Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 11 (1896)

Ms 78, 1896

Diary — The Art of Teaching

Circa 1896

Previously unpublished.

Let the teachers in our Sabbath schools be sure that they themselves are converted, that they know individually that Christ is their personal Saviour, and are learning the lessons of Him who is the Light of the world. Teachers cannot properly instruct the little children or the youth unless they themselves know the Scripture they attempt to teach. The conception needs to be clear, in harmony with the Divine Instructor, and the presentation of every idea clear. The teachers should not talk for the sake of talking or of hearing themselves talk, but they should know the subject they wish to present in simplicity and clearness to the students in their class. Without that tact or capability of the teacher to present subjects clearly, he will lose the opportunity of making an impression. Double up your classes if necessary and consider that your words are worth speaking. 11LtMs, Ms 78, 1896, par. 1

Genuinely converted teachers, who can come right down to the method of instructing in simplicity will be impressed by the spirit of the truth. There is no doubt that in every day school and in religious Sabbath schools there is a want of apt teachers who can present the truth in its simplicity, because they themselves are not genuinely converted. There is need of the head and heart and soul and strength of the teacher to be brought to the work. If they are under the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, they will manifest it. Those who have a head theory alone cannot reach the heart. Teachers need to be sized up not by their intellectual greatness but by their sanctified ability to appreciate the minds of the students. Having heard the truth from their teachers and learned it themselves, they have enjoyed its savor of influence and can communicate their experience and understanding with earnest, simple words. 11LtMs, Ms 78, 1896, par. 2

Because you feel the precious value of the truth yourself, and you have been taught of God, you can teach others. The large Sabbath schools with a mixed number of teachers do not advance as fast in the understanding of the Word as a small school, for in the large school many teachers are enlisted who themselves should be placed as learners in a class to be educated and not teachers. Some teachers know so little of practical piety and what it means to be consecrated and taught of God. They cannot teach that which they themselves have never learned. This is the saddest part of the representation. Let all who accept a class to teach know that they themselves have been taught of God. 11LtMs, Ms 78, 1896, par. 3

No one can teach true Bible religion unless they have experienced the same in their own mind, heart, and soul. And let not such unconverted ones be urged to take a class who themselves do not drink of the waters of life. Better to double up your classes and let the communications be made, even to a class of different ages. That which will interest the young will be good for those older in the same class. How can teachers urge the children to come to Christ and deny self for Christ's sake when they themselves have not surrendered their own wills, their own hearts, to Jesus Christ? How can duties be presented before a class where the teacher has not entered into and submitted to the very same experience in order to obtain the truth as it is in Jesus? 11LtMs, Ms 78, 1896, par. 4

How can teachers urge that duties be practiced when they have shunned these duties all their lives? Let not one young person accept a class to teach who will only give their students lip talk. Children can discern the right ring in the voice, and the words and spirit of the teacher. It is the children's due that the teacher have a real, individual, genuine, solid experience so that on Sabbath they can speak in a reverent, sacred, softened tone of the precious Saviour's love and His great interest in all for whom He has given His sacred life. Make your sentences short and forcible for the scholars. Oh, that I could write words that all can feel and experience themselves because they long to understand “What must I do to be saved?” [Acts 16:30.] 11LtMs, Ms 78, 1896, par. 5