Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/51

Rh bring the children to feel the moral and spiritual truths which the lessons convey, and to apply these teachings to their actual lives and daily conduct. The instruction should be as concrete as possible. In addition to the stories and verses from Bible and Midrash, the teacher should illustrate the lessons to a reasonable extent with incidents, stories and anecdotes take from present-day life, particularly from the lives of the children. There are plenty of useful collections of stories readily accessible. In using these stories, however, the teacher must at all times guard against the danger of letting them see to outweigh in importance or impression upon the child those positively Jewish stories taken from the Bible or the Midrash. This would naturally tend to minimize the essential Jewishness of the lesson.

When doubts or difficulties arise, or when the children ask troublesome questions, the teacher should always answer with perfect frankness and honesty. There are many Biblical problems still unsolved, and there is much about the Bible which even the greatest scholars do not yet know. The honest teacher should never fear to say, "I do not know." At the same time a conscientious effort should be made to know as much as possible, and to forestall the difficult and delicate questions which the children may ask. Above all no attempt should be made to harmonize or rationalize contradictions or discrepancies in the Biblical narratives. This merely evades or beclouds the issue, and ultimately leads to confusion and disbelief. It often suffices, particularly in the case of miracles, to say, what is after all the full truth, "This is the way in which our fathers, at an early period of their history, believed things to have happened". In this way the question constantly asked by children, "Is it true?", will receive the only honest and satisfying answer.

The teacher should at all times bear in mind the central aim of her work. Each lesson should deal with one distinctive spiritual and moral truth and principle. This the teacher must bring home as forcibly as possible. Every word of instruction must subserve the general purpose of the lesson. Not only that, but the different lessons should not stand alone; all should bear close and definite relation to each other, so that, when the year's work is finished, some postive, concrete, and worthy end will have been attained. Similarly and on a large scale there should be perfect coordination in the work of the successive classes. Each year and each class is merely a part of the whole school organization, and the work of each class should be so planned, and the work of all classes so coordinated, that when the school period is completed, the ultimate goal will have been at-