New Year is when we think about new starts and spring-cleaning. 'Out with the old and in with the new' is the battle cry. Since it is time to think about the year ahead it seems reasonable to ask what we will be teaching our young people.
Before we think about the content of a 'syllabus' we could ask why we actually need one? Doesn't a syllabus give too big a hint of school? Why not just use the material available? The danger with this approach is that we might just drift. Planning begins to become something done on a weekly basis, without considering the wider picture. There is the danger that important points of Bible knowledge get missed out. There is the equal danger that the same stories get taught repeatedly.
One answer is to use material that plans a syllabus for you. This is good, but we still need to check that it is balanced and compatible with what other groups within the church are doing. Sometimes the danger of a pre-prepared syllabus is that it jumps around in the Bible, leaving the young people or children with no sense of time or of the flow of Bible history. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because you are presented with a two or five year plan that the actual Bible teaching is going to be good. Remember writing endless revision timetables, but never getting around to doing any?
