There were only four primary schools in all of Damascus in our time, so most students were in private schools, which did not have a clue the summer vacation as these schools remained open in both summer and winter.
Students from government schools (except a few) spent the summer in these schools, and when the end of September came and their schools reopened, they returned to them.
Damascenes were not accustomed to spending summer in the mountains; they sufficed with morning and evening outings to Sadr al-Baz, al-Mizan, al-Rabwa, or al-Shazrowan. Those seeking rest would spend a few days in Dummar or al-Hama. Then, as time went on, people began gathering in al-Jadida, al-Ashrafiya, Bassima, and al-Fija. Families would rent a house from the farmers or a room in a house to spend moonlit nights, and if they stayed longer, it would be for a month. The situation has since changed; now there are dozens of government primary schools, and summer vacations have become more popular. Many people now spend the entire summer in Al-Zabadani, Madaya, and Bloudan. As a result of this trend and the spread of government schools, students are left without school for the summer, creating a new problem: what to do with the children in the summer?
Are you planning to deprive them of their right to play, move, and explore and make them sit quietly and motionlessly in these closed apartments, turning the vacation into a prison when it is supposed to be a time of rest and enjoyment for them? Or are you planning to let them roam freely; you go to your work and leave them at home with the poor mother, jumping around her from morning till night, evading her, dirtying what she has cleaned, ruining what she has fixed, breaking the dishes, and tearing the curtains, driving her to the brink of exhaustion, so she throws them out into the street? They gather with the neighbor's children, jumping, shouting, fighting, throwing stones, disturbing the sick, waking the sleeping, and annoying everyone. The streets become their diabolical schools, teaching them every vile word and action, and they return home dirty and with torn clothes. Some might come home with a head injury from a rock, a broken leg from a fall, or being hit by a bicycle or a car. Thus, playing in the streets only brings harm to them and others. So what is to be done?
As for the children who go to the summer resorts with their families, we have nothing to say about them now, although we will return to discuss them, in Allah’s will. The problem remains for those whose families do not go anywhere in the summer. These are the majority since most people stay in Damascus during the summer. So what should these families do?
I wrote in the newspaper “Al-Ayyam” weeks ago addressing this issue from a collective perspective, explaining what people do in America and elsewhere regarding this matter. I will not repeat what I said there but will address the issue today from an individual perspective after having addressed it collectively.
We must find activities for the student during the vacation that develop their character, increase their knowledge, strengthen their body, improve their health, or train them to face life and earn some money. Before I elaborate, I want to clarify to the audience that work is not a disgrace. Some children of wealthy families in America and elsewhere are accustomed by their parents to earn money in the summer through any permissible means, and university students work in restaurants washing dishes and selling newspapers, seeing no shame in that, not out of need for money as their parents are genuinely wealthy, but to get used to earning and relying on themselves.
I am not saying that every father should send his son to work washing dishes or selling newspapers. Instead, I want the father to think first; if his child is falling behind in a subject or needs to retake an exam, the first thing to do is to review his lessons and prepare for the exam. If he is deprived of the summer vacation, it is his own fault. If he had not neglected his studies during the school year, he would not have to study during the vacation. Perhaps he will learn a lesson and not be deceived by the sweetness of sin after tasting the bitterness of punishment.
If the child is successful and does not need to retake an exam or prepare for a lesson, his father should first provide him with a session with knowledgeable people or a book on morals and religion. This would teach him from reading the book and sitting with the scholars how to be a believer who fears Allah, hopes for His reward, loves for others what he loves for himself, avoids lying, cheating, parents’ disobedience, and all other prohibitions. Then the father should look for work to keep him occupied. If the father is well-off and does not want to teach his son a trade or accustom him to earning money, he should teach him to visit the public library for reading and ask him about what he read and who he associated with. He should choose a trustworthy sports club for him under his supervision to instill in him the spirit of sports.
For those who want something better for their child, they could teach them a trade, such as typesetting in a printing press, typing on a typewriter, mechanics, or placing him with a calligrapher or painter to learn from them. This should not occupy his whole day but only half of it, leaving the other half for rest.
If the father is a merchant, he could take his son to his shop, teach him buying and selling, and give him wages for his work. Alternatively, he could set up a small stall with some goods for the child to sell, allowing him to keep the profits to spend as he wishes. If the father is a farmer, he could take his son to the field, encourage him in farming, assign him tasks he can handle, and pay him for his work.
If the school adopted practices from other countries, it could register students who want to work and arrange simple jobs for them, paying them wages. For example, they could form a group of young students to distribute bread in the neighborhood in the morning, deliver milk or newspapers to subscribers, or work with their parents' consent in shops, factories, or restaurants, ensuring adequate measures are taken to protect their morals and dignity.
Needy girls could work in households to earn money. Many housewives struggle with preparing vegetables for cooking or lack the time for it. If some girls agreed to gather for two hours every day at one of their homes to prepare vegetables for cooking, such as cutting beans, washing, and packaging them in nylon bags (one kilogram per bag), peeling potatoes or eggplants, or hollowing and cutting zucchini, schoolboys could then distribute these to households. These could be sold at a markup of fifty or sixty percent, with the boys and girls sharing the profit. This would also teach them household chores. This is just one example that came to mind.
There are many other tasks that can be done at home, yielding profit and serving the community. For instance, roasting and grinding coffee, making artificial flowers, preparing sweets, biscuits, and cakes, mixing and packaging thyme ingredients, curdling yogurt and placing it in cups, or preparing various jams and preserves from apricots, figs, walnuts, pumpkins, and carrots. They can also sew some simple clothes for children. Boys could distribute all these products.
I know this idea might seem strange and difficult for most parents to accept, and I would also find it hard to accept if I heard it from someone else. It seems unusual even to me, as I say it now, because the morals and upbringing we received view such work as shameful, fit only for the needy who would rather avoid it if they could. Meanwhile, foreigners, especially Americans, see nothing wrong with it. We imitate them in every harmful thing, so why not imitate them once in something beneficial?
The purpose is not just money, but keeping busy during the vacation, getting used to work, learning to face life, and becoming self-reliant.
Some parents might say, “I should employ my child as a laborer? God forbid! I give my child three liras as daily allowance, so why should I make him work all day for half a lira?” To this wealthy parent, I say: Rockefeller did not give his son anything except in exchange for work. He paid him half a penny (less than half a franc) for each gap he found in the garden fence that needed repair, and then paid him seven and a half pennies per hour to fix them.
Rockefeller (in case you don't know, wealthy parent) made more than two hundred liras every minute and had enormous charitable works, including a health foundation that spends the equivalent of eight million Syrian liras annually. He was neither stingy nor poor and could easily have given his son a thousand liras daily without feeling it. However, he restricted him, making him a man like himself. By pampering your child and being overly generous, you turn him into a weakling who doesn't know the value of money or how to be self-reliant. The single lira the child earns through his work has more value and brings more joy than the hundred liras he receives from his father without effort. This is something only understood through experience.
Finally, have I managed through this discussion to make you think about this issue of the summer vacation? Have I succeeded in convincing you that teaching your children to work is not a disgrace but an honor and a virtue? If the answer is yes, then I am happy.
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Broadcasted in 1959, from the book “With the People.”
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