Tarsus, 18 March 1923

Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who came to Tarsus from Mersin, was greeted with love by the people here as well.

Gazi, who visits schools whenever he has the opportunity, and takes a close interest in teachers and students wherever he goes, went to Zükür İptidai Mektebi (Men's Primary School) on this trip. He took care of the students who were in line in the school garden and made them play games. Then he entered the classes and took care of his lessons.

It caught his attention when an intelligent child in a classroom read a reading passage that was mostly in Arabic.

Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who emphasized the drawbacks of memorization, also gave examples from his own childhood memories and said:

" When I was a child, I could never memorize. I used to get punished by my teachers. But I am happy with it. If I had memorized every single thing I had memorized, there would be no room for thinking in my mind ."

Source:  A A M Atatürk’te Çocuk Sevgisi, Cemil Sönmez, 2004 Yılı, ISBN: 975 -16-1746-4, Sayfa: 63