The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-04
PAY IN SUNDAY SCHOOL
RICH CHURCHES HIRE SPECIALISTS
 AS sUPERINTENDENTS. -
Careful Line of Training-Plan Finds Favor With Big City COngrega-
 tions, Says William F. Curtis.

w. E. Curtis New York Special to Chl-
 cago Record-Herald.
 Recognizing the advantages of spe- cial training as well as experience Tn every field of activity, there is a tep- dency among Protestant churches In New York to employ paid Sunday school teachers and superintendents- men and women who are specialists in such work. who have been educated for it. and are willing to give their entire time to organizing. building up and main ntaining classes for religious instruction. It is a new idea. but IL is likey to become popular with churches that can afford to pay If 1t proves successful. At the Union Theo- logical Seminary there are now more than 800 students, engaged in what IS called an extension course, which is regular training to equip Sunday school superintendents, teachers, par Ish and mission workers, like the or dinary normal schools for the training of secular teachers. There is another institution for the same purpose at Hartford, called the School or Religious Pedagogy, which was organized in 1soz In affiIiation with Hartford Theologi- cal Seminary and this year has fifty four students, of whom thirty-two are women. It is conducted like any other normal school, with regular classes and courses of study, and has authority to confer bachelors, masters and doc- tors degrees in religious pedagogy. Edward Hooker Knight. dean of the Hartford School, told me the other day that a considerable number of city churches already pay salaries to their Sunday school superintendents. and that they are beginning to pay teach CTS also.
 'It would be a difficult matter to as- certain how many churches do this, he said, but great many more wouid do 1t If they could secure the right kind of people. We know this be- cause we are constantly receiving calls for competent superintendents and teachers and are not able to supply the demand. The salaries run from $500 to $1,0O0 a year. In the case of women it Is usually from $500 to $75O, and in the case of men from $1.0O0 to $1,50O."
 tice begin?
 'T suppose 1t was accidental. I can- not tell you just where it began, but probably some church, having a good superintendent of its Sunday school. offered to pay him a living salary if he would devote his entire time to the work, and other churches, learning the success or the pldtA, duoplcu It. ~ 10 by no means general yet, and is con fined to rich churches in large cities. I am sure that the plan for training Sunday school superintendents and teachers originated with Rev. David Allen Reed, pastor in Springfield. Mass, who in 1885 founded the School for Christian Workers, which has since become the Hartford School of Relig- ious Pedagogy The work of this school is to train specialists for su- perintendents and teachers, and it Is the only one know. Other schools at- tempt various phases of the general scheme we are carrying on, but none of them has anything like the scope or grade of work which we undertake to accomplish in the way of professional training for Sunday school superin- tendentss and teachers"
 'Is the practice of hiring Sunday school teachers popular, and Is 1t like ly to become general and permanentr'
 one cannot say that 1t is popular. It is too limited at present to have awakened any public sentiment; but fin every case I am familiar with it has been successful, and the calls we are receiving for trained people would in- dfcate that the plan is growing in fav- or. I feel confident that ii will be permanent. The increase of interest ' religious education seems to insure hat beyond any question. People are beginning to realize the importance of