FILLING UP THE TIME by John S. Hart

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 18, 1881

FILLING UP THE TIME.

By John S. Hart

WHEN a teacher assumes the charge of a class, one of the implied engagements into which he enters, is that he will occupy the attention of the class during the whole time of the school, except when their attention is required by the superintendent. If any teacher, whose eyes light upon this paragraph, is conscious of not having come up to the requirements of such a rule, let him seriously consider the matter.

There are various ways by which teachers fill up the time alloted to instruction. Some, after finishing the lesson, let the scholars read out of the Bible, taking verse about, with an occasional word of explanation by the teacher. This is certainly better than sitting still and doing nothing. Any little fragment of time, not otherwise occupied, may thus be used, and sometimes to great advantage. It can never do harm, and it is an effectual stopper to the dreadful evil of doing nothing. Other teachers fill up the time by telling the children stories. If the teacher has a special gift for this, it may do well enough as an occasional thing. But few persons have the faculty of telling Bible stories, or any other stories, well. Besides, when this kind of matter is relied upon as the main staple for filling up time, it gets an unhealthy feeling among the children, and it is a great temptation to the teacher to fall into loose habits concerning truth. Still, there are many worse things in Sabbath-school than telling the children good stories, and I would not entirely discourage the practice, especially among small children. Others, when at a loss for something to do, read to their class out of a book, or out of a religious paper. Even this, though betokening great poverty of invention on the part of the teacher, is better than nothing.

The proper plan, undoubtedly, for filling up time, is for the teacher to come to his class so furnished with knowledge in regard to the lesson, that the lesson alone will fill up every moment at his disposal. If the teacher will use due diligence during the week in studying the lesson, and in collecting facts and thoughts in regard to it, he can hardly fail to have matter enough to fill up the whole time of even the longest session. Nor is it necessary for the attainment of this end that the teacher should be a person of great learning, or a very superior scholar. Persons of quite moderate abilities, and of very limited education, often make most instructive teachers. But it is because their heart is in the work. Their mind is occupied through the week with the lesson which they are to give to their class on the Sabbath, and they go about gleaming little by little, in their daily walks, picking up it may be but a straw at a time; but by the time the Sabbath comes, their hands are full; they have quite a sheaf.

One thing every teacher should settle in his mind. He is derelict in his duty, if he does not occupy the attention of his class with something the whole of the time alloted to him. The very least he can do is to keep them busy. The teacher who cannot, or who will not, do this, should resign.

Every teacher should feel under strong obligations fully to occupy the time of every session that is devoted to instruction; employing it, if possible, in the topics of the lesson under examination, or in such ways as will interest fully, and instruct wisely, those committed to his charge—remembering that the waste minutes of Sabbath-school hours are the seeds of time which Satan sows for a speedy harvest of mischief and sin.—J. S. Hart.