Article January 15, 1949 Issue

Workshop Meetings of Teachers and Officers

A good teacher is a good learner. It is obvious that one can help others to learn in the proportion that he himself is teachable. A workshop meeting of Sunday School teachers and officers affords an opportunity for workers to learn from each other's experiences that they may enrich their own. Also a workshop meeting affords an opportunity for the superintendent to become better acquainted with the work of the teachers and officers and so to be better able to co-operate with them.

Many churches are now holding workshop meetings of the Sunday School, and these have contributed greatly to the improvement of the teaching and of the work in general. The meetings differ somewhat from regular meetings of teachers and officers. Regular meetings as a rule are held at stated intervals and include all the officers and teachers, who together consider the welfare of the Sunday School as a whole. Workshop meetings usually are called at the discretion of the superintendent. Where the Sunday School staff is large enough to do so, teachers' workshop meetings are held in groups according to the age of the pupils. For instance, the superintendent meets on one date with the teachers of the primary classes, on another date with the teachers of the intermediate classes, and on a third date with the teachers of the older groups. And usually a fourth meeting is held with the officers of the Sunday School. Besides the superintendent, the officers' meeting includes the assistant superintendents, secretaries, librarians, organists, pianists, precentors, and any other workers who take part in the conduct of the Sunday School, together with their assistants and substitutes.

A workshop meeting is informal. Usually there are no prepared papers, but the superintendent may have at hand a few notes on subjects that he expects to bring before the meeting. When the teachers' meetings are held in groups, all the discussions of one meeting pertain to pupils of about the same age, and there is a mutual interchange of helpfulness. Teachers ask questions and speak freely and spontaneously of their experiences.

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