The Wisdom of the Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire Cat Message

"Which road should I take?" she asked the cat.

"Where do you want to go?" the cast asked helpfully.

"I don't know," admitted Alice.

"Then," advised the cat, "any road will take you there."

A conversation between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll

So many people are so extremely busy--most often busy doing good things. The Savior himself "went about doing good..." (Acts 10:38). The Savior also had a vision--a purpose for his doing--and that was "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). Having a vision allowed him to not only do good but also to stay focused on choosing to do the best things amongst all the good things he could be doing.

Without a vision we can be busy doing many good things and never see results. In fact, we won't even know if we have arrived at a desired result. If we don't have a vision of where we want to be--what we want to accomplish--, any road filled with good things will take us to some place although it might not be the best place.

Both Scholarly and Religious: Dallin H. Oaks

Dallin H. Oaks served as the President of BYU (Brigham Young University) from 1971-1980. From 1980 to 1984 he served as a Utah Supreme Court Justice and was closely considered by the Reagan administration in 1981 to be a nominee for the Supreme Court Justice. On April 7, 1984 Oaks was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints which is a life long calling.


Obviously Dallin H. Oaks is not only a well-educated and scholarly man of high distinction, but he is also a deeply religious man as well. Therefore, when he speaks, I listen knowing his words convey an extremely important message that I need to apply to my life.


Yesterday as I read his LDS (Latter Day Saint) Conference talk Good, Better, Best given at the October 2007 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Conference, I thought of its application to how we serve our diverse learners.

At the beginning of his talk he reminds us that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason to do it. He goes onto say that there are so many good things to do in this world there isn't enough time to do them all. We must give priority to the best of the good.

Elder Oaks tells of when he was a youngster how they used the Sears and Roebuck catalog as we use malls and the internet today. In the catalog there were three quality categories for shoes--good, better, and best--with a cost increase as the quality increased. He compared this to choices we have in life. Even though something may cost more (in time, energy, or money), the added cost may be well worth it because of the added value it brings.

This counsel relates to our service to diverse learners in a variety of ways:

First, there are now thousands of people who give speeches, write books, and make videos about what we need to do better serve our diverse learners. The majority of them are good, but we don't have time to respond to them all. We must choose the best from the good. I would define the best as those who are focused on what works either because research and/or experience support their claim.

Second, we must think not only of the good things we can for our diverse learners, but rather the best things. For instance, a good thing is for all educators (teachers and leaders) to become ESL endorsed. A better thing would be to apply what is learned. The best thing would be to make sure that the lives of the students are changed and improved because of the efforts. In other words, rejoicing just because more educators are ESL endorsed is not sufficient.

We move from good to best when our desire to serve our diverse learners is founded in love rather than out of duty or arrogance.