baha’i children’s class ideas.

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.

learning concepts
All the major religions come from the same divine source.
Bahá’u'lláh urges us to consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship.

activities
song: “The Song of the Prophets” by Jack Lenz, on the album We Are Baha’is.
drama/skits: A play about the Oneness of Religion, from Baha’i Education for Children, Book 2, Chapter 9 (pp. 19-24)
stencil craft: print out stencils for the symbols of major religions (e.g.: hinduism, judaism, islam, sikh, christian), cut them out onto heavy paper; also print out a nine-pointed star that can encompass each of the other symbols. Cut out stars of many different colours; the children can use the stencils to paint or draw the different symbols onto the stars. these can be used as decorations on walls or windows, or as part of mobiles.

reading/prayer for study
Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship. (Bahá’u'lláh)

reference
Ye are all the rays of one sun; the fruits of one tree; and the leaves of one branch. (Bahá’u'lláh, quoted by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London, p. 80)

O people! Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship. Thus hath the day-star of His sanction and authority shone forth above the horizon of the decree of God, the Lord of the worlds. (Bahá’u'lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u'lláh, p. 22)

experience
January 20, 2007: 2 hours, 9 children, average 7 years old. We scheduled this lesson for World Religion Day and had a lot of fun with the stencils mentioned above. We wanted to get the children’s hands in gear in creative ways; amazingly, no one was spotted running with scissors. My only beef with this class was that the lesson content wasn’t strong enough—for example, as we introduced each stencil, we could have had the children guess which religion the symbol represented, and which Manifestation founded that religion… I haven’t been able to find my binder full of lesson plans from the Canadian national curriculum (which have made things so much easier since we started using them—no more last minute brainstorms) and the lesson from Baha’i Education for Children only presents the play, which I didn’t think we could do at the time with the resources we had. So we made up this lesson with the stencils. It went over all right—most of the children seemed to enjoy the artistic activity. One of our Baha’i friends, a regional coordinator for children’s classes, was there and snapped some pictures:

the whole group of us!

one of our shy participants.

hard at work.

Our upcoming class will again touch on the oneness of religion, so there’ll doubtless be more to tell soon. By the way, I’m sorry this post came late—I noticed there was a spike in traffic to this blog just before World Religion Day but I couldn’t get my act together to post our lesson in time :P There’s always next year right?

January 27, 2007: 2 hours, 7 children, average 7 years old. Well this was an interesting class. We wanted to try out the play contained in Baha’i Education for Children. I don’t know about you, but I’m no drama teacher. I suppose it would have been useful to read through Book 3A (aka the old Book 5, “Baha’i Children’s Classes, Grade 2″) before attempting this activity. Where Book 3 relies mainly on games for physical activity, Book 3A includes a lot more drama, acting and role-playing. If I was more of a manual-reading person (rather than the jumping-in type I am) we would have saved a lot of bother this time around. The play is meant to be learned and memorized over a longer period of time (to its credit, there are warnings to this effect at the top of the script); still, we figured we’d start reading and see how things would go. Most of the kids found the text difficult to read, let alone to memorize. For some—especially the younger ones who were only just learning to read—nothing sank in at all. Oops. So after a short period of confusion, we quickly changed tactics and began simplifying the script; a teacher would call out the main points of each child’s speech and have them repeat them out loud. Once the emphasis was off reading, things went a lot smoother.

The result? Well, we haven’t given up on the play yet. We’ll continue working with a simplified script (one of the teachers will be revising it so that it can be more easily understood by the children), and continue rehearsing until we get it. It’s funny—I don’t know who’s doing more learning, the children or the teachers. I certainly feel like I’m getting a crash course in children’s education every time I come to the class.

learning concepts
Cleanliness is an important part of baha’i life.
One thing we must do to keep clean is to wash our hands, face and feet every day.
When we grow up (reach the age of 15), Baha’u'llah asks us to wash our hands and our face before saying our obligatory prayers every day.

readings/prayers for study
Be ye the very essence of cleanliness amongst mankind.
(Baha’u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas)

…[I]n all conditions, cleanliness and sanctity, purity and delicacy exalt humanity…
(’Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas)

artistic activity
mirror flowers: children cut out five-petalled flowers from foam sheets, and use adhesive to stick the flowers onto a bathroom mirror. (similar to fun foam frames)
drawings: children divide a sheet of paper into two halves. On one half, they draw a person who exemplifies the Bahá’í standard of cleanliness (combed hair, clean face, neat and clean clothes, etc); on the other, they draw the same person, but who lacks cleanliness (dirty, smelly, smudged, dishevelled, etc.) Children could draw in ink (ball-point pen) first and then use water-based paint over ink, and could thus be taught how to use paints cleanly.

reference
“It hath been enjoined upon you to… bathe yourselves each week in water that covereth your bodies, and to clean yourselves with whatsoever ye have formerly employed…. Immerse yourselves in clean water; it is not permissible to bathe yourselves in water that hath already been used. … If the bather, instead of entering the water, wash himself by pouring it upon his body, it shall be better for him and shall absolve him of the need for bodily immersion.” (Bahá’u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, pages 57-58)

“…Although bodily cleanliness is a physical thing, it hath, nevertheless, a powerful influence on the life of the spirit…. The purport is that physical cleanliness doth also exert its effect upon the human soul.” (`Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of `Abdu’l-Bahá, pages 146-147)

Ablutions are specifically associated with certain prayers. They must precede the offering of the three Obligatory Prayers, the daily recitation of ‘Alláh-u-Abhá’ ninety-five times…

The prescribed ablutions consist of washing the hands and the face in preparation for prayer. In the case of the medium Obligatory Prayer, this is accompanied by the recitation of certain verses.

That ablutions have a significance beyond washing may be seen from the fact that even should one have bathed oneself immediately before reciting the Obligatory Prayer, it would still be necessary to perform ablutions.
(this above stuff is from Wikipedia - Ablutions)

experience
November 4, 2006: 2 hours, 8(?) children, average age 6-7. (…)

March 11, 2006: 2 hours, 5 children, average age 6-7. during the fast. worked out all right. The children could relate to the topic. We managed to convey the idea that Bahá’u'lláh asks us to wash our face, hands and feet each day. This will be a useful reminder for the children in future classes. Many of them seem to have learned basic hygiene at school and/or at home. The craft was a good idea but was difficult to execute without a proper plan. note to self: refine this craft! the children liked sticking the flowers onto a mirror and seeing their faces reflected inside. when they saw an example they giggled and were quite impressed. didn’t mention the connection with the Fast, but there’s still another week for that.

• explain the purpose of the craft - what is this going to be for?
• have an example of the craft already done, so that the kids know what they’re working towards.
• write out the steps beforehand, so you know how to explain it to the kids.

learning concepts
“Allah’u'abhá” means “God is most glorious”. Bahá’ís use it as a way of greeting each other.
Greeting each other helps each of us feel welcome.

activities
Fruit Salad: Each child picks the name of a fruit, for example apple, orange, banana, etc. Call out two fruits; the children who picked those two fruits switch places. When you call “fruit salad”, everybody switches places.
All My Friends/The West Wind Blows: Similar to the Fruit Salad game, except callouts begin with “All my friends who are…” and then continue with some characteristic that several people share, for example, colour of clothes, first letter of name, eye or hair colour, birthplace, etc. Everyone who shares that characteristic then switches place with the others. Callouts may also begin with “The west wind blows on everyone who…” ALSO: Game-caller is in the middle of the circle and tries to find his place along with everyone else. The person who is left out of the circle then becomes the new game-caller. This variant works best with chairs, and is probably best played with older groups.
Jump-Up: Each child, in turn, jumps up, introduces themselves, and says something about themselves such as a favourite activity, etc. OR: instead of saying something about themselves, they could strike a pose and freeze; they could mime their favourite activity, etc.
Greet & Switch: A chosen child moves across the circle to face another child (preferably someone she doesn’t know very well) and says, “Hello (or Alláh-u-abhá), I’m (…), how are you? It’s good to meet you!” (S)he then takes the place of whoever (s)he was facing, who then takes his or her own turn.

reference
(none this time around - we need these!)

experience
October 14, 2006: ~2.5 hours, 7 children, ages ~6-10. A good class to start off our new year of classes. We had encouraging turnout: 5 of last year’s core group of children attended, plus two more. The class started out slowly as we waited for some of the children to arrive, so we played a number guessing game in the meantime. Maybe not the most original game, but the kids got into it. We started (late) with prayers; they were quite beautiful. About half the children were shy and didn’t want to say prayers; the others did. I noticed it was the usual ones who didn’t want to say prayers. Still struggling to find ways to open up the desire to pray in these kids. Afterwards, we started with one prayer (O God! Guide me…), discussed it and asked what the words meant. We worked on memorizing it, with several children leading in a repeat-after-me style. Once the memorization was done, we opened up with some get-to-know you games; we played a couple of versions of Jump-Up and Greet & Switch. One of the kids, as was his habit last year, became distracted during the games and began to disrupt the class. I think all of us lost some patience with him, which I personally regret. After the games, we took some time to work on our new prayer books - after that was all done, we had snacks and went outside to play more active games. All in all? As I said, not too bad, but we could have done better. We didn’t mention “Allah’u'abha” as a particular Baha’i greeting, which is an important oversight. I think we probably all got panicked because it had been a while since we had done the class, and we weren’t as prepared (spiritually? materially?) as we could have been. It was a nice little jolt starting the class again - stressful, but doable. I still feel very confident about this year’s class and know that, once we get back into the rhythm of the class, things should go just fine.

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.