Flora Teckie
As we celebrate National Children’s Day on November 2, and the Universal Children’s Day on November 20, it is timely to reflect on how to build a better and brighter future for our children.
According to the Universal House of Justice, the governing council of the Bahá'í international community, “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”.
As parents, in particular, the need for us to pay constant attention to the well-being, welfare, and protection of our children, cannot be over-emphasized. It is also important to make them aware of their rights and corresponding responsibilities.
Furthermore, according to the Bahá’í Writings, “The child must not be oppressed or censured because it is undeveloped; it must be patiently trained”.
The training, which our children first receive at home, constitutes the strongest foundation for their future development. The positive values that are to guide them throughout their lives are formed during the early years of their lives under the care of their families.
The degree to which children form healthy relationship with others is also determined during that important period. It is in the family that children learn to be loving, tolerant, and to act with justice. It is in the family that children are prepared to confront the challenges of life.
The Bahá’í Writings state: “… it is enjoined upon the father and mother, as a duty, to strive with all effort to train the daughter and the son, to nurse them from the breast of knowledge and to rear them in the bosom of sciences and arts”.
Children also need to be nurtured spiritually. They should not be left to drift unguided in a world so laden with moral dangers. “They must be constantly encouraged and made eager to gain all the summits of human accomplishment, so that from their earliest years they will be taught to have high aims, to conduct themselves well, to be chaste, pure, and undefiled, and will learn to be of powerful resolve and firm of purpose in all things...”, state the Bahá’í Writings.
The education and training provided for our children should make it possible for them to function effectively in an integrated world society. It should be the kind of education which will enable them to live in harmony and peace, in an atmosphere of understanding, dialogue, and respect for others.
Educating our children about their fundamental human rights and corresponding responsibilities is a necessity, as it sensitizes them about their own rights, as well as the rights of others. For example, they have the right to expect love, care and respect. But this also implies that they must love, care for and respect others.
Our children have the right to live in a peaceful world. Through education for peace, based on the recognition of the oneness of humanity, and justice towards every member of the human family, a high ideal such as global peace can become a reality.