Importance of Teaching

Thomas Jefferson said, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.” As I thought of that, I paraphrased it and applied it to what we are thinking about: If the Church expects the family can be both ignorant and safe, it expects what never was and never will be. Therein, I think, is our great responsibility.

We should be the best taught people on the face of the earth. We have the doctrines—there’s no church that has the complete teachings of the gospel as do we. There’s no church that tries harder to teach teachers how to teach—both the prospective teachers and those who are in service.

That has been one of the finest things when it’s employed, but I fear that it’s sometimes like a vice raid. They raid once and then they think they’ve cleared up all the crime forever. We must repeat that teacher training program month after month and year after year. It must be a continuing, ongoing process if we expect our teachers to know better how to teach.

President Harold B. Lee
(Sunday School General Conference, October 5, 1973)