How will the next generation’s children be successful in guiding humanity through the current and future pitfalls ahead in its evolution? The Bahá’í Writings teach us that education is the key to unlocking human potential.
‘…It is incumbent upon every father and mother to counsel their children over a long period and guide them unto those things which lead to everlasting honour. It is among the greatest of all services that can possibly be rendered by man.”
The Bahá'í Writings speak to three kinds of education: material, human and spiritual. Material education concerns itself with the progress and development of the body, that is to say, teaching people how to improve physical well-being including better nutrition and hygiene, better family health and greater capacity to earn and provide food, shelter and clothing. Human education concerns civilization and progress in those activities which are essential to mankind as distinct from the animal world, such as knowledge of commerce, the sciences and arts, and the understanding of institutions and policy. Spiritual or moral education addresses values and shapes character; it largely determines to what end an individual will use whatever knowledge he or she acquires.
Spiritual or moral education is almost never seen outside of parochial schools or religious institutions, is shunned in most developed countries as irrelevant or intrusive to modern education and is rarely funded by international donors. It is the one kind of education which asserts the dignity of the human spirit in all its diversity and formalizes its relationship to the Divine. Such universal human values as trustworthiness, honesty, courtesy, generosity, respect and kindness are rapidly disappearing from our increasingly belligerent and fractured world. Through moral or character education, whether formalized in religious or secular programs or provided informally by wise and caring family or community members, that which is valued by society and gives meaning to life is transmitted to succeeding generations.
Bahá'ís see all three kinds of education as important. Women are encouraged in the Bahá'í Writings to study all branches of human knowledge and to participate as equal partners with men in every field of human endeavor. "It is... clear," the Bahá'í Writings assert, "that the education of girls is of far greater consequence than that of boys…
Among the consequences of providing girls with basic education are improvements in material circumstances. Research has shown that whatever the content of the curriculum, girls benefit from going to school, from problem-solving, from expanding their world and from sharing the knowledge base generally afforded to boys and men. Contributions of women to the sciences and the arts,…provide evidence that, given opportunity, girls and women have the intellectual capacity to improve substantively the human condition. However, with regard to spiritual education, there are no charts, no progress reports, no quantifying studies that can prove to the world how important it is to equip future generations with the virtues conducive to promoting the establishment of unity and cooperation as the basis for functioning in an interdependent world community. In this respect, the Bahá'í Writings stress the unique advantages that educated girls bring to their roles as mothers and first educators of the next generation, not only as the most effective diffusers of knowledge throughout society, but as transmitters of core cultural and social values.
The failure to educate the human spirit and the neglect of character development have contributed to a number of seemingly intractable social problems. Bahá'ís find in the principles of the oneness of humanity and the equality of men and women inspiration for the abandonment of all prejudices, including those based on gender, nationality, creed, degree of material civilization, class and color. The principle of the oneness of humanity, with its implied recognition of the worth of every member of the human family, needs to be taught in all the schools, universally proclaimed, and "asserted by every nation as preparation for the organic change in the structure of society which it implies." (Bahá’í International Community--Educating Girls: An Investment in the Future)
The Great Being saith:. Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom. ( Bahá’u’lláh,)
The Bahá’í Community holds children’s classes weekly, based on moral values and character development. The website page on Childrens’ Education explains more in depth the principles of the classes.