Principles of Teaching by Adam S. Bennion
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page 8 of 222 (03%)
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remarkably taught--taught of the Lord and His prophets. Our future can
be secure only as it is guaranteed this same good teaching. Every teacher must come to realize that "Mormonism" is at stake when he teaches. "Why do I teach?" goes to the very heart of teaching. The answer to this question is to be found, in part at least, in the three-fold objectives of our Church. First, the salvation and exaltation of the individual soul. As already pointed out, this is the very "work and glory" of the Father. Man is born into the world a child of divinity--born for the purpose of development and perfection. Life is the great laboratory in which he works out his experiment of eternity. In potentiality, a God--in actuality, a creature of heredity, environment, and teaching. "Why do I teach?" To help someone else realize his divinity--to assist him to become all that he might become--to make of him what he might not be but for my teaching. Someone has jocularly said: "The child is born into the world half angel, half imp. The imp develops naturally, the angel has to be cultivated." The teacher is the great cultivator of souls. Whether we say the child is half angel and half imp, we know that he is capable of doing both good and evil and that he develops character as he practices virtue and avoids vice. We know, too, that he mentally develops. Born with the capacity to do, he behaves to his own blessing or condemnation. There is no such thing as static life. To the teacher is given the privilege of pointing to the higher life. He is the gardener in the garden of life. His task is to plant and to cultivate the flowers of noble thoughts and deeds rather than to let the human soul grow up to weeds. This purpose becomes all the more significant when we realize that the effects of our teaching are not only to modify a life here of three-score and ten--they are impressions attendant throughout eternity. |
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