Seminary vs. Institute

I learned something last week. I substitute taught seminary on Tuesday morning—the sophomore class, which is usually the last class that anybody wants to substitute for, because everyone knows that sophomores in high school are generally the most “annoyed” of all high school students. The kids I taught, though, were actually very good. Half participated, and most of the other half listened, which is good for 15 year olds who had to wake up at 5am to be where they were. I pretty much marked it a success when I finished my lesson and nothing had been thrown at me, and they seemed genuinely interested in the John Bytheway blip that I had with me (I'm pretty sure his talks have saved many a seminary teacher from pulling their hair out). I also learned that if you give teenagers a task to do, they will not do it; however, if you say the words “Ready…Go!” they immediately start. It’s like a magic phrase. My Dad says that it makes them feel as though they are in competition with each other.

Anyhow, that’s not necessarily what I learned. The realization didn’t actually come to me until Wednesday night, while I was sitting (as a student, this time) in my institute class. I was watching Elder Thomas stand there telling us stories about Joseph Fielding Smith and Harold B. Lee, and I realized that as members of the church taking time out to attend an institute class, we aren’t really half as engaged as we should be. Shouldn’t we be jumping up to ask questions and find out more? I don’t think most of the people in my class even cracked open the lesson manual before they came; they came simply to have the information downloaded into their heads. Isn’t that sort of…inexcusable? I mean, the kids that I taught seminary to are angsty teenagers, so they have an excuse when they sit there staring slightly blindly at me. And they didn’t even really sit there staring blindly at me. They actually participated and asked really good questions. So, shouldn’t the people my age (remember, I’m an adult) be a little more engaged? We’re not computers. The gospel isn’t something you download. It’s something you do. Something you have to apply.