Education

Quotes

“When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already.… What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.’” (Adolf Hitler, in response to parental opposition November 6, 1933.)

“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.” (Thomas Jefferson, Letter to P. S. Dupont de Nemours, Poplar Forest. April 24, 1816.)

“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.)

“Many of you may have heard what certain journalists have had to say about Brigham Young being opposed to free schools. I am opposed to free education as much as I am opposed to taking away property from one man and giving it to another who knows not how to take care of it.…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!” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 18 p. 357. April 6, 1877.)

“In a review of what a student has gained at school or in a class, he should give attention to things he may have lost. If he knew the value of some things he may have discarded, he would dig frantically through the wastebasket and trash can to rescue them before they are hauled away permanently. He came to school basically to learn an occupation, and likely he has. But as always, there was a price to pay, and occasionally students pay an exorbitant price. Not infrequently students will jettison things essential to life and end up well-occupied but unhappy. These questions are appropriate. Did they as freshmen come with idealism, and put it aside? Did they come with faith, and carry away in its place skepticism? Did they come with patriotism, and replace it with cynicism? Did they come free from any binding habits, and now leave with an addiction? Did they arrive aspiring for marriage, a home, and a family, and now have abandoned those aspirations? And critically important, did they come with virtue and moral purity, and now must admit to themselves that while they were here they have lost it? How did this happen? Was that an essential price to pay for an occupation or for broadened cultural horizons? The intangibles they carry away may not equal in value the intangibles they may be leaving behind.” (Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Dilligently, p. 219 - 220. 1975.)

“And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another...in all things...that are expedient for you to understand; Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—that ye may be prepared in all things” (Scriptural, Doctrine and Covenants, 88:77-79.)

“The science of government is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take place of, indeed to exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” (John Adams, The American Enlightenment, p. 163.)

“EDUCA'TION, noun [Latin educatio.] The bringing up, as of a child; instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.” (Noah Webster, Webster's 1828 Dictionary, 1828.)

“From the fifth grade through the fourth year of college, our young people are being indoctrinated with a Marxist philosophy, and I am fearful of the harvest.” (Ezra Taft Benson, Improvement Era, p. 26. January 1967.)

“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” (Thomas Jefferson, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, vol. 17, p. 423. September 9, 1817.)

“It is very likely that hundreds of thousands of students will have a disconnect between their plans for college and the cold reality of their readiness for college.” (ACT chief executive Richard L. Ferguson summarized the results of tests taken by 1.2 million high school graduates and found that only 51 percent achieved an acceptable level in reading, 41 percent in math, and 26 percent in science.)

“Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.” (George Washington, stating the importance of true education over self-serving government propaganda. Farewell Address, 1796.)

“In the international field, foundations, and an interlock among some of them and certain intermediary organizations, have exercised a strong effect upon our foreign policy and upon public education in things international. This has been accomplished by vast propaganda, by supplying executives and advisers to government and by controlling much research in this area through the power of the purse. The net result of these combined efforts has been to promote ‘internationalism’ in a particular sense—a form directed toward ‘world government’ and a derogation of American ‘nationalism.’ [The CFR has become] in essence an agency of the United States Government [and its] productions are not objective but are directed overwhelmingly at promoting the globalist concept.” (Findings of the Eighty-Third Congress to investigate the subversive funding activities of some of the biggest and best-known tax-exempt foundations (Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie, etc.). The investigation led also to the CFR, which was, and is, thoroughly intertwined with these foundations. Foundations: Their Power and Influence, July 1953.)

“Now I am told in the revelations to bring up my children in the fear of God.…Now we are engaged gathering together, or separating ourselves from the world and 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 there see your children, the offspring that God had given you to train up in his fear, to honor him and keep his commandments, and perceive that between you and them there is a great gulf, as represented by the Savior in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. And supposing they could converse with you…what would be their feelings towards you? It would be, Father, mother, and 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 the 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.” (John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, vol. 20, p. 108-109. December 8, 1878.)

“I think that by the end of the millennium, for those who will occupy the celestial kingdom, the home will be the only media of teaching children. Teaching will be through the family.” (President Alvin R. Dyer, of the First Presidency Education: Moving Toward and Under the Law of Consecration, BYU Studies, vol. 10, Number 1. 1969.)

“Academic associations are a means of conditioning or even policing academics. Although academics are great at talking about academic freedom, they are peculiarly susceptible to peer group pressures. And if an academic fails to get the word through his peer group, there is always the threat of not getting tenure. In other words, what is taught at University levels is passed through a sieve. The sieve is faculty conformity.” (Dr. Antony C. Sutton, 1983.)

“This mortal life is the time to prepare to meet God, which is our first responsibility. Having already obtained our bodies, which become the permanent tabernacles for our spirits through the eternities, now we are to train our bodies, our minds, and our spirits….We have this life of limited years in which to learn of God, to become the masters of our own destiny and secondly, we have this life plus eternities to learn of the earth and the things thereon, and to accumulate secular knowledge which will help make us gods, which is our destiny.

“Peter and John had little secular learning, being termed ignorant. But Peter and John 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 the few decades of their mortal life. This exaltation meant godhood for them and creation of worlds with eternal increase for which they would probably need, eventually, a total knowledge of the sciences. But this fact escapes many: Peter and John had only decades to learn and do the spiritual but have already about 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.” (President Spencer W. Kimball President Kimball Speaks Out on Planning Your Life, p. 91. 1981.)

“A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?” (George Washington)

“If it is believed that these elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council, the commissioners of the literary fund or any other general authority of the government than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience.” (Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Joseph C. Cabell 1816.)

“I think with you, that nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are in my opinion, the strength of the state; more so than riches or arms.” (Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Samuel Johnson, August 23, 1750.)

“We’re very surprised—and I don’t know why we would be—when children are put through a government school system that has eliminated all forms of belief (other than government) and they come out with a bias toward government as the solution to all their problems and the way to live their life.” (Alan Scholl)

“The precepts of man have gone so far in subverting our educational system that in many cases a higher degree today, in the so-called social sciences, can be tantamount to a major investment in error. Very few men build firmly enough on the rock of revelation to go through this kind of indoctrination and come out untainted.” (Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, p. 319. April 1969.)

“Moral values are being neglected and prayer expelled from public schools on the pretext that moral teaching belongs to religion. At the same time, atheism, the secular religion, is admitted to class, and our youngsters are proselyted to a conduct without morality.

“World leaders and court judges agree that the family must endure if we are to survive. At the same time, they use the words freedom and choice as tools to pry apart the safeguards of the past and loosen up the laws on marriage, abortion, and gender. In so doing, they promote the very things which threaten the family.…

“The distance between the church and a world set on a course which we cannot follow will steadily increase.(Boyd K. Packer, The Father and the Family, Conference Report, April 1994.)

“I submit that the atheist has no more right to teach the fundamentals of his sect in the public school than does the theist. Any system in the schools or in society that protects [permits?] the destruction of faith and forbids, in turn, the defense of it must ultimately destroy the moral fiber of the people.” (Boyd K. Packer, speech delivered to Utah State University baccalaureate services June 8, 1973.)

“Q. What is your position on prayer or meditation or moments of silence in public schools?

“A. I believe in them and will be glad to get through here so I can have a moment of meditation (laughter). Well, all of us ought to pause once in a while and think of things. We are prone to talk too much and do too little. I think it is a wonderful thing to just indulge once in a while in moments of introspection and see what we are doing with our lives and what contribution we are making and where we could do a little better than we are now doing. I feel we would all benefit from that.

“Q. Do you think it is appropriate to have this as part of the daily instruction in public school?

“A. In the public schools? I don't know whether I want to comment on that. I think we may have taken a terrible step backwards some years ago, and I don't know whether we'll recover from it.…” (Gordon B. Hinckley, Transcript: National Press Club Q&A with President Gordon B. Hinckley. Questions from Jack Cushman, The New York Times President of the National Press Club National Press Club Newsmakers Luncheon Deseret News, March 8, 2000.)

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” (Benjamin Franklin)

“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry: for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom: without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty. To the contrary, I believe it would be possible to rob even a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the aid of a whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry, especially if the food, handed out under such coercion, were to be selected accordingly.” (Albert Einstein)

“Free education for all children in public schools.” (Karl Marx, 10th plank Communist Manifesto)

“That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical.” (Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, January 16, 1786.)

“The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments of this Union rest excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the State.” (U.S. Supreme Court. Pierce vs. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510,1925. June 1, 1925.)

“The tenth plank in Karl Marx's Manifesto for destroying our kind of civilization advocated the establishment of "free education for all children in public schools." There were several reasons why Marx wanted government to run the schools.…one of them [was that] ‘It is capable of exact demonstration that if every party in the State has the right of excluding from public schools whatever he does not believe to be true, then he that believes most must give way to him that believes least, and then he that believes least must give way to him that believes absolutely nothing, no matter in how small a minority the atheists or agnostics may be.’

“It is self-evident that on this scheme, if it is consistently and persistently carried out in all parts of the country, the United States system of national popular education will be the most efficient and widespread instrument for the propagation of atheism which the world has ever seen.” (Ezra Taft Benson, commenting on the public school method of enforced priestcraft. Conference Report, October 1970.)

“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.” (Wilford Woodruff, June 8, 1888.)

“We must win the common people in every corner. This will be obtained chiefly by means of the schools, and by open hearty behaviour, show, condescension, popularity, and toleration of their prejudices which we shall at leisure root out and dispel.” (Professor Johann Adam Weishaupt, Proofs of a Conspriacy, p. 111. 1978.)