A year's work in Divinity in the newlyformed “Fourth Year” of a secondary (modern) school

Abstract

T H R E E things were uppermost in my mind when planning the Divinity teaching for the new Fourth Year group (I4-I 5 years). I realised that I must seek, more urgently than ever, to increase and deepen their religious experience. Secondly, I must arm them with the necessary knowledge and, if possible, with the courageous ability to stand against the speciously ignorant attacks upon religion and to meet the gibes directed at the doing of that which is right in the sight of God, which they were certain to experience on their fuller entry into a near-pagan world. Thirdly, that our study of Christianity must show its practical bearing on all our actions and deliberations, for which we are personally responsible to God. In other words, that our Christian beliefs are not merely a matter for study in Divinity lessons, but that they must become the yardstick by which our actions inside school and out are to be measured. I felt that these considerations could best be met by assignments of work, group discussions and search work. I have deliberately not used the word research, because the majority of these children are so ill equipped mentally that the word research would be pretentious and misleading. In the assignment work I decided upon a close study of the parables, for the obvious reason that here is the core of Christ's teaching. I can only give brief examples of the work, but here is a typical assignment: