I studied the
importance of lifelong learning in my life skills class this week and want to
share some of the information with you.
Many people stop learning, and they have a variety of reasons for doing
so. Some people believe they know enough
and have no need for further education.
Other people believe they cannot learn without being in a formal
situation. Still others stop learning
because they do not know how.
While
giving a commencement address at Ricks College on April 21, 1988, then Bishop Henry
B. Eyring of the Presiding Bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints told the story of a young man named Duke Fergerson. Duke’s father died while Duke was very young,
and his mother gave him the following advice as a young man: “Do what they think you can’t do.” Duke managed to get through high school without learning to read and was
accepted into a local junior college on his athletic abilities. Then he realized he had cheated himself by
not learning what he needed to know, and he began his quest for knowledge. He became a football star for a college team
and then a professional football player and kept studying, even when ridiculed
by his team members. After retiring from
football, he enrolled at Harvard Business School.
Bishop Eying gave three keys to
lifelong learning. His first key is to
remember you are a child of God; “He knows all truth” and therefore “there is
nothing that is true that you cannot learn.”
“Most people stop learning out
of fear. They are afraid they cannot
learn. Your formal schooling may be
interrupted for some reason, but I want you to know with absolute certainty
that you can learn whatever God would have you learn. Great learners believe that. They have the attitude that they can learn.”
The second key is “Because God
is so great and I am so small, it is easy to admit what I do not know. Therefore, I am teachable.” Bishop Eyring used the example of his father,
“an internationally famous research chemist. When he would give talks to
audiences of nonscientists, he would often give his explanation of an answer to
a scientific question and then he would say, `You know, sometimes I think that
God watches me and laughs at me as I struggle like a little child. Someday I will be with Him and He will show
me how childlike my ideas were.’
“That always got a chuckle from
the audience. And it endeared Dad to
people because they thought it was a sign of humility. But it was far more than a sign of
humility. It was an explanation of why
he was a lifelong learner. He really saw
himself as a little child. Because of
that, it was easy for him to admit that there were better explanations than the
ones he had already offered. He was
constantly changing, constantly trying to learn.”
Bishop Eyring’s third key is “Because
I am clean, the Holy Ghost can teach me.”
Doctrine and Covenants 42:14 tells us “… if ye receive not the Spirit ye
shall not teach.” If no teaching takes
place without the Holy Ghost, there is also no learning. We must be morally clean in order for the
Holy Ghost to be with us because “no unclean thing enter into the kingdom of
God” (Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ, 1 Nephi 15:34). Since the Holy Ghost is part of the Godhead,
we must be clean to have Him with us.
The Holy Ghost helps us by “nudging [us] in the direction of truth,
confirming truth when [we] find it, even bringing ideas directly into [our
minds].”
My Grandma Litster was a
lifelong learner. I do not know how much
formal education she received, but I know that she kept learning. After my grandfather passed away, my
grandmother moved to Salt Lake City where she got a job working in the Salt
Lake City library. In her older years –
she retired from work in her 80s – she walked a block or two to catch the city
bus and rode up town to the library, reversing the direction after work. I always enjoyed visiting with her because
she was so interesting. She not only
worked in a library, but she read many books and magazines. She told me about all kinds of people, places,
and events.
I remember a story I read many
years ago; I do not remember many of the details, but I do remember the
principle of the story. A woman attended
a lecture about education given by a noted professor and was so impressed that
she wrote a letter to him about her circumstances. The woman told the professor that she did not
have the opportunity to further her education because all she did was peel potatoes. He wrote to her, asking where she sat while
peeling potatoes, and she answered that she sat on the door step. He asked, “What is under the doorstep?” She answered, “Ants.” He then asked her to tell him about the
ants. The teacher and the student
continued their correspondence and the woman had eventually prepared a
profession paper about ants that the professor arranged to have published.
This story remained with me and
may be the reason why I have always loved to learn. I read articles in the encyclopedia simply
because I have a desire to learn more about a certain subject. While my husband and I traveled across the
United States several years ago, I put my smart phone to good use. We would see something along the way – a horse
in a pasture, a national landmark, or the next town – and I would research it
on my smart phone and share it with my husband.
My husband loves to learn new information, particularly history. Whenever I have a question about a historical
event, I can usually learn about it from my husband. He often has more interesting details than I
find researching.
In his book Major Decisions Bishop Eyring wrote a chapter entitled “Education
and the Gospel.” In this chapter he
discusses the importance of education, specifically “for those who sense the
deeper meaning and purpose of life.” He
wrote about Joseph Smith being “a dedicated student” as well as “a great
teacher.”
He explained that Joseph Smith “directed the early Mormon pioneers
to create schools at the same time they were constructing temples” in Kirtland,
Ohio, and Nauvoo, Illinois. “School building
became a pattern for these pioneers when they went west. As soon as they had established a new
settlement, they built a school for their children…. Many schools … initially built for
grade-schoolers, grew larger: BYU,
BYU-Idaho, and the University of Utah all started as Mormon academies.” The pioneer schools taught both boys and
girls and prepared them for further education.
Many of the children went on to receive college degrees.
Bishop Eyring shared his
grandfather’s belief that “education was invaluable for parents, who play the
central role in their children’s education and development of character. He argued that all parents, mothers and
fathers alike, have to know enough science to answer their children’s
questions, especially questions about how the things taught in school relate to
the principles of religion. He said,
“`The influence that you have on
your children and grandchildren depends very much on how well you understand the
world. It is surprising how much they
will listen to you if they think you are talking sense, and how little
attention they will pay to you on the things that you talk nonsense on, that
you do not even pretend to know very much about. It is
important to everybody to be as widely acquainted with the things going on in
the world and to understand what people are thinking and saying as clearly as
they can if they want to influence other people. I think that each of you has a definite
obligation to understand something about science in this world.”
Bishop Eyring stated later in
the chapter that we risk becoming “an old fuddy-duddy” with no influence if we
do not keep up with the events of our day.
“We owe it to ourselves to understand the world we live in – science,
music, and art.” He counseled his
readers to prepare for future opportunities by learning as much as possible. We are preparing for eternal life, and we can
take all that we learn on this life into our next life to “enhance our capacity
to serve.” Education should be important to us because we know we are preparing
for eternal life now.
