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© 2017 Michael William Hamilton © 2017 Michael William Hamilton EDUCATIONAL VALUES AND PRACTICES OF FUNDAMENTALIST MORMONS BY MICHAEL WILLIAM HAMILTON DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Policy Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Nicholas C. Burbules, Chair Professor Liora Bresler Associate Professor Jonathan H. Ebel Associate Professor Christopher Higgins ABSTRACT Fundamentalist Mormons believe in plural marriage, or polygamy. Many practice it. Polygamist groups live in insular settlements and in mainstream communities, mostly in the western United States and Canada. Polygamists often have large families, and they educate their children in a variety of settings: a public charter school within a polygamous town, private religious schools in suburban and rural areas, “priesthood schools” based on home school models, and in public schools in which polygamists’ children are invisible minorities. They trace their origin to Mormons who refused to abandon polygamy after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) renounced it in 1890. Polygamists model their economies, religion, and education on the “theodemocracy” of 19th century Utah. In the scriptural world view that they embrace, polygamists are a remnant people, entrusted with continuing plural marriage. The purpose of this study is to explore the educational component of fundamentalist Mormonism. Their schools transmit the values and practices of plural communities to children. What are these values? How do schools transmit them? Do they prepare students for participation in a pluralistic society? To explore these questions, I conducted field work at several polygamist communities’ schools and developed case studies about two of them, Spring Hill School and Link Academy. To understand these schools in their historical and religious contexts I examined the history of education and polygamy in Utah. The work of several philosophers of education helped me to explore themes of autonomy versus servitude and education for pluralism in polygamist communities’ schools and informed my recommendations for how the state and civil society should respond to fundamentalist Mormon education. ii To my wife, Barbara Hunt Hamilton iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to my dissertation committee, whose diversity strengthened my project: Nicholas C. Burbules (Advisor), Chris Higgins, Liora Bresler, and Jonathan H. Ebel. I would also like to thank several other scholars at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: Walter Feinberg, Robert E. Stake, and Alma Gottlieb. I am thankful for the support that I received at Principia College, Elsah, Illinois, where I taught for ten years, from the Dean of Academics, Scott L. Schneberger, and the Associate Dean of Academics, Joseph M. Ritter; from my colleagues in the Department of Religion and Philosophy: Barry R. Huff, Helen Mathis, Heather Martin, and Bradley Stock; and from my students. I am grateful for the encouragement I received to complete this project at The Mary Baker Eddy Library, where I now work. I am indebted to my family for their love and support: to my wife, Barbara Hamilton; to our children: Brandon Hamilton, his wife Jenna Hamilton, and their daughter Aubrey; Laurel Hodne, her husband Jason Hodne, and their daughter Laila; Travis Hamilton and his wife Tiffini Hyatt Hamilton; Meredith Hamilton; and Corinna Hamilton, and to other relatives and friends. This project stimulated my intellectual and spiritual life. I am deeply grateful to the participants, all of whose names have been changed to protect their privacy, for helping me to understand the educational values and practices of fundamentalist Mormons. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................11 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY.................................................................................................25 CHAPTER 3: THE ENTWINED HISTORY OF EDUCATION AND POLYGAMY................49 CHAPTER 4: CASE STUDIES..................................................................................................100 CHAPTER 5: PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND FUNDAMENTALIST MORMON SCHOOLS........................................................................................148 CHAPTER 6: HOW SHOULD THE STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY RESPOND TO FUNDAMENTALIST MORMON EDUCATION, AND ON WHAT PHILOSOPHICAL GROUNDS? .......................................................................168 REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................................181 APPENDIX A: SURVEY OF TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS AT SPRING HILL SCHOOL..........................................................................................................189 APPENDIX B: IRB LETTER ....................................................................................................200 v INTRODUCTION This study is based on my field work in 2012 and 2013 at schools serving fundamentalist Mormons in two states in the western United States. It grew out of earlier contacts with polygamists in 2010.1 During the 2008 raid on the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch,2 Texas Rangers and Child Protective Services took 418 children into state custody and placed many of them in foster homes, although most were soon returned to their mothers. The state contended that underage girls were being sexually abused through polygamist marriages to older men. Evidence gathered during the raid led to charges against Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) leader Warren Jeffs and several other men, who were convicted and sentenced to prison. In addition, authorities claimed that the children of YFZ were being inadequately educated, although community members denied it. I became interested in the reporting on the raid and contributed a chapter, “Reader Responses to the Yearning for Zion Ranch Raid and Its Aftermath on the Websites of the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News,” to the book, Saints Under Siege: The Texas Raid on the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (2011). I learned that the FLDS was one of many fundamentalist Mormon sects; that these groups shared much in common but sometimes differed on doctrine, polity, and politics. FLDS representatives read Saints Under Siege and believed that it gave a balanced picture of the YFZ raid. They contacted the book’s editors Stuart A. Wright and James T. Richardson with an invitation to contributors to tour Short Creek--the twin towns of Hildale, 1 Fundamentalist Mormon polygamist sects are not part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) although they share a common, if contested, history. 2 The YFZ raid took place April 3-5, 2008. 1 Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. In 2010, my wife Barbara, youngest daughter Corinna, and I spent six hours as guests at Short Creek and listened to FLDS members’ impassioned defense of their leader and of their way of life. I asked questions about the effects of the raid on FLDS men and boys; media attention had been focused on fundamentalist women, who went on camera to plead their cause after the raid. During that first contact, which included a hearty breakfast and a long driving tour of Short Creek, I met an educator in the community. Later I learned that Warren Jeffs had ordered the FLDS to withdraw their children from public schools in 2000. I also learned that other plural marriage groups had their own private unaccredited schools, and that one community had organized a public charter school. In another public school, polygamists comprised the majority of staff and students. I also learned that Independents--fundamentalist Mormons who belonged to no organized group--spanned the spectrum from home school to public school. As the educational picture grew more complex, I became more interested. Soon after my visit to Short Creek, I entered the PhD program in Religious Educational Policy Studies in the Department of Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the College of Education, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A coherent project gradually took shape informed by Cultural Anthropology and Ethnography, American Religious History, and Philosophy of Education. I conducted a pilot study in January 2012, “Fundamentalist Mormon Polygamist Educational Values and Practices,” visiting five schools and interviewing fifteen participants. I built trust with participants by sharing drafts, asking for feedback, and incorporating it into the completed study. I received approval from my advisor and from the Institutional Review Board for a more extensive project and conducted three additional periods of field work in 2012 and 2013, visiting six schools in two states, interviewing over forty 2 participants, observing classroom and extracurricular activities, and surveying teachers and staff. My most durable research question was, do fundamentalist Mormon schools prepare students to participate in a pluralistic society? Other questions emerged along the way. I created case studies of two schools: Spring Hill (pseudonym), a K-9 public charter school in a rural area, and Link Academy (pseudonym), a private unaccredited K-8 school in an inner suburb of a large city. They are
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