THE CHICOPEE PLAN. BY HON. L. E. HITCHCOCK. CAN the graded system be successfully used in small Sunday schools? The plan described in this article has been in successful operation for several years in the Central Methodist Episcopal Sunday school in Chicopee, Mass., in which the membership during that time has averaged 200 and the average attendance has been about 150.

Before describing in detail the plan it may be well to stale three principles on which the plan is based:

1. A school, in order to be such, must be instructive as well as evangelistic, and if instruction is to be given there are many principles of instruction which have been worked out in our system of public schools and which have come to be accepted as right principles of teaching anything, and these principles cannot be ignored in teaching in the Sunday schools any more than they can in the day schools without impairment of the results desired.

2. In general terms, the most important principle of successful teaching is that it should be progressive and adapted in succeeding years to the normal development of the mind of the average child, and this relates to the method of teaching a given subject as well as to the selection of the subjects which shall be taught.

3. Another principle of successful teaching which is of almost as much importance as the one just alluded to is that there shall be one person at the head with a definite plan of work.

Applying these principles to Sunday school work, this school supposes that there is certain instruction which properly belongs to the Sunday school to give; that there is no reason why the Sunday school should not make use of the best methods of instruction which are known to educators so far as applicable; and that when the superintendent is elected to his place the church in effect commits to him or her the entire care of that part of the work of the church, and that it is perfectly proper for him to direct his teachers in the work which he will have done in his school during his term of office.

The school is divided into three departments, Primary, Intermediate, and Senior. The Primary Department keeps the children until the New Year after they are eight years old; the Intermediate takes them through a ten years' course of study, and then the Senior Department receives them into the Bible classes.

The Primary Department, which meets in a room by itself and has its own order of exercises, is divided into as many classes with separate teachers as may be necessary for the proper care of its little folks, and all under the care of a superintendent of that department. The usual exercises of this department are of the general character customary in such grades.

In July the class which will graduate at the end of the year is formed and placed in the care of a certain teacher, whose special duty is to see that the class is prepared to graduate. The graduating exercises are public, and a neat diploma is presented to each scholar who thus graduates.

The Intermediate Department is divided into ten grades, each representing a year of study and each containing two classes, one of boys and one of girls, although there is no reason why boys and girls should not be together in the same class. There is no division of the Senior Department into grades. It contains only three classes, namely, the Young Men's Bible Class, the Young Ladies' Bible Class, and the General Class.

The principal work of the school is done along the lines of the International Lessons, which are used in all the departments, although the method of teaching them varies in the different grades.

In addition to the International Lessons Supplemental Lessons are taught in the Primary and Intermediate Departments. In the Primary Department these include the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Twenty-third Psalm, the Beatitudes, and the Apostles' Creed.

The following schedule will show at a glance what are the specific studies of each grade in the Intermediate Department:

Some explanation of the above is needed:

1. The study of the International Lessons. In all the grades the first things to be learned in each lesson are the title, the Golden Text, and the lesson story, and after these are learned the teachers take up the specific grade instruction as above. The lesson thought, which appears first in Grade III, is carried through all the remaining grades as the central thought for the session. These thoughts are selected by the superintendent, and by him indicated to the teachers at the beginning of each quarter. To illustrate: Take the lesson for September 11, 1892, the title of which was Philip and the Ethiopian. After learning the title, Golden Text, and lesson story the different grades will study as follows:

Grades I and II. Learn the memory verses: 35-38.

Grade III. Learn the memory verses and study thought: "Philip preached Jesus."

Grade IV. Study about the persons: Philip, Candace, the eunuch, and Esaias, and also the same thought as in Grade III.

Grade V. Study about the places: Jerusalem, Gaza, Ethiopia, Azotus, and Cesarea, and the two thoughts: "Philip preached Jesus," and "Prompt response to call of duty."

Grade VI. Study customs: going to Jerusalem to worship, ceremony of baptism, riding in chariot, and the same two thoughts as in Grade V.

Grades VII and VIII. Thoughts—
"Philip preached Jesus."
"Prompt response to call of duty."
"Habit of reading."
"Understand as you read."
"Act up to your knowledge."

Grades IX and X. Thoughts—
"Philip preached Jesus. I can do the same."
"Prompt response to call of duty. How these calls come."
"Fulfillment of prophecy."
"Immediate conversion and baptism."
"The new-found joy."

2. The Supplemental Lessons. The aim of these lessons is to furnish systematic instruction upon the subjects indicated, which are matters that every well-informed person ought to know, but which cannot be taught from the International Lessons. Each year contains thirty-six lessons which can easily be memorized and recited in the twenty minutes usually allowed for this study. The titles readily suggest the nature of the lessons.

A weekly teachers' meeting is held under the direction of the superintendent for the purpose of assisting the teachers in the right understanding of the things required to be taught on the succeeding Sunday, and instructing them in methods of teaching that particular lesson. It is a sort of teachers' meeting and normal class combined.

Written examinations upon the International Lessons are held at the end of each quarter, and one upon the Supplemental Lessons is held near the close of the year, upon each of which the scholars are marked. Each scholar is also marked at each session of the school upon a scale of five credits, as follows: one for attendance at the opening of the school, one for attention during school time, one for attendance at closing the school, one for attendance upon preaching service, and one for lesson study at home. These marks, taken in connection with the examination marks and the knowledge of the general work of the scholar during the year, determine his promotion at the end of the year. The scholar who completes the course satisfactorily is awarded the diploma of graduation and admitted to the Senior Department of the school. No special work other than that usually taken up in Bible classes has been attempted in any of the classes of the Senior Department.

Although great stress is laid upon the work of instruction in the school, it must not be concluded that the spiritual work is overlooked. This is attended to in two ways: first, in the lesson thoughts in connection with the International Lessons, which are selected, as far as possible, to enable the teachers to illustrate and enforce spiritual truths; and, secondly, each teacher is expected to do all she can in the way of personal example and influence to bring the members of her class to Christ. Of course, if any special religious interest at any time in the church seems to call for it, the work of the school is suspended and all the energy is brought to bear upon the evangelistic part of the work.

The actual working of this plan has demonstrated that many things which might seem to be objections have been only imaginary. At the start the scholars were classified according to their ages, with occasional modifications with reference to their places in the public schools, and the teachers were placed in the different grades with reference to their relative abilities, and they were asked to teach certain specific things, which of course they cheerfully did. The scholars, who are accustomed to this method in the public schools, at once caught the idea, and their parents became interested to see that their lessons were learned before coming to the school. The attendance of teachers became more regular, for each teacher, having his own specific work to do, very soon realized that if he were absent his work could not be fully done by a substitute, and the attendance of the scholars was much improved, for they could see actual advancement from Sunday to Sunday.

The attendance of scholars in the Intermediate Department averages fully twenty per cent more than in any other department. Of course, the adoption of any system of graded work means considerable work for a superintendent at the start, and this to a busy man is a serious matter; but after the system is fairly started it works easier and with less friction to annoy than any other plan, and the cause is worthy of the effort required.

Two reasons why schools should be graded may be given: 1. Children will be interested in what they can understand, and if the instruction both as to form and substance is adapted to their growing intellectual abilities it will easily be received and taken care of, while, on the other hand, if it is not comprehended it excites no interest in the mind of the child, and he is glad to get out of the school as soon as he can.

2. The teachers do not go on with their classes from year to year indefinitely, and by this means it is possible to bring ten succeeding classes under the teaching of the ablest teacher you can get in a particular grade, instead of confining that able teacher to only one class for ten years. There can surely be no question as to which is the better course.

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