President Lennart Meri announced the Estonian Language Purification Year in his speech to the Estonian Mother Tongue Teachers this morning. On the Education Day dedicated to the theme ''Possibilities of Forging Values in Teaching of Literature'' of the Mother Tongue Teachers' Society, the President spoke of the need to protect our mother tongue. In the days of the totalitarian power, the Estonians were very defensive of their language, but now, at the time of freedom, our language is in danger of deterioration.

''The need for culture grows with children,'' said the President, who knows how difficult it is these days to keep alive or even to evoke the happy curiosity of our children, and to satisfy it. The President mentioned that often the English or French adornments in the spoken Estonian are nothing but attempts to cover up the inadequate education of the speaker, and wished the mother tongue teachers strength in firm and confident struggle against the pressure of stupidity.

President Meri advised the teachers to contribute to making the education given in our schools an integrated whole. Today, lots of different subjects are taught at school, and one schoolmaster's head can not hold them all as it used to be in old days. And yet, the integrity of culture should be kept in mind in teaching, the Head of State reminded.

Meeting the mother tongue teachers, who helped to conclude the Home Decoration Year with the essay contest ''Home Decoration: Why and How'', the President announced the Estonian Language Purification Year. He asked every school to look for the funniest and most incomprehensible sentence they can find and send it, with reference both to the time and the place, to the office of the magazine ''Keel ja Kirjandus'' (Language and Literature). This will help us to clean our language, just as we are cleaning our country, President Meri said.

The speech given by President Meri to the Mother Tongue Teachers' Society can be found on the homepage of the Office of the President of the Republic of Estonia on the Internet address http://www.president.ee/.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, November 13, 1998

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