baha’i children’s class ideas.

these are informal notes from Counsellor Scott’s talk and should not be construed as being 100% accurate by anybody—especially given the way I take notes! take ‘em with a few grains of salt.

so Counsellor Scott graciously took time out of his busy schedule to visit with us in Ottawa tonight, and share with us progress happening in the Baha’i community. He started out by reminding us that “being” and “doing” are inseparable—you cannot change your own self or change your community in a vacuum; both will always change in tandem, and in order for our own hearts to change, we must teach and serve humanity. The image reminded me of the “two movements” we sometimes hear about: the movement of people from one course in the institute process to the next, and the movement of communities (“clusters” maybe—or even neighbourhoods?) from one stage of development to the next. The two must happen simultaneously, no?

He peppered his talk with colourful stories of amazing strides that have come about in places like Toronto, with its “Pebbles to Pearls” program, in which individuals arose to offer junior youth groups (studying books like Breezes of Confirmation, which is Bahá’í-inspired and seeks to build capacity and raise consciousness in 12-year-olds); how a children’s class grew naturally out of the first junior youth group; how a prayer meeting with the parents soon followed; and how more and more of the participants, as their capacity increased, became trained to offer these kinds of service to others. We’re talking about people who met their first Baha’is maybe a few months ago, and are now being trained to help teach Baha’i children’s classes. Uhhhh cool?

He stressed the notion that these “core activities”—be they children’s classes, junior youth groups, study circles, and prayer meetings—are not just fun little activities or “get-togethers” or “events” as we may think of them. They’re civilization-building activities, activities that create communities. He emphasized the fact that every human being has the inalienable right to participate in the process of building civilization. (consider how many people waive that right throughout the world every day.) that being said, he challenged us to involve more and more people in that process by committing to long-term action with receptive communities—committing to offering these “core activities” to people around us who might really need them. With respect to children’s classes, he cited the cases of families throughout the country who’ve been left behind by an educational system that fails to respond to their needs—who’s going to offer spiritual education to a child whose parents work 12 hours a day and barely make enough to make ends meet? Whose teachers can’t use the word “God” because it’s been legislated out of existence?

So much meat in that short span of time—so exciting to feel that we’re able to contribute to the building of a new civilization! I only hope that we can rise to the occasion and be fully ready for our talk. Please feel free to share thoughts as comments to this post—there’s far more to tell, but it’s late and I need sleep.

This post was also blogged at doberman pizza.

well it’s been an intense week for sure. the Ottawa Baha’i community held another reflection meeting last Saturday, launching the eighth cycle of its intensive program of growth.

JARGON WATCH: basically what this means is that a bunch of people got together to reflect on and discuss the growth, vitality and vision of the Baha’i community, to share their best practices and to set goals. An "intensive program of growth", which is composed of many "cycles" marked by these "reflection meetings", is basically a way for Baha’is (and those who throw their lot in with them) to manage the growth of the Baha’i community and channel their efforts to bring the Message of Bahá’u'lláh to those who are out there waiting for it.

it was a blast, as usual; there were lots of young people there, junior youth (12-14 yrs) and youth (15+ yrs) alike. That was awesome and really encouraging. we put someone on a table and lifted them up with only our fingers. apart from that, of course, we had time to knock heads together and make plans for the next few months: how we would help the core activities grow and evolve, etc.

MORE JARGON WATCH: there are four generally recognized "core activities" of Baha’i community life, all of which are, in essence, open to all people no matter what their faith: (1) "devotional meetings", which consist of shared prayer and readings that bring a group closer to God / a Higher Power; (2) "study circles", in which groups use the study of principles found in the Baha’i Writings to understand how they apply in real-world situations of service; (3) "children’s classes", which are classes for the moral and spiritual education of children; (4) "junior youth groups", in which 12- to 14-year-old youth use spiritual principles to understand the world around them and to bridge the gap between childhood and adolescence.

I spent a bit of time sharing the plan for our children’s class… it’s a complicated animal. So far it looks like we will be moving towards splitting the class into two groups: one for older children (say, 9-11) and one for younger children (~5-8). We’ve also discussed holding a devotional meeting open to parents, family and friends – we’re looking for ways that parents and family can naturally become more involved in the children’s spiritual education, and sharing prayer time with them in the format of a devotional meeting may just be the thing. also on the map are home visits with parents and family to follow up on the parents’ meeting we had last October – they haven’t had much regular communication from us and it’d be about time to bring them each up to speed no?

just a few words about the difficulties inherent in teaching a class with a wide age spread. we’ve always advertised our class as open to kids from around five to ten years of age. for the first little while, that wasn’t a big problem; most of our kids ended up being around the same age—five to seven—with only a few outliers. Lately, however, we’ve been seeing a more diverse range of ages. At one of our latest classes, we had three distinct clumps of ages: 5-6, 7-8, and 10-11. Any teacher worth his or her salt knows (or so I’m told) that the needs and capacities of each of these groups is vastly different. When we plan a class, we plan specific activities that appeal mainly to our core group, which is, let’s say, around age seven. Unfortunately, we often see the older children sitting off to the side and getting bored because the material is too simple for them, while the younger children stare blankly and get bored because the material is too complicated for them. There doesn’t seem to be a simple solution to this problem besides splitting the class into different age groups. We’ve often raised this possibility for our class, but we’ve never done it simply because of logistical reasons (do we feel ready to run two or more classes simultaneously?)

I don’t have a conclusion to this post, since we’re still living with and dealing with this situation. Any comments or from experienced children’s class teachers out there would be greatly appreciated.

so after an evening of consultation about the children’s class, we’ve come up with a plan of action to help the class mature and grow. it’s simple, and, if we pray for confirmation and put the effort into it, it’ll be effective. in short:

1. Oct. 14: first class. welcome to new students, etc. parents are given written and verbal invitations to Open House on Oct. 21, taking place after the class (3:30-4:30PM).
2. Oct. 21: second class, 1:30-3:30PM. open house from 3:30-4:30PM. time to chat with parents, explain the class, answer questions, and ask if anyone is interested in helping out (teaching, logistics, or whatever). notice will also be given regarding other upcoming core activities organized by the Baha’i community (study circles, devotional meetings).
3. Oct. 22–Nov. 25: as classes continue, home visits begin with parents as follow-up, where we can create bonds and gauge their interest in deeper involvement with the class. if families are receptive, they can also be directly invited to participate in devotional meetings or study circles.
4. Nov. 25–Dec. 2: classes continue, and first devotional meeting begins, to continue monthly throughout the year.

What do we hope to achieve? Well, here’s a sample:

• Stronger relationships with parents and families whose children attend class.
• Increased parent/family involvement in the children’s class, through:
  • preparing snacks
  • preparing activities
  • giving rides
  • co-teaching or assisting
  • etc.
• Increased parent/family involvement in related core activities (study circles, devotional meetings, junior youth groups)

One interesting concept that’s been suggested to us is that if we get to a point where the class has grown so much that there aren’t enough teachers, interested parents and family members can be trained as children’s class teachers by taking them through the sequence of Ruhi courses. That’s what we’re hoping to explore in the long run—whether such a model of growth and human resource development could possibly work in creating a self-sustaining children’s class.

Étoiles Brillantes, our francophone children’s class, is shaping up well for the year ahead – although there’s still a whole lot left to do. I talked with Julie (co-teacher and co-organizer) and she says that all of the families from last year now know that we will be starting again on October 14th; that’s one hurdle crossed. Now our goal will be outreach. How are we going to grow our class and increase the number of kids (and parents) involved? One suggestion, which we’ll be discussing tomorrow night, is to assemble a small group of people to canvas the neighbourhood where the class will be held, asking parents if they’d like to send their children to the class. Now, if what we’ve already experienced in other settings holds true, we can expect massive interest – and a proportionate strain on human resources. So far, Julie and I have been the core of the class, resource-wise; if the class grows beyond a certain point – as it may very well do in the coming season – we’ll have to bring in more people to help. We’re even toying with the idea of having several concurrent classes for different age groups: for example, 5-7, 8-11, and even junior youth study circles for ages 12-14.

more on that tomorrow, when we’ll meet together to take some next steps, make some calls, and put together a quick-n-dirty plan of action. also, more about curriculum soon.

Even though children’s activities have been a part of past Plans, these have fallen short of the need. Spiritual education of children and junior youth are of paramount importance to the further progress of the community. It is therefore imperative that this deficiency be remedied. Institutes must be certain to include in their programmes the training of teachers of children’s classes, who can make their services available to local communities. But although providing spiritual and academic education for children is essential, this represents only a part of what must go into developing their characters and shaping their personalities. The necessity exists, too, for individuals and the institutions at all levels, which is to say the community as a whole, to show a proper attitude towards children and to take a general interest in their welfare. Such an attitude should be far removed from that of a rapidly declining order.

Children are the most precious treasure a community can possess, for in them are the promise and guarantee of the future. They bear the seeds of the character of future society which is largely shaped by what the adults constituting the community do or fail to do with respect to children. They are a trust no community can neglect with impunity. An all-embracing love of children, the manner of treating them, the quality of the attention shown them, the spirit of adult behaviour toward them—these are all among the vital aspects of the requisite attitude. Love demands discipline, the courage to accustom children to hardship, not to indulge their whims or leave them entirely to their own devices. An atmosphere needs to be maintained in which children feel that they belong to the community and share in its purpose. They must lovingly but insistently be guided to live up to Bahá’í standards, to study and teach the Cause in ways that are suited to their circumstances.

So our children’s class is now scheduled to start the weekend after (Canadian) Thanksgiving – October 14th. I’ve got a list of themes ready for the year, and I need to brainstorm some activities – if you can recommend some fun activities based around the first few books of the Furutan curriculum, that’d be really helpful – leave a comment on this post. There’s an information session at Ottawa’s newly renovated Baha’i Centre, and my co-teacher and myself will be speaking there about our experience teaching children from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds over the past year.

A nice and pretty French-language email is ready to send out announcing the class; the goal is to spread knowledge of the class among the Baha’is, in the hopes that they can forward it as an invitation to interested contacts. We’ll see how it works. Meanwhile, I’ll also need to put together a little sheet that explains all about the class and how it works.

That’s all for now – I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted much, but please be patient. This calm exterior belies hectic work!

it’s august! time for more updates. well, let’s just say that things are getting back into gear after a few weeks of hiatus (including vacation time to see family in the maritimes). I’ve gotten in touch with our friendly neighbourhood regional coordinators for children’s classes, who have generously provided me with copies of the National Spiritual Assembly’s pilot curriculum based on the Furutan books. I’ll be using these, along with other resources provided by our local institutions, to set up a framework for our class this year. more news in the weeks to come; class should begin in about two weeks.

just so you know, our children’s class is on break ’til september. that’s why there haven’t been any new posts lately. keep visiting soon for the lead-up to our new season, though.