Education Among the Mormons: Brigham Young and the Schools of Utah

In their 150-year history the Mormons have undergone a metamorphosis. From a position where they were considered moral pariahs, they have emerged as the very models of social decorum and moral respectability. In the nineteenth century their founder, Joseph Smith, was martyred in Illinois; they were driven from Missouri under a governor's extermination order; hundreds were jailed as “prisoners of conscience” in Utah for refusal to abandon polygamy; and their prophets were pursued by federal marshals as fugitives from justice. The popular attitudes towards these 19th-century “social outcasts” are a far cry from the image reflected by the activities of some prominent Mormons in the 20th-century: Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson; Michigan Governor, George Romney; Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall; Secretary of the Treasury, David Kennedy; U. S. Commissioner of Education, Sterling M. McMurrin; the current Secretary of Education, T. H. Bell; and Florida's Senator Paula Hawkins, the second woman ever elected to the U. S. Senate. Other Mormons who have caught the public eye (and ear) include television inventor, Philo Farnsworth; Harvey Fletcher, developer of stereophonic sound; Henry Eyring, recipient of the prestigious “Priestly Medal” in chemistry; and such heroes of middle America as the Osmonds and Merlin Olson, defense tackle for the Los Angeles Rams. The perception of the Mormon educational point-of-view has also shifted: once considered proponents of ignorance and gullibility, they are now seen as unalloyed supporters of educational advancement.