A better use of the youths’ time would result in better preparation on their part. I think that a lot of kids are not participating in some of the programs because it is so much that it is overwhelming to them. I say this as a mom whose boys are/did in scouting (one Eagle and one Life), passing off their Duty to God, and attending Seminary. A lot of their Church peers are not. It is not because they aren’t good kids, they are overwhelmed. I think that it damages our youth’s Church self-esteem when they don’t think that they are not good enough if they don’t do it all.

Sorry for the thread-jack Ronan, I enjoyed your post. I as usual have nothing intelligent to add :) Oh, btw Thanks for being a Seminary Teacher.

I think we should use the 2nd and 3rd block of the 3 hour block for seminary. Since seminary boils down to perhaps 40 productive minutes each day, and Friday was often a goof off day, they really don’t need to replace that full time slot. They could have one other meeting one evening, or even early morning, a week, and that would do it. You wouldn’t have to do the opening and closing prayer and song and devotional five times a week, just once or twice and that would save time too. Yes, they wouldn’t have the regular SS lessons, and YW/Ym, but I think those could be incorporated in the seminary lessons easily. The last time I taught the 14 year olds in SS, the lesson actually presented in the manual could be done in a few minutes.

My friend, the sleep researcher, says that there are some very good reasons that teenagers should be allowed to sleep later. When they are deprived of sleep their judgment is much worse– so they are much more likely to engage in risky behavior. Teenagers as a group naturally have a harder time getting up early in the morning, and “come alive” at night. If you’ve had a few in the house, you realize that this is a real phenomenon, not a cultural thing. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to fight it. Maybe we could have late night seminary.

You and I can start a group, MAAMS: Mormons Against AM Seminary. Actually, I’m only against mega-early Seminary. When my dad taught it, they split up all the kids from each school so they could meet close to their own school. This meant that he held class at 7.30, an entirely reasonable time. 6am is a Xenu-esque monstrosity.

Maybe Bryce I. would remember better than I do how it worked for us … I just remember that the Scarsdale kids seemed to have a slightly larger window of time … so they could roll out of bed and come to seminary in pajamas if they wanted to. I usually went straight from early morning seminary to school … so that wasn’t an option.