Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1904 — Teaching School In Persia. [ARTICLE]

Teaching School In Persia.

Persian servants are always summoned and addressed by their masters as “children.” When Mr. Wilfrid Sparrow became tutor to the children of the royal family of Persia he was greatly amused by the daily customs of the little princes. He tells of his first day in the schoolroom: We were in the middle of a lesson when Akbar Mirza, the magnificent, laying down his pen and taking off his spectacles, complained of the heat, which was 105 degrees in the shade. “It is too hot, yes, sail-,” he said. I made no reply, whereupon he resumed his work; but in a moment he lifted up his voice once more. This time his tone was loud and imperious. “’Bachaha” (child)! he cried. To my amazement, in stepped the stately general, find stood in an attitude of grave humility at a respectful distance, his head bowed and his hands folded at the waist. “Ab-i----khmerdan” (drinking water)! was Abkar's word, and smart the sartip's action. Out he went, and back he came with a silver teapot in his hand. Very solemnly and slowly he went the round of the class, and raising the spout to each thirsty little mouth in turn, waited in patient silence until the imperial thirst had been , queuched. While one little prince was being served his neighbor, eying the silver nipple, sucked his lips in anticipation of the refreshing draft. As for me, it was mine to revel in the humor of the scene, which was followed soon after by an interlude in which our friend, the major, in full dress, was summoned by Bahrain Mirza, the imperious, (o clean his slate. These interruptions tickled my sense of humor, undoubtedly, but they achieved a more useful end than that. They were the means of showing me that the first thing I should have to teach these youthful Ivajars was not modern languages nor mathematics nor science, but rather the first principles of self-help, self-reliance, self-depend-ence.