“There are those who … argue that in order for there to be any teaching of substance separate age groups are a necessity. Usually the assumption behind this attitude is that ‘proper’ teaching takes the format of a traditional sermon and that this is the most effective way for adults to engage with Scripture. Those unable to sit still for the duration of a twenty-five minute exposition are removed to activities that are supposedly more appropriate for their age.”
- Mountstephen & Martin, The Body Beautiful (2004, Grove Books Ltd.), p.23-24
More often than not, on a Sunday morning, “the children are in a classroom, not a sacred space – a classroom, moreover, that is likely to be small, unattractive, and untidy … Even the most basic act of worship, participation in the eucharist, is usually closed to children … [We] operate on the unspoken assumption that children must learn how to be Christians, in an academic setting, before they can actually begin to do any of the things that Christians normally do together in the community of faith: pray together, celebrate the sacraments, share their faith and their lives, cherish the hope of things unseen, and bear witness in love and service in the world. … the usual time for Sunday School is during the time of the main worship service. Adults come to church on Sunday in order to worship; children come to Sunday School to acquire information.”
- Wolff Pritchard, Offering the Gospel to Children (1992, Cowley Publications), p.140-141
“A procedure for Christian education which consists only or mainly of formal instruction by way of an address from the front, the audience remaining at best receptive, at worst passive, heavily stresses the transfer of information at the cost of a failure to develop aesthetic or any other feelings or value commitments. It …fails to feed the emotional or other dimensions of personality, or to represent a biblical and Christian understanding of human nature. Such a method is therefore at fault on theological and social as well as on educational grounds.”
- Being God’s people (1987, Methodist Division of Education and Youth and the National Christian Education Council), quoted by Sutcliffe (ed.), Tuesday’s Child (2001, Christian Education Publications), p.168
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