• Miss Zahiyah Dughan, directress of the Makassed College for Girls, has left Lebanon, on a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, for Harvard University in the United States, to take a doctor's degree in the philosophy of education.
Miss Zahiyah Dughan is one of the elite of our cultivated ladies at work in the cultural and social fields; she will spend twelve months at Harvard University. The subject of her thesis is "Methods of Teaching."
• Miss Ihsan Mahmasani has returned from London, after specializing in education at its university through the study of the following subjects:
1 – philosophy of teaching; 2 – educational psychology; 3 – English methods of education; 4 – basic methods of curriculum-making; 5 – child development; 6 – social studies; 7 – methods of teaching special to the tropical regions; 8 – methods of teaching the English language to pupils from overseas.
She made numerous inspection visits, in the company of Her Majesty's inspectors, to schools of various kinds: nursery, primary, and secondary of every type (technical, industrial, and scientific), as well as training colleges for men and women teachers.
She obtained the title A. A. E. from the University of London
with distinction. The subject of her thesis was:
"Education and teaching in Lebanon's primary and secondary schools, and what may be reformed in them by reference to the modern methods followed in England."
This year Miss Mahmasani will fill the directorship of the Makassed College for Girls, deputizing for Miss Zahiyah Dughan.
• The Lebanese Red Cross society held its grand ball at the Grand Hotel Sofar on the evening of Friday, August 14. The ball was honored by the presence of His Excellency the President of the Republic and his wife, and by a company of ministers, deputies, and diplomatic and civil personalities.
The members of the Red Cross, headed by the president, the Marquise de Freige, moved among those present, assuring comfort and pleasure for all. The ball met with brilliant success, and its proceeds went to the aid of the poor and the needy. To the ladies of the Lebanese Red Cross, our heartfelt congratulations on this triumph.
• And there was another ball, given by the Zahle Child Nursery Society in the courtyard of the Kadri Hotel.
The ball was held under the patronage of His Highness the Kuwaiti Emir Abdullah al-Mubarak al-Sabah, and the attendance reached two thousand persons. The proceedings included a speech by Mrs. Emily Nasrallah, secretary of the society, and marvelous dances by the artiste Samia Gamal.
His Highness Abdullah al-Mubarak donated the sum of five thousand liras, and Samia Gamal likewise waived her fee of 1,800 liras.
And the gaiety and merriment of the dancers went on until well past midnight.
• Educational circles in Lebanon were shaken by the loss of one of their doyennes, Mrs. Clarisse Malek, on the sixth of August, at an age approaching fifty-four years — years she spent as an active teacher, faithful to this noble profession, which demands the heart's blood and the essence of mind and spirit.
The departed labored in the cause of education and teaching for thirty years, part of which she spent in Tehran, where she founded a school for the Arab community; in 1946 she returned to her town of Choueifat and established there the secondary "Nahda School."
At its school ceremony last year the Lebanese government conferred on her the Medal of Education, first class, in appreciation of her long struggle.
Mrs. Clarisse Malek leaves a husband, Mr. Hanna Malek, and three sons: Victor, Razzouq, and Edward; and her eldest son, Mr. Victor, will succeed her at the head of her school.
To the Malek family, the sincere condolences of "The Woman's Voice," and for the dear departed our prayers and our warm pleas for mercy upon her.