Our Patriotism... Between Home and School

Last night I sat beside my little radio listening to the evening talk, and no sooner had the talk ended than Radio Lebanon presented us the "Fleifel Troupe" in some of its patriotic songs. It was not, of course, the first time I had heard the Fleifel Troupe sing its delightful anthems, but it was in truth the first time I had sat listening to it with complete attention; and it stirred the strings of my heart and breathed into me a breath of true patriotism and a feeling of pride and strength...

Afterward I sat thinking about our national being, and I felt a great weakness in that being, and the absence of true national spirit from the souls of many among us... I began searching for the principal causes, and the causes appeared to me many and plain... Then I turned to search for the effective remedy, and I found two remedies too lofty to be mixed in with the rest... two remedies within the reach of every one of us — namely, "the home and the school"...

Yes, the home is the cradle of patriotism, and in it lies the starting point toward glory and eminence. But who is the one who must take charge of this educational side in this home?? The mother, without doubt, is the best guide for this purpose, for it is she who can instill in her children the spirit of true patriotism, nursing them on patriotism along with their milk and filling their young souls with her true national spirit... Yes, the mother is the foundation for setting right this crippled side of our social life...

So upon you... upon you alone, Madam, rest the homeland's advance and its retreat, for you are the essential pivot of this critical point...

The new generation is within your two hands, Madam... So let it be a new generation in the full sense of the word: a generation the generations will stand in awe of, endowed with patriotism and dignity, forming a new and enlightened society that understands the aims of its nation rightly, so that it becomes an effective force that achieves, and grows capable of productive work...

Raise him, then, by every means, on love of the homeland from his tenderest years... Instead of telling him the tales of the Thousand and One Nights, the story of Sinbad the Sailor, and the story of Androcles and the Lion, which do him no good, tell him the story of Khalid ibn al-Walid and Amr ibn al-As, of Fakhr al-Din al-Ma'ni and the Emir Bashir, of the martyr of Maysalun and Khawla bint al-Azwar...

Do not teach him to speak in foreign words, as many mothers do... Instead of the word "Bonjour," let him say "sabah al-khayr" with his whole mouth; and instead of the word "Merci," let it be the word "shukran."

The national schools, too, have their share of the duty, and you owe them a great obligation of support and backing, for they alone will muster for you a generation that is conscious, cultured, nationalist, and patriotic...

As for how to introduce this new educational spirit into the souls of the young, it is very easy... Let all our lessons serve this educational foundation. The school can instill the spirit of patriotism in every single lesson — not only in civics and history, but in arithmetic and the rest as well.

Instead of the arithmetic problem being, for example: A man bought fifty eggs and broke twenty of them — how many remain?? — let it be: An Arab detachment faced fifty Zionists and killed twenty of them — how many remain? And: five companies of soldiers, in each company ten soldiers, and with each soldier a rifle — how many rifles have they?

Thus we want schools that kindle enthusiasm in the souls of their children in every subject, so that they drink patriotism in deep draughts and find its taste sweet, and sacrifices in its cause come easily to them...

Let us then join hearts and fists in resolving to stand with the national schools together and to fall together for the attainment of this highest demand; and let us march as one body and a living nation that wills the free and beautiful life... a nation that loves life because it loves patriotism, and loves death when death is a road to life...

And so, after this true solidarity, the new generation will grow day after day to guard what is sacred and strengthen the arm of the beloved homeland, until this generation becomes those ranks of men marching behind the banners of the homeland, borne by giants in the army — forests of spearpoints advancing in ranks of wondrous order, an irresistible will of the nation.

Here we shall feel our national being, and feel our true renaissance, and every one of us shall feel his duty toward his homeland, and we shall all repeat with the poet and with the Fleifel Troupe:

My homeland — were I busied away from it in Paradise,
my soul would speak to me of it in Paradise.