Comments on: New Calling: Gospel Doctrine Instructor

By: TStevens

TStevens — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:54:13 +0000

I went in the opposite direction last year and I am jealous â€“ I really liked Gospel Doctrine. Co-teaching seems hard, unless you are both on the same page. FWIW, our GD teacher yesterday spent 20 minutes discussing her colonoscopy, I still havenâ€t figured out what that has to do with the Organization of the Church; but I am slow like that.

By: thomas

thomas — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:19:32 +0000

It is funny, in our Stake when a member of the Bishopric gets released a lot of the time they end up in Gospel Doctrine teaching, assuming that the High Council does not snag them. Just the opposite.

By: Kim Siever

Kim Siever — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:42:14 +0000

Thanks, Ardis. I'm sure I'll need the luck.

I have no problem with the amount of preparation; I certainly put in more than 8â€“10 hours every two weeks as EQP. I'm more than happy to have a workload reduction; especially if all my work can be done at home.

I haven't noticed any pontification in the last 4 years as EQP in our quorum lessons. All we've done is talk about gospel principles mentioned by the instructor in a genuine practical way.

By: Ardis Parshall

Ardis Parshall — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:05:04 +0000

Congratulations, and good luck. I’m finding that Gospel Doctrine is taking far more time and effort than I imagined it could — 8 or 10 hours per lesson, at least, which is far more than I’ve ever needed for Relief Society teaching. I’m also a big supporter of discussion over lecture, but I’m learning that it takes study and planning to direct the discussion toward a lesson goal, and not having it turn into a bull session. It’s a completely different dynamic, having men in the classroom — women in Relief Society can stay on track with a minimum of guidance; men seem to want to pontificate about anything and everything, regardless of how off-topic it is — it’s taking all my skill to listen attentively to some of them for the moment when they have actually said something vaguely reminiscent of the lesson, then to jump in with an appreciative remark that both ends the pontification and restates their remarks into something that advances the objective. Like almost anything else, Gospel Doctrine teaching requires a huge amount of work to make it both effective and (apparently) effortless.