Sunday school, also known as church school or Christian education, is a religious education school that is generally for children and young people and is usually part of a church or parish. The movement has been important mainly in Protestantism. At its core, Sunday school is the teaching branch of the church. This is expressed in the Deuteronomy verse with the words “so that they may hear”.
The ultimate goal of teaching is “that they can learn”. The main intention of this Sunday school system was the teaching of the Catholic faith; the teaching of reading and writing became necessary for this. In 1833, to unify and advance the work of religious education among young people, the Unitarians founded their Sunday School Association, as a junior member of the British and Foreign Unitary Association, with which they finally established offices in Essex Hall, in central London. These Sunday School lessons are full of practical help for children to learn to follow Jesus and experience his power in daily life.
While many Sunday schools focus on providing instruction to children (especially sessions held during service hours), Sunday school classes for adults are also popular and widespread (see the RCIA). Other religions, such as Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, have also organized Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. The first organized and documented Sunday school in the United States was not founded in New England, but in Ephrata, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, by an immigrant from Germany, Ludwig Höcker, son of a respected and influential pastor and teacher of the Reformed Church in Westerwald. Sunday school often takes the form of a one-hour or more Bible study that can take place before, during, or after a church service.
In England, they studied Sunday schools and the teaching methods of the Methodists, impressed by the number of students and teachers. Jacobs devised a system to encourage Sunday school work, and a committee was established to provide an international uniform curriculum, also known as the uniform lesson plan. Always dedicated to charitable work, she began Sunday school soon after her spiritual awakening. The role of Sunday schools changed with the Education Act of 1870, which established universal primary education.
However, some Sunday school teachers have experience in education as a result of their occupations. Sunday schools were first created in the 18th century in England to provide education for working children. With the arrival of Catholic emancipation in Ireland (182) and the establishment of the national school system (183), which meant that the Catholic faith could be taught in school, the Catholic Sunday school system became unnecessary.
