Purpose of the Yount Program
The Four Purposes of the Yount Program for Educational Advancement
1. Promote and support educational advancement.
The Church cannot fulfill its destiny without both a righteous and an educated people. Neither can Zion be built nor the earth prepared for the Savior’s reign. Learning is an earthly bridge connecting our prior life to the next life.
2. Help equalize educational opportunity.
The Lord commands and Zion demands the principle of equality. “For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things” (D&C 78:6) Without the principle of equality “The world lieth in sin.” (D&C 49:20).
3. Promote learning by faith and by study including education as a spiritual endeavor.
The education commandment is a spiritual commandment (D&C 29:34). Spiritual development and educational progress must be integrated, not merely take place in parallel. When education is approached as a spiritually endeavor learning is more focused and a person learns better and faster. When spiritual leverage is in play the school campus one attends doesn’t make much difference.
4. Develop educational self-reliance and its use in support of other areas of self-reliance.
In the Church’s wheel of six self-reliance dimensions, education is placed at the top in the keystone position. When approached properly, education directly affects employment and fiinances and indirectly affects health, home storage, and spiritual strength.
The Introduction to the Yount Program explains how its purposes are brought into play through firesides and seminars for members of all ages.
