Children Dhamma: Chanting for Children

Have you wonder for once if children should be taught chanting? Not too long ago, someone told of some over thirty 17-year-old youths in Malaysia's Program Latihan Khidmat Negara (PLKN) or the National Service Training Programme being sent to a Buddhist temple in Selangor. The three month programme aims to foster friendship between youths. One of the activities reportedly is to send the participants to churches, temples or mosques according to the participant's respective religion. Most of the Buddhist youths sent to the temple in Selangor failed to turn up for classes during the second day. They purportedly were taught chanting on the first day. Do you for now wonder if chanting could turn off the uninitiated or children who are not well-versed in Buddhism? Should the young and uninitiated just be taught the simple rudiments of life, to live right and to live according to the Dhamma? Would a person be chickened off from living right?

Comments

Liudmila said…
I think, if the little children were educated this way, in friendly relations with all others, it had to be less problems with them when they become teens.
footiam said…
Better than teaching them to handle guns and to hate, maybe.