Excerpt
THE living question in the Sunday school of to-day is that which considers its form of organization. As every good public school at the present time is a graded school, so every first-class Sunday school must be. There can be no efficient, regular, and satisfactory work done in a Sunday school without a system of grade.
On this subject there is extensive inquiry, yet general lack of information. The majority of superintendents and teachers have either no conception or at best an exceedingly vague idea of what constitutes a graded Sunday school. We propose in a few words to set forth what are the essential features of a graded Sunday school.
The first essential is that the school be divided into certain general departments, which may be three, four, or five in number. In our opinion the best division is into the four departments—Primary, Intermediate, Junior, and Senior. These departments should exist in reality, as well as in name, and each department should be recognized as a separate element in the working of the school.
A second essential is that of a definite and fixed number of classes in each department. It is not a graded Sunday school where a teacher and her class are advanced together into the Senior Department whenever the pupils reach the specified age. The inevitable result of such a course will be to have in a few years in the Senior Department a large number of "skeleton classes," each with a few members, which is the very evil to be avoided in the graded system. There should be in each department a definite number of classes, proportioned to the size of the school, and this number should be kept uniform. A Sunday school is always "dying at the top," by the loss of its scholars after the age of fifteen years. For this fact there are many causes, some necessary, others avoidable. But, whatever be the cause, it is a fact to be provided for in the management of the school; and the provision should be, not in adding new classes, but in advancing scholars from the Junior Department and filling up senior classes already organized. The classes in the Senior Department should be kept few in number, but kept full in size.
A third essential of the graded Sunday school is that of regular promotions from grade to grade, with change of teachers. It is not necessary for the pupils to pass from one class to another every year in the Sunday school, though this is done in the public school. While a pupil remains in the same department he may continue in the same class and with the same teacher. But when he passes from one department to a higher, or from Junior to Senior, there should generally be a change of teachers. At the period of change from Primary to Intermediate, from Intermediate to Junior, from Junior to Senior, the pupil should come under the care of a new teacher. If teachers are advanced with their scholars the entire system of gradation will be broken up, and the school will be graded in name only.
A fourth essential element is that of stated and simultaneous transfers. The pupils should not be changed from class to class or from grade to grade whenever the superintendent thinks a change should be made. All the promotions should be made at once throughout the school. A "promotion Sunday" should be observed, and provided for long in advance. For three months preparations should be made, the superintendent and teachers should consult, a committee should consider every case, and the changes should be made deliberately and systematically....