Building the Human Personality

For our readers, a summary of the valuable lecture delivered by the educator Mrs. Widad Maqdisi Cortas, president of the Ahliah National College for Girls and secretary of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, in the series of educational studies organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Education.

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Man was and remains the pivot of the universe, 'and the development and completion of his personality is existence's loftiest aim.'

What is this personality which man enjoys and no other creature?

Among its happier definitions is this: that it is composed of the whole of the spiritual, intellectual, and psychological values that spring from the hidden recesses of the creative human mind and take harmonious shape in his practical and sensory life. Personality thus embraces all the sensations and feelings, all the talents and inclinations, all the inner powers by which this wondrous being differs from all other creatures.

How do man's mental powers, of which his personality is composed, come into harmony:

The experiences of life have proven that the mind alone, however much knowledge it holds, cannot by itself lift the veil from the secrets of our wondrous being and take charge of the growth of our integrated personality. Personality has no value unless a blending takes place between mind and heart, for among the marks of the complete man is that he be a builder, not a destroyer; growing, not standing still. This vitality demands a positive, ordered effort in which man's pains embrace his joys, his venturing his caution, his impetuosity his deliberation, his restraint his self-sacrifice.

When do the first signs of the human personality appear:

Most psychologists tell us that the child is born with its senses complete and awakens to the use of its inner powers in the first year of its life. It is scientifically established that the child at the age of seven is a miniature of the mature man, and that if we tend this miniature with wise, natural care, it grows harmoniously until its personality is completed through the interweaving of its intellectual and practical life together. However much a man's mind may grow, it has no value unless this mind takes flesh in production and creation.

What are the chief spiritual qualities with which the builders of the human personality must be adorned:

First, appreciation: it is the fuel that must never be absent from the heart of the loving parent or the responsible educator. By it the fires of self-confidence are kindled, and without it the strongest and firmest resolves die down; by it souls rise to the summits of glory, and by it others sink to the depths; by its magic power the possibilities of the creative mind unfold, and without it they shrink away, lost and defeated.

Second, guidance: and here I do not mean only the theoretical guidance the pupil acquires during his years of regular study, discovering with his teacher's help his particular inclinations and capacities and training himself along the path that suits these inclinations. That is one part of the greater guidance — the real, formative guidance which the student touches with his full human senses, observing the world that surrounds him and feeling the pressing duty that binds him to this world. So he wishes to become a doctor, not because the doctors of his city are rich and influential, but because he feels the delight of public service toward the suffering; he chooses to be a lawyer, not because the law demands easy study and yields a government post, but because he desires to defend the sanctity of the law, feeling in the depths of his being the attainment of justice and equality; or he presses toward teaching, not because he was slow in finding more suitable work, but because he stands in awe of the mission of education, grasps the essence of its responsibilities, and believes it the noblest and most splendid mission in the world.

Third, humility and purity of intention:

I know of no arrogant teacher, or pretentious parent, who has had a good effect upon his pupils or his children.

It is the teacher's duty to employ friendship, familiarity, and gentleness in place of violence and the assertion of a stern egotism. The pupil becomes confident in himself and believing in himself only in an atmosphere of frankness and affection, and only at the hands of an educator who shares his hopes and desires, his wishes and dreams.

Fourth, loyalty: that virtue which is indispensable in raising the generation of a compact, close-knit society and in creating a living, believing nation.

Every pupil's soul yearns for loyalty to something greater than himself, and he looks up, seeking the inspiration for it in his father or his teacher. Loyalty is like the green seed: it grows up small, then grows larger, becomes a tree, and bears fruit. We open our eyes early upon loyalty to our family; then this feeling extends to our school or institute; then it widens to the greater homeland, and in its natural extension it embraces all human values together.

Fifth, self-mastery and command of the passions: there is no being in the world who is not exposed, in ordinary life, to trials and hardships, or who is not confronted by contingencies never reckoned on. But the enlightened, balanced mind is able to master itself whatever the circumstances. Self-mastery demands the capacity to distinguish between the essential, abiding matters and the temporal, passing ones.

What is the positive solution toward which we must direct our eyes?

Let us now, in spite of these abnormal conditions, look toward the future with hearts overflowing with optimism and hope. What can we do at this stage of our independent life? Where shall we begin, if not with the school? What social cell is worthier than this one, in which all the classes of the people are fused together and in whose shade all their moral and spiritual powers grow?

Intellectual liberation is the first manifestation of liberation.

It is clear from the foregoing that we cannot build personalities of real weight unless we succeed in creating, as the West has created, clear atmospheres in which to work, first of all.

First: we must free ourselves completely from the intellectual and cultural confusion that sweeps our educational institutions, so that the Ministry of Education takes a course by which it can supervise the curricula with a concrete, practical supervision.

Second: let us draw inspiration from our culture and our language in grounding our educational philosophy and directing it.

We cannot be bearers of a mission unless we live in the atmosphere of our language, believing that it is, for us, the best of the world's languages, and pass it on to our children out of conviction and faith. Our schools, however many; our universities, however far they expand; our students, however they multiply; our teachers, however they specialize — all are of no worth unless we feel, in the depths of their hearts, the gravity of this responsibility and work to enlighten public opinion on the necessity of upholding it.

Third: let us uproot every trace of sectarianism from our schools and our institutions of learning. Did not the West do just this? Europe has been free, since the sixteenth century, of the influence of the Church's authority over its schools, and the principle was established of respecting all religions and creeds in an atmosphere of peaceableness, forbearance, and tolerance.

I once leafed through a book placed in the hands of children in England, containing selections of spiritual teachings drawn from the world's great religions: it included a generous portion of India's spiritual culture, alongside a large share of the parables and sayings of Jesus Christ, and delightful selections from the noble Prophetic traditions. There is no sectarian problem in England; the people is forbearing, generous of heart, and great, and it wants its children to know the loftiness of religious teaching in every age, without any fear of spiritual decline. And we here want to pour the personalities of our students, while they are still on their school benches, into harsh iron molds, and to draw curtains that shut the light from their eyes. In such an atmosphere, do not wonder that anxiety and confusion enslave us. Is it not natural that sectarian and racial rifts and divisions should cut Lebanon to the heart, that her sons should fight over the world's absurdities and delusions, and that the flames of hatred, loathing, and rancor should blaze in their hearts?

Fourth: let us free learning from the aristocracy that sifts society into ranks and degrees.

The aristocratic schools in this country hold the sons of the rulers of the state, the deputies, and the ministers; they hold the sons of famous doctors and of the owners of the great industries and commercial houses. The other schools are attended by the earnest middle class and by all the toiling working classes.

These classes do not mix unless money enough is found to secure the mixing, and often we find the ambitious Lebanese, on whom life has not bestowed abundant blessings, borrowing money or selling his land so that he may educate his sons in the schools of the rich and the well-to-do.

How can we unite our ranks if education remains aristocratic in this fashion? This is an ailment no less grave than the sectarian ailment, and it hurls us generations back toward the dark past, for it too works to divide us and split us. Has not the time come for us to follow the example of the West?

Fifth: let us free education from dry theoretical curricula and broaden it toward the avenues of practical, real life. The West freed itself from this mistaken philosophy at the start of the nineteenth century. It set about strengthening artistic and manual training and diversifying the curricula to suit every temperament and every talent. In the institutes of the West today there is a movement toward the understanding of the fine arts. In the school choirs the individual's personality melts away and rises with the whole, comprehending the values of splendid spiritual beauty. In the institutes of the West the child is trained to bear public responsibilities in societies and organizations governed by order and bathed in an atmosphere of solidarity, mutual support, and mutual aid for the sake of a single goal.

Sixth: let us free university education from every political tint and from every temporal authority that stands in the way of its progress. Then the personalities of our gifted sons will reach completion in the shade of pure truth, drinking it from the springs of clean, limpid knowledge, and their positive energies will open out upon a broad sea of fruitful works that strengthen liberty and human dignity.

We cannot create leaders in the field of education except in a free, unfettered university environment. The starting point in developing the pupil's personality is to find a teacher whose own personality is complete — and the teacher's personality is completed only if he lives in an atmosphere of free, disinterested thought, and only if our country is granted those educational reforms which are indispensable to a nation that respects itself.

Come, then, let us listen to the voice of our consciences — we to whom the building of the human personality has been entrusted — and remember that we are guardians of the most precious thing in existence; let us demolish with our own hands the fortresses of schism and partisanship, tear down the workshops of hatred and revenge, and raise our children in a sound national atmosphere, guided by the positive, creative mind and by the guiding spirit that believes in itself.

When Lebanon is blessed with this noble human element, idolatry will vanish from its expanses; it will return to belief in itself, and there will shine upon it, from the splendor of these mountains, the light of God, who chose it and loved it and willed that its children should love one another — for though knowledge should cease, or hope and faith grow weak, love never weakens.