I was born thursday februar 29. 1912 (11 rabia 1. 1330).

When five years of age I was forced, at the insistance of my father, to admit being registered, together with two of my elder brothers, in a small coranic school neighbouring our house, I spent about two years in this school until the day my father considered it for more efficient to hire a teacher to give us additional lessons in private courses at home during our free time. I almost forgot to mention that, during the past two years, I did not learn anything fully consistent, and such a defizit was due to the very bad methods of teaching practiced in the traditional coranic schools.

When we began to attend the additional courses at home, we were nearly like prisoners, if not worse. There is no doubt that the general intention behind the will of my father to provide us with a bright scape of knoweledge emanated from his intention to act in our interest, but he was perhaps not conscious enough to realize that this forced education under such harsh conditions could inflict serious harm on children of our age. I think he was even unaware that an educational method such as this which was imposed to us could sooner or later prejudice our chances of success, and would undoubtedly do more harm than good. My father was certainly far from thinking that this traditional approach to teaching anything anytime would leave profound injuries to one's state of mind. This matter of fact led to consider whatever he did as beyond reproach, and to admit the common sense of humour which sees in good intentions the best pavement of the road to hell.

This situation lasted over two years during which I hardly learned some rudiments from the alphabet. Then, after an animated discussion between my eldest brother and the teacher, the latter decided to act on his own account, and we started, the other pupils and myself, to attend his new educational establishment where, after a certain period of time, we learned how to read and to learn by heart a "sourat" or more exactly half a "sourat" of the coran, because my temperament was allergic to all I had to learn without being able to understand the meaning of what I was learning.

When I reached the age of nine years, Salé knew the opening of some modern oriented schools. My father agreed to register us in one of these new entities, but he took his decision two months after the closure of the registrations, so that the only remaining possibility was to be registered for half a day. This proposal was agreed upon by my father who decided that we devote the other half day to attend the coran lessons given by our initial teacher. But when this one was admitted to teach the coran in our school, it was for us an unhoped-for piece of good luck to follow him. We started then to learn the coran, the religious precepts as well as the basic elements of the grammatical rules.

I would like here to take the liberty to say a word about this school where I spent a good part of my early childhood without learning anything but futilities. I attended the courses of the second half day and I was confronted with a teacher named Benaboud who taught the rules of arabic grammar and the precepts of Islam in an old traditional way, in spite of some improvements he tried to introduce in the ancient methods of teaching.

Then, the school has been transferred from its initial place to a house bequeathed by notable Ahmed Sabounji to the Administration of Habous to become an educational establishment. The three big rooms available in this house have been used to receive groups of pupils belonging to different classes, and as far as I am concerned, I belonged to the group of the first class. We began every day with the lesson of Coran which was taught to us by our former teacher. At 11 am he was relayed by the teacher of religious education who familiarized us with basic didactic works. At 2 pm, we attended the courses of grammar, and I must say that this matter has so excited our interest that we spent almost all our time, during and after the courses, in the parsings, describing the grammatical form and function of every word and every sentence.

At the end of the school year, it has been decided to organize a general examination in the presence of the parents, the notabilities of the city and the representative of the Makhzen. The circumstances designated me as the first to be "interrogated" among the pupils of the first class. I was very anxious and trembled at the thought of what might happen to me in case of a failure in my examination, while the assistance was watching my facts and gestures. But, thank God, I could suitably answer all the questions asked to me, and this has largely contributed to decrease my state of stress. Then, I was relayed by another pupil who used to sit on my right, named Mekki Aouad. When all the pupils have passed the examination, they were asked to pronounce the speeches they have prepared for this purpose; and I must recognize that Mekki Aouad, who has just been mentioned, made the most brilliant speech and forced the admiration of the whole assistance by his oratorical talent and the easiness of his fluent elocution. All the speeches were oriented towards the same subject, namely the wish of welcome to all the present guests and the prayers at the adress of the Lord to grant all the pupils of the class a flourishing future.