The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-11-01
Sunday School Institute
This Yesterday Afternoon and Evening


, training for their work the difference
is at once apparent and the Sunday
school suffers by contrast in the es-
timation of the child. He feels with
out knowing why, that this school
is not so important as the other, and
unless held by the personal mag
netism of the teacher he either drops
out of Sunday school entirely or comes
to it as to sort of social center,
without reverence, without respect for
its methods, and without any sense of
responsibility for his conduct or for
the preparation of his lesson.
The ideal remedy for this condi-
ton would be to have in all our
Sunday schools trained and paid teach
ers and superintendent who would
know how and could take the time to
carry on the work in the most APP
proved way, to have graded sys-
tenn of lessons and certain regula-
tions governing attendance and study.
This, it seems to me must be the
goal set before us and | believe
that some time we shall reach it. But
for most schools this ideal cannot be
realized at present and in the mean
time we must deal with conditions as
they are.
The teacher in a Sunday school is
expected, in less than an hour week,
to impart certain facts, bring out
definite truths and inspire to better
living. and with it all to create an
interest that shall draw the pupil to
the class and hold him there in the
face of distracting influences and often
without any encouragement from the
home For skilled educator this
would be no easy task and most of
our teachers are not skilled educators
but only earnest men and women who
are anxious to be of real service to
others and who see in the Sunday
school needy field.
How can the unframed teacher sur
mount some of the difficulties of the
position and achieve the best results?
There must doubtless be as many
ways as there are teachers but a
few general principles may be applied
by all.
Regularity in attendance is one of
the first requirements. If teacher
leaves his class in order to enjoy a
trip to the lake or some other pleas
ure, showing thus his own lack of
appreciation of his position, he cannot
expect regularity or interest from the
class. If he is satisfied with a glance
at the lesson on Saturday night or
Sunday morning and depends on the
inspiration of the moment or on fol-
lowing by rote the printed questions
of the lesson Quarterly he need not
look for great results. There is too
much that enters into Sunday school
work and too much depends upon it
to allow of its being done in hasty
or haphazard manner.
Let us realize to begin with that
teaching means the imparting to some
one else of some knowledge which you
possess that he does not. If one has
nothing to impart he cannot teach;
neither can he teach all that he knows
on any given subject. This makes it
necessary that the teacher be himself
full of his subject, fairly saturated
in it, as it were, so that his own
interest and enthusiasm may be at the
brightest tide and that he may really
have something to give.
DR.. Trumbull, in his very helpful
work on this subject, tells us that
there are three things the teacher
must know. He must know whom he
is to teach, what he is to teach and
how he is to teach. To know whom
one is to teach does not mean simply
knowing the age, sex and general
ability of a class. 1t means knowing
each individual pupil; his tempera
ment, his home surroundings, his de-
sires and his temptations SO that in
studying a lesson the teacher may