Question: What is the General Board’s attitude regarding having separate classes for boys and separate classes for girls in some age levels of Sunday School instruction?
Answer: The General Board discourage separate classes according to sex. The Board believes in coeducation in Sunday School instruction.
Question: Is it all right to use Book of Mormon maps in classroom teaching?
Answer: All maps on Book of Mormon locations in the Western Hemisphere are speculative, even though carefully prepared. For this reason, General Authorities have discouraged their use.
Question: For General Conference Sunday, would it be all right to have a television or radio set I our Sunday School for those attending to enjoy in place of the usual Sabbath School Lesson?
Answer: There is no objection at all, although it is suggested that this be not the case for Junior Sunday School classes and perhaps one or two classes immediately above the Junior Sunday School. It is extremely difficult for small children to remain orderly in such situations.
Question: Would you advise the Sunday School to use a bulletin board? If so, what do you recommend as to size, style, type, price, place of purchase?
Answer: In answering this question, we assume that your Sunday School would like to use a bulletin board for such information as: names of persons to give 2-1/2 minute talks, announcements of special Sunday School events such as Dime Fund Sunday; “Bring a Friend Sunday, and other such notes for the entire ward or branch membership.
If this be the case, then you might be interested in a plan that has been used successfully in some of the wards. Little mimeographed folders, distributed each week, list the Sunday School order of exercises for the worship service and reassembly. The folders also can be used for making announcements of special Sunday School events and other information for all ward or branch members. Often these folders are produced in cooperation with the bishopric or branch presidency, and also include the program for sacrament meeting and general ward or branch assignments.
Then there is the bulletin board which most meetinghouses exhibit in the foyer. It is usually used by the bishopric or branch presidency who will, no doubt, permit the Sunday School to use it for general announcements. These may be made in various sizes according to the wall space in the foyer. Prices would be determined by size and type of wood. School supply houses or cabinet makers should be able to supply definite information.
The Deseret Book Company stocks a satisfactory 1′ x 3′ hymn bulletin board for use in chapels on which to place the numbers of songs to be sung. These with set of numbers cost $10.50 at the store or $11.15 parcel postpaid.
If you have in mind a bulletin board for announcements for Sunday School officers and teachers, then it might be best to make verbal announcements at faculty meetings, coupled with duplicated slips containing pertinent information. A hectograph is an inexpensive way of making dplciate copies. See Librarian’s Guidebook for suggestions on hectographs.
Question: In some of our larger wards in the Smithfield Stake our enrollment for the Gospel Doctrine class exceeds three hundred. if we take the roll by calling names, it requires almost half the entire period. Any suggestions?
Answer: A roll should be taken for every Sunday School class. every Gospel Doctrine class should have a class secretary. She might take the roll silently. Or, two minutes before the beginning of the lesson presentation might be devoted to passing out small slips of paper on which each class member could be asked to sign his name and address, and indicate whether or not he is a ward member or visitor. The class secretary could gather these up speedily and quietly, and then mark the class roll from the slips of paper, after the lesson is given.
Question: I am music supervisor on the Stake Sunday School Board. We have a question in our minds concerning the order of the sacrament, and felt we should consult you about it.
Answer: The order for the sacrament service follows:
1. Sacramental song, during which time the bread is broken by the priests.
2. Sacrament em leader takes place at pulpit.
3. Prelude.
4. Sacrament em reverently repeated by leader.
5. Sacrament gem repeated by congregation.
6. Postlude.
7. Leader stands with bowed head and folded arms while blessing on bread is given.
8. Leader takes seat.
9. Sacrament is passed by deacons.
Question: There is disagreement among our Sunday School personnel concerning the order of the Sunday School during the sacrament service. I have suggested that the doors be closed at the beginning of the sacramental song, and remain so during the blessing and passing of the sacrament, then opened. If my suggestion is out of line with the general practice, will you please advise.
Answer: Latecomers may be admitted to the chapel at all times except during the opening prayer and the period beginning with the blessing of the bread and ending with the completion of the passing of the water. In many meetinghouses in the Church, more people come to Sunday School than the chapel can accommodate. They are obliged to sit or stand in the foyer. In such event, the chapel doors should remain open during the sacrament prayers so that all may hear them. It is not proper to pass the sacrament to people who have not heard these prayers.
Sunday School officers and teachers should ever be mindful that tardiness is a slothful habit and can be entirely overcome, except for emergencies, with intelligent direction.
Question: Sunday School class advancement time is just around the corner. The General Board has given ages for the respective courses of study. We should like to know as of what date these ages are to be taken.
Answer: Your Sunday School Handbook gives no rigid rule on this. The individual child’s welfare should be the uppermost consideration. however, the matter of electing a date for a general guide is left to the individual stake’s decision. Some stakes follow the date fixed by the local school district. This seems a good plan, since it avoids separating children from their day school companions.
Question: In making plans for Christmas, we are wondering what the General Board’s attitude is regarding having a Santa Claus visit our Junior Sunday School for our special program.
Answer: The General Board recommends that visits of Santa Claus be not included in plans for either the Junior or Senior Sunday School. Often such a feature on the services introduces a carnival spirit that is not in keeping with Sabbath School reverence. There is no objection to having a Santa Claus at a weekday social for Sunday School children.
Question: From time to time recommended programs for such special Sundays as Easter and Mother’s Day appear in The Instructor. Does the General Board wish every Sunday School in the Church to follow these programs as outlined?
Question: What about the funds which the stake board is permitted to retain from the Dime Fund collection? Just what use should be made of them? Is it all right to use them for purchasing refreshments for a stake board social?
Answer: Money retained from the Dime Fund collection by the stake board may be used in any way the stake board chooses, so long as the funds are used to further the Sunday School cause in the stake. Some stake boards may feel that helping to defray expenses for a stake board social is such an expenditure. There is no objection to such a practice. But the stake board might consider some of the other ways the funds might be used, such as in providing posters to wards for “Bring a Friend Sunday,” purchasing stake board record books and obtaining teaching aids to distribute among wards in the encouragement of the building of libraries. Where stakes cover long distances, the funds might be used to help defray traveling expenses of stake board members in making visits.
But don’t rule out the stake board socials. If funds are not sufficient, why not ask all to contribute a few nickels for refreshments?
Question: From the Handbook and instructions given at our last Sunday School convention, we understand that 2-1/2-minute talks should be prepared with the help of teacher and parents— first given in class and then selected for presentation to the Sunday School assembled. One of our superintendents says that such procedure is wrong, and he has established a special class for those who may be assigned to give the talks, and the opening and closing prayers.
Answer: Children need instruction in the giving of prayers as well as in the 2-1/2 minute talks and the sacrament gems. They should be instructed in the sacred and reverential language of prayer. It is the responsibility of the superintendency to see that they are adequately instructed and that these parts of the worship service are effectively given. It is also the opportunity and responsibility of the class leader. The 2-1/2 minute talks should grow naturally out of the lessons.
Again with the expectation that young children cannot pay attention to General Conference.
What is this?
I agree, though the current practice is Jan 1st. My ward right now did divide three kids born in 2010 based on grade, though, and I think it was right for the kids involved. The 2nd grader spring birthday was sent to the older class (2008/2009) and the 1st grader fall birthday was sent to the younger class (2011/2012). One child that year has his own class due to special needs.
Sounds expensive for 1953.
I would’ve given anything to have seen Santa Claus show up during Sunday School …
I remember Sacrament Gems. It was a group reading of a scripture verse that was positioned in SUnday School and Junior SUnday School just before the sacrament was blessed and passed.
Pre-1980, on most Sundays of the month, you had opportunity twice in the Sunday to partake of the Sacrament… once in morning Sunday School, and once in evening Sacrament Meeting. The Sacrament Gem was a feature of Sunday School.
The bits on the Lord’s Supper are interesting. In an area of microphones I hadn’t thought about people bit being able to hear the prayers.
Also the expectations for small children and GenCon seems…reasonable.
Silently taking roll in a class of over 300 seems like a monumental task for the secretary. I could possibly learn the name and face of everyone in a group of 300, given a few years to do it, but I’d still have trouble figuring out who was sitting in the furthest row. Speedily and quietly gathering up a few hundred small slips of paper doesn’t seem likely either.
Hectographs! I remember some purple-ink mimeograph or spirit-duplicator handouts when I was very young, but I don’t think I ever had the pleasure of seeing anything duplicated by hectograph. Thank goodness for modern photocopiers and printers.
The instructions on Santa Claus reveal that it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission. Maybe a visit from Saint Nicholas could be arranged instead (preferably with gift-giving, rather than heretic-punching).
Should you feel inclined to time travel, Mike R., here’s how to make your very own hectograph.
Reminds me of the pans we’d use for dissections in biology class.
Yesterday in sacrament meeting we sang “Welcome, Welcome, Sabbath Morning,” which is of course full of anachronisms from Sunday School of days gone by. So it’s fun to read this post today and continue thinking about how things have changed.
I was curious about what “Dime Sunday” could be. A bit of Googling led me to this Church History post. From the question above, it sounds like Dime Sunday funds were split between the wards and the stake, maybe?
I was also interested in the question about gender-segregated classes. Growing up our Sunday School classes were always separate, due to natural selection as the girls who actually wanted to learn something fled the rowdy boys.
Sadly, I am old enough to remember Sunday School sacrament service. When I was a deacon, we had both Junior and Senior Sunday School assignments to pass the sacrament, which required a lot of deacons. And Dime Sunday.
I have wondered about all the minutes and attendance lists that were taken in those days, and why it was so important then, an d not so much now. Maybe our Relief Society still tries to take attendance, but to my best recollection, it hasn’t taken place in any PH meetings for most, if not all, of my adult life.
lindberg, you’re right. Since Dime Sunday (an inflation-spurred development from the earlier Nickel Sunday) was intended to finance the Sunday School — annual dues, of a kind. Since both the ward and stake had expenses (mostly equipment — pictures, stickers, blackboards for the ward, and traveling expenses for the stake leaders who visited the wards and taught the leaders), it was divided between the two organizations.
kevinf, I’m not sure what went into the decision to stop taking detailed minutes. That was a change made in the early 1970s. Interestingly, the same decision halted the recording of who ordained who to what office in the priesthood, a decision that the Church grew to regret and where they have been anxiously filling in the blanks since reversing that decision a number of years ago. In the case of priesthood ordination, expecting individuals to maintain their own personal records — which too many did not — created a break in the chain of documented priesthood authority that fills a doctrinal need in the Church. By ending the minutes and reducing the history to a few lines of summary in a ward’s annual report, we have lost a major repository of our history that I think we will regret more and more, but which doesn’t seem to leave a theological hole.