THE ITINERANTS' CLUB. EUROPEAN CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. THE month of Church "conversations" on selected topics, which proved so successful in the European field in 1900, was even more profitable in 1901. The "November conversations" were appointed for all parts of our Church field on the Continent. Eleven questions relating to "education" were translated into German, Bulgarian, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish, published in all of our Church papers, and sent in "slips" or circulars, with blank spaces for written replies, to all of our preachers. Everybody was urged to think, to read and to talk on as many of the "eleven questions" as possible. "Conversations" were to be started in groups of persons casually met, on the street, in the train, home, field, or shop. One or more sessions were set apart for such conversations at official board meetings, Sunday school teachers' meetings, prayer meetings, class meetings, Epworth Leagues, and wherever or whenever persons could be interested in the appointed topics. Few if any of our preachers failed to preach on some phase of the general question of "education." Some ministers are apathetic, some lack tact, a few are indolent, and a very few wonder what the training of children has to do with "salvation"! The majority are interested, and many to the point of enthusiasm, in the study of popular opinion concerning religious education, the home habits, the attitude of secular teachers, and the qualifications of Sunday school teachers. The reports of the pastors are very suggestive and gratifying. A pastor writes: "On my circuit more than forty November conversations on education were held." A presiding elder: "I preached four times on John xxi, 15. Spoke on the subject in the Quarterly Conferences. I enlisted the local preachers. Special meetings were held. Twenty children and young people consecrated themselves to the Lord. Many confessions have been made by parents in little conversation circles. The plan has revealed the ignorance among the people on the subject of training children." A pastor: "I preached on Acts vii, 20. The subject was discussed in the class meetings. I preached four sermons during the week, and conversations followed." Another pastor: "We had twelve conversations. I have visited at their homes all who could not attend and have reported to them the results of the conversations. I purpose to keep talking on these subjects, and to make the 'conversations' the beginning of a movement in favor of our youth which shall continue the whole year." One presiding elder published a tract covering the subjects of the November conversations and distributed copies of it among all of his people. A young mother writes: "I have long been impressed with the value of the first five years, but never so much as now." She makes a pathetic confession and records a vow of renewed fidelity. A father of six children writes: "I am humiliated by the discussion of the subject, and also encouraged." In one place "mothers and fathers' meetings were held." One successful pastor says: "For three successive Sundays in November I preached on 'Our Children and Young People;' twice held 'conversation meetings' with my congregation; held a class leaders' convention every Sunday on education; made education the topic of prayer in the prayer meeting; in my pastoral visits discussed the subjects." Another pastor writes: "I have preached twice and held eight conversations -one with the Sunday school teachers, five in the class meetings, and two with the whole church." When the public is interested on any special question wise pastors avail themselves of that opportunity for its public discussion, and always have increased attendance and increased attention. How wise is the pastor who creates among the people an interest in some great subject and then makes use of that opportunity for its fuller discussion! The results of our November Seminar can be given in these pages only in very condensed form, but the suggestions thus compactly put must be of advantage to every student of human nature, and especially to the inquirer concerning education, especially the religious education of our children and youth. To the "eleven questions" the following answers were given: 1. "What are some of the mistakes we make in the teaching of religious subjects to little children?" A Norwegian answers this question as follows: "By not being wholly in the truth ourselves. Using terms and expressions the children do not understand. Giving them wrong ideas concerning God. By speaking to them as if they did not already belong to God. Beginning too late to instruct them. Punishing them in wrath. Telling them too much at one time. Treating them too much as grown people. Not using pictures from everyday life. Giving them too little opportunity to think for themselves." A poor man recently converted said in one of the conversations: "I did not give a good example to my children. I went to the inn. I smoked. I was not a Christian. I did not pray with nor for them. I was satisfied if they learned worldly things. I did not at all teach them religious things. But I pray God that I can do it in the future." "Some parents do pull and drive their children to Christ; others do nearly nothing to bring them to him." A country pastor in Germany writes: "Most of our parents have not much to do in teaching their children religion, because (1) they think they are to be taught this at school, and (2) most of our people especially in the country have no time to do it, or are not able to do it." "We do not study childhood. We forget how we our ་ selves thought and felt as children." "We do not adapt ourselves to them. We overtax them." "We are too deep and too high and too heavy." "We have too little patience and tax their patience too much." "We talk too much the language of the Church and too little the language of childhood." "We do not begin early enough. We must begin to educate them as soon as they leave the rock;* yes, when still in the rock." A delicate touch comes from Modena, in Italy: "We should begin with the first smile that lights a child's face." Another writes: "A mother used to lay her hand on her babe's head from the first day—praying for it." "We do not sufficiently dwell on the love of God." "The Bible is not a book of menace, but of mercy." "We overstate God's wrath and severity when we teach religion to little children." "We too commonly connect religion with chastisement and punishment." "We alarm when we should allure." "We teach little children so as to secure aversion instead of conversion." Our wise and delightful Edouard Hug, of Switzerland, says: "Children, like plants, love the sunshine. Joyfulness is the mother of virtue; but joyfulness must grow on the staff of order and discipline. It is not infallibility that children need to see in their parents, but thorough sincerity." "Our religion is too much a matter of form-too much recitation and imitation." "Father and mother do not agree in teaching and governing little children-this is confusing.” The voice from Modena says: "We forget that a child observes and unconsciously imitates more than he listens." "We do not trust the Bible sufficiently as a book for children. The most interesting lesson for a little child is the first chapter of Genesis." "The Bible may seem to be a dry stalk, but there is life in it, and it will bear fruit." "With children we are too impatient, too anxious for immediate results." "We give too much advice. Not ethics, but Christ." 2. "How may we train little children to honor the truth and to despise falsehood?" "Set forth God as the God of truth." His "names," his "attributes." "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." "The whole end of the Church is to show that God is truth, to teach the truth God has given us, and to make men true in all things." "We preach Christ, who is the truth.” “The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth." "All our teachings of religion should exalt truth in habit and character." "The lie ought to be made as black as possible." "Parents should always be absolutely true themselves." "Never tell a child that God does not love him because of this or that that he has done." "Do not drive a child to despair." "Do not be so severe as to discourage repentance and confession." "Show children that liars are despised by all men." "The following texts of Scripture should be taught to children: Psa. 119. 163; Prov. 6. 17; Eph. 4. 25. A father once compelled a child who had told a lle to write out in full eight or ten times John 8. 44." "Discourage the lying of conventional society. A mother once said to a The cradle. visitor in the presence of her child, 'I am so glad to see you!' As soon as the visitor had gone she said, 'Rid of him at last!'" "Avoid the habit of exaggeration in ordinary conversation." "Let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay." "Cultivate the habit of definiteness. Avoid ambiguity." "Remember the power of imagination in a child. All that is not true can be called false." "Keep all promises that you make, especially little promises." "Do not punish a lie with another lie, as, "The chimney sweep will get you.” "Avoid the habit of making frequent and unmeaning threats." "Watch children closely, and especially their excuses." ceive railway conductors and other officials by misrepresenting the age of a child." "Don't misrepresent facts in writing excuses for absence or tardiness at school." "Pray with your children and bring them in humble confession of their sins to God; but pray with them at other times also, and not merely when they have been 'naughty.'" "Don't suspect your children. Believe them implicitly until compelled to doubt." "Treat confession with great tenderness." "Don't try to de 3. "How may we at home enrich a child's vocabulary?” “Use as great a variety of words as you can in your ordinary home conversation." "Every day read slowly and distinctly some interesting passage, making certain words very emphatic." "Encourage children to report what they have seen or read or to retell stories they have heard." "Use plays of different kinds to stimulate imagination and encourage conversation." "Insist on explicitness. If a child sees a 'bird' insist that he be able to tell you what kind of a bird." "Consult the dictionary often." "Study pictures with children, and encourage them to tell you the details." "Fill their minds with poems, proverbs, and fine passages from literature." "Encourage conversation, at table, after a walk or some social experience." "Study with your children words and families of words-especially study synonyms." "Study adjectives." "Never ridicule blunders." 4. "How may we at home teach children to observe facts in nature, to learn names—for example, the names of different trees, plants, flowers, leaves, stones, colors; mathematical figures; the different kinds of clouds; and to gain ideas of distance, size, numbers, and weight?" One of our Würtemberg brethren says: "Dear Sir: That is a question for well-trained people who have studied botany, geology, and mathematics. Most of the people we have in our congregations know very little about these matters. And children of better-trained families go to good institutions; and our schools here in Würtemberg are among the best in the world." This answer illustrates an altogether too common notion that different "classes" of people need different kinds and degrees of education; and that there are higher and lower grades of people even in the world of knowledge-grades determined by other than intellectual endowment and the use of natural powers. We insist that the humblest homes should train their children in all the subjects embraced in the ques tion we are now considering. And from many sources come answers as follows: "Train children to keep their eyes open." "Children might make collections of materials which would be a home museum for them." "The love of gardening should be encouraged. A potted plant in a house may be a lesson book." "Going to the market may give many lessons." "Every family should keep a 'record' of first things-the first tooth, the first spoken word, the first attempt at drawing; a record of weather, variations of the thermometer; events in the neighborhood, visits," etc. "The blackboard or slate in the home is a useful piece of furniture." "Give special attention to the dull or slow child." "Never refuse to answer a child." Encourage at home the collection and study of plants, flowers, stones, insects, pictures of every kind. "Study and talk about colors, geometrical figures, qualities of objects." "Have scales to weigh and, if possible, a microscope to examine with." "Learn distances at a glance, width of street, etc." "Practice in counting and 'guessing'-sheep in the field, birds in a flock, windows in a block of buildings, etc." And connect all things in nature with God. "The heavens declare the glory of God." "Behold the fowls of the air." "Go to the ant." "Consider the lilies." Pray the prayer, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." "Our children should find in nature another book of God." 5. "How may home help in the cultivation of memory in children?" "Keep the body in good order. Strengthen the muscles, nerves, digestive system. Take exercise in the open air. Put the instrument into good order if you want it to do good work." "Do not force and overtax the memory." "Try to interest them in the subject and matter you wish them to remember. There is a value in certain kinds of play-riddles, enigmas, word-picturing, and the recognition of the place or event described." "Wisely use table conversation as a means of creating an interest and cultivating the memory." "Fixedness of attention on what one has to do at any given time-the habit of giving attention-will strengthen the memory." "By questions secure repetition. Répétition est la mère de l'education" ("Repetition is the mother of education"). "Train the children to commit and often to recite choice passages of prose and poetry." 6. "How may children at home be led to appreciate and to develop will power?" "Teach children very early that the weight of a man is in his will." "Weak wills in this world must serve the strong wills." "Weak will may be strengthened." "The most important part of education is the education of the will." "Illustrate will power by stories of strong men and by readings from the great romances." "To know how and when to say 'No' is one of the great secrets of success in life." "Use little things as means of disciplining the will-getting up at a set time in the morning, overcoming reluctance by a firm 'I will.'" "Parents must have self-control. And they must agree upon a policy in home government and stand by it." |