p. 125 | SPASMODIC TEACHERS

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 18, 1880

SPASMODIC TEACHERS.

SPASMODIC teaching in the Sabbath-school amounts to very little. Five teachers, who are regular in attendance, are worth more than twenty teachers of the same grade of intelligence, who come irregularly. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that a Minnesota superintendent is exercised on this point, and writes as follows:—

"Can you tell me of some new and practical method to make my teachers realize the importance of being in their places every Sunday? About two-thirds of them seem to think they are to come when it is perfectly convenient, and stay away the rest of the time. I sometimes think that such teachers would do just about as much good to stay away as to come. Still, I can't well do without them."

In the first place, the superintendent's views on the point should be made known to the teachers. He is not to scold about it, nor, indeed, should he speak of it in public; but in the teachers' meeting it should be talked over plainly, and in the kindest manner. If he has no teachers' meeting, here is a trouble to be remedied at once. A Sabbath-school has no special character, no public sentiment, no atmosphere, unless it has a teachers' meeting. But even where there is this lack, the teachers can be approached on the subject of regularity in personal interviews, or by a circular letter, or a private note. It should be understood by all that the superintendent deems regular attendance an indispensable requisite to a teacher's work. Then the teachers are to be trained singly to the right practice in this line. This will take time. All good work does. But a superintendent must find the time for his work, or that work will never be done. He cannot find any way of bringing all his teachers up to a correct standard, except by bringing them up to it one by one. He must set his mind on improving one of those irregular teachers. If she is absent next Sabbath, he must call and see her, or drop her a note, the next day, expressing his regret at her absence, and asking if she can be there the Sabbath following. If that does not meet the case, he must find out on the preceding day, or on Sabbath morning, if she is intending to be at the school. Her class meantime may be put in charge of a substitute teacher, or consolidated with another class. She should be notified of this act, and asked when she is likely to resume her place, or whether she would prefer to leave her class in these other hands. By a firm, steady, judicious, kindly pressure, an irregular teacher can be improved or got rid of, sooner or later. Either alternative is better than overlooked irregularity. The ways of training teachers are varied; but it is important for the superintendent to feel that he is just as responsible for the training of his teachers, as his teachers are for the training of their scholars. If his teachers continue irregular, or inefficient, the person most deserving of blame is—himself. A farmer's efficiency is shown by his workmen; a mill overseer's by his factory hands; a Sabbath-school superintendent's by his teachers.

—S. S. Times.