New Curriculum Primary 2019 Yay!! ...and Adult Sunday School

[bsjkki]

This is great news! Can't wait! https://www.ldschurchnews.com/latest/2018-07-06/lds-church-to-release-new-home-primary-and-adult-curriculum-in-2019-to-improve-scripture-study-47545

https://www.lds.org/church/news/church-announces-come-follow-me-for-home-sunday-school-and-primary?cid=HP_FR-29-6-2018_dPTH_fCURR_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng

With further research, I think this also means Come Follow Me is coming for Adult Sunday School! Double Yay! https://www.lds.org/languages/eng/content/manual/instructions-for-curriculum-2019/instructions-for-curriculum-2019?lang=eng

Sunday School

Adult and Youth Sunday School

NEW Come, Follow Me—For Sunday School (14716; New Testament)

Gospel Principles Class

Gospel Principles (06195)—a course for investigators, new members, and members returning to activity.

 

Edited July 7, 2018 by bsjkki

[rongo]

Maybe a prelude to a two-hour block (by way of eliminating primary/Sunday School eventually)?

I know that some will roll their eyes and say, "Here we go again," but I really think a "home" primary/Sunday School approach can only be pointing to . . . home schooling in those areas.

[Calm]

37 minutes ago, bsjkki said:

This is great news! Can't wait! https://www.ldschurchnews.com/latest/2018-07-06/lds-church-to-release-new-home-primary-and-adult-curriculum-in-2019-to-improve-scripture-study-47545

https://www.lds.org/church/news/church-announces-come-follow-me-for-home-sunday-school-and-primary?cid=HP_FR-29-6-2018_dPTH_fCURR_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng

Finally! (I got so sick of teaching the same lessons in Primary, the last few years I bought the scripture stories books for each member and taught out of those...no complaints from leaders, they were first used 94, I believe...third time through was just too much, retired as Primary teacher shortly thereafter when I could no longer attend 9 AM church or even just hit class at 10).

Edited July 7, 2018 by Calm

[bsjkki]

4 minutes ago, Calm said:

Finally! (I got so sick of teaching the same lessons in Primary, the last few years I bought the scripture stories books for each member and taught out of those...no complaints from leaders).

The old manuals were needing an update and the church history manual was inaccurate. This is great news and I'm also excited about Come Follow me for adult Sunday School. Gospel Doctrine seriously needed an update.

[revelstoked]

Rather than facilitating a 2 hour block I feel this is the lead up to re-tooling or re-launching the Family Home Evening program.  I've never been good about the old style program, I felt that if we weren't basically running another hour of church/scouts (with the forma opening and closing prayers, prepared lesson, snack, and activity) it wasn't really  "FHE."  Never mind the fact we spend almost every evening meal together and talk about church stuff when it naturally comes up in conversations.  More principle based instead of practice based perhaps?

[ksfisher]

3 hours ago, rongo said:

Maybe a prelude to a two-hour block (by way of eliminating primary/Sunday School eventually)?

I know that some will roll their eyes and say, "Here we go again," but I really think a "home" primary/Sunday School approach can only be pointing to . . . home schooling in those areas.

I think we have too many children and youth who, because of inactive/barely active parents, only receive gospel instruction when they are at church.  The last thing these children need is less time and teaching when they are at church.

[Scott Lloyd]

15 hours ago, ksfisher said:

I think we have too many children and youth who, because of inactive/barely active parents, only receive gospel instruction when they are at church.  The last thing these children need is less time and teaching when they are at church.

And adults need a formally scheduled time on the Sabbath for men and women to discuss the gospel together. Sunday School is currently our only opportunity to do that. 

Edited July 7, 2018 by Scott Lloyd

[Hamba Tuhan]

1 hour ago, ksfisher said:

I think we have too many children and youth who, because of inactive/barely active parents, only receive gospel instruction when they are at church.

The stake president and I made a ministering visit to a newish family in our stake this past Thursday. The husband's parents were converts who divorced when the dad left, and the mum basically stopped going to church. Both of his brothers eventually went inactive as well. I asked what made the difference in his life. He said a ward member picked him up and took him to church every Sunday.

In our ward, we've had so many like this. When I was Young Men president, my then housemate pointed out to me that the gospel for many of our boys was a place they visited on Sundays, almost as tourists. 'Just hope it's enough in the end', he added. For many of them, it was.

[Calm]

5 hours ago, revelstoked said:

Rather than facilitating a 2 hour block I feel this is the lead up to re-tooling or re-launching the Family Home Evening program.  I've never been good about the old style program, I felt that if we weren't basically running another hour of church/scouts (with the forma opening and closing prayers, prepared lesson, snack, and activity) it wasn't really  "FHE."  Never mind the fact we spend almost every evening meal together and talk about church stuff when it naturally comes up in conversations.  More principle based instead of practice based perhaps?

They haven't done really much of anything with FHE since the 80s.  The FHE manual had a second edition in 97, but not much change from the 83 version.  Prior to that, iirc, we were getting a new manual every year...but it might have been stopped few years before that.  My first kid was in 82 so I wasn't paying attention until about 86...and honestly I never could get into using the Resource Guide as playing games and having a structured lesson just never worked for us when we could go to a playground or on a walk by the river, other days read scriptures and just talk about that immediate experience.  Two kids eight years apart, organic just worked better.  I did read the manual front to back a few times just to see if it triggered any ideas for Primary.  Plus husband built lessons and taught most days as a university prof.  He never got into constructing FHE lessons, home time was playtime for him (and that was why I married him).

Edited July 7, 2018 by Calm

[Calm]

I think what I would like to see is for gospel study at home many family groups of 3 to 5 families depending on number of kids...try to match ages, and then have lesson time for the kids with the parents teaching them, the teens can help out and eventually become teachers themselves and then maybe afterwards the kids could play while parents looked on and had their own organic discussion.  That might only work for people who already get into it, but even if parents just shared work and family experiences, there is a real need to develop close friends, extended families more or less.  If leaders were looking for more or less matching ages OR interest ( older families can have fun with younger if they like to do the same thing), it could be a real nice blessing and rather miraculous if it worked even a third of the time.  We have lost multigeneration living together families in the States, I think our society is suffering from it.

[rongo]

9 hours ago, ksfisher said:

I think we have too many children and youth who, because of inactive/barely active parents, only receive gospel instruction when they are at church.  The last thing these children need is less time and teaching when they are at church.

This group is exactly the least-inclined to make use of a "home church" program, though. 

[Traela]

I am not a fan of the current youth SS curriculum, so I think this is wonderful!  Plus no more, "What did you talk about in Primary today, Johnny?"  "Um, I don't remember..."

 

[rongo]

1 hour ago, Traela said:

I am not a fan of the current youth SS curriculum, so I think this is wonderful!  Plus no more, "What did you talk about in Primary today, Johnny?"  "Um, I don't remember..."

Totally agree about Come Follow Me for youth.

I find it interesting that there are people who say, "Come Follow Me for youth stinks! I'm really happy we now have Come Follow Me for primary and adults!"  

I don't think that new Church programs are definitely or always better than what they replace. A big factor is the way most people and families are now. We could have the best all-time curriculum and most wouldn't tap its potential or avail themselves of it. I'm not sure why people think a home study program is finally the curriculum promised land. 

I'm sad that many will never hear the really good stories, anecdotes, and quotes in the "old" manuals. When I've used them, people say, "Where did you get that?" (the old manuals.  ). 

I also don't like the sloganization and "branding" the Church uses with curricula. "Come Follow Me" for ________, "Teaching in the Savior's Way" (boring, useless monthly meetings and awkward attempts to smoke out wallflowers and have circle-the-wagon "council" meetings in lieu of classes and lessons). Everything has a packaged title (even "Hastening the Work"). 

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, Traela said:

I am not a fan of the current youth SS curriculum, so I think this is wonderful!  Plus no more, "What did you talk about in Primary today, Johnny?"  "Um, I don't remember..."

 

I thought that the current youth SS curriculum was pretty much the same as the YM/YW curriculum.  Haven't the youth been using Come Follow Me for SS for a few years now?

[bluebell]

5 minutes ago, rongo said:

"Teaching in the Savior's Way" (boring, useless monthly meetings and awkward attempts to smoke out wallflowers and have circle-the-wagon "council" meetings in lieu of classes and lessons). Everything has a packaged title (even "Hastening the Work"). 

These are the best lessons all month in my ward.  Attendance is huge (for both hours that they hold it, for teachers and nonteachers) and we have so much participation it's crazy.  Have you considered that, as bishop, your disdain of the program might be one of the reasons it's not doing very well in your ward?

 

[rongo]

5 minutes ago, bluebell said:

These are the best lessons all month in my ward.  Attendance is huge (for both hours that they hold it, for teachers and nonteachers) and we have so much participation it's crazy.  Have you considered that, as bishop, your disdain of the program might be one of the reasons it's not doing very well in your ward?

If it were just my ward, you might have a point. Many, many other people in many, many other wards are having the same experience. 

That's great that it's running so well in your ward. I think that is a real outlier. And over time (years and years, unless there is a new wrinkle added to "Teaching in the Savior's Way"), I don't think "attendance is huge, and we have so much participation it's crazy" is sustainable. I think this is increasingly true as the novelty wears off and the new normal sinks in (think, Come Follow Me, year after year, month after month). 

[bluebell]

13 minutes ago, rongo said:

If it were just my ward, you might have a point. Many, many other people in many, many other wards are having the same experience. 

That's great that it's running so well in your ward. I think that is a real outlier. And over time (years and years, unless there is a new wrinkle added to "Teaching in the Savior's Way"), I don't think "attendance is huge, and we have so much participation it's crazy" is sustainable. I think this is increasingly true as the novelty wears off and the new normal sinks in (think, Come Follow Me, year after year, month after month). 

I agree it's not sustainable forever but it seems like the program is only meant to last as long as it takes to train people to teach in a more Christlike way.  Once that is achieved, it doesn't need to be sustainable.

[rongo]

1 minute ago, bluebell said:

I agree it's not sustainable forever but it seems like the program is only meant to last as long as it takes to train people to teach in a more Christlike way.  Once that is achieved, it doesn't need to be sustainable.

I'm not so sure that this is just a temporary, stop-gap thing to get us to a point and then move on. I think this is intended to be indefinite. How many years have we been doing the conference talk lessons (now on steroids, since that's all the lesson content other than special items from the presidency or leaders)? 

[bluebell]

3 minutes ago, rongo said:

I'm not so sure that this is just a temporary, stop-gap thing to get us to a point and then move on. I think this is intended to be indefinite. How many years have we been doing the conference talk lessons (now on steroids, since that's all the lesson content other than special items from the presidency or leaders)? 

If we were using the same 12 conference talks over and over and over again then I think you might have a point.  But since conference talks change every six months, I don't think the two are really comparable.

[rongo]

1 minute ago, bluebell said:

If we were using the same 12 conference talks over and over and over again then I think you might have a point.  But since conference talks change every six months, I don't think the two are really comparable.

Just wait. Come Follow Me for adults . . .   

Conference talks have a certain sameness about them, and in most wards, how people teach conference talks does, too. We've tried to use teacher training meetings to improve how people teach, with limited results. People (and Mormons in particular) tend to be pretty resistant to making changes in what they're comfortable with. 

[rongo]

5 minutes ago, rongo said:

Conference talks have a certain sameness about them, and in most wards, how people teach conference talks does, too. 

Much worse than lessons based on conference talks are talks based on conference talks. I've always emphasized with my counselors giving people actual topics instead of a conference talk. Even if you specifically tell them that you want them to expound on what is taught in the talk, 90% of people will end up just getting up and saying, "Elder Cook can say this so much better than I can, so I'm just going to read you his talk." That is the worst! And once you're in for a talk reading, there's nothing you can do. You can't cut their mike or ask them to sit down. Everyone's eyes glaze over . . . 

[carbon dioxide]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

I thought that the current youth SS curriculum was pretty much the same as the YM/YW curriculum.  Haven't the youth been using Come Follow Me for SS for a few years now?

Yes and I hated the Come Follow Me Manuel for youth SS.  First the manual was geared to 12 to 17 year olds.  That is nuts.  There is a big difference between 12 and 17 year olds and teaching the same lessons to them means either the 17 year olds are getting boring, easy lessons that do not challenge them or the 12 year old lessons are to advanced.  I would be like using the same math book to teach 12 year olds and 167 year olds in the public schools.  We would all be upset at that.   Second and even worse, it was the same lessons year after year.  We are not teaching them anything new or exciting.  By the time they turn 15, they have heard basically the same lesson  3 times.  I would be bored as well. 

[Exiled]

9 hours ago, Calm said:

I think what I would like to see is for gospel study at home many family groups of 3 to 5 families depending on number of kids...try to match ages, and then have lesson time for the kids with the parents teaching them, the teens can help out and eventually become teachers themselves and then maybe afterwards the kids could play while parents looked on and had their own organic discussion.  That might only work for people who already get into it, but even if parents just shared work and family experiences, there is a real need to develop close friends, extended families more or less.  If leaders were looking for more or less matching ages OR interest ( older families can have fun with younger if they like to do the same thing), it could be a real nice blessing and rather miraculous if it worked even a third of the time.  We have lost multigeneration living together families in the States, I think our society is suffering from it.

I thought study groups were discouraged?

[rongo]

4 minutes ago, Exiled said:

I thought study groups were discouraged?

Yeah, people often leave the rails when there are home study groups outside of the family and outside of priesthood oversight. Charismatic figures gain followings, and off you go . . . 

They do fill an obvious need in making things more interesting and exciting, which is part of their appeal. 

[bsjkki]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

These are the best lessons all month in my ward.  Attendance is huge (for both hours that they hold it, for teachers and nonteachers) and we have so much participation it's crazy.  Have you considered that, as bishop, your disdain of the program might be one of the reasons it's not doing very well in your ward?

 

I think it depends on the quality of the teaching. We recently had a new counselor called to Sunday School. He was a terrible Gospel Doctrine teacher and now he is supposed to teach the teachers how to teach. SMH