photo 2013-NewBranding_06_zps15bb4f95.gif

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Underlined: Halfway Through The New Karl Maeser Biography



by Bradly Baird:

I am just about halfway through the new biography of Karl Maeser by A. LeGrand Richards (Professor of Educational Leadership and Foundations at Brigham Young University). Reading the book has been such an unexpected delight and such a rewarding experience that I cannot wait until I am finished to share some of its riches. Enjoy!

A selection of One-line Aphorisms
"Be yourself, but always be your better self."

"Make the man within you your living ideal."

"Man grows with his higher aims."

"Nature is the best educator."

"School is a drill for the battle of life; if you fail at the drill you will fail in the battle."

"Everyone of you, sooner or later, must stand at the fork of the road, and choose between personal interests and some principle of right."

"No teacher should preach by precept who cannot teach by example."

"Knowledge is not power unless it is sustained by a character."

On the Way from the Waters of Baptism
"Our conversation was on the subject of the authority of the Priesthood, Elder Budge acting as interpreter. Suddenly I stopped Elder Budge from inter President Richards' remarks as I understood them, and replied in German, when again the interpretation was not needed as President Richards understood me also. Thus we kept on conversing until we arrived at the point of separation when the manifestation as suddenly ceased as it had come."

From His First Poem On the Gospel
"Why doubt ye? Thou son of earth, so weak
When God's word is planted in thine ear?
Every lamb its true fold doth seek,
The good shepherds voice to hear.
Your heavenly shepherd calls with words so great
To you, wandering lamb, in his fold to be;
Rush joyfully then to its gate.
So why doubt ye?"

The Consequences of Conversion
"Over the next nine months, he was asked to sacrifice nearly everything dear to him for his newfound faith. Almost immediately, Karl's love for the truth brought him into conflict with the country he loved and sought to defend, the family who had supported him and given him expanded educational opportunities, the friends of his youth, the promising profession he had successfully begun after much sacrifice, and even the language with which he had developed such great facility"

Missionary Work in Virginia
"he trudged with his four companions along the wearisome roads of Virginia, meeting with such reception as might be accorded to them by a people unfriendly to the cause they represented. Often, at night, after a hard day's tramping, they would stop at the gate of some hospitable-looking home and sing to attract the attention of the inmates of the place, who occasionally invited them in and conversed with them upon the principles of the Gospel. Sometimes, too, their singing brought them remuneration in small gifts of money or food, oftentimes being given with the imperative to 'move on;' the command alone, however, seemed to be their most frequent recompense."

Upon Arrival in the Salt Lake Valley
"Karl entered the valley with a mission in his heart. Before Christmas he would organize, advertise, and begin a new school; help found the first Territorial Teachers' Association; serve as the first president of the German Language Home Mission . . . become a member of the board of regents for the University of Deseret. He would do all this while facing the challenges of surviving his first winter in Salt Lake.

Brigham Young's Words at a Meeting the Day After Arriving in the Valley
"For persons to understand themselves - their own organization - the must understand the character of that Being who has organized them, or they can never understand their own organization . . . We are inseparably connected, and must be, to that Eternal Being who produced us. You will therefore readily understand that without the principle and Spirit of revelation, it will be impossible to communicate these principles to the people."

 photo Line-625_zpse3e49f32.gif
Bradly Allen Baird is the father of two amazing children and has been married for almost twenty years. He served a mission in Finland, though he was really supposed to serve in Uruguay. His professional meanderings include everything from education to economic development, to human capital management in the IT industry (hopefully this one sticks); and spends his Saturdays hanging out with the missionaries in Provo, or racing back and forth between his children's activities in tae kwon do and elite cheerleading. Bradly also survived an MBA program; developed a somewhat limited interest in music, theater, film, urban planning, judaica, liberation theology, politics, israel, and latin american history; studies the influence of graphic imagery on public space; wrote a thesis about Leonard Bernstein, is obsessed with the American Symphonists, and reads publications like The Tablet and the Jewish Daily Forward.

Other MMM Posts

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...