Part 1 (2/2)

so generously shared in by other writers who are authorities on their subjects, may be referred to for information of this sort. ”The Sunday School and the Teens” will, likewise, afford valuable technical information about the Sunday school, it being the report of the International Commission on Adolescence.

This book is largely a volume of method and suggestion for leaders and teachers in the Sunday school, to promote the better handling of the so-called boy problem; for the Sunday school must solve the problem of getting and holding the teen age boy, if growth and development are to mark its future progress. Of the approximately ten million teen age boys in the field of the International Sunday School a.s.sociation, ninety per cent are not now reached by the Sunday school. Of the five per cent enrolled (less than 1,500,000) seventy-five per cent are dropping from its members.h.i.+p. Every village, town and city contributes its share toward this unwarranted leakage. The problem is a universal one.

The teen age represents the most important period of life. Ideals and standards are set up, habits formed and decisions made that will make or mar a life. The high-water mark of conversion is reached at fifteen, and between the ages of thirteen and eighteen more definite stands are made for the Christian life than in all the other combined years of a lifetime.

It marks the period of adolescence, when the powers and pa.s.sions of manhood enter into the life of the boy, and when the will is not strong enough to control these great forces. Powers must be unfolded before ability to use them can develop, and instincts must be controlled while these are in the process of development. The importance of systematic adult leaders.h.i.+p during this period of storm and stress cannot be too strongly emphasized.

The teen age boy is naturally religious. Opportunity, however, must be given him to express his religion in forms that appeal to and are understood by him. In other words, his religion, like his nature, is a positive quant.i.ty, and will be carried by him throughout the day, to dominate all of the activities in which he engages.

The problem also reaches through the entire teen years and must be regarded as a whole, rather than as a series of successive stages, each stage being separate and complete in itself.

The great problem, then, which confronts us is to keep the boys in the church and Sunday school during the critical years of adolescence and to bring to their support the strength which comes from G.o.d's Word and true Christian friends.h.i.+p, to the end that they may be related to the Son of G.o.d as Saviour and Lord through personal faith and loyal service.

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexander, Editor.--Boy Training (.75). The Sunday School and the Teens.

(The Report of the International Commission on Adolescence) ($1.00).

Alexander, Editor.--The Teens and the Rural Sunday School. (The Report of the International Commission on Rural Adolescence.) _In preparation_.

Boys' Work Message (Men and Religion Movement) ($1.00).

Fiske.--Boy Life and Self-Government ($1.00).

Hall.--Developing into Manhood (s.e.x Education Series) (.25)

Hall.--Life's Beginnings (s.e.x Education Series) (.25)

Secondary Division Leaflets, International Sunday School a.s.sociation (Free).

1. Secondary Division Organization.

2. The Organized Cla.s.s.

3. State and County Work.

4. Through-the-week Activities.

5. The Secondary Division Crusade.

Swift--Youth and the Race ($1.50).

THE BOY AND HIS EDUCATION

Three inst.i.tutions are responsible for the education of the adolescent boy. By ”education” is meant not merely the acquisition of certain forms of related knowledge, but the symmetrical adaptation of the life to the community in which it lives. The three inst.i.tutions that cooperate in the community for this purpose are: the _home_, the _school_, and the _church_. There are many organizations and orders that have a large place in the life of the growing boy, but these must be viewed solely in the light of auxiliaries to the home, school and church in the production of efficient boyhood and trained manhood.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON EDUCATION

<script>