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Teaching Tips

What Is True Education?

Your view of education will influence the way you approach your studies. President David O. McKay offers a perspective worthy of your consideration.

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Former Church President David O. McKay discusses the nature of a true education, as follows:

What, then, is true education? It is an awakening of love of truth, a giving of a just sense of duty, an opening of the eyes of the soul to the great purpose of life. It is not so much giving words as thoughts; not mere maxims so much as living principles. It is not teaching the individual to love the good for one’s own sake; it is teaching him to love the good for the sake of the good itself, to be virtuous in action because he is so in heart, and to love and serve God supremely, not from fear but from delight in His perfect character.

Character is the aim of true education; and science, history, and literature are but means used to accomplish this desired end. Character is not the result of chance, but of continuous right thinking and right acting (“Why Education?” Improvement Era, September 1967, p. 3).

How does President McKay’s definition of education change how you might approach your teaching? How can you help your students to better understand this perspective on education?