Daybreak in Turkey / Second Edition

by James L. Barton

SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE, BEIRUT, SYRIA

Whatever differences of opinion existed as to the place of English in the educational system of Turkey, there was practical unanimity in the belief that reform in the empire demanded the creation and maintenance of a system of schools which should include all grades, beginning with the primary. It was necessary to begin with the most rudimentary teaching before higher institutions could be sustained. The seminaries already referred to were not by any means colleges. They taught many studies of the lowest grades. As most of the pupils were mature in years, they made speedy progress and often astonished their teachers by their rapid advancement and clear grasp of abstruse subjects.

At every station where missionaries settled, schools sprang up and were at once widely patronized. In the large centers like Erzerum, Harpoot, Aintab and Marsovan, where the people were unusually intelligent and eager for an education, there was marked development and a rapid rise in the grade of the central schools. Colleges were not then developed, for there were no natives qualified to teach the studies of college grade, while there were no preparatory schools fitted to train students for college work. At that time the country itself was not in a condition to demand a college education. In the meantime Robert College was taking the lead in the higher education of men, although its work was then far inferior to the courses it now offers. Educators throughout the empire were closely watching the new institution upon the Bosporus, which became the pioneer and leader for the entire country.

When Dr. Hamlin was in the midst of his efforts to organize and construct a college for Turkey, the Rev. Crosby H. Wheeler, also from the state of Maine, was sent into Eastern Turkey as a missionary, and with designation to Harpoot. Dr. Wheeler, with energy similar to that of his fellow laborer, stopped upon his way at Constantinople and became acquainted with the educational work there developing. He took direct issue with Dr. Hamlin upon the subject of the value of English, but agreed with him upon the place of education in the work of reform. Some years later, when the educational work at Harpoot was well established, Dr. Wheeler felt so keenly upon this subject that he gave public notice in the seminary, of which he was the principal, that any student who was known to be studying English, even by himself or by the aid of one or two resident Armenians who had studied at Constantinople under Dr. Hamlin, would be summarily expelled from the school.

Dr. Wheeler, with his keen vision and unconquerable energy, while an evangelistic missionary of unusual power, became the pioneer of education at Harpoot. Under his leadership, strongly seconded by Rev. Dr. H. N. Barnum, the seminary for young men at that place rapidly developed until in 1878 it was merged into Armenia College, afterwards changed to Euphrates College. It did not require many years for Dr. Wheeler to see that no broad education could be given in Turkey without the use of the English language, so that he became one of the most energetic and enthusiastic supporters of an English education for all students in the higher institutions of learning in the country. The other high schools in the eastern part of Turkey became preparatory schools for the college, which was heartily endorsed by the people themselves, as appears from the wide patronage it received.

The same process of growth that has been noted at Harpoot took place also at Aintab, which is distant some eight days’ journey from Harpoot, upon the south side of the Taurus Mountains. In the meantime, the educational work at Beirut had made rapid strides, developing into a college which later became the largest and most influential educational institution in Syria and one of the most important in the Levant. This school early in its growth became detached from the mission Board and came under the control of a separate Board of Trustees in New York, and assumed the name of the Syrian Protestant College.

Space will not permit the mention in detail of Anatolia College at Marsovan, St. Paul’s Institute at Tarsus, and the International College at Smyrna. The last two named are of comparatively recent elevation to the grade of college, while the former has had a record of college work of a quarter of a century. The school for the Bulgarians was established at Samakov, which is now in Bulgaria. It is called the Collegiate and Theological Institute, and is calculated to do for the young men of Bulgaria and Macedonia what these other institutions are doing for Asiatic Turkey.

The Syrian Protestant College at Beirut was begun as an institution of higher learning in 1866 by Rev. Daniel Bliss. What Dr. Hamlin was to Robert College and Dr. Wheeler to Euphrates College, and Dr. Tracy to Anatolia College, Dr. Bliss has been to this college in Syria. To-day with a campus of over forty acres, with five departments including medicine, pharmacy and a commercial course, and some seven hundred students in attendance from not less than fourteen nationalities, including Druses, Jews and Moslems, drawn from all parts of the Levant, from Persia and the Sudan, this college stands among the first in the empire for equipment and influence.

Educational work for girls started more slowly and did not make such rapid progress as the work among young men. There was not at the beginning a manifest demand for the education of girls. Among all classes in the country was an inherent prejudice against the intellectual or social advancement of women. Intelligent men, not a few, were ready to argue that girls were incapable of learning to read, much less of acquiring a general education. It became necessary, therefore, to educate the men up to the idea that girls could learn and that it was worth while to educate them. In 1836 a school for girls was opened by the missionaries at Smyrna, then the most enlightened and advanced city in the empire. This passed out of the hands of the mission very quickly, being taken over with its forty pupils by the Armenian community. It was soon disbanded. In Constantinople, while no regular school had been opened for girls, a few of the most enlightened parents were providing instruction for their daughters by engaging as teacher for them one of the evangelical Armenians.