LDS Education by Alleen and Don Nilsen with help from Chris Kartchner, Greg Wilson, Steve Gibbons, and Alleen

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LDS Educationby Alleen and Don Nilsen with help
from Chris Kartchner, Greg Wilson, Steve
Gibbons, and Alleens Sunday School
ClassCharlie, Lauren, Jessie, Braden, Toby, and
Daniel
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And some kids who believe in education
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Our favorite students at ASUwere educated in LDS
Primaries.

• They know how to raise their hands.
• They know how to listen.
• They know how to stay on task.
• They have intellectual curiosity.
• They enjoy learning things and having fun.

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Some of Dons favorite ASU students

• Brent Jameson took a linguistics class from me.
  He later became a French teacher and a Mission
  President in the Belgian Congo.
• Before he was my student, Fred Mortenson was a
  star on ASUs football team. He later became a
  member of our Stake Presidency.
• Jenny Crowder was one of my students at ASU. She
  has now finished her student teaching and is
  ready to become a teacher. The Crowders are two
  of my favorite role models in the ward.
• Ive also enjoyed working with BYU linguists
  including Samuel C. Monson Dallin Oaks, II and
  J. Reuben Clark, III.

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Our Own Educations

• We earned our BA Degrees (Don in French and
  Alleen in English) from BYU in 1958 and our MAs
  in 1961 from American U. in Washington D.C.
• Don earned his Ph.D. in Theoretical Linguistics
  from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in
  1971, while Alleen earned hers in English
  Education from the University of Iowa in 1973.
• While most linguists study rule-governed
  communication strategies, i.e. Grammar, we have
  been interested in various types of non-direct
  language including such literary devices as
  metaphor, satire, parody, innuendo, symbolism,
  irony, and humor.
• We enjoy making analogues between art and
  literature and especially between music and
  language because they are both linear. Music has
  expressions to explain deviationsterms like
  scherzo, requiem, major, minor, diminished,
  augmented, etc. These deviations relate to
  various human emotions. And as Toby observed in
  class, theres always something more you can
  learn with music.

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An educated life is a happier life because you
will

• Be more in control of your own destiny because
  you will have more money and more opportunity.
• Have more skills and more flexibility, which will
  enable you to get pleasure from serving both your
  church and your community.
• Be able to serve in both Church and sectarian
  roles. In Alleens class, the students found
  that our General Authorities have been highly
  educated men who help prestigious positions
  before they were called to work full-time for the
  church.
• Work harder, but you wont want to retire because
  you will be doing something you enjoy.

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Building a Strong Foundation
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The Lord wants us to learn because we should . .
.

• Start out with a question and try to arrive at a
  tentative answer.
• Have an interest in many points of view and
  perspectives and have more educated friends
  because as one of Alleens students explained,
  If it werent for developing relationships with
  all the teachers and friends I had in school,
  today I would be lonely.
• Be able to suspend disbelief and therefore
  discover truth and beauty wherever it is to be
  found (13th Article of Faith).
• .

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Honest and respectful discussions are a big part
of getting educated.

• Many Americans feel alienated and polarized from
  each other.
• One reason is that with so much easily available
  information, we can isolate ourselves and read or
  listen only to ideas we already agree with.
• Another reason is that social media allows young
  people to have access to all kinds of
  information that their parents do not have.

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We are always happy to see LDS people (including
ourselves) using skills developed in church to
help in various community groups.

• Here we were telling stories at ASUs Dia de Los
  Ninos

• Here Don is leaving to be a judge at the
  International Science and Engineering Fair

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We are also happy to see families enjoying
online/intellectual activities together
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LDS Contributions to Education on the Western
Frontier

• In many small Mormon towns, the school house was
  built before the church houseand then used for
  both purposes.
• In 1890, Alleens great grandfather, Levi Mathers
  Savage, (the oldest son of the man whose story
  is told in the film Seventeen Miracles), was sent
  by Church President Wilford Woodruff to found
  the Snowflake Academy (the first high school in
  Northern Arizona), much like the beginning of
  Eastern Arizona College, which was founded by the
  Church in 1890.
• He was later called to be the Bishop in the small
  town of Woodruff, 13 miles north of Snowflake,
  where he served for more than 20 years.

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More Recent LDS Contributions to Arizona Public
Education

• G. Homer Durham was ASUs President 1960-69. He
  wanted to make Tempe as noteworthy a name as
  Oxford, Cambridge, or Berkeley.
• He transformed the ASU campus, by changing public
  streets into malls, securing final funding and
  authorization for what everyone called the Frank
  Lloyd Wright Auditorium, and founding the
  College of Law.
• He got approval for Ph.D. degrees in subjects
  beyond Education, got us accepted into the WAC
  conference and hosted the first Fiesta Bowl.

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Today Mary Lou and Ira A. Fulton are major ASU
Contributors.

• They donated money not only to Tempe High School,
  but to the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, the
  Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering, the Fulton
  Center, and indirectly to the on-campus LDS
  Institute.

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Why is it both easier and harder to get educated
today?

• EASIER Because

• HARDER Because

• There is much more information than there used to
  be.
• None of us can read all the information we see
  everyday.
• We cant depend on the truth of everything we
  read, especially online.
• College costs more than it used to.

• There is no shortage of books, magazines, and
  newspapers.
• We can get all kinds of information online.
• Children have more time for school because we no
  longer have farms dependent on child labor.

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How to become better educated today

• Formal Education
• Missionary Service
• Missionaries learn foreign languages, foreign
  accents or dialects, and foreign belief systems.
  
• Good missionaries must understand the
  relationship between their own belief system and
  that of their audience in order to be effective.
• Informal Education (field trips, books, movies,
  etc.)
• Music (Singing, Playing Piano, Pondering Lyrics,
  etc.)

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Our young people have fewer years to prepare for
their missions.
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The Biggest Increase Is in Young Women

• Every missionary comes home with stories about
  things they had to do that they didnt feel
  prepared for.

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Just think of how many more choices todays young
people have for careers. The New York Times
magazine (5-26-2013) featured BYUs computer
animation program under the title When Hollywood
Wants Good, Clean Fun, It Goes to Mormon Country.
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Chris Crowe Jesse CrislersHow I Came to
Write LDS Authors for Young Adults

• Orson Scott Card
• Myesha Chaney
• Chris Crowe
• Shannon Hale
• Kimberly Heuston
• Stephanie Meyer
• Beatrice Sparks
• Rosie Thomas
• Helen Hughes Vick

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Today we live longer and have better health so
that we can continue learning and contributing,
which made us especially happy to be honored with
the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award given by the
Association for Theoretical and Applied Humor.
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Alleen (and the Doctrine and Covenants) gets the
last word