HOW SHALL WE ORGANIZE AND PLAN THE LESSONS?

When the content of the subject matter has been decided upon then comes its organization.  How shall we arrange and plan the material we teach so as to give the children the easiest and most natural mode of approach to its learning?

The great law here is that the arrangement of subject matter must be psychological.  This only means that we must always ask ourselves how will the child most easily and naturally enter upon the learning of this material?  How can I organize it for the recitation so that it will most strongly appeal to his interest?  How can I arrange it so that it will be most easily grasped and understood?  How can I plan the lesson so that its relation to immediate life and conduct will be most clear and its application most surely made?

The psychological mode of approach.—­I recently happened into a junior Sunday school class where the lesson was on faith.  The teacher evidently did not know how to plan for a psychological mode of approach to this difficult concept.  He began by defining faith in Paul’s phrase as “the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.”  He then went to the dictionary definition, which shows the relation of faith to belief.  He discussed the relation of faith to works, as presented in the writings of James.  But all to no avail.  The class was uninterested and inattentive.  The lesson did not take hold.  The time was wasted and the opportunity lost.  I excused myself and went to another classroom.

Here they had the same topic.  But the teacher had sought for and found a starting point from which to explain the meaning of faith in terms that the children could understand.  The teacher’s eye rested for a moment on John; then:  “John, when does your next birthday come?”

“The sixteenth of next month,” replied John promptly.

“Going to get any presents, do you think?” asked the teacher.

“Yes, sir,” answered John with conviction.

“What makes you think so?” inquired the teacher.  “Not everybody does receive birthday presents, you know.”

“But I am sure I will,” persisted John.  “You see, I know my father and mother.  They have never yet let one of my birthdays pass without remembering me, and I am sure they are not going to begin to forget me now.  They think too much of me.”

“You seem to have a good deal of faith in your father and mother,” remarked the teacher.

“Well I guess I have!” was John’s enthusiastic response.

And right at this point the way was wide open to show John and the class the meaning of faith in a heavenly Father.  The wise teacher had found a point of contact in John’s faith in the love and care of his parents, and it was but a step from this to the broader and deeper faith in God.

It is a law of human nature that we are all interested first of all in what affects our own lives.  Our attention turns most easily to what relates to or grows out of our own experience.  The immediate and the concrete are the natural and most effective starting points for our thought.  The distant and remote exert little appeal to our interest; it is the near that counts.  Especially do these rules hold for children.