Like it happened to ATATÜRK as he explained, to comfort and satisfy his mother, he was enrolled the simple and under-developed school of his district with religious ceremonies and prayers and started his education in that school. The ceremony was:
The child, who was dressed with new attire and a silver or gold embroidered bag with old alphabet and section of the Quran that begins with the 78th sura and contains all the short suras to the end of the book (formerly used as the second Arabic reading book in schools) and even Quran, is kept ready at home. Then, the pupils of the old-style elementary school would come to the front of the new pupil's house in two lines under the management of the teachers with special head-gears. There, the new pupil is put ahead of the line. The father and the other elderlies of the pupil are admitted to the cortége. The mother and the other women of the district watch the parting of the cortége in tears reading verses from Quran and prayers behind them wishing them to be successful. After this short ceremony, the children walk through the streets singing religious hymns which were memorized by the pupils beforehand. The public bid farewell on both sides of them with prayers. Finally, they arrive at school and take their place in the class. The new pupil kneels down in front of the teacher's rahle (a low reading desk) and repeats the spelling of the letters finger-pointed out by the teacher with head-gear which ends the ceremony.
This was the exact way how the ceremony was performed for Mustafa. Zübeyde and her neighbours watched in tears and with prayers the parting of the child in front of the line with embroidered bag hung around his neck. Thus Mustafa was enrolled to the old-style school and thus Zübeyde's wish was fulfilled. But, a couple of days later, Ali Rıza Efendi got Mustafa out of this school and took him to the Şemsi Efendi's school where the education was according to the new style. He enrolled Mustafa to this school without any rymns, prayers and ceremonies thus pleasing himself and his wife. This is the first untied knot in Mustafa's life which paved the way for his success that he owes it to Ali Rıza Efendi, his father, who was simple but had gold of heart and good intentions, appreciated the value of the new education system, and had the ambition for his son to be well educated and become a great man. But, unfortunately, Ali Rıza Efendi passed away a little after the enrollment of Mustafa without seeing the future success of his son.
Şemsi Efendi's school was private one. In fact, at that time, the state schools were in minority. In large cities the celebrities and rich people with contemporary ideas would get together and build and open schools with new style and modern education by giving them bright and attractive names. Since Şemsi Efendi was very well known and famous in Salonika which caused the school to be called as 'The school of Şemsi Efendi'.
(Taken from the book "TEK ADAM: Mustafa Kemal" by Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, 1966; translated by K. Can Arman)
: 26 Dec 2011/20:25 GMT
