"Our first school for native girls was commenced in Beirut in 1858.
The teachers have been Miss Hicks, Miss Hiscock, Mrs. Walker, Miss
Dillon, Miss Jacombs, (now in Sidon,) Miss Stainton, (now in
Sidon,) and Miss Dobbie. No native female teachers have been
employed except pupils of the school under Miss Hicks' care.
Masters Riskullah in Beirut, and Murad, Reshid and Daud, in
Shemlan, have been connected with the school as teachers of the
higher Arabic branches.
"The whole number of boarders under our care up to the present
time, is above one hundred. The only teachers in my second boarding
school are, my adopted daughter Handumeh, and Zarifeh Twiney, a
pupil of the Prussian Deaconesses. Seventeen or eighteen of our
pupils have been, or are now teachers, and ten are married.
"The school directed by Miss Hicks was given over to the Ladies'
Society in England, some six or seven years ago, and has been
supported by them since. The new school in the upper house is under
no society and is not regularly aided by any. There are from
twenty-six to twenty-eight boarders under the care of my daughter,
Miss Watson, I aiding as I can. Several girls have been supported
for the last two years by friends in America and England. We have
had ten Druze girls in our school in the upper house. Miss Hicks
has had three or four, and a number in her day school. We had also
a number in our day school at Aitath, four of whom are married to
Druze Sheikhs."
Mr. Elias Suleeby, aided by friends in Scotland, has for a considerable
period conducted common schools in a part of Mount Lebanon and the
Bukaa, and now the enterprise has been adopted by the Free Church of
Scotland, who have sent the Rev. Mr. Rae to be their Superintendent.
Their schools are chiefly for boys, though in all the village schools it
is usual for a few of the smaller girls to attend the boys' school. In
Suk el Ghurb, however, they have a boarding school containing some
twenty-five girls.
THE PRUSSIAN DEACONESSES INSTITUTE IN BEIRUT
The Orphan House, Boarding School and Hospital with which the Prussian
Deaconesses are connected, were established in 1860. The two former are
supported by the Kaiserswerth Institution in Germany, and the latter by
the Knights of St. John.
In the Orphan House are one hundred and thirty orphan girls, all native
Syrians, who are clothed, fed and instructed for four or five years, and
often transformed from wild, untutored semi-barbarians to tidy, well
behaved and useful young women. They have ordinarily about fifty
applicants waiting for a vacancy in order to enter.
The Boarding School is for the education of the children of European
residents, Germans, French, Italians, Greeks, Maltese, English, Scotch,
Irish, Hungarians, Dutch, Swiss, Danish, Americans and others. The
medium of instruction is the French language.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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