Teacher Improvement Coordinator Position

It now is the responsibility of the Sunday School President directly.

Personally, I think it is because the SS Presidency generally has become a . . . how do I put this . . . lazy man’s leadership calling. (not that lazy people are called to it, but that it tended to create lazy leadership)

When the Coordinator position existed, there was next to nothing for the SS Presidency to do. Now, the SS Pres. is supposed to focus on teacher training and raising the quality of teaching in the unit. Much of the success of that focus in going to depend on the attention paid to the responsibility by the Stake SS Pres. and High Council over SS, imo – which hits home for me, since I am over SS right now.

Personally, I think it is because the SS Presidency generally has become a . . . how do I put this . . . lazy man’s leadership calling. (not that lazy people are called to it, but that it tended to create lazy leadership)

I was Sunday School president before being called with my wife to help in a YSA branch. I spent the first 4 months in the SS calling teaching a class of 14-15 year olds because in spite of nearly weekly requests the bishopric couldn’t get around to calling someone. Twice I sat in sacrament meeting and heard sunday school teachers for different classes released and called without ever having been consulted or notified. It would have been interesting to see that done to the RS. Finally after complaining about it and being generally disgruntled, I was about to ask to be released when I was moved out of the picture. SS is an afterthought and a place holder for the hour between Sacrament and RS/priesthood meeting and IMHO needs to be abolished. If I had stayed much longer I would have become lazy. What’s the point when you’re president in name only and exist only to sub when someone doesn’t show up and to ring the bell.

That’s what I see as the problem with the SS President position — not much to do. Shepherd people to class, and do some training and development, not much presence on Ward Council. I should read the new manual and see what else is involved. I was SS president for two solid weeks before being called as HPGL. I’d like to give that a shot again. As a full-time teacher, I think it would be interesting to see what I could do to improve the quality of instruction. I feel that area is sorely neglected by us as a Church, and is an area I’d like to figure out how to contribute to.

I hope our Bishop is listening…..

Are they still teaching teacher development classes where you are only allowed to use the 4 standard works and the Ensign for lessons ( and I guess the lesson manuals)? My husband and I had hard times suddenly being told we could not use the quotes from good people outside the church in our lessons. I told them that I hear the prophet and GA’s do that all the time in General conferences and what about the 13th article of faith about ‘anything that is praiseworthy of of good report.” They just told me that is the new rule from the stake president and if we could not live by it to get released. Guess what happened? btw….would a sister be allowed to mention in a lesson on BY or JS his other wives and what noble they were and the credit they should get, even though it only mentions the first wives in the manuals?

They just told me that is the new rule from the stake president and if we could not live by it to get released.

About three months ago, we got this message handed down from the stake. At the time I was concerned, because I often use Dalia Lama books, and articles from Orson Scott Card in my lessons.

Now, I don’t care. If they want to release me – go for it. Good luck finding someone else to do my jobs though. Mostly being in a small branch has been difficult for me, but, sometimes being in a small branch does have it’s benefits – like, I’m still here, with multiple leadership callings despite it all. That is a good thing? Right?

Are they still teaching teacher development classes where you are only allowed to use the 4 standard works and the Ensign for lessons ( and I guess the lesson manuals)? My husband and I had hard times suddenly being told we could not use the quotes from good people outside the church in our lessons. I told them that I hear the prophet and GA’s do that all the time in General conferences and what about the 13th article of faith about ‘anything that is praiseworthy of of good report.” They just told me that is the new rule from the stake president and if we could not live by it to get released. Guess what happened? btw….would a sister be allowed to mention in a lesson on BY or JS his other wives and what noble they were and the credit they should get, even though it only mentions the first wives in the manuals?

I would continue using comments by Ghandi, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, etcetera that are consistent with the broad principles of Mormonism.

One thing — if you ask leaders “is this appropriate”? The answer will often be “No” simply because you are asking for an official answer. The official answers tend to be more restrictive because the official answer has to cover a wide variety of situations, so the easy/safe answer is “No”. If you just don’t ask, and they even get wind of it unofficially, they will often do nothing at all about it, provided you aren’t quoting Ed Decker or some other anti-Mormon source.

For example, if you say “CAn I go home teaching a single female member alone?”. The answer is “No” because no one wants to be responsible for a man potentially getting involved intimately with a single woman. However, I wouldn’t have a problem with it unofficially, provided I didn’t know about it, or I wasn’t asked to approve the practice formally. In fact, I have one single woman who I home teach regularly. She is a bit older than I am, obese, and there is no attraction whatsoever. For me, it’s not the kind of situation I feel I need to avoid. Now, if she was younger than myself, attractive, had a lot of common interests, and an exciting person to be around, I would avoid it like the plague given the risks.

I think this is an example of how the Church rules need to be interpreted at the personal level; they are implemented conservatively so there is an official position that protects the Church if things go wrong. If you break one of these policies, using personal judgment, I don’t think there will be a witch hunt.

The other thing — sometimes there are policies that are enforced long and hard because there has been an abuse somewhere, and even mild infractions come under scrutiny. These tend to be sporadic, and go away after the leaders have convinced themselves and their stakeholders they have done their part. Perhaps this is the case in your Ward/Stake.

We had one situation in our Stake. A woman decorated the RS/Baptismal Font room like it was a birthday party for her daughter who was being baptized. There was a gift-opening component to it, and speakers gave the girl gifts, chocolate fountains, a big party surrouding the baptism. The SP’s granddaughter was there, and complained about what a terrible baptism she. the grand-daughter, had had recently,to her grandfather/SP. The Stake President implemented a strict and highly unpopular Stake Child of Record Baptism policy that lined up all the kids and baptized them all in one rather impersonal meeting as a result — to gain control. He claimed that it was because baptisms were becoming wordly celebrations all over the place in the Stake….. Then, we got a new SP and their first Act of Congress was to reverse the decision.

I think in these times one needs the “this too shall pass” mindset.

Our Sunday School teacher today quoted and referenced Shakespeare in her lesson – and Pres. Hinckley and Pres. Monson certainly never got a memo about limiting their quotes.

I don’t think it’s just that, it’s because unfortunately some women cry wolf about sexual harrassment, and some men act differently alone with women and might intimidate them.