The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
To lead into his remarks during a presentation at BYU Education Week, Elder Clark G. Gilbert showed an old video clip from “Candid Camera,” the hidden-camera reality television series.
In the clip, three or four “Candid Camera” actors enter an elevator with a lone individual and face the back of the elevator instead of the doors. The actors perform the prank several times with different unsuspecting riders. Inevitably, the individual awkwardly turns to face backward in the elevator like the others.
Elder Gilbert, a General Authority Seventy and Church commissioner of education, compared the experience of the elevator rider to the Church Educational System.
“We ask our universities to be different from the world and from each other,” Elder Gilbert explained, or to stand alone despite pressures to “face the wrong way in the elevator.”
The Church makes a huge investment into education, he said and quoted Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who highlighted in his address to the National Press Club how education is a core tenet of the Latter-day Saint faith.
“We give significant attention, energy and resources to educating our youth,” Elder Bednar said. All secular and spiritual education fall under the umbrella of our Church Educational System, and nearly 1 million student learners are enrolled.”
Why does the Church invest so much time, energy, money and human capital in each of the schools within the Church Educational System and why are there different institutions instead of just Brigham Young University? Elder Gilbert asked.
Each school has the same vision: To develop disciples of Jesus Christ who are leaders in their homes, the Church and their communities. “No matter what we do, no matter what the institution, that’s why the Church invests in these institutions,” Elder Gilbert said.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
