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A MODEL SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOM. 113

THE ESSENTIALS OF A GRADED SUNDAY SCHOOL.

BY JESSE L. HURLBUT, D.D.

THE living question in the Sunday school of to-day is that which considers its form of organization. As every good public school at the present time is a graded school, so every first-class Sunday school must be. There can be no efficient, regular, and satisfactory work done in a Sunday school without a system of grade.

On this subject there is extensive inquiry, yet general lack of information. The majority of superintendents and teachers have either no conception or at best an exceedingly vague idea of what constitutes a graded Sunday school. We propose in a few words to set forth what are the essential features of a graded Sunday school.

The first essential is that the school be divided into certain general departments, which may be three, four, or five in number. In our opinion the best division is into the four departments--Primary, Intermediate, Junior, and Senior. These departments should exist in reality, as well as in name, and each department should be recognized as a separate element in the working of the school.

A second essential is that of a definite and fixed number of classes in each department. It is not a graded Sunday school where a teacher and her class are advanced together into the Senior Department whenever the pupils reach the specified age. The inevitable result of such a course will be to have in a few years in the Senior Department a large number of "skeleton classes," each with a few members, which is the very evil to be avoided in the graded system. There should be in each department a definite number of classes, proportioned to the size of the school, and this number should be kept uniform. A Sunday school is always "dying at the top," by the loss of its scholars after the age of fifteen years. For this fact there are many causes, some necessary, others avoidable. But, whatever be the cause, it is a fact to be provided for in the management of the school; and the provision should be, not in adding new classes, but in advancing scholars from the Junior Department and filling up senior classes already organized. The classes in the Senior Department should be kept few in number, but kept full in size.

A third essential of the graded Sunday school is that of regular promotions from grade to grade, with change of teachers. It is not necessary for the pupils to pass from one class to another every year in the Sunday school, though this is done in the public school. While a pupil remains in the same department he may continue in the same class and with the same teacher. But when he passes from one department to a higher, or from Junior to Senior, there should generally be a change of teachers. At the period of change from Primary to Intermediate, from Intermediate to Junior, from Junior to Senior, the pupil should come under the care of a new teacher. If teachers are advanced with their scholars the entire system of gradation will be broken up, and the school will be graded in name only.

A fourth essential element is that of stated and simultaneous transfers. The pupils should not be changed from class to class or from grade to grade whenever the superintendent thinks a change should be made. All the promotions should be made at once throughout the school. A "promotion Sunday" should be observed, and provided for long in advance. For three months preparations should be made, the superintendent and teachers should consult, a committee should consider every case, and the changes should be made deliberately and systematically. On one Sunday in the year pupils should be promoted from department to department, and classes should be advanced from grade to grade in the several departments. The basis of promotion should be age, knowledge, and general maturity of character, and the authorities of the school should decide just how much weight should be given to each requirement.

The above are all the elements that we consider essential; but there are also two adjuncts of Importance in the graded school.

One is that of a graded supplemental lesson for each department. Some regard this as an essential, and consider no Sunday school properly a graded school without it. We regard it as important, but do not look upon it as one of the necessary features. There is need of a supplemental lesson; it will greatly aid in making the Sunday school efficient, and it should be adapted to the various grades. But the supplemental lesson, valuable as it is, we do not regard as one of the essential features of the graded system.

Another is that of the annual examination. There are a few Sunday schools which require the pupil to pass an examination as the condition of promotion. This follows the analogy of the public school; but in our judgment it is not an essential part of the graded system. The examination in the Sunday school must of necessity be a very easy one, since it is upon lessons studied but little at home and given for a few minutes only once a week. It is apt to be a mere form, and sometimes is only a pretense. While we recommend examinations we believe that they should be left optional, and that the requirements for promotion should be those of age, general ability, and fitness of character. Some reward might be given in the form of a certificate, but it should not be necessary to obtain the certificate in order to receive promotion.

THE AKRON PLAN.

BY HON. LEWIS MILLER.

AFTER an experience of more than twenty-five years with the graded system as carried on in our Akron Sunday school it can with confidence be recommended to others. It embraces the entire school for all this time, but more especially a course of sixteen years which I will try to explain.

Our rooms are a great convenience, and aid much in perfecting the classification; the system, however, can be carried on in any of the present Sunday school rooms; in fact, for a number of years this system was a success in a church at Canton, O., also in the old Akron Church. In each case there was one larger room and but a few separate small rooms.

The classification is based on the age of the scholar; if, however, a scholar seems from some cause to have advanced beyond his age in his general studies, which in most cases is determined by his standing in the public schools, such scholar is put in a class suited to his advancement.

The following analysis will show more definitely the system.

THE INFANT DEPARTMENT

meets in a separate room, fitted for the purpose with elevated seats. Children of about four years of age are received into this department, and remain until they are between eight and nine. Boys and girls are kept together in the same room or class. The class can be of any number; we sometimes reach one hundred and fifty. The class is put in charge of one teacher, with as many assistants as desired. The regular International Berean Lessons are taught, and much time is given to song. In our Missionary Society this department becomes a separate band, with name and motto, making separate contributions, of which proper records are kept.

THE INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT

meets in a separate room, fitted similarly to the one described for the Infant Department. Scholars from the Infant Class are promoted into this department when eight years old, or sooner if, in the public schools, they are in the "Second Reader" grade. This class may be of any number; ours sometimes reaches one hundred. Girls and boys are kept in the same class. This department is also put in charge of one teacher, who has such number of assistants as desired. The regular International Berean Lesson is taught in this room, similar in method to that in the Infant Class. The "No. One" Catechism is taught in this department as a supplemental lesson, and it is expected that, before a scholar leaves this room, the Catechism will be thoroughly memorized. A public examination is made before the scholars are promoted out of this department. This, like the Infant Department, becomes a separate missionary band.

THE YOUTHS' DEPARTMENT

meets in the main room, which is provided with a small table for each class; chairs are used; books and papers are kept in the class table, the teacher carrying the key, the superintendent and his assistants having master-keys. Scholars are promoted from the Intermediate Class to this department when ten years old, or when, in the public schools, they are in the "Third Reader" grade. As nearly as possible scholars of the same standing in the public schools are put in classes together, and this distinction is made with scholars of the same age. In this department boys and girls are put in separate classes numbering not to exceed eight, six being the standard. Each scholar is expected to have a Bible and read the story of the lesson. Much attention is given to have the scholar understand and comprehend the simple story as told in the Bible. The regular International Berean Lesson is taught: the lesson book or Berean Leaf is given to each scholar to aid in preparing the lesson. The memorization of the names of the books of the Bible, names of the prominent Bible characters, and sections of the Catechism are required as supplemental lessons. For these supplemental lessons a series of pocket memory lessons is prepared by the school; it is a neat little book, suited for a boy's vest pocket. An examination is made at the end of each year, and the names of scholars having the proper standing are placed on the Roll of Honor. Scholars remain in this department about four years. The younger classes are put nearest the superintendent's stand and, as they are promoted, are moved back each year, the teacher remaining with the same class during the four years. Each one of these classes is a separate missionary band and makes its separate report of missionary contributions.

THE SENIOR DEPARTMENT

classes meet in separate rooms. Scholars are promoted into this department when they are fourteen years old, or when they can show a standing equal to the public high school grade. Boys and girls are put into separate rooms, in which they remain under the charge of one teacher for three years. The class membership numbers from fifteen to twenty-five. The regular International Berean Lessons are taught, more in the analytical form, requiring simple analysis. A blackboard is permanently put on the wall of each room, which affords good opportunity for blackboard explanations. For supplemental lessons the scholars in this department take up the study of Bible history, Bible geography, and sections of the Catechism in suitable form for memory exercises. These classes form themselves into regular missionary bands, taking a missionary field for a name, with suitable mottoes. It is expected that members of these classes acquaint themselves by reading, and by communication with some missionary, with the country and people which they have selected. The classes are socially entertained at the homes of the teacher or parents as frequently as is deemed proper to keep up a social interest.

THE NORMAL DEPARTMENT.

Scholars, when seventeen years old, or sooner if graduates of the public high school, are promoted into this department. The class may be of any number; our classes have averaged about sixty. Ladies and gentlemen are placed in the same class, one teacher having charge. They organize themselves into a regular society, having a simple constitution, and subject to the regulation and direction of the Sunday scthat their new situation was, by its intrinsic charm, to console them. And Mrs. Gedge had a happy thought. "Wouldn't the Library more or less have them?"

"Yes, I suppose that's it. And yet," her husband mused, "I see, confound me, the faults."

"Dear no!" he laughed: "we'll chuck out any one who hints at them."

If the sweetness of the preliminary months had been great, great too, though almost excessive as agitation, was the wonder of fairly being housed with Him, of treading day and night in the footsteps He had worn, of touching the objects, or at all events the surfaces, the substances, over which His hands had played, which His arms, His shoulders had rubbed, of breathing the air--or something not too unlike it--in which His voice had sounded. They had had a little at first their bewilderments, their disconcertedness; the place was both humbler and grander than they had exactly prefigured, more at once of a cottage and of a museum, a little more archaically bare and yet a little more richly official. But the sense was strong with them that the point of view, for the inevitable ease of the connexion, patiently, indulgently awaited them; in addition to which, from the first evening, after closing-hour, when the last blank pilgrim had gone, the mere spell, the mystic presence--as if they had had it quite to themselves--were all they could have desired. They had received, at Grant-Jackson's behest and in addition to a table of instructions and admonitions by the number and in some particulars by the nature of which they found themselves slightly depressed, various little guides, manuals, travellers' tributes, literary memorials and other catch-penny publications; which, however, were to be for the moment swallowed up in the interesting episode of the induction or initiation appointed for them in advance at the hands of several persons whose relation to the establishment was, as superior to their own, still more official, and at those in especial of one of the ladies who had for so many years borne the brunt. About the instructions from above, about the shilling books and the well-known facts and the full-blown legend, the supervision, the subjection, the submission, the view as of a cage in which he should circulate and a groove in which he should slide, Gedge had preserved a certain play of mind; but all power of reaction appeared suddenly to desert him in the presence of his so visibly competent predecessor and as an effect of her good offices. He had not the resource, enjoyed by his wife, of seeing himself, with impatience, attired in black silk of a make characterised by just the right shade of austerity; so that this firm smooth expert and consummately respectable middle-aged person had him somehow, on the whole ground, completely at her mercy.

"And are They always, as one might say--a--stupid?"

"What I mean is," he explained, "is there any perceptible proportion that take an interest in Him?"

His wife stepped on his toe; she deprecated levity.

But his mistake fortunately was lost on their friend.

"Who know more about what?" Gedge inquired.

"Well, you must know as much as anybody else. I claim at any rate that I do," Miss Putchin declared. "They never really caught me out."

"You mean the questions?"

She laughed with all her cheer. "Yes, sir; I don't mean the answers."

"Why not 'me and the missus' at once?" Mrs. Gedge resentfully inquired. "I don't think," she observed at another time, "that I quite know what's the matter with you."

"On the attraction"--he took her up--"of the Show?"

He had fallen into the harmless habit of speaking of the place as the "Show"; but she didn't mind this so much as to be diverted by it. "No; on the attitude of the Body. You know they're pleased with us, and I don't see why you should want to spoil it. We got in by a tight squeeze--you know we've had evidence of that, and that it was about as much as our backers could manage. But we're proving a comfort to them, and it's absurd of you to question your suitability to people who were content with the Putchins."

"I don't, my dear," he returned, "question any thing; but if I should do so it would be precisely because of the greater advantage constituted for the Putchins by the simplicity of their spirit. They were kept straight by the quality of their ignorance--which was denser even than mine. It was a mistake in us from the first to have attempted to correct or to disguise ours. We should have waited simply to become good parrots, to learn our lesson--all on the spot here, so little of it is wanted--and squawk it off."

"Ah 'squawk,' love--what a word to use about Him!"

"It isn't about Him--nothing's about Him. None of Them care tuppence about Him. The only thing They care about is this empty shell--or rather, for it isn't empty, the extraneous preposterous stuffing of it."

"Preposterous?"--he made her stare with this as he hadn't yet done.

"The pilgrims? No," he conceded--"it isn't fair to Them. They mean well."

"What complaint have we after all to make of Them so long as They don't break off bits--as They used, Miss Putchin told us, so awfully--in order to conceal them about Their Persons? She broke Them at least of that."

"Yes," Gedge mused again; "I wish awfully she hadn't!"

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