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SYSTEM IN TEACHING

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 1, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 33.

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SYSTEM IN TEACHING.

A FEW years ago hymn-learning, catechism, and task-lessons formed the staple of even our Scripture-classes. Now there is a demand for good Bible-teaching, that will equal the teaching of our best academies and colleges. The Bible is so adapted and wonderful as to place us on great vantage ground. We want to know how to use it? Mr. J. G. Fitch, of the Normal College, London, has given us an admirable synopsis of the few simple principles which underlie the great art, and which, as he justly observes, "require to be pondered and thoroughly grasped by every teacher:"—
1. "Never to teach what you do not quite understand." Clear knowledge makes clear, pleasant teaching.
2. "Never to tell a child what you could make that child tell you." He will thus remember it ten times as long.
3. "Never to give a piece of information without asking for it again." The mind cannot retain what it does not expect to be called on for again, or to have a future use for.
4. "Never use a hard word if an easy one will convey your meaning; and never to use any word at all unless you are quite sure that it has a meaning to convey." Mark—not "long" word, but "hard" word.
5. "Never to begin an address, or a lesson, without a clear view of its end." Then aim high and at the mark.
6. "Never to give an unnecessary command, nor one which you do not mean to see obeyed." Therefore, few commands; for in case you fail to secure obedience the child rules you, and not you the child.
7. "Never to permit a child to remain in the class for a minute without something to do, and a motive for doing it." A child wants something to do, and cannot bear to be idle. Keep him busy.
Teaching is an art, and like any other art, it has to be learned—learned, too, by study, observation, and practice. It has its rules and principles. He who knows and practices them is a good workman; while he who neglects them is necessarily inefficient.—S. S. Index.