p. 389 | The Sabbath School

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1880

The Sabbath School.

THE PRIMARY CLASS.

At a gathering of Sunday-school teachers a short time since, Miss Lucy J. Rider made some very interesting remarks which we give below as reported to the S. S. Times:-

"The primary class," said Miss Rider at the outset, "is rightly named primary, as it is primary. It is first,—first in importance, and it ought to be first in everything. It should have the best teacher, the best room, and the most money. If a man has funds to invest, he is careful to invest them where he will get the best returns. If you take little children before they learn the evil ways of the world, and teach them to be good, you will be better paid than in teaching those grown old in sin; the results will be greater. Watch the development of a child until it is three years old. Physically, it develops wonderfully,—faster than it ever does again during the same length of time. We cannot judge of its mental growth as accurately, but from knowing nothing it comes to observe, to think, and it acquires a language. We think it quite difficult to learn a language so as to be able to speak it, but this a child does before it is three years old. Can we doubt that the moral development is equally great? I sometimes think that a child is so filled with good or evil before it is three years old that it cannot be changed afterwards. Certainly it is very important that the little ones should have all the care possible exercised in their training, that their hearts may be developed in the right direction.

"The class should have a room by itself, if possible. If you cannot get that, go off in one corner by yourselves, and have your exercises there. You can manage to sing softly so as not to disturb the other classes; but do not sing too softly, you want to disturb them a little,—just enough so that they will be willing to provide a separate room for you. If you do not succeed in getting a room at once, keep the subject in mind; do not let them forget about it. Do not scold, but agitate it good-naturedly, continually. If a person sets his heart, patiently, persistently, upon a thing, he will accomplish it. Yours should be the best room in the building. It should be well-ventilated; bad air makes children sleepy and stupid. It should be cheerful and pleasant, if possible, brightened by good attractive pictures. A dark, gloomy, ill-ventilated room is very depressing. It would be well-nigh impossible to have a good class exercise in such a room.

"Of course you must have a blackboard. Persons sometimes say to me: 'Oh, I cannot use a blackboard, I must be excused from that!' Why, you might as well be excused from using your knife and fork at dinner-time as from using the blackboard. 'But,' some say, 'I cannot even draw a straight line.' It isn't necessary to draw straight lines; it requires a great deal of practice to do that. Anything on the blackboard will attract and hold the attention, if it be nothing but dots.

"A very successful primary teacher says that, occasionally, she fails to use the blackboard, and that those lessons are invariably forgotten; the lessons that are illustrated are almost invariably remembered.

"Take the lesson concerning the walls of a city. It is not difficult to explain to the children the need of walls in those times, and to represent them so that they can imagine how they looked. [Miss Rider took up the crayon and went to the board as if to write, then turned and looked at us.] You are, every one, eagerly watching to see what I put upon the board. If you, adults, are so eager, how do you think it would affect little children? Here is a city surrounded by these walls. Sometimes the walls are very thick, like this [making two sides heavier]. They are built around the city so that soldiers from afar [adding the lines to represent the soldiers] and encamp around the city in these tents, they cannot get into the city to kill the people that live there. But the people must have some way to get out of the city when necessary, so we put a gate here. Sometimes they have a gate on every side, if the city is large.

"Such a simple illustration as this any one can draw, and it satisfies a child much better than simply to describe the walls of a city. The child has the picture right on its heart. It takes it in through the eye as well as the ear, and its effectiveness is doubled.

"It is easy to represent to the little folks the location of places. They can begin to understand a map while very young. It is not difficult to draw the outlines of the map of Palestine, beginning with the river Jordan, then adding the seacoast, locating Jerusalem and other places as needed. Elaborate drawings are not necessary; just make everything distinct. If your primary department is divided into several small classes, put pencil and paper into the hands of the children themselves, if practicable. They won't forget the lesson if they help to illustrate it themselves. If you have no blackboard, you can procure large sheets of paper and a pencil having a broad lead, and manage very nicely.

"Be careful to explain fully. Use short words. Children do not ask questions, but they think and wonder what you mean. So you must use words that you are sure they understand. One of the most successful of primary teachers never thinks of going to her class until she has first gone through the lesson with a child to see what impression it makes. She says she must test it first in that way, even if she has to borrow her neighbor's little girl, or coax in some children from school.

"In regard to discipline, do not continually call to order; don't ask for order if you cannot win it. Fascinate them into order. Throw your hands, your face, your whole body, into the work. Get their eyes, then you have their attention.

"A teacher should use her talent, whatever it is: singing, drawing, using thimble, cutting paper. Whatever you do, let your whole strength go into the work. Do it well. The key to the future is in the primary class. We shall never have the millennium until we begin at the beginning."