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SECTION ONE, part 3.
With the inauguration of the Three Year Plan, at Ridvan 1993, the National Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the U.K. took as one of its goals to develop and expand the role of Bahá’í education. The fifth of five objectives, stated on page 19 of its Three Year Plan Document was:
"Further develop and finalise a Bahá’í curriculum for children’s education."
Here, at last, was a specific injunction to produce a curriculum, and this was a key feature of the brief for the appointment of the new Child Education Committee in December 1993, following the reorganisation of the B.E.C. The reference in the letter of appointment stated:
"... you should give urgent attention to development of a recommended curriculum and to teacher training."
The National Assembly included with the brief some extracts from a letter of the Counsellor and drew particular attention to a statement taken from the International Teaching Centre’s letter dated 17th November 1992:
" A great deal more activity is needed in the Bahá’í world to develop educational materials inspired by the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. In such a process of curricular development, experts in the field of education would, of course, play an important role. However, due consideration would also be given to knowledge gained through practice and experimentation at the grass roots."
A number of believers had expressed the desire to use Bahá’í curricula developed elsewhere in the Bahá’í world, such as the United States or Australia, for the children’s schools and classes in this country. A letter from the House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United Kingdom, dated 13th February 1994 includes the following advice in relation to another question of a similar nature:
"The approach to the development of curricula has to be uniquely suited to the conditions and opportunities of the world-wide Bahá’í community ... Designing curricula will have to be closely connected with educational practice and accompanied by systematization of Bahá’í educational experience, high quality study and scientific research. All of these activities will, naturally, be carried out in the light of the guidance inherent in the Teachings of the Faith. It is the hope of the House of Justice that members of your distinguished community will be able to contribute to this world-wide process."
In order to answer its brief, and involve a wider circle of believers in the process, the Child Education Committee convened a Curriculum Day on 25th June 1994 at the London Bahá’í Centre. The purpose of the day was to introduce and explain the ideas associated with a curriculum and the process of setting one up, and to allow the Friends to consult upon the content and methods of a curriculum for Bahá’í Education in the U.K. A framework for such a curriculum was presented and various consultative exercises and a plenary session followed. From this day sprang a wider interest in and a stronger commitment to the process of Bahá’í Curriculum Development among the Friends.
PHASES IN BAHÁ’Í EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT IN THE U.K.
Two phases in Bahá’í Education of children in the U.K. are so far discernible: a NON-FORMAL phase, lasting from the origins of the Faith in the U.K. up until the founding of the first Thomas Breakwell School in 1984, and characterised by widely-scattered, piecemeal and unco-ordinated provision with individual teachers; and a FOUNDATION phase, lasting from 1984 to the present, and characterised by a greater awareness of the importance of child education and the spread of Community Schools along with the formalisation of support materials and occasional scattered provision of teacher training.
It remains to be seen, with the final production of a National Bahá’í Curriculum and its supporting documents, whether the U.K. Bahá’í Community has entered yet another, a CONSOLIDATION phase, in its approach to Bahá’í Education, characterised by a regularisation and systematisation of the Community Schools, by a greater formalisation of local children’s classes, by a systematic programme of teacher training, and perhaps, most importantly, by a more universal realisation of the importance of child education together with a greater willingness to play an active part in it, whether as teachers, parents, directors or support staff.
In the construction of a National Bahá’í Curriculum we must be guided, first of all, by the Bahá’í Writings, then by our Institutions, whether elected or appointed. We must also take into consideration current curriculum practice in the outside world, as the Universal House of Justice have said, insofar as we need to couch our curriculum in terms that people working in education can readily understand and in a way that it can be easily assimilated by non-Bahá’í educational institutions.
If the Bahá’ís do not use the accepted terminology then they risk giving rise to confusion among non-Bahá’ís and Bahá’ís engaged in education generally, or, perhaps worse, may appear poorly informed or inexpert in educational matters. If the Bahá’ís wish to be taken seriously, if they wish to extend their influence to outside educational agencies, then they must talk the same educational language or be simply ignored, marginalised and dismissed.
The creation of a well-organised, systematic and balanced Bahá’í educational service for the children and youth of the United Kingdom is probably the single most important task that faces the U.K. Bahá’í community at present. Once such a service is in place we can look forward to long-term success in the teaching field, in the maturation of our divine institutions, and in the first stirrings of the development of a distinctive Bahá’í identity and civilisation. The production of a National Bahá’í Curriculum is an important element in the establishment of such a service
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