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spams 1972 ‘ I

THE PRESENCE OF THE Air's?

Dennis W Shimeld

THE ANISA MODEL. .

Daniel 0. Jordan and Donald T. Streets

‘ , ‘ABD‘U’L-BAHA’ AND THE EARLY AMERICAN BAHA’IS

Gary L. Morrison

EIUDATING WOMEN FOR THEIR RIGHTS Mildred R, Mattahedeh

ANNE FRANKz‘THE CHILD AND THE LEGEND Rasey E: Pool

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World order

I I A BAHA’I MAGAZINE 0 VOLUME 6 NUMBER 3 0 PUBLISHED QUARTERLY

WORLD ORDER IS INTENDED TO STIMULATE, INSPIRE AND SERVE THINKING PEOPLE IN THEIR SEARCH TO FIND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CONTEMPORARY LIFE AND CONTEMPO RARY RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS AND PHILOSOPHY

IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial Board: FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH BETTY F'SHER 1 Women: Striking the Balance HOWARD GAREY E ditorial

ROBERT HAYDEN GLENFORD E. MITCHELL

GAYLE MORRISON . 4 Interchange: Letters from and to the Edttor

SUbscr'be' semce: 8 The Presence of the Arts MEG LUCKINBILL . . by Demm W. Sbtmeld

WORLD ORDER is published quarterly, ~ October, January, April, and July, at 415 20 Recollectlon °f_ Ecuaglo . Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091. poem by thimm Meredztb

Subscribe: and business 'cortespondence should be sent to this address. Manuscnpts

and other editorial correspondence should be addressed to 2011 Yale Station, New 21 The ANISA Medel

Haven, Connecticut 06520. by Daniel C. Jordan and Donald T. Street: The views expressed herein are thos; of (£6

authors and do not necessati y re ect t e . , , . ,,, opinions of the publisher, the National Spir- 31 Abdu l-Baha and the Early Amencan Bah“ 15 itual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United by 64,-}; L. Mornimn

States, or of the Editorial Board. Manuscripts should be typewritten and double spaced throughout, with the footnotes at the end. . _ . The contributor should keep a carbon copy. 45 Educattng Women for Then: nghts

Return postage should be included. by Mildred R. Motta/aedeb

Subscription: Regular mail USA, $4.50; Domestic student rate, $3.50; Foreign,

$5.00. Single copy, $1.25. 51 Anne Frank: The Child and the Legend

Copydght © 1972, National Spiritual [15- by Romy E. Pool sembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, World Rights Reserved. Printed in the . _ U.S.A. Insxde Back Cover: Authors and Artlsts in This Issue

[Page 1]Women: Striking the Balance

N THE PAST FEW YEARS the Women’s Movement, nearly a century and a quarter old, has emerged once again as a major force in American life. Large numbers of women, and men as well, have gained a new consciousness of the inequities—insidious in our own society, blatant in others—which women face. Yet far larger numbers of people are prevented from coming to terms With the idea of equality between the sexes by the criticism, misrepresentation, and ridicule focused on the movement throughout its history, magnifying every excess and obscuring every solid achievement. Thus the quest for equality is termed “women’s lib"; workers for women’s rights are called "libbers” and “lib ladies”; and serious efforts to redress real grievances are reduced to bra burning in the popular view.

Often, even relatively sympathetic onlookers assert that women, like Chicanos, American Indians, and Other groups, are attempting to ride on the coattails of the blacks in their struggle for equal rights. In a limited sense perhaps this is true. More fundamentally it is also true that women have been active and outspoken campaigners for human rights since the days of the Abolitionist Movement. They were aroused by injustices against others even before they became aware of their own shackles. Indeed the exclusion of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott from the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840, simply on the grounds that they were women, provided the impetus leading to the Seneca Falls convention in 1848, the first women’s rights convention in the world. In a real sense, the initial generation of feminists were abolitionists first.

Like other movements to achieve full equality, the Women’s Movement has arrived at a critical juncture before its accomplishments can be assessed. It sees itself facing a number of alternatives: :1 despairing relapse into apathy, political activity and propagandization, increased militancy, and even separatism. But the Women’s Movement is a revolution within a revolution; it is a part of an upheaval which is changing, and cleansing, the social structure of the entire world.

However unpredictable the near future may be, the cause of women is inseparable from the cause of world order. Long before even the limited achievements of the firsr feminiSts had been attained, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá pointed out the goal toward which society was inexorably moving. He stated:

Tbe cbief came of the mental and pbyrical inequalities of the sexes is due to custom and training, wbz‘cb for age; part [941/8 molded woman into the ideal of the weaker venel.

Tbe world in the part bar been ruled by force, and 7mm bat dominated over woman by remon Of bi: more forceful 4nd aggrem've qualities botb Of

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body and mind. But the scales are already Jbiftz'ng—force is losing its weight and mental alertnesr, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in wbic/a woman is strong, are gaining ascendemy. H ence the new age will be am age less marculz'ne, and more permeated wit/a tloe feminine ideals—or, to speak more exactly, will be an age in w/Jz'c/a tlae masculine anal feminine elements of civilization will be more properly balanced.

To their great credit, many women have long since realized that their strength resides mat in ”forceful end aggremive qualities of body and 7 mind”—or, in contemporary terms, machismo—but rather in "mental alertness, intuition, and the Jpz'rz'tzml qualities of love and service.” Their unflagging espousal of causes in addition to their own belies the condescension and the accusations Which have so often been direCted againSt them. Whether through socialization or instinCt, women, as the ~ mothers of humankind, have both a particular Stake in life and a special concern for Others—and their cause can never be exclusively self-serving. Inevitably, women will continue to work in the forefront of efforts for juStice, peace, a healthy environment—in short, for a world in which their equality will have full significance.

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WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

Interchange LETTERS TO AND FROM THE EDITOR

IN NOVEMBER 1911, while ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was visiting Paris, a train wreck in France killed a score of people and aroused great public concern. On fitSt thought this concern might seem totally justified. But ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in His profound wisdom, perceived it as an indication of moral failure. He said:

I am filled witb wonder and surprise to notice wbat interest and excitement b4: been amused tbrougbout the wbole country on account of the deatb of twenty people, wbz’le they remain cold and indiflerent to the fact tbat tbou54ml: 0 f Italians, Turks, and Arabs are killed in Tripoli! Tbe borror Of tbz's wbolemle slaugbter be: not disturbed tbe Government at all! Yet these 2mfortzmate people are bzmmn being: too.

Wby i: theee 50 772qu interest and eager sympatby sbown toward: these twenty individuals, wbile for five tbousand there is none? .

The source of this moral failure, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained, was lack of knowledge of God. ”If [man] bad knowledge of God be could not act in direct opposition to Hi: laws”—foremost of which is to love one’s fellowman, to help Others rather than to destroy them. If we recognize all as our fellow human beings, made of the same substance as ourselves and inevitably connected to us, we could nor permit war and oppression

to exist.

The years since 1911 have encompassed so much killing that the "wbolemle slaugbter” of the Tripolitanian War has been nearly forgonen. Today, with two world wars behind _us, minor wars kill millions and scar, physically and emetionally, millions more. The test of the world witnesses the carnage through the power of eleCtronic technology, claiming all the while that it is powerless to end the suffering. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá saw so clearly, "If men bad even the rudiments of justice, web a state of tbz’ng: would be impossible.”

The story of Anne Frank, as told in this issue by her teacher and family friend Rosey E. Pool, has long since been recognized as a symbol of the irrational injustice of oppression. Anne Frank has indeed become a legend. Her diary and the record of the laSt months of her life, when she was no longer free to write, testify to her vision and personal courage. Had she lived, she might have made great contributions as a writer and as a sensitive, perceptive woman. Yet, as Dr. Pool describes her, she was an ordinary human being—like the six million others who died simply because they were Jews, like the millions more who have died senselessly—more or less intelligent, more or less talented, more or less good. If we apply ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s balanced point of view, the "interest and eager sympetby”

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evoked by Anne Frank muSt be multiplied many millions of times to include every viCtim of war and persecution. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá did not merely expound upon His Father’s Teachings; He lived them. NOtwithStanding the unjuSt exile and imprisonment which shaped the course of His life, in His example we see the application of the principles He stressed. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá understood in the depths of His being that mankind is "one 50%! and one body.” His ability to care about the Tripolitanian War did not diminish His concern for those who died on the Titanic. Although during World War I He saved large numbers of Palestinians from Starvation, over the years He allayed the misfortunes of as many more —through simple material assistance as well as prayer and encouragement. He did not expeCt that His efforts would transform the world immediately; but, knowing that more than words is needed, He gave of Himself unstintingly. And He called upon us to do the same: ”Let us all strive night and day to help in tlae bringing Mom: of better conditions. My heart is broken by these terrible thing: and cries aloud——m4y this cry reach other beam!”

One manifeStation of injuStice, againSt which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá often spoke out, is the failure of society to provide education for all. Recent educational concerns in America suggeSt that consigning people to tradi tional classrooms for approximately a fourth of their days does not conStitute the universal education we need so desperately. Our schools have failed to teach many Students such basic skills as reading, communicating eHeCtively with others, and problem solving. More seriously, they have perpetuated gross distortions of reality based on racial, sexual, economic, and religious prejudices, and in so doing they have deprived a majority of Students of self-eSteem.

The editors of WORLD ORDER present in this issue three articles concerning different aspeCts of education. Daniel C. Jordan and Donald T. Streets have contributed an overview of "The ANISA Model: A New Educational System for Developing Human Potential.” Three and a half years ago, when we published Professor Jordan’s “Becoming Your True Self” (Fall 1968), we erte in Interchange, “WORLD ORDER greets ANISA and hopes to see this sappling grow into a mighty tree.” Since then, we are happy to report, ANISA has indeed begun to flourish. We look forward to publishing in future issues further accounts of this promising system which addresses itself directly to the need for a meaningful education.

In "The Presence of the Arts” Dennis W. Shimeld argues for the expansion of the concept of art. For him the arts are a porent force in life, specifically in moral education; yet they are all but ignored in

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WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

mOSt schools. This negleCt, combined with the compartmentalization of the educational curriculum, have contributed to taking the joys of creativity and beauty out of our lives.

Finally, Mildred R. Mottahedeh focuses on the theme of education for women. Girls, long denied formal education, then given access only to knowledge and skills deemed suitable for them, have in this century taken their places beside boys in school. But once again we muSt reflect that putting children in classrooms does not conStitute education. The majority of girls have learned, not that they can be a powerful force for the improvement of society as mothers and as workers, as Mrs. MOttahedeh envisions, but rather that their dreams and expeCtations must be truncated. Like TV’s Edith Bunker when asked if she had ever wanted to be anything, mosr have learned to answer, “No.”

Gary L. Morrison’s " ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Early American Bahá’ís” provides an unexpected complement to Mrs. MOttahedeh’s article, for women have played a major part in the development of the Bahá’í community in this as well as other countries. Once again we see that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá lived the Bahá’í principles. While He spoke about the equality of men and women, He also gave them equal responsibilities in teaching and administering the Bahá’í Faith. And women responded to His conviction that they were in no way inferior to men—May Maxwell, Lua Getsinger, Juliet Thompson, Martha Root, Marion Jack, Ella Cooper, Corinne True, Clara Dunn, Laura Barney, Emogene

Hoagg, Agnes Alexander, and many more, each of whom accomplished as much or more than any man in her' deVOtion to Bahá’u’lláh’s Cause.

T0 the Editor 'ABDU’L-BAHA’S WRITINGS

Amin Banani, in his excellent article on "The Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá" (Fall 1971), attributes authorship of the anonymously written A Traveller’s Narrative to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. It appears, from other recent Bahá’í sources, that this is now a well-established fact. However, Helen S. Goodall and Ella Goodall Cooper, in their now out-of-print book about their pilgrimage, Daily Lessom Received at Acca—szuary 1908 (Chicago: Bahai Publishing Society, 1908), record hearing that a Mirza Jenab-el Zain, a devoted follower of Bahá’u’lláh who went into exile with Him to Baghdad, was the author of A Traveller’s Narrative. Perhaps the editors could clarify or comment on this and indicate how the authorship of A Traveller’s Narrative was established.

GARY L. MORRISON Northampton, Massachusetts

Ed. N ote; H. M. Balyuzi, in his volume Edward Granville Browne and tlae Bahá’í Faith (London: George Ronald, 1970), p. 55, explains that Professor Browne did not know, when he translated A Traveller’: Narrative, that it "was from the pen of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, although he learned this fact at a later date.” Balyuzi refers the reader to New History of the Báb, ed. Browne, p. xxxi.

Thank you for your inspirational publication. Your special issue on the Beloved Master brought much joy to my heart. I read it through the night, on the day of its arrival. How I love Marzieh Gail’s style! Give us more articles by her . . . What a wealth of information in Dr. F. Kazemzadeh’s review of biographical material available on the Master. . . .

DANIEL R. SCHAUBACHER Editor, La Pensée Bahá’íe Utzigen, Switzerland

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[Page 8]The Presence of the Arts

BY DENNIS W. SHIMELD

Only by conceiving art a: a special direction, a new orientation, of our thoughts, 0w imagination, and our feelings, can we comprehend its true meaning.

—ERNST CASSIRER

FOR LE0 NIKOLAEVICH T OLSTOY at the end of the nineteenth century the arts were a major form of communication among men, "one of the means of intercourse between man and man.”1 Tolstoy believed that the arts permeated the whole life of man:

All human life is filled with works of art of every kind—from cradle-song, jest, mimicry, the ornamentation of houses, dress, and utensils, up to church services, buildings, monuments, and triumphal processions. It is all artistic activity.2

Few people think of artistic aCtiVity in the broad sense used by Tolstoy. Even those who profess an appreciation of the arts do not necessarily understand this role of the arts in society. They may think of the work of an artiSt as beautiful or ugly, as traditional or modern, as understandable or incomprehensible; but considered in these terms the arts are only something extra which one adds to life: a pleasant frill, an expensive nuisance, sometimes a good investment.

Even the artist may not consciously realize the significance of his role in society. Often

1. Leo Tolstoy, What I: Art? and Essays 072 Art, trans. Aylmer Maude (New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1960), p. 49.

2. Ibid., pp. 52-53.

3. Yousuf Karsh, Face: of Our Time (Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1971 ), p. 110.

4. William Barrett, What Is Existentialism? (New York: Grove Press, 1964), p. 94.

enough he seems to set his own Standards in his art; he goes his own way and concerns himeslf with creating art which he sees as significant only to himself. His life may consist of an apparent queSt for his own self. Nevertheless this selfness cannot be separated from the society in which he lives since society has its eHeCt on him.

There is a story told of Pope John XXIII. He was sitting for the sculptor Giacomo Manzu. Manzu, a professed Communist and yet a great friend of the Pope, admitted the difficulties he was having in trying to find the inner core of His Holiness in order to inStill this essence into the portrait. The Pope’s answer might apply equally well to the difficulties faced by the artiSt in his role in society:

Yes, but there are confusions in any search. What matters is that you seek. Also that you love humanity. Otherwise, you wouldn’t spend a lifetime creating it with your hands and your heart.3

The S earcla

IT IS in carrying out this search that artists can be regarded as responsive and delicate indicators of humanity. They indicate historic trends. Stability may be expressed in their work at times when men find stability in society. But in times of change, such as at the inception of a new epoch, artists are as responsive as “sensitive reeds that first vibrate to the new currents” flowing into the age.4 Such. an image is a suggestive one. Tall, graceful reeds, bordering a body of Still water, suddenly stir and tremble with deep currents before these currents gain 'sufficient Strength to diSturb the surface. Here is a

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similitude, beautiful in its depth of meaning, of the role of the artist and his work in society. Being the first to vibrate to diteCtions of new thought, artiSts through their work orient the consciousness of men, changing its direCtion.

An example of this role of the artist in society is given by Jacob Btonowski.5 He writes of the importance of the work of Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Vertocchio, and other Renaissance artists of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, in combination with the work of scientific observers such as Andreas Vesalius, in helping to change the consciousness of society at that time. Such a change was necessary, Btonowski maintains, to prepare the way for the work of Newton and the physical scientists of the seventeenth century. In Studying the logic of various processes and structures hidden underneath the surfaces and appearances of things, the Renaissance artists helped to develop a completely new outlook and consciousness in society:

When Galileo and Isaac Newton in the seventeenth century laid fresh foundations for the physical sciences, the chief obstacle that impeded them was the heritage of vague general laws and a priori theories which were still traditional in science. They had to get rid of the crystal spheres,

5. Jacob Bronowski, ”The Discovery of Form," in Structure in Art and in S cience, ed. Gyorgy Kepes (New York: Btaziller, 1965 ), PP. 55-60.

. Ibid., p. 57.

. Ibid., p. 59.

. Susanne K. Langet, Feeling and Form (New York: Sctibner’s, 1953), p. 40.

00\lG\

and perfect motion, and Of ill-defined laws which announced, with anthropomorphic solemnity, that “nature abhors a vacuum” and ”ex ni/oz’lo m'kz'l fit.” The pioneers in the seventeenth century had to insist that the laws and concepts of science must be capable of exact meaning and of rigorous empirical test in detail.

All this was necessary in Newton's time as a new method and a method which lucid observers like Leonardo and Vesalius had helped to ptepate.G

Nearer to our own time Btonowski cites another example. Cubism, he says, may be seen as the flat step of twentieth century man to structure himself into a new relation ship with his environment.7

Though the arts are often regarded as another language of communication between men, the role of the artist and his work effecting changes in the consciousness of society is a much greater concept of the arts than that of communication solely. Men may communicate, surely, but is it not also pertinent to ask to what purpose?

Susanne K. Langet builds her philosophy of art on the concept that art communicates through ”the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling,” making men human and educating them emotionally to express the consciousness of themselves as human beings.8 She states that:

Above all . . art penetrates deep into personal life because in giving form to the world, it articulates human nature: sensibility, energy, passion, and mortality. More than anything else in experience, the

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arts mold our actual life of feeling. This creative influence is a more important relation between art and contemporary life than the fact that motifs are derived from the artist’s environment.9

Langet goes on to discuss art education as the education of feeling, emphasizing that sociologists are missing the significance of the arts in looking solely to economic conditions and family relationships for the causes of “emetional cowardice and confusion” in society.10 She maintains that even corrupt art has a pervading influence on men, that the arts profoundly affect the quality of life and are essential to an understanding of it.

This concept of the arts has been cogently set forth by Sir Herbert Read in his autobiographical fragments, to which he gave the expressive title The Contrary Experience. Read believes art has a fundamental relationship to men’s outlook on life:

It gives the World a fuller richness, a greater spiritual value; and to the individual it gives a sense of joy in things. Allied to love, it is a complete philosophy of Life. Love gives us the fellowship of our species: Art unites us with something vaster ——with the whole cosmic process. Love teaches us the beauty of Man: Art reveals the beauty of Life.1 1

Herbert Read is by no means alone in his belief that the arts are fundamental to the quality of life itself. Indeed, this belief is implicit in the argument that art is basic to the true education of men. “I know of no other remedy for our condition half so realis 9. Ibid., pp. 401-02.

10. Ibid.

1 1. Herbert Read, The Contrary Experience: Autobiograpbies (London: Faber and Faber, 1963), p. 82.

12. Herbert Read, "The Arts and Peace," in To Hell With Culture, and Other Exmyx on Art ami Society (New York: Schocken, 1963), pp. 186-93.

13. Ibid., p. 193.

14. Tolstoy, p. 51.

15. Ibid., p. 190.

16. Read, To Hell With Culture, pp. 186-87.

tic as the education through art recommended by Plato,” Read once wrote in considering possibilities of how to change the thinking of society.12 In this essay entitled "The Arts and Peace,” Read maintains, with Tolstoy, the doctrine that art could cause violence to be set aside and eliminated from the hearts of men.

Since few institutions in present-day society demonstrate any belief in such a doctrine of the fundamental nature of the arts, and mankind shows little interest in practicing the arts on a universal scale, there would seem little likelihood at this time that the doctrine might be tried. Yet Read concludes his essay with a degree of optimism:

No one knows how much grace we are given; but while a grain of hope remains, aCtion is possible; towards unity, towards mutual understanding, towards the reform of education, towards the slow process of learning to work together creatively, whatever this may COSt in pride and selfassertiveness.1 3

Toning the Mind

TOLSTOY writes that the aim of the artist is

To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that Others may experience the same feelingthis is the acrivity of art.14

By evoking what they experienced, T015toy believed men could use art to good purpose; and he suggested that religious art of the future would train men in experiencing ”the feeling of brotherhood and love."15

These ideas of Tolstoy’s on the use of art, Read has suggested, might be thought of as being suspiciously akin to those of the modern advertiser: art as the “hidden persuader.”1 6 But if we take modern advertising at its best, can we deny the impact of art? Does not the effectiveness of modern advertising,

[Page 11]through whichever medium it teaches us, reside in the operation of art on the consciousness of men?

The best art, Tolstoy thought, was that which transmitted “feelings flowing from their religious perception”:

That was how men of old—Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle—looked on art. Thus did the Hebrew prophets and the ancient ChriStians regard art; thus it was, and still is, understood by the Mohammedans, and thus it still is understood by religious folk among our own peasantry.1 7

Hegel, too, believed firmly in the influence of the arts on the minds of men. He saw art as one of the three most important aCtivities of the human geist, the Other two being religion and philosophy. The German word gem is usually translated into English as "the soul” or "the spirit,” but J. Glenn Gray, in his introduction to his edition of Hegel’s Introductory Lecture; t0 the Realm of Ahsalute Spirit,” and Paul Overy, in his study of the art of Kandinsky,” both agree that geixt, when used in such contexts, means also "the intellect” or “the mind” and is, perhaps, better translated into English as "spiritmind.”

Overy States that it is only a romantic prejudice to believe that the intellect has no place in art, the processes of perception and thinking being intimately connected:

One of the main aims of art is to “tone up” the mind, to keep it fresh, active and relaxed so that it is capable of sudden

17. Tolstoy, p. 53. .

18. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 072 Art, Religion, Philomphy: Introductory Lecture: to the Realm of Absolute Spin), ed. J. Glenn Gray ( New York: Harper 8: Row, 1970),

p. 3. 19‘. Paul Overy, Kandinsky: The Language of the Eye (London: Elek, 1969), P. 51.

20. Ibid.

21. Rudolph Arnheim, Visual Thinking ( London: Faber and Faber, 1970), pp. 2-3.

22. Roger Shattuck, The Banquet Years: The Art: ‘in France, 1885-1918 (London: Faber and Faber, 1959), PP. 30-31.

THE PRESENCE OF THE ARTS 11

reorganizations of concepts (insight).20

Similarly, in his recent book Visual Thinking, Rudolf Arnheim maintains that thinking is basically perceptual, since it is done in images which contain thought. He writes that, despite this,

Our entire educational system continues to be based on the Study of words and numbers. The arts are neglected because they are based on perception, and perception is disdained because it is not assumed to involve thought. In fact, educators and administrators cannot justify giving the arts an important position in the curriculum unless they understand that the arts are the mOSt powerful means of strengthening the perceptual component without which productive thinking is impossible in any field of endeavor. The negleCt of the arts is only the most tangible symptom of the widespread unemployment of the senses in every field of academic study.21 I

Symptoms of this discrepancy began to become apparent to a few artiSts in Europe towards the end of the nineteenth century. In describing. "la belle époque” focusing on Paris, since it was, at the time, the center of Europe, "like no Other place in the world” —Roger Shattuck studies the significance of the work of certain artiSts. In The Banquet Year: he points out:

The arts have always plundered the subconscious, but around the turn of the century they began to resiSt the convention of arranging their findings in established patterns of consistency. Science had already challenged the principle of causation, on which the laws of logic had rested secure. Romanticism had introduced two new faCtors which prepared the ground for revolution: uninhibited subjectivity and intereSt in occult knowledge. The Banquet Years began to search out a new canon of thought and a new StruCture of expreSsion.22

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Shattuck uses the term avant-garde for those artists ”who strained forward into the future” away from the complacency of society and suggesrs the date of 1863, when Napoleon III consented to the “Salon des Refusés,” as a formal date for the origin of the avant-garde.23 He particularly discusses the work of four artists of the avant-garde: Henri Rousseau, painter; Erik Satie, composer; Alfred Jarry, playwright and novelist; and Guillaume Apollinaire, poet. In a f00tnote Shattuck observes:

Satie frequently composed a piece around an obsession with a single interval or chord. Discursive logic is linear and moves from point to point. Art of the modern era, like religious meditation, is circular and revolves around a point whose location is limitless. Apollinaire wrote his first “calligraphic” poems literally in circles, the circles of expanding and contracting attention.24

The term avant-garde, when used in the arts, implies a vanguard in advance of a main body—in an army it was frequently a force of skirmishers to search out an enemy. If we see the avant-garde, in the arts, as searching out new directions in the consciousness of men, we will recognize that one art movement develops out of or counter to the influences of another. Somewhere behind, either falling back or catching up, but ultimately being influenced, follows the main body of the arts. “Yes, but there are confusions in any search; what matters is that you seek,” religion counseled the arts.

Real art (to use a term of Hegel’s) concerns itself with much more than the mere ornamentation of life. It is a thoughtful "search.” Though this search has often enough been regarded as "art for art’s sake,” such a term is surely nothing but a platitude expressed by those who do not understand

23. Ibid., pp. 19-20. 24. Ibid., p. 31a. 25. Hegel, p. 29.

the arts. The artist, for better or for worse, is affeCted by the kind of society he lives in; it is he who Studies the work of paSt artists, it is he who learns of the aims and ideas of other artiSts, and it is he who searches out the direction his art will take.

There are artists, of course, who are for hire. Generally, they are more concerned with entertainment, with pleasure, or with the decorative aspects of life. They may work in a modern idiom, popularizing original direCtions even to the extent of basrardizing and corrupting them; but such artiSts are not "modern” in the sense of the avant-garde. Though their work may perform a meaningful and useful purpose, we are not concerned with it here.

C ontours

HEGEL recognizes that art can be "employed as a fleeting past time” and speaks of it then as being "servile”; this kind of art he separates from "real art.” Real art "is free in its end as in its means,” and it

only achieves its higheSt task when it has taken its place in the same sphere with religion and philosophy and has become simply a mode of revealing to consciousness and bringing to utterance the divine nature, the deepeSt interests of humanity, and the mOSt comprehensive truths of the mind.25

Though artists concerned with real art may work towards the "higheSt task,” and their work may take its place "in the same sphere with religion and philosoPhy,” this does not imply that such art muSt necessarily be religious in the sense of the eStablished religions that society professes to practice.

In An Essay 072 Man, ErnSt Cassirer also observed that art is often undersold and that even its greatest admirers think of it as a mere accessory of life and fail to recognize "its real significance and its real role in human culture.” Cassirer further stated:

Only by conceiving art as a special direction, a new orientation, of our thoughts,

[Page 13]our imagination, and our feelings, can we comprehend it’s true meaning and function. . . . Such art is in no sense mere counterfeit or facsimile, but a genuine manifestation of our inner life.26

Since the earliest times artists have always explored aspects of the grammar and syntax of the arts. In the dramatic arts their concerns might be with lighting, movement, pace, or gesture; in poetry, with syllable, line, image, sound, or sense; or in the plasric arts with image, object, color, line, or spatial relationship. One need only study the illuminated manuscripts, icons, or mosaic decorations of Christianity to realize how, in conveying the message and teachings of the early Church, artisrs also explored color values in relation to the emotions, feelings, and insights they could generate in the minds of their audience.

The most powerful symbol of Christianity is the Crucifixion. It might be thought that in a painting this symbol would overwhelm everything else in the picture. Yet, if we take the painting of The Crucifixion by Andrea Mantegna, we can see how skillfully the artist in this case has related the interesrs of the society of the late 1450’s with the Crucifixion symbol.

At that time people were becoming interested in antiquity, in details of past civilizations and societies of men, and in the crafting and production of manufactured artifacts. Everywhere in the painting, from the equipment worn by the soldiers to the distant architecture, Mantegna skillfully blended in detail after detail that must have excited intense interest in his audience. Moreover, it was by such means that Mantegna established a rapport through the centuries between his audience and the audience he painted at the scene of the Crucifixion.

26. Ernst Cassirer, An Enay on Man: An Introduction to a sz'lomp/ay of Human Culture (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1944), p. 169.

27. Ernst Cassirer, The P/oilotop/ay of Symbolic Forms, trans. Ralph Manheim (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1953), I, 57.

THE PRESENCE OF THE ARTS 13

Then, by a brilliant use of framing, by the cutting-off of figures—a device only popularized some four centuries later by photography and film—Mantegna contrived to do more than accentuate the recession and distance into his picture. His audience, already relating consciously to the soldiers and Spectators at the scene through interest in the details he painted, suddenly finds itself lifted up, as it were, above the heads of the foreground soldier and his companion. Transformed back into the consciousness of their own day and reality, back on their own plane of existence, Mantegna’s audience is confronted by the crucified Christ. In intent, this is to say that from the early days of Christianity the artist was never solely concerned with merely depicting Gospel stories, events, or verbal descriptions. He planned and executed his work deliberately with certain aims in mind to impress meaningful relationships on his audience.

Cassirer reasons that the purpose of the symbolic forms used by the artist is to reveal meaning. Whatever the COntent of consciousness the artisr might wish to imply to his audience, this content is embodied in sensuous symbols and exists within the context of many Other content relationships. There is a bond with a sensibility as a form of reference, Cassirer writes, but the content has a twofold characrer, for it also ”contains within it a freedom from sensibility”:

In every linguistic "sign”, in every mythical or artistic “image”, a spiritual content, which intrinsically points beyond the whole sensory sphere, is translated into the form of the sensuous, into something visible, audible, or tangible. An independent mode of configuration appears, a specific aetivity of consciousness, which is differentiated from any datum of immediate sensation or perception, but makes use of these data as vehicles, as means of expression.27

The artist thus creates patterns of expression in many ways and works not apart from but "in the same sphere with religion and

[Page 14]14 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

philosophy,” in Hegel’s words, “bringing to utterance the divine nature, the deepest interests of humanity, and the most comprehensive truths of the mind.”

The Reality of the Bahá’í Faith

SUCH A CONCEPT of art is set out unequivocally in the Teachings of the Bahá’í Faith. In the Bahá’í Faith man approaches the knowledge of God and the worship of God through the same conscious effort. Every action in daily living, as exemplified in the life of ‘Abdu’lB81121, son of Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, should attempt to express spiritual feeling and belief, at the same time serving “the deepeSt interests of humanity.” Religion and the working day, in art or other occupations, operate “in the same sphere.” There is no separation of days of work from days of worship, no separation of weekdays from Sundays. One code of ethics suffices for both the day of work and the day of worship because they ate the same. Work performed in the spirit of service is the worship of God, subject to the same Bahá’í laws and Teachings. In this context ‘Abdu’l-Bahz’t States: "art (or a profenion) is identical with an act of worthip and this i; a clear text of the Blened Perfection [Bahá’u’lláh’1h].”28

' When in London in 1911, visiting the home of a musician and writer, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told her:

All Art is a gift of the Holy Spirit. When thiir light thine; through the mind of a musician, it manifests itself in heaittifal harmonies“. A gain, shining through the mind of a poet, it i: seen in fine poetry and poetic proxe. When the Light of the Sim Of

28. Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í World Faith: Selected Writing; of Bahá’u’lláh and ’Ahdzt’l-Baha’ (Wilmette, 111.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1956), p. 377.

29. Lady Blomfield, The Chaten Highway (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1967), p. 167.

30. Ibid.

31. Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Word: of Bahá’u’lláh, trans. Shoghi Effendi, rev. ed. (Wilmette, 111.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1970), pp. 9, 18.

Truth impire: the mind of a painter, he Produce; marvellous pictures?”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá makes it clear that the “highesr task” of the arts, to use Hegel’s words, will be achieved when they show that work and worship of God are one—“in the same sphere”—for He ends the statement by saying, ” “These gifts are fulfilling their highest pitrpoxe, when .rhowing forth the praite of God.’ ”30

The reality of the Bahá’í Faith is a concept of the quality of life. Infinite possibilities are at hand, for the individual and for society, and are easily attainable if we will acknowledge and work toward them. Bahá’u’lláh tells us:

0 SON OF MAN!

Upon the tree of efi‘zzlgent glory I have hang for thee the choicext fruity, wherefore hatt they turned away and contented thyielf with that which i; let: good? Return then imto that which i; hetter for thee in the realm on high.

0 SON OF MAN!

Many a day hath passed over thee whiltt thou hatt hmied thyself with thy fancie: and idle imaginings. H 0w long art thou t0 Ilumher on thy heal? Lift up thy head from lemzher, for the San hath risen to the zenith, haply it may thine upon thee with the light of heaaty.31

The concept that "art 2': identical with an act of worthip,” that men can reflect ."the light of heaaty,” was often spoken of by Shoghi Effendi, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s grandson and the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith. His wife, Rúḥíyyih Khánum, reports that he said many times: “I will always sacrifice - utility to beauty.” She continues:

There is, I firmly believe, a relationship between this policy of Shoghi Effendi and a deep truth revealed in all God’s creation, but particularly emphasized in this Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh. That truth is that beauty is a precious reality of this world

[Page 15]and in the realms of the spirit.32

Clearly, this reality is not defined by any one culture, race, or society, or, for that matter, by any one aesthetic theory, for the Bahá’í Faith is a universal faith, encompassing all mankind and teaching harmony in diversity. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá challenges us:

Let it! looh rather at the hettitty in diversity, the heaitty of harmony, and learn a lesson from the vegemhle creation. I f you heheltl a garden in which all the plants were the same 4: to form, colow 472d perfume, it would not teem hetmtifitl to you at all, hut, rather, monotonous and dull. The garden which i: pleating t0 the eye and which make: the heart glad, i: the garden in which are growing side hy tide

7 flower: of every hite, form and perfume, and the joyom contrast of COlOZt?’ is what mahe: for charm and beauty. . . .

Thit: .rhozclcl it he among the children of men! 33

"Art reveals the beauty of life,” Sir Her; bett Read writes, and to art we must turn to 7 see the truth, for the truth of this reality is a spiritual one. N0t yet is the reality of the Bahá’í Faith that of the society. As governments, industries, and institutions sacrifice not only the beauty of life but practically everything else central to life, the contrast is indeed stark.

The Reality of S ociety THERE IS NO DOUBT that Shoghi Effendi fully understood this stark reality of society. Perhaps better than anyone else he has described in one sentence the decadence and inhumanity of our times:

32. Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum, "The Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith,” The Bahá’í World, 1954-1963 (Haifa, Israel: The Universal House of Justice, 1970), XIII, 422-24.

33. Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, 11th ed. (London: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1969), pp. 52-53.

34. Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day I: Come (Wilmette, 111.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1967),p.119.

35. Langer, pp. 402-03.

THE PRESENCE OF THE ARTS 15

The spread of lawlessness, of drunkenness, of gambling, and of crime; the inordinate love of pleasure, of riches, and Other earthly vanities; the laxity in morals, revealing itself in the irresponsible attitude towards marriage, in the weakening of parental control, in the rising tide of divorce, in the deterioration in the standard of literature and of the press, and in the advocacy of theories that are the very negation of purity, of morality and chaStity —these evidences of moral decadence, invading both the EaSt and the West, permeating every stratum of society, and instilling their poison in its members of both sexes, young and old alike, blacken still further the scroll upon which are inscribed the manifold transgressions of an unrepentant humanity.34

Langer believes that indifference to the arts is "the mOSt serious sign of decay in any institution.” She writes specifically of the Chrisrian Church:

Today the Church tolerates utterly bad painting and sculpture, and banal music, . . . saccharine Virgins and barbershop hatmonies . . . [These, Langer goes on,] corrupt the religious consciousness that is developed in their image, and even while they illuStrate the teachings of the Church they degrade those teachings to a level of worldly feeling. Bad music, bad statues and pictures are irreligious, because everything corrupt is irreligious. Indifi‘erence to art is the mOSt serious sign of decay in any inStitution; nothing bespeaks its old age more eloquently than that art, under its patronage, becomes literal and selfimitating.35

The contraSt between the reality of the religious and the reality of society is posed by all who ask the queStion, “Who am I?” Such a queStion of spiritual and ethical values cannot be brushed aside by the artist when he is concerned with revealing (to use the words of Hegel) "the deepeSt interests of humanity,” "the most comprehensive

[Page 16]16 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

truths of the mind.” The contrast here is one of quality, what Gabriel Marcel in a metaphysical sense called "the full and the empty” of existence in his essay "On the Ontological Mystery.”36 In a life of “the empty,” man sees his own role and those of Others as nothing but an aggregate of functions.37 It is a role conditioned by dOCtrines ranging from the historical materialism of Marx to the psychoanalytic theories of Freud: man the producer, man the consumer, man the subconscious. Because these dOCtrines stress the verifiable, the concept of Prexence is ignored. Since Ptesence cannot be proven, it cannot, according to such theories, exiSt. It is as if love cannot be present without the proven variant of sex.

Marcel reflects deeply on what this is likely to mean to the inward reality of the individual in present-day society. “If ontological demands worry him at all, it is only dully, as an obscure impulse,” writes Marcel. He looks at the life of a typical employed person, a railway worker, and sees his life submerged in the funCtions of his job and in the kind of life that society expeCts of him, where “surely everything both within him and outside him conspires to identify this man with his functions.” Marcel continues:

The rather horrible expression "time table” perfeCtly describes his life. So many hours for each function. Sleep too is a funCtion which muSt be discharged so that the Other functions may be exercised in their turn. The same with pleasure, with relaxation; it is logical that the weekly allowance of recreation should be determined by an expert on hygiene; recreation is a psycho-organic function which muSt not be neglected any more than, for instance, the funCtion of sex. . . .

In such a world, there is something

36. Gabriel Marcel, "On the Ont010gical Mystery,” in The Plailomplay of Existence, trans. Manya Harari (New York: Philosophical Society, 1949),pp. 1-31.

37. Ibid.,pp. 2-3.

38. Ibid.

mocking and siniStet even in the tolerance awarded to the man who has retired from his work.

But besides the sadness felt by the onlooker, there is the dull, intolerable unease of the aCtor himself who is reduced to living as though he were in fact submerged by his funCtions. This uneasiness is enough to show that there is in all this some appalling mistake, some ghastly misinterpretation, implanted in defenceless minds by an increasingly inhuman social order and an equally inhuman philosophy (for if the philosophy has prepared the way for the order, the order has also shaped the philosophy) .3 8

Here then is the reality of our society, a reality that praCtically everyone lives. Faced by it daily, and only too aware of it, man seems powerless to change it. Suffering a neurosis of consciousness, man will do anything to kill time and increasingly resorts to suicide, as well as to killing his own kind. He no longer finds anything he has created in this society worth his loyalty and lapses into frustration and disillusionment. Avidly following his lateSt delusion, he revels in all the "evidences of moral decadence,” the signs of which confront him whichever way he turns.

Disturbing Sense of the Presence of the Arts

In a society where man is becoming more and more dominated by the functions of an inhuman social order at the expense of the mystery of himself, the artist strives to keep man aware of what is happening. However bad the symptoms of the neurosis, the artist attempts a diagnosis. Northrop Frye terms the neurosis "the alienation of progress” and cites two examples of such diagnosis by modern attiSts:

One is Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. The main theme of this play is the paralysis of aCtiVity that is brought about by the dislocation of life in time, where there is no present, only a faint memory of a past, and

[Page 17]an expectation of a future with no power to move towards it. . . .

The Other play is Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? . . . Art, culture, the imagination, are on the side of reality and acrivity: Virginia Woolf, chosen because of the sound of her laSt name, represents this side, and the charaCters are "afraid” of her because they cannot live without illusion. The two men in the play are a historian and a scientiSt, facing the past and the future, both impotent in the present. "When people can’t abide things as they are,” says the historian George, "when they can’t abide the present, they do one of two things . . . either they turn to a contemplation of the past, as I have done, or they set about to alter the future.” But nobody in the play does either. George can murder his imaginary child, but the destruction of illusion does not bring him reality, for the only reality in his life was contained in the illusion which he denied.39

Frye spoke of "the frozen reflection” of the mind of modern man delineated. by the imagination of the artist. This image, as it were, mirrors back to him the consciousness of his “own sense of being,” within the context of the consciousness of the society in which it is trapped like a fly in a cobweb.

One may be reminded of the works of more than a few painters of this century on the theme of “the painter, model and portrait.” An excellent example is the poetic Girl Before a Mirror by Pablo Picasso.

At the conclusion of his first lecrure, Frye described this kind of delineation of modern man by the arts as

the picture that the contemporary imagination draws of itself in a mirror. Looking into the mirror is the aCtive mind which

39. Northrop Frye, The Modern Century: The Whidden Lecturer 1967 (Toronto: Oxford Univ. Press, 1967), pp. 46-48.

40. Ibid., pp. 48-49.

41. Bahá’u’lláh quoted in Shoghi Effendi, p. 121.

THE PRESENCE OF THE ARTS 17

struggles for consistency and continuity of outlook, which preserves its memory of its paSt and clarifies its view of the present. Staring back at it is the frozen reflection of that mind, which has lOSt its sense of continuity by projecting it on some mechanical social process, and has found that it has also lOSt its dignity, its freedom, its creative power, and its sense of the present, with nothing left except a fearful apprehension of the future. The mind in the mirror, like the characters in Beckett, cannot move on its own initiative. But the more repugnant we find this reflection, the less likely we are to make the error of N arcissus, and identify ourselves with it.40

Hence the artist, like the surgeon at times, probes deeply and cleansingly into the disease, attempting to “tone up” the mind of man so he will be capable of the insight necessary to effect changes of attitude in society. But is the artiSt heeded? Perhaps he is no more than a wishful thinher, a disturbing sense to the mind of man, as the "ghaStly misinterpretation” of life by "an increasingly inhuman social order,” spoken of by Marcel, brings ever greater agony and suffering in its wake.

Guidance of the Bahh’z’ Faith

MANY and ominous are the warnings given by Bahá’u’lláh about the immediate future of mankind. Indeed, it is as if modern society muSt pass through the eye of the Storm that

is already upon it to reach the calmer waters ahead:

The wind: of despair are, 4145, hlowz'ng from every direction, and the strife thdt divide: and aflz'ct: the human race is daily increasing. The sign: of impending convulsions and chaos am now he discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to he lamentahly defective.4 1

I) ,

Yet eventually, Baha u llah predicts:

These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the rMost Great Peace’ shall come. . . . These strife: and

[Page 18]18 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

this bloodshed and discord must cease, anal all men he 4: one kindred anal one family.4 2

S oon will the present-day order he rolled up, and a new one spread out in its steam}.43

Is it not possible, then, that the arts can serve at this time a twofold purpose: to help bring about a change in mankind and to help tell mankind that a change is happening?

Traditional beliefs to the contrary, the avant—garde artiSt has made it apparent that the arts will not be straitjacketed into any one ideal, belonging to any race, ethnic group, creed, or church. No longer may one country, city, or center dictate a style in the arts for the reSt of the world to follow. No longer may one culture diCtate theories of aesthetics.

What the attiSt sets forth, in vivid 'detail, about society, modern publicity and communications can now deploy across continents in seconds; art, like tea or coffee, becomes "inStant.” The real tragedy is that society treats the arts as no more than just another produCt to be sold, and it trades them in much the same way it hustles its multifarious brands of new cars; both are promoted and sold for what they are net. The artist’s miserable dependence on the media of promotion may hinder, but, one hopes, not entirely nullify the way the arts may be perceived by men and the way the arts may

42. Ibid.

45. Ibid.

44. Michael Kirby, “The Art of Time: The Aesthetics of the Avant-Garde,” in The Art of Time: Essay: on the Avant-Garde (New York: Dutton, 1969), P. 60.

45. Ibid., p. 55.

46. Ibid., pp. 60-61.

47. See “The Concept of the Conventional Wisdom," Chapter 2, in John Kenneth Galbraith, The A Jfflnent Society (Boston: Houghton Mifliin, 1969), pp. 6-19. Galbraith states that (p. 10) "the hallmark of the conventional wisdom is acceptability,” and that (p. 21) “the conventional wisdom accommodates itself not to the world that it is meant to interpret, but to the audience’s view of the world.”

work their magic.

In an essay on the aesthetics of the avantgarde Michael Kirby points out that the arts are no longer perceived under any subjective attitude or aeSthetic theory. Between the modern artiSt and his audience there is a close identification with “accelerating cultural change” and with "youthful attitudes of self-actualization and learning.”44 The arts are true to life in a sense that institutions of education or advertising are not. “The most profound influences of art on life may be the least obvious,” writes Kirby.

. . . Thought that is caused, provoked, based on, influenced, or made possible by an exposure to a work of art is one of the basic contacts of art with mundane reality and, ultimately, with significance.45

Kirby makes the argument that art today is perceived basically in the same way everything else is perceived. The way we perceive things is so vivid and diteCt that it may be hard to realize that our perception is also affected by inference and learning. To infer what is happening between us and the world we live in, we process, filter, distort, and interpret our perception of it. Thus, if we so articulate perception within our consciousness, the arts can teach us, and

a change in one can bring about a change in the Other. The various sense modalities are seen as unified at a deep level where there is an exchange between them. Therefore, even though consciousness precedes perception, certain perceptions are able to change the limits or basic character of consciousness itself. It is upon these changes that the significance of art depends.46

We hear from "the conventional wisdom” of society that moral suasion is the only way to change the minds of men;“‘7 by talking long enough and persiStently enough one should be able to persuade men, for instance, to Stop war and cease production of armaments. But this "wisdom,” Herbert Read believes, is an illusion. Morality, he writes, is

[Page 19]"nor: a state of mind but a mode of action.” He points out that art is effective precisely in its capacity to transform action, “that art can have a moral effect, as action and not as persuasion.” 4 8

In the Teachings of the Bahá’í Faith art is also regarded as having its transforming action on mankind and is considered significant both for the education and- awakening of society. These principles are clearly enunciated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:

extreme efi‘ort should he made in art dfld thi: will not prevent the teaching 0 f the people in that region. Nay, rather, each should 455th the other in art and guidance. For instance, when the studying of art 2': with the intention of oheying the command 0 1‘ God this J‘l‘tttly will certainly he done eaxily and great progress will 50072 he made therein; and when others dixcover this fragrance 0 f spirituality in the action itself, this Jame will came their awakening.49

Here is stated a deep andlittle understood responsibility for mankind. In praCtically every aspeCt of society, one sees the arts being ignored or misused. Individuals and institutions of society pay little attention to the perceptions expressed by the artist. Perhaps even the Bahá’ís themselves, struggling to organize a way of life in numerous small groups throughout the world, are still but dimly aware of the significance of the arts and their use in the education and awakening of society.

Let us return in closing to the statement of TolStoy that “all human life is filled with works of art of every kind.” In working towards the realization of this concept we would do well to exert "extreme effort” in art, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tells each of us to do, if we would'see the fulfillment of His promise that "when other: discover this fragrance 0 f spirituality in the action itself, this same will cause their awakening.”

48. Read, To Hell With Culture, pp. 190-91. 49. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World Faith, p. 377.

THE PRESENCE OF THE ARTS

19

[Page 20]20

Recollection of Bellagio

On the dark lake below, the fishermen’s bells are calling to one another from their nets. Who is here on the dark promontory at night? Tossed by the April wind,

a horizontal pine, warped to the cliff,

married to the limestone clifi? by the eaSt wind, rises and falls, rises and falls.

And who sees, against the Stars,

the needled tufts change and exchange

like dancers, gracious dependents?

The fixed Stars are a commodius dancingfloor, at any moment the pine-tufts

know where their home-places are

on the polished floor of the marble constellations.

How long has this been going on, this allemmzde, before a man’s thoughts climbed up to sit

on the limestone knob and watch (briefly,

as man’s thought’s eyes watch) the needles

keeping time to the bells which the same wind rocks on the water below, marking the fishermen’s nets‘ thoughts he would haul in later from the lake

' of time, feeling himself drawn clumsy

back into time’s figure, hand over hand,

by the grace of pine boughs? And who

is saying these words, now that that man

is a shade, has become his own shade?

. I see the shade rise slow and ghostly from its seat on the soft, grainy stone, I watch it descend

by the gravelled paths of the promontory,

under a net of steady stars, in April,

from the boughs’ rite and the bells’—quiet,

my shade, and long ago, and Still going on.

—William Meredith

[Page 21]21

THE '

ANISA

MODEL

A new educational system for

developing human potential

DANIEL C. JORDAN

DONALD T. STREETS

N 1967 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences publishefle report of

its Commission on e eat . e members of the corhffiiésiSp‘biSlogists, psychiatrists, economists, political scientists, government officials, physical scientists, behavioral scientists, political philosophers, and futurologists—represented extraordinary talents. The purpose of the commission was to sketch hypothetical futures; to find ways of helping man to come to better decisions by anticipating problems; to identify ways and means of forestalling undesirable developments; to produce a new political theory that would enable us to approach the year 2000 with some assurance of survival; and to suggest an adequate planning process that would make it possible for us to project alternative futures and make some rational choices about them. The report itself is a fascinating compendium that brilliantly articulates problems to be faced, speculates on the issues to be resolved, and makes repeated statements to the effect that, if we are to survive, fat-teaching changes in our social systems and in our view of ourselves will have to take place. In several of the reports the importance of the role of education in shaping the future is Stressed. Yet it was repeatedly

Einted out that education itself must

undergo a raTcanange if it is to help

shape the future in positive ways:

If we are to remain true to our demo cratic heritage, one of the most obvious implicatiom predicted increase in at our already crowded

eahcatlon‘l‘““system will :have tofbe.

vastly eXPanded and overhauled; Put together the increased number of students, the increased knowledge to be communicated, and the increased duration of the educational experience, and then try to imagine what kind of educational system we will need by the year

[Page 22]22 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

2000. Can anything-short of an educa- A

tional revolution meet our needs.1

But what will be the source of the needed change? Do we know enough to bring it about? The truth of the matter is that we have an extraordinary amount of knowledge about the development of human beings, how they learn, and how they grow. Libraries are filled with books on education. In the United States alone over seven hundred journals pertinent to the problems of education are published at regular intervals. In addition, a variety of federal, state, professional, and commercial organizations disseminate information on education through thousands of news bulletins, reports, magazines, tape recordings, and films. But for lack of a unifying principle it all remains undigfited and therefore not very usabIe. The poet Edna St. Vincent-Millay put her finger onjhgproblem:

Upon this gifted age,

In its dark hour

Reigns from the sky a meteoric shower of facts;

They lie unquestioned, uncombined.

Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill

Is daily spun,

But there exists no loom

To weave it into fabric.2

The poet’s pessimism notwithstanding, there exiSts now an educational projeCt that gives the promise of functioning as the loom on whichmay be woven the fabric of a new educational system—a syStem that may be able to make use of that "meteoric shower of faCts” by organizing them around the afi‘irmation of the spiritual nature of man. This new educational model, or blueprint, now in

1. George A. Miller, "Some Psychological Perspectives on the Year 2000,” Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Art: and Science: (Summer 1967), p. 889.

2. Edna St. Vincent-Millay, "Sonnet CXXVII,” in Col6lected Poems (New York: Harper, 1956), p. 97.

the initial planning stages, is called ANISA, an Arabic word meaning " 'n a hi h place that sheds a fragrance all around”—the Tree of Life, symbolizing continual growth {Ed fruition". The logo of the ANISA model is a contemporary version of the ancient symbol and was chosen for its power to communicate the idea of beauty in continual growth and fruition—the essence of the new model of education. TthNISA model rests on the premise that man was created to know and to love and that out of various combinations OI thifiwpmg—afl-hwanfiafie ties which it is the obligation of an educational system to develop.

ANISA also stands for American National Institute for Social Advancement, an organization deVOted to the ggelopment of gograms that tackle some of the critical needs, of our time. It is under the auspices of this organization that the initial planning of the model took place. The ANISA educational model is now being developed at the 9m; fg the Study of Human Porential at the School oFEducation of the Uniyersitywoqf Massachusetts in Amherst with them assistance of a planning grant from The Eew England Program in Teacher 13 lint, Durham New Hampshire, an afliliate of The New England Regional Commission that is devoted to the improvement of education through better teacher preparation and a wider dissemination of information on successful educational innovations.

The ANISA model is based on'a _redefinition of education as those processes or eiperiences that underly the development 91' iteIease of human potential. It promises to be an extraordinary breakthrough, with particular significance for the education of the millions of children who currently come to formal learning situations without the p_re requIsite experiences on which successful mevement in traditional schools is based.

Starting print to conception of the child and spanning approximately the first fifteen years

o_f_life, the ANISA model is concerned with the figglopment of all human potentialities anfl

[Page 23]not merely with the capacity to store and

retrieve factual information or anlzeT along

traain iW

Since technology has begun to solve most information storage and retrieval problems,

we_ate_ compelled to redefine the role of the teacher and of the school in education. The issue becomes clear when one realizes, for instance, that because of the advancement in microphotography a youngSter will in the near future be able to carry in his pocket a small card which will contain all the data now available in a Standard encyclopedia. This achievement, along with the explosion ijnformation which promises to double in amount evety eight years, serves to highlight the importance of educating individuals in a way that will assiSt them in utilizing information rather than 1n merely storing it. w educational sxstem which will help humanity to survive in the future must be based on an accurate c01£eption of the Lnature of man: It Rust enable him to grasp a noble Vision of his destiny and give him the power to deal with all of the critical exigencies facing him at this perilous juncture in hiStory. Ihe ANISA model therefore rests on the bold assertion that man is the pinnacle of creation. endowed with unique raparier liniathomed and for the mOSt part gnrealized. To be successful such a radically new educational system must be able to fOStet continual growth that is free from the kinds of developmental deficiencies which underlie both individual and social pathology. Because the ANISA model is designed to prevent such deficiencies, it will make a significant contribution to the solution of problems related to crime, mental illness, poverty, injustice, prejudice, racial strife, war, political corruption, immorality, and destructive forms of withdrawal such as alcoholism and drug abuse. Thus it has definite implications for the bringing about of world order.

3. World Order hopes to publish in subsequent issues additional articles on the ANISA model, including one elaborating the philosophical basis of the model.

THE ANISA MODEL 23

No educational sy3tern can ever hope to prevent or solve all of the problems Ipeople experience; flinggiimulxgndmcoilectmely But any educational system designed for the future will have __to be concerned with alL of these issuesMawnd with the roles educational

experience can play in developlng whole and healthy humanflbeings.

Man—A S piritual. B eing

P_H_ILOSOPHICALLY, the ANISA model rests upon a clear affirmation of the spiritual nature ofman and of his endowment with an infinitude of potentiaIities, each of which can be developed for the ggd of himself and the good of his fellowman.3 By this we mean that man is far more than an animal; since he can know that he knows, know that he loves, love what he knows, and be conscious of all this, he is a creature different from Other beings on the planet: the only one who can take an aCtive part in the shaping of his own deStiny. He is, in the words of Teilhard de Chardin, like the "tip of an ever-ascending arrow”—always purposeful, evolving, and growing. We hold that there is no rational way of conceptualizing an adequate educational syStem for the future unless it mm on an assumption of the spiritual nature of man and reflects the noblest of man’s aspirations, so evident in his history, his religion, and his art.

The decision to base the development of the model upon the spiritual nature of man was not arbitrary. It has, in fact, extensive philosophical support and a growing body of scientific confirmation. BOth the philosophical foundations of the model and the prominent role accorded research and theory in its detailed rationale underscore a unique feature of the model.

In keeping with the idea of man as a spiritual being, the model is based on the premise that knowing and loving are the two basic capacities of man which reflect his purpose and constitute his characteristic powers. From the blending and differentiations of these two capacities all human

[Page 24]24 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

potentialities are derived. While this may at firsr appear to be an oversimplification, closer and deeper scrutiny reveals that all the positive and creative efforts of man in some way relate to either or both of these capacities. For this reason, knowing and loving represent the bipolar axis around which the model revolves. Understanding the reciprocal interplay of these two charaCteristic powers, refleCted on different levels, brings a new perspective on the growth and development of the potentialities of the human being.

There are many theories and philosophical perspeCtives which lend support to this assumption. Some, in a limited, sense, have found their way into educational programs of a rather circumscribed scope. No program, however, has dared to take on as broad a definition of man as the ANISA model does. Yet without such a broad definition an educational system cannot be comprehensive. One of the current ills of education is its lack of an adequate definition of man. Thus it is fragmentary rather than comprehensive, and it is unable to make use of the available information about human growth and development. These ailments cannot be cured without a unifying principle capable of interpreting the reality of man and organizing faCtual knowledge so as to inspire belief prerequisite to action. Education thus reflects a larger dilemma faced by the world—a dilemma which Julian Huxley has succinctly expressed:

I would go so fat as to say that lack of a common frame of reference, the absence of any unifying set of concepts and principles, is now, if not the world’s major disease, at least its most serious symptom.4

Learning Competence and the Develop ment of Potential THE ASSUMPTION of man’s spiritual nature ( with knowing and loving being the basic

4. Julian Huxley, Knowledge, Morality, and De:tiny (New York: New American Library, 1960),p.88.

capacities out of which all potentialities are difietentiated) serves as the unifying principle for the ANISA model on the philosoPhical level. On the functional level, the integrating principle is the definition of learning competence as the key faCtor in the release or development of those potentialities at an optimum rate. Therefore, the basic objective of every experience planned for the child is the development of learning competence. Any youngster who can be assisted in becoming a competent learner will have been given the main tool for negotiating his destiny, regardless of the difficulties or circumsmnces he may face.

How to learn is in itself something that muSt be learned. Yet in most traditional school settings, children are never taught how to learn because teachers are net trained to teach them how to learn. Furthermore, the need for children to become competent learners is not often emphasized or dealt with direcrly.

Before anything can be done about this situation, the nature of learning competence and its relationship to the development of potentialities must be underStood on both the theoretical and functional levels. The education programs for ANISA teachers are organized around that objective. In essence, learning competence depends upon the. ability to diflerentz’ate or select the significant or relevant aspects of any situation and integmte them or reStructure them in whatever way is required to achieve a given purpose. The process of differentiation followed by integration appears as a central charaCteristic of grOWth for man on all levels—biological, psychological, and spiritual. Learning competence can thus be seen as an ability to manage these two complementary processes: differentiation and integration. Philosophically, differentiation reflects the knowing capacity, and integration reflects the loving capacity. Becoming fully developed depends on learning particular kinds of interaCtions of the two basic capacities. Some kinds of interaCtion pave the way for future develop [Page 25]ment; Others slow up, impair, or preclude further growth. On a very basic level, for instance, if one of the capacities (loving) is turned against the Other (knowing) , the child may hate knowing rather than loving it, or he may love not knowing. These particular interactions impair the release of potential. In fan, a good many learning disabilities can be understood in terms of these dynamics.

Each process of differentiation followed by an integration may represent a learning set

that insures maximum transferability of ex- V

perience to other problems or tasks. A simple example may help to make this point clear. Consider the case of a young child trying to learn what a chair is. To do this he muSt differentiate certain attributes of furniture which when integrated in a certain way make up a chair (that is, constitute "chairness"): four legs of certain height, seat of particular size, and back. Having made those differentiations and that particular integration, the child can then appropriately identify on sight chairs that he has never seen before and diStinguish them from “non-chair” furniture or other objects which may share some but nor all of the chair’s attributes (tables have legs, bicycles have seats, couches have backs, etc.). This reduces the overwhelming complexity of the environment and makes the child more competent in dealing with it. In typical homes or schools, children will be taught the concept "chair” but not the procesr of forming the concept. The ANISA approach not only teaches the child what a chair is but makes him aware of how he learns the concept. That makes the learning experience maximally transferable—that is, it helps him to formulate other concepts more easily. Transferability constitutes one important characteristic of learning competence.

The ANISA model is defined by a large number of specifications which explain the primary or essential learning sets of categories of potentialities in educational terms. The more sets that correspond to reality a

THE ANISA MODEL 25

person has, the more competent he will become as a learner, the more power he will have for future growth and development, and the more rapidly his porential will be released. I

Achievin g Learning C ampetence in Diflerent Categories of Potentialz'ties

T0 FACILITATE our understanding of the nature of human potential, we have divided the two characteristic powers of knowing and loving into nine fundamentally different but interrelated categories of porentialities. Each of the following seCtions deals briefly with the achievement of learning competence in each category.

Pryclao-Motor Development. One of the firsr developmental tasks facing a child is gaining control over the position and movement of the voluntary muscles. Through the reciprocal process of differentiation and integration, or assimilation and accommodation in Piaget’s terms, the child develops a mororbase. This motor-base is an internal struCturing which develops from the experiences of undifferentiated movements that later become refined into differentiated ones and finally are integrated into a wide variety of general patterns such as walking, skipping, and running. This internal struCture or schema provides the child with a reference point around which he organizes borh space and time and according to which he assigns meaning to his sensory experiences.

Perceptual Development. The child comes to know his environment through his senses. Perception refers to the organization and interpretation of sensory input in terms of past experience, present needs, and future aspirations. Initially, the organization of sensory input is dependent on the moror-base. Adequate organization and interpretation also depend upon acuity—the ability to discriminate among a number of stimuli in a given dimension (visual, auditory, tacrile, and so on). When the various modes of perception begin to work in a functionally integrated way, the organism increases its

[Page 26]26 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

capabilities for receiving, sorting, storing, and utilizing information meaningfully. It is this refined capacity of perceptual acuitydiflerentiating among stimuli and their integration into functionally useful patterns that contribute to learning competence. This kind of perceptual competence can be achieved through the appropriate experiences and the praCtice which the ANISA model provides.

C 0 gm'tz've Development. Cognition refers to a variety of mental processes or operations such as equivalence, identity, closure, conjunction, disjunCtion, association, negation, and implication. It also deals with higher order processes such as grasping causality, managing abStraCtions, forming and utilizing concepts, extrapolation, interpolation, understanding correlations, mediation, reversability, seriation', conservation, and a variety of formal operations generally involving synthesis and analysis. To teach these processes means to teach a child not juSt what to think but how to think. An ANISA teacher thus needs to be able to identify these processes in any learning experience in the course of a day and to provide all the feedback required so that children may recognize, master, and apply them. V

Aflectz've 0r Emotional Development. Affective development refers to the organization of emotions. Through development there is a progression from undifferentiated feelings to differentiation and integration of feelings into attitudes (emotional habits) and finally into values. How to feel about things, events, or ideas is learned. How to organize feeling is also learned. The resultant attitudes and values may either fosrer further growth or preclude it. Ultimately the mature person develops a value system which includes a high degree of cognitive Structuring in which he organizes his values and attitudes in a hierarchy according to their relative importance. The most highly functional value syStem will predispose the human being towards a satisfying life’s work and a constellation of personal habits that sustain both mental and physical health. When values,

emotional habits (attitudes) , and feelings are organized into a coherent whole unified by a Strong sense of purpose, energies are released which would Otherwise be dissipated in the maintenance of value conflicts. The purpose of the ANISA model’s specifications in this area is to assist teachers in providing experiences which enable children to make the mOSt functional organization of their emotional life. This organization must be internally consiStent, relatively free from confliCts, and compatible with reason. The organization of emotion is one of the mOSt important learning processes that occurs during a person’s life. The kinds of values and attitudes a child. acquires will largely determine whether or not he will seek further learning opportunities for the develoPment and fulfillment of his capacities.

Moral Development. Whenever a person’s knowing and loving capacities are directed toward Other people, his actions can be classified as moral behavior. Man is a social and therefore a moral being, as well as a physical and spiritual one. He has certain inescapable responsibilities toward every Other person. The acquisition of moral competence thus depends upon learning the nature of these responsibilities and acquiring attitudes, values, and behavior appropriate to them. Essential to these responsibilities is the ability of the child to relate to others in a way that facilitates the development of their potentialities so that they will reciprocate by supporting his development.

The child progresses through a number of stages beginning with an undifferentiated state characterized by lack of awareness of any rules or social relationships. He continues through the stages of establishing relationships with adults (usually parents) and then with peers; he finally arrives at a Stage of autonomy when he is sensitive to the needs of others, can think absttaCtly about social relationships, and is capable of independent moral reasoning. Progression through these Stages depends upon the child’s ability to truSt and to be trusted. Beth

[Page 27]abilities underlie the subsequent development of humility. Achieving moral competence involves a number of developmental patterns, such as the ability to obey adults, which evolves into the ability to abide by ground rules laid down by adults (a definite shift from people to principle); progresses through deferment of gratification, impulse control, resistance to temptation; and ultimately arrives at the maStery of self-discipline and possession of a well integrated conscience. ‘

Perhaps the mOSt important aspeCt of moral competence is the capacity to love and be loved, a capacity which begins with selfgratification, progresses through a need for adult approval and for the approval of peers, and finally develops into a need for selfapproval, respeCt for others, altruism, and a sense of justice.

Development of Will. Volitional competence represents a kind of intrinsic morivation without which the human being cannot actively participate in the shaping of his own deStiny. It includes the ability to resolve conflicting tendencies by adopting, after reflection, a subjective aim; a conscious termination of the resolving process resulting in the setting of goals and commitment to the goal set; a subphase involving elaboration of those goals into smaller, differentiated subplans; and the controlled translation of intention into aCtion, including a self-arousal or mobilization of energy and concentration. Volitional competence also involves the process of self-correCtion and persistence in the face of obStacles and, finally, a reintegration of all of the subgoals into one subjective aim resulting in a consummation of action and goal achievement. The experiences many children have in sChool destroy, weaken, or inhibit the development of volitional competence. The ANISA model therefore contraSts sharply with traditional schooling approaches to the development of will.

Development of Creativity and Aesthetic S emitz'w’ty. Learning competence in the area of creativity refers to the capacity to create

THE ANISA MODEL 27

order out of chaos (or some undifferentiated State) , to identify parts and the relationships among them so that they can be integrated into a whole. This area also includes the development of a sense of humor which is dependent upon sensitivity to an unanticipated arrangement of things.

Creativity cuts across and is related to all of the other areas in a variety of ways and includes such things as divergence in thinking, intuition, fantasy, speculation, and imagination. Most important, it refers to the capacity to appreciate beauty and the inclination to organize one’s own living circumstances so that they are beautiful. It includes a sensitivity to art in all its forms and an appreciation and refinement of expressive abilities that lead to aesthetic creations.

Spiritual Development. Spirituality con

cerns the formation of ultimate concerns and a search for one’s place in the order of the cosmos. Achieving spirituality begins with an ability to trust and is therefore fundamentally dependent on having trustworthy parents. Out of this trust develops faith. A child’s faith makes him teachable. Ultimately, spirituality rests on the formation of a belief system which may transcend reasoning but not oppose it. Spirituality involves the ability to meditate and thus assumes a conscious role in the individuation of the total personality —a personal integration around a transcendent purpose. The ANISA model provides the experiences and the means that will facilitate the emergence of a self-image that is functional in relationship to both the microcosm and the macrocosrn.

Language Development. The acquisitién of language is one of the mOSt critical of all

[Page 28]28 -WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

developmental tasks facing the child. Mastery of a language, its vocabulary, and its syntax and an ability to use it in both written and oral forms is critical to the achievement of general learning competence. All potentialities become human when they come under the influence of language. .

Exposure to language at the appropriate time is the basic requirement for language acquisition. Good language models and a stimulating environment designed to elicit a richness of verbal expression are among the essentials for language development. In addition to these the ANISA model also provides for experiences designed to facilitate labeling or naming of things, vocabulary development, and the actual articulation of speech sounds.

The ANISA Curriculum

HOW does subject matter—reading, writing, arithmetic, history, social science, biology, and art—fit into the ANISA model? Since the model is primarily concerned with enabling children to master all of the processes underlying the attainment of learning competence, schools based on the ANISA model therefore will be organized to accommodate this attainment as the firSt priority. Such organization, however, does not necessarily mean doing away with the content of traditional curricula. It means, rather, an integration of all curricula around the processes already outlined so that learning sets which guarantee maximum transferability can be acquired. (The emphasis on processes is mOSt characteriStic of the experiences provided for the very young children.) In Other words, biology, music, science, and social studies, for instance, can all be taught in ways that enable the child to remember the content of these disciplines while he is also becoming a competent learner. Because of the rapidity of social change and . the speed with which the future pours into the present, competence in learning will insure survival in the future, for it is learning competence that provides maximum adaptive flexibility and the capacity not only to tolerate change but to take an

aCtive role in direCting it.

Developmental C onsz'demtiom

EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION of the ANISA model involves, in addition to underStanding the variables of learning competence and the

processes on which they are based, recogni- .

,tion that biological maturation muSt be unimpaired if learning is to proceed at optimum

rates. For this reason the nutritional status. _ and health of the child are of great impor tance. Since the earlier stages of development have direct consequences for later ones, the model envisages beginning work with a prospeCtive parent a year before pregnancy so that future morhers can acquire maximum health in preparation for conception and gestation. During this time the mother-to-be will have the opportunity to learn all the details of the ANISA model including how to initiate the educational program from the moment of her child’s birth.

The organization of learning experiences centers on the developmental stages of the child, rather than on subjeCt matter, with

- particular attention being given to critical

periods in development. These periods 'are critical in the sense that, if certain experiences are missing at that particular time, growth and develoPment - are impaired, in some cases irreversibly. For instance, one of the important phases of language development takes place between eight months and

two years. Therefore, to achieve full lan guage development, one muSt guarantee that all the prerequisites for such development are present at that particular time. '

Because children reach and pass through these periods at their Own rate, the. educational program is, therefore, completely individualized. It is not organized around specific age levels, although age will obviously have implications for the kinds of experiences which will be appropriate to any given group of children; Rather the developmental requirements of a child, whatever his age, are the basic. determinants of the educational program for him. . .

_ awn...“ 'L

n “I‘M ‘1 vP:

[Page 29]: 'fl-m .4

S ome Other Characteristic F eatures Of the Model

WITH A GIFTED and well-trained staff, experiences to strengthen learning competence can be developed out of almost any situation. Thus implementation of the ANISA model will not be dependent upon extraordinary

..facilities or a great deal of equipment. The

training program for the ANISA masterteachers is designed to equip them with all the knowledge and skill required to get the

' maximum amount of mileage from every

learning experience. Since teaching consolidates learning, the ANISA system will rely heavily upon the

“utilization of more advanced children as

teachers of younger children. Five year olds will be trained to help teach three year olds, seven year olds will help teach five year olds, and so on. Thus the children themselves will

' function as a pool of manpower for teaching.

This is nor possible in most schools today because children are segregated by age level, and teachers are not trained in how to use children effectively as teachers.

The ANISA model is designed to guarantee for each child a number of successes far exceeding his failures. This requires that a child master the prerequisites of a given task before it is given to him. It also requires that teachers be able to generate a wide variety of options or alternatives in terms of instructional methodology, materials, and techniques. Failure itself is seen as a potential facilitator of learning. After all, great dis ‘ coveries have most frequently been made

after people have tried something, failed, and, in analyzing the reasons for failure, gained new insights into the phenomena under consideration. Taking advantage of failure in this way has to be learned, and it is

‘ in turn a very important element in the

achievement of learning competence.

The model relies heavily on feedback from teachers to guide learning and change behavior rather than on traditional grading practices which usually preclude the treatment of failure in the way just discussed. The

THE ANISA MODEL 29

children themselves are taught self-evaluation procedures that are appropriate to any particular learning task at hand.

Traditional school systems are StruCtured and operated in ways which tend to punish creativity in children. In the absence of a variety of alternatives and options, potentiality is suppressed and, almOSt inevitably, behavioral' problems and learning disorders ensue. The ANISA model is designed to fOSter creativity by providing and encouraging the search for alternatives and the exercise of options, thereby avoiding the punishment of creativity.

The full development of the capacities for symbolic transformation is regarded as critical for future growth and development, since they are particularly germane to learning competence. This means that mastery of the fundamentals of mathematics (and of a language in both written and oral forms is of paramount importance. However, instead of allocating special periods for reading and for speaking, the ANISA model provides opportunities for masrering language and mathematics throughout the activities of the entire day. These capacities then develop organically and naturally in ways that promise to prevent many "of the reading and language problems which many children experience in the present system.

If the child is to grow and develop at optimum rates, the formal educational experience, however promising it may be, cannot be discontinuous with what he experiences in his home and in his community. The ANISA model provides a means by which home, parents, and community can be involved in maintaining a tota1 support system for the child.

Because it deals with processes of growth and development that are universal, the model is not culture-bound. It can be adepted by any cultural group, including bilingual and multiethnic groups, and- still prove to be effective. With its focus on universals, the model Stands as a bulwark againSt the transmission of racial and ethnic prejudices to the

[Page 30]30 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

next generation. Since the ANISA model holds racism to be one of the most endemic suppressors of human potentialities known to man, staff selection and training are organized to preclude it.

Finally, the model’s philosophical basis and its grounding in scientific theory and research findings make possible the eventual development of cost—effectiveness measures and accountability. Implementation plans for the model contain provisions for long range study and evaluation and a continual modification and refinement to increase its efficacy.

Stafiing WHAT KIND of staffing arrangement is most suitable for the ANISA model? We have adopted a differentiated staffing arrangement in which a mastet-teacher who understands both curriculum content and the processes underlying the attainment of learning competence holds a central position in the management of teaching and learning. This individual is supported by a variety of assistant teachers and aides; a diagnostician and evaluation specialist; curriculum and programming specialists; media technologists; multiatts specialists who are competent in all the arts and know how to draw upon them to bring life and vitality into every learning experience; a family-community-school liaison worker whose job it is to reduce cultural discontinuities between family, home, and school; learning disabilities specialists; health and medical specialists; and program administrators and their staff, whose function it is to keep the model serving the purpose of releasing the potentialities of the children with efi’iciency. Managing an educational program designed to release human potential at an

optimum rate requires a highly skilled and experienced staH—a staff which must necessarily go through an intensive, demanding, and lengthy training. When one considers that the full development of the innumerable potentialities of the human mind and character is far more complex and challenging than placing a man on the moon, it is not difficult to appreciate the need for extensive training and preparation for staff members of this new kind of educational system. Ultimately, the ANISA model envisages that every school will also be a teacher preparation site and that all staff members will be prepared by actively participating in all of the affairs of the school. In other words, training is based on the acquisition of knowledge about human growth and development and on learning how to apply all of the relevant theory and principles while aetively engaged in working with children on a daily basis, Thus, theory is always seen in the context of practice. The model also includes the training of paraprofessionals while on the job in an open—ended system where advancement to the highest levels is possible. Prospects

AT PRESENT, ANISA represents both a bright hope and an extraordinary promise for the emergence of a new kind of educational system based upon the affirmation of the spiritual nature of man and the limitless capacity latent in each child—a potentiality that can only be brought to life in an environment whose richness of experience is deliberately fostered and managed by an expert staff committed to the full growth and development of each child. Such a school might indeed reflect the full implications of ANISA’s symbol, the Tree of Life.

[Page 31]‘Abdu’l-Bahá

and the Early American

BY GARY L. MORRISON

E DID NOT KNOW What ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was doing in those years, but those who heeded Him, remained faithful to the Covenant and following in His road were participating in the very miracle of human experience,” Wtote the late Hand of the

1. Horace Holley, "George Orr Latimer,” The Bahá’í World, 1946-1950 (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1952 ) , XI, 5 12. The Institution of the Hands of the Cause of God was created by Bahá’u’lláh and amplified by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. During his lifetime the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, Shoghi Effendi, designated a number of individuals as Hands of the Cause of God to assume special responsibilities for the propagation and protection of the Faith.

31

Bahá’ís

Cause of God Horace Holley.1 Indeed the achievements of the early American Bahá’ís were the result not of any conscious knowledge of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s design to establish the framework of Bahá’u’lláh’s new World Order, but rather of a profound faith which allowed them to respond instantaneously and without question to His requests and specific directions. Often the early American Bahá’ís, overwhelmed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s magnanimous love, and vibrant, firm, and deeply spiritual personality, thought of Him as the returned Christ; they saw Him as the pure reflection of God’s own Manifestation, Bahá’u’lláh; and through Him they experienced divine love. Those who became truly

[Page 32]32 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

God-intoxicated followed His every command—wherever it might lead them and however it might shape and transform their lives.

The young American artist Juliet Thompson spoke for many when she recorded in her diary a conversation she had with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1909. She wrote, "In a dream one night I saw Thy Face and it was really Thy Face. I know now. And in my dream I thought: 'This is a Beauty to follow, leaving everything behind. It is a Beauty to die for.’ ”2 Without knowing it, the impacr of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on their lives enabled the early American Bahá’ís to carry out what the martyrs, in the opening decades of the Bahá’í Era, gave up their lives to achieve, the laying of the worldwide spiritual and administrative foundations of the Faith.

In retrospeCt, as one considers the accomplishments of this first generation of Bahá’ís from the United States and Canada, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s plan emerges clearly. He was not simply bringing into His Father’s Faith a collection of individuals destined to serve according to their abilities. Rather, from the moment He assumed His position as Bahá’u’lláh’s appointed successor, the Center of His Covenant, and spiritual leader of the

Faith, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Stimulated the worldwide expansion of the Faith and began systematically to build the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. He challenged those who followed Him to outstrip their limitations and channel their efforts into seemingly impossible undertakings.

‘Abdu’l-Bahz’t, it appears, concentrated on four areas of aCtivity involving the American

2. Diary of Juliet Thompson, Part I, 'Akka, Summer 1909 (unpublished manuscript), p. 40.

3. “Dawning-Place for the Mention of God”; a central nine-sided House of Worship to be surrounded by accessory buildings including an orphanage, hospital and dispensary for the poor, home for the aged and incapable, a university, hOStels, and other philanthropic institutions.

4. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablet: Of the Divine Plan (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1971), p. 19.

believers. First, He brought into existence the original Bahá’í communities in the West.

[9/

Second, He stimulated and directed Baha1 pioneers (teachers) to establish the Bahá’í Faith in distant lands. Third, He encouraged and guided the development of nascent administrative institutions and the creation of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár?’ in the Western hemisphere. And, finally, He consolidated the increasing numbers of believers and communities by teaching, writing, and speaking variations on the theme of ”Fellowxhz'p, fellowship! Love, love! Unity, unity!”4

Establishing the Bahá’í Faith in the West

THE OUTSTANDING early American Bahá’ís were a disparate group of individuals: artiSts, wealthy socialites, businessmen, dOCtors, scholars, workers. Despite their diversity, they shared a personal connection to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, through letters and visits, and through a deep firmness in the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh which allowed them to perform, whether or nor they were always conscious of it, truly historic and heroic acts. Among the earliest of the American believers were Thornton Chase, Lua Getsinger, and May Ellis Bolles. Each visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, grasped an abiding sense of His spiritual authority and love for mankind, and returned from the Holy Land to impart His belief to a. host of Bahá’ís throughout the world. Thornton Chase, a successful insurance executive in the Chicago area, became a Bahá’í in 1894, just fifty years after the beginning of the Bahá’í Era and a year after the Faith was firSt mentioned publicly in the United States. At the time, the Bahá’í Faith was being promulgated in Chicago by a Syrian docror, Ibrahim Qayru’llah, who had been direCted by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to teach Bahá’u’lláh’s Cause in America. A few years later Dr. Ehayru’llah disavowed his belief and, Judas-like, attacked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; but Thornton Chase’s faith proved strong enough to withstand Ehayru’llah’s attacks and to confirm the faith of his fellow believers. One cannot overestimate his role in helping to

[Page 33]'ABDU’L-BAHA AND THE EARLY AMERICAN BAHA'lS 33

save the, fledgling American Bahá’í community from schism and disintegration and to ensure its progress toward strength and unity. For Thornton Chase ‘Abdu’l-Bahá reserved the Persian surname flébit (Steadfast) , indicating Mr. Chase’s heroic and exemplary contribution to the establishment of the Faith in America.

When Thornton Chase visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the Holy Land in 1907, he became totally enamored with the Master and experienced spiritual confirmation suggested in a verse from his "El-Abhá”:

Speak Thou to self-endarkened souls! Command, "Let there be light! ”

So shall eternal Day appear To end chaotic night.

The morning Stars shall sing again The anthem of creation:

The sons of God shall shout for joy With new divine elation.5

Upon returning to the United States, he continued to pour out his feelings in verse. He also erte and published one of the earlieSt Bahá’í books used in America, The Bahá’z’ Revelation (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, n.d.), a copy of which was sent to and praised by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Thornton Chase became a champion of the Faith, confirming new believers in the Chicago area, traveling to teach in an everincreasing number of Bahá’í communities centered mainly on the EaSt Cow: and in the Midwest. Finally he took the Faith to Southern California, where he spent the Ma two years of his life actively teaching the new Message of Bahá’u’lláh. He died shortly before ‘Abdu’l-Bahá arrived in California in

5. Thornton Chase, "El-Abhá,” Star of the Went, 3,no. 12 (16 Oct. 1912),4. '

6. Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, "Abdu’l-Bahá at the Grave of Thornton Chase,” Star of the West, 3, no. 13 (4 Nov. 1912), 14; see also Los Angeles Bahai Assembly, "Thornton Chase, February 22, 1847-September 30, 1912,” Star of the West, 3, no. 12 (16 Oct.1912), 5-7.

7. Shoghi Effendi, God Passe: By (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1957), P. 258.

chber 1912, during His tour of the WeStern world. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, however, made a special trip to Los Angeles from San Francisco in order to visit his grave; there the Master knelt down and kissed the grave and designated Thornton Chase “the firsr Bahai in America.”6 Since then, the American Bahá’í Community has held an annual memorial service at. the reSting place of its firsr Bahá’í.

Anether of the first American Bahá’ís was Louisa A. Moore. She married a fellow believer, Dr. Edward Getsinger, in the mid1890’s; and the couple became active teachers. The Getsingers introduced the Bahá’í Faith to Mrs. Phoebe Hearst who in turn was inStrumental in presenting the Message to Others. Mrs. Helen Goodall and her daughter Ella Cooper heard of the Faith from Mrs. HearSt’s niece Ann Apperson and were subsequently taught by Mrs. Getsinger. They became pillars of the Faith in Northern California and were chiefly responsible for organizing the first International Bahá’í Congress in San Francisco in 1915. Through Mrs. Hearst as well, Robert Turner, her butler, became the first black American to accept the Bahá’í Faith and to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

In 1898-99 the first party of Western pilgrims, organized by Mrs. Hearst, visited in ‘Akká, where ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was still a prisoner of the Ottoman government. Among the party were Dr. and Mrs. Getsinger. Shoghi Effendi -has stated that this pilgrimage “marked the opening of a new epoch in the development of the Faith in the West, an epoch whose significance the acts subsequently performed by some of these same pilgrims and their fellow-disciples have amply demonstrated.”7 UnqueStionably Louisa Getsinger’s profound experience with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was an important part of this epoch-making pilgrimage.

Dr. Getsinger recorded in his diary that one day, walking along a path, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá bent down, picked up some object, put it into Louisa’s mouth, and said, "I have given you the power to speak and loosed your tongue.

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'Lua’8 in Persian means ‘Flag’ and you muSt be my flag and wave it in the EaSt and West.” Dr. Getsinger wrote that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave an exhortation

into which he put such spiritual force and emphasis that it seemed as though the very walls trembled and we were hardly able to stand on our feet. Abdu’l-Bahá was declaring that the millennium had come and the Kingdom of God was to be established on earth. He wanted Lua to proclaim it everywhere in a loud voice.9

Through her association with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Lua Getsinger became a bold and formidable teacher, termed by Shoghi Effendi, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s grandson and the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, the “mother teacher of the \West.”10 When they returned home, the Getsingers traveled throughout , the United States. Later the Master called on her to go to Paris to present to the Shah of Persia a petition asking him to stop the persecution of Bahá’ís in his land ‘Abdu’l-Bahá also sent her to Bombay and from Bombay to the Maharaja of Jalowar further to acquaint him with the Faith.

When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited America in 1912, Lua spent much time with Him and could hardly bear to be separated from Him. Juliet Thompson describes Lua as such a "strange mixture of disobedience and obedience”—out of love for her Lord—that she once even walked in poison ivy in order to avoid making a trip to California without Him. Juliet Thompson also recorded the memorable moment in New York‘ when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá designated Lua the “Herald of

8. Liva (Banner).

9. Dr. Edward Getsinger in ”Mrs. Lua Moore Getsinger,” Star of the West, 7, no. 4 (17 May 1916), 29.

10. Shoghi Effendi, God Passe: By, p. 257.

11. Diary of Juliet Thompson, Part III, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America, pp. 36-37.

12. Quoted in "Mrs. Lua Moore Getsinger,” p. 29.

13. Diary of Juliet Thompson, Part I, p. 18.

14. May Maxwell, An Early Pilgrimage ( London: George Ronald, 1953 ).

15. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 259.

the Covenant.”1 1

Lua . Getsinger so won the abiding truSt and love of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that once, when a Bahá’í criticized her to the Master, He simply smiled and said, " ‘But she loves her Lord.’ ”12 Juliet Thompson observed that when she Visited the Mansion of Bahá’u’lláh at Bahjí with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1909 there was a single photograph in the room where the pilgrims gathered—that of Lua.13

In 1915, after a long visit with the Master and the Holy Family, Lua was sent by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on her last mission—taking news from the Holy Land to the Bahá’ís i Africa, Europe, and America with whom communications had been cut because of the war. In Egypt, Lua, exhausted and suffering from a heart condition, fell ill. She remained for many months with the Bahá’ís in Cairo, continuing to teach in spite of her failing health; and there she died on May 2, 1916. Because of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s love for her, a twin monument marks the reSting places, side by side, of the great Persian Bahá’í scholar Mirza Abu’l-Fadl and the devoted American Bahá’í teacher Lua Getsinger.

In 1898, when that firsr party of Western pilgrims stopped in Paris on their way to the Holy Land, Mrs. HearSt and her friends visited the home of a close personal friend from the United States, Mary Martin Bolles. Although the real purpose of their trip was not mentioned, Mrs. Bolles’ daughter May sensed special qualities in Lua Getsinger and sought her out. Through Lua, May Bolles became a Bahá’í, and Mrs. HearSt invited her to join the pilgrimage. She preserved her recolleCtions of that historic visit in An Early Pilgrimage. 1 4

The love for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá engendered in the soul of May Bolles resulted in outstanding international achievements. Immediately upon her return to Paris, “she succeeded, in compliance with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s emphatic inStruCtions, in establishing in that city the firSt Bahá’í center to be formed on the European continent.”15 Many outstanding early Bahá’ís were attraCted to the Faith through her

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efforts; indeed it might be said that she was a key figure through whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid the international foundations of the Bahá’í Faith in the world. Among those who emerged from May’s Paris center were Laura CliflFord Barney, who was to transcribe and compile ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s talks as Some Answered Qaettz'om; Thomas Breakwell, the first Bahá’í of England; the eminent scholar Hippolyte Dreyfus, the first Bahá’í of France; Edith Sanderson, daughter of a California Supreme Court JuStice and one of the first Bahá’í teachers in France; Agnes Alexander, the first Bahá’í of Hawaii and thefirst Bahá’í settler of Japan; and the American artiSt Juliet Thompson. “ 'An atmosphere of pure light pervaded the Paris meetings,’ ” Agnes Alexander has written, “ ‘so much so that one was transported, as it were, from the world of man to that of God.’ ”16

In 1902 May Bolles married the Canadian architeCt William Sutherland Maxwell. Together they raised up a new Bahá’í community in Montreal, laying the foundation of the Bahá’í Faith in Canada. Their home became a gathering place not only for the Canadian Bahá’ís but for Visitors from all parts of the world. In 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá accepted their invitation to Montreal and Stayed in their home for four days during His Visit. May Maxwell made mOSt of the arrangements for His Stay, which included seven public talks and innumerable interviews. Later He wrote concerning that visit, ”The time of sojourn was limited to a namher of days, hat the remit: in the future are z'tzexhaattz'hle.”1 7

In Paris, in Montreal, in her travels throughout the United States and Europe, and ultimately in her heroic journey to

16. Quoted in Marion Holley, "May Ellis Max ' well," The Bahá’í World, 1938-1940 (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1942), VIII, 634.

17. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets 01‘ the Divine Plan, p. 52.

18. "Recent Tablets from Abdu’l-Bahá to American Bahais: Agnes Alexander,” Star of the West, 10, no. 13 (4 Nov. 1919), 247.

19. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Marion Holley, "May Ellis Maxwell,” p. 637.

Buenos Aires, where she died in 1940, at the age of seventy, May Maxwell—like Thornton Chase and Lua Getsinger—won ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s love and admiration while carrying out His plan. “ . that maid-Jewant of God 2': ablaze with the fire of the love of God,” He once wrote to Agnes Alexander. "Whoroever meet: her feel; from her a550cz’atz'on the Jasceptz'hz'lz'tz'et Of the Kingdom. Her company uplift: and develop: the seal?” In His love for May ‘Abdu’l-Bahá blessed her child, born shortly before His visit to America, ” “In the garden of existence a 7'058 hat hlorsomeal with the atmost freshness, ftagrance, and heaaty. . . . I heg of God that thz': little child may become gteat and wonderful in the Divine Kingdom.’ ”19 This child, Mary, was to become in 1937 the wife of Shoghi Effendi, descended from Bahá’u’lláh and- related to the Báb. Thus an eternal link was forged between the Central Figures of the Faith and the North American Bahá’í community.

Pioneers

THROUGH THE EFFORTS of these firSt Bahá’ís, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was able to attraCt a band of devoted followers to carry His Father’s Faith abroad in the firSt major international teaching efforts. Sydney Sprague went to Iran and India. Howard Struven participated in the first globe-encircling Bahá’í teaching trip. In 1906 Hooper Harris and Harlan Ober responded to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s call and traveled to India and Burma. In 1908 Dr. Susan I. Moody, who had become a Bahá’í in 1903 and had conducted the first Bahá’í children’s class in Chicago, was asked by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to go to Iran, where women were Still deprived of skilled medical care and education. On her'way, during the three days she spent in the Holy Land, the Master promised that He would always be with her.

Over the years Dr. Moody freely dispensed her medical skill treating poor and wealthy women alike, winning the admiration and respeCt of the entire Persian nation. She championed the new principle of Bahá’u’lláh

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regarding the equality of the sexes and, in the tradition of the Báb’s disciple Táhirih, conStantly sought to upraise the position of women. Her intereSt in education led her, with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s approval, to found and to give continuing assistance to the Tarbiyat School, the first school in Persia for the secular education of girls and one of the first major Bahá’í social-educational endeavors in the world. Dr. .Moody also founded and regularly attended Bahá’í study classes for girls in Tihran.

In 1909 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had told her that she would need patience. After fifteen years of inexhaustible patience Dr. Moody, having encountered insurmountable obstacles to her work, returned temporarily to the United States. In 1928, at the suggestion of Shoghi Effendi, Dr. Moody set out once again for I’ran. She was now seventy-seven years old, but she was still strengthened by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s promise that He would be- with her always. She died in Tihran in 1934;.20

About the same time Susan Moody set out for him, Alma Knobloch was inspired by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to pioneer in Germany. From 1907 to 1920 she was supported by her siSter Fanny in the United States. The Knobloch sisters thus became examples of Bahá’í service—Alma by her outStanding pioneering work, cited by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,” and Fanny by setting a pattern for the deputization of pioneers by those who remain at home.

Fanny Knobloch was confirmed in her faith in 1902 by the great Bahá’í scholar Mirza Abu’l-Fadl, whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent

20. Jessie E. Revell, "A Bahá’í Pioneer of East and West—Doctor Susan I. Moody (The Handmaid of the Most High) Amatu’l-A’lé,” The Bahá’í World, 1934-1936 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1937 ) , VI, 4838 .

21. See ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tahlets of the Divine Plan,

p. 13.

22. "Tablet from Abdu’l-Bahá to Fanny Knobloch,” Star of the West, 11, no. 17 (19 Jan. 1920), 282.

23. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tahlets of the Divine Plan, p. 14. See also Agnes Baldwin Alexander, Forty Years of the Bahá’í Cause in Hawaii 1902 to teach and deepen the early American Bahá’ís and became a dedicated Bahá’í teacher in the United States. Later she became one of the firSt Bahá’í settlers on the African continent, where she laid the foundation of the Bahá’í community of South Africa. In 1920 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave her the following guidance, applicable to all pioneers:

0 Thoa dear maid-seroant of God!

Thy letter has heen teceined. Verily, thy sister has lighted a lamp in Germany. Goal willing, thoa wilt he to a larger extent confirmed. Thoa wilt kindle a luminous lamp. It may he the Government of those regions will check thee. Thoa shoaldst say:

I am a Bahai and am a friend to all religions and nations. I consider all to he of one race and count them as my relatives. I have divine love and not racial and sectarian lone. According to the explicit written Command of Bahá’u’lláh, I do not pronounce a word pertaining to politiw, hecaase we are forhidilen to interfere in political aflairs. We are concerned, with aflairs which are heavenly. We are set; wants nnto the world of morality. We consider that religions, racial, political and. national prejatlices are destructive to the world of humanity. We heliene that the whole of the surface of the earth constitates one home and all manhind form one family. With all we associate in the utmost sincerity and kindness. 22

Among the most dating of the early pioneers was Agnes Baldwin Alexander. She became a believer in Europe in 1900, was confirmed at the Paris meetings of May Bolles, and returned to her family home to become the firSt Bahá’í of Hawaii. A descendent of two of the original Christian missionary families, the Baldwins and the Alexanders, she eStablished the first Hawaiian Bahá’í community. About her efforts ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was to write, ”had this respected daughter founded an empire, that empire would not have heen so great! For this

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sovereignty is eternal sovereignty and this glory is everlasting glory.”23

Perhaps her mOSt notable achievement was, through the inspiration and direction of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, being the first Bahá’í settler to take the Message of Bahá’u’lláh to Japan. For years she had longed to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, having been greatly deepened in her convictions by His flow of letters to her; but when her opportunity at last arrived, she wrote to the Master and He replied:

It i: now more advisable for thee to depart directly to Japan and while there he engaged in the diflmz’on Of the fragrance: of God. . . .

Today the greatest of all divine heJtow415 2'; teaching the came of God, for it is fraught with confirmations. Every teacher 2': confirmed and is favored at the divine threshold. In the estimation of the Ideal King, the army which 2'3 in front of the battlefield is encircled with the glance: of Hi: mercifulnes: and in the sight of the Divine Farmer, the tower of the seed is accepted and favored.

I hope that thou mayest he like unto a realm-conqtterz'ng army and a farmer. Therefore, thy voyage to Japan 2': pre ferred to everything else. Still thou art perfectly free.24

Although ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave Agnes free choice in the matter, she, above all things obedient to His wishes, sacrificed her chance to meet Him to take the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh to Japan. This lone American woman set out by freighter for Japan from Marseilles at the outbreak of World War I—seventy years

1942: Personal Recollections of a Bahai Life in the H eweiz'an Islamic, distributed by National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Hawaii (mimeo).

24. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in "The Glad Tidings in Japan,” Star of the Watt, 7, no. 5 (5 June 1916), 35.

25. Agnes B. Alexander, "The Promotion of the Teachings of God in Japan,” Star of the West, 8, no. 5 (9 June 1917), 52.

26. ”The Glad Tidings in Japan," p. 40.

27. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Marion Holley, "May Ellis Maxwell," p. 638.

after the declaration of the Báb, thirty-nine years after the declaration of Bahá’u’lláh, and only twenty-two years after His passing. From Japan she took the new Teachings to Korea, where she made an historic teaching trip shortly before the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1921. She long outlived mOSt of her early Bahá’í co-workers and survived to be named a Hand of the Cause of God by the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, and to witness the birth of the National Spiritual Assemblies in Northeast Asia and Hawaii.

Dr. Susan I. Moody, Alma and Fanny Knobloch, Agnes Baldwin Alexander—all of these early Bahá’í teachers gained strength, courage, and spiritual certitude from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s presence in their lives. Agnes Alexander never met Him; yet she was sustained by

Him, as the following letter to the Bahai publication Star of the West indicates:

A wonderful spirit had uplifted me all that day; I felt that when I returned home in the evening I would find a message from Abdu’l-Bahá. I looked for the mail the first thing on returning home and there it was . . . I cannot tell you of the wonderful peace and joy that has overflowed in my heart ever since.25

In their love for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and their desire to be like Him, these teachers became points of spiritual illumination throughout the world. Agnes Alexander’s impaCt on one early Japanese Bahá’í can be seen in the following excerpt from a letter:

It was only a few months ago that I was introduced to Miss Alexander, by whom I was taught the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, and, for the firSt time in my life, universal religion. Indeed, since then, I have been a regular and enthusiastic student of this most pleasant and peaceful Bahai Assembly conduCted by Miss Alexander who is all benevolence and kindness to us . . .26

In Europe and America May Maxwell had a similar impact. ” f May Maxwell,’ ” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated, ” '2': really a Bahá’í. . . .’ ”27 Her rare qualities transformed the lives of a

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multitude of "spiritual children,” as her own daughter suggeSts: " ‘Many people inspire more or less love in Others, but I don’t think I ever knew anyone who inspired the love MOthet did—so that it was like an event when one was going to see her. And this I felt all my life, day in day out, and it never became commonplace!’ ”28 To be a real Bahá’í was to manifeSt a portion of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s love, kindness, benevolence—and humility. When Susan Moody, whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had called Amatu’l-A’la (the Handmaid of the MOSt High) , was asked at the end of her life to speak of her services, she said, " ‘Let it go, let it pass into the Infinite.’ "29

F emulation: of Bahá’z’ Administration

AT THE SAME TIME ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was sustaining the faith of the first international Bahá’í teachers, He was also inspiring a number of the early American Bahá’ís to exercise their rational capacities in the development of embryonic administrative institutions. One of the earlieSt contributors to the Adminisrrative Order of the Bahá’í Faith was "MOther" Corinne True.

Inspired by the activities of their coreligionists in ‘Iflqabad, Russia, in building the firSt Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in the world, the Bahá’ís of America’obtained ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s permission to conStruCt a similar edifice. MOthet True became the chief supporter of the efiFort to build the first Bahá’í House of Worship in the Western hemisphere. Beginning in the first decade of the twentieth century Mother True organized and Stimulated the Temple-building activity, lovingly urging the Bahá’ís to contribute funds for the project, seeking designs for a model, and searching for a site. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, particulat

28. Rúḥíyyih Khánum in ibid.

29. Susan I. Moody in Revell, "A Bahá’í Pioneer of East and West,” p. 486.

30. Corinne True, N ote: Taken at Acca (Chicago: Bahai Publishing Society, 1907), p. 21.

31. Ibid.

32. Ibid.

ly in His letters to Mother True, advised the believers on all aspects of the Temple activities, from the collection of funds to the purchase of land. When MOther True visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the Holy Land in 1907, she took with her the first photographs of the Temple site and a roll of names, contributors to the Temple. "After I had explained the long liSt of names to him,” MOther True recorded, "He patted me on the back and- said. I had done well and ever after this I was to be his daughter. . . . ”30 She described how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

brought to me a ground plan and said it muSt be like that. Firsr the building, with nine sides, in the middle; then a circular court about that; leading from this circle were to be nine avenues; between each a garden, and in the middle of each garden a fountain of water. He said it would take much to build the Temple, but we muSt have meetings about the work, labor hard and pray to God and He would bless our efforts.31

‘Abdu’l-Bahá emphasized many times that "the Temple was the greateSt matter today for the upbuilding of the Cause.”2 In a

Tablet written to the Baha IS of America in 1911, He Stated,

Know thou that the hztz'ldz'ng Of the Mashmh-el-Azhar is the greatest foundation in those fegz'om. God said in the Koran, "It i: thoye who heliehed z'tt God, and the Last Day, shall huz’ld the Temples of God.” It is incumhent upon thee and upon all, to put forth the hest efi‘ort in these dayt, 2'72 hailding this glorious Temple; raising the tumult Of commemoration: therein, during the wing of the night, at dawn, and at eeentz’de. It is incumhent upon ye (men and women) to he united, in this great Came, 50 that ye mhy he confirmed hy the Divine Bounty, and Merciful S pint; become increased with energy and power; gain a recompense, and estimation. I implore God, and mpplz'cate H £772 to make your feet firm in the Jtmz'ght

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path, anal in the upright way.33

‘Abdu’l-Bahá taught the early believers that the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár was the physical symbol of spiritual unity, that efforts exerted for its construCtion must and would serve to bring unity to the Cause. He wrore that upon its eventual completion “The people shall hasten to worship in that heavenly Temple, the fragrance: of God will he elevated, the divine teaching: will he extahlished in the heart: like the estahlithent of the S pirit in manhincl; the people will then stand firm in the Came of your Lord, the Merciful.”34

Imbued with ‘Abd-u’l-Baha’s vision of unity MOther True persevered in the Temple-building project. And in those early years, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá continually expressed one condition for His coming to lay the cornerStone of that flat Bahá’í edifice: ”This confirmation will descend upon the people of America,” He wrote in 1911, "if they will all ariye anal endeavor with great courage to e.ttahliyh anion and harmony, 50 that every trace of diflerence may he uprooted and they may all become a: one heart and one 50al.”35

Finally in 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself laid the foundation stone of the Temple in Wilmette, north of Chicago. In 1916, He erte to Morher True:

Praise he to God, that thou ait aJJisteal and confirmed in. the service of the Maxhrah-el-Azhar anal art spending thy effort in the erection of this edifice. The conttraction of this great hailding i: the firJt divine foundation of the people of Unity in America and it will he lihe anto

33. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, "The Mashrak-El-Azkar in America,” Star of the West, 2, no. 16 (31 Dec. 1911 ), 7.

34. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World Faith: Selected Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Ahda’l-Baha’ (Wilmette, 111.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1956),p.415.

35. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “The Mashrak-El-Azkar in America,” Stat of the West, 2, no. 1 (21 Mar. 1911 ), 12.

36. "Tablets from Abdu’l-Bahá: Corinne True,” Star of the West, 7, no. 10 (8 Sept. 1916), 93.

37. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World Faith, p. 413.

Mother unto the temple: of God. All the temple: which will he hailt in the fatnre are horn from thi: great Temple?"6

Closely aligned to the erection of the Temple were the firsr attempts of the early American Bahá’ís to organize themselves adminiStratively. In the first decade of the century local Bahá’í Assemblies were formed, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá directed His efforts toward esrablishing intercommunity unity. In one Tablet He erte:

That the two Spiritual Meeting:~ of Chicago and New York mast he in anity and harmony it very important, and when a S piritaal Meeting may he also organized in Washington in a he fitting manner, these two meetings maxt he also in anity and harmony with that meeting.

To he hrief, it hath heen decided hy the detire of God that anion and harmony may a’ay hy clay increase among the friend: of God and the maid-seri/ants of the Merciful One, in the Wext. N at until this i: realized will the aflairs advance h y any means whatever! And the greatest mean: for the anion anal harmony of all i: Spiritual Meetings.37

The members of these first communities, from a need to guide the planning and development of the Temple, organized in 1909, under the guidance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the earliest national inStitution, known as the Bahá’í Temple Unity.

These early institutions varied in size, and they were called by various names; there were Boards, Houses of Spirituality, Spiritual Meetings of Consultation, Houses of Justice, Spiritual Assemblies, a Bahá’í Publishing Society, a Bahá’í Temple Unity and its Executive Board. Among the early contributors to the formation of these administrative institutions and to their eventual struCtural uniformity were Morher True, who served for many years as the Treasurer of the Bahá’í Temple Unity, Roy C. Wilhelm, and Mountfort Mills. All were passionately devoted to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and to the task of building a

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new social order.

Mountfort Mills became a Trustee of the Bahá’í Temple Unity and served annually from its inception in 1909. Highly respected by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, he escorted the Master around New York in 1912 and put his car at the MaSter’s disposal. Later he became the unofficial Bahá’í observer at the League of _ Nations, where he successfully appealed the case concerning Bahá’u’lláh’s house in Baghdad, one of the firSt examples of international Bahá’í aCtivity to secure the wellbeing of the Bahá’ís and their properties.38

Roy Wilhelm, an ardent devotee of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, was largely responsible for the compilation and diStribution of the earliest Bahá’í literature in America. He also served on and helped to develop the Bahá’í Temple Unity from its inception. On Mr. Wilhelm’s property in Teaneck, New Jersey, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave a Unity FeaSt in 1912 at which He declared that the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh had been truly eStablished in America; this event, now celebrated annually by the American Bahá’ís, is the only public memorial to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit.39 _

The administrative achievements of the early American Bahá’ís represent to a large extent ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s efforts to implement the Bahá’í inStitutions called for by Bahá’u’lláh. Building upon that early foundation laid in America, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spelled out explicitly in His monumental Will and Testament (the basic authoritative charter of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh) the organization, functions, and duties of the administrative institutions to be adopted by the worldwide Bahá’í community. Roy Wilhelm, Corinne True, and Mountfort Mills assisted in the

38. See Horace Holley, "Mountfort Mills,” The Bahci’z’ World, 1946-1950, XI, 509-11. On the case of Bahá’u’lláh’s house before the League of Nations see The Bahá’í World, 1928-1930 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1930), III, 198-209; and The Bahá’í World, 1930-1932 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1933), IV, 237-47.

39. See Horace Holley, “Roy C. Wilhelm,” The Bahá’í World, 1950-1954 (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1956), XII, 662-64.

transition in 1922 from the Bahá’í Temple Unity to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. Mills, the firsr Chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly, was to write the definitive final draft of the Declaration of TruSt of the National Assembly and the By-Laws of a

Local Assembly, adopted in 1927. Thus

emerged the pattern of the AdministratiVe Order in the Bahá’í world.

C omolz’datz'on

THE PIONEERING and adminiStrative triumphs of the early American Bahá’ís could not have been realized without ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s careful and' loving attention to the consolidation of the American Bahá’í community. This consolidation, which kept pace with the steady increase in teaching activities, reSted on the principle of unity.

Throughout the firSt two decades of the century, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá constantly and lovingly urged the new Bahá’ís to manifest Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings in their lives, to grow in their awareness of the pattern of Bahá’í life, and, above all, to establish Bahá’u’lláh’s great principle of Unity. During an early pilgrimage in 1909, He taught Juliet Thompson to be a loving peacemaker to the community of NewYork; and He so inspired Edward. and Carrie Kinney, whom He termed Safa (Rock) and Vafa (Faithfulness) , that they returned to New York and spent the reSt of their lives teaching the Bahá’ís by their example firmness in the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh and total devotion to the Perfecr Exemplar, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Helen Goodall and her daughter, Ella Cooper, returned from their pilgrimage so ignited by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s spiritual power that they became centers of the Faith in the San Francisco-Oakland area, dedicating their lives to the establishment of love and unity among the Bahá’ís of their region. In a Tablet to the American Bahá’ís in 1911, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá outlined once again the conditions on which He would visit them in America:

I f the friends and the maid-sewam: Of

[Page 41]'ABDU’L-BAHA AND THE EARLY AMERICAN Bahá’ís 41

the Merciful long for the viyz't of AhdnlBaha, they mnst‘immediately remove from their 7722'th diflerence: of opinion and he engaged in the practice of infinite Zone and unity. N o Bahaz' mutt open his lips in himnz'ng another one, he must regard hnchhitz’ng at the greatest tin of humanity, 1‘07' it 2': clearly revealed in all the Tahletx of Bahá’u’lláh that hnchhitz'ng and faultfinding are the fiendith z'mtrnnzents and Juggejtz'ony of Satan and the destroyer: of the foundation of man. . . . It 2': our hope that the helieeem and the maid-Jermnts of the Merciful in America may heeome the came of the union of the East and the Wett, and nnfnrl the Standard of the Onenem of the realm of H nmenz'ty. . . .

. . . Ye must pnlmte a: one heart, and throh as one spirit. Yon mutt he [the the waves, though they ate z'nnnmemhle they constitute the nll-encz'rclz'ng sea.

' O ye friend: and mnid—Jermnts of the Merciful! Praise he to God, ye ate the fish of one ocean, the hints of one roJe-gnrden, the tree: of one orchard and the flower: of one pemdzke. . . .40

_ In His insistence upon unity, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá also encouraged the Bahá’ís to unite East and WeSt by more than mere words. Toward this goal He blessed the intermarriage of people of different races and cultures. He vigorously encouraged the marriage of Louis Gregory and Louisa Mathew, a black American and a white English woman. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá saw Louis Gregory as ”spiritual, heavenly, divine and a manifettor of the grace: of the world

40. "Tablet to the American Friends from AbdulBaha,” Star of the West, 2, no. 4 (17 May 1911 ), 6-7.

41. "Tablets from Abdu’l-Bahá to the Friends in Stuttgart: Margaret Doring,” Star of the West, 2, no. 17 (19 Jan. 1912), 6.

42. Marzieh Gail, The Sheltering Branch (London: George Ronald, 1959), P. 18.

43. Juliet Thompson, ”With Abdu’l-Bahá in Switzerland,” Star of the West, 2, no. 14 (23 Nov. 1911 ), 11.

44. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tahlet: of the Divine Plan, p. 19.

of humanity,”1 and his marriage became a

living. example of the unity enunciated by Bahá’u’lláh. Another early marriage blessed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was that of the American Florence Breed and the Persian Ali-Kuli Khan, whose story is poignantly recounted in The Sheltering Branch by their daughter, Marzieh Gail. She quotes ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as saying that ” “This it the fim't conjugal union hetween East and West’ ” in the new Faith.42

‘Abdu’l-Bahá always exhorted the believers to be happy. Juliet Thompson erte:

. . . his frequent injunction is, "Be happy!” Perhaps his rnOSt frequent question is: ”Are you happy?”—and his own abundance of perfect happiness, of undimmed joy, is ever overflowing in the mOSt delicious humor—the most irresistible humor that ever won a heart. Religion in the pasr took on an aspect of fear. This Abdu’l-Bahá smiles away, teaching us the perfect repose and» joy of the Spirit’s confidence in God as Love—the ”radiant acquiescence” in Divine Guidance.43

Those who followed His guidance became themselves examples of love, unity, and divine fellowship to those with whom they came in contaCt, as the lives of Juliet, the Kinneys, and the Gregorys bear witness.

In one of His major Tablets to America, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá erte that after firmness in the Covenant the believers should exhibit "Fellowjhz'p, fellowjhz'p/ Love, love! Unity, unity!”44 Only then would the "Apostle: of Bahá’u’lláh,” a phrase ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sometimes used for faithful American Bahá’ís, attain their great destiny. By the end- of World War I, the early American Bahá’ís had made such outStanding contributions to the expansion and consolidation of the'Bahá’í Faith that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá began to outline that great destiny awaiting the American Bahá’ís.

Beginnings of the Formative Age DURING WORLD WAR 1, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá revealed the Tablets of the Divine Plan by which He outlined systematically the means

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to establish the Bahá’í Faith throughout the world, placing the great responsibility for its dissemination upon the American Bahá’í community. Because of communications difficulties during the war years, the Tablets were nor unveiled in America until 1919.

The Tablets of the Divine Plan were to be the impetus carrying the Faith from the end of the Heroic Age of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá into the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Era under Shoghi Effendi. This new call to international teaching resred upon the pioneering foundations of the first two decades of the century. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’. Himself launched the plan, and His tremendous personal impaCt on the early American believers again Stimulated. unquestioned response.

Among the firsr international teachers to arise in this second phase were Hyde and Clara Dunn. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s penetrating cry in those Tablets. was

Oh, how I long that it could he made porsihle for me to travel through these parts, even if necessary on foot and with the utmoxt poverty, and while parsing through the cities, village; mountains, desert: and oceans, cry at the top of my voice "Yti-Bahti’zt’l-Ahhdl” [O Thou the Glory of the M031: Glorious] and promote the divine teachings. But now this i: not feasihle for me; therefore I live in great regret; perchmzce, God willing, ye may become assisted therein.45

It so Stirred. Father and Mother Dunn, whose meeting with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1912 resulted in their conStant desire to serve Him, that Mrs. Dunn asked her husband, "Shall we go, Father?” “Yes,” came Father Dunn’s instant reply. They gave up everything and packed

45‘. Ibid., p. 13.

46. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia and New Zealand, "John Henry Hyde Dunn,” The Bahci’z' World, 1940-1944 (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1945), IX, 594.

47. Shoghi Effendi, God Passe: By, p. 386.

48. Shoghi Effendi in Doris McKay, "Martha L. 16mg,” The Bahá’í World, 1938-1940, VIII,

4 .

their bags to go to Australia. Mother Dunn, however, wondering whether it was beSt for her to leave with her husband, erte to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for advice. Meanwhile they proceeded with their plans. As they were loading their bags on carriers, ‘Abd-u’l-Baha’s cable arrived with the assurance " 'Hz'ghly C0mmendahle.”’46 Thus, already past the age of fifty, Father and MOther Dunn sailed from San Francisco to settle as the first Bahá’ís Of AuStralia.

At the same time, Martha Root, destined to become in the Formative Age the greateSt Bahá’í teacher of the world, responded to the call of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Because of her newspaper connections she had been instrumental in arranging a meeting. attended- by four hundred people at which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke in Philadelphia in 1912. The impaCt of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on her life led her in 1919 to be the first to arise in response to His Tablets of the Divine Plan.47 She traveled eventually in South America, China and India, Japan, the islands of the North Atlantic and the South Pacific, and Europe. She earned her way by writing feature articles for- major world. newspapers. She gained countless interviews with royalty and leaders of the world to acquaint them with the Faith. By rher perseverance and love the late Queen Marie of Rumania became the firSt- of the world’s monarchs to accept the Bahá’í Faith. Martha R00t had become an incomparable exponent of the Bahá’í Teaching when, in 1939, at the crossroads of the EaSt and WeSt in Hawaii, she died. The Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith left no doubt as to the station she had . attained in the early history of the Faith; in a cable to the Bahá’í world he eulogized her:

Martha’s unnumbered admirers throughout Bahá’í world lament with me (the) earthly extinCtion (of) her heroic life. Concourse on high acclaim her elevation (to) rightful position (in) galaxy (of) Bahá’í immortals. Posrerity will establish her as foremOSt Hand which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s

will has raised up (in) first Baha 1 cen-' tury.48 ‘

[Page 43]'ABDU’L-BAHA AND THE EARLY AMERICAN BAHA’IS 43

Later the Guardian wrote that Martha R00t

"eStablished a record that constitutes the

neareSt approach to the example set by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself to His disciples in the course of His journeys throughout the W/est.”49

Second to none other than Martha R00t in her “conStancy, dedication, self-abnegation (and) fearlessness”5O was Marion Jack, one of the most indefatigable pioneers of the Formative Age. She became a Bahá’í in Paris, where she was studying art, in the early part of the century. Her attachment to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá deepened during a long . stay in the Holy Land in 1908, when she taught English to His grandchildren. By 1914 she had returned home where she became an acrive Bahá’í in the Northeastern States-Eastern Canada region. When the Tablets of the Divine Plan arrived at the American Bahá’í Convention of 1919, she was one of the firSt to respond; she traveled teaching the Faith through Canada and into Alaska, where she joined anorher early American Bahá’í pioneer Emogene Hoagg. So formidable were her faith and charaCter that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá often referred to her over the years as “General Jack.”51 Yet, during her firsr pioneering ventures, she felt that she was ill-equipped to spread the Bahá’í Teachings. In 1920 she erte from WeStern Canada that "it is very wonderful how a stranger who does not consider herself either a teacher or a speaker, could meet and give the Message to well over a hundred. . . 3’52

Later, under the Guardian of the Faith, she settled in Sofia, Bulgaria; there she remained, through World War II and after Bulgaria fell into the Soviet zone of influence, until her death in 1954. Shoghi Effendi wrore that

49. Shoghi Effendi, God Passe: By, pp. 386-87.

50. Shoghi Effendi in "Marion Jack,” Tbe Bahá’í World, 1950-1954, XII, 674.

51. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in "Marion Jack,” p. 676.

52. Marion Jack in "Activities in the American Field: Marion Jack,” Star of the West, 11, no. 9 (20 Aug.1920), 150.

53. Shoghi Effendi in "Marion Jack,” p. 676.

54. Ibid., p. 674.

Marion Jack set the standard for every pioneer:

To remain at. one’s pOSt, to undergo sacrifice and hardship, loneliness and, if necessary, persecution, in order to hold aloft the torch of Bahá’u’lláh, is the true function of every pioneer.

Let them remember Marion Jack . . . 5

Upon her death, Shoghi Effendi cabled the Bahá’í world that he mourned the loss of the "immortal heroine, Marion Jack, greatlyloved and deeply-admired by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, (a) shining example (to) pioneers (of) present (and) future generations (of) East (and) West . . 3’54

3

C onclusz'on

I)!

THE BAB’S proclamation initiating the Baha 1 Era in 1844 resulted in over twenty thousand martyrs to this new Age. Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration in 1863 led to the full flowering of the Teachings for the unification of mankind. In 1892 Bahá’u’lláh died; the period of direcr revelation was at an end. But ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His unique capacity as the appointed Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, labored in promulgating those Teachings and in laying the physical foundations for the new World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. In 1921 the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá brought to a close the seventyseven year Apostolic and Heroic Age in the first century of the new Era.

In a sense, the American Bahá’í community was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s community. He raised it up, consolidated it, and guided its spiritual and administrative growth. The impaCt of His life on disparate groups and highly individualiStic believers forged a true com; munity in the initial phase of His work, from the firsr mention of the Faith in America in 1893 to the end of World War I. He then honored this community with the Tablets of the Divine Plan, launching it into the second phase of international expansion of the Faith which led into the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Era. With His passing His Will and TeStament gave the blueprint for the administrative institutions of the new World Order,

[Page 44]44 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

and His community was in 1921 poised for even greater tests and service in building this new Order under Shoghi Effendi, appointed in the Will as Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith. Thus the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá represented both the end of the Heroic and the beginning of the Formative Age in the growth of the Bahá’í Faith.

The early American Bahá’ís recounted their memories and stories of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and treasured His Tablets, the like of which they would never again receive. For many, standing at this juncture, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s presence seemed to be a living reality that would carry them into the Formative Age He had labored so patiently to bring about; for He left a great promise to the faithful:

For llfllJ' i: the end anal the full revelation, arid I my unto you that anyone who will riJe up in the Cause of Goal at thir time rhall he filled with the spirit of God, and that He will send Hi5 hosts from heaven to help you, and that nothing shall he imporrihle to you if you have faith. Anal now I give you a commandment which rhall he for a covenant hetweeu you and Me—that ye have faith; that your faith he steadfast a5 a rock that no rtorms can move, that nothing can disturh, and that it

55. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in An Early Pilgrimage, p. 40.

56. The number of women appearing in this account reflects the extraordinary response of American women to the Bahá’í Faith in its early years and their great achievements, particularly in pioneering and travel teaching. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá once remarked that ”In the west women evidently have precedence in religion . . .” ( ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgatiou Of Uuiuerral Peace [Wilmette, 111.: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1943], p. 165). a

endure through all things even to the end; even rhoulal ye hear that your Lord has heeu crucified, he not Jhahert in your faith; for I am with you always, whether living or dead, I am with you to the end. As ye have faith so 5/94” your power: and hleuiugs he. This it the halauce—this is the halauce—thi: it the halarzce.55

Scattered. far and wide, sustained by His divine love and assurances that He would be with them always, a number of dedicated Bahá’ís did exemplify His teachings on the importance of firmness in the Covenant in building a new World Order—the Kinneys and Juliet Thompson in New York, Dr. Moody in lran, Morher and Father Dunn in Australia, Marion Jack in Bulgaria, Agnes Alexander in Japan, Martha Roor in her world travels, Louis Gregory in his travels through America’s racially divided South, to name just a few.56

During their own time, there was no mythic aura about these firsr American believers. They were for the mOSt part ordinary people, ennobled and bound together by their personal connection to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the impact of which gave them a deep firmness in the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, allowing them to perform, whether or nor they were aware of it at the time, truly historic and ultimately heroic acts. The great achievements of the years from 1921 to 1957, when Shoghi Effendi served as Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, were realized in many ways because ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had called on and found responsive to His Teachings and direCtions a hosr of able, dedicated, and

faithful believers, the early American Bahá’ís.

[Page 45]

Educating Women for Their Rights

BY MILDRED R. MOTTAHEDEH

HILE great efforts are being made by many organizations to speed the development of the "Third World” and find solutions for the poverty of the deprived peoples, the battle of women for equal rights arouses only the tolerant or amused smiles given to bright but belligerent children who have to be humored or ignored until “they get over it.” Women are still, in popular thought and custom, females firSt and human beings second. Yet the "FirSt World” of every human being is the world of the mother who Stamps her seal uponlher child with every breath and thought. Dr. H. Hofi’meyer writes, "As she is always the one upon whom the newborn child- is dependent, the wife will always be the one who initiates and fOSters his emotional develoPment, and, whatever the social circumstances, will therefore continue to be the emotional nucleus of the family.”1 Though society has entered a new phase in which all problems are worldwide in scope and only worldwide solutions are efleCtive, the molder of human character remains, for the most part, uneducated and deprived of those basic human rights which are fundamental for citizens of one world. Chaos and confusion are the inevitable result. It is unfortunate that the real issues in the Struggles for equal rights for women

1. H. Hoffmeyer, "The Mother and the Family” in Aspect: of Family Mental H enlth in Europe (Geneva: World Health Organization, 1965 ) , P. 9.

2. 1 Timothy 13-14; 1 Corinthians 6.18, 7.89.

3. Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í World Faith (Wilmette, 111.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1956), p. 241.

4. Bahá’u’lláh, Báb, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í’ Pmyers (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1967 ) , p. 187.

have been obscured by the physical aspeCts of sex. Sex muSt be recognized for what it is—the means for the continuation of the human species. The present overemphasis on sex in Western civilization is undoubtedly a response to centuries of theories regarding original sin and the "abomination of the flesh” arising from Pauline doctrines.2 Woman has been considered an inferior moral being, created of and for man and yet a source of temptation to his lustful nature. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, brings the relationship between man and woman back into proper perspeCtive when He says that, ”The happiness of mankind will he tenlz'zed when women and men coordinate and advance equally, forench ii the complement and helpmeet Of the 0ther.”3 He further writes: ”0 peerlem Lord! In Thine almighty wisdom Thou hast enjoined marriage upon the peoples, that the generation: of men may succeed one another in this contingent world . 3’4 This statement is part of a Bahá’í prayer for marriage. It re-establishes the proper function of sex and removes the distortions which have magnified the role of sex in the life of an individual and made of it an end in itself rather than a means for the propagation of the species.

No one can or would wish to deny that, either because of inherited traits or socialization, differences in sex affeCt the life style and point of view of each person. For the conservation of the species, Strong proteCtive motives are a female charaCteristic. Relatively few mothers willingly abandon their offspring. Rather, women are frequently deserted by their husbands and are thus placed in the difficult position of having to bear alone the burden of raising and educating their children. No

45

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WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

syStem of international law now proteCts women against such injustices. Even in nations with highly evolved legal systems, laws proteCting women are inadequate; in the United States they also vary from state to State. And if national social welfare schemes were to remove the financial burden on women, the problem would still not be solved. For the mother, by cultural tradition and education, is illprepared to assume the role of family head.

This leads to the whole question of education of women both as mothers and as members of the human race. Until the mid-nineteenth ce ntu r y an educated woman was a rarity. Even in the New World, where women played a vital role in enabling the early colonies to survive, opposition to female education was strong and emphatic. In 1645 John Winthrop

wrote I

Mr. Hopkins, the governor of Hartford upon Connecticut, came to BOSton, and brought his wife with him, (a godly young woman, and of special parts,) who has fallen into a sad infirmity, the loss of her understanding and reason, which had been growing upon her divers years, by occasion of her giving herself wholly to reading and writing, and had written many books. Her husband, being very loving and tender of her, was loath to grieve her; but he saw his error, when it was too late. For if she had attended her household affairs, and such things as belong to women, and not gone out of her way and calling to meddle in such things as are proper for men, whose minds are Stronger, etc., she might have kept her wits, and might have improved them usefully and honorably inthe place God. had set her. He brought her to Bosmn, and left

5. John Winthrop in Aileen Kraditor, Up From the Pedestal (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1968), p. 130.

her with her brother, one Mr. Yale, a merchant, to try what means might be had here for her. But no help could be had.5

Despite a firm stand againSt education for women, men had no compunctions about entrusting them with what may now be seen as the mOSt vital task in human society—the early education of the ' child. Woman was assigned the responsibility of molding the character of the future leaders of society. To perform this funCtion it was not deemed necessary for her to have instruction in anything but household arts and such religious guidance as her church leaders might offer. In 1873 Orestes Bronson thus defined the role of women:

We do not believe women, unless we acknowledge individual exceptions, are fit to have their own head. The mOSt degraded of the savage tribes are those in which women rule, and descent is reckoned from the mother instead of the father. Revelation asserts, and universal experience proves that the man is the head of the woman, and that the woman is for the man, not the man for the woman; and his greateSt error, as well as the primal curseof society is that he abdicates his headship, and allows himself to be governed, we might almost say, deprived of his reason, by woman. It was through the seduCtions of the woman, ' herself seduced by the serpent, that man fell, and brought sin and all our woe into the world. She has all the qualities that fit her to be a help-meet of man, to be the mother of his children, to be their nurse, their early instruCtress, their life long friend; to be his companion, his comforter, his consoler in sorrow, his friend in trouble, his ministering angel in sickness; but as an independent existence, free to follow her own fancies and vague longings, her own ambition

[Page 47]

and natural love of power, without masculine direction or control, she is out of her element, and a social anomaly, sometimes a hideous monster, which men seldom are, excepting through a woman’s influence. 6

The French Revolution and the rise of industry began to give women a new perspective on themselves, and they began seriously to question their inability to be educated. On opposite sides of the globe there appeared simultaneously signs of a new consciousness in the world of women. In America in July 1848, the firSt women’s rights convention, held at Seneca Falls, New York, set forth a "Declaration of Sentiments.” Among the grievances of woman cited in the declaration is that man "has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.”7 In Persia Táhirih, a disciple of the Báb, attended a conference of her fellow Babis in the hamlet of Badasht. Comprehending that Muslim traditions should now. be abandoned, Táhirih appeared before the Babi disciples without her veil, shattering the cuStom of centuries. This symbolic am, committed by a single woman, was a trumpet blaSt heralding a new age for the women of Asia and, indeed, for the world.8

Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, clearly asserted the principle of the equality of men and women. So important did He consider woman’s role as the educator of the human race that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in writing of Bahá’u’lláh’s principles of child education says that His followers "must Jtriee hy all

6. Orestes Bronson, in ibid., p. 193.

7. Ibid.,p. 185.

8. Nabil, The Dawn-Breahen, trans. Shoghi Effendi (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1962 ) , pp. 293-98.

9. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World Faith, p. 3.99.

10. Ibid.

EDUCATING WOMEN FOR THEIR RIGHTS

pomhle mean: to educate hath Iexes, male and female; girl: like hoyx; there i: no diflerence whatsoeeet hetweeti them. The ignorance of hath i5 hlameworthy, anal negligence in hoth case: i: reprowzhle.”9 He continues:

I f it he comitleretl through the eye of reality, the training anal culture 0 1‘ daughter: 2': more neceuary than that of 50725, for them girl: will come to the Jtation of motherhood and will mold the lives of the children. The firit trainer Of the child is the mother. The hahe, lihe imto a green and tender hmmh, will grow according to the way it is trained. I f the training he right, it will grow right, and if cmohecl, the growth lihewiie, anal unto the eml of life it will conduct itielf accordingly.

H eme, it is firmly establiihed that am untrained and uneducated daughtet, 0n hecoming a mother, will he the prime factor in the deprivation, ignorance, negligence anal the lath of training of many children.1 0

From whatever facet the question of the education of women is viewed it can be seen how important it is that she be adequately educated for both her natural role and her place in the modern world. The maternal inStinct for the protection of children, which is now so often a viCtim of our antiquated syStem of ordering relationships between men and women, will, when equal political rights have become a reality for women, have a telling effect on the eStablishment of world peace. The whole concept of war, which has been so docilely accepted by mankind through thousands of years, will change as educated women take their proper place in the world. Today we begin to see a generation of youth, trained by increasingly well educated mothers, opposing war as a means of settling world problems. Dreams of military glory are net for women, and they will not be deluded by

47

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WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

nationalistic power struggles into accepting the futile method of war as a solution for international difficulties. The establishment of world peace does indeed- depend upon mothers adequately educated and imbued with high ideals to pass on to their offspring.

The education of the mother is also an important factor contributing to the mental health of the family as a whole. The uneducated woman loses her intellectual ties with her children as their own education advances. The husband frequently outgrows his wife, and the sense of partnership withers. It is interesting to note that the number of divorces among the middle-aged is rapidly increasing in the United States. The causes mOSt frequently cited are the widening intellectual gap between husband and wife and. the frustration that attacks a woman when her children are grown and she faces life with skills as a mother which can no longer be used full-time. Though she may have as much intelligence as her husband, her lack of training and of intellectual challenge atrophy her abilities until she can no longer be an adequate companion to her husband.

Universities are now experimenting with educational courses designed for women with growing or grown children. Their purpose is to enable women to reenter an interrupted career or to prepare for a new career. The importance of such continuing education can be estimated in the light of the following statement by D. K. Evang, DireCtor General of Health Service of Norway, that many family health problems result from "the mental maladjustments of the housewife caused by unfavourable working conditions. For example, she is usually isolated, does a routine job with. no fixed hours or programme, and has nothing to Stimulate her interest throughout the day. The worn-out housewife is such an important problem

11.- Hofimeyer, p. 14.

to the family that her needs ought to be of paramount concern to the family protection centre.”1 1

Continuing education and equality of opportunity for women will have a twofold impact. N0t only will a woman be enabled to keep pace with the intellectual growth of spouse and children, but she will be prepared to participate in community life. As her home responsibilities lessen she will have the time and often the inclination to make an important contribution to the solution of thousands of social problems caused by induStrialization and urbanization.

The value of educated women in solving social problems can be demonstrated. In faCt, the social problems of a technological age cannot be solved without utilizing the special proreCtive insrinct of women. Studies made by the United Nations on community development projects, for example, show that those projects which enliSt the efforts of women have a far better chance of success than those which do nm:

"In the whole sphere of community development so far as the mass and adult education approach is concerned, it is essential that special emphasis should be laid upon intensive and sustained work with the women Women, because of the part they play in the home as wives and morhers, are a key human factor in the development of the people generally. Good homes depend on their initiative; children to a large extent depend on their attitude and understanding during the early and formative years of life; a varied and balanced diet, clothing, personal habits and so many Other sources of incentive to an improved way of life depend upon the inspiration, knowledge and skill of women. It is intended therefore that the resources of the department shall be redeployed so that a strong secrion of the department under a woman Assis

[Page 49]

tant Commissioner is set up.”12

CLEARLY the whole of society will benefit from the application of the principle of equality of men and women. When the woman’s voice is heard with the same attention given to “the man in the Street,” society will be able to find ways to solve those problems which need to be approached with both intelligence and humaneness. The computerized response to the present ills of society has been a rain of has but no answers. It is precisely in the queStions of war and peace, crime prevention, education, the adjustment of the maladjusted, the assistance to those seeking to find a place in society, and in all those fields where justice muSt be combined with an element of warm undersranding, that the feminine approach can make the difference between stating a desired goal and attaining it.

But the value of educated women is not limited to the solving of social problems. The growing complexity of modern society makes it doubly important that the entire fund of human intelligence and goodwill, in women as well as men, be used producrively. The truth is that a modern technological society cannot function properly without the entrance of educated women into all branches of science, industry, and government.

The provision for equal education of women, however, calls for Other adjustments, for it is axiomatic that no educated woman will accept second-class citizenship. As women become more educated they will not requeSt but demand those rights which are held to be fundamental for men by mOSt countries in the world. Women will expect the right to vore, to own property, to be able to have CuStody of their children, to retain their nationali

12. Intematz'onal S ocz’al Service Review, no. 9 (Apr.1963), 50.

13. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleaming: from the Writing: of Bahá’u’lláh, trans. Shoghi Effendi (Wilme6tte, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1956), p. 5.

EDUCATING WOMEN FOR THEIR RIGHTS

ties when they marry citizens of Other countries, to choose their own mates, to work, and to administer their earnings; these are but a few of the rights which are denied women in the majority of countries. From being property women must become partners.

As a partner in the modern working world, woman is entitled in simple justice to receive equal pay for equal work. At present women constitute a pool of cheap unskilled or semi-skilled labor whose earnings barely compensate for absence from home. Indeed such underpaid labor proves harmful to all workers. Although many nations have ratified legislation on equal pay for men and women, it is not enforced in reality.

Above all these praCtical reasons for affirming the equality of men and women Stands the first and fundamental reasonthat happiness can be attained only when a human being fulfills the funCtion for which he or she was created. Alone, of all the creatures inhabiting the earth, the human being possesses an intangible quality which he calls the ”soul.” Even atheistic social systems find that they musr cope with this faCtor. To a Bahá’í the soul is that eternal aspecr of each person which derives from and is dependent on the Divine Creator. Since the soul is placeless and timeless, it has no sex. One cannot speak of a female or male soul, since the soul has no physical existence. It has, however, a purpose. Bahá’u’lláh writes:

Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, H e, throagh the direct operatiotz of Hi: ancomtmined and rovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the aniqae diitt'mtz'on and capacity to know Him and to love Him—a capacity that mast need; he regarded a: the generating impulse and the primary parpose 2mderlyz'ng the whole of creation.13

The ideal conditions under which a soul

49

[Page 50]50

WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

can attain its purpose are unfolded with greater clarity by each succeeding Prophet. In this day Bahá’u’lláh has announced, for the fiISt time in religious history, the equality of men and women. In this day, too, He has commanded, for the fitSt time in religious history, compulsory education for all. "Regard mam,” Bahá’u’lláh writes, ”a: a mine tich in gem: of inestz'mczhle value. Education can, alone; came it to reveal it: treamres, and enahle mankind to henefit therefrom.”4

Though the old order dies not at once,

but by stages, yet the long night of ‘

struggling in a primitive world to secure food and shelter has ended». Today, indeed, physical force has relatively little value, and the time has arrived when soul ancl mind are of greater importance than mere physical strength. In fat: the whole effort of society muSt be to provide the beSt environment for each member of the human race to attain the purpose of his creation. Society should and easily can provide the necessities of man’s physical exiStence so that his whole life and thought need not be spent in procuring them. Otherwise he will be unable to attain the real purpose of his existence. The conneCtion between the purpose of the creation of the human race and the principle of equality of men and women is obvious. No soul has the right to impose upon another soul a set of conditions which prevents self-development. To reduce fifty-one percent of the human race to second-class status can only result in a maladjusted society such as we have today. The subordination of women is neither rational, jusr, nor tolerable. A closely knit world society in a technological age must depend on a world citizenry highly evolved in all aspeCts of its existence

14. Ibid., p. 260.

15. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Bahá’í World Faith, p. 288.

16. See Bernard Weinraub, "Swedish Schools Stress Equality of Sexual Roles,” New York Times, Nov. 10, 1970, p. 16.

physical, mental, and spiritual. Only such evolved individuals can maintain individual liberty for all through self—discipline by all. Woman must be encouraged to rise to new heights of nobility and responsibility. Without the contribution of her special talents and- without her voice in world affairs, the human race will remain half slave and half free.

Ibsen has said that men and women do not belong to the same century. This has been true, and, being so, it is little wonder that the world limps towards the year 2000 with gloom and despair. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Stated at the beginning of this century:

And among the teachings of Hi: Holiness Bahá’u’lláh i: the equality of women and men. The world of humanity has two wings—one is women and the other men. N at until hoth wings are equally developed can the bird fly. Should one wing remain weak, flight 2': impossihle. N at until the world of women becomex equal to the world of men in the acquiyz'tz'on of virtues and perfectiom, am mates: and proxperz'ty he attained as they ought to he.1 5

The results of such an equality can already be perceived. The children of educated mothers throughout the world are a new breed of people. These youth are sweeping aside old ideas of male dominance in a new pattern of partnership where neither sex feels that any area of life is divinely assigned solely to one sex or to the Other. Daily tasks are shared, resulting in a companionship that enriches the lives of both men and women. Experiments in educating Children in the equality of sex roles are now in process in Sweden1 6 and Other . countries where

human beings are no longer relegated to

sexual castes. Everywhere one finds at laSt . a growing realization that each human being has special and unique qualities which transcend nationality, race, or sex.

[Page 51]51

Anne Frank The Child and the Legend

BY ROSEY E. POOL

ROSEY E. POOL (1905—1971) was a radiant force for [human underscanding and unity. Writer scholar, teacher,Bahá’í’,she possessed a breadth of heart and mind that made all people her people and all countries her home

Years before the civil rights movement focused attention on the work of Afto-American poets, Rosey, a native of, Holland, was their eloquent advocate, their vigorous campaigner. She had firsr become aware of this literature in 1925 while a student at the University of Amsretdam, where she did extensive research in the field. When she came to the United States, it surprised, indeed annoyed, her to discover that most Negro poets were unknown in their own country, or, if known, were givenonly a tenuous kind of recognition.

In 1958 she edited the bilingual anthology I Saw How Black I W415 (published in the Hague as Ié Zag Hoe 2mm: Lé W45) in collaboration with her brilliant young countryman Paul Bteman. She had done much to encourage Brennan’s interest in Afro—American poets, and he was later to bring out special editions of their work in his Heritage Series, published in London, where both he and Rosey went to live after the Second ‘World War. He began the series with the publication of my Ballad of Remembrance in 1962. Rosey’s Beyond £199 Blues, one of her mOSt popular anthologies, appeared in London the same year.

In addition to writing, editing, translating, and teaching, Rosey was for many years involved 111 broadcasting, firSt in radio in its infant days in Holland and afterwards in television as well. She appeared on both the British and Canadian broadcasting sysrems and also on many American radio and television programs She achieved prominence as a radio and

' television personality” in Holland. ,

Rosey visited the United States several times, her first tour made possible by a Fulbright grant. While here she gave poetry readings~she was a superb interpretive readerwlectured, and taught at various schools and colleges, particularly in the South. She eagerly sought out talented young authors, and as a teacher of creatiVe writing she was unstinting in her efforts to help students develop their gifts. She collecred aspiring

[Page 52]‘ 52 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

[Page 53]ANNE FRANK: THE CHILD AND THE LEGEND

53

IT IS VERY DIFFICULT not to attribute to a child one used to know some of the qualities for which this child has become a legend. What do I remember of Anne Frank? One came into a living room, cozy and well-kept by an excellent housewife. In a corner a little girl, sitting absorbed in the reading of a picture book, would look up to scrutinize the visitor with a pair of large eyes in a dark-haired head which I always thought unproportionally large for her small body. When tea was served, blond, sunny Margot would help Mother. The oldest daughter was the very image of' Mother’s pride. The younger one became Father’s darling.

On June 12, 1929, Anne Frank was born to Otto Frank and his wife in the German city of Frankfurt on the river Main. Their first child, Margot, was then three years old. The Franks were an unremarkable family, decent citizens, Jews by origin and religion, although net of the orthodox kind. They lived their quite home life in an atmosphere of love and togetherness. Meanwhile their country, Germany, was going through a period of major political problems which culminated in the burning of the Reichstag building in Berlin in February 1933 and the rise of Adolf Hitler and his diCtatorship of fear and murder.

Mr. Frank was a businessman with many private and business contacts in Amsterdam, Holland. Very soon after the rise of Hitler it became clear that it would be impossible for Jews to go on living in Germany. N0t only did people of the Jewish faith have to wear yellow stars on their outer Clothing to be easily distinguishable from what were then called "Aryans,” they were also reStriCted in their movements. Jewish children were not able to go to School with other German children. After certain hours Jews were not allowed to leave their houses. Theaters, cinemas, concerts, museums were closed to them. So Mr. Frank decided to move his family to AmSterdam in order to bring the children up as he had always planned. He wanted to expose them to all the fruits of civilization. He wanted his daughters to realize the greatness of God and learn about the teachings of the great religious leaders of all times. He wanted to give the two girls a chance to develop their abilities to the fullest extent. He wanted, in short, all that every parent wishes for his child.

Maybe we in Holland, if we dug deeply into our political consciousness, did anticipate an invasion by the Nazis. We did not, however, want it to happen. We welcomed thousands of refugees from Germany and went on with our daily lives as if there were no Hitler regime right across our borders. At this time I met and made friends with the Frank family.

When the two girls went to school, both were intelligent, interested, but certainly not exceptional students. I was fond of both the girls, and neither I nor any of my friends and colleagues would have singled out the younger Frank girl as the one whose name would become a household word all over the world.

Time moved on to 1940, to a short painful war between Holland and Germany. Once again the Franks were caught in the spider’s web. At that time the N azis removed all Jewish children from their schools and collected them in so-called "Jew schools.” I was made principal of a senior high school for Jewish

[Page 54]54

WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

children until I myself was imprisoned in May 1943. I escaped from a prison camp in September of that year and lived hidden in the attic of a country house until the villagewas liberated, on my fortieth birthday. But I am here to tell the story of the Frank family, not my own. Only Mr. Frank managed to survive the holocaust and thus was able to preach the gospel of his daughter Anne to the world, through her diary. '

In July 1942 the Frank family found a hiding place in which they and some friends hoped to be safe. The Frank children just did- nor come to school any longer. In those days one never asked questions. They had either been "picked up,” as the term went, or they had gone into hiding.

Was there anything remarkable about Anne in those school days? Did she write any essays showing the wisdom, the maturity, and the balance of her diary? My frank answer must be no. What I. do remember is her acute sense of humor, her sharp power of observation, and a certain amount of mime talent. Once I saw her do an excellent and hilarious impersonation of myself and the teaching staff, without her knowing that I had climbed onto a table in the next room to observe the performance.

I think that curiosity was her main charaCteriStic in those days. Among my memories is that of a music class. As under the Nazi occupation Jews were prohibited from taking part in the cultural life of the country, special classes in the appreciation of the arts were organized for Jewish children on a private basis. A wonderful musician was going to try to open young minds to unaccustomed sounds, as in the music of Schoenberg. I can Still hear myself discussing with my secretary how we would make an effort to separate certain talkative cliques among our audience. I know that I said to her, “When the Frank ‘girls arrive, please usher the little beauty (meaning Margor) to somewhere right in front where all the boys can see her without craning their necks.” My secretary asked, "And where -do I put Anne?” I replied without hesitation, "Anne gets a seat right in the back where she can see all that goes on around her.” And this girl, whose every second of life vibrated with participation soon had to go into voluntary imprisonment.

The diary which was a present on her thirteenth birthday accompanied her a month later into the secret annex in an old house in AmSterdam where Mr. Frank used to have his offices. On Augusr 4, 1944, the Gestapo was led to investigate the secret annex. All 'the inhabitants were arrested and taken to an uncertain fate which in the majority of cases proved to be death. The Franks were sent to Auschwitz in Poland. Mr. Frank, separated from his wife and daughters, managed to stay alive through his internment. Mrs. Frank died a few months after her daughters were taken to the notorious Belsen camp in Germany. Survivors who knew the girl Anne there tell us about her bravery, her almOSt saint—like compassion. Around the beginning of March 1945, a month before Belsen was liberated, Margot Frank died, and. Anne felt all the strength leave her frail body shortly thereafter. She too died with the liberation praCtically in sight.

IN 1945, in the summer, Otto Frank came to Visit me in Amsterdam. He had

[Page 55]ANNE FRANK: THE CHILD AND THE LEGEND

55

with him a green tin box of a type Dutch schoolchildren used to take on flower collecting trips. From it he took a girl’s diary and several ordinary school copybooks, saying, “This is Anne’s writing. It was found in the hiding place by one of our good Underground friends. She handed it over to me. Please will you read it?” Then and there I began to browse through the diary. I saw that in her loneliness Anne had direCted her words to a totally imaginary girl called Kitty. In her typical young girl’s handwriting she erte, “Again and again I ask myself, would it not have been better for us all if we had not gone into hiding, and if we were dead now and not going through all this misery, especially as we shouldn’t be running our protectors into danger any more.”1

All the tears I had cried during the many years of my life would seem a trickle compared to the tears I shed over the diary of the child Ann Frank, who will never be a legend for me. The heritage she left us is not the work of an infant prorégée. Now that I can read and judge it soberly and objeCtively, I can see that the diary might have been a mOSt interesting record of a short period in the life of a lonely, intelligent girl.

However, Anne Frank’s diary is a human document, a small miracle. we in Holland, especially our flower growers, have developed the art of forcing flowers into bloom in hothouses and under Other unnatural circumstances. Similarly, in the tropics, mountain plants transferred into the hot plains will not wilt immediately but first burst into rich and abundant flower. This to me is symbolic of the diary of Anne Frank. Every line comes from the pure idealistic spirit of a young person. The power of observation with which I had always credited her was turned toward her companions and herself. She yearned for love and saw herself turn from a- lonely infatuated girl into a mature loving woman. Peter, the only available male in sight, had to be hers; at last she could compete against Margot.

Yet Anne’s perspective was not limited to the hiding place. Outside the annex raged a horrible war. Race hatred caused the millionfold tragedy of the gas chambers. Anne, delighted by any person’s laughter, tortured by the pain of millions, still could see a shining star leading to a better future for humankind. She was destined to become the spokesman for thousands, whether their fate was similar to hers or whether they learned through her what suffering man is able to infliCt upon his fellowman. Anne Frank spoke for all of us.

World War II is no longer a reality for the younger generation. Many of us aetors in that human tragedy feel it should nor be forgotten, although we do not want to instill hatred or preserve the pain. We who had to live through those bitter years, and still have to face the future with memories too bitter to draw into the light, would do well to hand the young people of the 1970’s the diary of that unremarkable child. The potted geranium exhibiting its flowers on the sill of the blacked-out window of the secret annex is my symbol for the courage of all who were forced into hiding places by unreasoning hatred.

Until the end, Anne never lost hope, never 10$t the ability to lift up a heart heavier than hers. Finally, ill and alone, her spirit broke. When Margot

1. Anne Frank,Amze Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, trans. B. M. Mooyaart~Doubleday (New York: Doubleday, 1952 ) , p. 256.

[Page 56]56 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1972

loosened her hold in her bunk and fell dead on the floor, Anne lost the will to

live. But the spirit which led her to write the diary will go on lifting us up if we will only listen to it:

I don’t believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitaliSts alone, are guilty of the war. Oh no, the little man is juSt as guilty, Otherwise the peoples of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! 2

. we Still love life; we haven’t yet forgotten the voice of nature, we Still hope, hope about everything. I hope something will happen soon now . . . Let the end come, even if it is hard; then at leaSt we shall know whether we are finally going to win through or go under.3

Let us prove ourselves worthy heirs to her faith in God and humankind.

2. Ibid., p. 237. 3. Ibid., p. 256.

.’ P“ ”'n.“‘

.__t ' away 2:

[Page 57]Authors & Artists

ROBERT HAYDEN is a well-known poet, the most recent of whose books is Word: in the Mourning Time. He is Professor of English at the University of Michigan and Poetry Editor of World Order.

DANIEL C. JORDAN directs the Center for the Study of Human Potential in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts and the ANISA Comprehensive Early Education Model, a major project being developed by the Center. Professor Jordan has served as consultant to the U. S. O&ice of Education and a variety of state agencies working on the problems of education. He holds a doctorate in human development from the University of Chicago, where he specialized in psychology and social anthropology. Professor Jordan is well known to World Order readers for his articles on poverty (Winter 1970-71; Fall 1966), education ( Fall 1970) , becoming your true self (Fall 1968 ) , and the dilemma of the modern intellectual (Spring 1967 ).

WILLIAM MEREDITH, poet, teacher, and professor of English at Connecticut College, was Writer in Residence at the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh in 1970. He is the author of several books of poetry, the most recent being Earth Walla: New and Selected Poems.

GARY L. MORRISON is a familiar name in World Order, having contributed two movie reviews (Winter 1968-69, Summer 1970) and a book review (Winter 1969-70). He holds a Master's Degree from Yale University where he specialized in Southeast Asian history and is completing a doctorate in education at the University of Massachusetts.

MILDRED' R. MOTTAHEDEH, a designer of china, glass, and metals, has influenced Eumpean and American markets and has trained and guided craftsmen in Europe and Asia. She has worked for many years for human rights, for raising the standard of living among artisans in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, and in bringing educational facilities to underdeveloped areas. For twenty years she represented the international Bahá’í community at the United Nations.

ROSEY E. POOL, born in 1905 in Holland, studied at Amsterdam University and in Munich and Berlin, obtaining a doctorate in linguistics and poetry. In 1925 she dis covered the poetry of Countee Cullen and began a lifelong interest in American Negro poetry, which led her in 1959-60, on a Fulbright travel grant, to study and lecture at twenty-seven black colleges and universities in the South. Her many interests included teaching, translating, radio and television broadcasting. Among her varied publications are two anthologies of Negro poetry, I Saw How Blade I Was (1958) and Beyond the Blue: (1962). Dr. Pool died on September 30, 1971, while preparing for publication her manuscript on Anne Frank.

DENNIS W. SHIMELD, who studied at the Royal College of Art in London, has worked for a number of years in communications media with the Canadian government. He is studying for a degree in communications at the University of Saskatchewan and plans in the near future to open a craft workshop for jewelry, silversmithing, and sculpting.

DONALD T. STREETS is Executive Assistant to the Dean of the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts and Associate Director of the ANISA Comprehensive Early Education Model development project. He holds an undergraduate degree in business and a master's and doctorate degree in education. Dr. Streets has served on the Board of the New England Program in Teacher Education and has been a group leader for the Experiment in International Living. His active role as consultant and site visitor for Headstart's Planned Variation Program keeps him in touch with a wide variety of experimental approaches in early childhood education.

ART CREDITS: P. 3, photograph by Jay Contadet; p. 7, drawing by Pierre J. Spierckel; p. 19, drawing by Pierre J. Spietckel; p. 31, photograph, courtesy Bahá’í National Archives; p. 56, drawing by Mark Fennessy; back cover, photograph by Jay Conradet.

JAY CONRADER, a freelance writer and photographer, contributes to World Order regularly.

PIERRE J. SPIERCKEL, a painter and editor, returned to .his native France recently after having spent several years in the Chicago area editing and illustrating textbooks.

MARK FENNESSY, already a well-known contributor to World Order, was a Scholar of the House in sculpture and drawing at Yale University.