By Dorothy Elder, UBIS Director, Los Angeles, California
Recently UBIS completed its first decade in operation, and I was asked to write what the vision is for UBIS's next ten years.
In doing so I have put my response in a larger context.
Seeding The Urantia Book
Making The Urantia Book available world-wide was the first, and still is, the #1 priority. A good steward was created to accomplish this task, and if all goes well, this goal should be attainable in the next twenty years. By 2030, The Urantia Book will be available in all the major languages and to all the free societies on earth. Good-will emissaries will have placed them in libraries, universities, and bookstores around the world. Even if this goal is not reached until 2050, it will still be a wonderful achievement. Along with this, there will be heightened public awareness and ever- increasing global communication.
Education And The Urantia Book
It is inevitable that in the future there will be "Centers for Urantia Studies" world-wide. There will be a handful of major centers and many regional centers all over the world. This will be the time when the initial resistance to The Urantia Book will have subsided, and the general recognition and application to study takes its place on the world scene. The prospect of "organized" Centers of Study may not seem palatable to us now for a variety of reasons, and this may not occur for 100 years, but that time will surely come. The questions for us today are: How is the soil being prepared for that time? Is there a vision in place now for that time ahead, and if so, how do we get from the present to the future with the vision, however enhanced, still intact?
The Urantia Book Internet School
From the beginning I could see the potential of UBIS, but now from experience I know with certainty its present value: a solid foundation for building that vision of the future. Experience has shown that it is real and that it works. Its fundamentals are true. Even more, its timely partner in communication makes UBIS available to everyone, free of the constraints of time and location. It is a good place to prepare the soil: the evolution of the concept of "learning, teaching, and training" demonstrated by the Master—the ultimate educational vision. The following is what we are presently working toward to complete the initial phase.
A Vision for UBIS in Ten Years
Five hundred students will be participating annually in courses presented in five languages around the world. A tri-level curriculum (new, general, and advanced) will be presented with an ever-advancing technical format. The core teacher staff of 20 English and additional other-than-English staff will be operating with new Teacher-Facilitators being developed every year through the Teacher Training Program. Mentor teachers, as well as administrative helpers, will assist with the work of the school. In addition, UBIS will have attracted those with special educational talents, and from the results of on-going dialogue and seminars, a strategy will have been developed for mid-phase and long term objectives. High-quality courses will be archived and available for use as the curriculum expands. What is most important, the experience garnered in ten years, will clarify and amplify the future vision. Experience, coupled with truth, is a potent pathfinder.
Education And Urantia Foundation
Presently, Urantia Foundation has a lot of priorities that have to do with accomplishing goals set in 1950. It is reasonable that the first 100 years should be devoted to translating and seeding the world with the book, and I admire all that is being done. But the time immediately following that accomplishment is also vital to think about. The Trustees and Foundation of 50 to 100 years from now will be struggling with how best to interact with the far-flung "educational" activities taking place in one hundred different ways if no attention is given now for those times ahead. A vision for the future evolves experientially along the path, and now is the time to begin gathering the needed experience; now is the time to forge a vision for the future that encompasses both the teaching about education and the model as demonstrated by Jesus, the Master Teacher. With this vision in mind, and with the initial work that is already in motion, Urantia Foundation will become the fostering, stabilizing, and leading influence in the development of those eventual Centers for Urantia Studies. It will be preparing the soil with wisdom.
I have called this article "Education and Urantia Foundation" because I believe in the future, the two will be synonymous.
In friendship,
Dorothy Elder