In this funny old town where I live and where I was trained theologically (at Union Seminary in Virginia) a continuing controversy is plaguing Black History Month. It concerns the use of a mock slave auction in an elementary school classroom in one of the conservative (red) suburbs that surround Richmond, the former capital of the Confederate States of America. Ironies abound.
While I make no brief against Black History Month or mock slave auctions, I do question the value of the latter in an elementary school. More to the point, I question the value of anything other than strict, basic education in elementary school (and in Sunday School) for elementary children. Children need to learn the basics if they are going to function responsibly as adults, as citizens, and as faithful Christians.
There are some things one learns as a child that one cannot learn as an adult (or youth) without difficulty, even embarrassment. I once had occasion to correct a sermon by a magna cum laude graduate of one of the finest colleges in America. The wrong verb tense was used more than once. I finally had to get the tape of the sermon to demonstrate the mistake. We have had (I do not know if it’s still necessary) at Union PSCE remedial writing classes, because students cannot construct sermons without learning the basic skills of writing complete sentences. These students never had to diagram sentences or learn to spell phonetically when they were children.
What is equally disturbing for the church is the loss, over several decades, of basic learning strategies in church school. Do we need SOLs for congregations with no Christian child left behind? Such basic strategies include, but are not limited to, the teaching of Bible stories, memorization of the books of the Bible in order, learning a catechism, “sword drills,” and other methods that insure that by the time a child reaches confirmation class, she is knowledgeable about Scripture and has the basic information of the holy, universal church.
For years my wife and I have observed that our daughters don’t know nearly as much about the Bible as we do. Our knowledge came, by the way, not from the required Bible courses we took at our Presbyterian colleges (or even at seminary — for me) but from Sunday School. In fact I aced my English Bible content exam several decades ago at Union because of what I remembered from Sunday School.
We elders and ministers have been negligent. We are charged with the Christian education program of the church, and yet we have neglected our children by allowing whims of educational theory to distract the church from one primary responsibility. The most important years in our children’s lives are during elementary grades when they can gain knowledge of the basics — information that becomes the foundation of an articulate, confident adult faith.
Too often I hear about the need for experienced-based learning, which I do not necessarily oppose — as long as it is founded upon content-based education. Such education tells parents and children that we who have trod this path before them have hold of a treasure to be handed down. And this learning is not just for fun. If I hear that we have to make church school fun and exciting for children one more time, I may throw up! Fun or not, what we teach them is a matter of life or death.
The rest of it, apart from the basics, is fine in its proper place, but there is no substitute for writing and Bible skills that are learned when young children are receptive, open and responsive. Why make them struggle so hard as youth and adults when a foundation can be built at the beginning of their lives? Many churches have been trying hard for years to send that message to denominational marketers of Christian Education strategies. Perhaps they have turned to a curriculum like David C. Cook because no one listened. It’s past time for the church to listen — and to make amends.
We don’t need American children (and the children of believers) sitting on the sidelines. We need, especially when their time comes, for all of our children — to the best of their ability — to be well trained, well-equipped players.
