ABSTRACT
Starting at age five, and until the age of seven, I had attended the Armenian Protestant School in town, where the monthly pay was 100 Turkish pounds, which my brother paid. This was the school where I learned the alphabet, and I learned how to read and write. It was also the school in which I first was confronted with human cruelty. I remember, one day, I don’t know why, my teacher decided to punish me. I was given a choice—I could either read out loud what was written on the side of a ruler or be hit by that ruler. Thankfully, I read out loud “this stick comes from heaven.” I was spared punishment thanks to my proficiency in reading.
