Early morning seminary teacher is a much dreaded calling in California but in Utah, with release-time from class, it's a professional, hired teaching position. I just can't imagine, even as a TBM, ever wanting to spend all day, every day teaching teenagers in seminary. It can't be the pay scale - the church is notoriously cheap with it's lower level employees. Is it just the Mormon equivalent to becoming a paid preacher or something? And why are so many of them bald? And do the every hire women? Because I've never heard of a woman seminary teacher - unless it was a calling they couldn't get out of

I agree. I always thought the individuals that went into that program were/ are a special type of crazy. And the mind boggling thing to me that the seminary training programs are absolutely PACKED with interested individuals in that career and most get weeded out. I have to admit teaching is not my cup of tea so any type of teaching career was immediately off my list of acceptable careers.

My aunt, a never married woman in her now mid 40's has been a seminary teacher for many years. Though I don't believe she's ever been hired on as full time. I know I've heard her vocalize frustrations more than once that this opportunity for her has been very limited for the sole fact that she has never married. So while she has taught for a long time I don't know if she's ever been payed for it. I'm pretty sure she's just taught 1-2 classes a semester as a voluntter. Fortunately for her she is now a professor at a college so she wasn't putting all her eggs in that basket.

is you aunt Stephanie scoresby of highland ut?

I wanted to be a paid seminary teacher. I guess I was a special kind of crazy, hahaha.

I was early morning volunteer and did enjoy it very much. Teaching is not my profession but at church I loved it. Of course, this was in the outer field, or mission field, with many converts and slack mormons. In other words, many real people in that area. Not many stake leaders and not very rich. When I moved to a more 'like Utah' area it was a different story. The seminary teachers were a bit off and full of 'deep' doctrine. Everyone seemed to be watching everyone else and reporting in ward council. Very uncomfortable for me. That was my last ward.

Anyway, I did want to get paid for teaching since I was already doing it for free. Here in Ontario, Canada, we don't have paid teachers, they are all volunteers. We do have CES reps (not sure what the official name is). They are full time employees. They supervise the volunteer teachers in the area and teach Institute. They also give firesides and do training once or twice a year. They are all males, of course. I always felt cheated that I couldn't even aspire to a position like that. I've heard the salaries are very competitive, but I don't know the numbers.

Was working for La-Z-Boy and went back to school to become a seminary teacher. He was inactive when he moved here. Now he is a seminary teacher and was a bishop.

They seem to be doing WELL financially. I always thought they must be paid low wages, but unless he was paid while he was the bishop (ha ha ha), he is earning plenty. His wife doesn't have to work.

Because if you hang on, you can become a CES director, make 100k a year without having to actually work. Just travel around a bit, be adored and worshipped, and make sure everybody fills out their monthly reports.

Then, if you also happen to be a first class A-hole and/or are married into the right family, you could make General Authority one day, which means even more money and adoration for less work.

Sounds like a good deal to me!

rt Wrote:
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> Because if you hang on, you can become a CES
> director, make 100k a year without having to
> actually work. Just travel around a bit, be adored
> and worshipped, and make sure everybody fills out
> their monthly reports.
>
> Then, if you also happen to be a first class
> A-hole and/or are married into the right family,
> you could make General Authority one day, which
> means even more money and adoration for less
> work.
>
> Sounds like a good deal to me!

I knew some seminary teachers during my Provo days (in the 90s)who absolutely fit this bill. They all had visions of church leadership dancing through their crazy, crazy heads. They all married well-connected Ann Romney-type wives. And they all thought they were god's gift.

here is why you teach seminary

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=12499894

The real question to me is, why is it a paid profession in Utah, but in the rest of the church it's something members are expected to do for free? Shouldn't ALL seminary teachers be paid?

It depends on if it's Early Morning seminary (volunteer) or if it's release time (paid).

Release time takes one class a day from a HS schedule, so they work basically the same hours as a regular HS teacher.

Unlike a regular high school teacher, a seminary teacher is spoonfed the daily lesson plans by the CES. There is very little prep these guys have to do - just read from the script.
In that respect, it's an easy teaching job.

Regarding your question about women seminary teachers:

From what I've been told, women are not hired as released time seminary teachers if they still have children at home. In areas with early morning seminary, they allow women to get up at the crack of dawn and teach for free whether they still have children at home or not.

There was a paid, full-time female seminary teacher at my Utah high school. Take this with a grain of salt, but I was told by.... somebody, don't remember who... that she could only be a Seminary teacher until she got married.

I had a released-time seminary female teacher in HS (early 2000s) who was married. I think she told us once that she had to have a special interview to get the position and it was understood that once she had children, she had to quit.

Not sure how that's legal, but if you are a religious organization, you can do whatever you want relating to your employees.

I have been told that only couples can be called to teach seminary, or a man, not a woman by herself.....

I one had a bishop that was a ces director. He made close to 100k. He had 6 kids and a wife that is a SAHM.

He's tall, good looking and had a good personality. One of the few bishops I've liked.

He has a big Utah family name. I'm pretty sure he aspires to be a upper up in SLC someday. He hangs out with some of them in his spare time.

When DH and I left the church he avoided us like the plague. I think it's because he knows the truth about the church, and he didn't want us to know he knows. He doesn't want to be associated in any way with apostates. He could lose his job, his future jobs, his wife and family for hanging out with the likes of us. He used to be a friend.

I have a close friend who is a Seminary Teacher. When President Hinckley became the profit, he gave Seminary/Institute Teachers a substantial raise. For Utah teachers, they make a good living and their benefits are really good.

I've found that the full-time Seminary/Institute Program is now used to really make people 'Church broke'. It is a breeding ground for Morg Leadership. My Seminar Teacher friend often says, 'The Church is REALLY good to me. I could never complain.' It's another mechanism to create absolute loyalty and then they promulgate the loyalty to the next generation in the classroom. By the way, they are almost all amazing teachers and that makes them even more dangerous to the rising generation.

If men aren't married, they will rarely hire them. They do hire women, occasionally, but they are automatically 'let go' when they have a baby and cannot return until their youngest is out of the home. Awesome...

Full time seminary positions are the breeding ground for many higher church callings. I have known about three CES employees and each had high aspirations. One was a bishop of the ward he lived in at the ripe age of 24. The other two were at least on the high council before the age of thirty. Many CES employees have a shot at becoming a Mission President and sometimes a GA. It is a professional experience that puts you consistently in the loop with church leaders.

My understanding is that they are fairly well paid, averaging an overall higher rate of pay than the average school teacher. They also have the opportunity to be somewhat of a semi-celebrity among the youth. Every seminary has at least one teacher that has an outgoing personality and sense of humor that makes him popular.Some have even sold books and music recordings through Deseret Book.

If you are TBM with the right personality it can be a fairly lucrative gig.

The seminaries in Utah teach way too many classes to be an unpaid calling. When I was in high school in the 70s each teacher taught 6 classes a day and there were 8 teachers. I don't think if has let up since then.

DW taught semitary for several years, with pay.
Later she needed the money so she asked about teaching again and was informed that it was no longer a paying position

Going back more than thirty years, I was a paid early morning seminary teacher. That included ferrying students back and forth. I was also EQP at the time. Made for a long day.
But it kept the youngsters too tired to get into a lot of trouble.

Do any other states beside Utah have time release?

misterzelph Wrote:
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> Do any other states beside Utah have time release?


Yep; Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, and even Northern California.

Wow

3 of my 4 seminary teachers were women. Signed up for early morning each time (rarely or never attended after the first year), and we had a different teacher each year. About a year and a half after graduating high school, I bumped into the male seminary teacher.

After telling him I was attending college and I aimed to become a teacher, he took note that I was missionary age, insisted I dropped out of college right away, go on a mission and just become a seminary teacher, and it would be the most fulfilling thing I ever did.

He's lucky I was at work and on the clock when he said this to me because it was the only thing stopping some very choice words from exiting my mouth.

I was desperately trying to hold on to belief when I (briefly) decided I wanted to be a seminary teacher. I was trying to emulate the most "spiritual" person I knew, my grandfather. I thought that if my life was dedicated to the church that I would be able to fend off the doubts that were suffocating me.

The whole thing came crumbling down before I got very far, and I changed to computer science (a field that suits me much, much better).