Why
Latter-Day Saints Should Homeschool . . . and how to do it!
#5a:
You
Can Give a Magnificent Gift
(With
thanks to our friend, Jack Monnett, for providing
much background and help with this article.)
Adam
and Eve and their posterity were the first homeschoolers.
In Moses 6:4-6 we are told:
And then
began these men to call
upon the name of the Lord, and the Lord blessed them; And
a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was recorded, in the
language of Adam, for it was given unto as many as called upon God to
write by the spirit of inspiration; And by them their children were
taught to read and write, having a language which was pure and
undefiled.
Mr. and
Mrs. Adam, as President Kimball liked to call them, and their righteous
posterity kept records and used them to teach their children to read and
write. Obviously these
children were given a religiously-based education.
Before
the Savior was sent to earth, Mary
and Joseph were carefully placed in just the right circumstances, in
a small Jewish town where the boys went to school in the synagogue at age
6 to learn scripture (the rolled parchments were kept in the synagogues).
They would be 10 before any other books would be used.
At 12 they would go to the temple to be tested, as Jesus did.
Our Bible
Dictionary explains the education Heavenly Father picked for His son:
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.
- The
Bible Dictionary, Education
The
earthly education of Jesus Christ was not accidental.
Joseph
Smith was also sent to a humble, righteous home to faithful parents.
His education was received mostly at home, with the Bible as his
basic text. These parents,
too, were chosen and sent to earth in the right time and place.
The
earthly education of Joseph Smith – and even the lack thereof -- was not
accidental.
The
Book of Mormon is very much about religious education.
It begins and ends with fathers teaching sons, and it is filled
throughout with fathers concerned for the religious upbringing of their
children. These fathers (and mothers, as in the stripling warriors) did
the teaching themselves.
When
there were teachers mentioned in the Book of Mormon, they were often
consecrated, and of course they taught from the scriptures.
Alma
the Elder warned his people to “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)
A teacher who “walks in his ways” and “keeps his
commandments” would derive his worldview from gospel principles and
would behave in complete accord with those principles.
We
do have one Book of Mormon story, in Mosiah 24, of teachers teaching
atheism and undermining parents, in a time of captivity.
And in Mosiah 26:1
we are left to
wonder what happened to those who were little children when they went with
their families to hear King Benjamin speak from his tower and who “did
not
believe the tradition of their fathers”
when they grew up. Did they
have teachers who were not men of God?
The Doctrine & Covenants
not only sets up the School of the Prophets, which was an adult school,
but speaks often about the responsibility of parents to provide a
religious education for their children.
When chastisement was given it was usually because the education of
the children was being neglected.
Early
schools in the restored church were always gospel based; those faithful
Saints who sacrificed so much would not have thought of any other way to
teach their children, nor was any other way offered.
In the prosperity of the Salt Lake Valley, however, the Saints and
their now-adult children were challenged by enticing new educational
ideas. Babylon came calling.
The
call came from Boston, of all places, from Horace Mann, the famous
spokesman for a group of influential men who were introducing new
educational philosophies based on Unitarian religious views and on the
Prussian school system. Mann
even made a trip to Prussia and brought back glowing, though apparently
exaggerated, stories of a wonderful national, standardized school system.
A
Google search brought up this description:
“The
Prussian system instituted compulsory attendance, national training for
teachers, national testing for all students (used to classify children for
potential job training), national curriculum set for each grade, and
mandatory kindergarten.” It
took education out of the hands of parents and churches and established a
national system under the authority of the state.
The system set out to “mold men” into good subjects of the
king. In
Prussia
the goal was to “instill loyalty to the Crown and to train young men for
the military and the bureaucracy. The
goal was to “….fashion the person, and fashion him in such a way that
he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will."
Wikipedia called it “social obedience.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_education_system)
Mann
had been deeply offended by the fire and brimstone teachings of the
Calvinist God-is-angry religion (who can blame him?) and moved instead to
Unitarian belief that God doesn’t really mind what you do, everything is
good, just be nice. Children
should be taught to love their fellow man, but not about sin. Then
he added forced regimentation to the mix.
It seems a bit of a dichotomy, but then isn’t that exactly what
the public schools are doing – atheism and no-limits immorality by force
and intimidation? Whenever we
deny the true God, man, or the state, becomes our god.
(The
gospel was preached in Boston from time to time by Brigham Young and
others. I have to wonder if
Mann every came in contact with it, ever walked past a street meeting or
heard mention of the Mormons over dinner. I certainly expect that he
has by now.
Mann’s
philosophies and the Prussian school system were, of course, the
antithesis of just about everything
America
stands for. He was able to
sell this system to the freedom loving citizens of the country partly, I
suppose, because he also pushed for better working conditions and better
pay for teachers. Although
many religious denominations and many wise citizens fought against it, the
“professionalism” won the day.
This story of education in
early
America
is well told in John Taylor Gatto’s The Underground History of
American Education, a hefty book that every teen and his
parents should consider reading (free online at http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm). Gatto
points out that we can also thank Mann for the eventual adoption of
whole-word-memorization method of reading.
He was passionately sure that “our greatest error in teaching
lies in beginning with the alphabet.”
Although Mann had some good
ideas, he had plenty of bad ideas. Three
that were in direct opposition to Church teachings were state financing by
redistribution of wealth, state certification and control of teachers, and
state control of curriculum. The
story of the other Utah War – the one for the hearts and minds of the
children – is best told by Dr. John (Jack) D. Monnett, historian and
former CES instructor, in his book Revealed Educational Principles and
the Public Schools. (This
book should be read by every LDS parent and shared with the children so
they will be fortified against the pull of Babylon.) During the year when the Church used the Teachings of the Prophets
John Taylor as the Priesthood/Relief Society text, Brother Monnett
also compiled a second, smaller volume, another 84 pages of quotes and
information detailing President Taylor’s views on the meaning of a
religious education in every subject.
Both books are available through our bookstore.)
Financing by Tuition vs
Redistribution of
Wealth
Church
leaders expected the parents, not the neighborhood, to pay for the
education of the children. The
buildings were built by tax levies, but teacher’s salaries and supplies
were covered by tuition. The
Church was opposed to state redistribution of wealth and expected the poor
to be helped by voluntary charity. Brigham
complained:
I
suppose it will not be long before they will want to dictate in some other
places and say how much shall be raised for schools and so forth; and I
suppose it will be but a little while before some of those officious
characters will determine the number of beans that Brother Kimball and I
shall have in our porridge. (Monnett p. 39).
That
was in 1867. Ten years later
the battle was still raging. Imagine
sitting in the Tabernacle for General Conference and hearing President
Brigham Young say:
I
am opposed to free education as much as I am opposed to taking property
from one man and giving it to another....But when you come to the fact, I
will venture to say that I school ten children to every one that those do
who complain so much of me. I
now pay the school fee of a number of children who are either orphans or
sons and daughters of poor people. But
in aiding and blessing the poor I do not believe in allowing my charities
to go through the hands of a set of robbers who pocket nine-tenths
themselves, and give one-tenth to the poor.
Therein is the difference between us:
I am for the real act of doing and not saying.
Would I encourage free schools by taxation? No!
(Conference, April 6, 1877, JD18:357)
Other
church leaders were just as vocal. The
anti-Mormon Salt Lake Tribute complained:
Apostle-delegate
Cannon, under the eye of his divine master, whose mere echo he is,
condemned free schools as degrading and pauperizing to the minds of the
young . . .If the state owed to the child schooling, it also by a parity
of reasoning, owed to it food and clothing at public expense.
If he wanted to destroy in a child's mind that feeling of energy,
self-respect and self reliance, which all should have, he would impress
upon him that the state owed him something upon which he could depend.
And
Apostle Woodruff, who dedicated the Mormon Temple at St. George a few
weeks ago . . . figured up that the cost of free schools would eat up the
entire property of the territory -- real and personal -- in twenty years,
and recommended that the Saints save from their whiskey and tobacco
indulgence to the cost of educating their children. (Salt Lake Tribune,
Jan. 23, 1877)
(The
two quotes above are from the book The
Great and Abominable Church of the Devil by H. Verlan Andersen, who
was a member of the Seventies and has a large posterity of homeschoolers.
The book is no longer in print.
Brother Andersen said “parents are compelled by the devil’s
church to finance with their tax money the corruption of their own
children.”)
Teaching by Men of God
vs Professionals
The Saints, and
even their local leaders, were apparently easily sold on Babylon. Brigham Young must have been
extremely frustrated when he said:
Are you going to pay [a
Gentile school teacher] for his good looks?
That is what some of our bishops want to do.
If they can get a man, no matter what his moral qualities may be,
whose shirt front is well starched and ironed, they will say – “Bless
me, you are a delightful little man! What
a smooth shirt you have got, and you have a ring on your finger – you
are going to teach our school for us.
And along comes a stalwart man, axe in hand, going to chop wood,
and , if he asks, “Do you want a school teacher?” though he may know
five times more than the dandy, he is told, “No, no we have one
engaged.” I want to cuff you
bishops back and forth until you get your brains turned right side up.
(Journal of Discourses, Vol. 16, p. 19)
We heard it again from
President John Taylor just a few years ago in the Priesthood/Relief
Society manual:
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 charge 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. . . . (Monnett, p. 90)
Educate
your children, and seek for those to teach them who have faith in God and
in his promises, as well as intelligence. . . . (Monnett, p. 94)
President Taylor’s First
Counselor, George Q. Cannon, said,
There
are parents who are very favorable to their children receiving education,
but appear to be indifferent as to the character of the teaching which
they receive. They do not seem
to place any value on their children being taught the principles of their
religion. Apparently,
therefore, they would as soon their children be taught in schools or
colleges where religion is entirely ignored as in an academy taught by
Latter-day Saints.
“…
The Latter-day Saints have forsaken everything for their religion. They
have been willing to die for it. . . . how persons who have had these
feelings concerning religion in their own case can be so careless as to
expose their children to infidelity seems a great mystery. . . . how
persons who have had these feelings concerning religion in their own case
can be so careless as to expose their children to infidelity seems a great
mystery. (Monnett, p. 101)
Religious
Freedom vs State Control of Curriculum
When the Saints first arrived and were alone in the deserted
Salt
Lake
Valley
, it was no problem to have the scriptures as the basic texts in their
schools. As non-LDS people
moved in, they naturally resented the LDS domination of schools. Since
90% of the population was LDS, and since there were mission schools
available, Church leaders hung on to the LDS curriculum as long as
possible.
As
congregations of other denominations opened up their own schools, they
began offering free tuition to the Saints.
Ministers wrote to their congregations back East asking for
donations to finance the teaching of LDS children.
In our day, private schools of other denominations are generally a
step up from the atheism of state schools, but in early
Utah
the stated goal of the other churches was to destroy the faith of LDS
children. The Saints didn’t
notice; they were delighted to send their children to the “mission”
schools.
President
John Taylor was not pleased:
I
am told in the revelations to bring up my children in the fear of God. . .
. Now we are engaged . . . in building our temples . . . that we may
become united and linked together by eternal covenants that shall exist in
all time and throughout eternity. And
then when we have done all this go and deliberately turn our children over
to whom? To men who do not
believe the Gospel, to men who, according to your faith are never going to
the celestial
kingdom
of
God
. . . . And you will turn your children over to them. And
you call yourselves Latter-day Saints, do you?
I will suppose a case, You expect to be saved in the celestial
kingdom
of
God
. Well, supposing your
expectations are realized, which I sometimes doubt, and you look down,
down somewhere in a terrestrial or telestial kingdom, as the case may be,
and you see your children, the offspring that God had given you to train
up in his fear, to honor him and keep his commandments, . . . And
supposing they could converse with you . . . what would be their feelings
toward you? It would be,
Father, Mother, you are to blame for this.
I would have been with you if you had not tampered with the
principles of life and salvation in permitting me to be decoyed away by
false teachers, who taught incorrect principles.
And this is the result of it. But
then I very much question men and women's getting into the celestial
kingdom of God who have no more knowledge about principles of life and
salvation than to go and tamper with the sacred offspring, the principle
of life which God intrusted to your care, to thus shuffle it off to imbibe
the spirit of unbelief, which leads to destruction and death.
I very much doubt in my mind the capability of such people getting
there. (JD 20:107-8)
(H. Verlan Andersen, The
Great and Abominable Church of the Devil)
Utah
Schools Become “Free”
The
first school law in the
Utah
Territory
was adopted in 1851. It created a Superintendent and recommended that
buildings be constructed by tax levies and that salaries and supplies be
financed by tuitions. Most
towns used their church buildings as schoolhouses. (Monnett, p.25)
School
buildings began to appear in the 1860’s when Common schools, open to
anyone, were legislated. The
buildings were supported by mandatory taxes, and teacher salaries came
from tuition.
The
Saints liked the mission schools best and the common schools second best
(the prophets didn’t care for either), but what they really wanted was
“free” schools (which the prophets found abhorrent), and they didn’t
mind saying so. Prominent LDS
educators led the way. One
such man, the principal of a church school, said, “Let us petition our
legislature to enact a public school law that will be up to the times.
Our schools should be sustained by a tax. . . . “By 1872,
seventeen petitions with over 3,500 signatures had reached the territorial
legislature requesting free schools.” (Monnett p.43)
The
legislation finally passed in 1876. The
legislature set aside $15,000 to provide universal free schooling and then
required teacher certification in order for schools to receive their
government grants. John Taylor
was elected Superintendent; it was his job to supervise the allocation of
the funds. Brother Monnett
points out how difficult it must have been for him to administer a plan he
had fought so hard against, (p. 44), but he did so graciously.
He said:
You have elected me
Superintendent of Common Schools, and I feel a good deal of interest in
the welfare of Common Schools, and also in all of our institutions of
learning, where good education can be had, for I feel interested in our
youth, and I take this opportunity to speak to the whole country in
relation to this matter. 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. I would like to know if a Methodist
would send his children to a Roman Catholic School, or vice versa? I think
not. Do either send their children to "Mormon" schools, or
employ "Mormon" teachers? I think not. Do we object to it? No,
we do not; we accord to all classes their rights, and we claim rights
equal with them. Well, shall we, after going to the ends of the earth to
gather people to Zion, in order that they may learn more perfectly of His
ways and walk in His paths, shall we then allow our children to be at the
mercy of those who would lead them down to death again? God forbid! Let
our teachers be men of God, men of honor and integrity, and let us afford
our children such learning as will place our community in the front ranks
in educational as well as religious matters. But would we interfere with
other religious denominations? No. Prevent them from sending their
children where and to whom they please? No. Or from shipping where they
please? No. I would not put a hair in their way, nor interfere with them
in any possible way; they can take their course, and we want the same
privilege. (p. 38-9)
John
Taylor, Journal of Discourses, .19:.249 - 50, October 21, 1877
“By
the 1880’s, congeniality had disappeared and church leaders openly
condemned Protestant efforts. In
1882, President D. T. McAllister of the St. George Stake cautioned that
‘sectarians come into our midst proposing great sympathy with us and our
children, offering to teach them free of charge, but really they are our
worst enemies. . . . Elder George A. Smith warned the Saints in general
conference that ‘their business here is to try to entice children from
their parents.” (Monnett, p.62) Nevertheless.
most parents continued to send their children to the Protestant schools.
The
disobedience of the Saints was to be their undoing.
President George Q. Cannon said “We have no dangerous or
threatening evils to contend with that have not had their origin in the
disobedience of some of the Latter-day Saints to the counsel which God has
given them.” (Monnett, p.
109)
In
1882 the Edmunds act disenfranchised 12,000 people outlawed polygamy and
sent many men into hiding. In
1887 the Edmunds-Tucker act confiscated much Church property.
The
Edmunds-Tucker Act sent all LDS institutions into disarray and assured
non-Mormons that Mormonism would not be taught in district schools.
Although this was seen as protection by non-members, President
Woodruff voiced the Church’s sentiment by calling the act an attempt to
have LDS children “grow up entirely ignorant of those principles of
salvation for which the Latter-day Saints have made so many sacrifices.”
(Monnett, p. 112)
Finally, the Church had had
enough. President Taylor died
in 1887. In the April General
Conference of 1888, President Wilford Woodruff announced the formation of
a Church Board of Education (the President of the Church would be, and
still is, its president). In
June a letter was
sent to the stake presidents (there were about 26 of them) asking them to
set up a school in each stake. Education
for the Saints would be (and should be) organized through priesthood
leadership. The letter said,
in part:
We
feel that the time has arrived when the proper education of our children
should be taken in hand by us as a people. Religious training is
practically excluded from the District Schools. The perusal of books
that we value as divine records is forbidden. Our children, if left
to the training they receive in these schools, will grow up entirely
ignorant of those principles of salvation for which the Latter-day Saints
have made so many sacrifices. To permit this condition of things to
exist among us would be criminal. The desire is universally
expressed by all thinking people in the Church that we should have schools
where the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants
can be used as text books, and where the principles of our religion may
form a part of the teaching of the schools.
(Monnett, p. 238)
Karl
G. Maeser was appointed as the first Superintendent of church schools.
He later told church teachers:
Judging the educational system
in vogue in the United States by its fruits we need only refer to the
statements made by many thinking men of this nation to the effect that
evil results accrue from the practice of excluding Deity from textbooks
and school rooms, and thus tacitly encouraging a feeling of infidelity,
which is rapidly growing among the youth of this land.
That system of Godless education has proven unsatisfactory, and we
will have none of it.
(Monnett, p.114)
Now
there were three educational choices – tax supported Common,
government-run schools with low, subsidized tuition and in which LDS scriptures
were no longer allowed and very few of the teachers were LDS;
mission (Protestant) schools, whose Eastern money supply was dwindling;
and newly formed LDS church schools which required a modest tuition as a
matter of principle and in which the scriptures were the basic texts.
President
George Q. Cannon, first counselor to President Woodruff, wrote:
It will be a great temptation to
many people to send their children to the free schools that will now be
supported by our taxes, but of what value is learning if it is acquired at
the expense of faith. (Monnett, p. 154)
What
would the Saints do?
To
be continued in Part B.
Watch
for it about June 30.
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#5b
©
2007 Joyce Kinmont
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