At the Auckland Conference, I was most impressed by the communities that gathered to sing the quotations from the Ruhi courses in memorized harmonies.

That was contrasted by an individual who was looking for a partner to sing a prayer with her. The melody that she composed was lovely but too complex for most people to join in and sing together.

At this point in life, I am more attracted to songs that can be sung in groups. I suppose that reflects a change in my thinking – from being leery of “mindless mobs” through wanting to be “one person who can make a difference” to being part of the collective effort to share with receptive souls the healing message of Baha’u'llah.
Scroll down to the video on this site to enjoy some of the music done in groups.
http://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/auckland.html

Nice comments friends – thanks! Part of furthering the growth of spiritual education classes, I feel, is to restore that feeling of trust in one another. You have, on the one hand, parents (like Sholeh’s friend) who are craving the sense of community that they experienced when they were younger… wishing for example that they could drop the kids off at the neighbour’s place when going on errands, and knowing that they will be cared after by uncle or aunt so-and-so, who are good people and positive role models.

Yet for some reason (the media/fear/prejudices/etc) people are viewed with greater suspicion, intentions are called into question, we fail to trust one another, and we ourselves end up exacerbating the problem. All of which contributes to the ever-deepening sense of isolation felt by adults and children alike.

I see everyone’s role as striving to be that centre of trust in a community, to make their presence known to their neighbours and to pull up their sleeves and get involved. And that certainly goes for me!

Society (Western, in particular) in recent years has been set up in such a way that there is no longer a strong family/community support for parents as they start raising their children. So those parents who must work 6 days a week may not have the support system that they need. Children also may not have adults in their lives who care for their well-being other than their parents…and if their parents are not able to support them in the ways that they need (emotionally, physically, mentally, etc), those children do not have other people to look up to and emulate.

The key, perhaps, is ensuring that there is a strong community to support the efforts of parents and educators (don’t get me started on the school systems) who want to make a difference. The movement that you are alluding to in this article is a starting point to building those communities. It remains to be seen what the end product looks like…how exciting!