All the teaching orders in the Roman Catholic Church, in all countries, give religious instruction in the regular schools, and, when necessary, classes are organized and held on Sundays. The Sunday classes are graded as are the regular school classes. The founder of the first normal school for the training of teachers, Saint John Baptist de La Salle was most earnest in having his teachers pre pare themselves well for the work of teaching Christian doctrine. The members of his order (popular name, Christian Brothers) have charge of many Sunday schools. Both Protestants and Roman Catholics have estab lished training classes and normal schools for Sunday school teachers. In New York, in 1901, under the auspices of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, a training school for teach ers in the Roman Catholic Sunday school was established, and affiliated with it are local training classes.
Conventions and Conferences.— The Prot estant Sunday School conventions, international, national, State and county, are most inspiring and educational. The question brought home to the members, most forcibly, and at all the con ventions, is that the Sunday school is a neces sary feeder of the Church, that to have the adult a communicant, the child must be in structed. As a direct result of the great con ventions there has grown up a vast Sunday school literature, the churches have been ar ranged so as to provide suitable meeting places for the Sunday schools. The Sunday school hymns are also an important outgrowth of the conventions and conferences. In the Roman Catholic Church every educational convention, congress, or conference, has for its beginning and end, the subject of Christian doctrine. Sunday school conferences have been held at the Eastern and Western Roman Catholic Sum mer schools, and Boston and other cities have had, for some years, regular annual Sunday school conventions.
International Lessons.— In 1872 at the national Sunday school convention of the Protestant Sunday school workers, held in Indianapolis, the plan of having a series of uniform Bible lessons was proposed and met with favor. The lessons were adopted by the Sunday schools of Canada and England, and came into use in many of the Protestant Eng lish-speaking Sunday schools of the world. Several periodicals and a large number of books are published as aids for the International Sun day school lessons. Another plan of Bible lessons in use in many parts of the United States is the Blakeslee or inductive system. In the Roman Catholic churches the system in general use is based upon preparation for the sacraments (q.v.). Bible study is correlated with the catechism lessons. In addition to the general system, in many dioceses there is a prescribed course of study for the Christian doctrine work (New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, etc.). The Jews have regular
courses of study for their Sunday schools, which in the United States are quite numerous.
Bibliography.— Axtell, J. W., 'The Or ganized Sunday School' (Nashville, Tenn., 1907) ; Brown, M. C., 'Sunday School Move ments in (3d ed., New York 1901) ; Brown, F. L., 'Sunday School Officers Manual: The Training of Officers and Committees) (ib. 1916) ; Cope, H. F., 'Evolution of the Sun day School' (Boston 1911) ; id., Efficiency in the Sunday School' (New York 1912) ; The Boston Catholic Sunday School Daniel, 'Lessons on Dupanloup, Mgr. 'The Catechist) ; Foster, A. P., 'Manual of Sunday School Methods' (Philadelphia 1899) ; Gregory, 'Robert Raikes, Journalist and Philanthropist' ; Harris, J. H., Raikes: The Man and his Work' (New York 1899) ; Hamill, H. M., 'Brief History of the Inter national (Chicago 1901) ; id., 'The Sunday School Teacher) (Nashville, Tenn., 1901) ; Hutchins, W. N., 'Graded Social Serv ice for the Sunday School) (Chicago 1914) ; Howe, 'The Catechist' ; Johnson, F. W., 'Prob lems of (Chicago 1914) ; Kinkead, 'Explanation of Catechism' ; Lawrence, Marion, 'The Sunday School Organized' (Boston 1914); id., 'How to Conduct a Sunday School' (New York 1915); Lester and Stevenson, 'Sunday Schools and Religious Education' (ib. 1915); Littlefield, M. S., 'Hand-Work in the Sunday School' (Philadelphia 1908); Mead, G. W., 'Modern Methods' (New York 1912); Meyer, H. H., 'The Graded Sunday School in Principle and Practice' (ib. 1910) ; Messner, 'Spirago's Method of Christian O'Brien, 'Advanced Pattee, F. L., 'Elements of Religious Pedagogy' (Milwaukee 1914) ; Pattison, T. H., 'Ministry of the Sun day School' (Philadelphia 1998); Peloubet, F. N., 'Front Line of the Sunday School Move ment' (Boston 1904) ; Peters, L. E., 'Practical Handbook on Sunday School Work' (Phila delphia 1900); Pray, L. G. 'History of Sun day Schools . . . frpm the Earliest Times' (Boston 1847) ,• Slattery, Margaret, 'Guide for Teachers of Training Classes' (ib. 1912); Schauffler, S. F., 'Ways of Working' (New York 1895); id., 'Pastoral Leadership' (Nash ville, Tenn., 1903); Shepherd, R. P., 'Religious Pedagogy in the Modern Sunday School' (Saint Louis 1911) ; Trumbull, H. C., 'Yale Lectures on the Sunday Schools' (Philadelphia 1888); id., 'Teaching and Teachers' (ib. 1884); Trull, G. H., 'Manual of Missionary Methods for Sunday School (ib. 1908) ; Vincent, J. H., 'Church, School and Normal Guide' (New York 1889); id., 'The Modern School' (ib. 1900); Watson, W. H., 'First Fifty Years of the Sunday School' (London 1873) ; Watson, 'History of the Sun day School Union.' Consult also 'Report of the American Sunday School Union' and 'The Encyclopedia of Sunday Schools' (1914).