Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1898-03-04
AN EGYPTIAN ETON.
SCHOOLS IN WHICH THE RICH BOYS
OF CAIRO ARE EDUCATED.

Difficulties That English Teachers Have to
Contend With-Pupils Are Boy: In Name
Only, For the Egyptians Have No Gem
uine Youth.
They were training for the sports. In
the sunny playground was a row of big,
fat boys-though none of them came
within six inches of the slim, young,
befezzed English head master-hanging
on to o rope made fast round a tree. The
trained instructor from Aldershot-he
not so young OF slim as he has been,
but with muscles all india rubber and
steel-was teaching them the tug of
war. His white toothed, black faced,
khaki clad Sudanese assistants We're
helping him.
1 was in the Egyptian Elton. 1t was
one of three schools originally founded
for training teachers capable of giving
instruction i'll English or French. But
now it contains primary and secondary
schools and a training college for tho
teachers, SO that / was in a fair way to
sec at it's best a summary of the whole
system of public instruction i'll Egypt.
1t is only in its infancy as yet.
First we Went into the primary
school. There were not many pupils be-
cause the fees here are high-as much
as $50 and SIS a year for day boys
and nobody much comes to the primary
part except those who have failed else
where and whose fathers think the high
fee a guarantee of high examining.
The primary course in Egypt takes four
years; i'll the first, only Arabic subjects
are taught; after that, English or
French is introduced and gradually ex-
tended till in the two last years it takes
10 hours out of the weekly 33. All the
instruction in languages is given in the
language itself, but by natives. Only
one-English Oh French-is taught, but
that is taught thoroughly.
In the lowest class there were Just
four boys-absurd little owls with the
gravity of old men, dressed i'll fez and
overcoat. They were getting Il drawing
lesson from an elderly Arab with u
shawl round his head. When L went in,
they all stood up and saluted. In the
highest class they Were having an Eng
lish lesson from a young native in a
large butterfly tie. Their English was
thick and sloppy; so. il it came to that,
was the masters. Still you could under
stand it. In this class mustaches were
already budding, and it seemed strange
to hear young men reading infantile
stuff about the sparrow.
Tho ,rro,t 1;fi,,1tv IN cobo,lc 1il.o
this arises from the fact that IL Mussul-
man is never a boy. AS soon as he
leaves the harem and is no longer a baby
he jumps at Il bound to being II man. \
boy will do we'll i'll his classes up to IA,
10, 16. and then suddenly the cafes and
hasheesh and lights o. love claim him,
aud from q bright eyed urchin he be-
comes Il sallow, fiashy, sodden, stupid,
dissipated man about town. In Il pri-
mary school two boys, 16 and IA, have
just been married-not betrothed, you
know, but really married. and living
with their wives. The native master
saw nothing extraordinary i'll a married
sixth standard boy. Under the former
system a boy took his primary %certifi-
cate, which qualities for lower govern
ment posts, at IA or SO, then spent six
years getting his secondary certificate,
and then perhaps went OH to the train
ing college or the schools of medicine or
of law. Consequently he might easily
be the father of a very fair sized family
years before he started to earn a piastre.
Lately, by shortening the secondary
course from five years to three, u real
effort has been made to get boys out of
hand and into the world before 20 or so.
When we got Oh to the top form Of the
secondary school, there was no appreci-
able difference i'll the sort of boy-all
befezzed, all %overcoated, most mustach-
ed, all grave, as if school were a matter
of life and death.
There is no difficulty in point of dis
cipline with the Egyptian schoolboy.
The French masters have some trouble
sometimes, l was told, but in the very,
very rare cases where an English master
finds his classes too much for him lie
must go. It will not do to bring up the
young in the idea that they may set al
naught the authority of an Englishman.
And what, when all is said and done,
of the Egyptian schoolboy? Does he dc
any good in return for the patient, in
telligent, honest care his English mas.
tiers bestow on him? Well, he is learn
ing to play football. and that will be
good for him, only when a boy says tc
his master, after playing the Egyptian
Sandhurst. "The ground was too undu.
lating; it recalled to me Hannibal't
passage Of the Alps" why, then, you
perceive that even football will not nee
essarily turn q %precocious man into q
boy again. He is astonishingly indus
trious. The difficulty is not to make
him work, but to prevent him from
overworking. Eight hours home work
after five and a half in school is by nc
neal an unknown performance. Some
, of his work i'll English literature which
I saw compares quite we'll with that o.
university extension students at home.
I.,k 1:1vD ki.@:., "a ~ool,.,or,, Ao,Aloo1x-