Our children will not be able to live in peace until a majority of the people of the world adopt an all-inclusive view of religion and spirituality. The increasing turmoil in the world demonstrates that our lives depend on a unified understanding of the concepts of God and religion that can offset the rampant brutality and devastation caused by sectarian and religious prejudice.

Just as the peoples and nations of the world have come to recognize fundamental human rights, so should they come to promote the harmony of all the world's religions. The aims of the lesson plans on this site are to provide a systematic means for building a foundation for understanding the nature and purpose of religion and the common relationship that all of humanity shares with its Creator.

The lesson plans and supplementary materials on this site are the result of the on-going effort of an independent and self- governing team of volunteers comprised of parents, children, and educators. The core members of this ad-hoc team were drawn together in 1999, inspired by a shared mission to create self-contained sets of all-inclusive non-sectarian spiritual and moral education programs readily accessible to parents and educators from diverse religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.

We continue to be enlightened and inspired by our vision that bringing children and parents from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds together to learn about religion in a holistic manner fosters mutual trust, promotes community building, and helps replace fear and fanaticism with empathy and cooperation.

The lessons plans on this site are designed so they can be used with little or no formal training. They are also completely self-contained. Everything you need to conduct a lesson, with the exception of some common household items, is contained in the lesson itself. The lessons can be downloaded by clicking on the lesson plan number next to the lesson plan description on the page for each book of lessons (eg Book 2, Book 3, etc.).

We encourage you to use the lessons plans in whole and in sequence. They have been designed so that teachers can easily guide learners through a coherent and interconnected sequence of topics. Each topic that the lesson plans cover builds upon the concepts presented in the previous lessons and topics. The first topic, "The Oneness of God" smoothly leads into the second topic, "Investigating Without Prejudice", which then leads into the third topic, "The Relationship Between God and Man", and so on.

For example, before learners can properly understand the traditional significance of the animal sacrifices that are sometimes made during the Muslim holy day observance of the "Eid-al Adha", they must have been exposed to the story of Abraham and His willingness to sacrifice His eldest son. Likewise, before learners can truly grasp the pervasive import of the concept of a covenant between God and mankind, they must first be exposed to activities and stories that help them understand that the covenant is an eternal truth that is renewed by each of God's prophets - whether in the form of the rainbow that Noah saw when his ark landed aground, or in the form of the Ten Commandments brought by Moses. In this way a solid foundation can be laid that supports a deeper appreciation, in an appropriate context, for the more readily applicable concluding topics such as "The History, Laws, and Teachings of the Major Religions".

Each lesson follows a simple three-part approach which ensures that children are engaged and learning in various intellectual, emotional, and spiritual means. The three main part of each lesson are:

The lessons can be downloaded by clicking on the lesson plan number next to the lesson plan description on the page for each book of lessons (eg Book 2, Book 3, etc.). The lessons plans and supplementary materials are "portable document format" (.pdf) files. You need Adobe's free Acrobat Reader program to open them. You can download Reader, or upgrade an old version (in case you get errors when you try to open the files) for free at http://www.adobe.com/reader or by following the "Adobe Acrobat Reader" on the links page.

 

Your input is crucial as we strive to continuously improve the materials available on this web site. As the lesson plans are used, they will be appended, changed, or refined based on feedback from teachers, parents, and children. You can contact us by e-mail at info@spiritual-education.org or you can use the on-line inquiry form on the contact page to get in touch with us.

If you are using the lessons, you can give us your comments by using the on-line form on the feedback page.

You can receive news and updates about these and other materials on this web site by joining our mailing list. You can join the list by sending an empty e-mail to updates-subscribe@spiritual-education.org. Your address will not be used for any purpose other than delivering news of site updates, and will not be provided to anyone else under any circumstance.

We have also prepared a simple and colorful fact sheet. You can print them on separate sides of a single piece of paper, fold the paper in half, and use it as a brochure. Click on the desired size to download them.