When I send my child down to the neighborhood school I know he will have a trained teacher. They don’t put just anybody in that school. But sometimes we say in Sunday school, “Well, we can’t get anybody else so, brother, you’ll have to do it.” How can an un trained person do an effective job? One of the things that I think is most practical in teacher training is to adopt what we call the “ ap prentice system.” W e take a young er teacher and we farm him out to an older, more experienced one. At first, they go in and observe just to see how it’s done. Later the older teacher will say, “Now, two weeks from this Sunday, we’re going to ask you to take the story and tell it.” That person has two weeks to prepare and at the scheduled time comes back to tell the story. After wards the teacher and his student evaluate the lesson. Gradually the student teacher is fed a little more and a little more until finally he is able to take over for himself. I’ve discovered that some of our older teachers who have been teaching teacher trainees for years are some of the best I’ve ever seen in my life. There’s a woman in Dallas that I send students to continually. She’s been teaching beginners for 23 years and really knows them. She has taken the challenge of pro ducing at lea s t th ree beginner teachers every year. She takes them under her personal tutelage; she grooms them; she spends time with them. What wonderful teachers come out of that situation. This takes time but it is worth it when you are handling the Truth that we are handling. You might wonder if the use of this method rules out the Holy Spirit. In other words, if we start looking at techniques and so forth, are we minimizing the work of the Spirit? Let’s go out to the farm and see if we can pick up an illustration. As we approach a farmer, we notice that he is broadcasting his seed all over the ground — just anywhere. You look down at the ground. It hasn’t been prepared. Weeds are high. There’s been no cultivation, no fertilization -— nothing! W e ask,
I think it would be wonderful if churches would follow the example of one church in our area. The members got so burdened over this need that they said, “ Look, if a per son’s going to teach in our Sunday school, he ought to read some of the essential books.” They drew up a list of recommended books and asked their- teachers to read just three books a year: one on Bible and doctrine, one on missions and one on how to teach. It’s amazing what a change a reading program has made. In fact, when I want to send my students out to observe some good teaching in action, I send them to that little church. Another thing that I think you can do to improve your teaching method is to observe good teaching. Did you ever see anybody else teach your particular age group? That’s quite a revelation. I love to send people out to observe because there are some people who are rather skeptical. They say, “Well, that sounds good, that reads well but I’d sure like to see somebody do it.” So I say, “ Well, how about going down to such-and-such a church next Sunday morning? W e’ll get the assistant teacher to take over. How about it?” That person does go and his eyes get bigger and bigger as right in front of him he sees the thing happening ■— the thing he didn’t think would work. In the area where we have de veloped this program, we require our teachers to observe at least twice a year in another teaching situation. It broadens their hori zons. It gives them a vision of what can be done. There’s something about getting out and seeing some one else do it that is a powerful motivation. There is one other way of im proving method and that is by a good teacher training session. I think a church ought to have a con stant teacher training program in operation. W e have a cycle that goes on all the time, year in and year out. A person can come into it at any time and over a period of two to three years can complete the curriculum. Then we know that we have a person in our Sun
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day school who can teach. The King's Business/October 1957
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