THE ERIE PLAN. BY H. A. STRONG. THE query often arises whether the modern Sunday school is now at its maximum of efficiency in the line of its development. Wonderful is the progress already attained. The introduction of the International Lesson System marks an epoch. Before that separate schools and even teachers were a law unto themselves. Now schools are in touch one with another; sectarian barriers have been broken down; the unity of the cause is recognized. The Church is one; so are her schools. The culture and the spirituality of the Church catholic everywhere are now the teacher of the teachers. Helps to Bible study are so multiplied and improved that it is difficult to see how an advance step could be taken here. The testimony is well-nigh uncontradicted that the Bible is studied as never before in the light of modern research and science. Teachers, as a body, are measuring up to these privileges and responsibilities.

The advance movement in Sunday school work may not be in its literature, nor in the efficiency or the enthusiasm of its corps of teachers. Elsewhere must we look for the necessity for improvement.

The Sunday school is a school. The expression sounds trite and tautological; but it needs emphasis. Bishop Vincent in his latest book, "The Modern Sunday School," discusses the proposition that the "Sunday school is and must be a school." Out of the fullness of his knowledge and experience proof is there given that the organization, system of teaching, and methods of the public schools must be appropriated by the Sunday school of the day. The modern Sunday school must stand or fall as it is contrasted with the modern public school. By such a comparison alone can excellencies or deficiencies be revealed.

Wonderful has been the development of the public school system in the present generation. Great teachers have appeared in all ages and schools have gathered about them. But this age is remarkable in this, that it has adopted a system of instruction for youth and has trained teachers for that system. The combination of these two elements makes the modern common school system. Let the adults of to-day state the case of their day. Such a comparison would show the value of the present. The great boon from the State to the youth of to-day is an educational system based on scientific principles.

In that system two essentials must be emphasized: first, departments; and, second, the place of the pupil. These departments form a series that are mutually related and dependent. They each mark a step in the development of the mind of the pupil. Again, the pupil has his proper place in that system, assigned not by caprice but by a principle. That principle is the attainment of the pupil in the studies of the system. A competent instructor could find by examination the true place of any pupil in any city public school. Such a statement is so self-evident that it excites no surprise. It is as it should be. The method of assignment and promotion is the public school system. Without it that system would not be what it is.

Apply now these essentials as tests to the Sunday schools. How are pupils there assigned and promoted? The answer must be that such assignment and promotions are there unknown. Here we touch a radical defect and weakness. The statement of that weakness hardly needs elaboration.

As we study further the public school system we find there a course of study. That course of study, comprehensive and complete, the work of educators, is the glory of the system. It is this curriculum that makes its pupils students. In these points also compare the Sunday school.

A summary of these conclusions may be made. The modern Sunday school is not the peer of the modern public school. The Sunday school has a defective system of unrelated, independent departments. The modern public school has a perfect system of correlated dependent departments. The Sunday school has no system of promotions, no training school for teachers, and no course of study. Do its pupils study? Why, they are not required, nor examined.

Is there a remedy for such defects? Could its department be perfected? Yes; but the disease is deeper than that. Could a system of promotions be devised? Undoubtedly. Could a teachers' class be formed? Many schools have that. To treat these symptoms separately is not to reach the source of the disease. It is but to tamper with difficulties.

The solution lies in a "Course of Study." In the public school the system rallied around a common center—its course of study. All the agencies employed were to render that course effective. Out of a supplemental lesson system will arise conditions that will crystallize into correlation of departments, methods of promotion, a Normal Department with its commencement day, and, best of all, by the help of the home and the church, an atmosphere of study for the scholar without which a school cannot be.

It is believed that such a course of study is practicable. Is it not thus that the modern Sunday school as a school must be improved?

It is evident that the course of instruction in the Sunday school will be different from that of the day school. There, mental culture is sought; here, spiritual culture is the end in view. There, many are the text-books on diverse themes; here, one book and one theme. The Bible and its revelation must be the book and the theme of any supplemental lesson system. It may be taken as an axiom that that system will be the most efficient and acceptable which has the most of the Bible in it and whose teachings best mirror the Bible.

The writer has prepared a series of text-books to be used as a supplemental course of study in the Sunday school. These books have been compiled in connection with his work as superintendent; and as they were completed they were tested in the Sunday school at Erie, Pa. The first one was written five years ago, and since then they have been continuously used.

This school, as now graded, consists of the following departments: Primary, Junior, Senior, Normal, Reserve, and Assembly. The Primary Department has a four years' course and classes to correspond. The Normal Department has adopted the two years' course of study of the Chautauqua Normal Union. The course of study to which attention is directed is an eight years' course—four years for the Junior Department and four for the Senior Department. This course receives pupils from the Primary room at the age of about ten, and, after it is finished, passes them on to the Normal Department.

All these books are catechetical in form, simple in statement, and seek through the questions to give the theme a natural unfolding. They are printed uniform in series. The Junior books have each about twenty pages the size of the Church Catechism, and the Senior books have each about thirty pages.

The Catechism is the first book of the series. Experience teaches that then memory best aids in its mastery. To these text-books on the Catechism is added a supplement on the books of the Bible and its history and geography. The "Life of Christ" undertakes to tell that life in the words of the gospels. "Church History" treats of the apostolic Church and great events in that history, as the Crusades and the Reformation under Luther and Wesley. The first Senior book, "Jewish History," follows mainly the outline of the Old Testament emphasized by the lessons of the international course. The second year book completes that history, and has chapters on the Bible—its translations and geography, etc. The third and fourth years are employed in the study of "Christian Evidences."

A glance shows that the course of study is a study of the Bible, the Junior books being taken from the New Testament, while the Senior cover the Old Testament.

This system calls for regular examination in which the classes of the school participate; it creates an atmosphere of study for the scholars. They are expected and required to study, and they meet that expectation. This system further promotes harmony between the different departments of the school and forms a basis for promotion for the scholars and classes. Promotions are as regular and as judicious as in the public schools.

For what it is, and what it promises, it is brought to the attention of the Church and Sunday school.

In this work the number of departments into which the school is to be divided must be fixed. The following will probably be found requisite: Primary, Junior, Senior, Normal, Assembly, and Reserve Departments. The Primary Department may be graded in unison with the school and a course of four years' study be adopted. The Normal Department takes the Chautauqua Assembly course of study. The Assembly is the adult Bible Class of the school. Graduates of the Normal Department constitute the Reserve Department. This department studies the Sunday school lesson a week in advance of the rest of the school, and stands ready to fill the places of absentee teachers. The main body of the school constitutes the Junior and the Senior departments. The course of study is for these Departments, and covers a period of eight years. Their grading is a work of tact and difficulty.

The scholars should be formed into classes, averaging seven to a class. These classes, when organized, should be seated in the school, with the view of promotion from year to year. In a school of five hundred pupils the classes would average about five to each grade.

Where these departments occupy the same room the Juniors may be seated on one side, according to rank, and the Seniors on the other side. The position of the class, being won by merit, becomes a place of honor which the superintendent wisely uses. In the first organization a perfect grade is not attainable. Out of the material given only an approximation to the ideal can be hoped for. Time will cure defects. Each year the entire system moves. With a few annual promotions the actual attains the ideal and the system becomes perfect in its grade. In this we make haste slowly.

The time of the introduction of the books and the method of their study are for the decision of the school. A suggestion may be offered. The Sunday school year may follow that of the public school. If so, their study would begin in September, and the examination would be the June following. But, whenever introduced, it should be made plain that the books are auxiliary only to the International System of Bible study. Each session should have an allotted period of time, at least five minutes, for their study. Each teacher can divide the given matter into convenient parts so that the whole may be mastered in nine months. This study will be tested by an examination.

This examination is the keystone of the whole system. Without it the course of study is a failure. Its importance must be emphasized before the whole school. How to emphasize it is a problem that each school must solve. A description of the plan adopted in the school where the system originated may throw some light on that question. Some Sunday in June is selected as the day for the examination, and of that day the school is forewarned. Examination questions, twenty in number, and covering the work of the year, are furnished each scholar. These questions are so printed as to leave blank spaces under each question for the answer to be written by the scholar. The whole session of the school is given up to the examination. The papers are gathered and careful work is put thereon in marking the same. Each answer is marked on a scale of 5, and, if the answers are correct, the paper is marked 100. The marks thus make a system of percentage easily understood by all. The minimum percentage to pass the examination is 75. Those who get 75 and upward are known as honor students.

The Sunday following the examination a full report of the work of the school is read. An honor roll of students who pass the examination is placed upon the blackboard or printed in fine form and placed upon the walls of the room. These honor names are arranged alphabetically and without the percentage of standing, so that it is an equal honor to all students.

The Commencement Day of the graduates of the Normal Class occurs shortly after the examination. These exercises are given on some suitable evening of the week, and are made the event of the school year. After the exercises comes the banquet. For this occasion the Sunday school room is made by the graduates a veritable bower of floral beauty. The Normal graduates and the honor students are received as the honored guests at these festivities.

Such a description may make plain how to emphasize the examination. At least two months before the examination the superintendent should make short, pointed appeals to the scholars and try to fill them with the spirit of study. These examination honors, open to every one, should be made plain to all. Adults work with an object in view. It is the same with the children.

The written examination, its report read to the school, the roll of honor, the promotions, the Commencement and its banquet, are appeals not made in vain to the modern child. What must be the legitimate result of such an appeal to the children? They work for the examination as they do for the examination in the public schools. These last weeks are busy ones. They meet evenings at the homes of the teachers, and on Sunday they gather at the church in special session for class study.

Under such inspiration whole classes have handed in perfect papers. And yet some may and will fail. For them a second examination is given.

Then on the day of promotion the whole school moves forward and occupies the rank won. A course of study can thus revolutionize a school and create an atmosphere of genuine study.

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