Education: Your Key to Opportunity

Transcription

1 Education: Your Key to Opportunity Note to the Teacher The purpose of this lesson is to help CES teachers reinforce the importance of education in the minds of youth in seminary. It is also designed to introduce students to the CES options they have after leaving high school. It is anticipated that teaching the lesson as outlined will take two 50-minute class periods or one class period of 80 to 90 minutes. If you choose to teach it in a shorter time period, prayerfully choose portions that you feel are the most important for your students. We would suggest that the lesson be taught early in the school year. Possible scripture blocks are as follows: Book of Mormon: 2 Nephi 9:28 29; Mosiah 1:2 7; Alma 37:35 Doctrine and Covenants: sections 6; 50; or 88 Old Testament: Moses 6:1 6; 1 Kings 3:5 15; Proverbs 3 4 New Testament: Luke 2:40 52; Matthew 25:14 30 Introduction In recent addresses the First Presidency has strongly encouraged youth to seek education and training after high school. Through this lesson it is intended that students will: Search and discuss prophetic counsel on the benefits of post-high-school education and training. Understand how continuing education can increase their ability to serve God, community, and their future families. Become familiar with and motivated to continue to participate in the Church Educational System after they graduate from high school. Some Important Principles Concerning Education 1. Education is the key to opportunity. 2. Education helps us better serve family, God, and community. 3. Education can be obtained from various sources, including universities, colleges, vocational schools, or apprenticeship programs. 4. There are Church educational programs available to all LDS young adults regardless of their posthigh-school plans. These programs can strengthen secular and spiritual education. Video Resource With this lesson you should have received from your administrator a CES shared services DVD entitled Education: Your Key to Opportunity (2006). Review the segments Your Path to Continuing Education (18:31) and Your Guide to Continuing Education (26:30), which discuss how students can continue their education and the CES options available as students leave high school. Suggestions for Teaching Education is the key to opportunity. Class Discussion. Invite students to suggest the major decisions they might have to make over the next 10 years. List their responses on the board. Ask: How might your education and training influence these decisions? How might a lack of education and training limit opportunities in the future? When have you seen education, or lack of education, affect someone s life? Quotation. Have students search quotation 3 (located on page 3) and mark additional principles that President Gordon B. Hinckley is teaching about the value of obtaining an education. Invite students to share with each other and the class what they found. Discuss why they think President Hinckley has taught the importance of post-highschool education and training. For the Strength of Youth. Read the section entitled Education, and have the students briefly point out any additional counsel. Video. Show the DVD segment Your Path to Continuing Education (18:31). It demonstrates to students the need for education and provides tips for success in obtaining additional training and education after high school. Have students watch the video segment and look for and list the tips for success. Then ask and discuss: Which of these tips do you think is most important for a student your age? Why? Chart. Make an overhead of chart 2, Educational Expectations and Attainment (located on page 5). 1

2 Ask students to summarize the findings on the chart. Ask: Why do you suppose the majority of these students did not realize their goals? What could happen in your future that would make getting an education more difficult? What can you do now to prepare to follow the prophet and obtain as much education and training as possible? Education helps us better serve family, God, and community. Class Activity. Have students imagine what it might be like to provide financially for a family by discussing what they think the costs are. Share with the students the actual costs of living in your area. The following are examples you could choose: Home mortgage Auto Food Insurance Medical Utilities Tithing and offerings Discuss with your students what their options are for preparing to meet these future needs. Chart. Make an overhead of chart 1, Average Yearly Income (located on page 4). Invite students to study it and look for how education may affect earning potential, which will help them provide for their future families. Quotation and Discussion. Invite the students to search quotations 1 and 2 (located on page 3) and mark what they learn about the value of obtaining an education. Ask: How might an education help you better serve your family, God, and community? How might your ability to provide for your family affect your future happiness? Writing Activity. Invite students to write down their current post-high-school plans for education and training. Encourage them to record promptings they have throughout the lesson that may help them accomplish their educational goals. Education can be obtained from various sources, including universities, colleges, vocational schools, or apprenticeship programs. Quotation. Share quotations 4, 5, and 6. As emphasized by Elder Neal A. Maxwell, be careful not to make the students feel that one kind of education (a university, for example) is better than another (such as a trade school). Class Discussion. Invite several students to share what they are currently doing to accomplish their occupational goals (such as meeting with school counselors, fulfilling internships, taking the ACT, talking with professionals, or looking at schools of interest). Discuss how their educational plans will allow them to accomplish their occupational goals. There are Church educational programs available to all LDS young adults regardless of their post-high-school plans. These programs can strengthen secular and spiritual education. Encourage students to continue to participate in the Church Educational System. Explain that no matter where they choose to further their education, they should be involved with seminary or institute. Video. Show the DVD segment Your Guide to Continuing Education (26:30). It introduces students to the CES options available to them as they leave high school. Have students watch the segment and look for what option could best fit their future plans. Note to teacher: The vast majority of LDS seniors will choose options other than Church schools after graduating from high school. Be sure to emphasize where and when they could begin to attend institute after graduation. Scripture. Read together Doctrine and Covenants 130:18 19 and discuss how learning is an eternal pursuit. Quotation. Close by sharing quotation 7 and testifying to your students how following prophetic counsel in regard to pursuing an education will bless their future. 2

3 1. Get all the education you can. You are moving into the most competitive age the world has ever known. All around you is competition. You need all the education you can get. Sacrifice a car; sacrifice anything that is needed to be sacrificed to qualify yourselves to do the work of the world. That world will in large measure pay you what it thinks you are worth, and your worth will increase as you gain education and proficiency in your chosen field (Gordon B. Hinckley, A Prophet s Counsel and Prayer for Youth, New Era, Jan. 2001, 8). 2. You will be a great asset. You should always work to educate your mind and your hands so you can succeed in your chosen field. Use your education to be an influence for good. As you do so, you will become known as a person of integrity. You will be prepared for opportunities as they come, and you will be a great asset to your family, the Church, and your community (True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference [2004], 50 51). 3. You will be a better provider. Education is the key to economic opportunity. The Lord has laid a mandate upon us as a people to acquire learning by study, and also by faith (D&C 109:14). It is likely that you will be a better provider if your mind and hands are trained to do something worthwhile in the society of which you will become a part (Gordon B. Hinckley, in Conference Report, Apr. 1998, 68; or Ensign, May 1998, 50). 4. Educate your minds and hands. Be smart. The Lord wants you to educate your minds and hands, whatever your chosen field. Whether it be repairing refrigerators, or the work of a skilled surgeon, you must train yourselves. Seek for the best schooling available. Become a workman of integrity in the world that lies ahead of you (Hinckley, A Prophet s Counsel and Prayer for Youth, 10). 5. Seek the best schooling available. Seek the best schooling available. Some possibilities are colleges and universities, technical schools, homestudy courses, community education, and private training (True to the Faith, 51). 6. Type of education: A matter of preference, not principle. Many youth wonder whether they should go to a university, a college, or to a vocational school. The choice is yours. The choice to be made is usually a matter of preference, however, not of principle. Therefore, before choosing, wisely inventory your own interests, your skills, and your circumstances. Work through your own feelings and preferences. Then proceed and persist in obtaining the type of education and training which best reflects your interests and abilities. Remember, any work that is honorable is honorable (Neal A. Maxwell, Seek Learning, Even by Study and Also by Faith, 1994 videocassette). 7. Education brightens a darkened world. My young brothers and sisters, you live in a world which, as prophesied, is often confusing and perplexing. By combining true education and true religion, you will be able to distinguish between what are merely today s trends and the eternal truths, and between celestial sense and secular nonsense.... Those individuals who are illuminated, spiritually and educationally, will help to show the way in a world darkened by despair. God bless you in these days, which are your days in the history of the kingdom of God (Maxwell, Seek Learning). 3

4 Chart 1 Average Yearly Income (in U.S. Dollars) By Educational Attainment (2000) 20,000 40,000 60,000 80, ,000 Under Ninth Grade High School Dropout High School Graduate Some College Associate / Vocational 18,394 22,076 27,978 33,945 35,103 Bachelor s Master s 51,649 61,295 Doctorate Professional 80,223 95,150 Source: U.S. Census Bureau 4

5 Chart 2 Educational Expectations and Attainment Out of 3.6 million eighth graders: 99% expected to graduate from high school. 72% earned their high school diploma. 70% expected to enter a post-secondary education. 40% actually enrolled, and 24% of them earned their degrees. Source: ACT/Educators Fall Workshop,