Excellent article by @Sami_Moubayed about Syria's education system. He worries that the growing effort to Islamize Syria's schools means the end of a century-old experiment in Syrian modernity and its efforts to build an identity that can unite all Syrians. Read the last 2 paragraphs: "Over the course of the 20th century, Laique’s reputation, feeding on its facilities and bilingual instruction, hardened into something close to folklore. Syrian families would send their children regardless of sect or religion, mainly because Laique promised something that confessional schools did not: a Syrian identity. All of that came to a grinding halt when the school’s administration recently took the controversial decision to separate boys and girls, nearly two years into the administration of President Ahmad al-Sharaa. The change was framed as the school complying with the wishes of parents, sparking backlash from many secular voices, the Syrian intelligentsia and the school’s alumni." "To date, the Education Ministry has not intervened, but many are worried about the direction in which Syria is heading. Last year, entire chunks of Syrian history were crossed out of textbooks, including aspects of the pre-Islamic past and women pioneers. Some of the amendments were controversial but understandable, like eliminating all mention of the 1973 October War with Israel, given that it was led by Hafez al-Assad. But gender separation at a mixed school with Laique’s history takes the fears to a completely new level. Laique, after all, is not just an ordinary school but a century-old experiment in Syrian modernity, and any change to its practices will be interpreted as a verdict on that vision. The school’s founders — those French educators, the reformist premier, the elite Damascene families who enrolled their children — were all engaged in an act of imagination. They believed that Syria’s future would be built by people who had learned to think across the lines that had previously divided them. That belief is now in danger." By @smoubayed in @newlinesmag newlinesmag.com/essays/a-cha…