George Q. Cannon answered these questions in a Deseret Sunday School “convention” in 1901. Many of them will seem trivial in 2018, but some of them I find are quite interesting for the differences they show between then and now. What catches your eye?
Question: Does the Union Board require that a Sunday School officer who does not keep the Word of Wisdom should resign his position in the school?
Answer: Our rules and regulations, read today, are so plain on this subject that it is scarcely necessary to answer the question. However, any Sunday School officer who breaks the Word of Wisdom ought, out of self-respect, either to resign or cease to violate it. We do not want such persons teaching in our Sunday Schools, if we can help it.
Question: When a vacancy for any cause occurs in the superintendency of a Sunday School, who fills the vacancy — the Bishop or the stake superintendent?
Answer: We would like to make it plain to all our superintendents and officers that there ought to be perfect harmony between the Priesthood and the Sunday School authorities, and no wise superintendent will attempt to fill a vacancy without consulting the Bishop or the stake president. We do not want the school superintendents to think that they have independent authority. The president of a stake presides over everything in his stake. The Bishop of a ward presides over everything in his ward. He should be respected in his office. If he is a judicious Bishop, he will consult with the superintendent in his ward; or, if a stake president, he will consult with the stake superintendent. There ought to be no clash between these officers. We trust that all — I feel like doing it myself— will honor the men who bear the Priesthood.
Question: Has a superintendent of a Sunday School the right to remove one of his assistants?
Answer: Certainly not. He has no authority of that kind. He cannot put one in, and he cannot put one out without consulting those in authority in the ward. The Bishop of the ward is as much interested in having suitable superintendents and assistants as any of us can be, and therefore his voice should be heard before any officer is dismissed.
Question: What would you do with a young man who can neither read nor write, but wants to attend Sunday School?
Answer: Better put him in some class where he will not be humiliated and expose his ignorance too much. Writing is not taught in the Sunday Schools, but he can be taught to read. The superintendent should act wisely in such a case, and not humiliate the young man by putting him in the primary class. Put him in a class where he will escape criticism.
Question: When primary and kindergarten classes are dismissed in their classrooms should it be done by prayer?
Answer: Certainly.
Question: What should be the age of a junior Sabbath School teacher?
Answer: I do not think age has much to do with it. His capability, not his age, is what should be considered. If he is not capable, no matter how old he is, he ought not to act. If he is capable, though he be young, he
should be appointed.
Question: Who presides when the school superintendent and also the stake superintendent are present?
Answer: The rules that prevail with us in the Priesthood can very well be observed in a case of this kind. I scarcely ever attend a conference without the president of the stake asking me, if I am the senior Apostle present, to take charge. Invariably I say to him, you take the lead and I will suggest anything that I think ought to be done. We are each respectful to the other. It ought to be the same in the Sunday School when the stake superintendent comes. The ward superintendent should say to him, Won’t you take charge of the school? It is his right to preside in his own stake. Act together in this matter, and not assume any right or authority one over the other.
Question: Are we to understand that the Sunday School should be held from ten to twelve o’clock? Some dismiss their schools at half-past eleven.
Answer: In the larger schools, according to my observation, the small children are dismissed at half-past eleven, because it is felt that to keep them for two hours is rather too much; but I am told that in schools where there is only one room this is apt to create confusion, and therefore the superintendent will regulate the dismissal in a way that will be best adapted to the condition of the school. Two hours a week is little enough for the larger children and the young men and women to receive religious instruction.
Question: Can the instructor of a theological class who is a counselor to the president of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association use this president as an assistant teacher?
Answer: If convenient for the president of the Improvement Association to act in that position, we see no reason why he should not. The fact that he is the superior in the Mutual Improvement Association does not prevent him from acting in the other position.
Question: Should there be a march played when the different classes go from the main room and when they return thereto?
Answer: I believe it is customary for the classes to march, both going and returning. After what we have heard of the benefits of marching, I think it a safe rule to adopt to have the children march.
Question: Should Sunday Schools pay tithing on their income?
Answer: It is a perfectly safe proposition to pay tithing under those circumstances, and I am sure you will all feel better if you do it. You will feel as though you can claim the blessing of the Lord.
Question: Is it necessary that Sunday School officers be set apart by the laying on of hands? .
Answer: President Taylor, when he was alive, was averse to so much setting apart; he thought this custom was running to an excess. We have felt therefore so far as the Sunday Schools are concerned that we would leave this question entirely to the local authorities, and not adopt a rule to the effect that it is necessary for these officers to be
set apart.
Question: May an assistant superintendent also hold the position of teacher in one of the classes of the Sunday School?
Answer: If he can do so without interfering with his other duties, we see no impropriety in his so doing. In the small schools it often becomes highly desirable that he should act in the two positions.
Question: Would it not be a good plan to organize union boards in all the stakes of Zion?
Answer: It would be a good plan, and there are in some of the stakes boards of this kind, composed of the stake and ward officers of the Sunday Schools. They could take into consideration questions that arose, and undoubtedly such meetings would result in improvement and progress.
Question: Is it proper for lady teachers to conduct exercises from the stand, or address the school on any subject therefrom?
Answer: We see no impropriety in lady teachers giving instructions or conducting exercises from the stand at any time during the session of Sunday School, when requested to do so by the superintendent or officer in charge.
Question: How would you use the several books recommended for use in the Sunday Schools but which are not recognized as text books?
Answer: Generally as books of reference to sustain or amplify the teachings of the text books.
Question: We are asked whether the Bible— what is sometimes called the Inspired Translation of the Bible, sold by the body called the Reorganized Church, should be used in the Sunday Schools?
Answer: It certainly should not be. President Young was very emphatic upon this point. He repeatedly told us that during the lifetime of Joseph the Prophet, the Prophet expressly said that there were parts of the Bible that he wished to translate, but he could not do so owing to the prejudices of the people and the feelings that were in existence upon many points that, if the Bible were translated fully, would have to be explained. President Young was almost incensed at the idea of having that translation published. As far as it goes there are some very excellent points in it; but it is not a book that we should patronize nor use in our Sunday Schools.
I’m surprised by the juxtaposition of the hemming and hawing over who fills vacancies in the Sunday school and the quick “certainly not” reply to the question on if the superintendent can get rid of an assistant.
I’m also surprised that the Sunday schools were paying tithing.
The tithing question caught my eye as well.
Also interesting that it was seen as unnecessary to set officers apart, and there were questions over whether or not it was appropriate for women to address the Sunday school.
Then there’s a couple things that, while not as surprising, definitely show the times. Asking what to do with students who can’t read, directions on playing a march between classes (I knew about that one thanks to Keepapitchinin), and the directions on using the inspired translation. That answer seems to acknowledge that as published it is correct, just incomplete.
Way to go, Lady Teachers conducting from the stand!
The setting apart question/answer was interesting. I had to chuckle at the first time a friend of mine was set apart as the ‘ward webmaster’ a good 18 years back when the term still sounded funny.
I’ve always had the habit of volunteering to play the piano at meetings when needed and for the past 5 years or so have consistently played in priesthood opening exercises. Sometimes I wondered if it was ok since I’d neither been called nor set apart. This answer by Elder Cannon makes me feel better. It also makes me wonder if I should be playing a march for the prelude.
Heh, heh!
We really need to have a post about those marches, to clarify a few things … We don’t have opening exercises in Sunday School anymore, just the classes, so the memory is fading of gathering in the chapel for a song, prayer, talks, and sacrament before dismissal to classes. Even longer-forgotten is the still older practice of gathering again in the chapel after classes for closing exercises of a song, and prayer, after, perhaps, some announcements.
Marches were played when children were dismissed from opening exercises, or were returning to the chapel for closing exercises. The idea was to give them some sort of order and pep, to move quickly but orderly from one room to the other. They were not played in services at any other time or for any other purpose, and were not used, as has sometimes been suggested, in Hitler Youth-type drills to regiment and brainwash the children. They were played when “stepping lively” was a desirable effect, just as prelude music is played for its effect in settling people to the worship to follow.
I know you were joking, Andy — and thanks for giving me the opening to make this clarification.
I can’t remember exactly when Sunday School opening exercises were abandoned. They were still a thing as recently as 1989, when I got one of my first “adult” callings as Sunday School chorister — leading the opening hymn and singing practice (!) as part of SS opening exercises. By then there really wasn’t much point to opening exercises, not like the still older days (back in the 70s, before the block schedule) when we took the sacrament in Sunday School as well as sacrament meeting.
To the original question, the oddest thing to me was discouraging the setting apart of Sunday School officers.
That is odd to our way of thinking — but it was the practice until about a generation ago that no teachers in any auxiliary were set apart. That was a practice reserved for presiding officers only. But this 1901 denial of setting apart even for officers in the Sunday School was news to me, too.
lindberg,
The Sunday School opening exercises you remember were short-lived — they started, and they ended a few years later.