Statements in Meeting with Teachers and Educators on the Occasion of Teacher's Week

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad and his pure family, especially the Awaited One on earth.

Welcome, my dear ones; I hope that, God willing, Teacher's Day and the commemorations of this day will bring joy, happiness, and eternal pride to all of you, my dear children, brothers, and sisters.

First of all, after congratulating this day, we must honor the memory of your martyrs; both the martyrs of teaching, of whom about four thousand have been martyred, which is not a small number, and the martyrs of students, over 36 thousand of whom were martyred during the Sacred Defense. If it were not for the warm breath of the teacher, it would not be clear whether the student would go to the front in all circumstances; this honor also belongs to the teachers.

After this, it is time for me to express my gratitude to you - the teaching community of the country - because the teaching community is one that has taken on a difficult task with little material return. The teacher bears the burden of educational engagement with youth and adolescents; this is not a small task; it is hard. They have a heavy responsibility; everyone expects from the teacher, and they wish that their sapling, their youth, their child, when they go to school, shines like a bouquet in the family, thanks to the teacher's education; this is what people desire; everyone expects this from the teacher. At the same time, compare the income of a teacher with that of a certain capitalist, a wealthy person, a certain child of a merchant; well, the teacher sees this, knows it; those who enter the field of teaching could have taken a different path and provided themselves with a higher and greater source of income; [but] they did not. Part of the motivation for teaching is love; it is affection, it is a sense of responsibility. They build the future with contentment, taking on the hardship of educating youth and adolescents with dignity, patience, and calmness. I do not want to make a general statement; after all, in every society, in every profession, there may be some who are not desirable, but the overall trend of the teaching community is as I describe. We ourselves studied under these teachers, listened to them, learned; we know what a teacher is like.

Well, one characteristic of teaching that [if] you dear teachers and new teachers and the teaching community pay attention to, is that in this work with these characteristics I mentioned - much hardship and little material return - there is the possibility of sincerity; [this] is very important. The salvation of a person in eternal life is through sincerity; working for God, working for the truth, working sincerely is the means of salvation; this is not found in many places. Many actions are thought to be done for God, but then, upon a little self-reflection, one finds mixed motives. وَ اَستَغفِرُکَ مِمّا اَرَدتُ بِه‌ وَجهَکَ فَخالَطَنی ما لَیسَ لَک; this prayer is one of the prayers between the optional morning prayer and the obligatory morning prayer, which says, "O God, I seek forgiveness for that action which I intended to do for You, but in it, 'فَخالَطَنی ما لَیسَ لَک', a non-divine motive entered; many of our actions are like this. I speak for myself. Where one has the opportunity to be sincere is a treasure; one of those places is teaching. You can work sincerely; and if you work sincerely, your work will be blessed.

A clear and present example of this is Martyr Motahhari. Ayatollah Motahhari moved with sincerity; his work was for God; we were close to him, we saw his work; we understood his intention. He was a man who understood the times, understood needs; he knew the needs, understood them, and sat down to fill the void of these needs, working sincerely, thinking, speaking, writing, and striving. The result of his sincerity is that his works are enduring; he has been martyred for decades, but his books are, as Saadi says, 'like gold paper'; those who are thinkers, who seek understanding, chase after the books of Martyr Motahhari. This is sincerity.

When you work sincerely, each of these adolescents and youths under your care can build a future for this country that will be the source of your eternal happiness, for which you are their teacher; even if no one recognizes you. The teachers of Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) - those who taught him in his childhood - no one knows them, but the effects of the Imam are also recorded in their deeds that this man was raised and nurtured in this way.

Well, we spoke of sincerity; this was addressed to you; [but] it does not mean that now, because the teaching community has sincerity and contentment, the officials of the country should remain oblivious to the material issues of teachers; no, we have said this many times, and we will say it again; officials must know that every expense made in education is an investment, it is not merely an expense; the money spent there is, in fact, an investment; they should look at education with this perspective, budget accordingly, and provide living facilities with this perspective. Some ill-wishers also exploit the material problems of the teaching community; I have heard that some even within the education system exploit these issues; the material situation of the teaching community, which is lacking, causes some to exploit. Until today, by God's grace, the teaching community has kept itself clean and pure, but some are working and trying to create unhealthy movements.

Now, let us present the main topic. My dear ones! You want to educate a generation; what kind of generation does your country and your future need? This is important. It is not that we want to work in an empty field; no. Imagine that at one time a judo player or a kung fu practitioner is constantly performing judo moves in an empty field, and there is no one in front of them; well, that is easy; or [someone] is fencing in an empty field and striking, and there is no one in front of them; but sometimes there is an opponent in front of you who neutralizes your strike, prevents the strike from hitting them, and counterattacks; today we are facing such an opponent. Who is the opponent? The system of domination in the international arena. Now, some may be surprised that [is] our education system facing the system of domination in the international arena; yes. The system of domination in the international arena, which today is represented by the government of America, the big Zionist capitalists, and some other arrogant governments; these are the representatives and symbols of the system of domination in the international arena. I have elaborated on this system of domination in my public speeches and explained what the system of domination in the international arena means. This system of domination in the international arena has plans for nations - not just our nation, [but] for any nation that can - it also wants a generation that builds the future of this country and these countries to be educated in a way that is beneficial to it; a generation is to be raised in countries that has its thoughts, its culture, its worldview, and its preferences regarding global issues. This generation will be educated, of course, it will be literate, it will be researchers, it will be politicians, and in various countries, [it will be] among the officials of the country. Well, for a colonial set, what could be better than having the officials of a country, the intellectuals of a country, and the opinion leaders of a country think and act like them? It makes their work easier. This is a cultural colonial program. Of course, this is not something new; this program has been underway for decades.

Western political thinkers have repeatedly said that instead of going for colonial expansion like in the 19th century and placing military rulers and spending money and sending weapons and instigating wars, it is better, easier, and less costly to bring their elites and inject our thoughts into them, send them back to their countries, and they become our soldiers without pay; they do what they want. Do you not see such governments today? Are there not many of these governments in our region? [That] say the same thing that America wants to say, do the same thing that it wants to do; they also bear the costs, but they work for it. Not only do they not take concessions or money from it, but they also spend money; their only concession is that the arrogant powers prevent their downfall at the hands of opposing forces and keep them. They have such a program for our generation; for the very student who is under your care, they have this program. Now, how much they can or cannot is another discussion, but this program exists. They promote their thoughts, their culture, their language.

I repeat here what I have sometimes said to the officials of education; perhaps I have not said it to the current respected officials, but I have said it repeatedly before; this insistence on promoting the English language in our country is an unhealthy act. Yes, one should know a foreign language, but a foreign language is not only English; the language of science is not only English. Why are other languages not designated as language lessons in schools? What is the insistence? This is a legacy of the era of tyranny, this is a legacy of the Pahlavi era. [For example] the Spanish language; today, those who speak Spanish are not fewer than those who speak English; in various countries, in Latin America or Africa, there are many people. For example, I say; I am not a promoter of [the] Spanish language to work for them, but I am giving an example. Why is French or German not taught? The languages of advanced Eastern countries are also foreign languages; these are also languages of science. Dear sir! Other countries pay attention to this issue and prevent the infiltration and expansion of foreign languages; we have now become more Catholic than the Pope! We have opened the field and, in addition to making this language the exclusive foreign language of our schools, we are constantly bringing it [to lower levels]; in elementary schools and kindergartens! Why? We want to promote the Persian language, we must spend a lot and work hard. [When] a language chair is canceled somewhere, we must make diplomatic contacts to ask why the language chair was canceled. They do not allow it, they do not grant permission for students, they do not grant concessions, because we want to promote the Persian language somewhere; then we come to promote their language with our own money, with our own expenses, with our own problems. Is this rational? I do not understand! I mentioned this in parentheses so that everyone knows and pays attention. [Of course] I do not say that tomorrow we should cancel the English language in schools; no, that is not my point; the point is that we should know what we are doing; we should know what kind of generation they want to cultivate in this country, and with what characteristics.

Well, this is the generation that the international domination - the system of domination - wants. What do we want? What kind of generation do we want? This oath was very good; I saw this oath before I came here, it was brought to me, and I looked at it; now I listened carefully. Also, know this: once you take an oath, it becomes obligatory for you; the oath taken with intention is something that must be acted upon; the oath was good, the oath was good.

The first thing we need to consider for our students is to instill in them an independent national and religious identity; this is the first thing; an independent and dignified identity. We must raise our youth in such a way that they seek independent politics, independent economy, and independent culture; dependency, reliance on others, trust in others, and leaning on others should not grow in them as a spirit. We are damaged in this regard; let me tell you! You see, a foreign word that enters the country is immediately used by everyone, big and small, turbaned and non-turbaned, and so on. Well, why, dear sir? Why are we so eager and thirsty to use foreign expressions? Why? This is the same state that has been inherited for us. This is the same state of the era of tyranny that is our youth era. I remember; I myself, when I was young, it was as if we had a competition to use these foreign expressions. Whoever used these expressions more was considered more enlightened and more aware and so on. This is wrong. An independent identity is the first thing we must cultivate and nurture in our youth, in our adolescents. Then, only then does the concept of resistant economy make sense. It is not that we want to implement a resistant economy, and the high-ranking officials come and sit down to hold a hundred consecutive meetings and constantly issue regulations, constantly issue circulars, and so on; in the end, it may not be implemented in its complete form. Now, they are trying to ensure that this resistant economy is realized. When the spirit is one of independence and resistance and standing against others, it is hard. When we get used to extracting a reserve - which wise and thoughtful families usually keep reserves for themselves; we also have a God-given reserve, and that is oil - constantly extracting it and selling it, constantly extracting it and selling it, without added value; at one time, we convert it into something that has added value, that is acceptable, but no, without any added value, we just extract it and sell it. Some of these heads of state who have come to us have complained that our trade balance with you is not equal; you sell us more and buy less; I have repeatedly told several of them that what you buy is mostly oil; oil means money, oil means gold; we do not gain added value from oil; we extract our wealth from under the ground and give it to you. This cannot be accounted for in the trade balance. These are important. When there is an independent identity, one moves away from this kind of living; then the resistant economy makes sense, the economy without oil makes sense, independent culture makes sense.

We must revive the outstanding and prominent indicators in our students; yes, it was also in this oath that we should activate their God-given nature; yes, it is correct; in all of us, the Almighty God has placed a substance that can grow and can be used. Activate this in this child, nurture it.

These indicators are these; now, mainly, we must produce and revive the concepts that create movement in them; faith; critical thinking, learn to think; social participation, avoiding undesirable social isolation; social solidarity, which has a very high Islamic meaning.

Reforming the consumption pattern; I have spoken many times about reforming the consumption pattern - in the speeches at the beginning of the year, with officials, in private meetings, in public meetings - but our consumption pattern has not yet been reformed; we consume poorly. This issue of foreign goods that I discussed here a few days ago with a group is of this kind. These billions and hundreds of billions of smuggling of luxury goods are of this kind. These childish behaviors in the streets - where the newly wealthy children parade around with their fancy cars, constantly showing off - are due to these things; reforming the consumption pattern. This must be taught to this youth and adolescent from childhood.

Tolerance of opposition; yes, until someone gives us a slight push, we turn back and hit them with our fists; this is intolerance. Islam does not want this from us; Islam wants the opposite from us; رُحَمآءُ بَینَهُم.

Politeness; being polite. Now, many of you are presumably familiar with the virtual space; is politeness really observed in the virtual space? Is modesty observed? Well, it is not anymore; or in a significant part [it is] not observed. These must be nurtured in the adolescent and youth.

Religiousness; not being raised in an aristocratic manner; not injecting an aristocratic lifestyle into them. Of course, if I were to list and read here, it would take several pages; some of it is these.

You must do these; this is your work, this is your sacred work. You are the ones who nurture this generation in this way and create culture. If you can instill these movement-generating concepts in your students' minds, you have done a great service to the future of your country. Fortunately, the teacher is like this; because they teach, because they educate, they naturally have a spiritual and cultural dominance over the student - now we do not consider the ill-mannered students in some classes, but generally, this is the case; in the religious seminaries, the student is submissive before the teacher like a servant; now in the new culture, this is not the case, but still, the teacher has a certain dominance over the student - you can use that.

Well, various institutions have roles; they can create this environment in education so that the teacher can easily perform their work and remain faithful to the content of this oath and the matters we have discussed.

One is the educational deputy, which has been ordered and fortunately has been established and activated, but it is not enough; the educational deputy has a heavier responsibility. Active, purposeful, intelligent, and healthy work; both healthy in terms of belief, healthy in terms of politics, and healthy in terms of ethics; these are among the responsibilities of the educational deputy; you must observe these. If any error occurs regarding any of these - whether steadfastness in religious conduct, ethical, or political - it is a blow to education and a blow to this generation.

One of the institutions in this regard is the media; the media can play a significant role. I said last year, it has not been done as it should have been; the media should have a specific working chapter for education; thoughtful people should sit down and plan. A few days ago - perhaps last week - a group of adolescent and young students were here in the Hosseiniyeh, and I spoke to them. One of them gave me a letter, and I saw it made a valid point; it said that there are programs for children in the media, there are programs for adults, but there are no programs for us high school youths. I saw he was right, it is a correct statement. What program have you provided for this youth that they can use for spiritual, intellectual, religious, and scientific benefit? Of course, there are scientific programs on some networks, but these are not programs; programming must be done; it must be done artistically. This is also a responsible institution.

One is the Ministry of Communications. This virtual space today is many times larger than the real space of our lives; some people breathe in the virtual space; they live there, their life is in the virtual space. Youth also deal with the virtual space, with various things and tasks, with its scientific programs, with its internet, with its social networks, with exchanges and the like; well, this is a slippery slope. No one says, "Do not build a road." If you need a road in a certain area, very well, build a road, build a highway, but be careful! Where landslides are likely, calculate the necessary measures there. Our communications devices, the Ministry of Communications, and the Supreme Cyber Council - of which I also have complaints - our recommendation is this. We do not say to close this road; no, that would be foolish. Some people have sat down, thought, and opened a path called this virtual space and, as they say, cyber; very well, use it, but use it correctly; others are using it correctly; some countries have seized these devices according to their culture. Why do we not do it? Why are we not careful? Why do we leave this uncontrollable and unregulated space? They are responsible, one of the responsible institutions is the Ministry of Communications.

All of these must help education; education alone cannot do all the work; they must help. That I have repeatedly said that institutions must help education, well, these are the helps; not all of them should think of financial and material assistance; these are the helps; all must cooperate so that education can truly stand on its feet and do its work.

One of the things that must be done in education is to inject a spirit of vitality and youthfulness into the teacher; do not let the teacher become old. I do not mean old in age; some are young in age but have an old spirit; some have a young spirit even though they are old. We have a teacher who, I think, has been teaching for about seventy years, [but] has not given up; these have value. These spirits must be revived in education.

Our educational system is an outdated and old system. The educational system is old; we took it from the Europeans, kept it as it is, like a sacred museum piece that should not be touched! Whenever we slightly adjusted its corners, we did so with caution; the system is an old system; it must be renewed. Well, of course, this transformation plan that the Minister referred to is a step in this direction; it is good, but I want to say that for the renewal of the education system, we should not look to the hands of others, see what has happened in a certain European country, and copy it. No, sir, thinkers should sit down - of course, it is good to use experiences - and design themselves, design a new system. Now, this transformation plan that has apparently been well prepared is a step; they should implement it carefully and critically; they should look and see where it has flaws. After all, in every non-divine writing and every human action, there is a flaw; let us find that flaw. Identify the flaws, identify the defects, and design a clean and orderly system.

One of the things that is very important in education is the Teacher Training University; this is where our dear youth, [that is] student-teachers, are. This is very important. Everything possible must be invested in the quantitative and qualitative development of this group; with the same lofty criteria that are necessary for teachers. I mentioned, this oath that you read was good, provided that you act according to this oath; we must truly be committed to what we swear to. Short-term training courses are also held, but of course, these are not very effective.

One of the important issues in education is the issue of vocational and technical education, which I have repeatedly emphasized. Our child studies for twelve years until they become a youth, to go to university; is this path and going to university necessary for all the jobs that exist in society? As I have been informed, it is said that there are twelve thousand types of jobs; is this educational path and going to university necessary for all these twelve thousand types of jobs? Or should the goal be skill enhancement, efficiency for various jobs, for different talents; some are talented in art, who [if] you give them an industrial task, they will not succeed; some are the opposite, talented in industry; one is talented in thought and philosophy, one is talented in social issues, one is talented in service work. Let us see, identify the talents, and train these talents until they become skilled, until they can work, until they can innovate. We emphasize innovation; well, who can innovate? Not just any ordinary person can innovate; they must be trained to be able to innovate in a certain field.

One issue regarding the use of names and symbols from the era of tyranny that I see some insist on; I do not understand its meaning that we must say 'vanguard'! Well, vanguard is a term from the era of tyranny; what necessity is there? These expressions and these words each have a semantic burden behind them. One of the greatest achievements of the Islamic Republic was to create terms with semantic burdens, for example, consider arrogance, the oppressed, the system of domination; such expressions are things that other nations, political elites, and active and combatant elites of other nations have seized from us. [What necessity is there for] these tyrannical expressions? We have a student mobilization, for example, we have student vanguard groups or Islamic student associations; these expressions are terms of the Islamic Republic. What necessity is there for us to pursue old expressions?

One point I want to mention regarding our existing schools. Well, [that] the issue of education according to the constitution and as a person thinks correctly understands, is a governance issue, does not mean that all of its burden must be on the shoulders of the government; however, the government must play a role in education. That we constantly convert public schools into non-profit ones does not seem to be a very mature and correct action; now, its name is non-profit schools, but some of these are profit-making schools, not non-profit; with those ridiculous tuition fees that I have heard some charge. We must raise the level of public schools so that families are more inclined towards these schools.

A lot of time has passed, our talk has taken a long time, my last point is that you must build the country, my dear ones; you must build it. Among the elements that can build the country are you teachers; take advantage of this opportunity; from your capabilities. Fortunately, what we have heard and seen about the respected Minister is that he is, thanks be to God, accepted in terms of intellectual integrity and practical integrity; take advantage of this opportunity. Of course, he must also strive to ensure that his colleagues are also truly people of intellectual integrity and practical integrity whom we can trust in this great task. You must build the country; you must empower the country. Power is not just about weapons; the most important tool of power and the most important element of power-building is knowledge and national identity. The identity of individuals, steadfastness, identity, revolutionary identity; these are what build power. Faith gave our nation power, the revolution gave our nation power. When you have power and the enemy sees your power, they will inevitably retreat; when we avoid showing and presenting the foundations and elements of our power in front of the enemy, when we are afraid, when we hesitate, the enemy becomes brazen.

That today you see enemies making bigger claims than they can handle, all of it can be responded to by the Iranian nation. They sit down and plan that Iran should not have military exercises in the Persian Gulf; what strange nonsense! They come from the other side of the world and conduct military exercises here; what are you doing here? Well, go to the Gulf of Pigs; go there and conduct exercises wherever you want. In the Persian Gulf, what are you doing? The Persian Gulf is our home. The Persian Gulf is the place for the great Iranian nation to be present; the shores of the Persian Gulf, along with many shores of the Sea of Oman, belong to this nation; they must be present, they must conduct exercises, they must show power. We are a nation with history, a powerful nation; now, the weak kings of disgrace have come and for a few days pushed us back and sprinkled dead soil on this country; they have gone and lost their graves. The nation is a waking nation, a great nation; will it allow this? This is how we must confront these greedy, expansionist, and monopolistic powers. I said, I am certain that they have been defeated against us; the reason for their defeat is very clear, because they wanted the Islamic Republic not to exist; the Islamic Republic, in addition to existing, has become many times more powerful than before; well, this is a defeat. The Quran has taught us this: تُرهِبونَ بِه‌ عَدُوَّ اللهِ وَ عَدُوَّکُم; prepare yourselves in such a way that the enemy of God and your enemy may have fear and dread of you. The enemy; it does not mean the neighbor, it does not mean the rival, it does not mean the country that does not oppose us; the enemy means the one who is hostile, whom everyone knows.

We ask the Almighty God to grant you and us the success to continue on the path that is pleasing to God and is in accordance with His will, God willing. God willing, the future of this country, thanks to the honorable and active presence of you young people, will be a future that brings happiness to all the nation.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.