Iraqi Textbooks: X-ing Out Saddam

Reared on paeans to Saddam Hussein and forced to chant "Long live Saddam" whenever a teacher strode into the room, Iraq's kids will never learn quite the same way again. The Coalition Provisional Authority governing Iraq has ordered that the country's textbooks be stripped of pro-Saddam propaganda. Iraqi Education Ministry officials can't rewrite everything before school starts in September, but they're fixing what they can. Some items slated for pruning:

--Exercises like this, from a sixth-grade Arabic textbook: "Add not to the following sentence: 'The Iranians are brave.'"

--Questions like this, from a second-grade textbook: "Who leads our great revolution?" Answer:...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!