An Expanding Conversation on the Education of Children

This is the second of three units currently in development by the Ruhi Institute that will make up the twelfth book in its main series. It seeks to enable participants to propagate a conversation on the education and upbringing of children among families in villages and neighborhoods where the processes of the expansion and consolidation of the Faith are gathering momentum and where a sense of community life has emerged. The premise underlying the unit is that, while parents are primarily concerned with the sound development of their own children, they share a common responsibility with every member of the community for the well-being of all the youngsters in a village or neighborhood.

It is envisioned that the study of the unit and the act of service to which it gives rise will further advance in participants the capabilities they have been developing ever since they entered the institute process—that is, the capabilities which enable them to engage in meaningful and uplifting conversation. What should be acknowledged is that, by the time individuals reach this point in the sequence of institute courses, they will have already gained a good deal of experience in paying visits to homes and in conversing with members of households on a variety of topics and themes, including but not limited to those addressed in the second and third units of Book 2, as well as concepts embedded in the programs for the spiritual education of children and for the spiritual empowerment of junior youth. Such visits have become as integral to the life of each participant, then, as they have to the pattern of community life that distinguishes every center of intense activity. The tutor should appreciate that this affects both the way the content is presented in the unit and how participants are expected to make use of it.