Opening Prayer
First: please use the group dynamics Balloons and Toothpicks.
Second: please question the children
Why did you try to burst each others balloons?
Did you try to burst your colleagues’ balloons after your balloon was burst?
What does the sweet represent? It represents a prize; the conquest of something good.
What does the toothpick represent? It represents our tendencies; towards violence and dispute.
Are we used to acting based on selfishness? Why is that? We still think of ourselves mainly most of the time, without wondering about the others’ well-being.
Third: distribute Question 913 from The Spirits' Book to them; please get the children some time to comment on it and glue it to their notebooks.
913. Which, among the vices, may be regarded as the root of the others?
"Selfishness, as we have repeatedly told you; for it is from selfishness that everything evil proceeds. Study all the vices, and you will see that selfishness is at the bottom of them all. Combat them as you will, you will never succeed in extirpating them until. Attacking the evil in its root, you have destroyed the selfishness which is their cause. Let all your efforts tend to this end; for selfishness is the veritable social gangrene. Whoever would make, even in his earthly life, some approach towards moral excellence, must root out every selfish feeling from his heart, for selfishness is incompatible with justice, love, and charity; it neutralizes every good quality."
Fourth: please display a panel or write on the board the following phrase and ask them to comment on it:
"The true Spiritist can be recognized by their moral transformation and by the efforts they employ in order to overcome their bad instincts". The Gospel According to Spiritism: Chapter 17. - BE PERFECT, item 4
Fifth - activity: please distribute copies of The Spirits' Book. The children can use them in order to find the answers of the questions displayed below. If you don’t have enough copies, you ask the children to work in pairs. You could also, as an alternative, give them a copy of Question 919 together with the questions’ sheet.
Click here to find some suggested questions to handle over to the children.
Click here to print Question 919 from The Spirits' Book.
Sixth: please make comments in regards to the answers given by the children. You should aim to enable them to reflect about their attitudes as students of the Spiritist Doctrine – what they have improved on and what they realize they need to change about themselves.
Closing Prayer
Class suggested being suitable for: 3rd cycle (11 to 12 years old).
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.
