DiscussMormonism.com

When Sharon Haynie signed on to teach early morning seminary almost 30 years, the volunteer instructor expected the predawn rousings, the many lesson preps and struggles to elicit thoughtful responses from sleepy students. What she didn’t anticipate: the hit to her bank account.

Haynie, who lives in rural south-central Colorado, has taught the weekday classes for high schoolers in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1997. During that time, she estimates she has spent thousands of dollars — roughly $40 a month in recent school years — of her own money, much of it on standard classroom materials.

More than a decade ago, she and a fellow early morning seminary teacher, Jenny Smith, launched a Facebook group for instructors. Surprise over the costs of the calling is a regular topic, Smith said, in the 19,000-member community, especially among its newer members.

“Early morning seminary is,” Smith, who lives in Virginia, said, “an expensive calling.”

Curious as to how much of the program’s financial burden teachers were shouldering, she sent a survey to members of the Facebook group in 2020. The questionnaire amassed 155 respondents, the majority from within the United States. Results showed that they spent an average of $243 a school year.

Smith then asked respondents to rate their difficulty level paying for seminary expenses — from 1 (no difficulty) to 10 (extreme difficulty). Nearly 40% selected a 5 or higher.

These findings worried Smith, who spent the next four years trying to raise awareness of the issue with the Church Educational System and other Latter-day Saint leaders. After all, she reasoned, the global faith, with a piggy bank worth hundreds of billions, has the money.

“Like most who serve in the church, I don’t mind buttoning my belt a little tighter, and have, for the kingdom,” Smith said. “But this is not 1924, and the church is on firm financial ground. It can fund seminary. This is fixable.”

What few responses she’s received to date from church higher-ups, she said, have been dismissive.

Many early morning teachers hold classes in their homes. That means finding ways to outfit a living room as a classroom each day with whiteboards, clipboards and audiovisual equipment.

Those who teach at a nearby meetinghouse typically have a few more resources — a chalkboard and a TV — but run into commuting costs, particularly for those living in rural and sparsely populated areas.

Poster boards, colored pencils, candy prizes, items for object lessons, journals for students to record their thoughts (an activity the manual often suggests) — these all add up, particularly for those with larger classes.

Shauna Hostetler, who taught seminary in West Palm Beach, Florida, from 2012 to 2020, estimates she “easily” spent $1,000 a year for classes of 15 to 30 students.

A top expense was paper and ink, a point echoed by other instructors.

“There’s always,” Hostetler said, “a lot of copies to make.”

Although she had access to the meetinghouse copier, she found it unreliable. Even when it did work, she had to buy paper to fill it. Like the other teachers interviewed for this story, she almost always wound up simply printing off what she needed at home.

“Your child’s seminary experience,” she said, “should not depend on how wealthy their teacher is.”