The education and training
of children is among the most meritorious acts of humankind and draweth down
the grace and favour of the All-Merciful, for education is the indispensable
foundation of all human excellence and alloweth man to work his way to the heights
of abiding glory. If a child be trained from his infancy, he will, through the
loving care of the Holy Gardener, drink in the crystal waters of the spirit and
of knowledge, like a young tree amid the rilling brooks. And certainly he will
gather to himself the bright rays of the Sun of Truth, and through its light and heat will grow ever fresh and fair in the garden
of life.
Therefore must the mentor
be a doctor as well: that is, he must, in instructing the child, remedy its
faults; must give him learning, and at the same time rear him to have a
spiritual nature. Let the teacher be a doctor to the character of the child,
thus will he heal the spiritual ailments of the children of men.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá’; The Compilation of
Compilations, vol. I, Baha’i Education)
