EASINESS Looking Ahead In Christian Ed _____________
ed ited by M argaret Jacobsen , Jf.il. Associate professor of Christian Education, Biola Bible College
Teacher-training Film Strips
V ô l u n t e e l s
J ust four years after signing our American Declaration of Independ ence the first Sunday school was established in Gloucester, England. Robert Raikes, a well-to-do news paper publisher, became concerned about the crowd of young people and children who were running wild in the streets on Sunday, swearing and doing damage to life and property. He gathered them together on the one day when they were not em ployed, Sunday, and hired teachers at small salaries to instruct them in reading, writing, arithmetic and morals. Robert Raikes was an earnest Chris tian man. To him the Bible was very important, but our first Sunday schools were very different from those of the present time. The curriculum was that of the regular day school of that time, and the pupils of that first school were the poor children of Gloucester; children who had to work during the week. Robert Raikes made a real contribution to the society of England in the establishment of six schools, but they could never have expanded to wljat the movement is today had it not been for the Wes leyan revival. Out of this revival grew a real de sire for Christian service, and Sunday schools were established with volun teer workers as teachers. The real secret of the success of the movement ever since has been volunteer teach ers; those who serve for the joy of Christian service, and a desire to pass on the message that has struck into their own souls. In 1817 in the Unit ed States of America the members of several such organizations met to form a union society, and thus it was that by 1824 the American Sunday School Union had established 720 such schools in 17 different states. These schools were to reach people in communities where there was no organized church. They did not stress denominational doctrines, nor take a
Moody Institute of Science Photo
leadership-training available to these local churches, but one of real sig nificance for the in-training of teach ers is the recent series of eight film strips which have come from the Moody Institute of Science with cor related sound on tape which is planned with a guide’s manual so that the untrained leader may use it. It is designed to inspire the experi enced teacher and furnish practical down-to-earth instruction for the be ginner. They are titled: The Teacher, The Pupil, The Language, The Les son, The Teaching Process, The Learning Process, Review and Appli cation and The Final Test. These filmstrips are available at the Moody Institute of Science, and while they are comparatively expensive for one church to buy, they are the sort of thing that can be purchased by a group of evangelical churches and used many times over with profit to our army of two million volunteers.
part in ecclesiastical controversies. Thrilling is the story of the Sunday school missionary taking the Word of God into every backroad hamlet, town, rural area, lumber and mining district in order to organize and maintain such a school in each com munity. Here again the missionary took the initiative in organization, but the school was manned by volunteer workers with the local people carry ing the responsibility of the Chris tian education of the youth of their own community. Today there are 2 million teachers in the Protestant Sunday schools of America responsible for the spiritual leadership of 28 million pupils. The problem that faces the alert pastor or the director of Christian Education in the local church is to adequately train these teachers to lead and guide the boys and girls who are our spir itual responsibility. There are a number of programs of
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THE K IN G 'S BU SINESS
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