I too like reading background and learning symbology and esoteric stuff, if it comes from a source I trust (which generally is not your average ward Sunday School teacher), but I can’t bring myself to do it much except in small bits to enliven a lesson. A steady diet of “wow! look at this cool thing!” from a teacher seems more to be a “hey, look at me!” rather than a “let’s discuss the gospel.”

I’ve noticed, too, this year as I call for spontaneous summaries of what should be very well known Biblical stories, that my class has a hard time dredging up enough detail to offer a coherent summary. I think we don’t know as much as we always assume we know, even about something I presume we’ve all heard dozens of times, like the giving of the Ten Commandments or Moses-in-the-bulrushes.

Ardis, I always appreciate what you put up as well as there is often something in there that our teacher missed or I didn’t get from my extra research.

I used to get bored easily in Sunday School, but we got a better teacher who kept us busy during NT in the JST and the Bible Dictionary where I learned a TON from what I had in my hand already! So now if we have a “boring” or “canned” lesson, I am flipping incessantly through the BD and JST to see what I can teach myself.

(And then I spent a bunch of the rest of the Sunday School hour in the family history center talking to one of my visiting teaching sisters about genealogy and family history blogging. But since that has nothing to do with the Exodus, and just shows the lengths to which I’ll go to miss Sunday School, I probably shouldn’t mention it! )