“Our future and the country will depend on you, teachers of civic and citizenship education, history in particular, because you work with our youth, with those people who can make influence today and in the future,” the president said in the opening of the teachers’ forum entitled Approaching the 25th Anniversary of the Restoration of Lithuania’s independence at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania on Friday.
“Unfriendly neighbours now are trying to make a great impact on us by using numerous measures: not only direct aggression in the neighbourhood but also indirect aggression through media, propaganda, by bribing our culture, media figures and politicians the state can survive only when it knows the value of freedom and is ready to fight for it. You, teachers, are the ones who can teach people to value their freedom, to know the value of our history,” Grybauskaitė said.
Role of family and school
President Grybauskaitė highlights the role of family and school in cultivating civic-mindedness in society.
“Undoubtedly, everything starts from the family. Parents and we all must know how to value our country, how important it is, how important our freedom which we received from out parents is and which will have to be passed on to our children. We all must speak about these things in our families,” the president said in the teachers’ forum.
Grybauskaitė also stressed the role of schools in developing civic-minded society.
“Schools also must necessarily depict our history objectively and explain what it means and how important it is, especially for such a small country like we. Schools must teach how to preserve one’s identity, dignity, and, most important of all, independence and freedom it is an honourable duty to be carried out by all of us and this is how we should live: because only by defending our country we will retain the independence, dignity, honour, and respectability of our little Lithuania,” the president said in her speech to teachers.
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