In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The sacred maternal responsibility, the most important of responsibilities
As you ladies say, you are teachers. You have two noble occupations; you have two very noble occupations. One is to bring up children, which is above any other occupations. Sending good offspring into society is better for you than anything else in the world. I cannot express in words how important it is for you to train people properly. One of our occupations, then, is to raise good children. The mother's lap is the place where" human beings" should be molded. That is, the first stage of training children is in the mother's lap. The reason for this is that a child's attachment to his mother is the greatest of all attachments. There is no greater love than that existing between a mother and her child. Children copy things better from their mothers. They are influenced by their mothers more than by their fathers, teachers or tutors. Because of this, you must raise your children in an Islamic, humane way until the time you send them to school. You should send a child that is truthful, good-natured and good-mannered.
The separation of a child from the mother, the cause of complexes and evils
Thus, one occupation is the raising of children of which the taghouti government, unfortunately, tried to deprive these mothers. They made propaganda as to why a woman should raise children They debased this noble occupation in the sight of the mothers in order to separate them from their children and bring them up in nurseries. And the mothers to go their own way and take up any job they like. A child not brought up in the mother's lap but in a nursery, develops a complex on growing up. A child in a nursery and away from his mother develops a complex when dealing with strangers in the absence of motherly love. Most of the social evils stem from these children who have developed a complex; from these people who suffer from a complex. The source of this big complex is the separation of the child from his mother. A child needs the mother's love; therefore, this task- which was also that of the prophets who came to build man- is your primary one as the first duty is to train the child.
The direction of the teachers, the same as the mission of the prophets
By virtue of being teachers, you have been entrusted with another noble task, the responsibility of which is as great as its nobleness. Your occupation deals with molding human beings. A teacher produces human beings just as the prophets did. The prophets- every prophet from the first one to the last- came only for the job of molding people and training them. The teaching profession is the same (in aim) as that of the prophets. The Noble Prophet is the teacher of the whole of humanity. After him, it was Hadrat Amir (`a) who was also humanity's teacher. They were the teachers of humanity in its entirety, whereas you are the teachers of a part of it. But the task is the same; that is, the sphere is the same; the job is the same. While their range of activity was broad, ours is limited. Therefore, this occupation of yours is very noble one, but bearing a great responsibility, just as the responsibility of the prophets was great. Their responsibility was as grave as the task of molding human beings. They, however, accomplished their mission and the tasks with which they had been entrusted. Your occupation is very honorable and the same as that of the prophets, and the responsibility is also the same.
The teachers' role in the well-being or corruption of society
You must pay attention to the religious and moral upbringing of the children in your care. If you send a pious child into society, you will, one day, find this pious, committed child reforming society. It is possible for one person to reform a society. But if, God forbid, a child has not been properly trained by you in your capacity as a teachers, and has not been properly brought up while in your care, it is then possible for the child to corrupt society for which you are responsible.
On the one hand, if you educate a person properly, you will be considered as honorable as the prophets. However, if, on the other hand, the children in your care and those that are, afterwards, under your tutelage are, God forbid, brought up in an immoral way, it will be possible for them to corrupt society.
May God grant you and make you prosperous. May you be good coaches for the children and these girls who come to you to get educated. May God keep all of you.