Things You Will Learn This Week

The Learning Model & the Importance of Education
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Things You Need to Know This Week

Watch the BYU Pathway Worldwide Devotional. You’ll discuss the devotional at your gathering this week.
Make sure that you have downloaded Microsoft Office. You will need it for your assignments this week.

Lesson Introduction

This week you will learn about the Learning Model and how the lessons in PathwayConnect are designed. You will also study the importance of education and explore different types of students and consider how your attitude toward learning will affect your education.

The Learning Model

The lessons in PathwayConnect follow the pattern of The Learning Model. The Learning Model was developed at BYU-Idaho to help students and teachers consecrate their learning through three key steps:

Prepare, Teach One another, and Ponder and Prove

W02 The Learning Model Accessible Version

Prepare

At the beginning of each week, you will have three lessons: a Life Skills lesson, a Writing Lesson, and a Math Lesson. The prepare activities are marked with a picture as shown below.

During the prepare phase, you begin consecrating your learning to God by thinking about how you could teach what you are learning to someone else. By doing this, you put yourself in the mindset of how you are going to use your knowledge to bless others. Not only does this make your learning more relevant, it invites you to more deeply prepare yourself both academically and spiritually.

Teach One Another

During the week, you will have two opportunities to teach others what you are learning. The first is through your weekly gathering. In your gathering you will take turns leading a discussion about what you are studying each week. By sincerely listening to others and sharing your own ideas, you will invite the spirit of revelation and clarify and correct your understanding.

The second Teach One Another opportunity is to respond to the instructor and the class when instructor announcements are made open for comments.

When you share what you are learning with others it not only deepens your own learning it turns your education into an offering to God. This act sanctifies your learning and invites the influence of the Holy Ghost as you start to ponder about what you have learned.

Ponder and Prove

The final step each week is to Ponder and Prove what you have learned. While the activities for this step usually come at the end of the week you will be given prompts throughout the week to think about what you are learning. These prompts show up in the green “Ponder and Record” boxes shown below. Each Ponder and Record box includes questions to help you think more deeply. The culmination of your learning is represented in your application activities where you have to apply what you are learning each week. The Ponder and Prove activities are marked with a picture as shown below.

Ponder and Record

The Learning Model requires that you become responsible for your own learning and that you use what you study to bless others.

Why is the order (Prepare, Teach One Another, Ponder and Prove) of the Learning Model steps important?
How can using the Learning Model sanctify your learning?
How is the Learning Model different from (or similar to) how you have studied in the past?

You will learn more about the Learning Model, including the principles that make it work, in week four. Additionally, each skill lesson will begin with an overview section like the one below to help you orient yourself to the activities each week.

President’s Message: The Importance of Education

In this lesson you will be studying the importance of education and its role in our spiritual progress. First watch this clip from President Clark G. Gilbert’s inaugural address, called “Know Ye Not That Ye Are the Temples of God?”

Temples of Learning | (01:52 mins, Temples of Learning Transcript)

Why Education?

So why are you (and so many who have gone before you) willing to sacrifice so much to get an education? Why has the pursuit of knowledge been such a prominent focus of Church leaders both past and present? In his BYU-Idaho Devotional address, “Education and the Struggle for Perfection,” President Gilbert talked about some of the challenges students face in their struggle for education. In the following article, adapted for PathwayConnect students, he lists four student types that may be found among our Pathway and online students.

Ponder and Record

How are you, as a new student at BYU-Pathway Worldwide, constructing your own “temple of learning”? What do you think President Gilbert means by that?
Why is education important? What temporal and eternal value does it have?

President Clark G. Gilbert, "Education and the [PathwayConnect Student’s] Struggle for Perfection"

President Henry B. Eyring has taught that “conversion brings a drive to learn”(Education for Real Life, Oct. 2018). In fact, this is a pattern that can be observed from the start of the Restoration. Joseph Smith had essentially no formal schooling, yet the effect of the gospel of Jesus Christ on him was to make him want to learn more so that he could be more useful to God. As early as 1833, Church leaders established the School of the Prophets in Kirtland, Ohio. When the Saints later settled Nauvoo, their original charter included the creation of a university. When the Saints again moved west after the martyrdom of the Prophet, they had barely harvested their first crops before they started work on a temple, founded a newspaper, and dotted the landscape with schools and academies.

Why would those early members do so much to invest in education? Part of the answer is that we are commanded to learn. President Uchtdorf has taught, “For members of the Church, education is not merely a good idea—it's a commandment.”(Two Principles for Any Economy, Oct. 2018) We have a responsibility to acquire education because it will help provide for the financial security of our families. Education also enables us to serve in the Church. President Eyring stated the following: “Why worry about education? Because learning is how we prepare to serve both now and in eternity.” (Real-Life Education, Youth Articles)

While the financial, professional, and leadership benefits for education are compelling, there are still deeper reasons for the commandment that Latter-day Saints pursue an education. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read, “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.”[4] President Eyring described education as the “[mighty] struggle for perfection.” (Inaugural Response, December 1971) And Brigham Young taught, “The first great principle that ought to occupy the attention of mankind ... and which is the main spring of all action ... is the principle of improvement." (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, 1997)

While education is essential to our personal and spiritual progression, there are many things that inhibit our learning. In fact, like so many of the blessings that come from heaven, the adversary seeks to either prevent or corrupt all of our sacred opportunities. How do we overcome these challenges? In answer to that question, let me present four profiles of students in their educational struggle for perfection. In doing so, we will discover ways to overcome their immediate educational challenges, which in every case will involve and require a deepening of conversion.

The Doubter

Let’s start with our first student. I call him the doubter. This individual perhaps understands the value of education, but when it comes to him personally, he doesn't believe those messages actually apply to him. I've met these students across the Church as they weighed whether to apply to Pathway, unsure of whether they had what it takes to succeed in college.

Where does such doubt come from? Maybe they struggled in high school. Maybe others in their lives made them feel like they weren’t capable of higher academic work. But while the challenges the doubter faces are real, he must learn to resist those feelings of self-doubt.

Part of overcoming doubt and fear is learning who you are and understanding the potential that is in you. Overcoming doubt often requires you to find people who will believe in you.

In my grade school, they had an accelerated learning program called the Gifted Program. I applied to the program four separate times and never made it. Adding to my frustration was the fact that each of my siblings made it the first time they tried. I soon concluded that I must not be “gifted.” In fact, I viewed myself as just an average student who had little hope for accelerated learning. However, as I graduated middle school, one teacher recognized my efforts and presented me with an award for character and scholarship. This recognition unlocked a belief in my potential that I didn't know I had and changed my entire high-school experience.

Students, look for people in your lives who will believe in you, and lean on them for support. Find that friend, family member, teacher, or mentor—someone who can cheer you on, keep you accountable, and hold you to high expectations.

Another way to overcome doubt is to not be paralyzed by the risk of failure. We have a family motto in the Gilbert home to “Do Your Best.” My father used to tell us as children, “I don't care what grades you receive as long as each of you ‘does your best.’” Over time, that caused us to work hard, fear failure less, and in fact, eventually improve our ability to succeed as students.

So, to the doubters out there, believe in yourself, know of your potential, find others who believe in you, do your best, and get back up when you struggle. As President Monson has said, “I urge you to not take counsel of your fears. I hope you will not say, ‘I'm not smart enough...’ Our Heavenly Father will make you equal to your tasks. If one should stumble, if one should take a course and get less than the ‘A’ grade desired, I hope such a one will not let it become discouraging to him. I hope that he will rise and try again.”

The Student with Misplaced Zeal

I'd next like to describe a student who misses the connection between otherwise righteous endeavors and his or her formal education. I call this individual the student with misplaced zeal.

We see this in the future mother who doesn't see her schooling as important because, in her words, “I just want to get married.” To be clear, there is no more noble goal than marriage and parenthood. But I would also encourage all women to consider their academic stewardships prayerfully. President Monson has said, “Statistics reveal that at some time, because of the illness or death of a husband or because of economic necessity, you may find yourself in the role of financial provider. ... I urge you to pursue your education—if you are not already doing so or have not done so—that you might be prepared to provide if circumstances necessitate such.” (Three Goals to Guide You, Oct. 2007)

And there are other, more spiritual reasons for you to take your education seriously. Your education will help you be a better mother. You will be more effective at teaching and communicating with your children as they grow. You will also be better prepared to serve in the Church. As President Nelson recently taught, “We need women who are organized and women who can organize. We need women with executive ability who can plan and direct and administer; women who can teach, women who can speak out. ... We need women with the gift of discernment who can view the trends in the world and detect those that, however popular, are shallow or dangerous.” (A Plea to My Sisters, Oct. 2018)

Of course, sisters aren’t the only ones who suffer from misplaced zeal. I meet so many young men, returned missionaries, who complain that they miss being involved in purposeful work. To those young men, I can only extend an admonition to repent and get to work understanding how to develop your educational stewardship. I can hear a few of you saying, “Yeah, right, President. Tell me how IT or Business Management is as meaningful as missionary work.” My response is that none of those are meaningful unless you consecrate your efforts to the Lord. As C.S. Lewis once said, “The work of a Beethoven, and the work of a [house cleaner], become spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God, of being done humbly ‘as to the Lord.’” (Learning in War-Time, Oct. 22, 1939) In other words, choose your major and your profession in a way that is consecrated to God.

The “Happy as I Am”

The next category of student I will discuss seems to be heading down his path with very little velocity, commitment, or direction. I call this the student who is “happy as I am.” He views his academic experience with some indifference and is happy simply to get by.

This student comes in many varieties. He can feel he doesn’t need to work or study or prepare because he is very good at video games. He may prioritize his cell phone or social media over his education. Or he may merely be comfortable with where he is and not eager to challenge himself. Allow me to share an example.

Nearly four years ago, I received a call from a graduating BYU-Idaho student named Jonathan, whom I had mentored for over a decade since our time together in Boston. Jonathan had come from a broken home in inner-city Boston, out of a community where very few students attended college, let alone finished. In some ways, Jonathan was just happy to be graduating, but he could sense I was less taken with the milestone. My reply was loving but firm: “Jonathan, I am so pleased with what is happening. You have come so far, and I am so proud of you. But you also need to understand that this is actually just one step in a future path that the Lord has been preparing all along. Indeed, if you truly understood what the Lord expects, you would realize He needs you to keep working, even though you have made it this far.”

In the three years since that graduation, Jonathan has moved on to meaningful professional work. Then, last year, he walked through another graduation from a master's program on the East Coast. He now manages millions of transactions at one of the nation's leading e-commerce companies. More importantly, Jonathan has grown in the work for his family and his service to the Church—all because he took steps to push himself beyond his personal level of comfort.

The Basic Survivor

The last student I would like to describe is one I will call the “basic survivor.” She is not a lazy student. She is a person who is working two jobs—sometimes late at night—and she may be supporting a family while she does it. She doesn’t feel she has time to stop work and get an education. She works very hard, but she doesn’t understand that to become who she needs to become, she has to find time to invest in her career.

We belong to a church that values hard work, but it also values investment in our future. As President Gordon B. Hinckley taught, “There can be no doubt that education pays. Do not short-circuit your lives. If you do so, you will pay for it over and over and over again.” (Seek Learning, Sep. 2007)

President Hinckley continued: “That is [often] the way it is with our lives. Instead of following a steady [upward] course, we are pulled by some mistaken idea in another direction. The movement away from our original destination may be ever so small, but if continued, that very small movement becomes a great gap and we [eventually] find ourselves far from where we intended to go. … You have the potential to become anything to which you set your mind. You have a mind, a body, and a spirit. With these three things working together, you can walk the high road that leads to achievement and happiness. But this will require effort and sacrifice and faith.”

Conclusion

Today we have gone on a journey together exploring the mighty struggle for perfection that comes through education. We have explored the challenges of four different students: the doubter, the student with misplaced zeal, the student who is “happy as I am,” and the basic survivor. Likely, all of us could see some of ourselves in each one of those students. I also hope we could see opportunities to rise above those challenges through increased conversion and commitment to the Lord. It is my prayer that you will see this opportunity and use your time in the PathwayConnect program, along with the support of your instructors, missionaries, mentors, and peers, to lay a foundation for a lifetime of improvement, growth, and development. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Ponder and Record

What are the four types of students President Gilbert describes? Briefly describe their characteristics.
Which type of student are you at this moment? How will you battle/overcome challenges to your educational progress?

[1] Henry B. Eyring, “Education for Real Life,” Ensign, Oct. 2002.
[2] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Two Principles for Any Economy,” Ensign, Oct. 2009
[3] Henry B. Eyring, “Real-Life Education,” Youth Articles, March 2013
[4] Doctrine and Covenants 93:36
[5] Henry B. Eyring, Inaugural Response, Ricks College, December 1971
[6] Brigham Young, Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young (1997), 85-91.
[7] Thomas S. Monson, “Three Goals to Guide You,” Ensign, October 2007.
[8] Russell M. Nelson, “A Plea to My Sisters,” Ensign, October 2015; quoted in Boyd K. Packer, “The Relief Society,” Ensign, November 1978.
[9] C.S. Lewis, “Learning in War-Time,” sermon preached to the students of the University of Oxford, October 22, 1939.
[10] Gordon B. Hinckley, “Seek Learning,” New Era, September 2007.

Mark as done once you have completed all the reading and ponder activities on this page.