A Sunday School superintendent glanced around the Sunday School during the instruction period recently. In one class of four-year-olds, children were taking turns standing up and signaling something with gestures to the rest of the class. A class of eleven-year-olds seemed very busy looking up something in one of the textbooks, accompanying the search by much discussion. One of the teen-age classes was spiritedly examining some point, so that one voice after another could be heard; the teacher appeared at that moment to be a referee. Another class was listening intently to what the teacher was saying, but before the superintendent turned her gaze elsewhere, she noted a student interjecting a comment or question, which was picked up immediately by another student. What do these classes have in common? They were all conducted by teachers who knew how to achieve class participation appropriate to the children's ability, interests, and needs.
The youngest pupils in Sunday School love to have a "turn." The four-year-olds were having a chance to express in their own way the meaning of the Commandments. The middle-sized boys and girls in Sunday School are great doers. Those eleven-year-olds were looking up words in the Glossary of Science and Health to see what light Mrs. Eddy's definitions would throw on the Golden Text and Responsive Reading for that week's Sermon. Both of the teen-age classes were discussing subjects of keen interest to them, as was evident from the way the students were listening to each other. One teacher seemed content to let questions and answers develop in the class with little interjection of her own voice, while the other teacher was more directly focusing the discussion with either a question or a remark.
How often one hears the following comments by Sunday School teachers: "You know, I just couldn't get those kids to say a thing." "Try as I would, I couldn't keep the discussion on Christian Science." "I just wish we could get more done. We waste so much time just settling down!"
