Leaders of the Future (Revised Observation)

Walking through the exhibit I read a quotation that attracts my attention, “How will the saints educate their children?” Beneath this potentially problematic question there hangs a black and white portrait. On the surface, staring blankly and glossy-eyed out of the canvas are twelve young children no older than the age of nine. This photograph intrigues me and so I proceed to take a seat at what looks like a replicated archaic school desk, wooden with a bench made in the shape of a log sliced in half. I am ready to work.

Looking up at the portrait of children, I notice that it resembles a modern day class photograph. It looks exactly how a class photograph should look with regards to their positioning –with the front row sitting on a hard wooden bench, back row standing shoulder to shoulder with the remaining students – but there is one dramatic difference. I do not see children trying to out do each other by giving their biggest smile to make mom proud, or the typical child in the front row with his finger buried deep inside his right nostril. Instead, out of the twelve juvenile and pale faces not a single one has even a hint of a smile upon them. Contrary to a modern school picture, the children in the portrait express the same inanimate, yet humble, long face.

Their eyes are most prominent. Beneath those blank stares you can sense sadness. They tell stories of struggle and hardship that you too can almost feel as you gaze into them. Although such a scene can seem depressing, the knowledge that these children were getting an education helped to raise my spirits as I continued to observe. This location of the exhibit, with its sprinkles of detail -such as the school desk I am still sitting at- gives the room an intensely real and emotional edge.

Despite their fearsome eyes these innocent children look like angels. They appear to be well mannered, loved and cared for by their family. Their clothing is fascinating, an art in itself, and most likely made by the delicate hands of their own mothers since these were times when money was scarce and commerce inconvenient. How privileged are we to drive to a mall and buy our own clothes?

The distance of the children from the camera is ideal and does not retract from the detail of their clothing or their expressions. Each child is wearing a long dark skirt, boys included, which are long enough to reach the tops of their shoes, and a white buttoned collared shirt. Some are also wearing dark collared jackets. Their hair length is short, and, at most, shoulder length for the girls. Setting a standard dress code would have been one of the first steps of educating the children. It shows that, like the church, certain organized rules and regulations must be put in place for order and structure. A uniform reinforces the purpose of going to school, especially then during its early stages, acting as an equalizer. It portrays a gathering of students who are there to learn to the fullest of their potential.

Along either side of this portrait are informative columns about how these children were educated in the mid-nineteenth century. Many could not pay for their education, but would offer food, material goods or labor in exchange. School even took place in tents or around campfires, anywhere that a group of young academics and teachers could gather to pursue their growth in knowledge and moral principles. Education undoubtedly became a new frontier at this time, with Brigham Young advocating the importance of knowledge to the generations that would become leaders of the future.

Today, our society continues to evolve, mostly for the better, and the education of Zion is evolving along side it. Who will be the one to judge my school picture decades from now? What will be their outlook on my educational past that was my present?