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An LDS Education for LDS Children ..............................................................................Part 1: An LDS Education for LDS Children ..............................................................................Part 2: Educational Apostasy ..............................................................................Part 3: Restoration and Beyond Part 1: An LDS Education for LDS Children

Is there an LDS education? Is there a curriculum the Lord would have us learn? A method He would have us use? Is there an educational path to Zion? If we were to sit beside Jesus on a log in the forest, talking face to face as Moroni did (Ether 12:39, as I picture it), what would He tell us about educating our children? He has told us? Oh, yes, there is a verse in the Book of Mormon, "trust no one to be your teacher nor your minister, except he be a man of God, walking in his ways and keeping his commandments" (Mosiah 23:14). But what are His educational ways? Adam and Eve were the first to deal with this issue when they were commanded to keep the family records "by the spirit of inspiration." The scripture records that "by them their children were taught to read and write." (Moses 6:5-6). Did a government agency come in and set up a school for them? Oh, no, the Patriarchs were the government. They must have either taught their children themselves or set up a church school. But before Adam and Eve was the Lord Jesus Christ who sent himself to be born into a religious home where He would be taught the gospel, first by his parents and then in the village church school. Under Education in our Bible Dictionary, we learn: The divine law impressed upon parents the duty of teaching their children its precepts and principles, but little is known about the methods of teaching that were employed. Up to six years of age a child was taught at home, chiefly by the mother (cf. 2 Tim. 1: 5). The schools that all boys from six years old had to attend were generally held in the synagogues. Until a boy was ten no textbook was used but scripture. The aim was to encourage study by sense of duty rather than by reward or fear. Reading, writing, and grammar were taught, and in order that teaching might be thorough, no class even in the elementary school might exceed 25 pupils. The "religious question" could not exist in Jewish education any more than in Church schools today, for the whole purpose of education was religious. Nothing was regarded as worth learning except as it illustrated scripture. . . . At the age of 12 a Jewish boy was taken to Jerusalem at one of the feasts and tested by the doctors of the law in the temple . . . . - Bible Dictionary, Education Knowing how the Savior chose to be educated doesn't necessarily show us the last days Zion education path, but it shows the importance of a religious education. What about the educational standard in the Latter-day church? America, the cradle of . . . . , what was it?, oh, yes, liberty. Of course. God wants his children to be free so they choose Him, without compulsion. Earth life is our opportunity to practice using agency so we can become like Him. We can't practice "acting" if we are "acted upon." Agency is essential in education. By the time of the Revolution, America was a very literate country. The children were usually taught at home or in schools run by their ministers. Citizens understood that liberty was a gift from God, not from the king. This was the basis of the radical new form of government of the Constitution. It had its roots in the Bible. The Founding Fathers and all early Americans considered their country to be a Christian nation, as we can see in the three foundational documents: the Declaration of Independence the Constitution, and Washington's Farewell Address. The national commitment to religion as the basis of education was shown in the language of the Northwest Ordinance, enacted in July of 1787 to govern the territory northwest of the Ohio River. Article 3 reads: Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. Notice that they said "encouraged," not "mandated." Compulsion was probably tempting, but Jefferson said: It is better to tolerate the rare instance of a parent refusing to let his child be educated than to shock the common feelings and ideas by the forcible asportation and education of the infant against the will of the father. - The Real Thomas Jefferson, Allison,et al, p.412 There was some talk of tying literacy to the right to vote, also tempting. The idea of the Founders was that an educated populace would be necessary to understand and protect the Constitution. This was neither job preparation nor the formation of a new worldview; it was national self-preservation. And the terms were three months, during the winter. In the summer everyone returned to real life - farming. And it wasn't necessarily free. Three years gratis was Thomas Jefferson's proposal. Noah Webster was a great patriot. In the forward of his 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, he reveals the American commitment to Christianity: In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. It is no wonder, then, that Joseph Smith's family would read the Bible regularly and teach their children from it, as did most Americans of their day. And it's fitting that when Joseph translated the ancient records he found that the Book of Mormon, from beginning to end, is a family story, with fathers expressing concern for preserving sacred records and teaching their posterity from them. The whole point in Lehi's obtaining the plates from Laban was so "he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children" (Mosiah 1:4). The fathers in the Book of Mormon took their duty seriously. Joseph, according to his mother, was not much of a scholar as a boy (as many boys aren't), but he became one in maturity (as many boys do). He promoted education in Kirtland, including the School of the Prophets. He encouraged many schools in Nauvoo and chartered the University of the City of Nauvoo as part of the charter of the City of Nauvoo (although he didn't live long enough to see a university established). Educator Karl G. Maeser would later say: I told the students Joseph Smith taught this people correct principles and they governed themselves according - [this] is the leading principle of discipline . . . [and] the words of President Brigham Young, that neither the alphabet nor the multiplication table were to be taught without the Spirit of God - [is] the mainspring of all education. John Taylor was also a great promoter of education. He said: We want . . . to be alive in the cause of education. We are commanded of the Lord to obtain knowledge, both by study and by faith, seeking it out of the best books [see D&C 88:118]. And it becomes us to teach our children, and afford them instruction in every branch of education calculated to promote their welfare. - Teachings of Presidents of the Church John Taylor, p.90 Whatever you do, be choice in your selection of teachers. We do not want infidels to mold the minds of our children. They are a precious chare bestowed upon us by the Lord, and we cannot be too careful in rearing and training them. I would rather have my children taught the simple rudiments of a common education by men of God, and have them under their influence, than have them taught in the most abstruse [or complex] sciences by men who have not the fear of God in their hearts. . . . - Teachings of Presidents of the Church John Taylor, p.90-1 I can perceive quite an interest in educational matters, manifesting itself in our brethren who preside here; and I am much gratified in it. I hope that this whole county will go at this matter in all good faith, and where you lack good school-houses put them up; and when you have already the school-house, but lack the furniture, get it and try to make the school-house comfortable for the children; and then good teachers who are good Latter-day Saints. Shall we have them, or shall we employ teachers that will turn the infant minds of our children away from the principles of the Gospel, and perhaps lead them to darkness and death? Some say, "You ought to be very generous, quite as liberal and generous as others." I think so. But if some of these liberal people, who talk so much about liberality, would show a little more of it, we would appreciate it a little better. - John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, .19:.249 - 50, October 21, 1877 President Taylor and President Woodruff worked hard to pursuade the people to stay with LDS curriculum and teachers. They lost the battle, and Part 2 of this article will explain how that happened. We will move forward almost a century, when a few of the Saints started to realize that all was not well in the public schools. Church leaders were way ahead of them. In the mid-1970's then-Apostle Ezra Taft Benson attended a patriotic musical program at one of the few private LDS schools in Utah. After the conclusion of the program he spoke to the audience and said to the students, "If all children in America had what you have in this school, I wouldn't fear for the future of our country." He also gave them each a book about George Washington. Like President Benson, President Spencer W. Kimball had been schooled in a Church academy. He taught: Peter and John had little secular learning, being termed ignorant. But they knew the vital things of life, that God lives and that the crucified, resurrected Lord is the Son of God. They knew the path to eternal life. This they learned in a few decades of their mortal life. Their righteous lives opened the door to godhood for them and creation of worlds with eternal increase. For this they would probably need, eventually, a total knowledge of the sciences. But whereas Peter and John had only decades to learn and do the spiritual, they have already had nineteen centuries in which to learn the secular or the geology of the earth, the zoology and physiology and psychology of the creatures of the earth. Mortality is the time to learn first of God and the gospel and to perform the ordinances. After our feet are set firmly on the path to eternal life we can amass more knowledge of the secular things. - "President Kimball Speaks Out on Planning Your Life," New Era, Sep 1981, 47 Elder Henry B. Eyring, a nephew of Sister Camilla Eyring Kimball, understood this too. At a May 2001 CES fireside he taught: Reading the scriptures would come for us before reading history books. Prayer would come before memorizing those Spanish verbs. A temple recommend would be worth more to us than standing first in our graduating class. President Gordon B. Hinckley who was raised by parents who were educators in a home that was very much a learning center, considered it a tragedy that a BYU college experience is not available to all Saints. Speaking at a BYU Devotional on 4 November 1997, he said: I have reflected much of late on the unique features of this Church university. I am not surprised that students from far and wide are trying to get in here. It is a tragedy that so many must be turned away. Sometimes I wish we could support a dozen institutions such as this. But we cannot, and the problem becomes more serious every year as we have in the Church an increasing number of young people. He then asked, "What do you have here that for the most part is not found elsewhere? Is there any substance to this so-called BYU experience?" He answered his own question affirmatively: "I think so." He spoke of the blessing of having a campus organized into student wards and stakes to provide sociality without the competition of social fraternities, and the blessing of being in a ward presided over by a bishop. He spoke of the Word of Wisdom. "What a wonderful thing it is to have pleasant and happy associations without any inclination whatever to indulge in drinking or any related practice." He spoke of the "unique and dedicated faculty:" They are, for the most part, dedicated Latter-day Saints, men and women who feel as much at home in the house of the Lord as they feel in the classrooms of this university. When all is said and done, it is not this elaborate campus that really counts. It is the faculty who teach you, who lead you, who encourage you, who help you find your way as you go forward with your studies. This, again, is an element of the singular BYU experience. . . . I hope that the BYU experience will cause you to take on those qualities that will make of you a true disciple of Jesus. . . . I hope that you will take from this university the habit of seeking knowledge and that this habit will never leave you for as long as you live. A truly educated man never ceases to learn. He never ceases to grow. . . . . . . . the BYU experience . . . . should -- it must -- leave an everlasting impression upon you. It is scarcely perceptible most of the time. But it is nonetheless real. It should become an inseparable part of your very nature, something almost intangible but of great substance. You might have gone to another school and received an excellent education. But you came here, and you were fortunate enough to be accepted. You came because you wanted the BYU experience, although perhaps you could not define it. Having gained it, never lose it. Professor David A. Thomas of BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School who presented a devotional address on 3 June 2008, said: Sometimes when I am asked by prospective law students why they should choose BYU Law School over other good law schools they may have opportunity to attend, I am tempted to answer: "Well, at BYU you could have me as one of your teachers, of course." More seriously, perhaps the best answer I can give is this: This is a place where you will be surrounded by faculty and students who are striving to bring the Spirit of God into their lives, and therefore the spiritual gifts of teaching and learning will be found here in great abundance. Certainly it has been my privilege here, for over three decades, to be surrounded by friends and colleagues, both students and faculty, who are persons of great learning and wonderful intellectual attainment and who are also persons of faith and wisdom. Nowhere else on earth will you find that blessing in such abundance. And Relief Society President Julie B. Beck told the BYU-Idaho graduating class in July 2008: While you have been here, you have been recipients of one of the finest educations available in the world. . . . You have also been educated in an environment where the spirit of the Lord could flourish." A religious education is a beautiful thing. Brigham Young, who must have sat many times on that log with prophets of the past, understood religious education toward the sacred side of the continuum. He taught: If on the Sabbath day, when we are assembled here to worship the Lord, one of the Elders should be prompted to give us a lecture on any branch of education with which he is acquainted, is it outside the pale of our religion? I think not. If any of the Elders are disposed to give a lecture to parents and children on letters, on the rudiments of the English language, it is my religion, it is part of my faith. Or if one Elder shall give us a lecture upon astronomy, chemistry, or geology, our religion embraces it all. It matters not what the subject be, if it tends to improve the mind, exalt the feelings, and enlarge the capacity. The truth that is in all the arts and sciences forms a part of our religion. - Jack Monnett, Revealed Educational Principles and the Public Schools, p. 24 The idea that the religion of Christ is one thing and science is another is a mistaken idea for there is no true religion without true science and consequently, there is no true science without true religion. - Monnett, p. 25 Will we settle for anything less for our children? It is doubtful if there is an organization in existence that more completely directs the educational development of its people than does the Mormon Church. The educational program of the Church today is a consistent expansion of the theories promulgated by its founders. - M. Lynn Bennion, Mormonism and Education, p. 2 Traditionally, we are an education-loving people. - John A. Widtsoe, "The Returning Soldier" IE 47 (Nov. 1944):666, 701-702 Part 2: Educational Apostasy >>>      Part 3: Restoration and Beyond >>>

www.ldshea.org LDS Education for LDS Children, Part 1 © Joyce Kinmont 2008 last updated 9-29-2008