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Flora Teckie
A Bahá’í Perspective
RAISING healthy, happy and successful children is the greatest desire of every parent.
Our children have the capacity to achieve their highest potential through a balanced education, guidance and proper discipline.
A balanced education goes beyond academic education.
In the Bahá’í view, a balanced education – combining spiritual guidance together with intellectual education – is essential for our children to develop to their full potential and for them to be equipped to contribute socially and spiritually to the advancement of our communities.
Looking at the current situation, however, we often find that spiritual and moral development of children is being neglected.
Infusing in our children the love of God, and guiding them spiritually, helps to instil in them good behaviour.
According to the Bahá’í Writings, “… from the very beginning, the children must receive divine education and must continually be reminded to remember their God”, and “knowledge is praiseworthy when it is coupled with ethical conduct and virtuous character”, and that “the proper education of children is of vital importance to the progress of mankind, and the heart and essential foundation of all education is spiritual and moral training”.
A kind of education that leads to acquiring a good character and praiseworthy qualities such as tolerance, love for humanity, trustworthiness and justice towards all, in addition to secular education, will help in building a brighter and peaceful future for our children and for our communities.
Some requirements of child-rearing
The training our children first receive at home constitutes the strongest foundation for their future development.
The atmosphere and conditions we create in our home must be conducive to the material and spiritual well-being and advancement of our children.
A loving, caring and supportive environment is necessary for the full and harmonious development of a child’s personality.
In one of its statements, the Universal House of Justice, the governing council of the Bahá’í international community, calls children “our most precious treasure”.
Regarding love, discipline and some other requirements of child rearing, it says: “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.”
Thus, loving our children does not mean that we should leave them without discipline.
We cannot simply adopt an attitude of non-resistance toward our children or leave them entirely to their own devices.
They should not be left to drift unguided in a world so laden with moral dangers.
Spiritual and moral education helps transform their attitudes and values.
It also eliminates the need for drastic discipline that uses frequent scolding and harsh punishments.
It is, of course, important to reward good behaviour.
Encouragement plays an important role in assisting children to realise their full potential.
If a child is told his intelligence is less than his sister or brother or fellow pupils, it is a great drawback and handicap in their progress.
They must be encouraged and told “you are most capable and if you endeavour, you will attain the highest degree”.
Furthermore, it is important to cultivate in our children the capacity to participate in their own development and to be collaborators in the development of their communities.
Education for peace and international understanding
Children must be taught about equality and oneness of humanity, and the need to consider the entire human race as members of one family and to be just towards all.
We need to cultivate in our children tolerance, love, brotherhood, compassion, understanding, sacrifice, humility and an active commitment to justice.
Teaching them the concept of justice towards all, and to be fair-minded, is a very important.
According to the Bahá’í Writings, “Children must be so raised as to regard every soul, irrespective of religion, ethnicity, or any other affiliation, as a fellow human being and to hold dear the words (of Bahá’u’lláh) that capture the spirit of the age: ‘The tabernacle of unity hath been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers. Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch’.”
Such guidance and training will enable our children to endeavour to build united families and communities and a peaceful world in which the massive portion of resources currently used for wars and weapons of destruction are directed towards education, well-being and prosperity of the human family.
Through an appropriate education, guidance and proper discipline, our children have the capacity to achieve their highest potential and direct their energy and talents towards the advancement of their communities and building of a better and peaceful world.
Online Reporter