Parents who care about their children and their well-being put in a lot of effort to make sure their children have the best opportunities that the parents can provide. They sacrifice comfort and ease for the benefit of their children. Among the many things parents might do for their children, they are often concerned about ensuring a good education. They want their children to have the knowledge and understanding they can get from a good education. They also want them to have the advantages of employment and well-being that can come from education.
Often when we speak of education, we think of at least graduating from high school and perhaps also college or university degrees. But there is another important aspect of a complete education that may sometimes be neglected. Education on the topic of faith and religion is at least as important as any math or language arts education for our children. A general understanding of broad religious concepts and principles can help children grow up understanding others who live with faith or religion at the center of their lives. I believe children with this education are less prone to misunderstandings and suspicion related to people’s religious roots that are all too common for those who live in religious ignorance.
For example, after the attacks that took place on 9/11/2001, there was a very anti-Muslim sentiment among many Americans. Similar feelings and attitudes again surfaced when Donald Trump ran for president in 2016. But the majority of this negativity stemmed from ignorance about the Islamic faith. It was easy enough for people who knew nothing about the faith to take a small group of extremists as an example of what the faith is all about. But considering that Muslims are estimated to make up approximately a quarter of the world’s population, the extremists are not truly representative of much of Islam. In fact, Indonesia and India have the greatest Muslim populations of any country (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/31/worlds-muslim-population-more-widespread-than-you-might-think/), but I don’t hear a lot about their people causing trouble for anyone. But many Americans don’t seem to know anything about these facts, but instead seem to feed their minds only on rumors, suspicions, and misinformation.
In addition to the potential for better interpersonal relations when children understand the religious and faith motivations of others, there is another important motive for including faith in the upbringing and teaching of children. Based on the presupposition that there is a Creator that has an interest in our well-being (which is a belief that guides me and Lightward Bound), children need to understand that Grand Creator. Knowing and choosing to follow and seek guidance from our Creator will bring greater things into the lives of those children, and later into their lives as adults. I believe this wholeheartedly, without any doubt.
For me, I feel I have seen some evidence of this in a few places. One was in our school district. I was a substitute teacher in Tooele County School District from 2007 to 2019. This gave me plenty of opportunity to learn about our children, to see their goodness as well as some of the challenges that face them. While I didn’t intentionally study it, in looking back, I would say that generally students who seemed to have a strong faith background were often the ones who were more cooperative and well-behaved. I don’t want to emphasize that too much because, as I said, I didn’t approach it with any scientific method to ensure I was gathering accurate data etc. So it’s more of a perception that could be a motivation for an actual study.
After many years of observing the good and the bad among students and being aware of many cultural influences that can lead children astray, I felt a strong desire to give students some values to live by. So during my last few years as a substitute, I started beginning classes by explaining my expectations, which I wrote on the board as three words: Care, Truth, Right. I told them they need to care about the people around them, look for and share truth (not lies), and do the right things. Sometimes I would talk to the students about these during class, when something wasn’t going the way it should. I also told them I wanted them to follow those ideas during our class, but it would also be good to follow them always.
These three expectations for the students were actually based on ideas I had come up with previously that I view as principles of unity. I feel these three principles are critical pieces needed to develop and maintain unity between people. The first is to love people or “have charity for all.” To me that includes looking for the good in others, being willing to help others when it’s possible, forgiving mistakes and hurts, and giving others the benefit of the doubt.
The second of these principles of unity is to seek and share truth. I believe that when we work together to genuinely find and know what the truth is about something, it can unite us. On the other hand, it is also essential to share only things that are true, because deception destroys unity.
The third principle of unity is to keep wants and desires in their proper place. I believe that everything we desire must have boundaries and limits. These boundaries are often taught through religious channels. Boundaries are also communicated by laws, rules, and policies. I believe that when people cross over boundary lines, someone will often get hurt, either physically, emotionally, financially, etc.
I am quite convinced that if we all made these three principles the foundation for our actions, the light of unity would shine brighter than ever before. America needs that, and needs it now!