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Pay attention now, class. A major transformation is underway within the LDS Church, reshaping all teaching and learning from Sunday School courses to the priesthood.
The shake up is radical, but members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are only beginning to grasp the breadth and depth of a fresh emphasis on the learning process through the introduction of new methods, teaching manuals and curriculum.
“We have had a revolution in teaching in the church. Most of you have not caught onto it yet, but the Brethren are modeling it,” LDS employee Ronald Schwendiman told an Education Week audience at Brigham Young University last year.
If “revolution” seems like a strong word, note that Schwendiman has been in the middle of the metamorphosis as the church’s director of publishing product management for Seminaries and Institutes of Religion. But he is not the first to use that description, nor was he the last. And more has changed since he said it.
In May, the church released a new teacher manual, “Teaching in the Savior’s Way,” and introduced one of its most visible changes, the creation of teacher councils in every congregation.
Earlier this month, a direct request was emailed to anyone who teaches a class in the church from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Elder Holland invited teachers to join him in an interactive online discussion on Nov. 5 about the new manual and teacher councils.
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KevinSeptember 29, 2016
The manual Teaching is the Savior's Way is a good start but the curriculum manuals for gospel doctrine class need to be revised and updated. The manuals date back to the 1990's and not much has changed since. They are pretty rote and if followed directly, go counter productive to the new manual just released. I hope they do get replaced with something more in line with the new direction the Sunday School is heading.
Glen DanielsenSeptember 29, 2016
The new direction of Church education is thrilling! The "Teaching in the Savior's Way" videos are simply marvelous! My only misgiving is that there were a very few topics in Teaching: No Greater Call that should have been carried over, but were not. Examples would be Teaching Eye To Eye, and the power of love in dealing with difficult class members. We need not—we should not let that great teaching resource go into oblivion. My poignant hope too, is that we carefully safeguard our Church curriculum from the use of faddish philosophies put forth in the writings of some LDS authors whose books have found a place in LDS book stores. All that glitters is not gold; our doctrine must be kept pure.