Since Golden Year 2 (2005), I’ve had the opportunity to teach children between the ages of five and eleven. I would like to share some of my positive experiences to encourage fellow teachers to bring spiritual ideas into the classroom.

My first class comprised of students between ages five and seven. I hung up Master’s painting --“Heavenly Flowers” in the room for a whole semester to create a peaceful atmosphere. One day, I asked the children to draw a sketch using the painting as inspiration and the results were fantastic. I also kept a copy of Master’s book,

God Takes Care of Everything, in the classroom for them to read and appreciate the colorful illustrations.

I often took opportunities to discuss vegetarianism with the children. We concluded that fruit is happy when you eat it because its job is to make you healthy. We also agreed that when we eat meat, the animal’s sad feeling goes into our heart and can make us sick, so we shouldn’t eat it. Because of children’s purity, they often agreed not to eat meat, so before discussing this kind of topic, be sure to bring it to the attention of the parents and the school principal to avoid any conflict. During hot weather, I encouraged the kids to bring fruit to school, an idea supported by parents. They enjoyed sharing their fresh fruit during breaks and had fun together.

Since older children can grasp more in-depth topics, for the class of eight and nine year-olds, we created a science project called “Plant Energy Restaurant.” Together, we prepared plant food signs and a plant-based menu. We used plastic money and sold nuts, fruit, vegetables, bread and juice during the class. It was so cool! With the parent’s support, this proved to be a great success.

The following semester, our Social Studies book had a chapter on “Work.” Our class took the opportunity to put into practice the idea of selling vegetarian food, by creating a healthy food store in the school called “The 100% FuN Shop!” The “F” stood for fruit and the “N” for nuts. I stocked the store with dried fruit (dates, mangoes, blueberries) and unsalted nuts (cashews, almonds, macadamias). The kids packed, weighed and labeled the small bags of food. Instead of sugary, salty, oily, processed snacks that are available at most convenience stores, we promoted the idea of “Healthy Snacks for Children” and “No-Sugar Snax!” This time we used real money. We donated half the profits to charity and had a party with the other half! The students loved it and so did I. They sold Alternative Living food, got experience running a business, and felt good sharing money with needy people. Experience is always the best teacher.

My next class was 10 to 11 year-old children. There was a section in our Science book about a scientist who “listened to the stars.” We watched the movie Contact, which was recommended in our News magazine. The main character’s soul traveled to another dimension through a machine while her physical body remained on Earth. I asked the students, “If her body remained on Earth, how could she go to another dimension?” Without hesitation a girl said, “Maybe just her inside went up!” I was pleasantly surprised by her answer. Spiritual movies are great tools to help educate children.

Our next topic was volunteer work. We decided to help the stray dogs around our school, so we did two things: prepared food and fed the dogs on the streets, and wrote a letter to the city council asking for help. Days later, a council member came to the school to tell our principal that he was impressed by the kid’s ideas and sincerity! Love in action is always amazing.

I found that the best way to teach older kids is to inspire them by bringing the ideas in the text book to life. This will make learning fun and make it easier to plant seeds of goodness and virtue in their hearts. May Master bless all the teachers in the world to educate their students with noble ideas fit for the Golden Age!

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