Some teachers experience a pleasing sensation in themselves with their monologue; however dialogue alone is more likely to produce the reality required to be a relevant teacher.

It is easy to harangue, to lecture, and to exhort. There is no doubt that classes can be kept together using those techniques. The fact is they are kept together; however, they do not advance the Kingdom.

Think of this example. Think of the farmer uses plough and harrow and hoe; he plants the seed and cultivates the young shoots. The truth is that the greater part of the farm work is done by the growing things themselves. In reality the farmer's work is only to put them where they can grow; to remove the hindrances to their growth, and bring to them the food they need, A farm will do more work in one afternoon than the farmer will accomplish in one year.

The true teacher is like the farmer

Think of his words as the seed. The task he mush accomplish is to get the seed into the minds of the Sunday school students mind. The teacher’s task is to stir up that mind and stimulate it so that it may respond with a harvest, a harvest of salvation the desired result of the teachers use of the student ears is this: They may use their brains and their tongues for the cause of the Kingdom.

Without a doubt, the teacher's most valuable tool is the question; a question is a direct challenge to thought.

A question is a demand for expression of an idea. It is to the mind what the cultivator is to the field. The technical term for this is called interrogation point. The question lets in the air, the sunlight and the rain. The teacher who has become master of the interrogation point is all but master of pedagogic art.

But the interrogation point is not at all easy to master. Some kinds of questions are no better than flat declarative sentences. One of these is the leading question that puts the answer into the pupil s mouth: “Rehoboam was a king of Judab”, wasn’t he Tom? That question makes no demand whatever upon Tom's mind. Never ask a question that can be answered with a “yes” or “no”: Did saloon's Temple face the east, Jennie?'' That students mind is not strained to find the appropriate monosyllable. This is a profitless question. A third variety of profitless question is the one that is fired point blank sky the air, vaguely addressed to no one in particular.

And it gets the answer of equal value as a letter would get if addressed and put in the mail box the same way. Yes, it would get nowhere.

Questions should usually but not always be addressed to individuals. In adult classes it should be understood that no one will be questioned until he has given consent to the process. Permission to ask questions should be made privately and politely. The teacher should seek constantly to include everyone on this list. In younger classes all should be questioned by name. One exception to this rule is this: When it is best to unify interest by presenting a query to the entire class.

Questions should be well thought out. They should be more carefully planned than any other feature of the teacher’s preparation. Skills in questioning the class can be obtained by writing out a set of questions for every Sunday school class. These questions should be varied, pointed, couched in natural terms. For example, consider this: “For what classes of persons does the Fourth Commandment prescribe a Sabbath rest?” This is a poor question. “Who does the Fourth commandment say should rest on Sunday's?” That’s a better question.

“What future event was Christ anticipating when he enjoined his disciples to “watch'?'' This is a horrible question. Let’s improve it. “Christ told his disciples to watch.” “Why?” Now the question is improved.

Another branch of the teacher's art is the clear statement. A confused, unmethodical and awkward presentation of facts and principles is like an impediment in the outlet pipe of a cistern. The impediment makes the cistern have no value, makes it is of no use or of little use. In the same manner, whatever fullness of information aids the of purpose of the class will not be impede by immature teaching. The problem is some of the teachers teaching Sunday school classes are afflicted with improper methods and do not realize it.

The remedy, and the only remedy, is practice. No teacher can be sure of his lesson till he has rehearsed it. He should go over the points he wishes to make till the order of them is fixed in his mind. He should repeat to himself the Leading statements till he is certain that he can express them forcibly and with crystal clearness. It is common for teachers to commit the material to memory, but the better track is to commit the material to the mind.

The test of the material prepared is the question here. No one can be sure that he is completely understood until the feedback from the students conscides with what he has been trying to impress on them .This will indicate their comprehension of the lesson. In this way, the feedback he gets from the students in the form of answers to his questions will be a test of the ability to teach.

Another essential of being a teacher or having skills of a teacher is the Ability to tell a story. When telling a story, illustrate it. Make it real. Relate it to their lives. Do not just narrate a story, live it; present it.

There is a dull way and a bright way of saying anything Teachers that teach must learn to speak brightly.

For instance: A dream came to Pilate's wife as a divine message, telling her that Jesus was an innocent man, and that Pilate ought not to put him to death.

Therefore she sent word to her husband about the dream and urged him to spare Jesse's. That is the dull way. If on the other hand the story is related in this way: Pilate's wife woke up with a start. Her mind was full of a horror; at just she did not know what. She groped around in her mind, and at last, bit by bit, it all came back to her. She had been dreaming of Jesus. She had seen that wonderful face more than once during the past week. She had heard some of the wonderful words that fell from his lips. And in her dream she had seen that face, so loving, so heroic, so godlike, with streams of blood power from to: forehead and down the cheeks. Still trembling from her dream, she called a Jewish attendant ‘Miriam,' she asked, eagerly, what's the latest word about Jesus, that Galilean, you know? From this the story will flow. The basis of picturesque statement is full and accurate knowledge. You must be in at home in the event and with the characters.

YOU must know what clothes that were worn, what sort of houses were entered, what utensils were used. These details must be so familiar as to come readily to mind when wanted. You are to give the impression of a bystander eagerly telling what he has seen with his own eyes and heard with his own ears.

Information is dead without imagination

Put yourself back in Bible times. See what the times it in was like Breath. Learn what happened to the people in the story. Brood over the facts. It is like the practice required for clear statement. Until the story can be told as if it personally happened to you, you need to work on it more. Then you can tell it, and be convincing about it.

Remember that abstract truths, as well as the events of the past, must be clothed in this garb of imagination if they are to be of any interest to children.

Can you see a picture in every cloud? This thing about Abstract truth to remember is it is just as true when concretely presented. Look at the speech of Jesus. Remember when He talked about when a Man asks for your shirt, you are to give him your coat also? This is a way of stating perfect ethics as well as engaging imagery. What impression would have Jesus made if He had said when responding to people's demands, “The dictates of brotherly love require to willing surrender of even more than is demanded”

This is the test of your story telling:
If the children can give you back your picture, then you have made them see it, and not otherwise.

Make application to the student’s life. A lot of teachings steps 2000 years ago, with no application to the student’s personal life. In some classes the parable of the Sower has no more relation to the students own conduct than the fable of Romulus and the wolf. David kills Goliath without leaving them a clue as to why Moses crosses the Red Sea without giving them any help for their daily lives...

It is information, interesting information, but not inspiring

Don’t study the lesson alone. Have your student’s faces in your mind’s eye, looking to make application to them and for them. Hey, this will fit John. He has been having problems with this, yes and Bill, this must have been put in expressly for you.

Use tact when applying the lesson to any one in your classes. Sometimes each pupil may be upon called to pick out from the lesson some thought that closest to his own life, and tell it to the class or write it down and hand it to the teacher. Sometimes the teacher himself may write it down, and give it’s as a personal letter to the student. As the student knowledge and experience widen out, your applications will fall into a readymade track. History, society, business knowledge will all bear fruit. All have the same end, the teaching of a personal commitment in Jesus, and to exhibit the Bible as a living volume, as true to the needs of today as of B. c. 1000, and as vital for America as of Judea. So that, as the Bible is all-embracing in relations Bible teaching is the most comprehensive branch of education.