In the West they call the month of June the month of brides; in Lebanon, it is the month of schools ... And on the second of it, a reception and a display of the students' life and work was held at the Shweifat National College under the patronage of Her Ladyship Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun.
The First Lady of Lebanon at the exhibition of drawings; at her sides the president of the college, Mr. Charles Saad, and his wife, Mrs. Layla
The First Lady of Lebanon appeared, amid rolling applause and the warm welcome of the head of the institute, Mr. Charles Saad, and his lady wife, and began gazing out with those two blue eyes, breathing enthusiasm and vitality into the girl and boy students, who sent it back in rings where hope danced and merriment and vigor spread. On the spacious playing field, the students displayed their life between playground and book; and, by way of comparison, a troupe entered, spread out over the white earth — the earth of the playing field — to present a play of the old-time school; and the actors succeeded in raising laughter, and in stirring merriment and delight, and in praise of the hour and the time that has carried this age so far from that one, making the teacher a companion and a guide, not a "bogeyman" to frighten children!.
The play was followed by the Lebanese dabke, to the tunes of mijana and dal'ona, and in the old Lebanese costume. Then the ring of the dabke broke
up to make way for the parade of the seventeen nations, represented by students carrying the flags of their countries and wearing their dress.
Moments passed as if in a dream, after which the company moved, in groups, to the courtyards of the college; to the buildings scattered like beauty-marks on the shoulder of the knoll — the offshoots of that mighty building, small as it was when it first rose seventy years ago.
To the laboratory, the workshop, the museum, and the classroom the visitors made their rounds, watching the boy and girl students in every moment of their school life; and the scouting activity in both institutes drew particular notice.
The tour ended at the house of the Saad family, before a refreshment table laden with sweets and cool drinks!... And as nature's eyelid closed, the string of the crowd came unthreaded — tongues of blessing, a glow of praise!...
The scout troop — above it, beneath the parasols, stand the girl and boy students of the college in rows
Clapping, as a prelude to the folk dabke