Sacrifices of Mormon Sunday School Teachers

As Joseph F. Merrill prepared to launch the first released-time seminary program at Granite High School in 1911, the future LDS apostle knew certain qualities would be vital for long-term success in the teaching position.

“It is the desire of the presidency of the stake to have a strong young man who is properly qualified to do the work in a most satisfactory manner. By 'young' we do not necessarily mean a teacher who is young in years, but a man who is young in his feelings, who loves young people, who delights in their company, who can command their respect and admiration and exercise a great influence over them,” wrote Merrill, whose description was later published in a 1938 edition of the Improvement Era and the Religious Educator. “We want a man who is a thorough student, one who will not teach in a perfunctory way, but who will enliven his instructions by a strong, winning personality and give evidence of a thorough understanding of and scholarship in the things he teaches. … A teacher is wanted who is a leader and who will be universally regarded as the inferior of no teacher in the high school."