Doing Primary Department, Second Year, Part III By M. FLORENCE BROWN The Westminster Textbooks of Religious Education Preface The Westminster Textbooks of Religious Education are planned to meet the needs of churches seeking to unify their educational program. The informational, devotional, and expressional phases of religious education have been, heretofore, to a large extent, independent of one another. This lack of correlation has been detrimental to educational efficiency. Time and effort have been lost through duplication. Valuable information has failed to register itself in conduct because of the lack of suitable opportunities for expression. Many of our churches have been feeling their way toward better educational standards. It is in response to the requests and needs of these churches that the series of lessons has been undertaken. These textbooks as prepared for the Intermediate and Junior Departments are planned for church schools having a Week Day Session, a Sunday Session, and an Expressional Session, meeting either on Sunday or on a week day. An absolute differentiation of the three phases of the educative process is neither possible nor desirable. The lessons are so arranged, however, that the Week Day Session is 'mainly informational, the Sunday Session more largely devotional, and the third session of the week largely expressional. It has been decided, however, that it is unwise to give to the pupils of the Primary Department an Expressional Session, so that for these grades only two sessions are planned. Since the course is a unity, it is not necessarily confined to the plan suggested. It would be equally suited to a week-day church-school system having three sessions a week for the older pupils, and two sessions for the Primary Department, and unrelated to the Sunday-school program of the community. The course could be adjusted to any local condition, provided the sequence of the lessons were maintained. Forty-two lessons of three sections each are provided for each grade, or year of the Intermediate and Junior grades, and forty-two lessons of two sections each for the Primary grade. It is though: that this will furnish material for a church-school program throughout the public-school year. It is also believed that many schools will find the material sufficient for the use of the Sunday session during that part of the year when week-day sessions are discontinued. Much of this summer season might be spent in a rapid review of the work covered during the other part of the year. No exact adjustment to any particular circumstances is attempted because of the fact that church schools differ widely in the matter of their summer sessions. Some are practically closed all summer; some continue on as extensive a basis as during other parts of the year. The whole matter of adjustment is best left to the local church-school administration. If a church school practically closes at the beginning of summer, it would be well for the authorities of that school to plan for a completion of each year's course at that time. If the school runs on through the summer with undiminished attendance, more time may be taken for the lessons, a part of each book being left for completion in the summer sessions. Where this is done, the section intended for the week-day lesson may be taken on one Sunday of the summer period, the Sunday lesson related to this week-day lesson the next Sunday, and the expressional lesson, in older grades, on a third Sunday. |