History of the Academy
It is said that there are 2,000 universities in this world. However, even among all universities, BYU is such a unique school. It is because BYU is strongly based on the Spirit of god. You can’t find any schools except for BYU starting a class with prayer for sure. However, does anyone know why BYU has such strong faith in god even though it is about education? You can find some clues when you look at its history. Actually, the protagonist here is this unknown guy, Karl G. Maeser, an immigrant from Germany to the United States. This guy is so passionate about religion and due to being banned from believing in the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints in Germany at that time, he was forced to leave his country, he crossed the ocean with his faith and came to Philadelphia in 1856 (BYU, n.d., para.4). Founding BYU was not easy, and there were many obstacles to starting school such as the sudden heartbeat skip call from Brigham Young to make a school and not enough funds to run a school.
Karl G. Maeser was appointed as a founder of the educational institution in Provo by President Brigham Young in 1876, and at the time, he didn’t know how big his project was. First of all, I want you to imagine that when you are assigned to make an educational institution ASAP from scratch by your bishop, I guess you might feel so stressed and disappointed because it is such a big thing to do and you might not know what you start, and maybe so much pressure on your shoulders. This guy, Karl was in exactly the same situation, or it was rather worse. Because, firstly, there were fewer students to enter school. Secondly, there was not enough space to build the school. And the thing way worse, no money, boom. These problems led supporters not to build such a school in Provo without thinking about it. However, the purpose why Brigham Young told him to make a school was not those things that focused on the benefit of money or something materialistic. But that was to make an educational institution that followed the simple but very strong rule, teaching with the spirit of god, and starting the true education from Provo. He might’ve understood the purpose after thinking about it in a bathroom while shitting for a while and after washing his hands, he might’ve started working on his project. Surprisingly, 4 months later, the first semester started.
Although BYU was not founded for money or benefit, lack of funds was definitely a big problem to run the school. Firstly, generally speaking, running a school costs tons of money. For example, you want to hire good teachers with good salaries, (otherwise, no one wants to enter a school) and you need to invest a huge amount of money to build a beautiful campus to gather bandwagoners and also need to maintain it. However, in the Karl case, the simple principle solved this problem by convincing many so-called sugar daddies to have a lot of money. Karl said in his speech, “ It has been said that the Saints will be saviors upon Mount Zion, that they are destined to redeem the world. Redeem the world from what? From the thralldom of sin, ignorance, and degradation! In order to do this, Zion will have to take the lead in everything and consequently also in education ” (Karl, 1891, para. 3). His strong voice and consistent saying definitely persuaded many supporters and people around them as well as volunteer teachers. After the two experimental semesters, the school was in the right orbit. Soon after, its education was expanded to many places such as Hawaii, and Idaho.
Karl definitely played a key role in establishing the foundation of BYU. He messed up and grasped so much at first with his sudden assignment as a founder of a school from his honcho, but he always went back to the start, and that simple and same philosophy, which hear and follow the spirit of god, and even slow and steady wins the race, gradually tied up with students, supporters, and teachers, and finally its led to the success. Now, although the story is forgotten among people, the wind of the same philosophy is blowing in every school building at BYU, as well as ELC.
Reference
[1] Karl G. Maeser, BYU, n.d.,
(https://speeches.byu.edu/speakers/karl-g-maeser/)
Data accessed: 09/25/2023
[2] History of the Academy, Karl G Maser, BYU, 1891,
(https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/karl-g-maeser/history-of-the-academy/)
Data accessed: 09/25/2023