Seminary Overhaul

Other thoughts:

I think at least a part of this effort is to coordinate what the kids are learning in seminary and SS.

1) Won’t the kids get bored with hearing very similar lessons in close proximity to each other? Or are the kids used to it by now because they were already doing that thing where they were focusing on one subject for a whole month before moving on to another subject? At least when classes cover different scriptures/themes there’s some variety.

I really do worry about this one. I remember some interactions I had with peers shortly before joining the church. I was still young in those days, right at the transition age between YM/YW and the adult program, and I remember hearing a near universal complaint. Church is booooooooring. I couldn’t understand how they’d feel bored. This was the restored gospel, everything was new to me, and I was soaking it up!

About a decade later (I’m a slow learner apparently) and I was right there with them. Church is booooooooring with a capital BOOOOOOOORING.

Having canned lessons that are the same year after year was strain enough on youth (and adults) but I fear coordinating efforts to have very similar lessons week after week will accelerate that process.

The church loses lots of people over difference of opinion, difference in values, laziness, wanting to sin, not having a strong enough testimony… whatever pet reason you have on your list, but IMO being bored with church probably ranks as the number one reason why kids go inactive. The emancipation of adulthood means leaving all those booring meetings behind.

2) I don’t know how it will work, but I’m assuming it won’t be correlated to the nth degree. Where the kids study lessons during the week in seminary that relate to the lesson they will have in church that Sunday.

What about kids on a traditional calendar (summers off)? Will they skip the middle of the curriculum in seminary to ensure the lessons line up with what is being covered in SS when school starts back up in the fall? I’m guessing/hoping they won’t try to correlate the schedules.

Canned lessons: I don’t know about your Sunday school classes, but mine have become a very exciting place to be. I have actually enjoyed Sunday school this year. There aren’t really canned lessons anymore and those who have prepared during the week, with some incredible insight.

Yeah, we’re in very different places or I’m at a very different place in my journey.

SS feels like going to the dentist. I feel numb and have so much stuff crammed in my mouth that I can’t say anything. Then when the numbness wears off afterwards I feel the pain. Then I get a lollipop to help facilitate a return visit. 🙂 But maybe like a dentist it’s beneficial in the long run.

I’m mixed on it too but I don’t have any more horses (or rats) in the race. Observations:

1) If this is another move to globalize the church (make things the same everywhere), I get it. Other countries don’t have school years the same as we do, and some really do school years by calendar years.

2) I kind of like the idea of doing the study the same. I think there was a move to try and synchronize several years ago as well, it just didn’t work because of the Sept. school year thing. I think in some other countries it’s already synced. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed SS more this year, but I can say I’ve enjoyed my individual study more.

3) Early morning seminary is arcane. It’s time to move into the 21st century and do it online – and there is an actual program in place. My youngest did it online his senior year and he got way more out of it than previous years and he was a more pleasant individual without the sleep deprivation.

When I grew up seminary wasn’t a requirement to get into any Church college. Plenty of good kids still went on missions, even if they didn’t do seminary. Let the teenagers sleep. Thousands of studies show sleep deprivation is a huge problem for teens.

This is a good point. This year a YW from our ward who seemed fully qualified for BYU compared to her peers and others from this area who got admitted was not admitted. I was fairly shocked, honestly. She gets good grades, does AP classes, is involved in community service, was a class president in YW, and did school sports and music. BYU does look for “well rounded” kids like that. My kids were pretty much exactly the same as her – and one didn’t really have the grades – and all went to BYU. The difference? She didn’t do seminary. I’ve always been told seminary has a lot of weight for BYU admission, and this case proved that to me.

But I agree with you Mom – were I prophet for a day I’d dump seminary, especially early morning. I know I already soapboxed for online seminary, but here’s another issue with early morning, and I know this because I’ve been involved with the process for the last few years: It’s very difficult to find someone willing and able to teach it. It is not unusual in our stake to go through 3 or more interviews before finding somebody to do it. At the very least it should be a paid position as it is in Zion.

At the very least it should be a paid position as it is in Zion.

I lived in southwestern Colorado 13 years ago. Our neighboor was let go as the paid seminary instructor … and then almost immediately called to do the same job for free. This was a very faithful family and they joked about it. What else could they do?

Didn’t that sort of commonly happen to all janitors? “Thanks, but we don’t need you anymore because we have many who are going to do it for free (although nowhere near as well as you).” I guess the difference is that if nobody does the cleaning (which I think is somewhat typical in my ward and I refuse to do it) there aren’t several kids sitting there without a teacher. EM seminary is every freaking day during the school year at 0:dark30 plus an hour or two of prep time daily besides your (often here) regular job – FOR FREE! Meanwhile, your “peers” in Zion are getting paid to do the classes and prep and they just go home at the end of the day (and have summers off!). At least cleaning is only maybe an hour or two sometime during the week once a month or so (we have a 6 week rotation in my ward).