OSHO

 I would like to share with you a few things I see
about teachers and the society. Perhaps what I will
say may not be in accordance with how you think.
Perhaps, what I will say may views may be against the
views held traditionally regarding what education is
all about. I am neither an educationist nor a
sociologist. Hence I consider myself fortunate talking
about some of the fundamental aspects of education and
society.
 
 
 
 

 The possibility of any truth about education dawning
on educationists should be taken as almost nil. They
have been thinking for the last five thousand years,
but the present condition of education, its structure,
and the type of man that is produced, is so totally
wrong that it is natural that only unhealthy and
confused leaders are born out of it all. The thinking
that is done by the sociologists is also sick and
unhealthy; otherwise human beings, their life and
their thinking, would have been quite different. Since
I am neither an educationist nor a sociologist, it is
possible that I can tell you things which can be seen
only by looking at the problems directly.
 
 
 
 

 For those to whom the scriptures are important, the
solutions become more important than the problems.
Since I do not know the theory of education I can talk
directly about the problems.
 
 
 
 

 The very first thing I would like to say is that the
present relationship between the teacher and the
society has proved dangerous. What is that
relationship? The relationship is that the teacher is
a slave and the society is the master or the owner.
What work does the society ask from the teacher?
Society wants the teacher to inculcate the old
jealousies, old enmities and old thoughts coming down
from the past thousands of years into the minds of
young children. Those old people, who are as good as
dead or dying, want to bequeath, pass on, such things
through the teacher into the minds of new generations.
It is very surprising that the society demands this
type of work from the teacher and the teacher
continues to do such work.
 
 
 
 

 This is a great disgrace for the teachers. The
disgrace is that the diseases from which the past
century suffered are passed on to the current century,
through the teacher, as needed by the society. This is
needed because the old structure, the vested interests
connected with that structure, and the blind beliefs
established in that structure, do not want to die.
They want to continue to live within the society.
 
 
 
 

 Because of the job done by the teacher, he is
respected. Without flattering the teacher and without
respecting the teacher, it is not possible to ask for
this work from him. That is why it is said that the
teacher is a guru, respectable, and his advice must be
listened to. Why? Because the society wants to
bequeath its whole pattern of beliefs to its children
through the teacher.
 
 
 
 

 The Hindu father wants to make his son a Hindu, and a
Mohammedan father wants to make his son a Mohammedan
before he dies. The Hindu father also wants to
bequeath to his children the dispute with the
Mohammedans. Who will do this? The teacher will do it.
The old generation wants to impose its blind beliefs
on the new generation. Its scriptures, its priests and
everything else is to be imposed. It gets this work
done through the teacher, but what is the result?
 
 
 
 

 The result is that material wealth is increasing in
the world, but mental faculties do not develop. As
long as there is that great burden of old thoughts on
the minds of the children, their mental faculties
cannot develop. In a small child there is the burden
of a culture five thousand years old. The very life of
that child is crushed under that burden. Because of
this, the flame of consciousness cannot be lit and the
individuality of the child cannot develop.
 
 
 
 

 The material wealth increases because whatever is
left by the parents is increased or improved upon by
their children. But their mental faculties cannot
develop because the children are conditioned in that
respect. The child adds, without any hesitation, one
more floor onto the building bequeathed to him. He is
pleased to do it. And the father is also pleased that
his son has added one more floor. But if anyone
improves upon the ideas already narrated in the Gita,
then those who have inherited Mahavira's, the
Buddha's, Krishna's and Rama's ideas, will be in great
difficulty – for them it is necessary to live within
the precincts of the mental structure bequeathed. No
new structure can be built. Efforts have continuously
been made for thousands of years so that the son does
not surpass his father in regard to mental
development. There are many devices and contrivances
for that.
 
 
 
 

 So, material wealth increases in this world, but
mental poverty also increases along with it. There are
many dangers when the mind is small and the material
wealth is greater. Just as we progress in material
wealth and leave our forefathers behind, similarly we
should leave them behind in mental and spiritual
development also. In doing so, it is no insult to our
parents, it is respectful. The right type of father is
one who lovingly desires that his children leave him
behind in every respect. But it is dangerous if the
father does not want his child to go ahead of him in
any field. So far, the teacher has helped the father
in not allowing the child to go ahead.
 
 
 
 

 It is madness to feel that if we begin to think
further than Krishna or Mahavira or Mohammed, it will
be an insult to the latter. Because of this, the whole
education has remained past-oriented, instead of being
future-oriented. Any developmental, creative activity
is always future-oriented.
 
 
 
 

 Our whole education is past-oriented. All our
doctrines, ideas and ideals are taken from the past.
The past is that which is dead and gone. We are trying
to impose things, which are thousands of years old, on
the minds of our children. Not only do we impose the
ideas, but we call a child ideal who proves himself a
good follower of the old beliefs. Who is praising such
a child? This is being done by the teacher, and that
is how the leaders of society, religions and the state
are exploiting the teacher.
 
 
 
 

 The teacher is made to believe that he is the
disseminator of knowledge. He is not the disseminator
of knowledge; he is the preserver and maintainer of
the status quo, of the knowledge that has developed in
the past, and he is an obstacle to the knowledge that
can develop. He does not allow anything to leave the
parameter of the past. As a result, we continue to do
many types of foolish things. Those old things are not
allowed to die. The politician has also understood
this, and he is also exploiting the teacher. What is
surprising is that the teacher is not aware of this
exploitation done in the name of service to the
society. How many kinds of exploitation are being
done!
 
 
 
 

 Once I went to address a congregation of teachers. It
was Teachers' Day. I asked them: If a teacher becomes
a president of a country, what is the honor bestowed
on the teacher? In a teacher becoming a president,
what teacher is honored? According to me, if a
president of a country becomes a teacher, then I would
definitely understand that the teacher is honored.
 
 
 
 

 If a president of a country feels that his job is
useless and he feels that it is a joy to be a teacher,
if he wants to be a teacher and becomes one, we will
definitely understand that the teacher is being
honored. But if a teacher becomes a president of a
country, the honor goes to the politician, not to the
teacher. If a teacher feels honored when he becomes
the president of a country, is there anything wrong in
a teacher wanting to be a headmaster or school
inspector or an education minister? There is honor
where there is position. There is position where there
is the state. Our whole structure of thinking is such
that the state is above everything; so the politician
is above everything and everything else is below.
 
 
 
 

 The politician, knowingly or unknowingly, makes his
thoughts and ideas enter into the minds of children
through the teacher. The priest is also doing the same
thing. In the name of religious education this is
going on, and every religion goes on trying to make
their beliefs and tenets, right or wrong, enter into
the minds of children. This is being done at such an
unripe age, when the children cannot think. There is
no greater crime perpetrated on humanity.
 
 
 
 

 What crime can be greater than making the child
believe that what is in the Koran is the truth, or
what is in the Gita is the truth; or if there is God
it is Mahavira, Krishna or Mohammed? To put all such
things into the mind of a child who is innocent,
ignorant and unacquainted with the world, is a worse
crime than anything else.
 
 
 
 

 During the struggle for the independence of India,
the politicians said that the teachers and the
students both must participate in the independence
movement. When these politicians came into power, they
said the students and teachers must keep away from
politics. The communists and socialists say, "No, it
is not necessary for the students to keep away from
politics. Both the teachers and students must
participate in politics." If the communists come into
power tomorrow, they will say that now there is no
necessity for them to take part in politics.
Whatsoever is in the interest of the politicians in
power becomes right, and an attempt is made to make
the teachers and students believe it to be right.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 According to me, one can become a teacher in the
right sense only if he has within him a powerful,
burning flame of rebellion.