I used to write this article which was for the university the Bahai literatures. I used also Christian and Islamic literatures.
I hope with cooperation and love, Unity we can build a better world for us and our children.
The human being is even as steel, the essence of which is hidden; through admonition and explanation, good counsel and education, the essence will be brought to light. If, however, he be allowed to remain in his original condition, the corrosion of lusts and appetites will effectively destroy him.
Education of the physical and intellectual, spiritual and ethical aspects of man.
It is considered education as one of the most fundamental factors of a true civilization. This education, however, in order to be adequate and fruitful, should be comprehensive in nature and should take into consideration not only the physical and the intellectual side of man but also his spiritual and ethical aspects. This should be the program for the youth all over the world.
Man said to be greatest representative of spiritual Love
Man is said to be greatest representative of God, and he is the Book of Creation because all the mysteries of beings exist in him. If he comes under the shadow of the true educator and is rightly trained, he becomes the essences, the light of lights, the spirit of spirits; he becomes the centre of the divine appearance, the source of spiritual qualities, the rising-place of heavenly lights, and the receptacle of divine of inspirations. If he is deprived of this education he becomes the manifestation of satanic qualities, the sum of animal vices, and the source of all dark conditions.
As you see the terrorist have not a good education and because they are angry or brain washed they are willing to kill anybody. And because the society is indifferent, that is not my problem that is your problem. They think they can solve the problems in this way.
I had Shia students and Soni students. Shia and Soni are two major or section of Islamic religion. Shia say that Ali the son-in-law of the prophet Mohammad and his cousin should be the leader or religion king ( Khalief) and the Soni say that the Abubakr his father-in-law should be the first leader or religion king. My Soni student said that the Shia are not Moslem and should be killed, he was a radical Moslem, and my Shia student said the same thing, that the Soni are not real Moslem and should be killed. Radical people like this are attracted to any radical or terrorist group, as because of lack of education and the influence of evil people these types of students are totally brain washed.
Modern education lacking in ability to produce a mature mind in man.
People today indeed do tend to be very superficial in their thinking, and it would seem as if the educational systems in use are sorely lacking in ability to produce a mature mind in a person who has reached supposedly adult life! All the outside influence that surround the individual seem to have an intensely distraction effect, and it is a hard job to get the average person to do any deep thinking or even a little meditation on the problems facing him and the world at large. Over and over the wise people said against the heedlessness of humanity, and warn of the fate such an attitude must lead on. Did we not know what God plans to and will do, with the world in the future, we should certainly be as hopeless as many of the best thinkers of our generation have become.
To understand and respect other people and their culture we need to know their language as a key to their treasure.
If we do not finance the education of people now, later we should finance the jail system. It costs more money and more energy. If the people are educated and work they pay tax, but if they are not educated and have no work, the taxpayer should pay their costs in jail system.
Each should be educated according to his needs and deserts.
Among other teaching and principles Bahai u lah, a Persian prophet, counsels the education of all members the society. No individual should be denied or deprived of intellectual training although each should receive according to capacity. None must be left in grades of ignorance, for ignorance is a defect in the human world. All mankind must be given knowledge of science and philosophy; that is, as much as may be deemed necessary. All cannot be scientists or philosophers but each should be educated according to his needs and deserts.
Education extended to prisoners
Kindness, training and education extended to prisoners are exceedingly important. Therefore as you have exerted and effort in this, has awakened some of them, and has been the cause of the turning of their faces to divine Kingdom, this praiseworthy deed is highly accepted. Assuredly persevere. Convey on my behalf to the two prisoners in a prison the utmost kindness, and tell them” That prison in the sight of wise souls is a school of training and development. You must strive with heart and soul that you may become renowned in character and knowledge.
Another Persian philosopher said, if the school is good and the teacher is nice, even Sundays the children want to come to school. Even the students, who never like the school and teacher, will come to school and be with the teacher.
Humankind is as children in school, and prophets are their teachers. The great Jesus was the teacher of the mankind.
O true companions! All humankind is as children in a school, and the Dawning- Points of Light, the Sources of divine revelation are the teachers, wondrous and without pee. In the school of realities they educate these sons and daughters, according to teaching from God, and foster them in the bosom of grace, so that they may develop along every line, show forth the excellent gifts and blessings of the Lord, and combine human perfections; that they may advance in all aspects of human endeavor, whether outward or inward, hidden or visible, material or spiritual, until they make of this mortal world a widespread mirror, to reflect that other word which die not.
Learning is the greatest bestowal of God
It is clear that learning is the greatest bestowal of God; that knowledge and the acquirement thereof is a blessing from Heaven. Thus it is incumbent upon the friends of God to exert such and effort and strive with such eagerness to promote divine knowledge, culture and the sciences, that ere long those who are school children today will become the most erudite of all the fraternity of the wise. This is a service rendered unto God Himself, and it is His inescapable commandments.
The real religion is Love and unity, if a religion says you should hate and kill, that should be not a real religion, and it is politic or business. If a religion do not respect other group of people, other nations and races or other religion believers, and persecute them. It is not a religion and if the religion caused hate, disunity and war; to have no religion of this type is much better.
The academic life
The academic life also has its fashions and fades, even though they are of a different nature from the fads of the man on the street. These fashions are not permanent they are bound to change. Today the fad is a materialistic view of life and of the world. A day will soon come when it will become deeply religious and spiritual. In fact, we can discern the beginning of such a change in the writings of some of the most eminent souls and liberal minds. When the pendulum will start its full swing then we shall see all such eminent men turn again to God, which is the pure Love.
I have been persecuted in my home country. I will write these matters, because I think it is an example and will help the reader to understand better the situation the world and in other countries. I do not want to have the sympathy of the readers for my personal difficulties and very hardship situation that I had and had been chosen for me, because it is not important and it is only a personal matter, but the message that I want to mention is important. I will try to remove the similar difficulties form the life of other people with the help of my experience. My be the only people that can feel what I am trying to say, are those who have been in the same situation and have been persecuted, like me. Because of their parents’ religion or their own religion which was the religion of minorities or just because they had another idea that the dictator did not like. My crime was, that I did not want to write an article in the newspapers against other religion, Bahais and Christians, who for Americans is like a fairy tell. But for me, that means I lost my jobs as general consultant to the state secretary, as a university teacher and researcher for the university, lost my original documents of my degrees, have lost the love of my beloved sister, whom I helped a lot, lost my family, who were angry of my trust to my sister and losing my position and left me later. Be rejected in the new country, and generally from top comes all the way to the bottom. But I do not regret for what happen to me. I will try to point out this matter that such situation should be not exited at all. I lost a lot of things, but I did not gamble and did not waste my capital, which is my experience. I lost a lot of thing, because I wanted to work for the unity of mankind. In summary, I was helping people, but one of them wrote to the revolutionary court, whom I helped a lot but he wanted to damage my life for his own benefit, he wrote I help the people, because I want to change their religion. It is a criminal case in Iran to change people religion from Islam to other religion. Many people have been killed just for this accusation.
You can imagine, how willing I would like to work for my goals, which I think should be practice in the world. Why we have terrorists in the world? Because of the lack of education, and pure love, misunderstanding and brain washing by evil people. The life will be much nicer, if we understand each other language, culture and thinking and do not use our own value for other cultures. The foreign languages are the key for this effort. Florida has a lot of help and benefit for ESOL students, or foreign students, but not for foreign teachers. I see that the teachers are not so well come in the school system as students. That is my impression and I hope one day they could understand that with love and unity we can solve the most existing problems in the world, these problems are the cause of ignorant, disrespect and discriminations.
The goal of learning foreign languages.
The Persian poem wrote; all these fights, arguments and hate are the result of ignorant and misunderstanding and having not a pure heart, pure thinking. If you purify your way of seeing, your heart and your thinking and try to understand other people cultures and language, you will see, that all of them are saying the same thing, so the Mosque, synagogue, temples, churches are the same, and have the same goal.
To kill your own children is better than leaving them alive without good education and ignorant. Because they will later kill millions of people. To educate the girls are more important than boys, as the girls will be the future mother, and they will have more contact with the children, to have an ignorant uneducated mother will be the worst thing in the life of a human beings. If one family has only so much money that they can educate just one child and if they have one son and one daughter, they should send the daughter to the college not the son. Learn foreign language, so you are not limited with one nation only.
Humankind is as children in school, and prophets are their teacher.
True companions! All humankind is as children in a school, and the Drawing-point of Light, the Sources of divine revelation are the teachers, wondrous and without pee. In the school of realities they educate these sons and daughters, according to teaching from God, which means the pure love and unity of mankind, cooperation and taking care concerning each other, and foster them in the bosom of grace, so that they may develop along every line, show forth the excellent gifts and blessings of the Lore, Love, and combine human perfection; that they may advance in all aspects of human endeavor, whether outward or inward, hidden or visible, material or spiritual, until they make of this mortal world a widespread mirror, to reflect that other world which die not. Learning is the greatest bestowal of God, Love and Unity, which is Love and unity of mankind.
it is clear that learning is the greatest bestowal of Love and unity, God, that knowledge and the acquirement thereof is a blessing from Heaven. Thus it is incumbent upon the friends of God.
Just, the question that I had always with my students, I wanted first that they should understand why they are learning and the importance of learning.
My point is according to the world situation and the new order, we should work together, if we want to have successful life for everybody and if we want to have a safe place for us and for our children. One day everybody will know that there is no other way, but cooperation and unity of mankind and the pure Love.
If you just study the world situation, you will see that billions of billions of dollars is spent for war and hate in the world, by different governments. If we use this money for peace, universities, and hospitals and for welfare, then we can provide the minimum of life for everybody. If the people in the world try to understand each other languages and cultures and spend their time, energy and knowledge for peace, love and unity, we will have a much better world. I gather a lot of support from Persian sources for my writing. If you research in other culture, you will see the same thinking and the same materials. Leon Nicolasich Alexandrowich Tolstoy has written that the key of the world peace is in the hand of an Iranian prisoner in Tehran Persian. At that time the ignorant dictator of Iran put the Iranian philosopher and prophet in jail, because he spoke about universal love and unity and his follower started to teach this, we should love the whole world and their citizen. Not only the people of our country. Sorrowfully the people who want to work for the unity of mankind is always have treated with a horrible situation. If you look in the history, you can see that the people who wanted to save the humanity and the wanted to establish the unity of mankind, have been killed, torched, and sent to jail or have been sent to other countries in exile. We cannot have peace in the world until we study other cultures, languages and to learn to respect these and be nice and loving the other nations.
A Persian poem says the God will not forgive you if you break the heart of one man, woman or child.
The people without deep study of other culture and other religion should not give their opinion and persecute what they do not know. They say we are right, the other people are wrong. They should know that many things are relative and not absolute. An action or a word could be very good in one culture and the same one is the worst word or bad action in other culture.
I had Moslem student, he said only the Koran is the most holy book and everything from physic to literature, science humanity and medicine have been written in the Koran. We need only to read Koran, we do not need other books, and should destroy other books. May be you know this fact also in the time that Arabs invaded Iran and brought Islam, their leader Kalif Omar said burn all of the other books we have Koran, and in Koran is every knowledge written. If in those books the pure knowledge is written, burn them, because it is also in Koran. And if they are against Koran, they should be burn, too. Because we do not need other knowledge, the Koran is for us enough. So the Arabs burned all Persian books in the Iranian universities and schools. I asked my student, “did you read Koran, the whole Koran?” He said, “no, I have no time for reading Koran, it is Arabic and very difficult, I must read simpler Persian books that I need.” Then I asked, “how do you know that every knowledge is in Koran?” he said, “I heard this and I believe it. “
The only way to understand the situation ant to solve the existing problems in the world is to be active and read and study and not just listen to ignorant people. The education and study should be deeply and without any discrimination and if we know foreign languages so we have access to foreign literature, too. You can have access to international sources and the world wisdom of other nations and the good work of their writers and philosopher, and scientist in all of the fields. From humanity to technical and medical knowledge. If we want to solve the existing problems in the world, the force is not useful or enough. We need to understand each other, and that is not possible as long as we cannot communicate with each other. The sources that I am refereeing are over 140 year old, but you can see it fit our modern society. And if you imagine that over 140 years ago, the Persian philosopher and prophets mentioned, that the only way to solve the problems in the world, is the unity of mankind and cooperation of nations, United nations, better understanding and good education free from discriminations for all children in the world. There is no other way, but this. If the pastor in one church says, only my church is the right one and other churches are Satan churches and are wrong and only the people who come to my church are going to heaven. Do you think it is right? Do you think that other churches and or other religion will accept this speech? No they will say the same thing, my church is right one and the other church is wrong and so the other religion will say the same thing, and this confusion and disunity brings the existing problems, why the terrorist are so angry with other nations and they want to kill everybody, who is not with them? Because they have been rejected and so they are attracted to terror and evil people brain washed them for their purpose. In the world that we are so close to each other, we should find a solution for all these problems and try to make the life easier for everybody or at least easier for the most people in the world and the majority should be concerned. If you listen to news, you will see that in the world every day a lot of people are killed. Why, because of ignorant and greed, love of evil, money and power. Why we should not educate the people to solve these problems. The pure love and humanity should be the goal for everybody, then we will have paradise in this world, but the first step is that the people should understand each other languages. There is no other way, then learning other languages and other cultures. Without communication how can we share our experiences with each other? So to learn foreign language is a key for the unity of mankind and the solution for existing problems. What I am trying to write is not new, but I will try to find a way to reach that goal, the possible ways and their connection from learning foreign languages to world peace and the unity of human beings. What is the connection between the world unity and world peace. The communication between people in the world.
But how can we reach the unity of mankind and how can solve the existing problems. If we cannot speak with each other in the world, how can we have the unity with each other?
Jesus said, “love each other as I loved you, love your enemy, respect him/her, do not hate them, love the sinner, but hate the sin.” But if we cannot communicate with each other how can we show our deep love to each other. How can we love other nation, if we do not understand their language? So the first step is to learn the differences between their culture and our culture. To understand their religion. That will be the first step for the unity of mankind and for the solution of existing problems in the world.
Why we have so many terrorist, drug dealers, hate and war marketing, illegal businesses, cheating activities, thieves, bad people, greedy persons and so on? The first step is leaning different languages in the world. The second step is to educate for the whole citizen of the world, good education to be human beings and be different than robots and bad animals. To be not indifferent and passive.
You can see that even the animals can be trained and be useful animals. Why we should not train the people in the world, are they less than animals? Why the whole people in the world should not be trained to be good and useful, too?
If the people have security and a good educational background in love and unity, then we will eliminate war and hate totally in the world. In this article, I will try to bring example form different sources and use my own experience to support my writing. As a foreign teacher and student, who is also persecuted in his own country, I have not much choice to be useful person, as because of foreign language I am almost disable to write my deep thinking, but I do not give up and try. Due to foreign language problem and also cultural problem it is very hard for me to explain what I really want to explain and the matter that I would like to explain is more difficult for me to open it in foreign language than my mother language. But I will promise you, that I will try as far as I can. The barrier of foreign language and culture is a big problem. The people cannot understand what I am trying to say and the way that I write is different than the way they did learn. But I will try to pass this huge barrier and this tall wall, which does not let me to write and express my experience as good and interesting as in my mother language and I cannot say my opinion free and powerful as I could do it in my mother language. The people are not generally patient here with me. But I apologize for my weakness and ask you for forgiveness. I actually was trained to work and be useful in Germany , and Iran . But because both countries have no position and possibilities for me, I had to choose the third country, the USA . Iran persecuted me as I did not want to write article in the newspapers against Bahai religion and Christianity, and Germany did not give me visa, because they had good relationship and business with Iran , so I had to come to the USA . And I must start my life here from zero point. But because from a high class positions, I came down to a very low position, my family and friends left me, too. As I could not get the same position and the same salary here as in my country, my family got angry with me and have left me alone, after they took all advantages, which they could have from me. I lost my positions in Iran , because I was not indifferent and wanted to be useful and work for the unity of mankind. I lost my country for this crime, as I lost my position, my family could not have the same possibilities from me, so they gone, too. But these matters do not change my opinion and me, I will continue to work for my goal and work for the unity of mankind. As the other people who wanted to work for the unity of mankind have the same problems and have been also persecuted and have lost many things, so I will not give up my goal, and will continue to work for my target.
The great importance of education is stressed by Abdul bah in The Secret of Divine Civilization, formerly known as the Mysterious Forces of Civilization. Urging Persian leaders at the end of the nineteen century to promote education in Persia , he showed by arguments likely to appeal to his audience that all progress depends upon it.
The primary, the most urgent requirement is the promotion of education. It is inconceivable that any nation should achieve prosperity and success unless this paramount, this fundamental concern is carried forward. The principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples is ignorance.
Observe to what degree the lack of education will weaken and degrade a people. Today (1875) from the standpoint of population the greatest nation in the world is China , which has something over four hundred million inhabitants. On this account, its government should be most distinguished on earth, its people the most acclaimed. And yet on the contrary, because of its lack of education in cultural and material civilization, it is the feeblest and the most helpless of all weak nations. Not long ago, a small contingent of English and French troops went to war with China and defeated that country so decisively that they took over its capital Peking . Had the Chinese government and people been abreast of the advanced sciences of the day, had they been skilled in the arts of civilization, then if all the nations on earth had marched against them the attack would still have failed, and the attackers would have returned defeated whence they had come.
Stranger even than this episode is the fact that the government of Japan was in the beginning subject to and under the protection of China, and that now for some years, Japan has open its eyes and adopted the techniques of contemporary progress and civilization, promoting sciences and industries of use to the public, and striving to the utmost of their power and competence until public opinion was focused on reform. This government has currently advanced to such a point that although its population is only one sixth, or even one tenth, that of China , it has recently challenged the latter government, and China has finally been forced to come to terms. Observe carefully how education and the arts of civilization bring honor, prosperity, independence and freedom to a government and its people.
Now for the first the time in human history, it is credible that all mankind may receive some measure of formal education. This is another sign that the maturity of mankind is at hand. In all previous ages, the educated have belonged to a small privileged class and sometimes only the priests were literate. But now Baha u lah has ordained that all without exception, should be educated. And among his teaching is the promotion of education. Every child must be instructed in science as much as is necessary. If the parents are able to provide the expenses of this education, it is all right; otherwise the community must provide the means for the teaching of that child.
International Auxiliary Language
Another important step toward mutual understanding of the peoples of the world is agreement by governments on some language to be taught in all schools. This language might be newly invented or one already existing; either will do, providing the choice is agreed by a large enough number of governments.
Instruction in the chosen language will not replace instruction in anyone’ mother tongue. The international language is to be auxiliary to the various national ones and to exist alongside of them. Everyone will speak two languages, so that even if the number of living languages remains as great as it is now, all people will have one in common. Of the importance of this Baha u lah said;
The day is approaching when all the peoples of the world will have adopted one universal language and one common script. When this is achieved, to whatsoever city a man may journey, it shall be as if he were entering his own home. These things are obligatory and absolutely essential. It is incumbent upon every man of insight and understanding to strive to translate that who had been written into reality and action.
According to several studies about learning a foreign language the usage of grammar is an important educational issue once it denotes the patterning of word order and word forms. It indicates the relationships between concepts, ideas and objects. There are some important approaches to language teaching as weather or how grammar instruction plays a role in the second or foreign language classroom such as: 1. Audio-lingual approach – set of habits in the use of language, structures and patterns, 2. Cognitive code approach – any attempt to organize material around a grammatical syllabus while allowing for meaningful practice and use of language. 3. Comprehension approach – emphasizes the development o comprehension skills 4. Communicative approach – language is regarded as an instrument o communication. The Criticism and Defense of Grammar In the past, no one challenged the necessity of formal grammar, but now many different views have exert the influencing of formal grammar on the development of language teaching practice. Proponents of the natural approach believe that we should not use grammatical syllabus at all, stating that it distorts any attempt to communicate. The natural approach, as for error correction, is likely to give a negative impact on students. Therefore, the natural approaches principle is to use error correction for what it was meant for, conscious learning, and for rules and situations where monitoring is possible and appropriate. This theory is highly criticized. The idea that we first learn new rule, an eventually, through practice, acquire it, is widespread and may seem to be obvious to some people. I agree with Higgs when he says that a successful foreign language is one who possesses and combines all of the communicative elements of linguistic system. Higgs believes that teaching communication and teaching grammar are inseparable aspects of teaching language. According to Ellis, language acquisition is based on the position that it is through formal instruction that learners become aware of particular features of the target language and form explicit representations of what they are taught. Some analysts say that teachers should understand that a vital aspect of a successful proficiency-oriented program lies in how grammar rules are presented rather that in the elimination of explicit discussion of grammar rules. Explicit grammar instruction still has an important place in the classroom. Nowadays the focus has been shifted to the question of how it can grammar best be taught. Conclusion As an educator I still think that exercises requiring fill-in answers, completions, transformations are effective in the learning process. So, formal grammar is still important in terms of communicate well in writing, reading and comprehending manners.
