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THE NECESSITY AND ESSENTIALS OF A GRADED SUNDAY SCHOOL

1. The Necessity of Grading. As the result of the gradual and unguided evolution of the Sunday school through a century or longer, most schools are now divided in a vague way into certain departments, generally known as the Primary, or Infant Class; the Youths Department, or Boys and Girls; and the Adult Department, or Bible Classes. Many who have charge of schools such as these regard them as graded, and so report them. But the mere naming of departments does not constitute a graded school. Whoever studies the ungraded or loosely graded Sunday school will perceive in it certain evils which can be removed only by a thorough system of grading, maintained faithfully through a series of years. Some of these conditions which make the graded Sunday school an absolute necessity are the following:

(1) The School as a Whole. The close observer, looking at the entire school, notes first of all that its gains and its losses in membership are at the extremes of its constituency. It is the normal condition for the gains to come in the Primary section; for the little children in families are attracted to the school or brought there by older children. There is almost invariably a constant increase in this department, requiring frequently the organization of new classes in the grade above, among the younger boys and girls. But, on the other hand, there is a constant loss of older scholars. In most schools, at the age of fourteen, in what is known as the early adolescent period of life, the pupils, for one reason or another, begin to drop out, and few enter to take their places. Almost every school is thus growing at the bottom and dying at the top. The Primary classes are full, but the classes of those above fourteen years are usually small—two large boys here, three yonder. And although girls continue in the school more frequently than boys, there will appear the same conditions—some large classes of girls and young women, but others where discouraged teachers are sitting down with one, two, or three pupils. Six or eight years ago these same classes came out from the Primary Department, each with eight or ten pupils; now they are mere skeleton classes, barely alive, and threatened with dissolution. Every earnest, thoughtful superintendent would rejoice to find some plan that will guarantee large classes of young people between sixteen and eighteen years of age, for this is the most vital period in the life of the individual. Such a plan is proposed in the graded system.

(2) The Condition of the Classes. Fixing the attention upon the several classes, the critic of the school system notes three unfavorable conditions:

(a) There is the inequality in the size of classes, to which reference has already been made. When classes come together by accident, pupils bringing their friends, or new members joining whatever classes they please, some classes of boys or girls will inevitably be too large for good government or good teaching, and others will be too small to create any enthusiasm, either in the teacher or the pupils.

(b) There is also an inequality in the ages of pupils in the same class. A class may include one pupil or two pupils sixteen years old, and others as young as ten, or even nine years; some who during the week are in the high school, and others who can scarcely read the verses assigned to them.

(c) Where these inequalities of numbers and ages exist there is a lack of that class spirit which is an essential element of power in a well-ordered Sunday school. Every class should be a unit, with a strong social bond; but this ideal cannot be realized when there are in the class two or three youths in the noisy, assertive, self-conscious stage of early adolescence, and others who are several years younger. Nor can there be a proper social bond in a class with only two or three members. They are likely to be irregular in attendance, to find excuses for absence or for leaving the school, until at last the discouraged teacher and the listless scholars together drop out of sight.

For the correction of these evils of inequality in numbers and in ages, and of this lack of class spirit, the only successful method is to grade the school, and resolutely to keep it graded.

(3) Difficulties of Administration. The difficulties which confront the superintendent in the management of an ungraded school are many and great.

(a) The first and ever-present difficulty is in obtaining teachers for new classes. The constant growth of the Primary Department is his perennial perplexity. To relieve the congestion in the crowded Infant Class its older pupils must be brought into the main school, and teachers must be found for them. The superintendent is always seeking, and often seeking vainly, for new teachers.

(b) Another difficulty is found in the attempt to transfer scholars from one class to another. No matter how much out of place a pupil may be, it is almost impossible to transfer him to another class without incurring the displeasure of the teacher, the scholar, or the scholar's family. And however overgrown or ill-assorted a class may have become, to divide it is a delicate task, almost sure to cause ill feeling. Also, when there arises the need of a teacher for a new class just emerging from the Primary Department, the natural plan would be to combine some of the skeleton classes in the other departments, and thereby release a teacher for service with the new class. But the superintendent who attempts this plan finds that almost invariably it results in some of the older scholars leaving the school because their teacher is taken from them.

2. The Essentials of a Graded School. Briefly stated, the essentials of a graded Sunday school are the following:[4]

(1) Departments. The graded Sunday school is organized in certain distinct groups, of which the most important, for our present purpose, are the Primary, Junior, Intermediate, and Senior Departments. To these will be added the Beginners and Adult Departments when the subject comes up for a complete treatment. Each of these departments should have, if possible, a separate room; but if these rooms cannot be provided in the building, the pupils should be seated by departments in the different parts of the one room. Perhaps it may be assumed that there is a separate room for the Primary Department; then let those who have most recently come from the Primary be seated on the right block of seats; the Youths or Intermediate in the middle; and the Senior classes on the left block, or vice versa. The younger classes of the department should have the front seats, the older those in the rear, in regular gradation. The school may be arranged in the order shown in this diagram:

(2) Classes. The number of classes should be fixed for each department, and their relationship established, so that when a group of scholars is promoted to a higher grade in the same department, or in the next department, they do not enter as classes, but as individuals; not to form new classes in the department, but to be placed in classes already formed. This plan will keep the classes in the Senior Department always full, and avoid the unfortunate skeleton classes of the ungraded school. It will also impress upon the pupils the importance of faithful work.

(3) Promotions. There should be annual and simultaneous promotions throughout the school. One Sunday in the year should be set apart as Promotion Sunday; and on that day all promotions should be made. Those who are to be advanced from the Intermediate to the Senior Department are called out by name and placed in their classes, which are not new classes, but old classes replenished with new members. These promotions will vacate the seats of the Fourth Year classes in the Intermediate Department. But these seats will at once be filled by the Third Year now becoming the Fourth Year, and taking their seats; the Second Year pupils becoming the Third Year; and the First Year the Second Year. The First Year of the Intermediate Department will be left vacant, to be filled by promotion of the Fourth Year in the Junior Department, and the moving up of classes to the year above in the same department; and the First Year of the Junior Department will be filled by promotion from the Primary Department.

(4) Teachers. As groups of scholars pass either from one grade or from one department to another there must also be a change of teachers. This constitutes the crux of the entire system, and in its inception is apt to prove the most formidable obstacle in grading the school. The pupils, however, are accustomed to a system of promotions in the day school, and expect to leave their teachers when they change their grades; but many of the teachers in the Sunday school, not being trained under the system, dislike to lose their scholars, and show their dissatisfaction in ways that affect their pupils. This difficulty must be overcome by tact and an appeal to unselfish motives; teachers must consent for the sake of the common good to give up their old classes and take new ones which begin in the department. The teacher may remain in the grade and receive a new class each year as his pupils advance to a higher grade; or he may remain with the class and advance until the pupils pass from their former department to a higher one, as from Primary to Junior, from Junior to Intermediate, and from Intermediate to Senior. He should then return to a new first year's class in his own department and lead it through the course. If any teacher asks, "Why cannot I go with my class into the Senior Department?" the answer is that if the plan be permitted for one it must be recognized for all; and in the Senior Department there will follow an increasing number of classes, with a relatively diminishing membership in each class. The scholars also need the inspiration of contact with different teachers. Furthermore, the teacher who is adapted to the Junior or Intermediate Department is rarely a suitable teacher for Senior scholars. Hence there is need of a careful assignment of teachers no less than of pupils. Therefore, to maintain a graded school the pupils must change teachers when they change departments.

(5) Lessons. There should be graded lessons for each department. If a graded system be followed in the school, as it should be, with different subjects, text-books, and lessons for each department, giving to the entire school a regular, systematic, progressive curriculum, this requisite will be met. If, however, the uniform lesson for all the school be followed, as at present is still the case in many Sunday schools, the graded teaching must be given in the form of supplemental lessons, taught by the head of the department where it has a separate room, or by the teacher if the departments must be assembled in one room. In some form the graded teaching is an absolutely essential requisite of the graded school. Most schools, when once thoroughly graded, will realize the need of the next step in the evolution of the institution—lessons graded in subjects as well as in methods for the several departments.

(6) Basis of Promotion. The question is often asked, "Should promotions be made on the basis of age, or as the result of examinations?" The examination system may be regarded as desirable in the Sunday school, but there are as yet few schools where thorough examinations can be rigidly insisted on as a part of the school system, and promotions invariably made to depend upon standing. A school which meets only once a week, for a session of less than an hour and a half, and with but one lesson period of forty minutes or even less, cannot maintain the same strictness in its standards as the public school. Moreover, new scholars are continually entering the schools, and, while most of them begin at the foot of the ladder in the Primary Department, yet others enter at various ages and in various grades. Any system of promotion based merely upon acquirement attested by examination is sure to become in many instances a meaningless form when applied to the Sunday school. Yet acquirements and examinations need not be ignored in the graded Sunday school. There may be certain ages at which the pupils shall by right pass from a lower grade to a higher. But it may also be arranged that pupils who are exceptionally bright, well-informed, and studious can be promoted a year in advance of their classmates by passing examination. Let the examination be given in writing to all the pupils, and let all be urged to take it; with the promise that those who pass will be promoted, even though they be less than the required age. But let it also be understood that failure to pass the examination will not keep the student for more than one year from promotion. In other words, the examination may well be made the door through which earnest students may pass on, and so keep abreast of their equals in training and ability.