Oct 05, 2003 07:01 PM

’This book between your hands is the gift of the Revolution to you.’

by Stefan Beck

Today’s New York Times included disturbing--though not terribly surprising--excerpts from textbooks used by schoolchildren in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Here’s the beginning of an essay meant to instruct high school students in use of the past continuous tense.

We were having supper when we suddenly heard loud beating on the door. Somebody was shouting, "Open the door," in an ugly voice. My two little sons looked at one another. As I was making for the door, the beating increased. The door was pushed and flung open. Four Zionist soldiers moved in. They were carrying guns, which they pointed at me.

One supposes that the additional lesson in anti-Semitism was just a brush-up on some course themes from middle school.