Is This Material Age Appropriate?

That's an important question, both for the curriculum writer/publisher and for those who teach the material.

Several things deserve to be considered.

• Age-appropriateness is a sliding scale; material that is too simple for some kids among its target group may be too advanced for others.
• This scale will slide even within a class of 4 students.
• Age-appropriateness can be physical (reading level, eye-hand coordination), social, or even cultural. (At what age, for example might a teacher feel comfortable teaching students about David's sin with Bathsheba? For some teachers and classes, the answer might be "never.")
• It can create as many problems for the teacher for material to be to simple as may arise when material is too difficult for the students. Discipline problems increase when students are bored rather than challenged.
• The publisher, by necessity, is shooting for a hypothetical average class; that class quite simply does not exist. Each teacher has a very specific set of students (as well as a specific room, and access to other specific resources) about the publisher has no knowledge.

What does this mean?
The teacher is in the driver's seat. He or she is going to be the final editor of the lesson. That will mean decisions about necessary adaptation of every aspect of the lesson.

Sure, you can shop around for a curriculum in which the theology is exactly what your denomination teaches, the material always bright and cheery (or thoughtfully somber) as you desire, the activities always doable in your classroom and building, the supplies required always just what you have on hand, and the level of difficulty always spot on for all of your students. And, you should know, that we editors here at Concordia Publishing House do our best to make this happen for you each week; we really do! But, in my heart, I know that you will have to make some choices and revisions.

So what can you do?

• Be thoughtful in your lesson planning. Note the alternatives offered by the publisher. Think back to what has worked for your students in the past. Be alert for the ways you can revise your lesson.
• If your class is consistently frustrated by "too hard" or bored with "too simple," consider moving down or up a level in the curriculum.
• Don't sacrifice theology, the very reason you are teaching Sunday School classes in the first place, in a chase for the "perfect lesson."

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!