The older view of education sought to drive the child to effort and secure results through pain and compulsion.  It was believed that the pathway to learning must of necessity be dreary and strewn with hardships, if, indeed, not freely watered with the tears of childhood.

Now we know better.  A knowledge of child psychology and a more sympathetic insight into child nature have shown us that instead of external compulsion we must get hold of the inner springs of action.  No mind can exert its full power unless the driving force comes from within.  The capacities implanted in the child at his birth do not reach full fruition except when freely and gladly used because their use is a pleasure and satisfaction.  If worthy results are to be secured, the whole self must be called into action under the stimulus of willingness, desire, and complete assent of the inner self to the tasks imposed.  There must be no lagging, nor holding back, nor partial use of powers.

Religious education is, therefore, not simply a question of getting our children into the church schools.  That is easy.  Parents who themselves do not attend feel that they have more fully done their duty by their children if they send them to the Sunday school.  After securing the attendance of the children the great question still remains—­that of the response, their attitude toward the activities of the school, the completeness with which they give themselves to its work.

A friend who is a State inspector of public schools tells me that the first thing he looks for when he visits a school is the school spirit, the attitude of the pupils toward their teachers and the work of the school.  If this is good, there is a foundation upon which to build fruitful work; if the spirit is bad, there is no possibility that the work of the school can be up to standard.  For it is out of the schoolroom spirit, the classroom attitudes, that the effort necessary to growth and achievement must come.

The spirit of the classroom.—­Do the children enjoy the lesson hour? The first of the motivating conditions to seek for our classroom is a prevailing attitude of happiness, good cheer, enjoyment.  These are the natural attributes and attitudes of childhood.  Unhappiness is an abnormal state for the child.  The child’s nature unfolds and his mind expands normally only when in an atmosphere of sympathy, kindness, and good feeling.  Our pupils must enjoy what they are doing, if they are to give themselves whole-heartedly to it.  If loyalty to the school and the church is to result, they must not feel that the Sunday school hour is a drag and a bore.  If such is the case, they cannot be expected to carry away lasting impressions for good.  They must not look upon attendance as an imposition, nor wait with eager impatience for the closing gong.

While loyalty should be permeated by a sense of duty and obligation, and even of self-sacrifice, it cannot rest on this alone.  Most children and youth are loyal to their homes; but this loyalty rests chiefly on a sentiment formed from day to day and year to year out of the satisfying experiences connected with the love, care, protection, and associations of the home.  Let these happy, satisfying home experiences be lacking, and loyalty to the home fails or loses its fine quality.