Memorizing is Out in Syrian Schools? Poetry is In.

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

“Memorizing school books by heart is no more the way to excellence with the new curricula,” says the Assistant Education Minster, Ali al-Hasri.

This could be a very important change for Syria, if it can be implemented. When I attended the University of Damascus in the 1980s, exams for the English and History classes were based on memorizing the lectures. One Fulbright English professor from the US who taught a class of 600 students showed me his blue books for the final exam., the only grade in the course. All but 15 of the blue books were copied from his lectures, which had been taped, transcribed (badly), mimeographed and sold to students before the exam. The students memorized the lectures by heart rather than read the novels – Jane Austin, Dickens, etc., that were assigned. In response to questions that had little to do with his lectures, the students reproduced his lectures on the author word for word.

Critical thinking emphasised in new school curriculum: Problem solving and decision making will replace memorisation, Assistant Education Minister Ali al-Hasri said.

Raqqa, (SANA) – Memorizing school books by heart is no more the way to excellence with the new curricula. The measure is now the ability of learners to deal with problems, how to solve them and link them to real life situations, Assistant Education Minister Ali al-Hasri said.

Inspecting the training courses on the new curricula in Raqqa province on Monday, al-Hasri told SANA that the Ministry of Education considers the new curricula as extremely important. The Ministry is training teachers to deal with these curricula which were based on modern educational and scientific methods.

He pointed out that the new curricula will start based on a student-centered learning process as the focus is on the learner’s activities in and out of the classroom. This requires developing the learner’s skills in solving problems, taking decisions, shouldering the responsibility and teamwork, while the teacher is a guide for the learners.

Evenings of Poetry Provide a Space for New Voices
By KAREEM FAHIM and NAWARA MAHFOUD

DAMASCUS, Syria — Lukman Derky, the host of a weekly poetry salon here, was in classic form, a beer perched below a microphone he used to joke, to soothe, to provoke. He read a short poem by Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national bard, and gave a shout-out to a regular, a young American named Mitch, who sat in the crowd, among dozens of other foreigners.

“We brought you an imperialist,” Mr. Derky kidded his audience. “So you would have some peace of mind.”

He also politely apologized to any secret policemen he might have offended with one of his stories. Two men who fit that description, sitting at a table by the bar, quietly sipped their drinks.

So it goes on Monday nights at Bayt al-Qasid, or the House of Poetry, a space for freewheeling expression in a country where that space is usually in short supply. In sessions lubricated with local arak and Lebanese beer, Mr. Derky, a salon host with the bearing of Lenny Bruce, presides over an irreverent evening that the regulars say is impossible to find elsewhere in Syria, and indeed, would be hard to replicate anywhere else.

He intended it as a space for new voices and not the same parade of poets and writers whom Syrians had been hearing from since the 1960s. Sometimes, those intellectuals, as Mr. Derky somewhat derisively referred to them, “show up and feel like strangers.”

Though Syrians are smitten with poetry and with their celebrated scribes, including Nizar Qabbani, Bayt al-Qasid provides one of the few platforms for young or undiscovered poets. The evenings here also draw writers from overseas, who listen as their work is translated from Spanish or Greek or Berber into Arabic on the spot.

“To know others is to read their poetry,” Mr. Derky said. “Bayt al-Qasid is a place for the others.”

The performers who step up to Mr. Derky’s podium follow his lead and take risks, reading works by exiled poets or flirting with risky political subjects. But the point of the evening is not insubordination, Mr. Derky insists. “We don’t do things because they are forbidden,” he says. “The night is about freedom.” That may explain why it has survived for more than two years now, in full view of a government that has little stomach for dissent.

It also explains why it is hard to find a seat. There were none available on an evening last month in the basement bar where, underneath posters of Malcolm X, Gandhi and Charlie Parker, American students huddled in groups, an entourage waited for one young Syrian poet and a couple snuggled in a corner. Mr. Derky dished out his typically eclectic monologue.

He sang a Shiite mourning hymn and told a joke about the invasion of Iraq. He welcomed a British writer, Stephen Watts, who read a poem called “Birds of East London” that was translated simultaneously by a young Syrian poet who somehow managed to quickly interpret the line “when you see that kestrel pinioned on its wing-bone.” A bald Syrian read another poem, to muted applause.

A Kurdish musical troupe brought the evening to a rousing close.

“You don’t hear that music in public like this,” said Khalid Elekhetyar, a Syrian journalist and a regular who sat at one of the round red tables near the front. If the state was watching, it was apparently enjoying the show. “In this space, they don’t give any conditions,” he said.

Mr. Derky, a frenetic Kurd with shoulder-length hair, has for years been a fixture of Syria’s creative class, a chain-smoking renaissance character who seems to delight in poking the establishment.

He performs one-man shows and writes for television. He was homeless for a time, and now roams his neighborhood in Damascus every morning, looking for stories to fill a newspaper column. He is well known for a stint as the editor of a satirical weekly that enjoyed a brief heyday after President Bashar al-Assad took power 10 years ago.

As Mr. Derky tells it, in 2001, when the publisher of the weekly, Al Doumari, first asked for his thoughts on the newspaper’s design, Mr. Derky asked him for a liter of arak, a bag of ice, pickles and hummus, and told the publisher to come back later that night to look at a mock-up. Eleven popular issues later, Mr. Derky left the magazine over differences with the publisher, and by 2003 the government had had enough and shut it down.

A few years ago, Mr. Derky had the idea for a poetry night. He found space in the underused bar of the Fardoss Tower hotel in downtown Damascus, which on other nights is a disco or just a dark watering hole.

It seemed like an opportune time: in 2008, Unesco had selected the city as that year’s Arab capital of culture, and Mr. Derky said he sensed “a little bit of openness.”

Though poetry is widely read throughout the Middle East, independent showcases like Bayt al-Qasid are increasingly hard to find, Sinan Antoon, an Iraqi poet and novelist who is an assistant professor of Arabic literature at New York University, said.

“Many of the cafes which used to be literary and cultural nodes have closed down — especially in Beirut — or have been transformed because of gentrification,” he said. Poets often have to pay publishers to carry their work and rarely receive royalties. “The culture ministries in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere are a caricature of what they should be. Beyond the Internet, where hundreds of sites exist for publishing, young poets don’t have many outlets or forums.”

At Bayt al-Qasid, the evening starts at 10 p.m., but people start arriving hours earlier. During an intermission, a parking lot behind the hotel is filled with smokers. Talk during the performances quickly invites angry glances from the other patrons.

On another Monday last month, a young Iraqi poet, Hoshang Waziri, read a poem about God and Satan, another touchy subject. A patron, Sahban al-Sawah, sipped his arak and sang Bayt al-Qasid’s praises.

“In a culture that loathes dialogue,” the evening represented something different, said Mr. Sawah, the editor of a poetry Web site.

“What is tackled here,” he said, “would never be approached elsewhere.”

Syria Today – the latest issue is out – www.syria-today.com

Syria-Today

US and Iran battle for Syrian affections
Phil Sands, UAE / September 19. 2010, The National

Iran’s first vice-president, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, meets the Syrian president, Bashar Assad. Louai Beshara / AFP

DAMASCUS // The rivalry between the United States and Iran for Syria’s affections appears to have stepped up a gear…..

That means the tug of war between Tehran and Washington over Syria remains firmly stacked against the US. For the past three decades, Syria has been closely tied with Iran, the alliance enduring ups and downs and seismic regional events. With both countries still facing a hostile West, neither has been given a persuasive incentive to change that status quo.

Egypt Foreign Direct Investment May Reach $8 Bln: Reuters Link (to see a graph comparing FDI for several Mid East countries including Syria, click here)
2010-09-20

CAIRO (Reuters) – Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Egypt is likely to rise to at least $8 billion in 2010/11, Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin said on Monday, adding that investors should not be deterred by any uncertainty before upcoming …

Sept. 20 (Economist Intelligence Unit)
— FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT

The Credit and Monetary Council (CMC), which is affiliated to the Central Bank of Syria, reduced interest rates on various categories of deposits in August, according to an announcement published in mid-September. The latest move was made in a bid to stimulate investment without deterring saving in the national currency. The rate for time deposits was cut by 50 basis points to a range of 5.5-7.5% (plus or minus 2%), from a 6-8% range, which has been in force since January 2009. The rate on savings deposits was reduced by 50 basis points to 5.5% (plus or minus 2%). Banks must keep the gap between the highest and lowest rates that they provide for their customers at or below three percentage points, when dealing with time deposits. There is also a S£1m (US$21,730) limit on individual savings accounts. The bank felt that it had room to make the latest moves, given that there are no serious inflationary pressures. Although at the start of this year, the central bank announced that it would start producing a monthly inflation report, the only report to be issued so far was for February. The central bank has issued inflation data for April 2010 when the year-on-year increase in CPI was 5.6%.

THE EIU VIEW

According to the most recent monetary data available, local currency deposits increased at a marginally faster rate than credit to the private sector in the first four months of 2010, which could explain why the authorities have been prepared to loosen monetary policy. In the 12 months up to end-April, credit provided by all banks increased by 20.3%, whereas total deposits rose by 14.6%. (In both instances the rate of growth was significantly higher for private banks.) The recent weakness of
the euro has also been reflected in an increased preference for local currency savings. The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts that the Central Bank of Syria will continue to implement monetary reform and gradually gain greater autonomy. It is likely to continue to reduce the restrictions on foreign-currency transactions, a process that it started in early 2008, in order to facilitate investment. Consumer price inflation is expected to rise in 2010-11, to an average of 6.3% over the period as a whole (from just 2.6% in 2009). However, this remains below the peak of 15.7% in 2008.

Hariri continues to support tribunal over his father’s killing
2010-09-20

BEIRUT, Sep 20, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has informed members of the country’s parliament that he will not back down from supporting the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) over the killing of his father, after such calls were made by the rival parties, an official said Monday.

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Comments (28)

c.sydow said:

In the meantime the Syrian education system unfortunately still seems to have another big problem, as this Facebook Page suggests:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/sadwna-fy-mrft-hwyt-almlmtyn-alltyn-qamta-btdhyb-atfalna/157310427615548

Although it is forbidden by law, corporal punishment of students still seems to be quite common at Syrian schools.

September 21st, 2010, 5:59 am

5 dancing shlomos said:

if 2 syrian students read austen, more than number of u.s. students who did.

memorizing, copying, cliff notes(?). pass a test. move on. dont think.

scantrons, multiple choice.

sounds like america.

is corporal punishment an inheritance from our former european, colonizing occupiers?

looking back to pre college, knowing the answers to 20 questions way for students and schools to look good and get funding.

September 21st, 2010, 8:59 am

WHY said:

Eye on Democracy # 202- Tal Almolohi, Syrian Blogger
??? ??? ?????????? – ???? ?? ?? ??????? – ????? ?????

September 21st, 2010, 10:00 am

majedkhaldoun said:

George Mitchell presented Syria with partial withdrawal from Golan that will take 20 years, on condition that Syria stop supporting HA,and cut relations with Iran immidiately.
I do not think that is acceptable

September 21st, 2010, 4:17 pm

Hassan said:

Syria: Release Student Blogger Held Incommunicado
19-Year-Old Woman Detained in 2009, Still No Charge

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/09/20/syria-release-student-blogger-held-incommunicado

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

(New York) – The Syrian government should immediately release Tal al-Mallohi, a 19-year-old high school student and blogger held incommunicado without charge for nine months, Human Rights Watch said today. She has been held by Syria’s security services since being detained on December 27, 2009.

State Security (Branch 279), one of Syria’s multiple state security agencies, summoned al-Mallohi to Damascus for interrogation in December and immediately detained her. Two days later, members of State Security went to al-Mallohi’s house and confiscated her computer, some CDs, books, and other personal belongings. Since the arrest, the security services have not allowed her family to communicate with her and have not offered any explanation for the arrest.

“Detaining a high school student for nine months without charge is typical of the cruel, arbitrary behavior of Syria’s security services,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “A government that thinks it can get away with trampling the rights of its citizens has lost all connection to its people.”

It is unclear why the authorities have detained al-Mallohi. According to her family, al-Mallohi, who is in her last year of high school, does not belong to any political group. Some Syrian activists have expressed concerns that security services may have detained her over a poem she wrote criticizing certain restrictions on freedom of expression in Syria. Her blog, which contains poetry and social commentary, focuses mostly on the plight of Palestinians and does not address Syrian political issues. Her homepage shows a picture of Gandhi with the quote, “you will remain an example.”

On September 1, al-Malouhi’s mother issued a public appeal to President Bashar al-Asad urging him to provide her with information about her daughter.

–

Her blogs:
http://talmallohi.blogspot.com/
http://palestinianvillages.blogspot.com/

September 21st, 2010, 4:38 pm

heraish said:

What happened to Karfan. Also is Imad Mustafa a Sunni or Alawi?

September 21st, 2010, 5:07 pm

Ghat Al Bird said:

MAJEDKHALDOUN said:

That George Mitchell offered Syria a partial return of the Golan that will TAKE 20 YEARS..

And

HASSAN said:

The Syrian government should IMMEDIATELY release Tal al-Mallohi, a 19-year-old high school student and blogger held incommunicado without charge for nine months, Human Rights Watch in New York said today.

The logic of THE LEADING DEMOCRACY still rules in its relations with the Arab World.

September 21st, 2010, 5:19 pm

20 yrs jews will have forgotten about the 2 cm they were partially returning.

what did georgie, the jewish butler, present to israel.

September 21st, 2010, 5:46 pm

the jew’s butler

September 21st, 2010, 5:50 pm

dammit. butler to the jews

September 21st, 2010, 5:55 pm

jo6pac said:

5 dancing shlomos

Yes in Amerika, we have taken all thinking out schools so we can raise more idiots than the ones we already have.

No, Syria shouldn’t give anything to the US and I’m sure you’ve all noticed that being the friend of the US can hurt in more way than we could count.

September 21st, 2010, 7:15 pm

Akbar Palace said:

One Dancing Ahmad

Dear 5 dancing shlomos,

Those pesky Jews put a damper on everyone’s day. Especially for those who are anti-semitic like yourself.

September 21st, 2010, 7:21 pm

I just saw this and wanted to share this how bad it is in state of California.
http://www.calitics.com/diary/12545/how-the-la-times-got-the-teacher-ratings-wrong

This is one of million things going wrong here.

September 21st, 2010, 7:51 pm

It is really sad that people use Syria Comment as their tool for spewing antI-Semitic filth.

September 21st, 2010, 9:35 pm

Norman said:

Dr Landis ,
Creativity and not memorizing might be good in Politics and literature ad possibly in economics , i am not sure how important that is in Medicine , Engineering and science , we had lectures given on subjects with syllabus provided by the professors , we used to write on the edges as we do here in the US , we read other medical books , English in my case french in others , i do not know how creativity could have changed facts as they are in medicine or Engineering ,

September 21st, 2010, 10:01 pm

LeoLeoni said:

Creativity in medicine can be seen in the ability to think outside the box. The ability to find new surgical procedures or any medical breakthroughs are almost impossible without having a creative and innovative mind.

Did we ever wonder why barely any work of Arabs living in the Middle-East gets published in renowned scientific or medical journals? People like Ahmad Zoweil only managed to be awarded the Noble Prize in Chemistry when he worked in the US. Magdi Yacoub, prominent Egyptian cardiologist/Surgeon was refused from Surgery school when he was in Egypt. Anecdotes say that he was told his fingers were too fat to be a surgeon. Farouk Al Baz, another prominent Egyptian American geologist said on TV that the Egyptian government offered him a position of a science teacher in a small city north of Egypt before he left to the US. Would any of these people be able to reach where they are right now if they stayed in their countries and received their doctorates from there? I highly doubt it.

There is also this cultural issue with conformity, that everyone has to be the same in order to be accepted. There is a lack of emphasis on individualism, as it is seen in many ways as unacceptable and falsely attributed to be the antithesis of altruism, which we know is not true. Schools have to start promoting the idea that every student is unique in their own sense, and that it’s fine to be different. Only when our young feel they have the freedom to say or do things which others might not agree with, will they be able to be creative.

Last but not least, corporeal punishment should be prohibited. Any teacher engaged in such acts ought to be suspended and if repeated, expelled and possibly charged with assaulting a minor. It’s utterly unacceptable to hit students thinking this will create better students.

September 22nd, 2010, 1:34 am

Leo , Said ,
Creativity in medicine can be seen in the ability to think outside the box. The ability to find new surgical procedures or any medical breakthroughs are almost impossible without having a creative and innovative mind.

That is in post graduate not when you have to learn the basics , that is why many Syrians come to the US and they are doing very well from their education in Syria ,

September 22nd, 2010, 7:50 am

my experience with drs/dentists in syria: they are at the least the equal of american counterparts. but more honest, less greedy. what sets american medical, dental apart are the vast number of drugs and very expensive equipment. without these, to be ill on a deserted island, one is better off with a pro from syria.

pesky?

pesky is not word for jews occupying syrian land and homes; incursions into and bombing syria; assassinations in syria; murdering syrians.

antisemites occupying semite land.
antisemites murdering semites.
antisemite aggressors playing victim.
antisemites claiming semite history.
antisemites stealing semite culture.
antisemites with diseased minds passing the disease from generation to generation.
antisemites claiming semite past, present.
antisemites terrified of truth: to be found out as fakes, thieves, liars, murderers.

September 22nd, 2010, 8:26 am

norman said:

Leo ,
I agree with you on many other things including individualism , i just think that if you look around you see that most Syrians are very successful in the US and that is from the economic system that we have here , Syria is moving in that direction ,

September 22nd, 2010, 8:27 am

syrians, lebanese, jordanians, other expats of syria the greater and sikhs, et al, are successful in great part from their business skills (and pressure to succeed in a foreign land) learned in their culture.

success in amurderka cant be separated from the size and great natural wealth with only the size having to do with the system which is theft. the system was set up to aggrandize the leaders. that others can benefit from theft is accidental or at least benefits the elite.

September 22nd, 2010, 8:41 am

14. HASSAN said:

HASSAN. Your condemning statement above requires specific references to be considered seriously.

September 22nd, 2010, 10:42 am

Syrian teacher brutally torturing elementary school students is only transferred to another department in the Ministry of Education after being exposed through a video on facebook. In addition, her salary was reduced 3% for 4 months. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

http://www.syria-news.com/readnews.php?sy_seq=122111

the disturbing video on facebook is here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/sadwna-fy-mrft-hwyt-almlmtyn-alltyn-qamta-btdhyb-atfalna/157310427615548?v=wall#!/pages/sadwna-fy-mrft-hwyt-almlmtyn-alltyn-qamta-btdhyb-atfalna/157310427615548?v=wall

Commentary:
http://cyberdissidents.org/bin/content.cgi?ID=478&q=3&s=24

September 24th, 2010, 2:53 am

Joshua said:

Leo,

The video I saw of corporal punishment was not exactly torture. I am old enough to have been hit in exactly the same way in 6th grade in my school in Vermont. The carpentry teacher had a wooden paddle that he used to smack us on the bottom when we misbehaved. I got whacked a number of times. It was no fun. I a glad the practice has ended in the US. I am also glad that Syrian authorities are taking steps to stop this. Attitudes to corporal punishment have changed dramatically in the US and World over the last generation.

I agree with you completely about creativity in Medicine.

Best, J

September 24th, 2010, 9:57 am

Joshua,

I am afraid that this is not a standard case of corporeal punishment. If you watch the video carefully, the teacher actually had taken quite some time from class to prepare the heinous attack on the students. It was very systematic. The teacher had some of the students take their shoes and socks off, then had other students assist her by grabbing the feet of their fellow student so the teacher can hit the target accurately! In another case the teacher had a special instrument used by the other students to carry the feet of the victim in the air, an instrument that one would find and used in the basement of police and moukhabarat departments. Also, in one of the videos, you can clearly see one student was told to stand in front of the class door in order to block anyone from coming in.

I am also afraid to say that the steps taken to stop this come very short of what is proper. The teacher was not sued, which would have been very proper in this case. In fact, the teacher was not even fired from the Ministry of Education, but only transferred to a different section. What kind of message does this send out?

Cheers

September 24th, 2010, 12:07 pm

Dear Leoni, My mistake. I didn’t watch that video. I saw one of slapping hands with a board. What you describe is on a different level.

Perhaps the teacher was not fired because there is no law against corporal punishment and because it is not uncommon?

Do we know what the law and practice are?

September 24th, 2010, 12:44 pm

5 dancing said:

from paul craig roberts, a closet philo syrian, blaming america for what surely and properly belongs to syria:

“Kids as young as 6 years old have been handcuffed and carted off to jail for school infractions that may or may not have occurred. So have moms with a car full of children (see, for example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AaSLERx0VM ).

Anyone who googles videos of US police gratuitous brutality will call up tens of thousands of examples, and this is after laws that make filming police brutality a felony. A year or two ago such a search would call up hundreds of thousands of videos.

In one of the most recent of the numerous daily acts of gratuitous police abuse of citizens, an 84-year-old man had his neck broken because he objected to a night time towing of his car. The goon cop body-slammed the 84-year old and broke his neck. The Orlando, Florida, police department says that the old man was a “threat” to the well-armed much younger police goon, because the old man clenched his fist”

also hidden from much public knowledge in syria are the military boot camps for difficult-to-handl-kids. apparently in syria many kids lack a caring family environment. therefore the need for an every now and then shout-at followed by boxed ears and a at-night, caring militry beating.

September 24th, 2010, 3:10 pm

from paul craig roberts, a closet lover of syria, blaming america for what surely and properly belongs to syria:

September 24th, 2010, 8:19 pm

Joshua ,Leoleoni,

Corporal Punishment has been banned in Syria since the sixties , but the law is not enforced as well as in the US where you can still see his kind of punishments in private possibly Catholic schools ,
About creativity in Medicine ,

I believe you are wrong about denying the good education that the medical schools in Syria provide at least Damascus university because of the lack of published studies as we can see in the US that all the Syrian doctors that i know are very successful and the ones who elected academic careers are very well published ,
Doing clinical trials require many elements that include beside well educated Doctors and researchers reliable patients that are committed to follow up and to treatment , data managers that are full time , researchers and principal investigators who are full time who do not have to have private practices to support their income and life style , treatments are not available all the time and many chemotherapy drugs are not available and Radiation therapy is limited to Damascus and possibly Aleppo and recently Hims ,
Medicine is cash for service and clinical trials are expensive to run as tests are expensive and people have to pay out of their pockets as Drug companies do not contribute to these trials in Syria ,

So for Syria to be able to participate in clinical trials it has to do the following :

1 ) Provide good compensation to university professors and make them full time with bonuses for publications ,
2 ) Provide funds for data managers ,
3 ) Pay for all the testing and the expense associated with clinical trials to the point that the participants ( Patients ) will not have to pay for anything related ,
4 ) connect all Doctors from each specialty through association to conduct the same trials in each specialty so they can have ,
5 ) Spread insurance coverage for health care which will encourage people to seek care earlier ,
6 ) make contact between these associations and drug companies to provide support for clinical trials , as we have in the US ,Drug companies sponsored clinical trials ,

As i said most Syrian Doctors are very accomplished in the US with their Syrian medical education ,So creativity is learned in Syria but the opportunity to show it is not and that needs to be provided ,

September 25th, 2010, 12:29 am