|
|
SECTION NINE
ATTAINMENT TARGET THREESKILLS APPROPRIATE TO THE LIFE OF A BAHÁÍ
This Attainment Target contains four Strands:
AT 3
a. INDIVIDUAL SKILLSTime and again we are reminded, by the Baháí scriptures and by the Guardian and the Universal House of Justice, that the success and progress of the Faith is largely dependent upon the individual believer and their personal initiative and contribution to the Cause.
This being the case, we need to prepare individual Baháís in such a way that they will have the skills to be self-sustaining members of the community, to continue to live and function as Baháís even when things become more difficult, even when they are alone without benefit of a Baháí community or another believer nearby.
From strong, well-motivated individual believers, strong families, strong communities and strong institutions grow. Many of the troubles from which the Faith suffers at present would disappear if the individuals who make up the worldwide community of Baháulláh were solidly grounded in those skills which helped them sustain their faith and their active participation in Baháí affairs.
We cannot afford to allow our children to go through several years of Baháí education and emerge without the means to utilise their spiritualised characters and their knowledgeable minds. These must be channelled, focused and directed toward meaningful ends through the acquisition of those skills which enable them to function effectively and in a fulfilling way as active Baháís.
Programme of Study for Individual Skills
The soul
The mind (intellectual)
The heart (emotional)
The body
How to answer the needs of all these aspects
Prayer and Fasting
Developing a devotional attitude
Learning to pray
Learning how to use prayer effectively, including the 5 steps
Getting the best out of the obligatory prayers and the 95 times AllahuAbhá
Learning to fast
Getting the best out of the Fast
Reading the Writings
Learning to read the writings daily
Learning to deepen effectively
Learning to study the writings
Memorising the writings
Learning to recite the Word of God by heart.
Using the writings effectively
Financial
Giving to the Fund
Paying Huququllah
Making a Baháí will
Choosing a worthwhile occupation
Honest financial dealings
General / Life
Developing a Baháí identity
Learning to prioritise and balance ones life with its conflicting demands
Developing learning and study skills
Learning to deal with strong feelings, temptations and idle thoughts
Learning to deal with wrong-doing, conscience and putting things right
Learning to acquire the virtues and practising them in daily life
Learning to eat, sleep, dress, work, exercise and play within the bounds of moderation and restraint
Learning to develop ones creative and artistic skills
Learning to develop ones cultural heritage in relation to the Faith
The individual in relation to themselves
The individual in relation to their family
The individual in relation to the Baháí community and society
The individual in relation to the Baháí administration
KEY STAGE APPROPRIACY
KS 0, KS 1: Here individual skills might chiefly be approached through appropriate behaviour for saying and listening to prayers, learning short prayers and passages by heart, coping with strong feelings, etc
KS 2: Here develop skills of praying, reading the writings, giving to the Fund, acquiring and practising virtues, exercising moderation and dealing with thoughts and feelings, etc.
KS 3: Here these may be approached with greater sophistication, introducing everything that remains gradually, and perhaps leaving some financial skills, fasting and cultural heritage until later.
KS 4: Enable students to be confident in exercising all individual skills at a basic but effective level, and to be able to assist themselves and others in acquiring these same skills.
AT 3
b. FAMILY SKILLSIt is not an exaggeration to say that the institution of the family is under considerable strain at this time. The signs are clear for all to see: galloping divorce rates, soaring illegitimacy, teenage run-aways, junior-age murderers and so on. Rapid changes in lifestyle, partly brought about by technological advances, have aggravated the long-recognised generation gap. In a sense, children have never been in such a different world to their parents as now. Extended networks of relatives have broken up as more people eschew marriage for temporary partnerships and as more children are born as only children to single mothers.
Fewer people are learning the skills necessary to operate successfully within a family because fewer people are exposed to the experience of growing up in a successful and stable one. And, as the family is the basic building-block of society, the first agent of socialisation, its collapse means the more rapid disintegration of society.
Baháí families are naturally subject to the same pressures, and the extent to which they are able to withstand them is the extent to which the individual members of those families are able to acquire and use the skills to be found in the sacred writings of the Cause.
Children and young people must be helped to obtain and practise the skills which will make them successful family members, whether as supportive children for siblings and parents, or as empathetic and sharing partners, or as loving and responsible parents. Without stable Baháí families, Baháí communities cannot function properly, and without dynamic and loving Baháí communities, the Faith will not attract the masses.
Programme of Study for Family Skills
The family as the basis of society - the first unity
The family as a life-long commitment
The generations within a family
The wider family and relations
Family pride and its enhancement
Child
Duties and rights of a Baháí child
How to exercise them wisely
Being a good daughter / son
Being a good brother / sister
Adolescent
Coming of age
Choosing a partner for life
Courtship and preparation for marriage
Keeping the balance of integration and independence
Living alone
Adult
Marriage
Being a good marriage partner
Child rearing
Duties and rights of a Baháí parent
Making a Baháí home
Allocation of responsibilities
Family decision-making
Family leisure activities
Family worship
Balancing family and other commitments
Encouragement and reward
Training and punishment
Enhancing family life
Equality in the family
Coping with bereavement, disabilities, divorce, etc.
The idea of the family as a sacred institution to preserve and promote.
Arranging activities, events and programmes in which all the members of the family can participate together
Allowing every family member room to be themselves and to contribute their uniqueness
KEY STAGE APPROPRIACY
KS 0, KS 1: Here family skills might chiefly be approached through family trees, meaning of names, and simple activities which engender awareness of and loyalty to the family, etc.
KS 2: Here family skills might be approached through projects such as family scrap books, and the skills appropriate to the child.
KS 3: Here these may be approached with greater sophistication and gradually moving into adolescent and adult considerations.
KS 4: Enable students to be confident in exercising all family skills at a basic but effective level in those real life situations where they might be expected to participate and to be able to assist others in acquiring those same skills.
AT 3
c. SOCIAL SKILLSThe Baháí Faith is pre-eminently the religion of community, whether it be the community in miniature - the family - or the global community of the whole human race.
There is ample provision for individual spiritual needs, but the emphasis of the Faith does not lie in a passive or solitary mode of being. Monasticism is abolished, asceticism is annulled, priesthoods are abrogated. Baháís must live in the world, though not be of it. Marriage is encouraged, having children is given as the principal reason for marriage. Service to others is raised to the level of worship. Salvation is no longer simply personal but collective. The primary obligation of Baháís is to share their Faith with others and thus enrol new believers. All these underline the social nature of the Faith.
With such an emphasis, social skills are of paramount importance. Young Baháís must therefore be raised to be at home in the widest possible range of social circumstances, among people of every conceivable origin, type and way of life, regardless of sex, age, ethnicity, education, belief, occupation or interest.
At the same time, they must also be prepared to cope with the negative aspects of association with the full gamut of humanity. The ugliness of gossip, backbiting, prejudice, easy familiarity, irreligion and immorality must be met with a combination of strength, love, tact and unwavering adherence to the Baháí standard.
With the grace and composure that come with well-developed social skills, a pure and devoted Baháí would be a pillar of their community and attract others to the Faith. To the extent that a Baháí individual can interact with others in a quality way, they will receive affirmation and fulfilment, and provide these for their fellows.
Programme of Study for Social Skills
Human beings as social creatures
Interacting with others: purposes and manner
The socialising of the young: importance and methods
Community
Courtesy, hospitality and entertaining skills
Fostering love and unity in the community
Enhancing equality in the community
The rôle of arts and crafts in enhancing community life
Enhancing cultural heritage in relation to the community
Education
Training and upbringing of children as community members
Teaching social skills to the young
Baháí education of children and youth (in general)
Deepening of fellow adults
Setting up and running training institutes
Teaching
Proclaiming the Faith
Teaching the Faith
Enrolling new believers
Consolidating the Faith
Conducting firesides
Giving public talks
Conversing at non-Baháí functions
The rôle of the arts and crafts in teaching
Relating the teachings to current concerns and academic standpoints
Challenges
Avoiding gossip
Shunning backbiting
Eschewing the company of the ungodly
Overcoming prejudice
Remaining neutral in a partisan environment
Remaining moral amidst immorality
Remaining chaste in a promiscuous environment
Assisting fellow souls to come closer to their God
Seeing the face of God in everyone one meets
Regarding the soul of a person rather than their personality, deeds or appearance
Overcoming likes / dislikes with love for others
Avoiding pigeon-holing / categorising people - seeing everyone afresh
Putting oneself in the place of others
KEY STAGE APPROPRIACY
KS 0, KS 1: Here social skills might chiefly be approached through such avenues as interactive games, always trying to think of good things to say about people, setting tables and eating together, etc.
KS 2: Introduce basic community and teaching skills, encouraging students to be loving and hospitable and to adopt small-scale teaching projects such as telling friends about being a Baháí and giving short presentations at their full-time school on the Faith, etc.
KS 3: Broaden the range of skills to include education and challenges. Make use of story and drama and task-based activities to allow students to exercise their developing skills in situations that closely mimic real life, or in real situations where possible.
KS 4: Enable students to be confident in exercising all social skills at a basic but effective level in those real situations where they might expect to participate and to be able to assist others in acquiring those same skills.
AT 3
d. ADMINISTRATIVE SKILLSHow often have we longed for the firm and sure-footed guidance of a strong local spiritual assembly? How frequently have we puzzled over the decisions of a committee? And how many hours have we endured of boring, unfocused opinion-giving that passes for true consultation in our feasts and meetings? And, yet, what else should we expect when the majority of Baháís come into the Faith as youth or adults without benefit of training in assembly membership, collective decision-making or consultation; and when the majority of those raised in the Faith fail to be taught, or, when taught, fail to learn these things?
The administrative order is a wonderful instrument for the advancement of the human race, but its wonders have yet to be seen because we are too few and too unskilled to make proper use of it.
By teaching those skills which will equip our young Baháís for administrative service, we will create more eager and empowered individuals and more mature institutions capable of dealing with the more rapid changes, greater challenges and heavier responsibilities which will come with the advancing process of entry by troops.
As must be obvious to any observer, the skills in the four strands are interconnected and success in the one often means success in the others, while failure in one may lead to difficulties in the others. Each one of the four is vitally important in preparing our young people for the lives they must lead as active Baháís in a non-Baháí world.
Programme of Study for Administrative Skills
What kind of skills are administrative skills?
When and where do we exercise them?
Community, committees, spiritual assemblies and the learned arm
General
Consultation
Decision-making
Conflict-resolution
Preparing agendas
Making suggestions
Voting and Baháí elections
Voting rights and their loss
Understanding and acting on the plans that come from the World Centre
Community
Preparing devotionals
Conducting Nineteen Day Feasts
Holding Holy Days
Publicity and contact with the media
Arranging firesides, public meetings, prayer meetings, deepenings
Conducting marriages, funerals and memorials
Conducting unit conventions, being a teller or delegate
Committees
Committee formation and membership
Being a committee member
The brief and the vision
Spiritual Assemblies
Local Spiritual Assembly formation
Being an Assembly member
Confidentiality
Developing local plans
Duties of Assembly officers: chairing, secretarial, treasury, archives
The Learned Arm
Counselling and leadership skills
Human resource development skills
Identifying suitable members
How to keep in mind what the administrative system is for.
The relationship of what we do in the administrative system to the Covenant
The administrative system as the blueprint for the world order of Baháulláh
The plans as stages in the establishment of the New World Order
KEY STAGE APPROPRIACY
KS 0, KS 1: Here administrative skills might chiefly be approached through such avenues as co- operative games, which would help the children to learn to work together. Let them choose prayers and readings for their class devotionals, etc.
KS 2: Introduce the basic skills of consultation, allow students to practice them by being set group tasks to accomplish something for later wider consumption, etc.
KS 3: Here most general and community skills could be taught, through interactive tasks and games, with opportunities to practise newly acquired skills in real settings for class, school and beyond.
KS 4: Enable students to be confident in exercising all administrative skills at a basic but effective level in those real situations where they might expect to participate and to be able to assist others in acquiring those same skills.
*******************************************
Return to 
from here.
