XI The Boys’ Department in the Sunday School6
The Boys’ Department in the Sunday school is the grouping together of organized classes for the sake of unity and team work among the adolescent boys. Investigation proves that boys work together best when separated from men, women and girls. The Boys’ Department contemplates a change from the usual organization in the Sunday school, in that the classes of boys between twelve and twenty years of age shall meet as a separate department of the school and have their own closing and opening services, and the natural activities that would spring from a separate departmental life. The underlying idea of the Boys’ Department is to make the boys feel that they are a real part of the Sunday school, with a real purpose and actual activities. Where it has been tried, not only has the attendance been increased, but the enrollment in the department has been doubled and trebled. The department also presents an opportunity of interesting boys in all forms of church life through the committee work which the department inaugurates. The criticism that the Boys’ Department may become a junior church is not borne out by the experience of the men who have tried it. On the other hand, the testimony is that the Boys’ Department has increased the attendance at the morning and evening services of the church, and has created a general interest and enthusiasm for the entire church life. The Boys’ Department is not urged on any basis of sex segregation, although a good many educators are urging the segregation of the sexes in public education. The underlying idea of the Department is to group the boys together for team work and cooperation, with a clear understanding of the gang principle which clamors for a club or organization that satisfies the social and fraternal need. In fact, it is the neglect of the latter by the Sunday school that has brought the countless boys’ organizations into existence, and the well-conducted Boys’ Department, composed of well-organized, self-governing Bible classes, will mean much to the general church life, as well as to the simplifying of the present complicated scheme of work with boys. Nearly all of these auxiliary boy organizations have had their birth in the Sunday school, through the attempt to meet the boy need, which the Sunday school hitherto has not seen its way clear to do.
When departmental organization, however, is mentioned, the genius of the individual leader and teacher must come into play. The form of organization that may be successful with one leader may be a failure with another. This chance does not lie or inhere in the organization, but in the leader; for the gifts, talents, equipment and adaptability of leaders vary just as much in Sunday school organization as in the so-called secular forms of activity. The best form of organization, then, as well as the most successful form for the local school, is the “kind that works.”
Three Proved Forms of Departmental Organization
Successful organization is the result of experiment. None but the result of experiment has a right to be exploited. Sunday school teen age workers have tried, proved and found satisfactory to their own liking, by its results, the following three kinds of teen age organization for the local school:
Intermediate and Senior Departments
The first of these is known as the Intermediate and Senior Departmental organization. Its characteristic is the dividing of the teen age into two groups—Intermediate, 13 to 16 years, and Senior, 17 to 20 years. In some schools these departments meet separately for Sunday school work. Wherever this is done there should be at least a superintendent and secretary for each. While the general principles of the work are the same, the problems and details of the classes are sometimes different. The department superintendent should have special charge of his department and be responsible for building it up; also for department teachers’ meetings, and should be personally acquainted with every scholar. The department secretary should keep an alphabetical and birthday card index of scholars; send welcome letters to new scholars; provide the superintendent with a list of new scholars, that they may be properly presented to the department; send lists of absentees to teachers; keep a record of correlated work accomplished by scholars, quarterly lesson examinations, etc.
Teen Age Department
In some schools the custom is to combine the Intermediate and Senior Departments into one and to regard the years, 13 to 20, as a series of eight grades. Several large schools are enthusiastic about this plan, and as the worship requirements are much the same in the teen years the Opening and Closing Services are acceptable to all grades. This arrangement also is adaptable to limited equipment, and affords a certain amount of hero-worship to the younger boy on account of the older boy being present. It also offers the older boy a field of service through helpfulness to the younger members of the department. In some schools this adaptation is known as the High School Department.
Boys’ Departments
During the last few years separate Boys’ Departments have come into favor with some Sunday school workers. These departments should not be attempted, however, until every class is organized (see chapter on The Organized Sunday school Bible Class), and there is efficient leadership to guide them. A premature start may be ineffective and prejudice parents and boys.
The Departmental Committees
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee has direct oversight of the general affairs of the department and acts officially between sessions on matters needing prompt attention. It is made up of the officers, general superintendent of the school, the pastor of the church, and the president and teacher of each class.
Inter-Class Committee
The Inter-Class Committee has the direction and supervision, through sub-committees, of all the activities of the department, such as:
Athletics
Outings
Camping
Socials
Entertainments
Lectures
Library
Vocational Talks
Practical Talks
Congress or Senate Debates
Current Topics
Practical Citizenship
Service Councils
Degrees and Initiations
Employment Bureau
Home Cooperation
School Cooperation
Committee on Sunday school Life
This Committee has a twofold function, the planning of the department program for general school festivals and matters of general school business. The diagram shows the activities of this committee.
COMMITTEE ON SUNDAY SCHOOL LIFE
FEAST DAYS GENERAL BUSINESS
Children’s Day Sunday School Board Meetings
New Year’s School Elections
Easter Membership Campaigns for Entire School
Rally Day School Needs
Anniversary Picnics
Specials, Etc. Socials, Etc.
Committee on Church Life
The Church Life Committee also has a double task. Its activities along the lines of church life are as follows:
Committee on Church Life
WORSHIP MEMBERSHIP AND BENEVOLENCES
Morning Preaching Service
Evening Preaching Service
Mid-week Prayer Service
Special Services
Invitation
Current Expenses
Extension Support
Social Life
Auxiliary Organizations
Committee on Inter-Church Life
The Inter-church Life Committee, through its representatives on the Inter-Sunday school Councils and Committees, cares for its part of the common teen age Sunday school life of the community. In this way the Sunday school is made to loom large as the teen age organization in the town or city. Some of its activities would be:
Inter-Church Council
Normal Institute
Training Classes
Athletic League
Church Census
Boys’ Conferences
Girls’ Conferences
Publicity
Special Cooperation.
SUNDAY SCHOOL SECONDARY DIVISION
THE TEEN AGE BOYS’ DEPARTMENT
|(Every class organized)
|
ORGANIZATION
|
——+——+——
| | |
OFFICERS | COMMITTEES
| | |
Church Board[a] | ——+——+——+——
Sunday School Board[a] | | | | | |
Sunday School Superintendent[a] | Executive | Sunday School Life | Church
| | Inter-Class Inter-Church Life
Superintendent[b] | | Life
Assistant Superintendent[b] | ——+—— ——+——
Treasurer[b] | | | | |
Advisory Superintendent[c] | Feast General Worship General
| Days Interest Church
| Life
DEPARTMENT ACTIVITY
|
——+——
| |
SUNDAY SESSIONS MASS WEEK MEETINGS
| (Occasional when there is a motive)
Opening Service
Class Hour
Department Affairs
Closing Services
[a] Supervisory [b] Older Boy [c] Adult
Prepared by John L. Alexander, Superintendent Secondary Division International Sunday School Association
POINTS OF CAUTION!
The promoters of a Boys’ Department in the Sunday school should not be too hasty in pushing the organization. There are certain facts to be kept in mind in effecting a workable, durable department.
1. The Boys’ Department is merely one of the departments of the school, and nothing must be done that will cripple or weaken the remainder of the school. Where possible it is best to promote separate departments for teen age boys and girls at the same time. This will reduce opposition and achieve efficiency.
2. There is no use in trying to organize a Boys’ Department, where there is no adequate meeting place. The value of a Boys’ Department lies almost entirely in the unity produced by the worship of the opening and closing services and the discussion of departmental common affairs.
3. The Department cannot take the place of the Organized Class. Where it does, it is temporary, hurrah-in-character, inefficient and harmful. The Sunday school is educational in purpose. The Boys’ Department must be likewise.
4. Nothing should be advocated or promoted in the Boys’ Department that is not in accord with the Sunday school and Denominational policy. The Boys’ Department is part of the Church.
Class Organization
The classes of the teen years should all be organized before any scheme for department organization is put in use. The Organized Class is based on the so-called “gang instinct,” and is the unit of all organization.
Departmental Progressive Steps
The steps in organizing a Teen Age Boys’ or Secondary Division Department should be:
1. Appointment of Teen Age Superintendent.
2. Every class organized according to Denominational and International Standard.
3. Two-session-a-week classes—Sunday and week-day.
4. Trained teachers.
5. Departmental organization.
Departmental Equipment
Separate Rooms
There should be separate assembly rooms or divisions for these departments where they meet apart from each other. There should also be separate rooms or screened-off places for the classes to meet.
Equipment
The outfit for the department and classes should include Bibles, tables, blackboards, charts, pictures, maps—including maps for mission study, also relief maps, mission curios, etc.
Promotions
Much should be made of promotions to and from the grades within the department. A certificate or diploma recognizing regular work should be granted on Promotion Day. Special work done is recognized by placing a seal upon the certificate. Promotion exercises should include some statement of the work accomplished.
Sunday School Spirit
In order to maintain a genuine spirit of Sunday school unity it is desirable to have the whole school meet together from time to time for the common tie and uplift of worship in the mass. The exercises of festival occasions also help to bring this about, and the common gatherings, regular or special, of the school, tend to magnify the united leadership of officers and teachers. These should never interfere with the work of instruction, the main objective of the school, but should supplement it. Departments should be made to feel their partnership in the Sunday school enterprise, and this may be brought about by the reading of the departmental and school minutes in each department. Continued emphasis should be placed on the oneness of the school—“All one body, we.” Thus we may hope for Christian comradeship and loyalty.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON BOYS’ DEPARTMENT
Boys’ Work Message.—(Men and Religion Movement) ($1.00).
Cope.—Efficiency in the Sunday School ($1.00).
Huse.—Boys’ Department in Springvale, Maine (American Youth, February, 1911) (.20).
Stanley.—The Boys’ Department in the Sunday School (American Youth, April, 1911) (.20).
Waite.—Boys’ Department of the Sunday School (Free leaflet).
Notes
7 Christmas Teachers’ Meetings