In the early pioneer days, most schools in Utah Territory were LDS Church schools, and religion was an integral part of the curriculum. With the increasing diversification of Utah's population and the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887, which had the effect of prohibiting the teaching of religion in public schools, the Church looked for other means of assuring spiritual instruction for its young people. Between 1890 and 1929, the Church sponsored special religion classes conducted in ward meetinghouses for children in the first to the ninth grades in a movement that was "the first effort of the Mormons to supplement (but not to replace) secular education"; it was "America's first experiment in providing separate weekday religious training for public school children" (Quinn, p. 379).
This endeavor grew into the Church Educational System, which consists of several levels. First is seminary, a daily religious education program held in a seminary building near the school for grades nine through twelve that provides for the study of the Book of Mormon, Old Testament, New Testament, and Doctrine and Covenants/Church History. Second, institutes of religion adjacent to campuses serve students enrolled in postsecondary programs by offering religion classes, usually scheduled twice a week to fit in with college schedules. Third, the Church sponsors four institutions of higher education: Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah; Brigham Young university-Hawaii in Laie, Hawaii; Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho; and LDS business college in Salt Lake City. In addition, in Mexico and the Pacific, the Church sponsors seven elementary schools, thirteen middle schools, and nine secondary schools that provide both secular and religious training.
In 1988-1989, the Church's educational system extended to 90 countries or territories and served about 250,000 seminary students, 124,500 institute students, 37,600 students in Church colleges and universities, and 9,300 students in other Church schools. The system employs over 4,100 full- and part-time employees, in addition to 15,000 members who are called to teach in the seminary and institute programs.
In sum, the attitude of the Church toward education is unusual in several respects. First, the Church is distinctive in the degree to which its members, child and adult alike, participate in the many educational activities of the Church: "As a people we believe in education-the gathering of knowledge and the training of the mind. The Church itself is really an educational institution. Traditionally, we are an education-loving people" (Widtsoe, 1944, p. 666).
Second, its commitment is to education as an essential component of religious life: "Every life coheres around certain fundamental core ideas.... The fact that [God] has promised further revelation is to me a challenge to keep an open mind and be prepared to follow wherever my search for truth may lead" (Brown, 1969, p. 11).
Third, it holds a deep conviction that knowledge has an eternal dimension because it advances man's agency and progress here and in the world to come: "Both creative science and revealed religion find their fullest and truest expression in the climate of freedom.... Be unafraid of new ideas for they are as steppingstones to progress. You will, of course, respect the opinions of others but be unafraid to dissent-if you are informed" (Brown, 1958, p. 2-3).
Fourth, it is insistent that secular and spiritual learning are not at odds but in harmony with each other: Latter-day Saints do not emphasize "the spiritual education of man to the neglect of his intellectual and physical education.... It is not a case of esteeming intellectual and physical education less, but of esteeming spiritual education more" (Roberts, pp. 122-23). "Secular knowledge is to be desired " as a tool in the hands of the righteous, but "spiritual knowledge is a necessity " (S. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, p. 280).
This article is from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism and is reprinted with permission.
David P. Gardner served as the president of the University of Utah from 1973-1983 and subsequently as president of the University of California System. He also served on many committees of national significance including the National Commission on Excellence in Education and the National Committee on Student Financial Aid.
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