学校是教育良才的圣地，好像大冶洪炉锻炼钢铁一样，经过千锤百炼之后，成为金刚不坏身，将来就能服务于国家，成为栋梁之材。老师有“得天下英才而教育之”的快乐，这是神圣不可侵犯的工作，所以要负起责任，认真教学。
School is a sacred place where people's talents are nurtured. It is like a great furnace where steel is forged. After being smelted thousands of times, students become indestructible like vajra. In the future they will be able to serve the country well. Teachers, in turn, experience the joy of teaching talented and promising students. Theirs is a sacred and inviolable duty, and they should take that duty seriously.
现在所有的学校都变质了，无论大学、中学或者小学，学生差不多都有吸毒的记录，因为儿童都有好奇心，先学吸毒，然后学偷东西，偷来的东西换钱，再买毒品。学生都学会打妄语，都学会欺骗人。你们目睹这种情形，身为这个国家的公民，再不深自警惕，真是没有心肝了。你们到外边学校去看一看，谁敢说哪一个学校的学生不吸毒、不贩毒？甚至于老师都不闻不问，知而不管，任其发展；有些学校更变成贩毒吸毒的交易所，这是多么危险！最令人痛心的事，莫过于使学校成为男女谈情说爱的场所，变成性行为泛滥的地方。父母甚至鼓励女儿服避孕药丸，这真是古今奇闻，然而学校却不闻不问，只知道收学费。
Today's schools are of a different caliber than those of the past. Most college, high school, and even elementary students have experimented with drugs. They do so out of curiosity, and then they learn to steal things and sell them in order to buy more drugs. Right before our eyes, our children are learning how to lie and cheat. If we have any conscience at all, how can we, as citizens, not be alarmed?
Take a look in the schools outside. Is there a single one whose students do not take or deal drugs? Yet teachers act as if they did not know what's going on. They don't inquire about it, because they simply don't care. They don't want to interfere with what's going on. Some schools are even turning into drug trafficking centers. How dangerous this is! It's really a shame when schools turn into places for boys and girls to be promiscuous and indulge in romance. Nowadays parents even encourage their daughters to take birth control pills. This was unheard of in the past. Yet schools pay no attention to this. All they care about is collecting the tuition.
这样教育出来的学生，没有道德的观念，也没有贞操的观念，一切只讲自由。自由！自由！自由到地狱去了。这种不良的风气，对于人道上真是有百害而无一利，如果教育当局再不设法纠正，后果是不言而知的。所以万佛圣城的学校，无论大学、中学、小学，都是男女分班上课，从儿童时期开始训练男女有别的教育。
Students educated in such schools have no ethical values and no concept of virtue and chastity; all they talk about is freedom. They holler, "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" all the way to the hells. This unwholesome trend is harmful to humanity in many ways. If the educational system doesn't rectify the situation, the future can easily be imagined. That's why the university, high schools, and elementary schools at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas are segregated by gender. From youth, students become accustomed to learning in an environment where boys and girls are taught separately.
在此再次提醒当局，要赶快设法改善学校这股歪风，所谓：
Once more, I urge the educational system to quickly reform the unhealthy trends in the schools. As it is said,
亡羊补牢，未为迟也。
Although you have lost one sheep,
It's not too late to repair the pen.
一九八三年九月十八日开示
A talk given on September 18, 1983
