On the Margins of the School Opening...

... In Beirut we have begun to catch the scent of autumn — and Beirut in autumn is a bride who has gathered up the sweetness of summer and the freshness of winter.

... And Beirut in autumn time is an effervescence — a fever of youth and young vigor. The streets and the tram cars are a planting of boys and girls: saplings of green hope, going off to the schools and returning at sunset, bundles of books tucked under their arms, varying in quantity and in kind but equal in purpose — the spreading of knowledge among the rising generation.

Talk of education in Lebanon reminds me of the story of "the oil jug" — a talk that circles round upon itself and never ends... Its most intractable knots: compulsory education for both sexes, the unification and direction of curricula, and the preparation of the good teacher... These and others are truly vital matters that occupy our cultural circles, and rarely does a newspaper appear without hammering at the subject, stirring up the pending problems, and offering all manner of proposals in the cause of a better school... But none of these subjects is the theme of my talk today...

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It is self-evident, when the majority of schools are foreign in their inspiration — as is the case with most of our schools — that a great many customs and traditions should seep into the minds of the young and into the course of their lives. They receive them indirectly, from lessons in literature and social studies, and by way of reading and the cinema; and these find a soil of extreme fertility, yearning after everything newfangled, and chafing at the strictness in which it was raised and which — so it claims — bears down on girls in particular and limits their freedoms.

Under the influence of this reality, and in step with the spirit of development and growth that accompanies this age, we have seen a group of our girl students inclining little by little — above all in the institutions of higher learning — toward excess and moral laxity, in the footsteps of their American or French classmates, for example... And it was not long before rumors and idle tales began to be woven about them — with some exaggeration — and suspect whispers followed in their wake, whispers unbefitting the choice elite of our girls, and which arouse in the zealous patriots among us a spirit of indignation and condemnation against institutions of this kind, out of jealous care that our reputation not be sullied...

We do not wish to be misunderstood, or to have this word of ours counted as reactionary. Yet, with all our respect and esteem for the sanctity of the teaching mission, whatever its kind, we appeal to those charged with the refinement of our daughters, in whose hands lie the reins of this precious young generation, to enter knowledge by its great doors, to be faithful to the trust confided to them, and to be moderate in spreading those extreme social teachings which conflict with the reserve and the sobriety to which we are accustomed.

We welcome your learning as pure learning, and we reject your moral laxity, which has dragged the Western family into woe upon woe.
We honor you, guardians and mistresses of the pieces of our hearts, as devoted teachers; but we will fight you if you shut your eyes to recklessness and to that sexual liberty which is incompatible with our genuine customs — customs we love and love to preserve...
We want for our girls the bright, clear path of learning; but we hold them above losing the water of their faces, above making light of the ember of virgin modesty — the emblem of their beauty...

*

This is a whisper we content ourselves with sending today, hoping that the competent authorities will give it attention and study, lest our whisper turn into a resounding cry unbefitting both them and us...