Part 7 (2/2)

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 ill.u.s.trate 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 cla.s.sic? Stories told or read? True or fict.i.tious? 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 ill.u.s.trations? 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.

s.p.a.ce 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.

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