The most important thing in any teaching program with any group is the evidence that subject matter which has been taught is being applied to practical life. It is not alone the native African, regarding whom Mrs. Ansley has written in this issue, who must have theory correlated with observation and experience in order that knowledge may be applied effectively. One educator has made the statement that only one out of every ten persons makes proper application of knowledge unless the specific use to which it may be put is demonstrated to him when the teaching is given. Over and over again in the counsel from the Spirit of prophecy it is emphasized that thinking and doing must not be separated.
Perhaps the most forcible statement emphasizing this principle is recorded in the book, "Education." "Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator,—individuality, power to think and to do. . . . It is the work of true education to develop this power; to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men's thought." This thinking and doing must be fostered in all teaching, or we shall find it as true of the American student as of the African native that he is able to give only a parrotlike recital of theoretical subject matter, which he does not really understand and which he cannot apply. The more closely the activity is correlated with basic principles, the easier it is to understand the relationship between them.
Let us apply this fundamental principle to the teaching of lay groups, in health preservation and home nursing classes. As a rule, the lay student in these classes is introduced to an entirely new field of thought, or at best to the application of health principles of which he has only a more or less random knowledge. Consequently, it is imperative that the teacher of the laity in our churches, use the methods which have been emphasized by Mrs. Ansley in the imparting of every phase of instruction. For example, it may seem that it is sufficient merely to demonstrate the proper way to lift a helpless invalid in bed, but this very practical activity has not been actually learned until all the members of the class have had opportunity under supervision to practice it themselves. This is true of the many other procedures which are taught in connection with this practical instruction to more than 1,50o of our lay people each year.
The demands of such teaching require a broad preparation on the part of the instructor. First of all, she must be able to understand the members of the particular group which she is expected to teach. She would not plan the same methods and technique of teaching for a church group among natives in our mission fields that she would plan for a well-informed church group in one of our largest cities. Furthermore, she would use entirely different technique and subject matter in teaching a group of believers in one of our rural communities.
It is also important that the teacher of health and home nursing ascertain the background of interests and reading of the members of her group. She must also know something of the available resources in the community in which her class lives. A good illustration of adaptation of subject matter to meet the practical need of a group in a given area was presented by a Pennsylvania nurse in the September issue of the American Journal of Nursing. Speaking of the needs of rural people, she says:
"These people were not interested in being told about vitamins that they could not afford to buy. They resented being told that they should buy oranges for sick folk when they frequently cannot afford potatoes. They lived where apples, peaches, grapes, and wild berries could be had for the picking. Practical help in canning and drying these foods would have been a real help. Instead of telling them their diet was lacking in greens, why not introduce them to the water cress, dandelion, milkweed, and pokeweed going to waste all around them ?"
The racial customs and habits of a people must be considered in teaching them health principles. In the lessons on diet, the virtues of acceptable local products and the preferences of the races are to be emphasized, along with the reasons why certain objectionable products are to be discarded. Let us capitalize, in our teaching, the value of sour milk, so universally used by the Scandinavian, of spaghetti, used by the Italian, and of bean sprouts, used by the Chinese, analyzing the food value, and rounding out for each group an adequate dietary program.
The Medical Department has prepared a textbook for use in church and community groups, entitled, "Health Preservation and Home Nursing." It is not intended that the teacher be a slave to this text, but rather that this textbook, in the hands of the intelligent teacher, serve as a guide, and aid in helping her to determine the trend of subject matter which should be given to any group. The method of presentation, the technique of teaching, the depth to which the instructor should expect the student to go in any subject will be largely determined by her survey and evaluation of the group she is teaching.
We are sometimes asked why people with less preparation than a nurse has could not teach these lay groups home nursing. It can readily be seen how important it is that the instructor herself have an extensive knowledge of her field, and .an appreciation of the practical needs of each member of her class. Efficient teaching requires a fund of general knowledge in order that applications may be made intelligently to various situations. Then, too, in every group are those who have a practical knowledge of home hygiene and practical health and nursing measures, but who consider menial work uninteresting and unimportant. The informed instructor will always supply the elementary scientific principles to enlarge the vision of those who may regard any manual effort as drudgery. "Those who recognize science in the humblest work will see in it nobility and beauty, and will take pleasure in performing it with faithfulness and efficiency."—"Education," p. 222.
The nurse instructor of our lay groups will succeed in her endeavor in proportion to the use made of these simple teaching principles. With God's blessing, such instruction to the rank and file of the members of Seventh-day Adventist churches will prove of inestimable blessing to them, their families, and the communities which will benefit from their neighborly helpfulness. Every member of the Medical Missionary Association should become an active member, promoting organized health-education classes in the church and community in which he or she resides.
K. L. J.
