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🎓 Education

Estimated time to read: 8 minutes

For centuries, the strategy of downplaying a person’s education in order to accentuate the miraculous nature of his or her accomplishments was a common hagiographical trope in religious discourse.

— Davis, W. (2016). Performing Revelation: Joseph Smith and the Creation of The Book of Mormon. UCLA. ProQuest ID: Davis_ucla_0031D_15088. Merritt ID: ark:/13030/m5pp3tph. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/86h814zv. Accessed 06 June 2024.

 

Can't even write!

The mainstream Mormonism idea that Joseph was of lower intelligence originated with Emma in an interview with her son, Joseph Smith III.

Q. Could not [Joseph] have dictated the Book of Mormon to you, Oliver Cowdery and the others who wrote for him, after having first written it, or having first read it out of some book?

A. Joseph Smith . . . could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone dictate a book like the Book of Mormon.

— Last Testimony of Sister Emma, Saints Herald Vol. 26, 1 October 1879

The mainstream LDS church latched onto this claim to bolster the miraculous nature of the Book of Mormon. The fact that he had little formal education seemingly supported the notion of the book's divine origins. Nevermind that the early 19th century wasn't known for prolific education— at the time most people had little formal education, if any.

In contradiction of Emma’s claims, the Joseph Smith Papers Project has released several letters dictated by Joseph around the time of the Book of Mormon translation (1828-1829). They read just fine.

Don't forget that the inciting incident leading up to the First Vision was reading the KJV Bible. Joseph's own account of his history uses some phrasing that I would say implies a disciplined literacy:

  • Parents who spared no pains to instructing me in the [Christian] religion
  • ... we were deprived of the [benefit] of an education suffice it to say I was [merely] [instructed] in reading writing and the ground rules of [arithmetic] which constituted my whole literary acquirements
  • At about the age of twelve years my mind become seriously [impressed] with regard to the all [important] concerns for the [welfare] of my immortal Soul which led me to searching the scriptures [believing] as I was taught

But, nah, he was practically an illiterate cretin!

 

Contemporary accounts

Family members

Joseph Smith Senior "had earlier been a merchant and a teacher". How far can we extrapolate from that one statement? I could speculate sales tactics and informal private tutoring, but it's purely speculation. Many years later in 1834, Joseph Senior pronounces a partiarchal blessing to Junior, observing that "thou hast sought to know [God's] ways, and from thy childhood thou hast meditated much upon the great things of [His] law."

Lucy Mack Smith's mother, Lydia Gates Mack, was a schoolteacher. Is it reasonable to imagine that educational discipline, even if informal, could pass to Lucy, and on to Joseph Jr? For what it's worth, I did not inherit my father's propensity for chemistry by virtue of blood relation. Given the chance, he probably would impart as much information has he could muster, given his enthusiasm for the topic.

I've encountered claims that Joseph's brother Hyrum had attended one Moore's Indian Charity School. I'm skeptical of how much weight to put on this observation. It's probably true, but did Hyrum then reliably recount his schooling back to his family in New York? I'll need to read more about it before making more assertions.

 

Others

Does anyone else remember meeting Joseph Jr?

Pomeroy Tucker, a bookseller in Palmyra writes this about his experience with Joseph Jr:

Joseph … as he grew in years, had learned to read comprehensively, in which qualification he was far in advance of his elder brother, and even of his father...

. . .

As he further advanced in reading and knowledge, he assumed a spiritual or religious turn of mind, and frequently perused the bible, becoming quite familiar with portions thereof, both of the Old and New Testaments; selected texts from which he quoted and discussed with great assurance when in the presence of his superstitious acquaintances.

Does a bookseller's opinion on someone's literary potential hold value?

Fast-forwarding to 1880, President John Taylor reflects back on his experiences with Joseph Smith as as adult:

He was ignorant of letters as the world has it, but the most profoundly learned and intelligent man that I ever met in my life, and I have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, been on different continents and mingled among all classes and creeds of people, yet I have never met a man so intelligent as he was.

William E. McLellin, the teacher of a high school Joseph Smith studied under in his adult years, says this:

I was personally and intimately acquainted with Joseph Smith, the translator of the book, for five years near the beginning of his ministry. He attended my High school during the winter of 1834. He attended my school and learned science all winter. I learned the strength of his mind as the study and principles of science. Hence I think I knew him. And I here say that he had one of strongest, well balanced, penetrating, and retentive minds of any with which I ever formed an acquaintance, among the thousands of my observation. Although when I took him into my school, he was without scientific knowledge or attainments.

 

Who else was uneducated?

  • Charles Dickens (1812-1870) left school at 12 when his father went to debtors prison.
  • Mark Twain (1835-1910) left school at 12 when his father died.
  • George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) left school at 14 to write on his own.
  • HG Wells (1866-1946) left school at 11 to provide for his family.
  • Jack London (1876-1916) left school at 13 to work.
  • Andrew Jackson Davis (1826 - 1910) dictated the 320,000 word volume “The Principles of Nature” at the age of 20, with "little education".
  • Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) had around 2 years of education from ages 8 to 10; self-taught after that.
  • Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) had around 1 year of education, described as "defective".
  • Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892) ended schooling at age 11.
  • Herman Melville (1819 - 1891) ended schooling at age 12.

Please don’t tell me that a formal education is required to write fiction.

 

In all likelihood, Joseph was an extremely intelligent boy. He had the capability to manipulate people, to create a massive religion, and still have adherents even 200 years after the fact. You don’t get that by being stupid.

Imagine holding recent prophets to that same standard. What if Monson or Nelson were uneducated? would the church be touting that as a sign of legitimacy? Or, is that only notable for having brought forth BoM? Is that the only thing we want to remember Joseph for?

Effect on the Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is still remarkable in a variety of ways. I hope I've made my case that Joseph wasn't an illiterate clown. Consider this: if the book is of divine origin, that's remarkable irrespective of Smith's education. If it is not of divine origin, it's still remarkable on its own merits. Is it quality literature? Not necessarily. Not all 19th century books hold up under modern examination. But to produce it out of nothing is worth acknowledgement. It really does read like a 19th century commentary on religion. I don't like the idea of throwing it out wholesale based on the author's education.

Consider a parallel universe where the Book of Mormon isn't claimed to be a translation from ancient plate inscriptions. What if Joseph, in this version of reality, had stacks of papers and notes to track all the names of people and locations, the timeline as it jumps around, and had written it by hand without dictating to a scribe. The end product might not gain long-lasting notoriety, but it's still worthy of acknowledgement that Joseph created and published something. That's more than I've done.

Some strawman arguments

“Well… he got that book published at a remarkably young age! Couldn't have done that without God!’

Joseph was 24 when he published the book of Mormon. That is not an unique feat. Here are a few lists of famous authors published under the age of 25:

 

“Well… He produced that complex book with no source materials. Divine in origin!” One does not need source material to produce fiction. I am not asserting that the Book of Mormon is fiction, I am addressing the idea that Smith couldn't have produced it without the golden plates as a source. Don't forget that he also produced the entire Doctrine & Covenants without ancient scripture.

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