Children’s Education

Baha’is see children as the most precious treasure a community can possess. In them are the promise and guarantee of the future. Yet, in order for this promise to be realised, children need to receive spiritual nourishment. In a world where the joy and innocence of childhood can be so easily overwhelmed by the aggressive pursuit of materialistic ends, the moral and spiritual education of children assumes vital importance.

The Baha’i community at every level is highly sensitised to the need to respond to the spiritual aspirations of the young. In recent years, training institutes around the world have been playing an increasingly important part in the training of teachers to conduct classes for the spiritual education of children. The materials being developed for use by the institutes emphasise the acquisition of spiritual qualities – for example, truthfulness, generosity, purity of heart, and kindness, to name a few – which are considered attributes of God that are reflected in the mirror of the human heart.

The stories in this collection showcase the efforts being made across Australia to strengthen the Baha’i moral education process so that the children can reach a stage in which they can understand and act upon the imperative to tend to their own spiritual development and contribute to the well-being of society.