"Fawaed Fit-Tarbyah Wat-Taaleem", by Khalil Sakakini

This archival item shows a book of Khalil Sakakini titled “Fawaed Fi at-Tarbeyyeh Wat-Taaleem” (Educational Benefits), where he starts by listing the benefits of kindergartens as they fill children with joy, keep them busy without being tired and a place for them to learn obedience, attention, attention to detail and how to use their hands. In such a context, Sakakini sees that a teacher who does not believe in this method and over-believes and depends on himself is not fit for kindergartens. In Sakakini’s point of view, it is a mistake to create difficulties in front of children to strengthen them and a mistake to remove all difficulties as well. Sakakini refuses the idea of learning for the sake of learning, but he sees that children are to be trained to tackle the practical issues of life. Kindergartens do not train children in the strength of mind by helping them in paying attention to the visual and touchable, as abstracts and non-visuals are the teacher’s job.  In the reading book, Sakakini mentions the most important conditions to be taken care of in reading books such as good printing, the attractiveness of the book by having pictures, to be gradual in strange, hard, anomaly or unfamiliar pronunciations, the bigger portion of the book being made of stories and dialogues to help change the tone and train students in catching it, each lesson must have two or three strange pronunciations, reading in elementary classes must be a goal in itself unlike in higher grades where it is a means not a goal, spoken language being the better method for children under 10 years old as they understand by hearing as it is important for books to contain different shapes of spoken language and for reading books to always consider that thought is above word and word is above writing.  Sakakini then points out that the book must be printed in black ink on unpolished white paper, and that it is covered in a manner that allows students to open it wide to avoid all aches relating to eyes and neck. To overcome the language, we must first understand it, please ourselves with its literature and then use it, and understanding always precedes use.   In the language book, Sakakini registers that every word invented by humans is a registration of a fact or thought, a new victory of civilization, that the widening of vocabulary is a widening of thought and all that helps monitor and tidy words helps monitor and tidy ideas. Sakakini also confirms the need to learn language and literature as goals, and that language is not only a tool of thought but sometimes even replaces it.  On the matter of questions, Sakakini mentions the most important conditions of dialogue such as having a hollow question in a brief frame, empty of additional words, limited, to be answered in more than one word, to not be of what the student cannot answer and to be clear in an easy and understandable language, as dialogue according to Sakakini is a means to discover knowledge.  Regarding dictation, Sakakini proposes a method where the teacher reads the whole piece so students can be generally familiar with it, then reads it one sentence at a time with clear pronunciation and intonation, the piece should be of what the student has read or wrote, any difficult vocabulary should be written on the board first, after the dictation of the aforementioned piece the teacher must re-read all of the text and then asks the students to match their writings to the book, so they could correct themselves.  Regarding memory, Sakakini points out two methods of memorization, either by repeating to students until they memorize it or to make them want to memorize it strongly. We also need the two types of memory, the literal one that understands accurate images of perspectives and audio, and the brief one that briefs perspectives and audio. Reliance on memory was great before the invention of the printer, and memorization is not for the act itself, but for students to be affected by what they memorize.  Regarding poetry, Sakakini increases the importance of poetry to a point that makes it a tool affecting the mind, as to him, it is not a lesson in linguistics, grammar, writing or noting, it is a literary and mental inspiration. The matter also is not who knows poetry as much as it is regarding what sort of poetry, how much, how and when? Poetry hints but does not point out meanings, which is why explanations should be limited, meaning to let poetry interpret itself. With poetry, children learn to love nature, home, family, humans and animals, and it teaches them respect, loyalty and knighthood.  Regarding homework, Sakakini thinks that in the elementary stage, it should be done within school hours, because it could cause the student to lose sleep and become fatigued. Then he moves on to the inspector’s work including keeping a watchful eye on the teaching, guiding to the best methods and clearest opinions, participating in management, examining the students and giving lessons to teachers.  Regarding literature, Sakakini mentions the types of literature including old, new, common and universal, he also does not encourage filling reading books with old literature, because its language is too narrow to fit the demands of life, its soul does not match ours and it revolves around kings, princes, slaves and handmaids. According to Sakakini, old literature divides the world into Arabs and non-Arabs, believers and heathens and to masters and subjects.  Regarding the Arabic language, Sakakini expresses his opinion that Arabic should not be taught in specific classes, but taught by listening and using, and if Arabic was a language to be taught, then all teachers are Arabic teachers.  Regarding the lesson of words, Sakakini points out that elementary grades are being trained to analyze words into their phonetics, which aids in pronunciation and facilitates reading. In middle grades, they analyze words into their parts, which helps extract their meanings. As for the lesson of vocabulary, Sakakini mentions its purposes, firstly is for the student to acquire more vocabulary and to give him a complete understanding of the words he passes in his reading book, secondly is for the student to be able to extract the meaning themselves.  Regarding playacting, Sakakini proposes several sentences and asks the students to act them out, for example: stand next to your desk and look out the window, drop your pen and bend quickly to pick it up. Then he moves on to animal puzzles or (what is it, she or he?), where he riddles 4 puzzles.  Regarding grammar, Sakakini mentions that grammar has been through 2 cycles, the cycle of grammar with evidence and without, and he predicts a third, where it will be evidence without grammar. To Sakakini, grammar discusses 3 matters: the history of pronunciation or philology, grammar of logic and grammar of use, as well as the types of errors: performance, pronunciation misuse, forming or ambiguity errors, which all can be corrected with use and exercise.  Regarding the school principal, Sakakini believes that the school principal must have years’ worth of teaching experience before taking on such a job, as well as being responsible for the attendance and absence sheet, the school library, medical reports, clipping record, machines and meeting with parents regarding their children, and he should also excite teachers for their jobs.  Sakakini then continues on the subject of poetry, where he identifies it as rhythmic, toned, describes things and discusses facts, he also mentions Socrates’ opinion regarding poets not writing poetry because they are wise but because they are inspired. He then mentions that there are 3 forces in the world of literature, creation force, enjoyment force and criticism force, where the force of criticism is acquired and based on origins that are taught and applied, unlike the other two forces. Sakakini does not consider literature with informing, meaning that it is unimportant to speak your mind, what matters is to pass information from yourself to others, and that the difference between science and literature is that science offers facts while literature offers none.  According to Sakakini, literature is not to express one's self for that aim only, but to express one's self in support of that expression accompanies by motives, emotions, sentiments and intuition, meaning to have gestures. He also mentions some important exercises to teach the alphabet, tones, word deconstruction and pronunciation tools.  Sakakini then moves to his new first book, in which he mentions that word methods rely on the following principles: self-learning, from the picture to the word, where words are taken apart and matched with pictures at first then not matched, repetition, from the word to the letter including reading, dictation and handwriting, forming sentences from words and pictures, copying and acting.  Regarding reading, Sakakini shows that the purpose of it is while students are learning the language and formats, it offers them an example to follow, it could also open their perceptions and add to their information. Sakakini also sees that students should learn to heavily read in a short time.  The reason we read less than we should boils down to overrating excellence and overanalyzing every sentence, as well as exaggerating good reading as hard and slow. Sakakini then mentions the principles we should consider while reading: teacher preparation, the lesson fitting the timeframe, collecting strange pronunciations, preparing the class for the lesson, preparing the minds of students to understand the lesson by giving them a brief of the event or the poem, for example, preparing the emotions of the students to be affected by what they read, silent reading, objective reading, general reading and mind reading. He then mentions good rhythm being a condition of good reading, as the student will not catch the right rhythm if they do not understand or feel what they read.  Regarding poetry, Sakakini confirms that to take charge of a language, poetry is indispensable.  Memory files into two categories, photographic and a memory that comprehends a brief of audio and visual surroundings.  Poetry opens the views of students, as in transferring them beyond the limits of their lives, with poetry, they learn to love their homeland, nature, family, humans, animals, respect, loyalty and bravery. It also helps in nurturing the literary style and practising delivery.  In how we revive the language, Sakakini mentions several methods including reading in all its varieties, using the language in speech, turning speech from one form to another, acting, reusing what is heard or read and knowledge in using a dictionary.  Regarding dictation, Sakakini offers several general rules that would benefit students in this matter including the Alef and Hamza rules. Then he offers the origins that must be followed in dictation including reading the complete piece, writing difficult pronunciations on the board and having the student correct himself.