The concept of educational reform has been very much at the center of Chinese education in recent years. China has had a long history of moral education and has a great appreciation for the challenges of application and effectiveness of moral education without a spiritual connection that motivates and inspires the heart. To do good when you are forced or controlled by parents, teachers and other authority figures is a very fragile and shaky structure in the refinement of human character. To choose to do good for the love of an elevating and engaging relationship with a universal point of adoration produces heroes and heroines of human nobility and character. Without engaging the heart of the students, moral education feels dry, without spirit, and proves itself weak in application and effectiveness.
The Chinese educators, however, have made a considerable attempt in exploring the dance between what we call moral education and how we infuse it with spiritual energy and motivation. In the US public schools, we have not been able to accomplish this because of the unfortunate conflicts between religions and systems of belief. Having the diversity of opinions and the skill and spirit of consultation and consensus building, produce richness and expands imagination and civilization. Being surrounded by hostility and conflicts of opinions and views has become the major cause of limiting human progress and a major source of anxiety, depression, violence, apathy, hopelessness, wars, and destruction.
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The moral part is about right and wrong. The spiritual is about why we choose to do what is right and acquire the Divine virtues such as unity, honesty, patience, radiance, happiness, integrity, generosity, etc. The spiritual has to do with love, the wanting to do good no matter what others do and say to distract and dissuade us. Moral and spiritual components of character education can be viewed as the two wings of knowing and loving in the work of forwarding human civilization.
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Keyvan Geula is a licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Therapist; LMFT. She received her Master of Science in Marriage, family, and Child Therapy from the University of La Verne, in La Verne, California. She employs the latest research in behavioral sciences, neuroscience, and the Bahaāi principle of the oneness of all humanity to serve the well-being of her clients.
She offers her services as a clinician, lecturer, trainer, and supervisor to a global set of clients in person and online. In her clinical work, she incorporates the wisdom of the Bahaāi Writings, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy research, Mindfulness meditation, and consultation skills, as well as knowledge of the spiritual self.
She is an adjunct professor of Behavioral Sciences at Citrus Community College, faculty of continued education at Claremont Graduate University. She teaches psychology online to students at Bahaāi Institute of Higher Education.
She is the Founder and Executive Director of Center for Global Integrated Education (CGIE), a non-profit Bahaāi-inspired educational organization, which explores oneness of all humanity, and teaches the integrated mind-body-spirit approach in education.
She has served for two years as the producer and host of a two-hour weekly live radio show for the Persian community in Sothern, California focusing on the role of the psychology of spirituality in personal and social transformation, creativity, emotional and social intelligence, and a greater sense of harmony in a global society. She also has been the host and producer of TV series called Transforming Human Consciousness for eight years. She regularly writes and blogs on www.cgie.org/blog on topics related to integrated education, the oneness of humanity, the powers of the human spirit in the betterment of global society, elimination of all prejudice, equality of women and men, and education reform. Some of her shows are posted on her; Keyvan Geula YouTube Channel.
Mrs. Geula has served in several Bahaāi institutions since her youth in Iran and USA.
