To his great surprise, he watched
her walk around the run carefully surveying it as she proceeded. At
length she caught sight of a beam running along the top of the wire just
above the gate. With her eye fixed upon it she made one mighty effort
and was over.
The moral of the two stories is self-evident. Both hens and men can "go
over" if they have something to aim at. It is so in life generally, and
what is true of life generally is particularly true in the matter of
teaching. The aim is one of the most significant features in the
teaching process.
The teacher who knows where he is going can always get followers.
Important as is the aim in all educational endeavor, it is doubly so in
religious training. We teach religiously not merely to build up facts or
make for mental power; we teach to mold character. We should see through
facts, therefore, to the fundamental truth lying behind and beyond them.
Such a truth constitutes an aim in religious instruction.
One of the most regrettable facts connected with some of our teaching is
that teachers leave the preparation of their lessons until the few
minutes just preceding their recitation hour. They then hurry through a
mass of facts, rush into class and mull over these dry husks, unable in
the rush even to see the kernel of truth lying within.
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