Education In Zion: Gallery in the Jospeh F. Smith Building

The Lasting Impact of Karl G. Maeser

Brigham Young’s only advice to principal Karl G. Maeser about the Provo school was: “You must not attempt to teach even the alphabet or the multiplication table without the Spirit of God. That is all.”[1] In spring 1876, Maeser learned that Young would be visiting him to see how he had planned to implement the charge he had received.

Maeser sat at his desk to work out his ideas. Nothing came. Through the next day and the day after, he paced his office and scribbled notes. The third day, he dropped, exhausted and disheartened, to his knees. “O Father,” he pleaded, “Show me the way[;] help me to make the plans for this great work. I cannot do it of myself.” Immediately the confusion was lifted, and within a few hours Maeser had written the plan for the new school. It had come to him as an answer to prayer.

Because of Maeser’s inspiration, Brigham Young Academy wove together the development of faith, character, intellect, and the spirit of service.

Idealism, Duty, and Honor in Everything

Maeser’s dedication to his call from Brigham Young set in motion a legacy that has instilled idealism, duty, and honor in the students who come through Brigham Young University. The gallery is filled with quotes from former students reflecting on the powerful atmosphere of this university.

“The students came as the result of economy and sacrifice, and realized the necessity of devoting every energy to study. They were earnest, sincere, serious-minded, well-behaved, clean of thought comradely, and anxious to know and do the right thing. They came knowing what they wanted, and determined to obtain it in full measure, however severe the effort. How well they succeeded is disclosed by the history of the Territory, State and Nation, in which he names of so many of them will be found on the roll of honor and high service.”

—George Sutherland, class of 1881

“[T]he ’Y’ has given me something wonderful. It has given me a circle of splendid friends[,] . . . a philosophy of life, and a code of ethics that[,] if followed, makes real men and women. Above all, it has given to me a vision so beautiful, an ideal so high, that my work, my faith, my prayers are all that I may be worthy of it and in some measure live up to it.”

—Helen Candland, class of 1924

“Thanks to some inspiring professors in the Spanish department, I learned important lessons on the ideals of Zion. Across cultural, social, and language barriers, we are all children of a loving God whose greatest joy is in seeing His children prosper and be happy. As BYU graduates, we have all been instilled with a duty to love and respect all peoples, languages, cultures, and traditions, and to honor the promises we have made before God to love one another.”

—David C. Heier, class of 2004

“Many classes have closed-book, take-home tests that are on your honor. I dare say the great majority of students here consider their honor a duty; they won’t cheat. That says a lot about the integrity of this institution and the caliber of its people.”

—Braton Fredline, class of 2010

“All of our children attended . . . Brigham Young University because I knew the influence of our religion [and] the caliber of [the] young people. . . . In these times, BYU is an example of goodness that attracts high-minded students of all denominations.”

—Gwendolyn L. Riches, class of 1943

“My experience at BYU helped me to decide to go on a mission, which I wouldn’t trade for anything. . . . It gave me . . . a moral compass that I think has helped me throughout my whole life.”

—Orrin Hatch, class of 1959

1. Alice Louise Reynolds, “History of the Brigham Young University,” typescript, undated, 2, UA 104, J. Marinus Jensen Collection, University Archives, L. Tom Perry Special Collection, University Archives, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

 

Student Ownership

BYU students today have ample opportunities to lead and take active ownership of the university. Not to mention the 13,000 students employed by the university each year (1). But this principle of student involvement is not new to BYU. Its roots go back to Karl G. Maeser’s plan for Brigham Young Academy.

Through divine inspiration, Maeser’s plan included several points where responsibility would be given to students. In fact, Maeser believed, “whatever can be done by the pupils, the teacher should never do himself” (2). Students were engaged in maintaining department or classroom order, recording student performance, mentoring younger students, or occasionally directly leading a class lesson.

Each week, each departmental theology class would divide into small groups. An older student leader (called a “repetitor”) would then direct a discussion of what the students had learned. An instructor commented that, “A free-for-all discussion now took place which did more to arouse interest and rivet conviction than ten times the amount of passive listening would have done” (3).

Maeser also instructed faculty members to identify students who needed help in anyway (not just academically). Rather than take care of the problem themselves, the faculty members were to assign a competent student to work with the students in need. This system became known as the “monitorial system.” It was designed to help students become “responsible for something … outside of their own individual concerns, but … essential for the comfort and well-being … of the little community (the school or class) of which each of them form[s] a part” (4).

And so we see how BYU’s aim for an education that’s spiritually strengthening, intellectually enlarging, character building and leading to lifelong learning and service is in part fulfilled by Maeser’s initiation of student ownership.

1. http://yfacts.byu.edu/viewarticle.aspx?id=260
2. Karl G. Maeser, “The Monitorial System,” Juvenile Instructor 36, no. 5 (March 1, 1901): 153.
3. N. L. Nelson, “Theology in Our Church Schools,” Improvement Era 3, no. 11 (September 1900): 850
4. Karl G. Maeser, “The Monitorial System,” Juvenile Instructor 36, no. 5 (March 1, 1901): 153. In this reference, Maeser stated that although he called his system by the name commonly used among educators, he altered his version of the system to discourage student abuses, such as bullying and tattling, and to encourage “cultivation of a public spirit among the pupils.” In James E. Talmage, “The Brigham Young Academy,” Contributor 2, no. 9 (June 1881): 272–73, the system is described, though not named. Talmage’s reference to the “Emulatory Method” refers to the system of discipline within Maeser’s version of the monitorial system.

Recreation of Pioneer Garb on Display

The Education in Zion Gallery is hosting a new exhibit that will reflect the heritage and culture of an early Utah pioneer, schoolteacher and woman suffragist.

The exhibit will display a replica of a dress owned by Marilla Lucretia Johnson Miller Daniels, an early Utah pioneer whose husband founded Springville. Her dress will be on display from November 8 to December 15.

Melissa DeGuire, a BYU theater arts student emphasizing costume design, made the dress with funding from an ORCA grant. ORCA grants are part of a program established by Brigham Young University to encourage mentored research at the undergraduate level for all fields of study.

“I think ORCA is a fantastic opportunity for everybody,” DeGuire said. “My original thought was, ‘what project can I do where I’ll get to build a costume from the 1800s?’ I really wanted to do a dress from there, and get some experience in a different area. We just felt like we needed to connect it to women, and we needed to connect it to the Church.”

The dress will be donated in March to the Daughters of the Utah Pioneer Museum in Springville. There it will be displayed again before it is donated permanently to the museum’s collection in Springville.

Marilla Daniels lived from 1830 to 1918, and played an active role in the development of Springville with her husband, who eventually became mayor. Details about the dress and about the life of Marilla Daniels will be part of the exhibit.

The gallery and permanent exhibit explore a tradition of learning that aims to educate the whole soul and documents the rich history and heritage of education in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the revelations of the prophet Joseph Smith to the current worldwide Church Educational System.

The Rise of Seminaries and Institutes

The subtitle of a recent article in the Daily Universe read: “Statistics show young adults moving away from religion.”₁ A similar trend was also observed in the early 1900s and it inspired Church leaders to establish seminary and institute programs.₂
The seminary program was first instituted in 1912 by Joseph F. Merrill. He was greatly inspired by his wife’s solid foundation of gospel understanding, which she had obtained by attending classes taught by James E. Talmage.₄ Recognizing the value of such instruction, he sought to implement a program that would provide similar opportunities to other students. The seminary program began as an experiment in Salt Lake City’s Granite Stake but has spread throughout the Church and has blessed countless lives, domestically and internationally. (BYU Studies recently published an article about the seminary experiment, and an abstract can be found here.)
Seeing the success of the growing seminary program, institutes began to be established in the years that followed. The timing of the establishment of these programs is truly divine. Elder Boyd K. Packer has said: “In the history of the Church there is no better illustration of the prophetic preparation of this people than the beginnings of the seminary and institute program[s]. These programs were started when they were nice but were not critically needed. They were granted a season to flourish and to grow into a bulwark for the Church. They now become a godsend for the salvation of modern Israel in a most challenging hour.”₅

Footnotes

1. Josh Bolding, “Faith Among College Students,” The Daily Universe, October 18, 2011,
2. Minutes of the meeting of the General Board of Education, May 12, 1912, Scott G. Kenney Research Collection, MSS 2022, box 10, folder 4; L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; [CHD: Please check as we cannot copy original.]* Minutes of the meeting of the General Board of Education, November 23, 1917, Scott G. Kenney Research Collection, MSS 2022, box 10, folder 4; L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
3. Joseph F. Merrill, “A New Institution in Religious Education,” Improvement Era 41, no. 1 (January 1938): 12.
4. [A. Theodore Tuttle], interview by Joseph F. Merrill, May 27, 1948, typescript, 1, copy on file at Education in Zion exhibit project; A. Theodore Tuttle, “Released Time Religious Education Program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” master’s thesis, Stanford University, 1949, 56.
5. Boyd K. Packer, “Teach the Scriptures,” address to CES religious educators, Salt Lake City, October 14, 1977, reprinted in Church Educational System, Charge to Religious Educators, 3^rd ed. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1994), 88.

Improvement of Every Kind

Those who are having or have had difficulty choosing a major may like this story about education from Mormon history.

When the Saints finally reached the Great Salt Lake Valley, they were far from their former bustling town of Nauvoo, Illinois. As communities grew and matured, settlers began seeking out an existence in the desert. Brigham Young recognized that certain skills were needed to help these communities be successful and continue to grow, so he extended callings to selected men and women to further their education. These individuals then brought their refined skills and knowledge home to help build up Zion.¹

For example, in a conversation between Brigham Young and John R. Park, the president of the then up-and-coming University of Deseret, Young suggested that Park travel east to learn the operations of successful universities and implement them in his own school, which is later became the University of Utah.¹ Furthermore, Church leaders encouraged some women to study medicine in the East; after they returned home, they used their new knowledge to train others throughout the Mormon corridor in the West.²

The Saints were also interested in the arts, so art missionaries, like John Hafen, were called to further their studies in painting in Paris so they could paint murals in the Salt Lake Temple.³ Even the architect for the temple, Truman Angell, went to Europe to further his skills as he continued to design buildings in the Great Basin.⁴

Early Church leaders like President Young believed that education should benefit not only the individual but also the community in which he or she lived. How can your studies benefit the communities to which you belong?

 

Footnotes

1. John R. Park, Diary, 1869–1886, July 8, 1870, September 19, 1870, November 25, 1872,

February 7, 1873, MSS 638, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham

Young University, Provo, Utah.

2. Eliza R. Snow, “An Address,” Woman’s Exponent 2, no. 8 (September 15, 1873): 63.

3. John Hafen to George Q. Cannon, March 25, 1890, MSS 356, John Hafen Collection, 1879–

1918, Arts and Communications, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library,

Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

4. Truman O. Angell, “His Journal,” in Our Pioneer Heritage, ed. Kate B. Carter (Salt Lake

City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1967), 10:195–213.