Home Education.—Influence of the Mother—Disrespect of Children—Toys—No Bath nor any Exercise—Bad Influence of Servants—No Discipline—Dirtiness—Dress—Food—Conversation—Tutors—Nurses—Immoral Influence of the Dadi—The Lala—Turkish Girls and Education—An Exceptional Family—Turks “educated” at Paris—Religious Shackles.
Moslem Schools.—Mektebs, or National Schools—Dogmatic Theology taught—Reforms—Rushdiyés—Idadiyés—Teachers’ School—Reforms of Ali and Fouad Pasha—The Schools of Salonika—State of Education in these Schools—Moslem View of Natural Science—The Dulmé Girls’ School—The Turkish Girls’ School—The Lyceum: its Design, Temporary Success, and Present Abandonment—The Medressés—Education of the Upper Classes—Official Ignorance.
The absence of any approach to sound education of the most rudimentary kind throughout the country is among the prime causes of the present degraded condition of the Turks. Both at home and at school the Moslem learns almost nothing that will serve him in good stead in after life. Worse than this, in those early years spent at home, when the child ought to have instilled into him some germ of those principles of conduct by which men must walk in the world if they are to hold up their heads among civilized nations, the Turkish child is only taught the first steps towards those vicious habits of mind and body which have made his race what it is. The root of the evil is partly found in the harem system. So long as that system keeps Turkish women in their present degraded state, so long will Turkish boys and girls be vicious and ignorant.
Turkish mothers have not the slightest control over their children. They are left to do very much as they like, become wayward, disobedient, and unbearably tyrannical. I have often noticed young children, especially boys, strike, abuse, and even curse their mothers, who, helpless to restrain them, either respond by a torrent of foul invective, or, in their maternal weakness, indulgently put up with it, saying, “Jahil chojuk, né belir?” (“Innocent child! what does it know?”)
I was once visiting at a Pasha’s house, where, among the numerous company present, a shrivelled-up old lady made herself painfully conspicuous by the amount of rouge on her cheeks. The son of my hostess, an impudent little scamp of ten years, independently marched in, and, roughly pulling his mother by her skirt, demanded a beshlik (shilling); she attempted a compromise, and offered half the sum, when the young rascal, casting side glances at the painted old lady, said, “A whole beshlik, or I will out with all you said about that hanoum and her rouged cheeks, as well as that other one’s big nose!” My friend, exceedingly embarrassed, under this pressure, acceded to her son’s demand, the only way she could see of getting rid of his troublesome company.
As a general rule the manner in which children use their mothers among the lower classes is still worse, and quite painful to witness. When these youngsters are not at school they may be seen playing in the street, paddling in the water near some fountain, making mud-pies, or playing with walnuts and stones, at times varying their amusements, in some retired quarter, by annoying Christian passers-by, calling out Giaour gepek! (“Infidel dog”), and throwing stones at them. Under the parental roof they express their desires in an authoritative tone, calling out disrespectful exclamations to their mothers.
Should their requests meet with the slightest resistance, they will sit stamping with their feet, pounding with their hands, clamoring and screaming, till they obtain the desired object. The mothers, who have as little control over themselves as over their children, quickly lose their temper, and begin vituperating their children in language of which a very mild but general form is, Yerin dibiné batasen! (“May you sink under the earth!”)[35]
Turkish children are not favored with the possession of any of the instructive books, toy-tools, games, etc., that European ingenuity has invented for the amusement of children, and which may be obtained at Constantinople and other cities of Turkey; the only playthings they possess are rattles, trumpets, a rude species of doll (made of rag-bundles), cradles, and a kind of polichinello, fashioned, in the most primitive manner, of wood, and decorated with a coarse daub of bright-colored paint, applied without any regard to artistic effect. These are sometimes sold in the chandlers’ shops, but are only exposed for sale in large quantities during the Bairams, when they make their appearance, piled in heaps on a mat, in the thoroughfares nearest the mosques.
A Turkish child is never known to take a cold bath in the morning; is never made to take a constitutional walk, or to have his limbs developed by the healthy exercise of gymnastics. No children’s libraries exist, to stimulate the desire for study—for which, it is true, little taste is displayed. Among the higher classes an unnaturally sedate deportment is expected from children when in the presence of their father and his guests, before whom they present themselves with the serious look and demeanor of old men, make a deep salaam, and sit at the end of the room with folded hands, answering with extreme deference the questions addressed to them. Out of sight, and in the company of menials, they have no restraint placed upon them, use the most licentious language, and play nasty practical jokes; or indulge in teasing the women of the harem to any extent; receiving all the time the most indecent encouragement, both by word and action, from the parasites, slaves, and dependants hanging about the house. No regular hours are kept for getting up and going to bed. The children, even when sleepy, obstinately refuse to go to their beds, and prefer to stretch themselves on a sofa, whence they are carried fast asleep. On rising, no systematic attention is paid either to their food, ablutions, or dressing. A wash is given to their faces and hands; but their heads, not regularly or daily combed, generally afford shelter to creeping guests, that can only be partially dislodged at the Hammam.
Their dress, much neglected, is baggy and slovenly at all times; but it becomes a ridiculous caricature when copied from the European fashion; shoes and stockings are not much used in the house, but when worn, the former are unfastened, and the latter kept up by rags hanging down their legs. A gedjlik (night-dress) of printed calico, an intari (dressing-gown), ayak-kab (trousers), and a libardé (quilted jacket), worn in the house, do duty both by night and day.