Revamping Sunday School

[creekster]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I should add that I think my opinion means zero to the church. and I wouldn't even bother to email an anonymous suggestion.

You don't need to. Some version of your suggestion could be implemented by the SS in your ward if it felt it apporpriate. I don't think the Handbook precludes mulitple GD classes or specifies their size. So just talk to your bishop. As the bumpersticker on almost every volvo in Berekely states: Think gloablly, act locally.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by creekster

You don't need to. Some version of your suggestion could be implemented by the SS in your ward if it felt it apporpriate. I don't think the Handbook precludes mulitple GD classes or specifies their size. So just talk to your bishop. As the bumpersticker on almost every volvo in Berekely states: Think gloablly, act locally.

Let me be brutally honest: that the current GD teacher might find out about my suggestion and know that I suggested it and might be offended (esp. since I almost never attend his class) matters much more to me than the spiritual instruction of an entire ward.

I'm not going to suggest anything.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Let me be brutally honest: that the current GD teacher might find out about my suggestion and know that I suggested it and might be offended (esp. since I almost never attend his class) matters much more to me than the spiritual instruction of an entire ward.

I'm not going to suggest anything.

That's good to hear, in a way. I guess you just play that guy on the internet.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by creekster

That's good to hear, in a way. I guess you just play that guy on the internet.

Look, no one appreciates the lesson manual more than me.

The only preparation I do is the 5 minutes it takes me to read the lesson.

If the Bishop ever asks me for suggestions about SS, I will share them with him. But the fact is, it won't even cross his mind to ask members for suggestions. It's just not the way the church works.

The only thing that rocking the boat does is strengthen your hammies.

[RedHeadGal]

Originally Posted by ChinoCoug

so what is your opinion of the class?

I like the opportunity to have my thoughts provoked. That is usually the measure of a good class for me, and it happens too rarely, I'm afraid.

I have also been a teacher in one form or another for almost my entire adult life, which now numbers about 15 years. As a teacher of adults, my philosophy was that if you are challenged to think of things from a new perspective, you have the opportunity to take those thoughts home and work through them yourself until you come up with the answer that your own faith supports. I taught RS this way for years, and each week was sure I was about to be fired. I never was. I would not say I was off-topic. I would not say I was mired in historical tangents, but I did not ask the questions in the manual and ask for people in the audience to read "quotes." There were some who hated my class, and some who loved it, but I did repeatedly get the comment that I made people think. Dissenters were always welcome, and I did get some strong ones sometimes.

A couple of examples, since I know you are dying to hear them: I taught a WoW lesson (since someone mentioned that earlier) by printing the text of Sect. 89 in large type and putting it on the board bit by bit, and we discussed what it said. I gave the caveat that I was not interetsed in hearing about smoking, drinking or drugs, but rather about how a faithful LDS person could apply and learn from these verses otherwise. As I mentioned in my intro also, I did lead off a lesson on temples with the personal example of my being a person who doesn't like to go there.

I don't care one way or the other about the term "deep doctrine." That's beside the point.