July 1, 1825, Messrs. Goodell and Bird speak of the first girls taught to read in Syria in mission schools.  “Our school contains between eighty and ninety scholars, who are all boys except two.  One is the teacher’s wife, who is perhaps fifteen years of age, and the other a little girl about ten.”  That teacher was Tannus el Haddad, who died a few years ago, venerated and beloved by all sects and classes of the people, having been for many years deacon of the Beirut Church, and his wife, Im Beshara, still lives, with an interesting family.

On the 21st of Dec, 1825, Dr. King wrote as follows:  “I spent about a month in Tyre, and made some efforts to establish a school for Tyrian females, and was very near succeeding, when one of the principal priests rose up and said, ’It is by no means expedient to teach women to read the word of God.  It is better for them to remain in ignorance than to know how to read and write.  They are quite bad enough with what little they now know.  Teach them to read and write, and there would be no living with them!’” That Tyrian priest of fifty years ago, was a fair sample of his black-frocked brethren throughout Syria from that time to this.  There have been a few worthy exceptions, but the Syrian priesthood of all sects, taken as a class, are the avowed enemies of the education and elevation of their people.  Some of the exceptions to this rule will be mentioned in the subsequent pages of this volume.

In 1826, there were three hundred children in the Mission schools in the vicinity of Beirut.

In 1827, there were 600 pupils in 13 schools, of whom one hundred and twenty were girls!  In view of the political, social and religious condition of Syria at that time, that statement is more remarkable than almost any fact in the history of the Syrian Mission.  It shows that Mrs. Bird and Mrs. Goodell must have labored to good purpose in persuading their benighted Syrian sisters to send their daughters to school, and to these two Christian women is due the credit of having commenced Woman’s Work for Women in modern times in Syria.  In that same year, the wives of Bishop Dionysius Carabet and Gregory Wortabet were received to the communion of the Church in Beirut, being the first spiritual fruits of Women’s Work for Women in modern Syria.

During 1828 and 1829 the Missionaries temporarily withdrew to Malta.  In 1833, Dr. Thomson and Dr. Dodge arrived in Beirut.  The Mission now consisted of Messrs. Bird, Whiting, Eli Smith, Drs. Thomson and Dodge.  In a letter written at that time by Messrs. Bird, Smith and Thomson, it is said, “Of the females, none can either read or write, or the exceptions are so very few as not to deserve consideration.  Female education is not merely neglected, but discouraged and opposed.”  They also stated, that “the whole number of native children in the Mission Schools from the beginning had been 650; 500 before the interruption in 1828, and 150 since.”  “Female education as such is yet nearly untried.”