Jeff Jensen is our history mentor.
I love teaching history because, well, it’s not only the best subject in the entire world, but every other subject rests on history. Because if we don’t have the history of math or the history of science, we have nothing, right?
History is, like, the foundation of all the knowledge that we have in every field. You know? And it’s not as filled with numbers as math, which I love. I’m not a huge math fan. But I love history as well because it is… it helps us understand all of the fabrics that weave who we are as a people. You know? The tapestry of life, and the tapestry of our nation is woven by the historic threads of actions and things that other people have done before us.
And so not only can we better appreciate what people have gone through, we can better understand how to make our own beautiful tapestry of life, right? By learning the lessons from the people that have gone before us and by being able to look at how they responded to challenges and different things and how we can see within ourselves we have that same ability to respond to challenges and hard things. And we can be inspired. We can be motivated by people who have gone before us. History is awesome. It is just the best topic out there.
Ensign Peak Academy is the school I love working for because I can bring the gospel into my topics without getting fired. I can teach about the Constitution and bear testimony of God’s hand in its coming about without having parents complain that I’m being too religious in the classroom. Because for me, my faith is foundational to everything about me.
I can’t teach history without bringing my faith into it. In secular environments I need to do so using carefully chosen words that are politically correct. At Ensign Peak I can embrace who I am and I can embrace the role that faith has played in our history and I can embrace the fact that God’s hand has been present in our history. It’s not a perfect history because it’s filled with imperfect people, but you can see the way that God directs it and the way the He leads it. And Ensign Peak Academy gives me the tools and the support, in terms of people, with administration that allows me to just be who I am and be able to direct that in ways that can benefit the students, and help them see that spark of divinity that they have within them, and teach to that spark, and help draw it out for them. And Ensign Peak’s mission as a school and everything we do is designed to help children remember that: their identity and their self worth as a child of God.
Are you considering enrolling a student at Ensign Peak Academy? Contact the director, Diann Jeppson, at (801) 450-5016.
Click the links below to learn more about each program:
High School
Middle School
Elementary School