Choosing and education blesses us with the Spirit and we will desire to gain more. The light and truth we gain will cleave unto the light and truth we have. The light that others share encourages this process, but force often creates resistance to this process.
We choose to become members of a scholar group when we desire to challenge ourselves to get the education we need. Once we are in the group, we choose our level of our engagement beyond the core work by preparing more than that which is expected. We understand that our goal is greater discipleship to the Savior.
Scriptures:
Matthew 7: 8
Abraham 1:2
2 Nephi 2:26-28
Luke 22:32
Application:
Some groups have given the youth ideas for different levels of engagement. Most call these levels Core, Journeyman, and Master - implying an educational journey to greater mastery. The purpose and content of these levels are prayerfully considered by
each group each year. Experienced youth help mentor, inspire, and lead
others through serving in the Core class. Most groups require a certain level of preparation for admission to the different classes.
Core Class:
Some groups ask for an essay or some application process in which youth are asked to write their reasons for wanting to be in the group. Some groups have interviews with parents and youth.
Core class should be centered on doctrine and principles so that all who go will be edified and desire to learn more because it is applicable to their lives. Knowledge-based core classes often leave some youth feeling bored because they already know about a subject or because they don't yet care.
Journeyman classes have been done in a variety of ways:
A focus on skills in a particular area: Journeyman Art, Writing, Geography, History, Science, etc.
Refinement of the work they do in core or master class with peer and mentor reviews and refinement lessons or group projects.
Preparation class for Master Level work.
More depth, building on what they studied in the Core class
Cultural Literacy or Trivia Games about the subject studied that month
Master classes also vary:
Examples:
Meet weekly to discuss a classic book or article that had to do with the content studied in core.
Meet monthly to discuss a classic that had to do with the principle of the month
Meet monthly to plan a service project to bless others with what was gained in their studies that month
Cultural Literacy Games about the subject studied that month
Other ideas:
It has also been done that youth are given different difficulty levels about the same subject. The apprentice level might ask a youth to learn about Confucius on a website or article. Journeyman level might ask them to read a short book about him and to find some of his quotes. The master level might ask them to read The Analects of Confucius. Regardless of the level chosen, all youth meet at the same "core" time and discuss what they learned about Confucius that gave evidence to the principle/doctrine of the month.
Further Reading:
A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille
"The Complaint Principle" by Stephen Palmer is very insightful about this principle.
ReplyDeletehttp://stephendpalmer.com/complaint-principle/
Here is a short excerpt:
An anecdote is told of a man named Jim who missed his opportunity to become wealthy during the gold rush days.
Surrounded by opportunity and wealth, he merely shuffled through life and never amounted to much.
His friend explained, “Jim has the gold fever, but he doesn’t have the digging principle.”
There’s a corollary to the digging principle.
Let me explain by telling you about someone I know who complains about his job almost every time I talk to him. He has to leave his family and drive two hours to work in a nearby city, where he stays through the week, and then comes home for the weekends.
He’s being doing that for years. The first time I met him he told me he wanted to find a way to earn a living in his own town so he could spend more time with his family.
He has yet to do anything about it. He has the discontentment, but he doesn’t have the willingness to change.
There’s a simple rule I use to keep my complaints in check and my desires legitimate: You have to earn the right to complain."
Palmer goes on and bridges this to the "right to dream":
"There’s more to it than earning the right to complain. You also have to earn the right to dream.
A complaint without action is nothing but childish, selfish bellyaching. Likewise, a dream without action is merely wishful thinking.
In both cases your feet are stationary and your hand is extended; you want something for nothing.
The funny thing about my friend is that he’s a good, hard worker. He’s willing to work hard, but not willing to change.
Why would you work hard for someone else and not for yourself and your own family?
Often, the root of actionless complaining isn’t an unwillingness to take action, but rather a fear of change, a fear of stepping into the darkness of the unknown, a fear of risk....
I leave you with a declaration from E. Merrill Root in his phenomenal book, America’s Steadfast Dream:
"To be a man means that we live by the affirmation: ‘I am — therefore I think, therefore I will. No matter what my surroundings, my environment, my social conditioning, I am large, I contain multitudes, I am potent. Like even an acorn fallen into a meager cup of earth on a boulder’s top, I have life and destiny within me: I affirm my introstance against all circumstances. I grow; I thrust my roots down into the earth and my crown up toward the sun; I split the rock. I am a man — for I live, I grow, I will, I am!”