Is Sunday School Outdated?

I have recently been discussing this topic with 17 other pastors and it has been an eye-opening experience. It seems that everyone of them feel that Sunday School is vitally important, but that at the same time, it is not accomplishing what it once did. The Sunday school was invented in the 1700's as the primary tool for bringing people into the church. It was a focused ministry that met very real needs of a community. The church wanted people to read and study their bibles but they found out the poorest people, who were the most willing, could not read. So the church created Sunday school to teach people to read and then to study the bible. Over the years it became the primary way we fulfilled the great commission to go into all the world and make disciples. In Sunday School, a church member had the opportunity to ask questions and get very specific help that could never be done in the main worship service. Teachers took on the role of shepherds and prayed daily for their class and got involved in their lives. People were excited about Sunday School. Lives were being changed for the better as people were encouraged and held accountable by a class of peers that were on the same journey. Eventually things began to change and it became more about being a place for fellowship and lite study. No longer was it used as an entering point into the church. Many of the pastor's I have been conversing with are split as to who is to blame. About half believe that the average teacher is not as committed as the teachers of old. Most say they do not think their teachers even think much about the Sunday lesson before Sunday morning. They rely on the curriculum to carry the day when most curriculum writers rely on good teachers to bring the lesson to life. Many teachers when polled anonymously, admit to feeling that the "job" is a "chore" and they admit to not even taking it to prayer a single time during the week. So those who blame the teachers may have a point. The other side, however, cites the fact that people are not that interested in sitting through lessons. Their lives are filled with lessons and work and mental strain. They are educated and talented enough to go out and get any information their hearts desire through the Internet. What is missing from their lives that they desperately seek and never seem to find is good fellowship and quality "hang out" time. So when you put together a combination of under prepared uninteresting teachers with tired uninterested students who just want to "hang-out", Sunday school is not going to be the great arm of the church reaching folks for the kingdom of God. Many churches are turning their backs on traditional Sunday school and creating small groups where teaching is "snuck" in during the relaxed context of a relational setting. I'm not sure if there is a black or white stance here at all. It seems to me that no ministry has a chance when it is not engulfed and drenched with prayer and hard work. We need teachers who are anointed and passionate about teaching...we need parishioners who hunger and thirst after righteousness...but most of all, we need people who are willing to give up something in order to take the church and the lost before the throne of God on a daily, if not hourly basis in such passionate and intense prayer that they feel completely exhausted AND rejuvenated at the same time when they are finished! WHAT DO YOU THINK?