“BOY-FRIENDLY”
RE
IS
NOTHING NEW!
by
Frank E. Robertson
(Retired
Minister of Religious Education and
Steering Council member, UU Men's Network)
The picture on the left is taken from the front page of the December 24, 1858
issue of “The Sunday School Gazette,” the children’s bimonthly magazine of
the Unitarian Sunday School Society. The first few sentences read:
“No
reader of the Gazette, old or young, need be informed that this picture
represents a Sabbath-School Class of boys listening to their teacher’s earnest
words. The influence of one devoted teacher is immeasurable. It goes on
increasing, widening, extending in this life and forever.”
The magazine was very popular and was distributed to most Unitarian homes
from 1849 to 1935. The name was changed to “Dayspring” in 1872, to “Every
Other Sunday” in 1885, and to “The Beacon” in 1912.
From time to time, the records of the Unitarian Sunday School Society
mention the challenge of teaching religious education to boys. For example, the
Minutes of the Annual Meeting of 1871 include a series of questions taken
from the Question Box, the first two of which read as follows:
“How
are the big boys to be kept in the Sunday School?” and
“How
can a class of little active, kinky, five- and six-year-old
boys
be interested in Sunday School?”
The details of the discussion are not recorded but the questions could
very well be raised at a teacher-training conference today.
Perhaps helpful answers to those questions would have been given by the
Rev. Charles Francis Barnard (Unitarian) who founded the Warren Street Chapel of
Boston as an outreach to poor children in 1835. He advised teachers to teach
while holding an object in their hands illustrating their lesson. He also
organized field trips, invited leaders of various trades to speak before the
children, involved the children in gardening, and instituted a woodworking shop
and sewing classes at the Chapel. The minutes of the Unitarian Sunday School
Society indicate that he spoke before various conferences during the 1840–1870
period. Copies of the minutes and the magazine can be viewed at the
Andover-Harvard Library of Harvard Divinity School where the archives of the UUA
are kept. Also, a story about the Warren Street Chapel can be read at the
UUA’s web site (www.uua.org) under REACH and UU Faith Works.
For further information about the history of Unitarian and Universalist religious education,please contact the UU RE History Group, tel. 508-224-5282 or robertsonfe@aol.com