enough classrooms are
provided for the children, and it is a common thing to find half a dozen
classes grouped in the one room, each constantly distracted by the
sights and sounds that so insistently appeal to the senses. It is wholly
impossible to do really good teaching under such conditions.

Every church building should provide classrooms for teaching its
children. If these cannot be had in the original edifice, an addition
should be made of a special school building. As a last resort, a system
of curtains or movable partitions should be provided which will isolate
each class from every other class, and thereby save at least the visual
distractions and perhaps a part of the auditory distractions. To fail to
do this is to cultivate in the child a habit of inattention to the
lesson, and to kill his interest in the church school and its work
because of its failure to impress him or attract his loyalty.

Planning routine to prevent distractions.--Not infrequently a wholly
unnecessary distraction is caused by a poorly planned method of handling
certain routine matters. The writer recently observed a junior class get
under way in what promised to be a very interesting and profitable
lesson. They had an attractive lesson theme, a good teacher, a separate
classroom, and seemed to be mentally alert. Soon after the lesson had
got well started an officer appeared at the door with an envelope for
the collection, and the story was stopped to pass the envelope around
the class. It was not possible after this interruption to pick up the
thread of the lesson without some loss of interest, but the teacher was
skillful and did her best. She soon had the attention of the class again
and the lesson was moving along toward its most interesting part and the
practical application. But just at the most critical moment another
interruption occurred; the secretary came in with the papers for the
class and counted out the necessary supply while the class looked on. It
was impossible now to catch up the current of interest again, but the
teacher tried. Once more she was interrupted, however, this time by a
note containing some announcement that had been overlooked in the
opening exercises!

All such interruptions as these indicate mismanagement and a serious
lack of foresight. The fault is not wholly with the teacher, but also
with the policy and organization of the school as a whole. The remedy
is for both officers and teachers to use the