How to Impart Buddhism to Children

Methods likely to be used—Buddhism is the best medicine to cure the mental disease of all beings, but i f imparted in the wrong way to the children, it might become a poison very harmful to them. Those who assume the noble responsibility of imparting Buddhism children must be very careful and well versed in ways and means if  teaching Buddhism. 

There are probably six methods of imparting Buddhism to children : 

(1) Teaching—Buddhist lessons are taught in the same manner as geography or chemistry is taught in the school. There must be a model lesson clearly couched in simple terms, to be given to the children at each Dharma class. The teacher expounds the lesson clearly and tries his best to help children grasp the meaning it implies without forcing them to get it by heart. This way has the advantage of following closely the syllabus adopted, of being regular and methodical; but has the disadvantage of being too theoretical, of bringing back the school-atmosphere which ought to be banned from a Sunday School or from a Buddhist youth movement.

(2) Narrating—The teacher is replaced by a narrator, who puts what he wants to impart to the children a narrative form. Here no lesson is needed. He just has a talk with the children, asking them questions, imggesting their replies, but following a plan already sketched mentally by himself. . While he narrates, he puts iinestions to the children, helping their answers, so that hey may participate in the narrative itself, and the class, i it may be called so, becomes active, vivid and homely. This way has the advantage of being highly attractive to the children, as questions well put may develop their IHtelligence and investigating habit. But the difficulty; here lies with the narrative itself, which is almost an art, and to keep a class alive with narrative alone requires some talents not accessible to everyone. This way has another drawback : as no written lesson is given to the children, they may forget what they have just heard, after starting for home.

(3) Suggestion, Reasoning, Explaining—No lesson, no class is needed. The monk or the layman in charge takes advantage of every possible opportunity to develop their faculty of understanding and reasoning and thus helps them grasp the meaning of the Buddha's teachings. For instance, he leads the children to the temple to worship Lord Buddha's image, and there he may explain to the children how Lord Buddha succeeded in possessing such peaceful eyes, and such entrancing beauty. All this is not a gift from nature, but a result of aeons after aeons' endeavours and exertions. He may conclude by exhorting children to follow the virtues of exertion and purity, to always try their best to follow in Lord Buddha's footsteps and not to harbour veil thoughts towards anyone. He may explain to them why, in the temple, the sparrows build their nests within the reach of everyone, having no fear of being molested or harmed by the monks. This is due simply to the fact that monks are keeping the vow of not harming any living creatures. And he may conclude by explaining to them that love attracts people while hatred and enmity keep them away, and by exhorting them to follow the virtue of compassion. 

This method has the advantage of developing the faculty of reasoning and observation in the children, of using the light of the Dharma to explain what is occurring in their daily life. But those who use such a method must be well versed in the Dharma, must know well the characters of the children, and must possess a very active mind. 

(4) By giving a proper background—The method here consists in giving to the children a proper background so that they can breathe the very atmosphere we need to impart to them. We know that children of genuine Buddhist . parents grow up as genuine Buddhists in a natural way, as at home they are well familiar with a proper Buddhist environment. When the children come on Sunday to be taught Buddhism, the leader has to create the necessary background. For instance if he wants to impart the virtue of purity he has to arrange the compound where children will assemble very clean and in order, and he himself must be a pattern of cleanliness with his hair well combed if he is a layman, and his dress perfect, not in smartness but in cleanliness. When the children come, he glances at their dress and their hands so as to know how far they are following the virtue of Purity, and if some-thing is lacking, he will remonstrate with them in a friendly manner. Do not inspect children as a captain inspects soldiers on parade. You will spoil at once the friendly atmosphere you want to create. If you want to impart to the children the notion of concord and harmony among themselves, you should try to create this very atmosphere among the batch of children under your guidance. You must treat all of them on the same footing of equality. You may have some preference for such and such children, but to be a good leader, you must nip all these feelings of partiality in the bud, and treat all children committed to your guidance equally. Of course, for some backward children, you may have more solicitude, but you should use it discreetly, especially before other children. When we fail to have such a quality, we cannot expect to impart this virtue of harmony and concord among children committed to our charge. 

This method has the advantage of disposing of the whole time the children come to the temple or a Sunday School, to impart what virtue we want to impart to the children, of having more efficacy than mere teaching. But to create such a background, as we need it, is not an easy matter. 

(5) By setting oneself as an example—Lord Buddha, although omniscient, seems remote to the children, who easily come under the influence of those with whom they come into contact in their daily life. Here the personality and behaviour of those who teach Buddhism play an important role in imparting Buddhism to the children. What we want to impart to the children, we need first to set an example of. There is no use in asking them to follow the virtue of Purity while we are ourselves a pattern of untidiness. Children are very confident by nature. They love, obey and follow those who love them and set a good example to them. If they find out that their leader pays merely a lip-service to the Dharma, they may lose their confidence, and their love may turn to disappointment and even to dislike, and then education becomes meaningless to them.. In a Buddhist movement, we cannot use authority and threats to win over children to us. By love alone, we may win their hearts and induce them to follow what virtues we need to impart to them. And love here always goes along with sincerity. Don't try to teach children what we are unable to put into practice ourselves. We waste our time and what is more dangerous, we may spoil the children committed to our charge.

(6) By intuitive knowledge—This method is rather abstruse and difficult to analyse. I shall give here an instance from my own experience so as to illustrate this method.

When I first became a Samanara (novice monk) in Vietnam, my teacher assigned me a duty that was to dust one table daily in the temple. I confess that I did the work rather unwillingly, as I thought I had not chosen to become a monk for the purpose of cleaning a table. When finished my work, my teacher would come and see my job done, put his hand to the remotest and innermost part of the table, extract some dust left there by me and ask me to do my job again, saying " How can you become a good monk without knowing how to dust a table? " I had to do my work again, more grudgingly of course, but anyhow, the work had been done nicely this time. One day he came to observe my doing the work, and after a time, he said " When you are clearing away the dust from this table. think as if you are clearing the Klesa dust within you." His words gave me a start, and in a flash, I grasped the meaning my teacher intended to convey to me, and needless to say, from this time onwards, I did my dusting work heartily. One day I put a basin of water before him rather clumsily and the basin struck the table with a clang. My teacher got up, took the basin up and put it down again on the table without a sound. He did not even glance at me, and resumed his work placidly, but I never forgot the teaching. So, this method is rather hazy and indefinite, to be known only between teacher and pupils. Usually the children are unable to grasp the meaning we want to convey to them through this method. But, anyhow, I mentioned it here so as to deal with the question exhaus-tively, and at the same time to give a clue to those really interested in this question of the education of children with the help of the Dharma. From personal experience, I find this method highly instructive and having a tremen-dous influence upon children. I may add that to those who have attained an advanced stage in meditation practice, and to those who really love children, this method may be the best. 

Now that the education of children based upon Buddhist morality is still in the experimental stage, the monk or the layman in charge of the children may use any of these six methods without stressing too much any particular one. He must know how to handle them in a flexible way and try to adopt a method which is appropriate to the children and suitable to the surrounding in which they live.

Source: Buddhist Sunday school lessons by The Venerable Sumangala