Teaching Junior Highs – A Real Challenge

Teaching junior high students in the Sunday school can be a big challenge. Someone has said that the Junior High Department has more scalps of defeated teachers than any other department. While this may or may not be true, teachers who are dedicated to reaching his or her pupils for Christ and willingly works hard at the task will find it extremely rewarding.

Many of the problems that teachers encounter are directly related to their lack of understanding of the characteristics of students in this age group. Here are a few of these characteristics:

Change. Their bodies are changing rapidly (girls are often outgrowing boys in height). Their ideas are changing. Ideas are fleeting. Decisions are temporary. Elaborate plans for the future are becoming more realistic.

Interest in the opposite sex. Boys soon leave the "woman-haters club."

Behavior. They may be silly or flippant, or critical and insensitive.

Independence. Junior highs are beginning to establish their own independence; they want to be grown up.

Activity. They enjoy special activities in school and church. They are inclined to become parts of cliques.

Sunday school behavior. They enjoy variety in presentation of your Sunday school lesson. They may whisper and appear inattentive. They will confide in a teacher they like and who likes them. Approximately 65 percent of the girls and 75 percent of the boys will drop out of Sunday school at this critical age.

(This article appeared in the "Winter, 1995-96" issue of "The Herald.")