Standardization of practices and curricula - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

MikeWaters · 05-23-2009, 02:14 PM

Harold B. Lee was instrumental in the unification and standardization of curricula in the church. Probably his most lasting and important achievement.

Today, any Mormon can attend virtually any ward in the United States, and not feel that it is very much different than any other ward they have attended.

Obviously, this has many benefits.

Is there a downside? Perhaps. Local experimentation and innovation, which is noted and then promoted, can help an organization improve itself. I.e. "the branch office of Dunder-Mifflin Paper in Scranton is doing XYZ, let's replicate that in Nashua."

Are we in a period great harmony and unity? Or are we in a period of great stagnation?

To some degree, this local experimentation does occur. For example, there are three wards in my stake, that have broken church rules, and combined their scouting/YM programs into one unit. They say it works for them. Me, on the other hand, I've been to scout campouts where only two scouts went. It's pretty hard to have a patrol structure with two scouts. That's small change--what about bigger change? Like completely reorganizing the way we approach Sunday School? I wish I had the opportunity to try my own experiment--which is to create small discussion groups that are not didactic-based. It would be run more like a book club, with an elected or chosen group leader, but that person would not be a teacher. The idea would be to stimulate actual study, reading, discussion, deeper more real back-and-forth about the scriptures, and allow people in these smaller groups to really get to know each other. You would be assigned a group. Every 6 months or 1 year, the groups would be shuffled, and you would have a new bunch of ward members to get to know. This is just an example of a local innovation that could take place, but won't.

05-23-2009, 02:14 PM	#1
MikeWaters Demiurge Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 36,365	Standardization of practices and curricula Harold B. Lee was instrumental in the unification and standardization of curricula in the church. Probably his most lasting and important achievement. Today, any Mormon can attend virtually any ward in the United States, and not feel that it is very much different than any other ward they have attended. Obviously, this has many benefits. Is there a downside? Perhaps. Local experimentation and innovation, which is noted and then promoted, can help an organization improve itself. I.e. "the branch office of Dunder-Mifflin Paper in Scranton is doing XYZ, let's replicate that in Nashua." Are we in a period great harmony and unity? Or are we in a period of great stagnation? To some degree, this local experimentation does occur. For example, there are three wards in my stake, that have broken church rules, and combined their scouting/YM programs into one unit. They say it works for them. Me, on the other hand, I've been to scout campouts where only two scouts went. It's pretty hard to have a patrol structure with two scouts. That's small change--what about bigger change? Like completely reorganizing the way we approach Sunday School? I wish I had the opportunity to try my own experiment--which is to create small discussion groups that are not didactic-based. It would be run more like a book club, with an elected or chosen group leader, but that person would not be a teacher. The idea would be to stimulate actual study, reading, discussion, deeper more real back-and-forth about the scriptures, and allow people in these smaller groups to really get to know each other. You would be assigned a group. Every 6 months or 1 year, the groups would be shuffled, and you would have a new bunch of ward members to get to know. This is just an example of a local innovation that could take place, but won't.