At The Woman's Voice Symposium — How Far Can We Apply the Principles of Modern Education with Our Children?

... a grave educational problem, taken up jointly by three of our cultured mothers, expert in the principles of modern education. They are the ladies:
Widad Maqdisi Cortas, Alawiyya Ishaq Musa al-Husseini, Sabiha Muhammad Ali Faris.

Mrs. Sabiha Faris opened the discussion, saying: — Modern education, which says that the child has become the focal point of education, is no longer foreign to our conceptions at the present time...

I admit that we took the basic idea from the West, but this adoption does not mean we must apply it to the letter, just as they do, because our society requires a kind of education other than what their society requires; there are fundamental differences that must be taken into consideration.

Widad Cortas: I see no danger at all in applying the principles of modern education to our children. I believe the danger lies only in the age of adolescence, and so I see nothing to prevent applying the foundations of modern education to our children to the utmost limit.

Sabiha: I agree in principle to giving the child absolute freedom — the proof being that I apply it with my own children, and compel them to nothing. But there are freedoms so far gone in extremism that our mentality cannot accept them. Do you approve, for instance, of the child's coming into the visitors' room and jumping about and playing with everything without anyone objecting?

Widad: No — that is not what I meant by modern education. I call that a tendency of extremist American education, and I do not believe it is followed in Europe and all the Western countries.

Alawiyya: I find it very hard indeed to strip ourselves of the Eastern traditions that conflict with modern education. What we really lack is sex education, and our inherited traditions stand in the way of speaking frankly about it with our children.

Widad: The cultured, aware mother can solve this problem — in cooperation with the school.

Alawiyya: And apart from the mother and the school, the child picks up mistaken information from the maid and from his little playmates. For this reason I hold that it is the mother's duty to be frank with her children and to answer their many questions about sexual matters in a natural way, and to avoid the lying that is bound to be found out by the child later on, so that he loses his confidence in his mother and in her truthfulness.

Widad: It is also necessary that this information begin at an early age. I, for example, undress my children and bathe them together, and I likewise do not hold back when I take off my own clothes — indeed I keep them in my room if they happen to be there. We have done this with them from the very beginning, and so I notice no question mark on their faces now. I believe I have solved this complex!

Sabiha: What we most need to borrow from modern education is to raise the child socially, so that he feels he is a member of society.

Widad: I too feel this lack in our education, and I consider it necessary that the child be raised to be a part of a whole, so that he becomes good at solidarity with the group and comes to understand the sporting spirit, that his individuality may dissolve into the collective...

Sabiha: If we applied "the project method" in our schools, we could do much to help spread this spirit. But the tendency of our present teaching is individualistic... and do not forget the individualism of the Semitic spirit which still has the upper hand in us!!

Widad: From my personal experience, I find that what we need most is to teach our children the sense of responsibility, for this is a plain deficiency in

our children, and especially the girls, who rarely take the small details of life seriously. The pleasure of precision is lost on them, and this, as I believe, goes back to lack of order. Even the grown-ups among us shirk order and responsibility, and their view of life is far from serious. I believe this is a basic deficiency in our education, and if modern education had no justification other than the sense of responsibility, I would welcome it with all my heart and prefer it greatly to the conservative educational methods, which most often end by teaching the child hypocrisy and lying.

Alawiyya: I am with you in approving the education of the West, on condition that we take from it what accords with our nature.

Sabiha: And to distinguish between what accords and what does not, knowledge must be spread through the various circles, so that we obtain a comprehensive awareness among mothers.

Widad: And I insist, finally, on the necessity of equal treatment between girls and boys, with no distinction whatever between them. For this difference in their treatment is among the greatest factors that lower the girl's morale.