INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL
By Wade Crawford Barclay,
Educational Director of the Board of Sunday Schools.
I. Standard of Organization
Conditions Determine Details of Organisation1. The purpose of organization. Organization is simply a means to an end. Given a certain situation, the Sunday-school should adopt such form of organization as will best enable it to adapt itself to that situation, and to accomplish the ends for which it exists. If the school meets in a little country schoolhouse, has one teacher, one class, and an enrollment of fifteen persons, it will not be aided in doing its work by adopting the complicated organization demanded by the city school of a thousand members. But even the smallest and weakest frontier school may, in a simple organization suited to its situation and its needs, recognize the fundamental principles which make its big brother of the highest educational and religious efficiency. Conditions vary so widely in different schools that it is impossible to suggest a form of organization suited to all Each school will do best by acquainting itself thoroughly with the highest ideals in Sunday-school work; then, having adopted a working plan suited to its situation, it may gradually advance toward the ideal.
2. The ideal standard. So far as possible, every Sunday-school should attain to the following ideal of organization:
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