Category: Curriculum Challenges

Some curriculum development companies plan for only a small, repetitive cycle of Bible lessons in their curriculum packages–one or two years worth. After completing this cycle, the teacher returns to the beginning of the curriculum cycle and presents his/her new students with the first quarter of material from the original curriculum package.

One curriculum package I used repeated its program every two years. My class of primary-age students included grades 1-3. Unfortunately, a couple of third-grade children recognized the materials we were using from one of their previous years of Sunday School. I had no idea these children had already been through these curriculum materials previously and there was not enough time to order in the new curriculum before the quarter started. I found myself in an extremely awkward situation.

To solve this challenge I used the same Bible story and scripture passages but tried to approach it from new angles and bring in new facts. I also added new songs, new discussion questions, and craft activities to bring some new freshness to the material for the students who had been through it before.

Why do we limit our teaching materials to short cycles when there is an unlimited supply of topics from God’s word that we can present to our classes? What about the classes that have students from several grade levels all in one class? We should encourage our students to learn more from God’s word instead of sticking them in a short, repetitive cycle of lessons and giving them limited coverage.

Games can be wonderful teaching tools if they add something to the lesson being taught. However, sometimes unforeseen circumstances make certain games impossible to use. I encountered a few challenges with games.

One challenge maybe the size of the classroom. Some games require large rooms and plenty of open space so the students can move around freely, play or run. These games may not work for churches with only small rooms and/or no play areas. At times, if the weather permits, a game may be workable outside on a lawn.

Another challenge may appear when there is an unworkable number of students in the class. One example of this appeared when I taught primary-age students. The curriculum included a game that I thought the students would enjoy and it went well with the daily lesson.

This game was played on a small game board which was included with the curriculum. The children moved the game pieces around on the board. The challenge appeared when I tried to gather ten youngsters around a table and placed the board in the middle of it. There was not enough room for the students to gather around and all be able to see the game board. Soon the youngsters started complaining. became restless and lost interest.

In an attempt to find a solution to the challenge, I pinned the game board to a bulletin board at the front of the room. This didn’t work because the markings and writing on the board were too small for the students to see. Consequently, we gave up on that game and did another activity.

On another occasion, with a smaller class, we had a game we couldn’t play because there were not enough students.

Throughout my years of ministry I’ve encountered the following challenges with games that were included with curriculum packages:

1. Companies don’t include enough game pieces or cards to make the game work for the class size.
2. The game board and/or writing on the board was too small to see from a distance or for students to place on a table and gather around so all can see.
3. The game took too much time so we couldn’t play it or finish it and still do the weekly lesson.
4. The game activity moved too slowly and the students became too bored or restless and started misbehaving in class.
5. The game in the daily lesson had absolutely no educational value, nor did it relate to the lesson being taught.
6. The game required a lot of movement and the classroom was too small.
7. The game didn’t offer options so it could be played by students from different grade levels

I know curriculum designers and/or writers can’t possibly foresee every challenge that may appear when teachers use their materials. They can only glean insight by hearing responses from teachers who have actually used their materials. Therefore, I offer up the above tips and tidbits for consideration. By communicating with one another we can all learn and make our teaching and lesson materials better.

Copyright laws can be good because they attempt to protect people from others who may want to steal and sell their creative works. Like most laws, they only work if the tempted person chooses to obey the law rather than disobey it. At times copyright laws or chains can be so strict they can actually hinder or render the work useless. Such copyright chains can bind up the Christian worker’s and keep them from using the creative work. It’s really a let down when a Christian teacher pays money for a lesson or song book and can’t use it in class or copy it for overheads or slides.

As a Christian teacher and writer, I can understand why a Christian curriculum designer or other creative artist would want to protect their creations from others who would desecrate, misuse, or sell them illegally for financial gain. However, if you make the copyright so inflexible that the item can’t be used by a Christian worker without a bunch of extra cost or red tape, why bother to create it at all? It can’t be used for the purpose it was made for.

Personally, I don’t see how any company or individual can have a legitimate copyright on the Bible, the Word of God. God originated it and people from long ago (way over 50 years) hand wrote it on papyrus scrolls. Those scribes are no longer living and that was so long ago that no one should have a valid copyright on it. Scripture tells us, “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by The Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21 NIV)

As a Bible teacher, there’s nothing more frustrating to me than finding a great Bible-teaching resource and not being able to use it because it’s so bound up by copyright chains. By the time you jump through the hoops and cut the red tape needed to use the material, you’ve become so frustrated that you’ve lost interest in it.

It doesn’t make sense to me to design a Bible-teaching material and not allow the teacher to copy off worksheets for visitors or to make a slide for a class presentation, or to copy off to words to a song so your students can have them to look at while you teach them the song. Also, the teacher should be able to copy the craft pages, patterns, and worksheets for students who accidently mess up or lose their papers. Wasn’t the material(s) made to help teach God’s word or spread the Gospel? What good is it if you can’t even use the material for its intended purpose?

Several years ago I paid over $20 for a beautiful songbook full of Christian children’s songs. This book had the music, the words, and even hand motions to go along with each of the songs. I was excited about using the book to teach the children in Children’s church some of the songs and the hand motions to go along with them. When I took the book to church to make a copy of the words on an overhead and a copy of the hand-motions on an overhead, I discovered that I couldn’t even photocopy any pages from the book because of the copyright.

I have to confess that finding out the copyright law prevented me from using this beautiful song book made me angry. By then the last thing I wanted to do was go through a bunch of hoops and red tape to get permission for a few copies for use in my class. Consequently, I put that book on a shelf in my home office as a reminder of how greed can ruin a beautiful teaching tool. To this day, I have never used this book because it’s so bound up by copyright chains. It’s a nearly-worthless Bible- teaching tool.

In my opinion (for what it’s worth) there’s nothing wrong with earning a modest profit for your effort and time put into creating Bible entertainment or teaching materials. It helps offset the cost of producing and selling the products and it helps the designer/writer make a moderate living to provide for their needs. However, we must guard our hearts against the greed that can so easily entangle us. The same goes for companies that help publish, market and sell these products.

God gave each one of us gifts to use for the common good, equipping the saints and sharing His gospel. He wants us to use those gifts for His glory and pleasure. When we succumb to greed and bind up one another with excessive copyright chains, how does that bring glory to God?

One year when I was teaching Sunday school to a class of fourth through sixth grade students, I had the daughter of our younger pastor in my class. She was well-behaved except she kept complaining that Sunday school was “too much like school.” She wanted more fun and games but my class time was short already. I had 45 minutes of class time less the time wasted because of late arrivals and an older student who wanted to continually disrupt the class. I was pushing it to get through the lesson on time.

This young girl attended a local Christian school and she had learned a great deal about the Bible. Her classes at school may have been similar to Sunday school. She became bored, at times, with our class and seemed to desire more activities and/or entertainment.

I listened to her and considered her requests but I could not add more entertainment or games without compromising the basic lesson and the time teaching the other students as well. Yet I did include an activity with each lesson.

I’ve always believed that learning about God and the Bible should be exciting. However, it’s exciting because the Holy Spirit works through the teacher to make it come alive to the spirits of the students. Our flesh alone cannot make the lessons penetrate the hearts of our students.

Learning about God and His word is the main focus of Sunday school and we cannot allow entertainment to take the place of equipping the saints for service. As Sunday school teachers we have a responsibility before God to try our best to teach our students. Our task is not “babysitting detail” or simply entertaining our students while their parents are in church. We need to guard our hearts so we don’t fall into Satan’s trap and get distracted from our job of training the saints.

We, teachers, also need to make sure our time in class is used wisely. We need to teach our students God’s word and how to apply it to their daily lives. Our lesson activities should be structured to attain that goal and towards salvation.

If you have a student who repeatedly complains about Sunday school being “too much like school,” gently and lovingly remind them that Sunday school is school designed to teach them about God and His word, the Holy Bible. If the problem persists and you’ve prayed and done what you can do without compromising the class, you may need to talk with the church leadership and even the students’ parents. But be of good cheer because God has the situation under control. God knows the answer and He will work it out.