MESA Banner
Re-Packaging American Education: The American College for Girls and the New Turkish Republic
Abstract
The American College for Girls in Istanbul positioned itself in both Turkey and the U.S. as enthusiastic supporter of Republican social reform. In the 1924 Annual Report, College President Patrick congratulated the new government on achieving its "legal right of possession"; later she described the Turks as behaving just as Americans would, modeling themselves on the "people of the United States in 1776" who also "desired freedom to develop in their own way" (Under Five Sultans, 1929). American media echoed Patrick's approval of Turkey's new status, depicting Turkey in the 1920s as a proto-United States, following America's path towards democracy and freedom. One article noted, the "self-determined Turk . . . declared his independence," and Ismet Pasha announced, "We have broken completely with every Turkish tradition" (NYT May 4, 1924). Overturning Turkish "traditions" fascinated Americans, and Patrick argued that her College's impact on young women was integral to Turkey's social revolution. Indeed, if "A Complete Mental Revolution Has Apparently Taken Place" in Turkey (NYT 9 Jan 1927), she was prepared to claim responsibility. She asserted that the College had an ascendant role in "this startling period of Turkish history" and had already paved the way for Mustafa Kemal's "new national thinking" (Patrick, Bosporus Adventure, 1934, p. 3). Moreover, the American media reflected Patrick's belief that Turkish and American psyches followed the same path: like Westerners, Turks were "getting nerves" as the suicide rate rose among educated young men frustrated at the lack of good jobs; educated women, however, blossomed under the new regime, energized by new opportunities in "commercial and industrial life" ((NYT Mar 25, 1928). Such women, like the College's own graduates, symbolized Turkey's march into modernity; indeed, the College's favorite alumnae, Halide Edib ("Turkey's Fiery Joan of Arc," NYT Nov. 26, 1922), appeared frequently in print and in person in the U.S. in the 1920s to promote Turkey's social and political advances. This paper will examine how both the American College and American popular media perceived a "mental" similarity between Turkey and the U.S., and viewed American influence as essential to Turkey's revolution and future social change. The American College for Girls, under Patrick's guidance, morphed smoothly from its Protestant origins to a new kind of modernizing mission. In this vision of its project, the College portrayed itself as an essential component of the new Republic, which seemed poised to mimic American styles of government, society, and culture.
Discipline
Education
Geographic Area
Turkey
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries