Christian Education in the Seventies

Post 1 in the series found here.

Before we dive into the 1970s, I have a question for you. If you read about the origins of Sunday school, and how it all changed when public education became more commonplace....then there is something else you must consider. Who taught children to read, write and do arithmetic before? Who taught them morals before? Who taught them religious theology before? Who was responsible for teaching children all this stuff before Sunday schools and public schools came into the picture?

Any guesses?

Now....let's move on and come back to that later. Just wanted you to think about that.

The reason I'm jumping all the way to the 70s is because that's what I know. I was raised in the 70s (and 80s) and my experience in Sunday school is what I can talk about. I grew up in church. Went every Sunday morning, every Sunday evening, and every Wednesday night. If the doors were open, there we were--and 20 minutes early to boot. I know your experience will be different if you grew up in a different type of church than I did, but here is how it went for me.

You started out in the Cradle Roll department. I have no idea why they called it that. They did not roll us around in cradles as far as I know. Promptly at 9:00 on Sunday mornings and 7:00 on Wednesday evenings, I was dropped off in the nursery and cared for by a lady named Mimi. Mimi kept babies at our church from the time Moses was a child until Paul the apostle was an adult. Or so it seemed. When you were old enough to sit up at the table, or in little jumpy chairs, you learned lessons from Winky Bear. I loved Winky Bear.

(That's baby S being patted on by Mimi in the cradle roll department, circa 1970.)

After that, you moved to the Preschool Department, then the Primary Department, then the Junior Department, etc. There were always teachers, songs, Bibles, a Bible lesson, prayers, memorization, stickers on a chart for remembering to bring things and do things, and even open house. I well remember putting on a skit of Elijah and the prophets of Baal for our parents on open house Sunday (they let the adult classes out early that day). I remember it well because we were in the 5th and 6th grade class and I got to be Elijah and S has to be one of the prophets of Baal and dance around pretending to cut himself. He thought I got the better part.

I should tell you this. Before I was born, or when I was an infant, our Sunday school changed DRAMATICALLY. My mom was one of the teachers or department heads on the Sunday they made the big change and she remembers waking up with a headache that morning because she was so nervous. Here's the deal: they changed from children sitting in rows of desks (yes, at Sunday school) and the teacher writing on the board in front of them, to "open concept" and "learning centers." They were way ahead of their time. Our church's education minister used all the current educational philosophy and transformed our Bible class time.

When I was in the preschool department, we moved from room to room (there were movable walls within the larger room to partition off separate rooms) and did different activities. I remember my mom led singing time in one room. Mr. John and Mrs. Mary Ann told the Bible story in the next room with a puppet that was a worm inside of a nest. If we were too noisy he got scared and wouldn't come out. They also used flannel boards. Then we went to the art center and cut out pictures from magazines and glued them on paper or something like that. Then we went to the play center and helped Mr. Norman take care of baby dolls while he talked with us about how God cares for us. The activities within each center varied. There were also puppets called Pibb and Charley and one of them got torn and Mom brought it home to sew it up and I thought we were clearly the luckiest family alive because Pibb and Charley were at our house!

Still, even with our radical new Sunday school format, many things remained from the old days. Like I mentioned: charts with stickers for attendance, Bible verse memorization, remembering your Bible, etc. We got prizes for memorizing the books of the Bible (Old and New). We had teachers, circle time, music time, a lesson, were divided by grade level, and took a paper home each time. It was a lot like school, only without a report card. Oh, and if you got in trouble, you got taken to your parents' class instead of the office.

Now, how much of this was a hold over from the original Sunday schools I do not know. It interests me to find out what happened in the 70+ years between yesterday's post and my experience in the 70s. Tomorrow I will share with you what I find out.

Next post in series here.