Education for Life: Preparing Children to Meet the Challenges (Continued)


Please note direct word-for-word quotes from Education for Life are indicated by single quotation marks.

Chapter 13: The Case against Atheism (Children need to encouraged to strive for the highest potential they can imagine for themselves) For all people once their 'stomach has been filled, the body clothed, and one’s living space insulated against the elements, there remains a basic hunger which no amount of possessions, power, or pleasure can fulfill: the need to know and to understand, to participate with wonder in the great adventure of existence in this universe.'

It can clearly be seen in all people's most inner desire to find happiness and avoid suffering. It is an inner desire that can only really be successfully satisfied when we seek to better ourselves by seeking ever higher ideals and values that deliver higher consciousness. '...In other words, toward a less “dense” awareness toward becoming less ego-centered, and more self-expansive.'

This is why our children cannot but yearn for something more than sterile facts. They yearn to be told that there is indeed something worthwhile in which to believe and toward which to aspire; they yearn for ideals.

'Children cannot be forced to learn. And mankind cannot only be pushed up the ladder toward final awakening. We must be attracted upward by the response of our free will.' 'Indeed, the process of evolution—both of species, outwardly, and of individuals, inwardly—is not only a push upward from below, but also a magnetic appeal from above.'

That magnet which has ever drawn humanity upward is what people often define in their minds as God.

'Knock out the concept of God and you knock out the very basis of civilization. For you knock out the fundamental hope for human betterment.'

To help children to mature as successful human beings it is time that we reinstituted in the schools an emphasis on high values and high ideals and encourage them to strive for the highest potential they can imagine for themselves.


Chapter 13 in full can be found through this link for those who want to go into greater depth.