It is common knowledge in educational and psychological fields that the formative years, the most impressionable years of one’s life, are preschool years when the child’s basic life pattern is formed and attitudes are shaped that affect the rest of his life.
DETERMINING YEARS
Testimonies are easily gathered from sources concerned with mental health, juvenile delinquency, and divorce—the social problems of our day—as to the root importance of the first years of life in such areas. For example, according to Parents’ Magazine (Aug., 1952), “Modern psychologists and psychiatrists are convinced that the chances for healthy mental development are largely determined during the first six years of a child’s life.” In the magazine Say, put out by Roosevelt College (Spring, 1955), “It is a well-established fact that the seeds of insanity are sown from the ages of one to six.” International Journal of Religious Education (Oct., 1951) asserts: “By the time a child is five or six, his emotional pattern and his habit structure are fixed. Of course, variations in development can be expected in one direction or the other, but in general the pattern has become permanently set.… It is surprising that the Protestant Church has not kept pace with what we know to be true about the sensitivity and receptivity of these younger children. Preventative treatment is better than remedial medicine.”
Says Parents Magazine, “Still another recurring stereotype … is that juvenile delinquency mysteriously blossoms out among teen-agers. The truth is: It begins very early! Citing the famed Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck study of 500 delinquents, nearly half were noticeably delinquent before they were eight years old. Judge Joe Glasser in Link (Feb., 1957) makes this observation: “It is important for parents to concentrate upon the family environment. This is especially true during the first six years while basic behavior patterns are being established.… I am firmly convinced that almost 95 per cent of the juvenile delinquents are such because of environmental factors and improper parental guidance during the critical age above set forth.” Dr. C. W. Hall, Director and Professor of Bible and Religious Education, University of Texas, in his dissertation at Yale said: “A study of the home backgrounds of 300 happily married individuals and of 300 divorced individuals reveals the fact that the atmosphere of the home during the early impressionable years of a child’s life determines his later success or failure in marriage. In other words, a successful or unsuccessful marriage is usually made in childhood.” And Time Magazine (Feb. 13, 1956), reporting a gathering of leaders from industry at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, said that some of the businessmen “boggled over the immense importance attached by the experts to the preschool years in character formation.” Dr. Roy Burkhart of Columbus, Ohio, declared he was more concerned with what went on in the nursery of his church than what went on in the pulpit. One director of education in a large wealthy church explained to a visitor that all teaching in the Sunday School was done by volunteers from the church membership with the exception of the nursery department. “This age needs such specialized training and is so important that we hire a professional.”
How much weight does the average church attach to such knowledge? If most church members come through the Sunday School, as is widely stated, church leadership ought to be concerned with the basic training that future church members are receiving. Can we say that the best teachers are being chosen to teach the two through five year olds? Is there insistence that teachers be trained for such specialized work? Or is any willing individual being urged to perform a babysitting service? Perhaps some zealous soul is seating little children in rows and preaching at them diligently each week to “give their hearts to the Lord.”
MISLED CHILDREN
Look briefly at the kind of training that goes on in the average church. Take the matter of prayer, for instance. Here is a concrete situation: Mrs. S. tells her group of two and three year olds, “Now we’re going to pray. Close your eyes. Bow your heads.” She stands before them, closes her eyes, and proceeds to pray. She prays for the pastor and the missionaries, the young men in service, the events of the coming week, and for the whole Sunday School. This is a good prayer to utter when she is home alone, but with two and three year olds, it is not, for none of them are praying. As the teacher continues, they open their eyes and begin enjoying their moments of “freedom.” Some even get up and walk around till an assistant corrals them, while others play with any object at hand or with each other.
Unfortunately the situation is not one of “no learning.” Children are constantly learning. They are learning that prayer is meaningless, long, tiresome—something to avoid when possible. They are forming attitudes that will militate against their being in prayer meeting when they grow up. Perhaps the point sounds stretched, but those who waive aside adult rationalizations for motives will find that early attitudes are most determinative. Such attitudes may be changed, of course, but they are always harder to break once they are established, and many never are changed.
As to sermons and the reading of God’s Word, we may ask what attitudes are engendered in young children toward learning Bible verses and having the Bible taught to them? Do teachers “assign” verses for parents to teach at home? And how do parents “teach” verses? Are children understanding what each verse means, or are they being told to repeat words, the truth of which they will need years later? We would hardly teach algebra to first graders on the grounds that it will be so useful when they get to high school! God’s own laws of learning and remembering are against the system so widely used in churches to justify some of the material given to small children.
Nonetheless, the child still learns something about Scripture. It is meaningless, it is a chore, verses are something to be said for adult approval, a star, or a prize. The Bible has no relevance to life, and so he forms a habit of sitting and outwardly “listening” to get adult approval with his mind turned off. He repeats glibly, “Let us love one another,” and forthwith proceeds to hit the child next to him. The teacher scolds him but makes no connection between the Bible verse and the deed; neither, of course, does the child. Pastors grieve over the unchanged lives of adults who sit Sunday after Sunday through biblical sermons. But early in life the people learned to let pious truth and daily living run in parallel courses.
RIGHT GUIDANCE
Children are so pliable, easily led, open to suggestion, and ready to love what we made lovable to them. Good training is available, not only in secular schools and Bible schools which give educational insights even by correspondence, but in easily available books. Curricula for nursery and beginner departments have methodology and helps for the untrained teacher in recognition of the usual local church situation. Bible materials suitable for the young child and ways of teaching to make truth vital and relevant to his life may be obtained from evangelical publishers. Would that churches insisted that teachers follow such material. Within the lessons, verses and Bible stories are carefully selected, carefully used, and repeated to make them a part of the child’s thinking and living. Short verses are repeatedly used in conversation, rather than formally taught in parrot-like repetition. Activities are so geared into Bible teaching that the child, from his first years in the nursery department, learns he is responsible to live what he knows. Real teaching involves helping the child to understand the truth and to put it into action.
In regard to giving, it is certain that good habits of bringing money to church will begin long before the child has much appreciation for the value of money. The time when he does come into such appreciation varies from child to child, depending upon his experiences. His offering should be called “money,” not “pennies,” and should be brought for the valid motive of love for the Lord. It is not “to give to Jesus,” but “to help in Jesus’ work.” “Giving to Jesus” is taken too literally by the nursery child to render it a clear expression for him. That is, he is likely to identify the Sunday School secretary who collects offering envelopes as “Jesus,” as some little children have done. The generalization, “Jesus’ work,” may be defined, even in the nursery, as buying pictures and chairs, or paying for the lights and the heat.
Prayer also may be real and a delight for children two and three years old. One idea is enough for one prayer, which must be offered when the child is prepared and feels thankful or ready to confide in the Lord something of interest to him. Expression must be short and pointed. Posture is perhaps the least important thing, although even a small child can feel the helpfulness of closing his eyes so he does not see other children while he talks to God.
TRAINING FOR TOMORROW
Were pastors and church leaders to look into the preschool departments of their own churches and see how few of them operate with understanding and skill, they would begin to show concern for the foundational training that is being given. Children will continue to grow up with habits that defeat what the pastor is trying to accomplish. And pastors will continue to grieve over the hardness of the human heart. Adults will act as they have been trained to act, for the laws of human development are God’s laws.
Jacob J. Vellenga served on the National Board of Administration of the United Presbyterian Church from 1948–54. Since 1958 he has served the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. as Associate Executive. He holds the A.B. degree from Monmouth College, the B.D. from Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary, Th.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and D.D. from Monmouth College, Illinois.
