KidClasses

From Mountain To Mountain; Children's Classes

By John Taylor; 2007 Dec 19, 8 Masa'il, 164 BE

 Yesterday my father had an operation early in the morning and I had to drive him there and back, plus make sure that he did everything the doctors required of him. Then Silvie and Tomaso had their school's Christmas concerts, a dress rehearsal in the afternoon (in which Silvie played the role of "Festive the Cat") and the final performance in the evening. I was so busy escorting people back and forth that I did not even have time to check my email that day. I did however manage to squeeze in time for a Baha'i class with the kids.

Over the past couple of weeks these almost-daily classes have become a highlight of our lives. All I do is read a few chapters from a history of the Faith written for children's classes called "From Mountain to Mountain, Stories about Baha'u'llah," by Hitjo Garst (Amazon features a book review at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mountain-Stories-About-Bahaullah/dp/085398266X), while both Silvie (13 years old) and Tomaso (8 years old) furiously draw their impressions of the events in Baha'u'llah's life. Surprisingly, using this teaching method it is possible to teach kids separated by five years. Silvie comes up with the first draft for an entire comic book, while Thomas takes a more impressionistic and often tangential approach in his depictions. So imaginative and prolific are they in their response that my feelings go beyond mere parental pride -- these two give me a glimpse of the remarkably fecund ground that the lives of the Bab and Baha'u'llah will surely be for artists during the next millennium.

From Mountain to Mountain was written by a teacher of children's classes in Holland for his students, but he seems a pretty impressive researcher in his own right. To my surprise very many of the stories and in this book seem completely new, and his asides are often illuminating for an old timer like myself. Some do not even sound familiar, and here I thought I had read the main histories of the Faith available in English. Unfortunately, being a kid's book, it does not have footnotes so there is no way to check up on its sources. What I would like to do, if I have time, is to scan the book in and make up a comic book (using a program I recently purchased called "Comic Book Maker") using Silvie and Tomaso's very imaginative illustrations.

To give some examples, Tomaso, frustrated with the patience of Baha'u'llah in the face of the plotting of Mirza Yahya in the period just before the self-exile to the Solomon Mountains, depicts a bearded and fearsome and actually quite authentic-looking Yahya being fed into a huge contraption called the "Wedr (Weeder) 9000." In a later lesson, he pictures the crowd at the departure of Baha'u'llah from Baghdad becoming so enthusiastic that they throw themselves higgly-piggly through the air at Him, like bowling pins in a strike. They were sad to see Him go, but probably not quite that demonstrative! Silvie depicts the musical instruments of Mirza Munib, the guy who lightened the severity of the long journey in exile from Baghdad to Constantinople by playing music and singing -- she drew for him a harmonica, a banjo and a piano, though I must say the piano must have weighed down his horse quite a bit.

Our community recently met with our ABM assistant, who suggested that I broaden this class out to other children in the neighborhood. Several factors stand in the way; Silvie is both shy and solitary, she spends her lunch hour walking around the schoolyard alone (which is probably healthier than what my two buddies, Harry and Doug, and I did during Grade Eight recesses and lunch hours: walk around the schoolyard droning on endlessly about how great it would be to be out of there and in High School). Thomas, although he has many friends, tends to be standoffish with them; using a literary reference he understands all too well, I compared his ambivalence to Squidward's uncomfortable relationship to Spongebob and Patrick. Plus, with only them to teach I can time the classes very flexibly, at precisely the moment during the evening when both they and I are relaxed and receptive to a lesson. Still, if the opportunity arises, I would like to bring in other kids.