There may be just a little danger of cheapening the
process of application if it is insisted that for every ideal impressed
upon the minds of pupils there must be a corresponding immediate
response in daily actions of the pupils taught. May not a wonderful
impression become the more wonderful as it is hallowed by the pondering
of the mind through the maturing years of childhood and young manhood?
Finally there is the lesson which, though it involves both the intellect
and the emotions, appeals primarily to the will and calls for action.
There can be no question but that this is the type of lesson of greatest
significance in religious education. We meet our pupils so infrequently,
at best, that at most we can do but a fraction of what we should like to
do to modify their lives. Our concern is to change for the better their
attitude and conduct, and therefore we must address ourselves to the
problems they face in the every-day life which they are to live between
recitations. As Betts in his _How to Teach Religion_ so well says:
"In the last analysis the child does not come to us that he may learn
this or that set of facts, nor that he may develop such and such a
group of feelings, but that through these he may live better. The
final test of our teaching, therefore, is just like this: Because of
our instruction, does the child live differently here and now, as a
child, in all his multiform relations in the home, the school, the
church, the community, and in his own personal life? Are the lessons
we teach translated continuously into better conduct, finer acts, and
stronger character, as shown in the daily run of the learner's
experience?
"It is true that the full fruits of our teaching and of the child's
learning must wait for time and experience to bring the individual to
fuller development.
Pages:
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165