Henry B. Eyring, CES Satellite Broadcast Fireside, Moscow, Idaho, May 6, 2001

"It is clear that our first priority should go to spiritual learning. Reading the scriptures would come for us before reading history books. Prayer would come before memorizing those Spanish verbs. A temple recommend would be worth more to us than standing first in our graduating class. But it is also clear that spiritual learning would not replace our drive for secular learning. The Lord clearly values what you will find in that history book and in a text on political theory. Remember His words. He wants you to know "things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations" (D&C 88:79). And He favors not only Spanish verbs but the study of geography and demography. You remember that His educational charter requires that we have "a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms" (D&C 88:79). There is also an endorsement for questions we study in the sciences. It is clear that putting spiritual learning first does not relieve us from learning secular things. On the contrary, it gives our secular learning purpose and motivates us to work harder at it. If we will keep spiritual learning in its proper place, we will have to make some hard choices of how we use our time."

Click here to link to this talk titled "Education For Real Life"

Deuteronomy 11:18-19

18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

M. Russell Ballard, Like A Flame Unquenchable, Church News, April 4, 1999

"Unfortunately, far too many parents in today's world have abdicated the responsibility to teach these values and other Church doctrines to their families, believing that others will do it: the peer group, the school, Church leaders and teachers, or even the media. Every day our children are learning, filling their minds and hearts with experiences and perceptions that deeply influence personal value systems. "

Link to "Like A Flame Unquenchable"

Russell M. Nelson, "Where Is Wisdom?", Ensign, Nov. 1992, pg 6

"Our Creator expects His children everywhere to educate themselves. He issued a commandment: “Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” (D&C 88:118.) And He assures us that knowledge acquired here will be ours forever." (See D&C 130:18-19.)

Here is a link to the article "Where Is Wisdom"

Education, LDS.org

The Lord has commanded, "Seek learning, even by study and also by faith" (D&C 88:118). He has counseled us to learn the gospel and to gain an understanding "of things both in heaven and in the earth, . . . that [we] may be prepared in all things" (D&C 88:78–80).

Schooling and Professional Training

We should always work to educate our minds and our hands so we can succeed in our chosen fields. Our education should be an influence for good and our use of it should distinguish us as people of integrity. A good education will prepare us for opportunities as they come and will help us be an asset to our families, the Church, and our communities.

Lifelong Learning

In addition to furthering our education through formal schooling, we can continue learning by reading, attending wholesome cultural events, visiting museums and historic sites, and observing the world around us.

Click here to read more about education from LDS.org and to find links to many more articles about education.

Bible Dictionary: Education

In the Bible Dictionary under Education, this is what it says:

The divine law impressed upon parents the duty of teaching their children its precepts and principles, but little is known about the methods of teaching that were employed. Up to six years of age a child was taught at home, chiefly by the mother (cf. 2 Tim. 1: 5). The schools that all boys from six years old had to attend were generally held in the synagogues. Until a boy was ten no textbook was used but scripture. The aim was to encourage study by sense of duty rather than by reward or fear. Reading, writing, and grammar were taught, and in order that teaching might be thorough, no class even in the elementary school might exceed 25 pupils. The “religious question” could not exist in Jewish education any more than in Church schools today, for the whole purpose of education was religious. Nothing was regarded as worth learning except as it illustrated scripture. At home probably Bible stories were taught as with us, but the regular course at school began with the first seven chapters of Leviticus, so that a boy might know what outward acts were required of him; then the rest of the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the remainder of the O.T.

At the age of 12 a Jewish boy was taken to Jerusalem at one of the feasts and tested by the doctors of the law in the temple as to his knowledge of the duties and privileges to which by circumcision he had been admitted. In passing this test he was regarded as freely and intelligently “taking upon himself the yoke of the law,” or “of the kingdom of God,” and henceforth he was bound to fulfill al the precepts of the ceremonial law. Thus Jesus was at the temple at age 12 (Luke 2: 41-52).

The use of object lessons and monuments as aids to teaching are frequently specified (Ex. 13: 14-18; Josh. 4: 1-9). Repeated references in Psalms and Proverbs have an educational flair, as in Prov. 4; Prov. 31: 1 (cf. 2 Tim. 3: 15). All of the ceremonies and rituals both of the law of Moses and in the gospel of Jesus Christ are designed for an educational function through their symbolism.

See also Bitter herbs; Schools of the Prophets; Symbolism; Synagogue.

Teaching, No Greater Call

1. After Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, the Lord sent angels to teach them the plan of redemption (see Alma 12:27-32). He later commanded Adam and Eve to "teach these things freely" to their children (see Moses 6:57-59).
2. The responsibility to teach the gospel is not limited to those who have formal callings as teachers. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you have the responsibility to teach the gospel. As a parent, son, daughter, husband, wife, brother, sister, Church leader, classroom teacher, home teacher, visiting teacher, coworker, neighbor, or friend, you have opportunities to teach. Sometimes you can teach openly and directly by the things you say and the testimony you bear. And you always teach by example.

Read full lesson called No Greater Call.

David O. McKay, Oct 1916

No greater responsibility can rest upon any man, than to be a teacher of God's children.

Found at this link

Sheri Dew, No Doubt About It, pg 64

Though there are those who will disagree, I acknowledge my belief that there is nothing a woman can do that is more significant than rearing children to live righteous, contributing, faith-filled lives. I believe it not only because of the teachings of prophets and apostles but because of what I have experienced and observed. I can think of nothing a woman can do in a board room at a conference table, or in front of a camera that begins to equate with helping shape someone's life, with helping someone else do what he or she has come here to do.
Women, beginning with mothers, are uniquely stationed at the crossroads of the lives of youth and children-- as well as many others-- and are in a position, day in and day out, to teach and model virtues and values.

Brigham Young, The Teachings of President Brigham Young, Vol. 3

I can say that it is good and wise and judicious in parents to instruct their children in the way. If they wish the word of the Lord upon the subject, I will give it to you and you may, any of you, write it down if you please. It is the will of the Lord our God that we teach our children the way of righteousness from the Holy Scriptures and there is no better method than for mothers to teach them at home, and in the Sunday Schools.

Joseph F. Smith, Masterpieces of Latter-day Saint Leaders, comp. N. B. Lundwall, 1953, p. 78

I would like my children, and all the children of Zion, to know that there is nothing in this world that is of so much value to them as the knowledge of the gospel as it has been restored to the earth in these latter days through the Prophet Joseph Smith. There is nothing that can compensate for its loss. There is nothing on earth that can compare with the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Let, therefore, all the parents in Zion look after their children, and teach them the principles of the gospel, and strive as far as possible to get them to do their duty—not mechanically, because they are urged to do it, but try to instill into the hearts of the children the spirit of truth and an abiding love for the gospel, that they may not only do their duty because it is pleasing to their parents, but because it is pleasing also to themselves.

I found this quote while reading an Ensign Article from Elder L. Tom Perry called "Therefore I Was Taught," May 1994

Spencer W. Kimball, President Kimball Speaks Out On Planning Your Life, pg 91

This mortal life is the time to prepare to meet God, which is our first responsibility. Having already obtained our bodies, which become the permanent tabernacles for our spirits through the eternities, now we are to train our bodies, our minds, and our spirits….We have this life of limited years in which to learn of God, to become the masters of our own destiny and secondly, we have this life plus eternities to learn of the earth and the things thereon, and to accumulate secular knowledge which will help make us gods, which is our destiny.

This quote can be found at this link

Gordon B. Hinckley

Behold your little ones. Pray with them. Pray for them and bless them. The world into which they are moving is a complex and difficult world. They will run into heavy seas of adversity. They will need all the strength and all the faith you can give them while they are yet near you. And they also will need a greater strength which comes of a higher power. They must do more than go along with what they find. They must lift the world, and the only levers they will have are the example of their own lives and the powers of persuasion that will come of their testimonies and their knowledge of the things of God. They will need the help of the Lord. While they are young, pray with them that they may come to know that source of strength which shall then always be available in every hour of need.

The full article for this quote is found here. It is definitely worth the read!!

Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 3, pp. 203-4

Children should be encouraged in the home to read and be instructed in the value of good books and how to discriminate between the good and the bad in literature.

Doctrine and Covenants 88:77-80

77 - And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom.

78 - Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;

79 - Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms-

80 - That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling wherunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you.

Alvin R. Dyer, "Education: Moving Toward and Under the Law of Consecration," 1969

I think that by the end of the millennium, for those who will occupy the celestial kingdom, the home will be the only media of teaching children. Teaching will be through the family.

David O. McKay, April 1968

Education to be complete must include spiritual growth. In this sense, youth need religion. I shall offer only three reasons this evening for giving proper religious training to youth.

• First: Youth should have religion in order to stabilize society. Goethe has rightly said that "the destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinions of its young men under five and twenty."
• Second: Youth need religion to satisfy the innate longing of the soul. Man is a spiritual being, and sometime or another every man is possessed with a longing, an irresistible desire, to know his relationship to the Infinite. He realizes that he is not just a physical object to be tossed for just a short time from bank to bank, only to be submerged finally in the ever-flowing stream of life. There is something within him that urges him to rise above himself, to control his environment, to master the body and all things physical, and to live in a higher and more beautiful world.
• Third: Youth need religion to comply properly with the purposes of creation. There is a purposeful design permeating all nature, the crowning event of which is man. Here, on this thought, science again leads the student up to a certain point, and sometimes leaves him with his soul unanchored. For example, evolution's theory of the creation of the world offers many perplexing problems to the inquiring mind. Inevitably, a teacher who denies divine agency in creation, who insists that there is no intelligent purpose in it, undoubtedly impresses the student with the thought that all may be chance.

There is much more to this quote and the entire talk can be found by clicking here.

James E. Faust, Ensign, Nov. 1990

As societies as a whole have decayed and lost their moral identity and so many homes are broken, the best hope is to turn greater attention and effort to the teaching of the next generation—our children. In order to do this, we must first reinforce the primary teachers of children. Chief among these are the parents and other family members, and the best environment should be in the home. Somehow, some way, we must try harder to make our homes stronger so that they will stand as sanctuaries against the unwholesome, pervasive moral dry rot around us. Harmony, happiness, peace, and love in the home can help give children the required inner strength to cope with life’s challenges.

Boyd K. Packer, Charge to the David O. McKay School of Education, October 1996

In many places it is literally not safe physically for youngsters to go to school. And in many schools - and it's becoming almost generally true - it is spiritually unsafe to attend public schools. Look back over the history of education to the turn of the century and the beginning of the educational philosophies, pragmatism and humanism were the early ones, and they branched out into a number of other philosophies which have led us now into a circumstance where our schools are producing the problems that we face.

John W. Taylor, Collected Discourses

There is a spirit working among the Saints to educate their own offspring. If our children will be all we will have for a foundation of glory in eternity, how needful that they be properly trained... There are wolves among us in sheep's clothing ready to lead astray our little ones... Wolves do not devour old sheep when there are any young ones. I have herded sheep long enough to know that. Look after your children.

David O. McKay, "Gospel Ideals" pg 440-441

Character is the aim of true education; and science, history, and literature are but means used to accomplish the desired end. Character is not the result of chance work but of continuous right thinking and right acting. . . . True education seeks, then to make men and women not only good mathematicians, proficient linguists, profound scientists, or brilliant literary lights, but also honest men, combined with virtue, temperance, and brotherly love -- men and women who prize truth, justice, wisdom, benevolence, and self-control as the choicest acquisitions of a successful life. . . . It is regrettable, not to say deplorable, that modern education so little emphasizes these fundamental elements of true character. The principal aim of many of our schools and colleges seems to be to give the students purely intellectual attainments and to give but passing regard to the nobler and more necessary development along moral lines.

George Albert Smith, Conference Report, October 1948

Now, fathers and mothers, appreciate your children. Don't turn them over to somebody else to train and educate in regard to matters of eternal life. That is your privilege, and it is a privilege. Teach them to pray and walk uprightly before the Lord, and then in time of need they can go to him and he will answer their prayers. It will be astonishing to you the great happiness that will come into your home that you theretofore have not enjoyed, if you will follow this counsel.

Joseph F. Smith, Ensign, May 1971

Everyone should learn something new everyday. You all have inquiring minds and are seeking truth in many fields. I sincerely hope your greatest search is in the realm of spiritual things, because it is there that we are able to gain salvation and make the progress that leads to eternal life in our Father's kingdom. The most important knowledge in the world is gospel knowledge. It is knowledge of God and his law, of those things that men must do to work out their salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord.

Joseph Smith, Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith

If children are to be brought up in the way they should go, to be good citizens here and happy hereafter, they must be taught. It is idle to suppose that children will grow up good, while surrounded with wickedness, without cultivation. It is folly to suppose that they can become learned without education.

Gordon B. Hinckley, "Standing For Something"

The learning process is endless. We must read, we must observe, we must assimilate, and we must ponder that to which we expose our minds.....we cannot afford to stop learning and growing and progressing. We must not rest in our personal development--development that is emotional and spiritual as well as mental. There is so much to learn and so little time in which to learn it.

Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses

The duty of the mother is to watch over her children, and give them their early education, for impressions received in infancy are lasting. You know, yourselves, by experience, that the impressions you have received in the dawn of your mortal existence, bear, to this day, with the greatest weight upon your mind. It is the experience of people generally, that what they imbibe from their mothers in infancy, is the most lasting upon the mind through life... Children have all confidence in their mothers; and if mothers would take proper pains, they can instill into the hearts of their children what they please.

Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young

No matter what your circumstances are, whether you are in prosperity or in adversity, you can learn from every person, transaction, and circumstance around you.

Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, Dec. 1980

Adam spent much effort being the school teacher for his children. He and Eve taught their sons and daughters. He taught them the gospel in their home evenings, and he taught them reading and writing and arithmetic. And they kept their books of remembrance.

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 214

Education is gained primarily from the Spirit of the Lord by revelation and secondarily by study, research, and investigation.

First Presidency Letter, February 27, 1999

We call upon parents to devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church. The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place or fulfill its essential functions in carrying forward this God-given responsibility. We counsel parents and children to give highest priority to family prayer, family home evening, gospel study and instruction, and wholesome family activities. However worthy and appropriate other demands or activities may be, they must not be permitted to displace the divinely-appointed duties that only parents and families can adequately perform. We urge bishops and other Church officers to do all they can to assist parents in seeing that they have time and help, where needed, as they nurture their families and bring them up in the way of the Lord.

Thomas S. Monson - "Precious Children - A Gift from God" Ensign, Nov 1991

Perhaps most significant of all classrooms is the classroom of the home. It is in the home that we form our attitudes, our deeply held beliefs. It is in the home that hope is fostered or destroyed. Our homes are the laboratories of our lives. What we do there determines the course of our lives when we leave home. Dr. Stuart E. Rosenberg wrote in his book The Road to Confidence, "Despite all new inventions and modern designs, fads and fetishes, no one has yet invented, or will ever invent, a satisfying substitute for one's own family."

Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 307

I feel to warn you that one of the chief means of misleading our youth and destroying the family unit is our educational institutions. There is more than one reason why the Church is advising our youth to attend colleges close to their homes where institutes of religion are available. It gives the parents the opportunity to stay close to their children, and if they become alerted and informed, these parents can help expose the deceptions of men like Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, John Dewey, John Keynes and others. There are much worse things today that can happen to a child than not getting a full education. In fact, some of the worst things have happened to our children while attending colleges led by administrators who wink at subversion and amorality.