What they hold against the teaching curriculum is that it strengthens the foreign languages at the expense of Arabic — although the Arabic literature pro-gram is, in my view, the best that the secondary level of study could attain. And the curriculum leaves room for the teaching of the sci-ences in Arabic; but it allows the student the opportunity of study-ing them in the foreign languages, so long as Arabic textbooks in these subjects are wanting. If, then, the teaching of the sciences in the secondary schools continues in a foreign language, the fault is not the curriculum's but that of the authorities, who do not commission a number of specialists to compose Arabic science books fit for the students' use.

Here some object, saying: teaching the sciences in Arabic would narrow before the student the field of deeper study in the sciences, because the reference works to which he must turn to broaden his knowledge are foreign works. And students of university spe-cialization will find great difficulty in studying the sciences and other university subjects in a foreign language if their study of them in the secondary classes was confined to Arabic books.

Another party answers this objec-tion, saying: not all secondary students are candidates for enter-ing the university; that is reserved to a portion of them not exceeding ten in a hundred. And since the members of this group are — or ought to be — among the superior

students, it will not be difficult for them to master the foreign language well enough to pursue specialization in the sciences by way of that language.

It cannot be denied that the mastery of a foreign language is a desirable thing for every Eastern student. But the fulfillment of this wish is unattainable, considering that eighty in a hundred of Lebanese students go no further

Eighty percent of Lebanese students halt their education at the elementary stage, and therefore confine their reading to Arabic. And the eagerness of the working class and of people of limited culture to educate themselves by means of the radio, the newspapers, and the light magazines is plain to see.

What conditions, then, does the educator Rose Ghorayeb propose for this light fare, which is the way to the education of the general run of Lebanese?

in their studies than the class of the elementary certificate. That is to say, eighty in a hundred of them are unable to read foreign books and confine their reading to Arabic.

And what draws attention of late is the eagerness of the working class and of people of limited culture to educate themselves by means of the radio, the newspa-pers, the light magazines, stories translated and untranslated, and all the rest of what the presses

of Egypt and Lebanon produce for the reading of the general public.

That is a welcome sign, deserving of attention, and it obliges those responsible to foster it by the following means:

First — supervising the Arabic books that circulate among the members of this class, so that they may be of a good standard in language and in information, and free of the filthy tales and stories which the book merchants take to spreading among adolescents and other seekers of mental recreation and intellectual amusement.

Second — composing science books in Arabic, for the inter-mediate classes at least, so that students who do not master a foreign language may be enabled to add to the scientific knowledge necessary to every individual in this scientific age.

Third — encouraging the founding of magazines and the composing of books that spread applied informa-tion in health, physics, chemistry, agriculture, and psychology, in that simplified, easily grasped form which they call Popular Science. This measure has its importance among us as a check on the dom-inance of the political press, which all but monopolizes the popula-tion's attention, and in view of the growing need for applied science

in the home and the factory, on the farm and in all the other spheres of work.

Fourth — striving for the compo-sition of reading books for children