On the Universal Children's day, Khamenei.ir publishes exerpts from Ayatollah Khamenei's statements on children:
Poetry is one way to educate children on Islamic concepts
I have another piece of advice which I have written down. In my opinion, paying attention to children's poetry - which should incorporate concepts related to Islamic teachings and political wisdom - is one of the necessary things that should be done and today, there is room for improvement in this regard. The issue of children's poetry and books for children and teenagers is one of the important areas which is discussed at length today. The poets who have enough capabilities and who are articulate should incorporate valuable and moral concepts - that is to say, concepts related to Islamic and Iranian teachings - in their poems. The talents of the youth should be developed. We have many talented youth and they can accept the truth and reflect it in their poems more easily than other people.
Statements made during a meeting with poets; July 23, 2013.
If you don’t raise your children to be faithful, they become unreliable
While storytelling and teaching art, try to establish faith as the first thing to create in a child. Nothing equates to faith. Whatever you would like to make out of your children, you need to create faith in him or her first. The worst blow, that the media and art imperialism struck, was that it created a major corruption network over the years, which unfortunately affected us too when during the Pahlavi era religious indifference and lack of faith was promoted, so that a person would not rely on anything in his, or her heart and soul!
Try to raise the children as faithful, with faith in God, faith in the absolute Truth, and faith in Islam. If children grow up faithful and believing, and you manage to sow the seeds of faith in their hearts, in the future they will grow into noble figures and they would be apt for any job.
If the element of faith is missing in them, they would not be good for any job; whatever they become, they will be unreliable. If they become politicians, they would be unreliable; if they become merchants, workers, authors or artists, they would be unreliable. Try to consolidate faith in children. This is the starting point.
Statements made during a meeting with officials of Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults; May 13, 1998.
Religion should be taught to children in simple, but logical language
Religious expression should be corrected at all levels. It is true that we have elaboration on religious issues at the level of elites, average, lower levels, as well as for children, however, what is taught to children should be totally logical. When you teach a first grader that two plus two equals four, then when he or she grows up and elevates to the highest field in mathematics and knowledge, two plus two should still equal four; logic won’t change. Furthermore, when educating children, lessons should not be misleading at all, so that if he or she elevates to the highest ranks of religious knowledge, they will not find any errors from start to end. Lesson plans in religion should be corrected in every institution and put into practical content.
Statements made during an address to IRIB officials; December 01, 2004.
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