although the voice of the class in the decision should be advisory and not iven to the social activities of this departs, classes of young ether occasionally, and a Senior Reception should be held at least annually to pro people should also be enlisted in some definite form of service for the church or the co Depart people, both e--the tianized as the Teacher-training or Norned to this departe, a scholarly, Bible-loving instructor ive a part of his tieneration A text-book should be chosen fro Committee No person should be adive so the week to the study of the course While the rest of the school raded or unifor text-books There should be thorough instruction with exa toward a certificate of work done, such as the International Teacher-training diploma[8] The course may cover two, three, or four years; and newof each year, to begin at the point where the class is studying, and to remain until they shall have coraded school after a few years there will be a class graduating fro Department each year
This depart of those who are ready to act as substitutes for absent teachers If the uniform lessons are followed, the Reserve Class should study the lesson a week in advance of the school Into this class the graduates of the Teacher-training Class should be placed, to remain until classes are ready for the and Reserve Classes do not form a separate department, but are two classes in the Senior Departe school to establish the Teacher-training Departe in the school
8 =The Adult Departe of twenty years It is the judgment of advanced leaders in Sunday-school work that at twenty years those who have belonged to Young People's classes in the Senior Department should leave them for the Adult Department Otherwise, the Senior Depart people of sixteen and eighteen years feel at hoether as members of the same class, unless there arise a demand for separate classes and the nu these classes two forms of instruction have been found to be successful: (1) the colloquialthe lesson together under the guidance of the leader; and (2) the lecturethe principal speaker, but always adested by the lesson Classes in this department may be allowed to choose their own courses of study, provided (1) that the subjects and ious education, and not merely secular science or history; (2) that the courses of successive years have some sequence, and are not chosen in a haphazard, accidental manner The Adult Departent, broad-minded, philanthropic type of Christian character in the church and the community
9 =The Home Department= This department, like the Cradle Roll at the other extreme of the Sunday-school constituency, is co and old, who cannot be present at its sessions, but are interested in its work, and willing to give some time to its studies In every coed or infirm men and wo, commercial travelers, and people who live too far froanized into the Home Department, furnished with the literature of the school, study its text-books, make their report of work done, and send their contributions to its support through the Home Department superintendent or visitor[9]
FOOTNOTES:
[6] This department is now named in Sunday schools of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and soested by Dr J H Vincent