“Al-Mabarrat” Charitable Association held a series of celebrations on the occasion of Teacher's Day at its educational and care institutions in the various Lebanese regions.
On the occasion, the association's Director General Dr. Mohammad Baqer Fadlallah addressed a message to the teachers at “Al-Mabarrat”, in which he saluted their efforts, which “have kept the institutions renewing in vitality and activity and in radiances of hope for the pupils, and an opening of their minds”.
He said: “Four decades are the age of Al-Mabarrat in the service of the human being and of life - and you, teacher, have never wearied in soul, never tired in body and never weakened in capacity; rather patience increased you in will, pain in immunity and faith in firmness in facing the many harsh challenges.”
He called for “a constant review of the journey of education and teaching”, and said: “The successful teacher lives review in taking account of the self: have I deprived a learner of their right to benefit? Have I turned a deaf ear to the call of their need and the cry of their desire to understand? Were my words dead or full of life and love? Have I killed a soul with my shouting, my scolding or my mockery - or did I revive it with a smile, a compassionate look, a tender word and a hand patting a shoulder that has no support?”
He held that “the measure of any society is not its technological progress or its material level but the values it carries and the character it represents. It is a task of challenge - so are we equal to it? Do we humble ourselves before our pupils' needs in education and teaching? Their needs require a humility that respects human dignity, encourages creativity and criticism, deepens equality and supports pupils' confidence in themselves and in their talents.”
He stressed the necessity that “teaching seek to develop the stirring of imagination in pupils and not content itself with sensory perception”, pointing out that “the scientific development of our age is the child of scientific imagination and literary creativity; it is the product of the imagination that rises above the rigidity of the senses to the horizon of abstraction and travel in an unseen world that transcends limited time and place”.
He noted the importance of “offering clear content in education, care and administration, in the premises and the means, and of leaving room for the receptive self to move to a stage of active effectiveness, so that it acts by inference and prediction according to its taste and its analysis. Here our institutions with their individuals are no longer packaged and standardized; rather each of them and each individual among them becomes a distinct world in their giving and their understanding.”
