An overview of LDS principles in education.
Brigham Young taught: I am opposed to free education as much as I am opposed to taking away property from one man and giving it to another…
Ancient Israel Demanded a King
In the Old Testament, we read the account of how the majority of God’s chosen people rejected the Lord’s council en mass.
For generations they were ruled under a system of judges, not drastically unlike our Constitutional Republic. Then, because it was “too much effort” for them to keep their judges in check, they wanted to replace it with one where they wouldn’t have to do anything in regards to their government. Just like the other nations of the world, they would have a king.
“Then the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, “Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways; now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:4–7)
This situation is much like what happened when Martin Harris pressed the issue of the 116 manuscript pages of the Book of Mormon against the will of the Lord.
“Some time later Mr. Harris had begun to write for me, he began to importune me to give him liberty to carry the writings home and show them; and desired of me that I would inquire of the Lord, through the Urim and Thummim, if he might not do so. I did inquire, and the answer was that he must not. However, he was not satisfied with this answer, and desired that I should inquire again. I did so, and the answer was as before. Still he could not be contented, but insisted that I should inquire once more. After much solicitation, I again inquired of the Lord, and permission was granted him to have the writings on certain conditions;” (History of the Church 1:20-23)
The first account of disobedience lead to a loss of liberty and the latter lead to the loss of 116 pages of “The most correct book on earth”. From both of these examples we can see that when we seek to listen to our own council over that of the Lords, though he will not stop us, we will lose something that is most precious.
Brief history of Church and education
“It was the will of the Lord, made known shortly after the organization of the Church, that steps should be taken to have the children of the members taught in schools conducted under the influence of those who had faith in the Gospel.”
(Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation, 4 vols. [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1946-1949], 2: 98 – 99.)
Ever since the beginning of the restoration, education has been an important part in building the kingdom. As early as June 1831, the Lord commanded W.W. Phelps to “assist my servant Oliver Cowdery to do the work of printing, and of selecting and writing books for schools in this church, that little children also may receive instruction before me as is pleasing unto me.” (D&C 55:4)
Church schools were set up wherever members of the Church were gathered. After the pioneers had arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and established themselves there, they again organized Church schools for the education and instruction of the youth of Zion. Although these were “Church Schools”Â, they were not fully funded by the Church any more than BYU is now. Anyone that has personally attended or has had children attend a Church school knows that that they are anything but “free”.
Although there were attendance fees to help pay for full time teachers and other staff, President Brigham Young felt that education was so important that he paid “the school fee of a number of children who (were) either orphans or sons and daughters of poor people.” (General Conference April 1877)
During the 1870′s and 80′s (when Utah was attempting to enter the Union), there was again a great outcry from the outside world that the “Mormons” were getting too much power and influence. To help “combat” this, it was proposed that before entering the Union there must be an “establishment of free schools” which would “prohibit the teaching of denominational sentiments in them.” (Boston Watchman, impression of Sept. 5th, 1878)
Additionally, during the 1870s and 1880s, Protestant missionary societies established ninety free schools in Utah, hoping to win Latter-day Saint children away from the faith of their parents through “education.”
With the very natural inclination to want to take the “less costly” option, many Latter-day Saint families started to send their children to these “free” schools set up by the government, which were funded through tax payer dollars, as well as those set up by other faiths. Others just stopped paying the school fees though their children continued to attend the Church schools. This added much financial pressure on the Church schools and, since the teachers received their pay through fees agreed upon that went unfulfilled, many of them were forced to find employment elsewhere.
Throughout this crisis in education, Prophets of the Lord were constantly reinforcing the principles and warning the Saints of what would happen if they rejected the system the Lord had established.
Two principles that they focused on were that:
- Free schools by taxation is theft
- Only Latter-day Saints should teach Latter-day Saints
I will address these principles in order.
Excellent article. I wish more Latter-Day Saints would learn these lessons.
While I disagree with the title of this article (as an absolute statement) I agree with the content. I see more and more people coming to a realization of the foolish tradition of our fathers to use public schools as a method to educate latter day saints. I’m in my mid-twenties and many of my friends and siblings (some of whom I never thought would home/private-school) are excited to break that awful tradition.
Great article Ezra!
AGENDA: GRINDING AMERICA DOWN
http://blip.tv/file/4855773?utm_source=player_embedded
Very well done. Kudo’s!
What’s the story behind Utah joining the Union. With hindsight, it seems like a rather unwise thing to do. And it must even have been quite possible to foresee the kind of problems this would cause, given the Church’s earlier experiences with non-church government.
Why did Zion need to join the World?
KB,
that is actually the topic of an article I am working on now. Stay tuned and tell your friends to check out LDSLiberty.org!
We are still eagerly awaiting the article on Utah joining the union. Here or on your other site. Please don’t hold back :)
I am in my seventh decade of life. I have 6 children and 24 grand children. I have been a teacher (2) years, seminary teacher (8) years Juvenile Attorney and child advocate Attorney (30) years (4000-5000 clients); private practice attorney in family law during the same time and a prosecuting attorney for a short three (3) months. Your article is very appropriate and truthful.
I have been on a continual merry-go-round of case after case after case of children at risk. Their parents come into court looking confused and worried about the future of their child(ren). Many of those parents are now adults who were the children I had represented years before. Unfortunately they surface when a child has become involved with the juvenile or criminal court and facing severe consequences for anti-social behavior; or when the parent has abused or neglected the child and lost custody of the child(ren).
On those occasions many parents will say “what happened to my child/family. I have created a good home and raise my child(ren) right and taught them good principles”
However, if we will take a moment and really look at the our culture and what we do with children we will see that, in most all cases, in or out of the church, we were not raised by our parents nor do we raise our children.
It is true, if we are on the earth, we have been given a body and moral agency. The other working resource we have been given is time. Let’s look for a moment at time and how it is spent in the western culture we live in. Eight (8) hours a day 181 days a year for twelve(12) years, we and our children spend in school. It is what we accept as the “way it is”. That is 17,376 hours of our lives, during the formative years, by the time we are 18 years old.
Who are we mostly associated with while we are at school? Who really teaches us and guides us while we are at school? We think it is the teachers. No doubt in the elementary years the teacher has a great influence but we have our brain programmed by the other children we are associated with each day. That is even scarier since we have learned that it takes 20-25 years for the human brain to totally form. Therefore, we are taught and led by hundreds of other half brained children trying to make their way with a few tired and underpaid teachers.
In middle school and high school we will spent 5-10 minutes every hour actually spending time learning the subject matter we are in school to learn. That is only 1/6 of the time toward education. What happens to the other 50 minutes of each hour or 6 1/2 hours each day?. In the 60-70’s, for boys it was fast cars, beer and girls, and the gender equivalent for the girls. Now it is rap, sex, and drugs for both genders.
How much time is spent in meaningful conversation between parent and child each day? Fifteen minutes? 30 minutes? Maybe there is that much in the homes where parents are truly interested in their children. In the majority of families there is no meaningful conversation between child and parent on a daily basis.
In the 1 ½ hour of instruction that does take place in school, it has been designed to be far progressive/liberal/ anti-American, absolutely void of the teachings this great country was founded on. i.e. the basic principles of the Judeo/Christian/Biblical moral code.
Sending children to the public schools is like throwing them in a cesspool and expecting them to not stink when they, if they get to the other side.
THANK YOU Brother Frentheway. You bring great comfort and reassurance to this homeschooling mother. I will be passing on this article to those who wonder why I am educating my children at home.
Great article! Thanks for writing it. The title is harsh and judgmental, but I’m guessing you did that to catch people’s attention. I completely agree that government schools oppose Gospel principles.
These are some counter arguments I’ve commonly heard from Latter-day Saints:
1. Most of the current prophets and apostles sent their children to (and don’t oppose their grand-children attending) government schools, so they must support them.
2. In the last couple decades, the church has shut-down most of its schools around the world (other than seminary, institute, and BYU), basically indicating to members that they should send their kids to government schools.
Ezra, how would you respond to these?
I have my own arguments to dispel these, but they contradict some of you points above. Mainly, your quotes from President Benson (“Do not rationalize your acceptance of government gratuities by saying, ‘I am a contributing taxpayer too’”) and Elder Packer (about do not call upon the government at all).
I don’t think the Church has an absolute position on those quotes, and its thinking may have changed a little since they were given 3 decades ago. Evidence of this is that on the LDS Employment website, to survive unemployment, the church recommends to live within your means, decrease your spending, and “file for unemployment and other available government benefits” [https://www.ldsjobs.org/ers/ct/job-seeker.jsf?name=surviving-unemployment&contentType=Article].
I think there is an underlying principle that, when your current means limit your ability to provide and progress, it is ok to reclaim what was forcefully taken from you in the first place (from government). Elder H. Verlan Anderson also seems to support this for government education: “Since public schools are supported by taxation, parents are compelled to finance them. Even though the law may allow them to send their children to private schools, in order to do so they must support two educational systems at once, and this the vast majority of them feel themselves unable to do” [The Great and Abominable Church of the Devil, p. 134].
So, although all of us should oppose government schools and do what we can to remove them, I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong to claim a service you were forced to pay for, especially if it is beyond your means to pay for it again. A parallel can be drawn with Social Security. We are forced throughout our lives to pay into a government retirement plan. Although we should oppose this and do what we can to stop it because it’s a form of socialism, I don’t think it’s morally wrong for us to reclaim when we are retired what was forcefully taken away. I don’t think the gospel opposes us reclaiming social security–I suppose we could work until our dying day and let others claim what was forcefully taken from us, but I think that would greatly reduce the number of missionary couples who are available after a “retirement age”.
Ezra, what are your thoughts on this?
Also, could you give a more detailed citing of your President Packers quote about “our schools are producing the problems that we face”? I love this quote, but you only cite it as “1996″…
“In many places it is literally not safe physically for youngsters to go to school. And in many schools and its becoming almost generally true it is spiritually unsafe to attend public schools. Look back over the history of education to the turn of the century and the beginning of the educational philosophies pragmatism and humanism were the early ones, and they branched out into a number of other philosophies which have led us now into a circumstance where our schools are producing the problems that we face.” (Boyd K. Packer, Charge to the David O. McKay School of Education, December 1996.)
I believe that what may at first glance appear to be contradictory (past statements condemning certain practices vs. current guidelines that seem to permit them) regarding social security, education, etc., can in fact be reconciled quite easily.
To illustrate: it about broke Heber J. Grant’s heart when Utah cast the deciding vote to ratify the 21st amendment, which repealed Prohibition. While a Libertarian LDS may find this hard to reconcile, a Christian Constitutionalist can easily see that the proper role of government is sometimes to enforce God’s laws, not just protect inalienable rights. Why else would a prophet have spoken so incontrovertibly on the subject? (unless he was “just speaking as a man” lol) However, after its passage, Heber J. Grant didn’t insist on starting a movement to RE-pass Prohibition. In other words, after the people cast a vote to reject God’s words, it would have been futile to try to change their will directly. If they could truly repent and become converted to the gospel, they would have hearkened to His words, and if we do repent in the future our desires will change and become one with God’s anyway. In short, rather than treating symptoms (flawed political understanding), the prophets usually focus on treating the root of the problem (lack of faith in/understanding of God’s will on earth).
The strongest statements that can be found condemning Social Security etc. and other socialist programs came about during the debate right before their passage into law. However, after such programs have become law; after they have created generations of dependents; while we as individuals can personally choose not to participate in them ourselves, it seems easy to understand (to me) that such programs can be accommodated for within the framework of the church. While not recommending members to live in such a way, members who have no other foundation or support can be welcomed and administered to. I believe such is perhaps even necessary for new converts, at least initially. But, if true repentance and conversion can follow the act of baptism, and personal growth and progression in the gospel can become the rule among LDS members (and love of truth can drown out all other distractions), I believe that eventually we could reach a point where we could remove such practices, first from our personal lives, then our families, then our local communities, and eventually our states and then our nation and then the world.
I believe most people (mothers) could home-school their children if they really wanted to (& you don’t have to be even near perfect at it for it to be far better than public schools), & if they understood the vital need to do so.
So saying that people can’t afford private schools & thus must put their children into the Gadianton’s system all day doesn’t fly with me. There are many creative ways to school children in a safe environment. Co-ops & maybe even Grandparents or other relatives, etc. could help out & do all or part of the home-school for you. There usually is a way if you want it bad enough.
And no matter what the Church says or how many G.A.’s use public schools or even worse, ‘vote for’ Gadiantons, it does not mean we can just do the same without any consequences. We are still accountable & responsible to pray about it ourselves & find out what the right thing is for our own family.
The Church does not believe in blind obedience & G.A.’s are not perfect & the Holy Spirit must always be the only one to tell us all things that we should do.
It’s unbelievable to watch how everyone today is being deceived to support & do evil, even in the Church.
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I homeschooled my three children from pre-school years through the end of high school. The oldest two have graduated college, both earning GPAs of 4.0, one with full honors. Both are gainfully employed, self-sufficient and support a good portion of their publically schooled friends through the taxes they pay. My youngest is currently in college, earning a 4.0 GPA and preparing to serve a church mission. The question I was asked most often from parents who chose public schooling was, “How can you stand to be with your kids all day?” That to me is the tragedy of public schooling, parents who would rather spend time without their children than with them.
According to Sister Beck, Anti-Family = Anti-Christ. (http://lds.org/pa/rs/pdf/2009-Aug-CES-Beck-TeachingTheDoctrineOfTheFamily-eng.pdf). Anything that takes kids away from the home for 6+ hours a day 180 days a year is certainly anti-family.
I am a mama to four who is just starting on our homeschool journey. (We are doing “preschool” this year). And what you have written resonates deeply with me. We are choosing to keep our babies home because I need to teach them the gospel. What is so lovely is how they learn OTHER THINGS through the gospel. What better way to learn to read than through the scriptures? Thanks for this.
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thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU for this article. My wife and I have felt anxious and in constant turmoil over the past 15 years as our children have struggled in public schools. EVERYDAY we had to review what was seen, experienced and taught at school to review it for falsehoods and error which was most of it and followup with correct principles(as we knew them) and family scripture study etc. We labored vainly to improve the public schools to pass improvements and to support the teachers and have only recently come to the realization that the system(not all individuals in it but the system itself – ie PUBLIC schools) are in effect designed to demoralize and crush parents such as ourselves. The stories of teachers and administrators who valiantly fought to support and protect dishonest and morally corrupt practices(with a handful of good ones that labor in disbelief of the corruption swirling around them) in the schools we could tell would make your hair curl. Finally after our oldest barely made it out of high school with her testimony in tact we (recently married in the temple – thank goodness) but still plagued with many incorrect principles she lived with in the Public schools for so long we started searching anew. I am very thankful for members such as yourself who would valiantly post something like this article for those who are “knocking” and “searching” to find. I am sure you will receive some hateful and angry letters or thoughts from those who are not yet ready or humble enough to listen to the Prophetic quotes contained in this article but be assured that many out here are thankful. We have four children still that will make great gains over the past incorrect precepts of men as we will be putting them in online LDS schooling for now and maybe moving to Homeschooling as we become more comfortable. Home schooling is intimidating to most because we do not come from that tradition. But more and more parents we know are becoming open to the idea as they see the writing on the wall that we will not be able to send our children to public schools much longer if present trends continue. Thank you again.