Hehehe. My MIL used to write primary manuals and hinted at this all the time.

My visiting teaching partner thanked me this morning for using stories other than the ones in the manual (she actually reads the manual and was aware I had changed them!) that were already so familiar. I told her that the stories I’d used were the events that had caused Joseph to ask for and receive the scriptures used in the lesson — I wanted her to know that I wasn’t going very far afield from the manual. Might as well allay any nervousness over my adaptations by stressing how they arise from the approved lesson, I thought.

I could not agree more with Ardis’s comments. I nominate her to be in charge of SS churchwide. While I think it’s a preisthood calling, I don’t think it has to be. She can do as well as any priesthood holder, imo.

Perhaps to illustrate that if you like a movie enough then you can pretend it has something to do with the Gospel. But seriously, I know that Karate Kid is true.

True story: I’m in elders quorum, second year of Brigham Young lesson manual. Teacher stands up, admits to procrastinating all week, declares that we’ll just “follow the Spirit and choose favorite passages from the manual.” Astute class members shoots up his hand first and points us to his “favorite” Brigham quote (paraphrasing): “I’ll never ask the Spirit to do something I’m not willing to do myself.” Awesome.

But the teacher barely even heard it, and just moved on to the next raised hand. Not awesome.

Orwell: :)

The basics will be repeated until everyone “gets” them. That’s what the manuals are for. Until everyone is ready to go beyond the basics, the advanced stuff generally has to be learned on one’s own time outside of class. That’s what personal study is for.

I didn’t mean to imply we had to make lessons any more “advanced.” I’m fine with simple stuff. It’s all in the presentation.

I think the manuals, no matter how trite and deadly they appear at first glance, offer a great deal of leeway to a teacher who thinks about what points will be most useful to a class:

I agree with you at every turn, Ardis; this is all I’ve ever tried to do. I suppose it all comes down to what people mean by “sticking to the manual.” In my view, all of your suggestions do exactly that (in the positive sense). However, others would disagree. Too many are taking these admonishments to keep to the approved material as excuses for getting increasingly pharisaical about how they teach or how they expect lessons to be presented – leading to many lessons that are taught exactly as they are mapped out, line by line.

BrianJ, even I wouldn’t attempt such craziness. Stick to the manual, you heretic.