The proper way to start any session of a Buddhist Dharma-school is by use of well-directed devotional exercises. The children should be taught the idea of reverence and the value of making personal devotions a regular part of every individual’s life, beginning in childhood. It is quite a good idea to introduce new formulas of aspiration, subjects of meditation, new songs and poems from time to time, but it is advisable to continue any practice until the children have committed that particular devotion to memory. As a rule, we carry with us all through life, the poems and devotions we learn as boys and girls. The importance of these devotional exercises to go along with each session of a Dharma-school cannot be over-estimated. Some classes have devotions only at the opening of the session each Sunday. In other cases there are both opening and closing devotions. The sample given here is rather a standard one, being widely used in many parts of the Buddhist world.

Inasmuch as it is practically impossible to find a level of expression that will be suitable for children of all ages in a Buddhist Dharma-school, it is important that parents and teachers give careful study to each lesson before attempting to teach it. If the children to be taught are eight years old or under, then there must be some “cutting down” in the way of expressing the point of the lesson. For older teenagers, the lesson can be amplified. In all cases, it is well for a teacher or parent to seek stories that fit in well with each lesson. Such stories add very greatly to the meaning of a lesson and are very much to the liking of the children

In June of 1957, the senior members of the Youth Circle of the Penang Buddhist Association formed a committee to explore the possibilities of forming a Dharma school to convene each Sunday morning for the systematic instruction of Buddhist children in the truths of our religion. Fifteen members of this committee volunteered to prepare themselves to take over teaching duties. This group of volunteers found no great lack of material suitable for instructing adults in the Dharma, but when they turned their search towards lesson material for children, they found a most startling lack of anything remotely approaching the needs of a modern Sunday school. A certain amount of Buddhist literature for children was found in Chinese and Japanese language presentations, but there are few Chinese in Malaya who are completely at home in written Chinese. Moreover, even the children enrolled in the Dharma classes are well versed only in colloquial Chinese, in Penang usually the Hokkien dialect, and the