Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Tired of Sunday School?

Be honest, sometimes Sunday School can be boring. I blame this more on the audience than the teacher frequently. I know that Marisa and I feel like we have to "pull ourselves back" from making too many comments. Yet, at he same time we feel obliged to comment more to feel the void. Then, when comments are given, they are too bland. From what Marisa says, this happens especially in Relief Society. Too often the comments are about others and not often enough about ourselves. Applying the scriptures, to ourselves, HONESTLY and openly is a sure fire way to bring in the spirit. For another take on the whole correlation processes, its intents, positives and potential negatives, read this interesting article from the blog By Common Consent.

BTW, for those of you that are entirely against the correlation department, try to come up with a program that can be dispursed across the entire world, in many languages, for all doctrinal experience levels, for all teaching experience levels, applicable to ages 12-120, prepare and organize it in a reasonable amount of time by a reasonable amount of people, and in a way that will keep both local influences and speculative ideas from being taught as doctrinal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Feeling the Spirit in Sunday School? Wow, it's been a long time since I haven't had a little kid to distract me from that. On a serious note though, I agree with the observation about the comments. The past 4 wards we have been in have on average 30-40 people in the class, yet 90% of those in attendance never ever make a comment. I feel like I am often holding back comments so that I can avoid dominating the discussion, but at the same time, the teacher is so obviously straining for participation. I was a sunday school teacher back in the Hampstead ward, and could never figure out how to motivate the majority of the class to share insights, comments and thoughts. I'm not sure why they don't comment, whether it's out of fear, lack of testimony, lack of experiences, etc. I wish I knew.

Carson Calderwood said...

Here is a good followup to that series of posts on BCC that I referred to...http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2010/01/good-thoughts-on-teaching-sunday-school/