New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-22
SUNDAY SCHOOL METHODS
Substituting LiUe System for Dry
F0rmaIitieS.

ct think the organization Of our Sunday schools
should be American not Russian; and think it Is
rather Russian than otherwise at present saiu
Dr. Richard NJ Hodge in the first lecture OF ms
course on Sunday School Methods now oehs
given at the Brooklyn Institute
IT believe in self-government IN the SUNDAY
school - he continued; "in government by a sun
day school faculty composed of the teachers VINO
are on the firing line, and not by the supeilhteiu
emit who is a long way from the hrlns llhe Il le
doesn't teach class. Most of the teachers are
actually afraid to make suggestion to the super
intendent when as a matter of fact they ought to
be deciding the policy Of the school themselves
with their votes
DR. Hodge explained the methods by which he
had introduced tho spirit of modern education INTO
the Sunday school
THE keynote OF modern education Is manual
methods" said he The child to-day learns
geography not by looking ut a map made by some
body else but by making the map himself This IS
q very great difference. Followed throughout the
whole curriculum it expression not inn
preston The old way for the teacher to
stand before the class. impress it with what he
knew and then put book in the children S hands
to do some more impressng. If they Wefen IN
pressed enough 10 remember it was begun all over
again the next year For years, when boy,
I wondered when wed set far enough in geography
so we wouldn't have to begin ut the first page
every September
DR.. Hodge explained how he followed the oppo-
sill in his Sunday SCllOoI ciSS o. III ttti
children from nine to twelve years of age ut
Union Theological Seminary last winter. lie be-
gan their education with the Bible not with the
creation of the world. but with the history OF the
children OF Israel The starting point OF tins MS
tor was a map of Egypt and Palestine combined.
viii the surrounding waters. The first Sunday
he took all the children to the sand table three
feet square and showed them how To make this
man Three or four of the children had never
studied geography before He let the whole class
.IIif4 HON hat he IHp
nile they were going to study about started from
rho low river country on the left and made
long Journey foot to the high noun
famous country beyond the Fed Sea rms
was the first lesson. The second Sunday each child
moulded that map in paper pulp, although some 81
the children had never seen pulp before Ihe thiro
Sunday they glued the hardened pulp maps 70
sheets Of cardboard and Colored them with dlteitt
coIors to represent water valleys. hills ana noun
tains The fourth SUNDAY two children were sent
to the sand table to make the map when 'hey
finished in five minutes by the watch lhch lle
teacher told the story Of how the lsraeIlles caie
to go into Egypt. The next week he tod tie $40,
Of Moses'z life. two other children MAKING 'Ie
sand mao So he went with the Whoie s'oIS
from, Sunday to SUNDAY. Meanwhile the chHdreh
had rainted the map paper with wafer coi ',
and as fast new event was E gwen ~ - RitteT
under it. so that finally the children ha "a; +Lir
structed journey route o. Inc tLs Work was
MAI eac6 child wrote history Of israel u.s. ,
eCafine the were in large notebooks,
The first page was the title P PAGE mace eHie It
read: History on az ai1e me watercoor map used
New daeh ! T9 cane the chapters each
0ccupyina a page. and each illustrated by some some
Fesa nctuIes came from the Sunday school quar-
tery. Sometimes they We're nun ptse, Js T!I,e
little things inserted as marginal i!IuSt % I'D
chapters we're written at home in INK ana ecn IId
its proper caption: me u ~ ,r,ii,7rcT roo
David and Goliath, and so on ne cnllqIeI TGU
the greatest pride ana plei.SSure III etieSo -
The map OF sand. pulp and finally on paper an9 9
the history written and illustrated by the enl!a
spirit of expression is introduced into Bible study
You may say that these only means, nothing
without the teacher. But we must reneInneI tnat
good pictae if he obliged to paint II on broad
CLOTH for instance II Is the heart the soul we
picture; the canvas is necessary to him that
we may say il also is essential He cannot make
so these methods make ell the difference in the
rake the Sunday school lesson papers for instance
We know how they are unused and unXalued IN the
you to study this lesson this week and be able TO
recite It next sunday She knows they WI not moe
Ai she Saws want YOU TO- write me the history
nf 3bis etse,, and briTe, If to me next SUNDAY in
your notebooks. I have told you the story, but If
there IS anything you can't remember you can go
pictures out Of the quarterly to illustrate your
value and is saved and studied, The secret OF
interesting children is to have them do something.
My own son refused to go to Sunday school. He
said. In school have something to do, but in
Sunday school you only sit and listen
The children also made scrapb0oks of sacred
literature. inserting texts. psalms and religious
poems and hymns. which they committed to mem
DRY and rected, They We're allowed to Choose the
selections which they would learn.
You would think that all teachers would not
get the same results" said DR.. Hodge, but
know a church in New-York, erected sixty years
ago as church for farming community on Man
haitian. There is a Sunday school of four hundred
pupils which overfows into all parts of the church.
The conveniences are so few that each child can
get to the sand table only about once year. The
fea are all Self-SlDDOrtiDg women. very few