baha’i children’s class ideas.

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.

This post was also blogged at doberman pizza.

Counsellor Scott’s talk went off quite well. About sixty people showed up, a mix of parents, teachers, members of institutions, children and youth. Part of the talk reprised points and ideas that were discussed at the meeting with the youth on the 5th, and that formed the conceptual framework necessary to understand the lines of action in the newest Five Year Plan. The focus at this meeting being the education of children and junior youth, we spent time discussing concepts related to the state of our education system and the state of children’s education in our community.

The talk made all of us question the sort of education we provide to our children—is it really enough to talk about virtues we “should be” manifesting, and go straight on without teaching related skills and developing in children the will to manifest those skills, or without practicing them in a safe, loving and encouraging environment? Is it enough to teach our children to be “relatively” excellent, whereas Shoghi Effendi exhorts the Bahá’ís not to “content themselves merely with relative distinction and excellence”? Are we teaching our children to be merely good citizens, or are we teaching them to be agents of change that will transform the society around them?

I’ll definitely be doing some thinking, particularly since I’m involved in a Bahá’í children’s class (recently featured on Baha’i Views. cool, huh?). Sometimes I really feel like I’m learning everything from the ground up. These questions have profound implications for the way I serve, the importance I place on these weekly classes, and the attitude I cultivate about my role in the process. Food for thought from the Writings:

Blessed is that teacher who shall arise to instruct the children…

Among the greatest of all services that can possibly be rendered by man to Almighty God is the education and training of children…

According to the explicit divine Text, teaching the children is indispensable and obligatory. It followeth that teachers are servants of the Lord God, since they have arisen to perform this task, which is the same as worship. You must therefore offer praise with each breath, for you are educating your spiritual children.