I’m old enough that when thinking about teaching children my mind quickly goes to the wonderful and insightful Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song, “Teach Your Children Well”. Most of all, the song points out an often overlooked element of teaching, that we really don’t know and can’t completely understand what our children have gone through, just as they can’t really understand us completely. So the song urges us to teach well in spite of this, feeding children on our dreams.[1]

We focus on teaching children because it is so vital to their growth and because it is so important to our society. While each person has free agency, teaching provides them with options, alternate ways of behaving that they can choose. Teaching isn’t about controlling others, it is about providing the freedom that comes from knowledge.[2] In this vein, teaching well means more than just lecturing. It means developing trusting relationships that show as well as express the wide variety of good actions we can take, and helps each of us develop a moral framework that we can use to decide how to act.

 

Sin limits my ability to see, feel, and hear the things of God.

While the definition of sin is contested and difficult, given that it is too often used as a weapon against others, there is little doubt that sin leaves us worse off. I like the characterization here that sin limits us—makes it harder to understand what we need to learn and know. Simply put it gets in the way of teaching and learning well. This poem also suggests that sin is often deceptive making us think that it is light, while “incarnadining” (making red) the way.

 

The Way of Sin

by Grace Ingles Frost

Fraught with gloom of myriad shadows

That the distance veils from sight,

Artfully it lures the traveler

Onward by mirage of light.

 

But, have feet of those who’ve wandered

Down that path not left behind

Imprint of exquisite torture,

For each seeking soul to find?

 

Tear away the mocking verdure!

See! its growth doth overlay

Wreckage that since Time’s inception

Hath incarnadined the way.

1914

 

God calls me to do His work despite my weaknesses.

While the CSN&Y song lyrics point out the weaknesses of both teachers and students, more important is the idea that we not only need to do God’s work despite that weakness, but that this weakness is part of the plan. Here the poet “J.” points to how this works in the overall plan of the gospel.

 

The Gospel

by J.

The Gospel is the power of God,

To every soul’s salvation,

No matter whether Jew or Greek

Or any other nation.

 

But there is something we must do

‘Ere we can be possessing

That great and glorious Gospel gift,

That all-embracing blessing.

 

When we reflect upon our sins,

It brings us many a tremor.

But, on repenting, we’re forgiven

Through Jesus, our Redeemer.

 

The needful thing for us to do

Is full obedience render.

Then our transgressions fade away

And Christ is our Defender.

 

If we repent of all our sins

And make full reformation,

Keeping God’s laws henceforth, for us

There is no condemnation.

 

To work the rule of righteousness

The Gospel is the leaven,

That here the will of God may be

Done as it is in heaven.

 

When to our Heavenly Father’s will

We offer no resistance,

We are in the right way to solve

The problem of existence.

 

If we would try our very best

To do what is most fitting,

We should not waste much precious time

In doctrinal hair-splitting.

 

If we would put and keep ourselves

Upon our best behavior.

We’d very soon be one indeed

In Jesus Christ our Savior.

 

Sectarian technicalities

With us would soon have vanished.

Strife, quarrels, envy, jealousies

Would be forever banished.

 

The selfish games of greed and grab

Could never more afflict us,

Nor would oppressive laws be made

To needlessly restrict us.

 

The many worries of our time

No longer would annoy us,

And every effort would be vain

To ruin or destroy us.

 

From talking of our neighbors’ faults

We should feel more like shrinking,

And how to better our own lives

We should be oftener thinking.

 

As we wish they would do to us.

So we should do to others.

That is the true and only way

For men to live like brothers.

 

That is the golden Gospel rule.

Though now we live below it.

That is the height for us to gain.

And every one should know it.

 

If we would live a perfect life

(Than this, naught could be plainer)

We must obey a perfect law,

Or hopes could not be vainer.

 

Yes, in the great Millennium

This must be our election,

To shape our lives by Gospel laws

And thus attain perfection.

 

Some say, “These are ideal views.”

Well, real’s fruit of ideal.

Heaven is ideal realized,

There ideal becomes real.

 

These ideal views the Lord above

Is daily to us giving.

To make ideals real is

The purpose of our living.

1899

 

The gospel of Jesus Christ was taught from the beginning.

Given the injunction to teach our children, and our doctrine that we are here on earth to learn, is it any surprise that the gospel has been taught from the beginning? Indeed, could there be any bigger tragedy than not having basic gospel principles taught to each person? I’m not talking about things like which church and how the church is structured, so much as principles like love, caring for one another and that God is loving and just. Here, Zion’s Poetess, Eliza R. Snow, puts this in terms of our eternal lives.

 

We Are, We Were and Are to Be

by Eliza R. Snow

Momentous thoughts! Thoughts full of interest

To each reflecting mind.

The knowledge of

Our pre-existent state is deeply veiled

In the impenetrable cloister of

Forgetfulness, until the spirit of

The living God, which breathed in Daniel’s mind

The dream forgotten by the haughty king

Of Babylon, reveals to us the mystery.

God is our Father, and we dwelt with Him

Ere Earth was temporally organized.

To carry out our Father’s great designs,

Involving our eternal destiny

And our relationship to Him and Earth,

We gave our free and uncoerced consent

To risk the consequences and abide

Whatever the result, and take our chance

In this probation, this our second state.

But mark the danger which we bravely dared!

By yielding all the wealth of memory—

All recollection of primeval life,

Of our exalted, royal origin,

With all th’ experience and the gathered stores

Of rich intelligence and wisdom drawn

From flowing streams of sources infinite,

With all of knowledge we had treasured when

Associated with the highest class

Of pure intelligences—all is laid

Aside, and we come forth upon the earth

In total ignorance, and at our birth

Commence a life as though we ne’er had been:

With all to learn, from helpless babyhood

To highest manhood’s fullest, broadest sphere.

We’re here to fill a noble destiny.

This present life is but a middle state,

A short connecting link between the two

Eternities, the past and future of

Our own identical existences.

The future we are hastening to—the past,

Though all forgotten, we, by honoring

Our mortal being, may anticipate,

In the high-aiming, heav’n-directing path.

Of man’s progression, an attainable

Attractive point, to which the present, past

And future all converge—where mem’ry, long

Dethroned, resuscitated with full pow’rs,

Resumes its sway, and the dark curtain of

Forgetfulness is rent asunder, and,

As if with ken of Deity, we’ll gaze

On all the scenes and all the sceneries

Connected with our former being, and

Our first high parentage in spirit birth,

Including knowledge of those kindred ties,

And all the dear associations formed

By friendship and by fond reciprocal

Affection. O how interesting is

The thought! I oft desire, yet almost fear

To know the sequel of the hidden past

Of my great life experience—life before

“The morning stars” their lofty paeans sung,

“And all the sons of God shouted for joy.”

How well for those who kept “their first estate”

In that most terrible of all revolts,

The bold rebellion in the courts above,

When Lucifer the heirship sought to wrest

From its legitimacy, and apply

Its functions to unholy purposes!

’Tis no vain thought—no phantom of the brain,

T’ anticipate the time when the long spell

Of strange forgetfulness, oblivion wraps

Around the sleeping mem’ries of the past

Shall be dissolved.—The “gates ajar,” at once

The panoramic vista moves along,

With recollection’s mirror unobscured,

And the great volume of primeval life

Unsealed will be unfolded leaf by leaf,

And every secret of development

Anterior to our nether birth disclosed,

With every phase of being—every shade

Of light and dark, or good or ill, or mix’d

In each self-woven web of character.

’Tis true as strange and strange as true that this

Event secure in our great future lies.

Ere man had fallen from the high altitude

Of his primeval standing on the earth,

And from the presence of the Deity,

By wisdom infinite a righteous plan

Had been devised by which, thro’ faith in the

Atoning blood of Jesus Christ, our own,

Our elder brother in the spirit world—

God’s only Son begotten in the flesh;

And thro’ obed’ence to His Gospel, which

Was preached to Adam, Seth—to Enoch and

To Noah, Moses and to Abraham,

The glorious Everlasting Gospel, which,

With all its gifts and blessings, Priesthood, powers—

Its ordinances and authority,

Has been restored to earth thro’ Joseph Smith,

He may regain the holy presence of

The Great Eternal, and may e’en transcend

The rank he held in Eden ere the Fall.

Throughout the whole vast Universe of worlds,

Each kingdom has its Order and its laws,

And each its corresponding glory too.

There is one glory of the sun—one of

The moon, another of the stars; and as

The stars in glory differ each from each,

So is the resurrection of the dead.

Who honors the celestial law is sure

Celestial glory thro’ that law to gain.

So with terrestrial and the multitude

Of the telestial glories and their laws.

Man, as free moral agent, has the right

And power to choose his future destiny

Thro’ his adherence to whichever law

Or code he shapes his life. The fullness of

The Everlasting Gospel of the Son

Of God contains the perfect law by which

Perfection’s full proportions are attained,

With Immortality and Endless Lives.

1871

 

“Teach these things freely unto your children.”

So what happens when we add the term “freely” to the principle of teaching? The word implies that we should teach things frequently, without unnecessary limitations. Is it possible to teach your children too much? Eliza R. Snow makes it pretty clear what she thinks in the following poem:

 

To Parents

by Eliza R. Snow

FATHERS and mothers! love for Zion’s weal

Inspires the muse to proffer an appeal,

In Zion’s name. Her welfare is our aim,

And mutual int’rest; therefore I will claim,

Not the indulgence of your list’ning ear,

Nor the vain plaudits sycophants would hear;

But your attention, thoughtful, calm and grave—

Your sober judgment I would fondly crave.

You all are stewards of what you possess:

You may abuse or use in righteousness;

And thus the children giv’n you of the Lord

May prove your curse, or prove a rich reward.

Early in life, is the direction giv’n

Which leads them down to hell or up to heav’n.

As outlines sketch’d in youth and infancy,

The manhood and womanhood will be.

The infant mind is like an empty cell,

Where good and evil find a place to dwell,

And may, by culture, be enlarg’d and fill’d,

And truth and error, one or both, instill’d.

Our bodies, thro’ exertion, strength obtain—

By exercise, to proper growth attain:

Let healthy, vig’rous limbs, inertly lie,

How soon they perish—ultimately die!

And without practice too, the mental powers,

Weak, unsupplied with needful, useful stores;

Will not arrive at their diploma’d worth,

Nor shed their own inherent lustre forth.

We cannot pow’rs and faculties create,

But ’tis our province, both to cultivate;

And while life’s busy scenes are hurrying thro’,

The most important is the first to do;

And surely none can more of worth combine,

Than the improvement of the youthful mind.

Will ignorance—will wit and sportive glee—

Will nonsense qualify your sons to be

Your representatives to carry on

The work you have commenced, when you are gone?

In high important offices to act—

As Zion’s judges, business to transact

In things momentous for all Israel’s sake,

With the salvation of the world at stake?

When education waits before your door—

When her rich streams in golden currents pour;

Altho’ yourselves have not the time to sip,

Inspire your sons and daughters too, to dip.

Prompt them to mental service, while the mind,

Like pliant boughs, is easily inclined—

While they with readiness and pleasure take

The impressions which the sculptor’s chisels make.

Your sons as heralds, soon must go abroad

To face the world—to teach the truth of God—

The wise—the erudite of earth to meet—

Knowledge with knowledge—mind with mind compete—

All their attainments criticised and tried,

Before tribunals of ungodly pride:

Where no apologies will be received,

And no mistakes and errors be retriev’d.

’Tis true, the Lord his Spirit does bestow,

And thro’ that medium, streams of knowledge flow:

But when the opportunities are giv’n,

Thro’ the o’er-ruling providence of heav’n,

For self-improvement; no one need expect

That God will smile upon our own neglect.

The Lord assists all those who do their part—

The dilatory ones must feel the smart.

Would not your bowels of compassion yearn

To think your child, in stranger lands must learn,

By force of cruel circumstances, what

He might have been, at home, in kindness taught?

Among the brutes, and brutish of our kind,

The pow’r of sinew rules, instead of mind:

Where cultivation sheds its genial ray,

Knowledge is pow’r, and mental strength bears sway.

As fins obscure the vision of the blind,

So ign’rance hides the lustre of the mind—

To rude unpolish’d gems, it will compare,

Till education stamps an impress there.

Should Zion’s sons, in aught deficient be,

That will adorn, or yield utility?

And very soon your blooming daughters will

Their destin’d place as wives and mothers fill.

The best—the noblest boon they can receive—

The richest fortune, you have power to give—

The wealthiest patrimony under heav’n,

Is Education timely—wisely giv’n.

Not erudition’s superficial gloss—

Its glitt’ring tinsel, and its flimsy dross,

Vain useless lumber—foolish, empty boast,

Which constitutes the braggadocia’s toast.

Instead of fabled, false, fictitious glare,

Teach them what was—what will be, and what are;

Which will their minds with useful stores supply—

Expand, ennoble, and exalt them high,

Teach them the principles of life and health,

And make them rich with intellectual wealth:

As your best legacy, teach them to find,

By constant searchings, treasures for the mind:

All else will perish or elude their grasp,

Tho’ much they cherish—tho’ they fondly clasp;

But what they gather up of mental worth,

Will not forsake them when they leave the earth.

The pow’r of method students gain in school,

Forms a credential—constitutes a tool,

An operative instrument, whereby

Their own resources, they can self-apply.

Then, let your children be well taught in youth,

Upon the basis of eternal Truth—

Self-cultivated too, as well as taught—

Train’d to reflection, and inur’d to thought:

And both in Time, and in Eternity,

Your sons, as pillars, in the church, will be—

As chosen saviors on Mount Zion stand,

And sway the royal sceptre of command:

Your daughters too, as polish’d stones, will shine,

And ornament their parentage and line—

To grace—to dignify celestial courts,

Where the illustrious from all worlds resort;

And mingle in the high assemblies, where

The Holy Ones—the Gods and angels are.

1855

 

 

[1] Of course, I can’t help but also go to another CSN&Y song, from the same album, that has been running through my head since January 7th, since the murder of a mother of three in Minnesota seems so similar to the four dead in Ohio in 1970. I grieve for them, and for our country.

[2] It is this freedom that is meant when the word “woke” is used. Those who don’t like the term, are essentially saying, we don’t want people to know, to be awake to knowledge, if it means that they have the freedom to act in ways that make us uncomfortable. That seems very short sighted to me.