The Right Education
It is the nicest work ever assumed by men and women to deal with youthful minds. The greatest care should be taken in the education of youth, to vary the manner of instruction so as to call forth the high and noble powers of the mind. Parents and schoolteachers are certainly disqualified to educate children properly if they have not first learned the lessons of self-control, patience, forbearance, gentleness, and love. What an important position for parents, guardians, and teachers! There are very few who realize the most essential wants of the mind, and how to direct the developing intellect, the growing thoughts and feelings of youth.... (CT 73.1)
Individuality in Children
The education of children, at home or at school, should not be like the training of dumb animals; for children have an intelligent will, which should be directed to control all their powers. Dumb animals need to be trained; for they have not reason and intellect. But the human mind must be taught self-control. It must be educated to rule the human being, while animals are controlled by a master and are trained to be submissive to him. The master is mind, judgment, and will for his beast. (CT 73.2)
A child may be so trained as to have, like the beast, no will of his own. Even his individuality may be merged in the one who superintends his training; his will, to all intents and purposes, is subject to the will of the teacher. Children who are thus educated will ever be deficient in moral energy and individual responsibility. They have not been taught to move from reason and principle; their wills have been controlled by another, and the mind has not been called out, that it might expand and strengthen by exercise. They have not been directed and disciplined with respect to their peculiar constitutions and capabilities of mind, to put forth their strongest powers when required. (CT 74.1)
Teachers should not stop here, but should give special attention to the cultivation of the weaker faculties, that all the powers may be brought into exercise and carried forward from one degree of strength to another, that the mind may attain due proportions. (CT 74.2)
Cause of Instability in Youth
There are many families of children who appear to be well trained while under the training discipline; but when the system which has held them to set rules is broken up, they seem to be incapable of thinking, acting, or deciding for themselves. These children have been so long under iron rule, not allowed to think and act for themselves in those things in which it was highly proper that they should, that they have no confidence in themselves to move out upon their own judgment, having an opinion of their own. And when they go out from their parents to act for themselves, they are easily led by others’ judgment in the wrong direction. They have not stability of character. They have not been thrown upon their own judgment as fast and as far as practicable, and therefore their minds have not been properly developed and strengthened. They have been so long absolutely controlled by their parents that they rely wholly upon them; their parents are mind and judgment for them. (CT 74.3)
On the other hand, the young should not be left to think and act independently of the judgment of their parents and teachers. Children should be taught to respect experienced judgment. They should be so educated that their minds will be united with the minds of their parents and teachers, and so instructed that they can see the propriety of heeding their counsel. Then when they go forth from the guiding hand, their characters will not be like the reed trembling in the wind.... (CT 75.1)
Those parents and teachers who boast of having complete control of the minds and wills of the children under their care would cease their boastings could they trace out the future lives of the children who are thus brought into subjection by force or through fear. These are almost wholly unprepared to share in the stern responsibilities of life. When these youth are no longer under their parents and teachers, and are compelled to think and act for themselves, they are almost sure to take a wrong course and yield to the power of temptation. They do not make this life a success, and the same deficiencies are seen in their religious life. (CT 75.2)
Could the instructors of children and youth have the result of their mistaken discipline mapped out before them, they would change their plan of education.... God never designed that one human mind should be under the complete control of another. And those who make efforts to have the individuality of their pupils merged in themselves, to be mind, will, and conscience for them, assume fearful responsibilities. These scholars may, upon certain occasions, appear like well-drilled soldiers; but when the restraint is removed, there will be seen in them a want of independent action from firm principle. (CT 76.1)
Those who make it their object so to educate their pupils that they may see and feel that the power lies in themselves to make men and women of firm principle, qualified for any position in life, are the most useful and permanently successful teachers. Their work may not show to the very best advantage to careless observers, and their labors may not be valued as highly as are those of the teacher who holds the minds and wills of his scholars by absolute authority; but the future lives of the pupils will show the fruits of the better plan of education. (CT 76.2)
There is danger that both parents and teachers will command and dictate too much, while they fail to come sufficiently into social relation with their children or scholars. They often hold themselves too much reserved, and exercise their authority in a cold, unsympathizing manner, which cannot win the hearts of their children and pupils. If they would gather the children close to them and show that they love them, and would manifest an interest in all their efforts and even in their sports, sometimes even being a child among them, they would make the children very happy and would gain their love and win their confidence. And the children would more quickly learn to respect and love the authority of their parents and teachers. (CT 76.3)
Personal Qualifications of the Teacher
The habits and principles of the teacher should be considered of even greater importance than his literary qualifications. If he is a sincere Christian, he will feel the necessity of having an equal interest in the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual education of his pupils. In order to exert the right influence, he should have perfect control over himself, and his own heart should be richly imbued with love for his pupils, which will be seen in his looks, words, and acts. He should have firmness of character, and then he can mold the minds of his pupils, as well as instruct them in the sciences. (CT 77.1)
The early education of the youth generally shapes their characters for life. Those who deal with the young should be very careful to call out the qualities of the mind, that they may better know how to direct its powers so that they may be exercised to the very best account. (CT 77.2)
Close Confinement at School
The system of education carried out for generations back has been destructive to health, and even to life itself. Many young children have passed five hours each day in schoolrooms not properly ventilated, nor sufficiently large for the healthful accommodation of the scholars. The air of such rooms soon becomes poison to the lungs that inhale it. Little children, whose limbs and muscles are not strong and whose brains are undeveloped, have been kept confined indoors to their injury. Many have but a slight hold on life to begin with, and the confinement in school from day to day makes them nervous and diseased. Their bodies are dwarfed because of the exhausted condition of their nerves. (CT 77.3)
And if the lamp of life goes out, the parents and teachers do not consider that they had any direct influence in quenching the vital spark. When standing by the graves of their children, the afflicted parents look upon their bereavement as a special dispensation of Providence, when, by inexcusable ignorance, it was their own course that destroyed the lives of their children. To charge their death to Providence is blasphemy. God wanted the little ones to live and be disciplined, that they might have beautiful characters, and glorify Him in this world and praise Him in the better world.... (CT 78.1)
To become acquainted with the wonderful human organism, the bones, muscles, stomach, liver, bowels, heart, and pores of the skin, and to understand the dependence of one organ upon another for the healthful action of all, is a study in which most mothers take no interest. They know nothing of the influence of the body upon the mind, or of the mind upon the body. The mind, which allies the finite to the Infinite, they do not seem to understand. Every organ of the body was made to be servant to the mind. The mind is the capital of the body. (CT 78.2)
Children are allowed to eat flesh meats, spices, butter, cheese, pork, rich pastry, and condiments generally. They are also allowed to eat of unhealthful food at irregular hours and between meals. These things do their work of deranging the stomach, exciting the nerves to unnatural action, and enfeebling the intellect. Parents do not realize that they are sowing the seed that will bring forth disease and death. (CT 78.3)
Many children have been ruined for life by urging the intellect and neglecting to strengthen the physical powers. Many have died in childhood because of the course pursued by injudicious parents and schoolteachers in forcing their young intellects, by flattery or fear, when they were too young to see the inside of a schoolroom. Their minds have been taxed with lessons when they should not have been called out, but kept back until the physical constitution was strong enough to endure mental effort. Small children should be left as free as lambs to run out of doors, to be free and happy, and should be allowed the most favorable opportunities to lay the foundation for sound constitutions. (CT 79.1)
The Ideal Plan
Parents should be the only teachers of their children until they have reached eight or ten years of age. As fast as their minds can comprehend it, the parents should open before them God’s great book of nature. The mother should have less love for the artificial in her house and in the preparation of her dress for display, and should take time to cultivate, in herself and in her children, a love for the beautiful buds and opening flowers. By calling the attention of her children to the different colors and variety of forms, she can make them acquainted with God, who made all the beautiful things which attract and delight them. She can lead their minds up to their Creator, and awaken in their young hearts a love for their heavenly Father, who has manifested so great love for them. Parents can associate God with all His created works. (CT 79.2)
The only schoolroom for children until eight or ten years of age should be in the open air, amid the opening flowers and nature’s beautiful scenery, and their most familiar textbook the treasures of nature. These lessons, imprinted upon the minds of young children amid the pleasant, attractive scenes of nature, will not be soon forgotten.... (CT 80.1)
In the early education of children, many parents and teachers fail to understand that the greatest attention needs to be given to the physical constitution, that a healthy condition of body and mind may be secured. It has been the custom to encourage children to attend school when they were mere babes needing a mother’s care. When of a delicate age, they are frequently crowded into ill-ventilated schoolrooms, where they sit in wrong positions upon poorly constructed benches, and as a result the young and tender frames of some have become deformed. (CT 80.2)
The disposition and habits of youth will be very likely to be manifested in mature manhood. You may bend a young tree into almost any shape that you choose, and if it remains and grows as you have bent it, it will be a deformed tree, and will ever tell of the injury and abuse received at your hands. You may, after it has had years of growth, try to straighten the tree, but all efforts will prove unavailing. It will ever be a crooked tree. (CT 80.3)
This is the case with the minds of youth. They should be carefully and tenderly trained in childhood. They may be trained in the right direction or in the wrong, and in their future lives they will pursue the course in which they were directed in youth. The habits formed in youth will grow with the growth and strengthen with the strength.... (CT 81.1) 2 I
Physical Degeneracy
Man came from the hand of his Creator perfect and beautiful in form, and so filled with vital force that it was more than a thousand years before his corrupt appetites and passions and general violations of physical law were sensibly felt upon the race. More recent generations have felt the pressure of infirmity and disease more rapidly and heavily with every generation. The vital forces have been greatly weakened by the indulgence of appetite and lustful passion.... The violation of physical law, and the consequence,—human suffering,—have so long prevailed that men and women look upon the present state of sickness, suffering, debility, and premature death as the appointed lot of humanity.... (CT 81.2)
The strange absence of principle which characterizes this generation, and which is shown in their disregard of the laws of life and health, is astonishing.... With the majority the principal anxiety is, What shall I eat? what shall I drink? and wherewithal shall I be clothed? ... The moral powers are weakened because men and women will not live in obedience to the laws of health and make this great subject a personal duty.... The majority ... remain in ignorance of the laws of their being, and indulge appetite and passion at the expense of intellect and morals; and they seem willing to remain in ignorance of the result of their violation of nature’s laws. They indulge the depraved appetite in the use of slow poisons, which corrupt the blood and undermine the nervous force, and in consequence bring upon themselves sickness and death.... (CT 81.3)
Importance of Home Training
One great cause of the existing deplorable state of things is that parents do not feel under obligation to bring up their children to conform to physical law. Mothers love their children with an idolatrous love and indulge their appetite when they know that it will injure their health and thereby bring upon them disease and unhappiness. This cruel kindness is manifested to a great extent in the present generation. The desires of children are gratified at the expense of health and happy tempers, because it is easier for the mother, for the time being, to gratify them than to withhold that for which they clamor. Thus mothers are sowing the seed that will spring up and bear fruit. (CT 82.1)
The children are not educated to deny their appetites and restrict their desires, and they become selfish, exacting, disobedient, unthankful, unholy. Mothers who are doing this work will reap with bitterness the fruit of the seed they have sown. They have sinned against Heaven and against their children, and God will hold them accountable. (CT 82.2)
Had education for generations back been conducted upon an altogether different plan, the youth of this generation would not now be so depraved and worthless. The managers and teachers of schools should have been those who understood physiology, and who had an interest, not only to educate the youth in the sciences, but teach them how to preserve health, so that they might use their knowledge to the best account after they had obtained it.... (CT 83.1)
Regulation of Employment and Amusement
In order for children and youth to have health, cheerfulness, vivacity, and well-developed muscles and brains, they should be much in the open air, and have well-regulated employment and amusement. Children and youth who are kept at school and confined to books cannot have sound physical constitutions. The exercise of the brain in study, without corresponding physical exercise, has a tendency to attract the blood to the brain, and the circulation of the blood through the system becomes unbalanced. The brain has too much blood, and the extremities too little. There should be rules regulating the studies of children and youth to certain hours, and then a portion of their time should be spent in physical labor. And if their habits of eating, dressing, and sleeping are in accordance with physical law, they can obtain an education without sacrificing physical and mental health.... (CT 83.2)
There should have been connected with the schools, establishments for carrying on various branches of labor, that the students might have employment and the necessary exercise out of school hours. The students’ employment and amusements should have been regulated with reference to physical law, and should have been adapted to preserve to them the healthy tone of all the powers of body and mind. Then a practical knowledge of business could have been obtained while their literary education was being gained. (CT 83.3)
Students at school should have had their moral sensibilities aroused to see and feel that society has claims upon them, and that they should live in obedience to natural law, so that they can, by their existence and influence, by precept and example, be an advantage and blessing to society. It should be impressed upon the youth that all have an influence that is constantly telling upon society, to improve and elevate, or to lower and debase. The first study of the young should be to know themselves and how to keep their bodies in health. (CT 84.1)
Result of Continued Application
Many parents keep their children at school nearly the year round. These children go through the routine of study mechanically, but do not retain that which they learn. Many of these constant students seem almost destitute of intellectual life. The monotony of continual study wearies the mind, and they take but little interest in their lessons; and to many the application to books becomes painful. They have not an inward love of thought and an ambition to acquire knowledge. They do not encourage in themselves habits of reflection and investigation. (CT 84.2)
Children are in great need of proper education in order that they may be of use in the world. But any effort that exalts intellectual culture above moral training is misdirected. Instructing, cultivating, polishing, and refining the youth and children should be the main burden of both parents and teachers. Close reasoners and logical thinkers are few, for the reason that false influences have checked the development of the intellect. The supposition of parents and teachers that continued study would strengthen the intellect has proved erroneous; for in many cases it has had the opposite effect.... (CT 84.3)
We are living in an age when almost everything is superficial. There is but little stability and firmness of character, because the training and education of children from their cradle is superficial. Their characters are built upon sliding sand. Self-denial and self-control have not been molded into their characters. They have been petted and indulged until they are spoiled for practical life.... (CT 85.1)
Children should be so trained and educated that they will expect temptations, and calculate to meet difficulties and dangers. They should be taught to have control over themselves, and nobly to overcome difficulties; and if they do not willfully rush into danger, and needlessly place themselves in the way of temptation, if they shun evil influences and vicious society, and then are unavoidably compelled to be in dangerous company, they will have strength of character to stand for the right and to preserve principle, and come forth in the strength of God with their morals untainted. If youth who have been properly educated make God their trust, their moral powers will stand the most powerful test.—Testimonies for the Church 3:131-144. (CT 85.2)