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Eastside Junior Youth: The JY are wrapping up on filming their music video “Fools Abuse”, by The Green Bean Machines. A special thank you to Grogh Hatcher for filming and editing the video! A total of 13 JY worked on this service project, including two JY from the Baha’i community: Vanessa and Jena. Please plan to attend the First Friday premiere of their video on June 6th (see Events Calendar for details).
Eastside Children’s Class: Thank you to Terry and Susan O. for their selfless service in the children’s class from January-mid-April of this year. The children were blessed to have such thoughtful, kind, and inspiring teachers! Susan was asked to write a letter about her experiences and she graciously accepted:
Lessons Learned Teaching Children’s Classes, by: Susan O.
Terry and I taught the eastside children’s class from January to April 5th 2014. We taught lessons 9 through 12 in Book 3 of the Ruhi sequence. These lessons are about sharing, truthfulness, generosity and kindness. We taught each lesson 3 times. Each class had the same basic format: read prayers, sing the song, memorize the quote by reading it together from a white board and then taking turns having each child erase one word and read it together, and share a story about the virtue. We would then either play a game or color a picture. Each class included snacks. We learned early on that each child needed to get the exact same amount of food and drink. Several lessons, we worked on a more elaborate craft (a virtue’s wheel) with the children. I think that turned out to be of more interest to us teachers than the children. I’m not sure I would do that again. The children seemed comfortable with the structure of the class.
One of the first things I learned was the prayers in the general Baha’i prayer book are too hard for the children to read. I put particular children’s prayers on special cards, which seemed to work better for prayer time. One young girl mentioned during one of the last lessons that she was memorizing the prayer “O God, Educate these children…” She was doing this on her own during the week. We had not given her this assignment.
The children responded positively to messages of their nobility. Around Valentine’s day, I told them the story of the Black Rose—the story of Abdul-Baha’s particular notice of an African American child and his comparison of this child to a Black Rose. One little boy from asked if that was really a true story. It was hard for him to imagine someone saying something so special about this child.
The children loved music and Terry’s playing. Some of the boys would strum Terry’s guitar when it wasn’t being used. I was told that one day when picking the children up, Julia saw them standing in a living room singing the song from the lesson the week before. This was the song about preferring your brother before yourself. The grandmother was standing behind the children smiling.
Probably the major lesson I learned was that these children are receptive to the quotations and teachings. Several times I told them stories involving Abdu’l-Baha. I would hold up a picture of him and tell them how he helped poor people and how he especially loved children. Later on, I would again hold up his picture and ask who this was. They knew his name and that he loved children.
Teaching the classes became one of the happier times of my week. These children lifted my spirits and touched my heart because they responded so positively to the lessons.
Want to get some experience teaching children’s classes with accompaniment from more experienced teachers? The Eastside Children’s Class is the place to tap into your creativity and service while getting assistance from others in the community! Please contact Julia A. or the Baha'i Center (317)297-9999 / secretary@indybahai.org if you are interested.