"My principle, more than anybody else, encouraged me to read"

"I very well remember the principal of our school in Alexandria in Egypt. He had this special kind of attitude causing everyone to be afraid of him but at the same time respect and love him very much.

He had this incredible balance and so had a very good relation to the students. He knew everyone by name, knew every student’s family and even their recent grades – and we were about seven hundred students in that school but he could still memorize every single one of us.

It was really incredible. For example, when my parents came to ask him about me, he said: “Yes, he did well last month and he was especially good in mathematics but he was bad in Arabic” and so on.

He was really very good as a principal and at the same time he was also very active, doing lots of sports with us and acting as the referee in some of the games.

He also organized reading courses in a small group every Thursday, because we were off on Fridays and Sundays. So every Thursday after school, we had two hours to read and discuss about any topic that was of our interest and then had the opportunity to ask any question that came to our mind.

Even though it has been one and a half years since I last saw him, because I have been travelling a lot recently, I still stay in touch with him simply because he has been such a big influence on my life. He, more than anybody else, encouraged me to read, he was very open all the time and so was the door to his office.
But at the same time he could be very strict, too. When he had to, he punished us hard as well. But to my understanding it was good. I mean I didn´t have any harm from it. On the contrary, I loved him very much and I respected him and until now I am very thankful for knowing him."