ection.

Every child is potentially the light of the world--and at the same time its
darkness; wherefore must the question of education be accounted as of
primary importance. From his infancy, the child must be nursed at the
breast of God's love, and nurtured in the embrace of His knowledge, that
he may radiate light, grow in spirituality, be filled with wisdom and
learning, and take on the characteristics of the angelic host.

Since ye have been assigned to this holy task, ye must therefore exert
every effort to make that school famed in all respects throughout the
world; to make it the cause of exalting the Word of the Lord.

104: O LOVED ONES OF GOD AND HANDMAIDS OF THE ...

O loved ones of God and handmaids of the Merciful! A large body of
scholars is of the opinion that variations among minds and differing
degrees of perception are due to differences in education, training and
culture. That is, they believe that minds are equal to begin with, but
that training and education will result in mental variations and differing
levels of intelligence, and that such variations are not an inherent
component of the individuality but are the result of education: that no
one hath any inborn superiority over another....

The Manifestations of God are likewise in agreement with the view that
education exerteth the strongest possible influence on humankind. They
affirm, however, that differences in the level of intelligence are innate;
and this fact is obvious, and not worth debating. For we see that children
of the same age, the same country, the same race, indeed of the same
family, and trained by the same individual, still are different as to the
degree of their comprehension and intelligence. One will make rapid
progress, one will receive instruction only gradually, one will remain at
the lowest stage of all. For no matter how much you may polish a shell, it
will not turn into a gleaming pearl, nor can you change a dull pebble into
a gem whose pure rays will light the world. Never, through training and
cultivation, will the colocynth and the bitter tree(38) change into the
Tree of Blessedness.(39) That is to say, education cannot alter the inner
essence of a man, but it doth exert tremendous influence, and with this
power it can bring forth from the individual whatever perfections and
capacities are deposited within him. A grain of wheat, when cultivated by
the farmer, will yield a whole harvest, and a seed, throu