Intellectual Journey with Brother Noel Saker

Great Experience and Ability to Give
At the beginning of the interview Dr. Suleiman Rabadi welcomed Brother Noel in a meeting that brought a number of Brothers and school directors at De LaSalle College El Daher in Cairo.
At the onset of the meeting, Brother Noel was asked about his long service at Frere schools especially in Jerusalem; he was asked to give his advice to the administrators, students and teachers. He spoke also of his childhood and how he was enrolled in the Brothers Association.

Spiritual Desire
Noel: I come from a village called Ain Ebel, South of Lebanon where I was born on Christmas day of 1934. In my early childhood, I heard my father talking about a priest with a sacred character that he admired expressing his worry by saying: “If this priest dies who would come to our village to fill in his place?” At that moment I was sitting beside my father so I told him: “I am ready to become a priest and step into his shoes.” My father was so happy and started fumbling with my hair showing his cheerfulness and said: “May God Bless you my son, now you are a priest in my eyes. So I started to play the role of the priest at home; I started looking for any black clothes to wear and, of course, used to strap a Roman collar around my neck in order to live through the experience. I was even participating in the prayers that were held once or twice a week at the Salizian High School in Haifa, where I used to study, all in the hope of becoming a priest when I grow up.
In 1948, one of our school priests was killed; the event caused such a terror that the other priests gathered their belongings and fled to Bethlehem consequently. The school had to be closed and we were forced to leave Haifa back to our village in south Lebanon. My ties with my school were severed for there was no other Salizian school in Lebanon, thus I had to pursue my education in French; the official education language in Lebanon, but I was lucky and did find a school teaching in English and enrolled there. At the end of the year, the Brothers were searching for students to become Brothers but unfortunately I wasn’t chosen. In that year, Brother François was taken to France for tuberculosis treatment until he was completely cured. We warmly welcomed him when he returned in1948. I met him for the first time that day, by then I was only 13. I quite frankly told him: “I don’t speak French, but I want to be a Brother.” He said: “No problem, we will teach you French.”
Following our dialogue he spoke to the Head of seminary, then I officially began my life as a Brother in1948; since then and up till now I’ve never regretted my acceptance of the Brothers’ call. The boys nominated to become Brothers at the clerical school were aged between 13-18 years old and were supposed to live with Brothers, in order to become familiar with their life until the decision day comes, at which they must decide whether to continue in the path of God or go back to their homes. Everyone left except me, so I began to learn French in Beit Merry until the age of 18. Then I headed to Bethlehem wearing the Brother’s attire after living such a life and becoming completely familiar with it. Two years later, I made my first and second vows. And finally, I made my third vow after a clerical retreat that lasted 30 days. I then completed my studies in Beirut at the Jesuit University.
After I have completed my university studies I was assigned as inspector at Ras Beirut School for one year and then I became a principal from1965 until 1973.
I then went to study at the University of Sorbonne in France where I got my BA. Then I stayed for one year in Algeria after being asked to help in Arabization of the curriculum at Brothers schools and then I returned to Lebanon; afterwards I was appointed at Collège des Frères in Jerusalem.
At that time, Lebanon was in a state of turmoil and the Palestinian role became apparent in Lebanon’s political affairs. However, when I was appointed I said that I am neither a Lebanese nor a Christian but I am here to serve the Palestinian students who are in need for education more than anything else.
I was a Palestinian with the Palestinians and a Jerusalemite with the Jerusalemites and dedicated for my students. Consequently, nobody found out whether I was Maronite, or Kataebi or a Lebanese but a Brother who strived to serve them. I was able to work with students, teachers and families with simplicity and dedication to highlight the importance of the school and provide the best services for students.
The Palestinian-Lebanese conflict never influenced the quality of service which I was appointed to provide and lead. Later, I was appointed as a Brother coordinator in the Holy Land supervising the Brothers’ schools in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jaffa. Thus everything related to these schools was my first priority. I thank God for giving me the power so as not to let my personal feelings mingle with my responsibilities and duties. I hope I was able to provide my students with the required services in Palestine especially in Jerusalem.

A Man with so Many Dreams
I always believed that Students should be linked with their mundane problems and their reality (good or bad). Thus, throughout my experience, I have always endeavored to deal with students’ problems and respond to their questions with convincing and reassuring answers.
I have been influenced by something in Baskanta when I was assigned to serve there, where I discovered the importance of preparation for the class; the importance of self-learning and the significance of self-training to apply principles of teaching. I realized the importance of training in which every teacher gets a chance to be trained and become qualified because even if one is an expert in his field he might have no idea how to deliver the information in proper ways. One of my dreams was to inaugurate a training center in Jerusalem.
Another experience that influenced my methodology was a one year training course which we called “The Pedagogic Month” which was organized in cooperation with Bethlehem University and the UNRWA. At the end of this course I noticed that teachers are in need of fundamental issues: the basics of training before they can be enrolled in any supplementary courses, otherwise such courses will be useless. I reached an agreement with the UNRWA, specifically with MS. Leila Tarazi, to organize a training course in which teachers can get an official certificate. At that time we requested some help from Rome and we were asked to associate such a project with a large foundation and not with a group of people. As a result, we presented the project to the University of Bethlehem and Leila worked there after taking one year leave without pay from the UNRWA. She offered to continue her work if the university wanted to make a contract with her, but things proceeded so slowly and Leila was forced to go back to the UNRWA.
That was the way my dream faded before it was born .Those with BA certificates and diplomas in pedagogy who worked with us weren’t probably able of applying what they had learned in their classrooms due to the fact that they were untrained. That was the end of our project. But I did my best to send young teachers to France to get trained at a French training center.

Problems and Development
There was a problem concerning the official programs brought by official supervisors from the ministry of education; such programs were limited and didn’t provide enough space for teachers to be creative, and forced teachers to cage educational materials in an irrational context, which resulted in enforcing memorization of Arabic, English, history, geography and science. This made the students hate these subjects because they are not interesting. Moreover, the supervisors used to impose traditional ways on the teachers. We found ourselves in trouble so we started expanding and varying our methods and connecting the school material with our students’ life. We always demanded changing the exam forms which were based on memorization which was time consuming for parents who used to teach their children. We also tried to free the teachers from unnecessary burdens imposed on them and their students in order to make learning and teaching more efficient and enjoyable.

Building a New School at Beit Hanina

The idea of building a new school at Beit Hanina brings us back to Brothers Eleanor and Franco who initiated the idea of expanding our school at the New Gate.
In our school at the New Gate learning was free at that time and there was a college and a boarding school where fees were covered for students who couldn’t pay. The surplus of school’s income was spent on needy students. Due to the limited areas the schools were built on, Brother Eleanor had tried to buy from the Patriarchate what was considered as a hotel but the Patriarchate declined to sell it. This led Brother Eleanor to construct a new building, next to the old one, which took a large part of the play grounds which had to be narrowed. Expanding was a must so a land was bought near Hebrew University. However, the Israeli occupation confiscated that land so Brother Felix sued the Israelis and could bring back only a part of its price which was used to buy a land in Beit Hanina. We had to expand as the number of Palestinian students increased after leaving the local Israeli schools. Bishop Helarion Capucci, Malekite Bishop of Jerusalem, used to encourage us to receive those students and urged them not to enter any Israeli school. So our school started to receive a new class every year to an extent that the director’s and accountant’s offices had to be turned into classes .We had no longer space to make new classes as even corridors were used .
This need to accommodate new students forced us to think about constructing a new building. So, I prepared plans and presented them to the Brothers’ Council in Beirut. Nevertheless, getting a license was necessary to build a new school with less than 200 thousand dollars as a reserve. However, that amount of money “melted” due to a continuous financial crisis and the long delays in getting a license. But before I left Jerusalem, we got a building license and received an agreement on the external borders of the school in 1986. Brother Rafael took my place and was responsible of proceeding with the mission. In 1996, I returned back to Jerusalem to complete the construction project in Beit Hanina which started the following year; a new approach to Jerusalem emerged due to the problems that stormed Lebanon. Brother Regis who was our Brother Visitor at that time showed great interest towards the construction project in Jerusalem, refusing the initiation of any project until our project is completed. Brother Rafael offered giving the old building in the Old City to the Latin Patriarchate and getting the school built. Thank God, this didn’t happen.
Having enough classrooms for more students, whose numbers are increasing, is a must in a country under occupation with an occupier that never refrains from declaring war against education and knowledge, which the Palestinians must hold as a weapon against Israel to reach their freedom.

Cooperation with Seculars
From my experience in Lebanon when I was responsible for teaching Arabic and religion, there were about ten teachers around me and we prepared lectures together. Those teachers asked me once: “What is the difference between you and us? We can be a part of the Brothers Association” I answered: “Yes, you represent another organization beside the Brothers.” That day, we were convinced that a secular teacher can cooperate with us.
After moving to Jerusalem and working with the teachers there and in Bethlehem I started to believe that working with secular teachers is at the core of the Christian message. I encouraged teachers to cooperate with me in educational projects and we used to discuss outstanding problems and take decisions together. At that moment I felt the importance of giving attention to the kind of teachers we employ at our schools, as our students are from well-educated families. However, the unstable Palestinian circumstance forced lots of those well-educated to go abroad, so we had to appoint teachers and fire them when we found that they didn’t match our school aspirations or were unable to enrich their experience in teaching students who belong to families who expected more from our schools.

Final Words
I feel that one of our big problems is the absence of a teachers’ training center, what we have is just training when required. Only 3% of the teachers benefit from training, these are the ones who pursue development. The rest complain and underestimate these courses. If this kind of centers are hard to establish then we have to seek the assistance of professionals who are capable in providing teachers with what methods they are in need of and accompanying them through in service training to combine the theoretical part with the practical one to achieve intellectual and creative teaching.
I think that Professional people are better than local university teachers because those with experience are better in delivering information. I considered imitation, violent punishment, absence of modern assessment tools and simulation as scourges of education. I think it is important to maintain a good relationship between teachers and the Director of a school and between the heads of departments and teachers because this reflects on their general performance.