Opening Prayer:
First: question the children about what is the meaning of virtues and passions. How do you define the limit in which passions can be good or bad? Aren’t human beings moved by passions? Here is a list of points to be approached, as well as answers given from The Spirits' Book, to be exposed to the children:
* How can we define the limit at which the passions cease to be good or bad? The passions are like a horse that is useful when under control, but dangerous when it obtains the mastery. A passion becomes pernicious the moment when you cease to govern it, and when it causes an injury to yourselves or to others. (Allan Kardec, in The Spirits' Book, question 908.)
* How do you define pride? “Pride induces you to judge yourselves to be more than you are and to repel any comparison which might discredit you. You consider yourselves to be so much higher than your fellow men or women, be it in spirit, in social position or even in personal advantage, that the least parallel irritates and annoys you. What happens then? You give way to anger.” (Allan Kardec, in The Gospel According to Spiritism, Chapter 9. Blessed are the Meek and Peacemakers. Anger.)
* How can we work on carnal passions? What type of passions can we have? The spiritist teacher can comment that passions are good to stimulate our development, but we need to have equilibrium, which will be achieved as time goes by. Common passions could be mentioned, such as videogame, reading, doing sports, eating, watching TV, etc. The spiritist teacher could share the following passage to elucidate this question: “He who finds his happiness only in the satisfaction of pride and of gross material appetites is unhappy when he cannot satisfy them; while he who asks for no superfluities is happy under circumstances that would be deemed calamitous by others.” (Allan Kardec, in The Spirits' Book – part of the comments from answer given to question 933.)
* Comment on the concept of virtue, based on question 893 - “Which is the most meritorious of all the virtues? All virtues are meritorious, for all of them are signs of progress on the upward road. There is virtue in every act of voluntary resistance to the seductive influence of evil tendencies; but the sublimity of virtue consists in the sacrifice of self-interest to the good of others. The highest of all virtues is that which takes the form of the widest and most disinterested kindness." (Allan Kardec, in The Spirits' Book - question 893.)
* How can we beat the misfortunes of the world? "The ills, of your world are proportional to the factitious wants that you create for yourselves. He, who is able to set bounds to his desires, and to see without envy what is above him, spares himself many of the disappointments of the earthly life. The richest of men is he who has the fewest needs." (Allan Kardec, in The Spirits' Book – part of answer from question 26.)
Second: please ask each child to number as many virtues as they can in their notebook. Please ask them to spend five minutes in this activity. The spiritist teacher should encourage each child to present a virtue and explain with their words the meaning of it. Please then as the group to give an example of how we can put this virtue into practice. For example, MEEKNESS can be put into practice when we avoid standing out over the other.
Third: split the children into small groups, distributing the concept of one virtue to each group. Please ask them to analyse it, discuss it and afterwards present what they learned to the rest of the group.
Click here to find some suggested virtues.
Fourth: activity about Chapter 9. Blessed are the Meek and Peacemakers. Insults and Violence. – source: The Gospel According to Spiritism.
Click here to find the activity.
Click here to find the answer sheet.
Fifth: build up a panel in brown paper with collage that represents the virtues studied in this class. The spiritist teacher will need to take magazines and/or newspapers to this class. It is interesting to encourage them to write positive messages in the panel so it can be shown to the parents, so they can get to know what was studied at the spiritist education class.
Sixth: there are many ways to teach the children about virtues. One of the ways used is through group activities. Here you can find a suggested learning opportunity:
