Teaching history in Lebanon

A couple weeks ago I received an assignment from the Italian version of a New York City-based magazine called Vice (which is a free glossy arts and culture publication). The assignment was to interview high school history teachers in Beirut about how they teach the often-contested history of Lebanon, especially given that there is no national history textbook that goes beyond independence in 1946 and no unified way to teach about the 15-year civil war. I was asked to interview one teacher from one school linked to each of the three main religious groups here (Sunni, Shia, Christian Maronite) and photograph the teacher in front of their school.

At first I turned down the assignment because I was wary of reinforcing the idea that Lebanon is strictly divided along sectarian lines and that teachers are somehow responsible for indoctrinating kids with that kind of thinking. I think the real problem lies with the political elites who have not found good ways to promote reconciliation between the previously warring communities and who perpetuate this splintered sectarian system for their own benefits. I expressed my reservations to the editor and he reassured me that he would address these sorts of issues in the introduction to the interviews. So I accepted and set to work finding people who know the schools, talked to principals and secured permissions and got appointments. I finished the assignment on Friday but don’t have confirmation yet that it will be published, though the editor says it’s good work and he likes it and hopes to get it into all the international editions of Vice.

For me, it was a unique experience to get to talk to the teachers and visit their schools. A friend of mine went with me to two of them to translate, which was a huge help. I also realized she was good at prodding the teachers to elaborate on their answers, so many thanks to her! We visited the Catholic Maronite school first. It’s in Zalqa, just north of Beirut.

Before I go any further I guess I should explain the school system here a bit. There are public schools and private schools. According to the Lebanese Association for Educational Studies, in 2001/2002 there were 218 public secondary schools and 398 private ones. There were 57,774 students in public schools and 48,519 in private schools. Not all private schools are affiliated with a religious group; some are secular (especially the more elite, expensive ones). The official government textbook for Lebanese history at the secondary (high school) level only goes up to independence in 1946 and was published in 1969. New books and curriculum were released in 1997, except for history, which various committees could not agree upon. Teachers at private schools are allowed to use their own supplemental materials but not all do. To go to university a student must pass the government baccalaureate exam and so teachers usually focus on teaching the government textbook, especially in the last year of high school. The exam questions do not ask about anything that happened in Lebanon after 1946.

A PhD student, Mandy Terc, who has studied these issues made a very interesting point to me: "I think that class/family wealth has more to do with the kind of differentiated education that Lebanese students receive than sect might. Or at least is equally important. For instance, all the most prestigious schools nationally are multi-sectarian and based on foreign systems (Louis Wegman, International College, American Community School). They are also extremely expensive. Even the next level in terms of prestige (Hariri schools, Makassed, Sagesse to name a few) are somewhat multi-sectarian and also rely heavily on foreign curriculum. It seems to me that schooling is most divided (and divisive) on a sectarian basis for the poorest students."

Another knowledgeable person on the subject, Prof. Munir Bashshour at AUB, told me that the schools that teach only their own version of history are on the fringe and are not the norm. The teachers I interviewed are at reputable and well-known schools that are also affiliated with a religious organization. For the St. George School this means they are under the umbrella of the General Secretariat of Catholic Schools in Lebanon. The Gezairi Secondary School is part of the Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association (a Sunni group) that also runs a hospital and other schools and social services. The Al-Kawthar School is affiliated with the Al-Mabarrat Charity Association that was founded by Hizballah's spiritual leader Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in 1978. 

So, we went to the St. George School just north of Beirut one afternoon to interview Dr. Imad Murad. As we got closer to the school I saw more and more red crosses with a sharpened end, the logo of the Lebanese Forces (a militia connected to the right-wing Kataeb Party or Phalange), stenciled onto the walls along with posters commemorating Pierre Gemayel (his grandfather founded the Kataeb) who was assassinated in November 2006. The Kataeb is mainly supported by Maronite Catholics and is part of the March 14th Forces, the majority in government.

In the school’s entrance reception area is a painting of St. George slaying the dragon. Dr. Murad is young, very sharply dressed and spoke mostly in English. Unlike the other teachers I talked to, he regularly incorporates current events and recent history into his classes, partially, he says, because it keeps students engaged and because the students like politics. All the teachers I spoke to said that they just teach the facts, but when I asked him what he teaches about the civil war he said, “I just teach what happened, about the beginning and end of the civil war, about the Syrian army in Lebanon. Not what I think, but the facts of what happened, like how the Palestinians began the war on April 13, 1975. Only what happened. Like the assassination of Bashir Gemayel in 1982 and the Christian war in 1988 between [General Michel] Aoun and [Samir] Geagea. Only what happened. Because I am not with a party, that’s why. There are other history teachers, my friends, who are [affiliated] with a party, with the Lebanese Forces or others. They teach history differently, they will say in class that they hate this person, that one leader is right. It’s not very good, but many teachers do this.” The idea that the Palestinians started the civil war is not an uncontested “fact,” however.

(Dr. Imad Murad at St. George School)

Later when I asked Dr. Ali Hallak at the Gezairi Secondary School (run by the Sunni Makassed organization) in Hamra what he tells students who ask about the civil war he replied, “We tell them the facts, we don’t go into details and don’t blame anybody. When asked how the war started I tell them about the bus incident. Every side blames another side for starting the war. We begin by telling them it started as a conflict between Christians and Palestinians and then turned into a conflict between Christians and Muslims, because they supported the Palestinians. There was a lot of tension between the parties, lots of small things happened before war started. For example, there were clashes between the Lebanese army and the Palestinians and in another incident some Christians were killed driving past a checkpoint. These things were an incitement to people. On April 13, 1975, in this tense atmosphere, there was a bus going from Sabra to Tel el Zaatar that was shot at by armed militants. This is where we stop. We don’t say who was responsible for this incident. The situation is a bit confusing. Even the Phalangists, in their recent statements concerning the Ain El Roumaneh bus incident, say they didn’t have anything to do with it. At that point any small incident could have started the civil war.”

(Dr. Afaf Khansa and Dr. Ali Hallak, Gezairi Secondary School)

In my last interview, with Mrs. Nadia Hamza at the Al-Kawthar school close to the southern suburbs of Beirut, I asked her the same question. Al-Kawthar is run by the Al-Mabarrat Charity Association, which was founded by the spiritual leader of Hizballah, Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, in 1978. Mrs. Hamza explained that, “We don’t go into this question because if we did you cannot avoid being one of the participants. Since we don’t teach the civil war, we don’t have this problem. In all schools in Lebanon, the civil war is not taught, we don’t go into it.” When students ask about it, she said, “I refer students to encyclopedias and other materials so they can study on their own. If they need any clarification or have any problems then we look for answers together that are objective.” Asked to give examples of the materials she recommends she replied, “We refer them to a wide range of resources. One famous history and geography encyclopedia that we use was written by someone from the Druze sect. Another very important reference is a documentary produced by LBC TV, which of course represents a Christian political party. Another source is Al Jazeera, which is not even Lebanese. But there is no Islamic reference material, if this is your question.”

(Mrs. Nadia Hamza, Al-Kawthar School)

At the Gezairi and Al-Kawthar schools, history after 1946 is not officially taught. However, the teachers say that the students are curious and ask questions and they do their best to help them.  At Gezairi I spoke to two teachers, Dr. Afaf Khansa and Dr. Hallak. I asked if they would like to teach the students recent history. Dr. Khansa responded that, “They should be taught about what happened in the past, so that maybe they can avoid it next time.” Dr. Hallak said, “At first, after the recent events between the March 14 and March 8 forces, I thought that I had no problem in teaching the students what happened from 1975-1990. But now after what I’ve seen happening at the schools, [perhaps referring to the clashes that broke out at universities in January] I think that if it’s not taught in a really moderate way, it could be dangerous.” At the Al-Kawthar school, Mrs. Hamza had a similar response, “I am against teaching the period after independence because as a nation we are not ready, we’re not mature yet, we are not out of the woods yet. It’s not wise to teach events as history until 50 years have passed.”

Another question that elicited different responses is “do you teach that Lebanon is an Arab country?” Dr. Murad said, “I tell them, honestly, we are not an Arab country. And I have reasons. For example, our language is now Arabic but 200 years ago we spoke Syriac, not Arabic. Also, our history is different from Arab history. Our religion is different from the Arab world. Our relations with Europe are different from the Arab world’s. But listen, whether you are Arab or not, I tell my students, it’s important to have good relations with the Arab world. If any student asks me what is the solution to our problems in Lebanon, I say we have three or four solutions. I tell them the best solution is to cut the country into parts, one Sunni, one Shia, one Christian, one Druze in a federation, like the US or Canada, with a president. But not through war.” At Gezairi Dr. Khansa said, “Nobody in Lebanon thinks it’s not an Arab country.” Dr. Hallak elaborated, “These beliefs existed during the civil war from 1975–90. There were some groups that probably said that Lebanon is not Arab. But today I think we are all convinced that Lebanon is an Arab country. Even the Christians, their roots are Arab. There was a political conflict that made the Christians fear for their independent existence, that Islam was a danger to them. And this is what made them say that Lebanon is not Arab. But nowadays I don’t think there is fear anymore and you can see this in the political coalitions that exist now. [The two main opposing coalitions are composed of both Christians and Muslims.] These are very different from the political coalitions of 1975-90.” Mrs. Hamza at Al-Kawthar said, “We don’t make a big deal about this. We tell them what’s in the constitution and what’s in the Taif agreement, where all the participants agreed that Lebanon is an Arab nation.”

All the teachers say they teach moderation and tolerance, for example, Mrs. Hamza said, “The major problem we have in Lebanon is intolerance. I am now studying Christianity and Islam to try to find a way in which to create unity and integration. It is this intolerance that causes wars.” The Gezairi School has a program where they get Muslim and Christian kids together and Dr. Murad at St. George said, “I teach the students to be good citizens. But when the student goes out into the community he forgets everything about history and he listens to the political leaders. This is a big problem. I tell my students to be friends with all Lebanese people and to respect their opinions. First, we are all Lebanese.”

But when it comes to teaching Lebanese history the teachers don’t agree about whether there should be one unified history textbook for all the communities. Dr. Murad said, “No, it’s not a good idea. I respect all their opinions but we cannot have one book, really. In Lebanon we have different religions, different parties and ideas, it would be very difficult to have one book. For example, we have 20 different ideas about Hizballah -- it’s good, not good, legal, not legal. We don’t have one book for the period after 1960 because there are different opinions of what happened in the civil war. For example, about the beginning of the war in 1975, the Muslim parties say it was the fault of the Kataeb [the Christian Phalangists], and the Christian parties say no, it was the fault of the Palestinians. We have different opinions about everything.” At Gezairi the principal, Dr. Kamel Dallal, joined the conversation at the end and said, “I think teachers, not only our teachers, but teachers all over Lebanon prefer to have a unified textbook in order to build the character of Lebanese students in a similar manner and to have a common national point of view for teaching history. The Ministry of Education was able to do that successfully in the civics curriculum and we were hoping it would release a unified history textbook but unfortunately this didn’t happen.” Mrs. Hamza agrees it would be good for the country, “Yes, because it would be one step towards a unified Lebanon. Different religions could be taught in the religion classes but everyone would be studying the same history for one Lebanon.”      

I particularly enjoyed visiting the Al-Kawthar school. It’s a girls school at the higher levels so the part of the school I was in for the interview seemed to be staffed entirely by women. I was the only one with her hair uncovered. It is an Islamic school so women wear the hijab (a scarf covering the hair and neck). There were a bunch of young girls who I saw later downstairs dressed all in white. It was explained to me that they were about to attend a celebration to commemorate their taking on the hijab, it happens at age 9 for these girls. They seemed excited to be involved in a special event, it reminded me of other religion's rituals that are used to usher kids into a more adult stage of life.

(Mrs. Nadia Hamza with one of the girls who are donning the hijab now.)

Two other women teachers translated for me during the interview. One is from Michigan and moved her two years ago with her husband and kids, her parents are from Lebanon. The women at the school were a pleasure to be around. Many joke and tease each other, are warm and casual and seem genuine and down-to-earth. Those I saw and interacted with were also confident and lively which is not surprising but I am aware of the usual stereotypes of veiled women and want to say they are not passive, quiet or overly serious at all!

When I left I asked about taking a service taxi back to Hamra. (A service, pronounced serveece, picks up and drops off passengers anywhere along a set route.) One woman took me out to the street and told me that she would hail one for me, explaining that if the driver thought there would be two of us he would stop but probably not for one. Every time a service drove by she leaned out towards it and yelled my destination to him. Finally there was one going that way so I shook her hand, thanked her and jumped in. Once I closed the door the driver looked a bit bewildered as he drove off and said in Arabic "I thought she said two!"

I’ll post again to let you know when the article is published, which will have more interview quotes than I included here.

Comments

[ItIsMe]

Wow! This is very interesting.
Is it late to ask for the link of the article nine years later?

[Michelle Woodward]

Thanks for your kind comment. I don't think it's online now. There are others who have written more in-depth about these issues. I'm sure you can find some good articles on the web.
All the best,
Michelle