The "Woman's Voice" Symposium: Between the Anglo-American and Latin Cultures

In this issue, and in the issues to come, the "Woman's Voice Symposium" will move from the editorial office — its seat until now — to the salons of our readers, in the circles of their gatherings... and from the course of these conversations we shall pluck the choicest and most useful of the fruit and the blossom and place it faithfully in the readers' hands..

At the home of Mrs. Anissa Rawda Najjar, at a tabbouleh-and-tea party that gathered a bouquet of friends, a small circle formed whose members were discussing the different cultures that have swept over this country and their effect upon us. This subject — the axis of our symposium this month — is broad and many-branched, but the ladies who took it up are the ones best entitled to venture into it, given their wide experience in this field.

There was Mrs. Najla Tannus al-Aqrawi, who took her degree from the Sorbonne and spent many years in Paris, in its cultural and educational atmosphere; there was Miss Rose Ghorayeb, whose services and valuable guidance in the educational field no one is ignorant of; and there were Mrs. Najjar and Mrs. Shayboub, women of experience and wide knowledge in teaching and upbringing — acquired, no doubt, in giving their children so fine an upbringing!

I came upon them in this session of theirs to find Mrs. Aqrawi singing the beauty of Lebanon — she who has lately returned to the homeland. "Beirut is the loveliest spot on earth," she said... But her love for Beirut did not keep her from being vexed by the crowding and disorder of city life. Yet in fairness one must admit that Beirut, inside its houses, is more beautiful than Paris! Outside, however, Paris outstrips it by stages — Paris, that city of unique character in everything — in architecture, in order, and in adornment — while Beirut has no color of its own, no personal stamp to set it apart from the other cities of the world.

Logically enough, the talk soon passed to culture and learning in Lebanon. Aqrawi said that this is a second face of the city of Beirut: no special character, no fixed arrangement, no unified system! And the tangle of cultures all but obstructs the course of our mental and psychological life.

Rose Ghorayeb sighed and began to speak of the decline of our schools and our poverty in institutes of high, useful culture. Then Najjar asked her about all those Anglo-Saxon and Latin cultures sweeping the educational field. Are they not to the pupil's advantage?

Before she could get an answer, Ghorayeb dotted the i's. She made us understand that the use of the term "Anglo-Saxon culture" is a mistake, since no such culture exists among us, but rather an Anglo-American culture. And the difference between the two is vast! The first is far superior to the second!

As for Aqrawi's answer, it filled our hearts with alarm for those small pupils who spend many years in toil and weariness before winning their first certificate. "These cultures are not suited to the pupil at the elementary stage; at the secondary and higher stages, however, there is no harm in them." The small pupil who spends most of his day at study and learning cannot achieve a balance between the hours he spends exercising his mind and those he spends exercising his body. The child's personality does not grow as it should when this method of instruction is followed.

On Ghorayeb's expressive, sensitive face there showed agreement with what Aqrawi was presenting about the unsuitability of those cultures. She went on to join her in saying: Latin instruction is classical — instruction with a great deal of exactness in work and of mental drilling from the very first classes. The pupil, even at the age of five, has so much homework that he works many hours at home upon returning from school; whereas Anglo-American instruction, with all its points of weakness, demands less effort of the pupil and leaves him a wider margin for rest and for attending to other duties. As for instruction in Lebanon, it is an imitation of all these cultures. It has borrowed them without any alteration, renewal, or blending.

Aqrawi spoke of the modern ideas that have begun to storm the field of teaching and education in France, demanding liberation from the many fetters that bind it, above all the baccalaureate examinations.

In answer to a question from Edvick Shayboub she said: France's backwardness, in times past, in the arena of educational liberation resulted from the many restrictions that accompanied — and at times still accompany — the certificates and the public competitions, among them the question of age. Past a certain age the pupil is not accepted into certain institutes and competitions. For this reason the baccalaureate program has become difficult and stuffed beyond all need. Students have taken to racing against the years and cramming their brains with minute, deep, difficult information.

Najjar agreed with this analysis and told us how Anglo-American instruction requires of the student only general knowledge up to high school; as for the compositions and literary exercises for which French instruction is famous, they are demanded of him only after that certificate, and in a lighter, more merciful form. Here she asked Aqrawi about the number of kinds of baccalaureate existing in France, which she had heard exceeded seven. Aqrawi denied that all these kinds of baccalaureate exist, and said that the difference among the existing kinds is slight — only in certain non-essential subjects.

Ghorayeb completed the answer for her, explaining that the difference among those baccalaureates appears in the upper classes only, when the student is allowed to choose the ancient languages instead of arithmetic and mathematics, for example.

The difference is one of kind, not of grades, as it is among the "Matric" certificates in England, which indicate, according to their grades, different degrees of progress and courses of study.

And after all this talk Ghorayeb refreshed us by telling us that those responsible in Lebanon are today studying the idea of increasing the kinds of baccalaureate — a scientific one, a literary one, and an arts one combining home economics, drawing, and music!

Here Shayboub seized the opportunity and asked a question which has surely crossed the minds of many people of this country, especially its thinkers. Is the multiplicity of languages a good trait in us, or would it be better to teach our children one language only? Opinions divided and voices rose in expounding this sensitive problem, product of our long history and our critical geographical position!

Aqrawi said that she prefers the child to learn one language — the mother tongue — speaking it and studying in it until the year of the elementary certificate, and thereafter to learn other, second languages. But the acquisition of the two languages French and English is a necessity in our present life, international and political.

Ghorayeb, while agreeing with the theory of a single language learned by the child in his early years, holds that this theory cannot be applied in Lebanon for many reasons, the chief of which is our language. The Arabic language as it stands is not suited to the young — the colloquial is not taught, or is not fit for teaching, and the classical is very difficult. She therefore holds that the child should learn another language along with Arabic, to make up for the deficiency arising from its failure to evolve and to keep in step with our needs.

As for the mental strain which some believe might arise from studying three languages at once, Najjar mentioned that she had obtained an answer to this question from a great educator, who told her that such strain may indeed result, but that this is not certain, because to this day we possess no study on the subject.

Here Ghorayeb shook her head and cried from the depths of her heart: "It is a curse upon us! It is a deficiency in us that we must learn the languages of others."

Aqrawi answered her that Lebanon, open upon the West and the East, needs many languages for its international position. She does not regret having learned all these languages; but these hollow cultures in our teaching are apt to divide our thinking and our social and national consciousness!

Ghorayeb agrees with that, and she believes that contact with the West is a necessity, for it protects our culture from backward reaction.

"But the price is dear!" answered Aqrawi.

"Dear indeed," answered Ghorayeb, "but with all that Lebanon has lost and is losing, it comes out the winner in every case. And the time has come to rely on ourselves. The hour of creation has struck — the hour to stop blind imitation, the hour to find a culture that suits our mentality, our age, and our country!"