Institute: Church History

Hi RebelProperty!

Welcome to the site and welcome to the painful, but fruitful adventure. I have been on the site for about two weeks and have gained at least a bit of balance, at least now I don’t want to find all the Gospel Doctrine Manuals in British Columbia, put them in a pile, toss on gas and dance under the moon naked while they burn!!!!! 😈 😆

I am in precisely the place where you are except that my class is a bit easier to live with. I have the Youth GD class in our ward and was parachuted in because the kids were eating up teachers at a furious pace (at least for our ward). I have an easier time because there are only 15 of them maximum and because of that size I can run the class as a seminar. I sit in the middle of the long side of the table and we all work togther, it has taken a bit but after 3 months we are getting into it.

My blog, Youth Gospel Doctrine class here (http://www.youthgd.blogspot.com/) may be able to give you some ideas on how to approach the class with a bit more emphasis on engagement and spiritual development. I do follow the manual’s “purpose” for each lesson and use the suggested scriptures but that is about all that I take from the manual. I agree the lesson on eternal marriage was a real pain in the neck but I did manage to slide in information on polygamy as practiced in Nauvoo by the leaders, the context of the writing down of the revelation to try to convince Emma to accept plural marriage which meant that we got to talk a little bit about the fact that Joseph did indeed have plural wives at this stage and the general sense of unease, distrust and hatred of the Mormon in Nauvoo and how this was building up to the martyrdom. None of it was in your face, almost all of it was in response to questions but I admit we did spend most of the time on the Holy Spirit of Promise and what implications that had.

So, in general I don’t think it would be fair to go to the Institute class and bring up too many issues, the instructor just won’t be ready for it likely and will feel threatened and I don’t think you will gain much help for your class. You might talk personally to the Institute teacher to see if they can help you frame your classes BUT many of us here have been stung when talking to other people in some level of authority about our issues. Think about it first.

You can ask questions here as much as you want and people will share and help you and sometimes confuse you but that is to be expected. As a board this is about the friendliest place I have found, there is virtually no miserable, negative attacks, just a bunch of people struggling like you are.

Let us know what you decide, we understand at least some of your frustration and pain and share it.

My only advice for the moment:

Be very careful about lurking at sites where bitterness and scorn are the dominant emotions – almost like a toxic waste dump. As my grandfather used to say:

It’s hard to swin in sh** without getting stinky.

I agree with just me.

Have it out here on staylds.com. It’s clean, safe, and fun for the whole family!! Okay, maybe not the WHOLE family. You can definitely get it out of your system, and discover what works for you. And no one knows but you. And you know who. 😳

I would keep in mind that as a teacher, you are called to provide that material with your talents and knowledge of things, so your personal style should be a part of your teaching, or they should not have called you to that through inspiration.

Even so, it is not your class for you to work out ideas and topical discussions you want to cover, but it is a class full of people coming to be edified and taught spiritually. Those given charge to develop the manuals were the ones responsible to decide what level of detail to cover things in the curriculum, I don’t believe that responsibility was given to you when you were set apart to teach the material. The material covered should be presented at the level that is most beneficial for the class, and if you have needs greater than that, then seek out those topics and discussion on your own time (on sites like this where we have all come here for that purpose). The Teaching No Greater Call manual provides instruction on that approach, to keep in mind what will be of benefit to the students. Sometimes the content is less critical as the opportunity for the Spirit to teach everyone, and the teacher and the student are edified together.

I do remember my favorite GD teacher was a lawyer from NY, who had a huge library and was friends with Bushman, and he knew his stuff. While he never brought RSR material specifically to class, there were times someone had a sincere question about polygamy or something, and he delicately could answer it honestly for them with a brief remark that kept the spirit of the meeting, but then get back to the material. I found that much more refreshing than some answer like, “well, we aren’t supposed to talk about that in this class, its not in the manual.” I think the stewardship is for the benefit of the students in the class.

I completely agree with timpanogos!

We’re supposed to be pro-Church here. I hope we aren’t in the same category as ExMormon.org, hehe.

Not for me. I checked out some antimormon sites, and that drove me back to church…I didn’t want to be that angry and be like that, but I didn’t feel edified back at church either.

I feel at home at this site…I can be honest and don’t have to be angry.