# The Philosophy of Baha'i Education

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Boris Handal, The Philosophy of Baha'i Education, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Religion and Education
> 
> ISSN: 1550-7394 (Print) 1949-8381 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/urel20
> 
> The Philosophy of Bahá’í Education
> 
> Boris Handal
> 
> To cite this article: Boris Handal (2007) The Philosophy of Bahá’í Education, Religion and
> Education, 34:1, 48-62, DOI: 10.1080/15507394.2007.10012391
> 
> To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2007.10012391
> 
> Published online: 11 Nov 2010.
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> The Philosophy of Bahá’í Education
> Boris Handal
> 
> This paper discusses the main tenets underpinning a philosophy of Bahá’í
> education encompassing the individual and the society. It also examines the
> state of education and the child in the 19th century in the light of those
> principles. This is followed by a review of Bahá’í-inspired enterprises to
> implement those ideals around the world in the last century. Finally, the
> paper deals with the current state of education for children and women of
> the world as well as the erosive effects of secularism on religious values
> that have taken place in the past hundred and fifty years.
> 
> Brief Introduction to the Bahá’í Faith
> 
> Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, the newest of all world’s
> religions, was born in Iran in 1817 into an aristocratic family whose lineage
> can be traced back to the early Persian kings.1 His teachings centered on
> the principles of oneness of God, the unity of all religions and the unification
> of the human race.
> Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings also included the independent investigation of
> truth, the elimination of racial, religious or national prejudices, the equality of
> men and women, the harmony between science and religion, the abolition of
> extremes of poverty and wealth, the establishment of an international tribu-
> nal of justice to preserve universal peace, and the adoption of an interna-
> tional auxiliary language to facilitate communication and understanding among
> nations. He is recognized by the followers of the Bahá’í Faith as the mes-
> senger of God for this age. According to the Bahá’í teachings, messengers
> of God like Moses, Abraham, Christ, Muhammad, Krishna and Buddha,
> have appeared at intervals throughout history to establish the world’s great
> religions.
> The Muslim clergy and the Iranian government fiercely opposed
> Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings right from the beginning and as a result many thou-
> sands of Bahá’ís were executed for their beliefs in the 19th century. Simi-
> larly, Baha’u’llah endured forty years of torture, imprisonment and exile in
> Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Palestine under the combined orders of the Shah of
> Iran and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
> 
> Religion & Education, Vol. 34, No.1 (Winter 2007)
> Copyright © 2007 by the University of Northern Iowa
> Philosophy of Bahá’í Education 49
> 
> During that period, over 100 volumes of writings flowed from Bahá’u’lláh’s
> pen on a broad range of issues dealing with the progress of the individual
> and the society. These include mystical treatises, ethical and social teach-
> ings, laws and ordinances, in addition to fearless epistles to kings and rulers
> of the world such as Queen Victoria, Napoleon III, Pope Pius IX, the Em-
> peror Franz Joseph of Austria, the Shah of Iran, the Sultan of the Ottoman
> Empire, the Czar Alexander II of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany,
> among others.
> His passing as a prisoner in ‘Akká (now in Israel) occurred in 1892. In
> an interview granted to Professor Edward Granville Browne of Cambridge
> University in 1890, Baha’u’llah summarized the main tenets of this new
> Faith:
> 
> We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of
> the nations; yet they deem us a stirrer up of strife and
> sedition worthy of bondage and banishment... That all na-
> tions should become one in faith and all men as brothers;
> that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of
> men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should
> cease, and differences of race be annulled — what harm
> is there in this?... Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes,
> these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great
> Peace’ shall come... Do not you in Europe need this also?
> Is this not what Christ foretold?...Yet do we see your kings
> and rulers lavishing their treasures more freely on means
> for the destruction of the human race than on that which
> would conduce to the happiness of mankind... These strifes
> and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be
> as one kindred and one family... Let not a man glory in this,
> that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he
> loves his kind...3
> 
> Bahá’í Principles on Education
> 
> While a prisoner in a penal colony in Palestine, Bahá’u’lláh proclaimed
> the principle of universal education as well as a number of other pedagogi-
> cal ideals that are only now being encouraged and appreciated by modern
> educationalists. There were the times when education all over the world
> was more a privilege than a right. The notion of mass education did not yet
> exist and the principles contained in the Declaration of the Rights of the
> Child as delineated by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1959
> were no more than a utopian dream.
> 50 Religion & Education
> 
> Central to that philosophy was the value ascribed by Bahá’u’lláh to
> knowledge acquisition. Knowledge was not only seen as a tool for the de-
> velopment of a rational mind but also as a spiritual quality on its own that
> everyone should possess in order to become a nobler being. In Bahá’u’lláh’s
> words,
> 
> Arts, crafts and sciences uplift the world of being, and are
> conducive to its exaltation. Knowledge is as wings to man’s
> life, and a ladder for his ascent. The knowledge of such
> sciences, however, should be acquired as can profit the
> peoples of the earth… In truth, knowledge is a veritable
> treasure for man [mankind], and a source of glory, of bounty,
> of joy, of exaltation, of cheer and gladness unto him.4
> 
> Bahá’u’lláh commanded every father to take responsibility for instructing
> his children in the art of reading and writing. He also advised people to
> earmark part of their income for educational purposes. “Everyone, whether
> man or woman”, Bahá’u’lláh wrote referring to this, “should hand over ... a
> portion of what he or she earneth through trade, agriculture or other occu-
> pation, for the training and education of children.”5 He went further to say
> that in deciding on the education of one’s children, in the case of insufficient
> financial means, preference should be given to the girl child because women
> are the first educators of the next generation. Moreover, Bahá’u’lláh stated
> that if a father deliberately fails to educate his children then he would lose
> his paternity rights or, as we call it today, loss of custodial rights. Bahá’ú’lláh
> has also stated that, in cases if intestacy, teachers would inherit a small part
> of the state of a person thus giving them the status of spiritual members of
> a family.6
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921), Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son and successor, also
> wrote extensively on education.7 His progressive ideals dealt with a diver-
> sity of forward-looking educational issues such as instruction based on child’s
> individual needs8, the standardization of training and teaching standards9,
> and formal education from infancy for both boys and girls10, arts, drama11,
> music12, and physical education13 in addition to inter-faith learning14, knowl-
> edge of modern languages15 and acquisition of skills beneficial to mankind.16
> In addition, the Bahá’í teachings advocated innovative learning prac-
> tices such as learning in groups through consultation17, interactive learning
> through play for nursery children18, the abandonment of physical chastise-
> ment practices19, character building as the most important objective of
> schooling20, service to humanity21 and world-embracing instruction empha-
> sizing education for peace.22 These educational provisions were all consid-
> Philosophy of Bahá’í Education 51
> 
> ered to be indispensable parts of the school curriculum as early as the turn
> of the 19th century. Bahá’u’lláh also indicated that the principles of religion
> should be taught in schools “… but this is such a measure that it may not
> injure the children by resulting in ignorant fanaticism and bigotry”.23
> It is noteworthy that the Bahá’i teachings do not pretend presenting a
> detailed and definite system of education. Rather, they provide scholars and
> educational practitioners with a set of articulated ideas and ideals to guide
> them in designing educational models around such principles. Generating
> such a system is a process that will obviously require more planning, action,
> reflection and further refining over longer periods of practical experience
> and conceptualization.24 However, this process has already started in many
> countries and it is evolving such as initiatives in the United States, Australia,
> India and Africa, as outlined further in this paper.
> 
> Education in the 19th Century
> 
> During the time Bahá’u’lláh’s writings were expounded, Iran, the birth-
> place of the Bahá’í Faith, was sunk in a state of utmost intellectual and
> spiritual obscurity. Governed by the corrupt Qajar dynasty, there was no
> formal education system for children and the only establishment available
> was the madreseh. The madresehs were religious seminars to prepare young
> people for the clergy with emphasis on theology, history and Islamic law. In
> a church-state country where the intellectual life was controlled by an
> intolerant religious hierarchy, the only scholarly exercise was for the divines
> to indulge themselves on lengthy metaphysical arguments and profitless
> orthodox debates. Any attempt to modernization from overseas was averted
> in the name of religious uncleanliness.25 Only children from wealthy fami-
> lies, like Bahá’u’lláh, were fortunate enough to receive some basic literacy
> and numeracy instruction, and the rudiments of commerce from home tu-
> tors.26
> By the middle of the 19th century, the condition of education in the
> western world was also deficient, particularly in Europe which was held in
> a state of continuous warfare. Only Denmark, Switzerland, Prussia and
> Holland had accepted responsibility for providing compulsory and free edu-
> cation.27 In many countries such as Victorian Britain and the United States,
> child labour was institutionalized with many children working in factories
> sometimes under inhuman conditions.28 In industrialized cities, working class
> children attending fee paying schools still followed a differentiated curricu-
> lum, one which would reproduce their production role within a burgeoning
> industrial revolution driven society.29 Child slavery continued to be institu-
> tionalized in several southern states of the Union until its total abrogation in
> 52 Religion & Education
> 
> 1865 with the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment.30 although the seg-
> regationist sequel in public schools remained in place under the “separate
> but equal” legal injunction till the early 1950s.
> In the absence of strong public education systems parochial schools
> became common. While retaining the power to accommodate their curricu-
> lum to their peculiar religious beliefs such as the teaching of their own
> catechism, these denominational schools were under varying degrees of
> government support, regulation and funding according to each country. For
> example, by the middle of the century, German schools were totally in hands
> of the government, the French had abolished the teaching of religion in
> schools after the establishment of the Third Republic while England having
> a state-supported church avoided government intervention on educational
> issues.31 In other countries, both Reformation Protestants and Roman Catho-
> lics were competing in creating they own parochial schools for having a
> share in the spiritual and intellectual lives of their societies. In the United
> States, the massive Irish Catholic immigration in the 19th century, reluctant
> to be assimilated into the traditionally oriented Protestant school system,
> opted for creating their own schools within an atmosphere of continuous
> and very often violent religious conflict. The issue was finally was put to an
> end when free public education, non-denominational by nature, became fully
> institutionalized in all states by the turn of the century.32
> Education was also introduced to impoverished indigenous populations
> by European missionaries in the form of religious instruction and cultural
> dominance, thus becoming an instrument of colonization that very often
> accompanied various forms of oppression33, such as the case of the stolen
> generation of Aboriginal children in Australia34 or in several African, Latin
> American and Asian dependencies.
> Philosophies on schooling revolved on themes like patriotism, milita-
> rism, the industry or the church.35 Generally speaking, girls had limited ac-
> cess to education, and what little instruction they had access to was based
> on house chore duties and perpetuating other traditional roles. The institu-
> tion of the kindergarten was virtually unknown while schools still prescribed
> corporal punishment.36 Teaching and learning methods were embedded within
> a mechanicist view of instruction. Rote learning was the norm, the child
> being considered as a vessel to be passively filled in with information37, and
> teacher training was scarce and rudimentary.38 Cooperative learning was
> an embryonic concept while the only didactical tool used in the classroom
> was the chalkboard. The child was taught to blindly accept the tenants
> espoused by the textbook.39 School curricula was encyclopedically oriented,
> lacked diversity and study of ancient languages such as Greek and Latin
> were lauded following the Renaissance educational tradition.40
> Philosophy of Bahá’í Education 53
> 
> Pedagogy and psychology were still unborn sciences as such. Philoso-
> phers and well-wishers such as Pestalozzi, Russeau, Herbart, and Froeber
> had formulated or were developing their own views on education. As re-
> search methods were unknown, some of these views were more subjective
> appreciations rather than the product of experimentation or systematic ob-
> servation. This led to a variety of ideas such as those expressed by Jean
> Jacques Rousseau, the father of the French Revolution and author of the
> famous Émile, who asserted that women should be educated to please the
> men.41 In all of these, the 19th century was a century moving towards
> secularization and rejection of the divine. Darwin had totally denied the
> Bible as divine revelation and himself gave up Christianity at the age of
> forty42, Freud called religion a “universal obsession neurosis of humanity”43,
> Marx regarded it as the “opium of the people”44 while Nietzsche declared
> that “God is dead”.45
> The trend towards secularized education became more prominent in
> the last century. “The vitality of men’s belief in God is dying out in every
> land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it.” ob-
> served Bahá’u’lláh in 1873, “The corrosion of ungodliness is eating into the
> vitals of human society; what else but the Elixir of His potent Revelation
> can cleanse and revive it?”46 Educational programs were also caught in this
> secularizing tendency and consequently the design and delivery of schools
> and teacher training programs were influenced. For example, most of these
> 20th century educational theories were based on materialistic assumptions
> of the human being. Pavlov compared children’s learning to animal behaviour
> through his theory of classical conditioning, Skinner in his behaviorism asso-
> ciated cognitive processes with black boxes, while Piaget related these pro-
> cesses to vegetal functioning, probably due to his training as a biologist.47
> Other 20th century learning models such as the information-processing ap-
> proach equated thought processes to computers components or like cogni-
> tive psychologists that explained these thought processes in terms of the
> interaction of chemical and physical neural reactions. Constructivism, con-
> sidered by many as a more thorough approach to understanding how people
> comprehend the world, still partook of the idea of human beings as social
> animals, contrasting with the Bahá’í belief that humankind is not only a
> distinctive realm of creation but the supreme one.48
> 
> A New Conception of the Child
> 
> It is in this disoriented spiritual and intellectual landscape of the 19th
> century that Bahá’u’lláh proclaimed that a human being is a Supreme Tal-
> isman and stated that “Lack of proper education hath, however, deprived
> 54 Religion & Education
> 
> him of that which he doth inherently possess.”49 He emphasized that it is
> mainly through both the development of spiritual capabilities and formal
> instruction that men and women will develop and accomplish their highest
> destiny. The talisman metaphor inspires us to believe in the fathomless
> spiritual powers of each individual to solve problems, a capacity that goes
> beyond his or her material nature. In the same paragraph, Bahá’u’lláh also
> compared human beings to mines “rich in gems of inestimable value”50
> whose treasures can be revealed only through education for the benefit of
> all mankind.
> Addressing the individual, Bahá’u’lláh declared: “Thou art even as a
> finely tempered sword concealed in the darkness of its sheath and its value
> hidden from the artificer’s knowledge.”51 “Man is even as steel,” Bahá’u’lláh
> stated, “the essence of which is hidden: through admonition and explana-
> tion, good counsel and education, that essence will be brought to light.”52
> Thus Bahá’u’lláh, as far back as the 1850s, was proposing a developmental
> view of education, one that must also come from within the individual.53
> This innate nobility of human beings proclaimed by Bahá’ú’lláh was distinc-
> tive at that time and presented a clear contrast with prevalent theological
> conceptions of children as being born sinful.54
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá defined education as a holistic activity encompassing
> material, human and spiritual aspects of the individual and the society. In
> explaining these three broad facets for educating the body, the mind and the
> spirit, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated:
> 
> Material education is concerned with the progress and de-
> velopment of the body, through gaining its sustenance, its
> material comfort and ease. This education is common to
> animals and man. Human education signifies civilization and
> progress— that is to say, government, administration, chari-
> table works, trades, arts and handicrafts, sciences, great
> inventions and discoveries and elaborate institutions, which
> are the activities essential to man as distinguished from the
> animal. Divine education is that of the Kingdom of God: It
> consists in acquiring divine perfections, and this is true edu-
> cation; for in this state man becomes the focus of divine
> blessings, the manifestation of the words, “Let Us make
> man in Our image, and after Our likeness.” This is the
> goal of the world of humanity.55
> 
> Great emphasis was placed on the role of schools in developing charac-
> ter and ethical values to the extent that it was considered the ultimate goal
> Philosophy of Bahá’í Education 55
> 
> of education. “A child that is cleanly, agreeable, of good character, well-
> behaved—even though he be ignorant—,” in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s advice, “is
> preferable to a child that is rude, unwashed, ill-natured, and yet becoming
> deeply versed in all the sciences and arts…. If, however, the child be trained
> to be both learned and good, the result is light upon light.”56 The approach
> taken to moral development sought to empower children to develop their
> own moral conscience even at the sacrifice of their own immediate inter-
> ests. Rather than bearing towards current behaviour modification theories
> which differentiate being than doing by inducing rational but moral-free
> responses to life choices, the Bahá’i approach focuses on living the virtues
> and adopted them permanently as part of people’s spiritual nature regarding
> of the circumstantial outcomes of their decisions.57 Personal transformation
> was also seen as a powerful factor in achieving social transformation. For
> example, raising awareness on world citizenship was considered a prepara-
> tion for achieving unity in diversity in a world free from religious, racial or
> national prejudices.58 These all-embracing ideals coupled with the acquisi-
> tion of virtues and spiritual qualities were seen as indispensable as the aca-
> demic component of the school curriculum.
> 
> Bahá’i-inspired Education in the 20th Century
> 
> Empowered by the copious literature of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> on education, the oppressed Iranian Bahá’í community in the 20th century
> positioned itself at the vanguard of educational reform in their own country.
> Bahá’u’lláh had exhorted: “Bend your minds and wills to the education of
> the peoples and kindreds of the earth”60 while ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had written:
> “The primary, the most urgent requirement is the promotion of education. It
> is inconceivable that any nation should achieve prosperity and success un-
> less this paramount, this fundamental concern is carried forward.”61 The
> Iranian Bahá’í community itself managed in an atmosphere of fanaticism
> and bigotry to establish a network of fifty progressive schools for boys and
> girls, the first one founded in 1898 and the rest in the early part of the 20th
> century (see Fig.1). These schools were open to children of all backgrounds;
> for example, half of the students in one of the schools in the capital Tehran
> came from the broader community. Regrettably, in an act of religious intol-
> erance, all Bahá’í schools were banned in the mid-1930s by the government
> of Reza Shah. It was also due to this emphasis on education that by 1973
> illiteracy among Bahá’í women under forty was almost totally eradicated as
> compared to the 15% national literacy rate.62 Likewise, many Bahá’ís went
> to higher education and pursued successful professional careers thus ob-
> taining positions of prominence in the Iranian society before the 1979 revo-
> lution.
> 56 Religion & Education
> 
> Fig. 1: A Bahá’í School for Girls in Iran in 1933
> 
> Unfortunately, for the past 26 years, the Iranian Bahá’í youth have
> been deprived access to tertiary education and Bahá’í teachers have been
> banned from teaching in public schools and universities as part of the cul-
> tural cleansing campaign pursued by the Iranian government. In addition,
> over 200 Bahá’ís have been executed because of their beliefs, a number of
> them after explicitly being charged for teaching Bahá’í children’s classes,
> the equivalent of Sunday schools in the West, including the hanging of a
> seventeen year old girl.63 The regime has also managed to close down an
> institution of higher learning established by the Iranian Bahá’í Community
> with an enrollment of over 900 students and a staff of 150 academics.
> Initially established through Indiana University as a distance education pro-
> gram, the Open University later on developed its own courses in the form
> of ten undergraduate degrees. Disciplines taught included computer sci-
> ence, accounting, psychology, law, literature, applied chemistry, biology, civil
> engineering, pharmacology and dental science. Classes were run in private
> homes and in rented premises where laboratories, photocopying facilities
> and specialized libraries were held. This endeavor came to an end in 1998
> when over 500 homes were raided, 36 academics were arrested and all
> their equipment was confiscated.64
> Despite this bleak background, Bahá’í individuals and institutions have
> established a large number of schools, universities, radio stations, centers of
> Philosophy of Bahá’í Education 57
> 
> learning and other grassroots socio-economic projects around the world for
> people of all backgrounds. There are currently over 1700 projects operating
> mostly in developing countries and running programs on literacy, numeracy,
> environment, and agriculture, the advancement of women, health care, drug
> prevention and parenting.65 Their endeavours are continually aiming at de-
> veloping new curricula by exploring the processes and significance of ap-
> plying spiritual values to educational concepts and practices, including a
> strong service component to the broader community. Successful examples
> of Bahá’í-inspired educational initiatives around the world include among
> others: Nur University in Bolivia66, Maxwell International School in Canada67,
> the School of the Nations in Macau68, Yerrinbool College in Australia69, the
> Banani School in Zambia70, Towshend International School in the Czech
> Republic71, Santitham School in Thailand72, the Ocean of Light School in
> Tonga 73 , the School of the Nations in Brazil 74 , and the
> Barli Vocational Institute for Rural Women in India.75 Some of these en-
> terprises have had their work publicly acknowledged such as the City
> Montessori School in India76 that won in 2002 the UNESCO award for
> Peace Education and FUNDAEC (The Foundation for the Application and
> Teaching of the Sciences) of Colombia which was qualified by the Bucharest
> Club as “the best educatory project of the time.”77
> Their activities are guided by the Universal House of Justice, the inter-
> national governing body of the Bahá’í Faith located in Israel, through its
> Office of Social and Economic Development. In addition, a group-based
> and self-directed tutorial system called the “Ruhi Institute” has been imple-
> mented at the Bahá’i local level in the past five years. Their aim is to de-
> velop human resources within the Bahá’í community. There are currently
> over 11000 study circles established around the world. Some of the modules
> of this training institute are aimed at the moral education and training of
> children and youth while other community-oriented courses such as teacher
> training and primary health are being developed at the local level.78 On a
> major scale, the Bahá’í International Community has been advocating in
> international forums in favour of universal and moral education since 1948
> from its position as an international non-governmental organization at the
> United Nations, and through it consultative status within the United Nations
> Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Economic and Social
> Council (ECOSOC).
> 
> Conclusions
> 
> The Bahá’i Faith brought a new light to the languishing education of the
> 19th century. It proclaimed that children are born noble, not sinful, with
> 58 Religion & Education
> 
> plenty of latent attributes that need to be patiently developed and nurtured.
> Pedagogically, the Baha’i writings advocated for more child-centered ap-
> proaches that included many of the innovative practices that are in use
> nowadays as outlined earlier in this paper. Curriculum wise, moral educa-
> tion and world citizenship were made central to the child’s upbringing. These
> ideals also advocated for more diversity in the school curriculum, one that
> necessarily should reflect the changing needs of society and prepare the
> individual as a world citizen. According to the Bahá’i writings, education
> had to be compulsory for both boys and girls, rather than voluntary, and
> social mechanisms were put in place to this effect to minimize disadvantage
> such as girls education and funding the education of the less privileged in
> society.
> Last century witnessed the emergence of a number of successful
> Bahá’i-inspired educational establishments striving to apply the principles
> enunciated by Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdul-Bahá. Although restricted by mate-
> rial resources, these institutions have achieved remarkable results, as seen
> above. Such a doctrinarian and historical commitment at the local, national
> and international level, within a single century, by a world religious commu-
> nity that is still banned and persecuted in its birthplace is indeed extraordi-
> nary.
> It is certainly encouraging to witness that many of these ideals are now
> being unanimously accepted and implemented. However, it should be as-
> serted that no enough effort has been rendered in the fields of universal and
> spiritual education in response to Bahá’u’lláh’s counsel. On the one hand, a
> constant trend towards secularization and value-neutral education has con-
> tinued to drive religious values away at least from most public education
> systems. Using the lens of history, it can be said that the three generations
> of the 20th century, both in the East and the West, has grown up in a world
> reverencing nationalism, racialism and communism as virtual deities.79
> On the other hand, this year UNICEF has alerted that 121 million chil-
> dren of primary-school age do not attend school while two-thirds of the
> illiterate adult population are women, mostly from developing countries.80
> Such disturbing reality certainly conflicts with our 21st century claims to
> modernity and globalization. This lack of progress in the fields of universal
> and moral education not only summons all the nations for the worldwide
> implementation of these principles but also reminds us of Bahá’u’lláh’s ad-
> monitions more than a century-and-a-half ago:
> 
> Strain every nerve to acquire both inner and outer perfec-
> tions, for the fruit of the human tree hath ever been and
> will ever be perfections both within and without. It is not
> Philosophy of Bahá’í Education 59
> 
> desirable that a man be left without knowledge or skills, for
> he is then but a barren tree. Then, so much as capacity and
> capability allow, ye needs must deck the tree of being with
> fruits such as knowledge, wisdom, spiritual perception and
> eloquent speech.81
> 
> Notes
> 
> 1. Bahá’í International Community. Statement on Baha’u’llah: His Life
> and Work. (New York: Office of Public Information, 1991), http://
> info.bahai.org/bahaullah-introduction.html.
> 2. W. Hatcher. The Arc of Ascent: The Purpose of Physical Reality.
> (Oxford: George Ronald, 1994).
> 3. E. G. Browne. A Traveller’s Narrative. (New York: Bahá’í Publishing
> Committee, 1930), xxxix-xl.
> 4. Bahá’ú’lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf. (US Bahá’í Publishing
> Trust, 1988), 181.
> 5. Bahá’ú’lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas. (Haifa, Bahá’í World Centre, 1992),
> 90.
> 6. Bahá’ú’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh. (US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1988),
> 90.
> 7. H. Balyuzi. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Centre of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah.
> (Oxford: George Ronald, 1972).
> 8. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’i Education. (US Bahá’i Publishing Trust, 1987).
> 9. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Star of the West, IX, 9
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>
> — *The Philosophy of Baha'i Education (Used by permission of the curator)*