Speakers for our 2014 Conference

Date/Time: November 22nd, 9 AM – 5 PM
Location: Utah County Convention Center, in Provo.

Neil Flinders (Neil’s book “Teach the Children” is the inspiration behind our organization) He will introduce his new book Joseph Smith: America's Greatest Educator and speak to the topic:
Title: The Anatomy of Educational Philosophy: Roots of Factionalism in American Education
Description: What agency is and why it is important. How Custodialism emerged and gained control of American education. Fundamental assumptions that create factions in education: viz.Education is (a) an individual function (b) a family obligation (c) a church responsibility (d) a state interest. The four propositions that govern learning and teaching: (a) context (b) content (c) process (d) structure.
Bio: Author of numerous agency-based documents: e. g. Joseph Smith: America’s Greatest Educator (2014); Teach the Children: An Agency Approach to Education (1990); “A Restorationist Views the Modernist/Post-Modernist Debate” (Presidential Address, 1990) annual meeting of the Far Western Philosophy of Education Society; Moral Perspective and Educational Practice (1979). Emeritus CES and the BYU School of Education.

Thoughts to Ponder

"That which matters most is that which transcends mortality." -- NJF

"Spiritual Understanding: When you feel a precept is when you begin to understand it." -- NJF

"Life without God leads to random speculation. Random speculation leads to confusion. Confusion can be disturbing, dangerous, and even destructive. Life with false 'gods' also

leads to random speculation and this is the domain in which human darkness prevails  

upon the personality." -- NJF

Personal Standards that Guided My Writing of

Joseph Smith: America's Greatest Educator

■ Strive to write under the influence of the Spirit.

■ Construct the text so critics inside and outside the Church could respect it.

■ Make the message theologically accurate—acceptable to Church authorities.

■ Keep the vocabulary in the story-line simple enough for ordinary readers.

■ Make the writing style respectable in a literary sense.

■ Seek to write so Joseph Smith would feel good about the message.

<b><b>/The Oldest and Most Destructive Deception: Rejection and Substitution</b>

As any loving parent would do, our Heavenly Father provided simple answers to the most basic questions that concerned his children:
Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? What should I do? What is my ultimate destiny? He gave this information to the first parents
and instructed them to teach this information to their children. He advised them to keep a family record and pass it on to subsequent generations.
This they did. Some of their children listened and learned; they cherished the answers and followed the counsel. Others, however, were not so
inclined; they heard the information and with a little help from the Adversary (devil that he was) they rejected the answers. They chose not to believe
what their parents taught and substituted their own speculations about what life was all about. A pattern was established. It seemed so easy and exciting
to <i>reject the truth</i> and <i>substitute error</i> in its place. And they got to make their own rules about how to conduct their lives.
This was the origin of the counter-culture; it still prevails in various forms in this mortal estate. True doctrines, principles, and ordinances were
in the past and still are given to the people with a simple explanation and legitimate authority. Inevitably, it seems, many continue to reject this path.
They find it exhilarating to create and substitute false and counterfeit doctrines, principles, and ordinances and promote these without legitimate authority.
Although it is somewhat common to find similar behaviors in both cultures the outcomes are starkly different and affect most aspects of life. On the one hand
continuous effort is expended in the original pattern to seek peace, prosperity, service, and sacrifice. On the other hand, life's dominant drift is toward
eat, drink, and be merry; live for today by the rules you establish that are most comfortable in the moment. The content of the former pattern is to
reverence family, church, schools and government by law. Basic institutions to serve and protect the people are instituted and promoted. Strategies for survival
are pursued. The alternative lifestyle is to attack and destroy the traditional family, distort the concept of Church and corrupt its teachings, challenge,
occupy and change the schools, and revise the purposes of government. Basic ways to confuse and destroy the people are instituted and promoted. Strategies
for destruction are pursued with great vigor--sometimes covertly and other time in the streets with great public visibility. This seems to be what drives
life in mortality. What is our choice?

Family

I think the idea of family has some pretty vital and important roots. Deep within the shielded mystery of life resides the second most powerful and intriguing secret—gender. There is male and female; two different, marvelous, and complementary entities. When we say: It's a boy! It's a girl! We speak of that which we know to be true, but do not fully understand. None of us do, though some may think they do. The compelling urge to create in order to sustain our own life envelops the desire to procreate in order to sustain our kind. We live to create, to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth with others who will do the same. There is a desire to have joy in our posterity. It has always been so. (Exceptions and aberrations are just that and they do not change the rule.) The entire process is, in a sense, a fragile and delicate desire that is subject to significant frustration and pain as well as euphoric fulfillment. The divine rules for engaging male and female for their intended purposes are real. They should not be ignored; the consequences for their violation can lead to great heartache. In contrast, however, there is no greater joy than that which comes from careful, consistent compliance to this urge for union between male and female in the the human family.

I believe family is an eternal as well as a temporal social structure and it fulfills its true purposes both on earth and in heaven. Life is eternal and so is family. In the ultimate sense, everything about life seems to be about family. Things on earth are patterned after things in heaven. It's not complicated. Yet ironically, ever since Adam and Eve, the earthly family has been in jeopardy. In my world view, everyone is or can be part of three basic families: (1) a pre-earth family—where Heavenly Parents provided us with a spirit body; (2) an earthly family—where earthly parents provided us with a physical body to house our spirit being and personality; (3) the opportunity to join a spiritual family—with Jesus Christ as head of the household and His Church as the mothering agent. This is what Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus when he inquired and was told: “Ye must be born again.” Just as entry into mortality involves water, blood, and spirit, so joining Christ's family requires water, blood, and spirit. (John 3:1-7;Moses 6:58-62; Mosiah 5:6-10; 2 Corinthians 6:17-18; Romans 8:14; Galations 4:4-7.) It is this family that prepares us for the resurrected body that will entitle us to live with and be part of our Heavenly Father's family following this earth life. Next, perhaps I could say something about the tendency we humans have to reject and substitute rather than accept and obey.

Exploring Some Terms

Let's begin this experiment [viz. an old man trying to blog] with some clarification of the title--dynamic agency. I believe dynamic is one aspect of its opposite which would be static. Everything, it seems, has its opposite. Is that really true? (Some people think it's a big issue but this is not the time to discuss it.) In the case of this blog, we are simply dealing with what is active more than that which is inactive. Active stuff exerts power, inactive stuff doesn't. (For example, a woman might think 'man on a couch', or something like that.) As someone long ago noticed, there are things that act and things that don't. Without getting academic about it, lets just say there are things that are alive and things that are dead--not alive. That's how it appears to me at least. And then comes the terrible question, What is life? Think about it! Well, I am happy with the idea that life is a mystery and a mystery is a truth that can only be known though revelation. This idea does, however, raise even more questions to consider, but not right now--at least not right here. For the moment, perhaps we could be content to think the mystery of life is hidden in this notion: existence is more or less a field of energy information and people are beings of light. (This makes contemporary physicists happy.)

The rest of us should be pleased to understand this means the critical truth about our bodies would not reside just in our flesh, blood, and bones; perhaps in electromagnetic fields, waves, photons, and possibly [undoubtedly probably] other unseen phenomena which might even include intelligence. In other words, it is credible to conclude there is more to each of us than what we can see with our eyes--unaided or aided. It is self evident, we have spiritual as well as physical dimensions. This should not be dismissed, overlooked, or forgotten. Our children deserve to have this more expansive view of themselves and the world in which they live.  We are of great worth--every soul, in fact, is of great worth. And there is a lot of other important stuff on this planet capable of acting rather than just being acted upon. We do not reside on a dead planet and in a singular way humans are quite unique. Humans are more than a product of the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, or the animal kingdom which too many modern textbooks overlook.  There is more than adequate evidence to sustain the idea we are part of the kingdom of God. This has a lot of important implications.

Now we come to the second notion--agency. For me this term has two very important connotations: (1) agency is a realm in which a person is free to act. (2) It is also capacity--a power--to act, make choices and create--in the sense of organizing existing elements for some purpose or other. This all has to do with an environment of (a) truth--a knowledge of things as they were, as they are, and as they will or can become and (b) light--the enabling understanding or wisdom to apply truth in safe, useful, productive, and appropriate ways. From my perspective this--personal dynamic agency--is what mortality is all about and it is intentionally manifest in family. I have concluded for me, it is a lot easier to rear children on dirt than it is on asphalt. Next we can consider more about 'family.'

Introducing My New Book

I am so happy to share this new book with friends and family.  

It is now available at the BYU Bookstore. 

This blog is in progress and in early stages of construction.  

Come back soon!