The Director General of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association Dr. Mohammad Baqer Fadlallah addressed a message to the teachers on the occasion of Teacher's Day, in which he took up the exceptional conditions we are passing through in Lebanon, which have led to the halting of lessons in schools, institutes, universities and teaching and educational institutions. He affirmed the growing role of the teacher, especially in this sensitive stage, which requires supporting students and following them up even in their homes.
In his message Dr. Fadlallah affirmed Al-Mabarrat's keenness for its students and its teachers, especially in these circumstances we are passing through, pointing to the efforts being exerted at more than one level to overcome the challenges facing the teaching process. He said: “Al-Mabarrat, which arose on the basis of a mission-driven, marja-inspired thought, will not diminish the measure and the scale through the mission-driven people who walk the path of the prophets, and it will remain keen that the rights of the staff and the students in its institutions are not lost.”
He added: “Al-Mabarrat's students are a trust upon our necks; we will do everything in our power to preserve their future until we overcome this crisis, God willing. The student in Al-Mabarrat's schools is a priority for us: we must not diminish the scale of knowledge and must give full measure to our pupils, and give every rightful person their right in assessment, in regard and in judgement. Likewise we must observe our pupils' aptitudes and how we turn these aptitudes into capacities.”
The Director General of Al-Mabarrat stressed the necessity that students' rights be safeguarded by the teachers, saying: “The students have rights upon you that you must discharge to them in full - what they deserve at the social, educational, care and professional level - exactly as you think of your rights upon people and ask them to pay your right in full without diminution. Shortchanging students in their due is among the corruption that is forbidden, and educational disorder corrupts society's balance and robs it of the foundation of trust by blowing up the moral base on which the movement of education rests.”
Fadlallah called for humility, saying: “The director who is truly a director, the teacher who is truly a teacher and the human being who is truly a human being is the one who is humble before someone who has more knowledge than they do, before a pupil who is more perceptive than they are, and before a person who is more humane than they are.. And how wonderful is the person who admits their inability and asks for help from one who has more experience than they do in the field of education, administration and technology.. These are the courses and workshops that light for us aspects hidden from us, by people of expertise and experience, in the hope that the inability may be lifted and the capacity attained.”
He noted the necessity of balance between the theoretical and the practical, saying: “In teaching, the theoretical mental aspect must not overwhelm the practical, and vice versa. Likewise the multiplicity of aids must not overwhelm the defining of instructions and the clarifying of theories, nor the activities overwhelm the knowledge; and the classroom must not turn into dry information with no space in it for a joke, a witticism or an educational hint. The same applies to administration: the giving of orders and the monitoring of administrative routine - signing papers, following up a budget, holding meetings and so on - must not overwhelm good communication with the staff and the extending of bridges of human, fraternal encounter. There must be a balance for every movement in life, and the measure and the scale must be given in full so that life does not rest on injustice.”
Fadlallah saluted the teachers' patience and steadfastness, saying: “Dear ones, your day has the delicious taste of steadfastness in a time of quaking and shaking - an inspiration for our endurance on the thorny road, so that we may learn from the firmness of its mission-driven stances the lessons of crossing over the bridges of hardship.. On this beautiful day we open our hearts to the gardens of love so as to draw from them the essence of the fragrance of the roses of thanks and the scent of appreciation for you.”
He continued: “To all the teachers at Al-Mabarrat: as you proved in hardships and calamities, you are those who affirm God's oneness in word, in movement, in striving and in conduct. You dissolved and merged into it to the point of sufficiency and certainty; you gave and still give the utmost of your lives and the blossoms of your youth, sparing them for it, guarding its principles and its values and realizing its purposes and goals. We will continue together and remain on the straight road, especially in facing the challenges and the difficulties, as we live these days an exceptional living and economic reality in a homeland beset by corruption and injustice - corruption in governance and injustice to people by usurping their rights, shortchanging them in their due, measuring with the scales of skimping and diminishing the balance, and the prevalence of oppression and the spread of tyranny.”
He concluded: “Dear ones, you are the ones who draw the images of Al-Mabarrat as hanging gardens on the homeland's wide plains, its verdant meadows and its towering mountains. You carried the arduous burden of responsibility, and carrying it only increased you in insistence, strength and firmness of determination and will - so the effort blossomed and bore fruit in Al-Mabarrat's spaces: beautiful places and times aglow with the lights of successes, distinction, elevation, loftiness and ascent. You are the patient ones, seeking God's face in the difficult time; those who give knowledge as the alms upon spending; those who meet the arrogance of the bad deed with the radiance of the good one. In you we take pride and glory, and with you the blessed sowing yields its fruit - a giving that is good and sweet and palatable to those thirsting and yearning for the good of this world's life and the fine reward of the hereafter.”
