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“Half a Century In the Garden of Children’s Poetry
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is a journey to the world of children, a world in which the unoccupied mind is fascinated by and immersed in its present time. |
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Homan Yamini Sharif |
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“Never dies one whose heart lived with love
Registered in the universe I remain”
Hafez, the 13th century (A.D) Persian poet
Early morning on 28th of Azar 1368, December 18, 1989, Abbas Yamini Sharif, the famous children’s writer and poet of Iran closed his eyes forever. With his departure Iranian children’s literature lost one its most prominent servants.He was one the few pioneers of contemporary Iranian |
children’s literature that until few days before his death passionately enriched its heritage; one of the few who made history while lived the presence.Abbas Yamini Sharif was born on 1st of Khordad 1298, May 21, 1919, in Pamenar neighborhood in Tehran. At the age of five he moved with his family to a mountainside property in Darband, then a small and quiet mountain village, north of Tehran. From that early time his observations and experiences of living with nature formed a strong base for his lifetime affection for animals, plants, trees and plain people of countryside.
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From the Age of five he was sent to school and Maktab (one-teacher-one-class system based on religious contents and traditional learning methods) and experienced the rough and unpleasant environment in those children’s education centers. He often talked about the extent of violence and cruelty that he had witnessed in school and Maktab and regretted the long lasting effects of that system, which he thought had set the base for the present temperaments and behaviors of the children of those days. In such environment only the rhythm of words and sentences expressed in recitals of complex texts and poems aroused excitement in him. The importance that he gave to the rhythm and rhyme in children’s poetry originated from such joy he experienced in his otherwise harsh childhood. He composed his first poems when he was in the 3rd grade in elementary school and was often encouraged by his teachers.
In 1938 he entered the Basic Science Institute and took advantage of the free room and board program that was offered to students who majored in teaching. In the Institute’s library he found some foreign children books and for the first time saw books with beautiful pictures and interesting subjects in simple language for children. From then on he set out to make similar books for Iranian children in Farsi and started his mission by translating books from English and composing children poetry for publication.
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In 1941 for the first time one of his poems was published in a magazine named Nonahalan (Sprouts) and soon more poems were published in other publications thereafter.Encouragements from his college teachers and publication of his poems started a burning desire and passion in him for children’s literary work. Children’s literature became a field for his unrelenting endeavor.
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In 1943 the first issue of Baziye Koodakan (Children’s Games), one of the first children’s magazines in Iran, was published. Publication of that magazine was first proposed by Ebrahim Baniahmad, Yamini Sharif’s college teacher and later his lifetime friend. Baniahmad obtained the publication license and Yamini Sharif became its chief editor. In 1944 Yamini Sharif’s poems were published in elementary school books in Arak (a city and province in central Iran) and soon after all over Iran
In 1953 Yamini Sharif received a government grant for one-year postgraduate study program in Colombia University in the USA. He completed this program and received his MA degree. In his studies he came to believe in the necessity for a drastic change of method in teaching reading and writing in Iran and persistently pursued this important goal. He authored a 1st grade elementary school textbook, known as “Dara and Azar” that was selected as national 1st grade textbook for years. He also authored a literacy textbook for adults for the national Fight Against Illiteracy program.
Literacy was one of his main interests for which he never stopped working. For 22 years he dedicated his time to the children’s schools he founded and took every opportunity to personally teach children in classes. One year before his death he wrote his last tutorial book for Iranian children residing in English speaking countries.
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In 1334 he founded Ravesheno Schools and with his wife, Touran Moghavemi Tehrani, managed the schools until 1980 AD when the schools had grown to a multi level educational center from kindergarten to the Junior high school. During this period thousands of Iranian children entered higher level of education from the school he founded and managed.
In 1956 Yamini Sharif and Jafar Badiei proposed publication of Kayhan Bacheha Magazine (Kayhan for Children) to Kayhan Establisment, one of the major Iranian daily and periodical publishers. Jafar Badiei became the licensee and Yamini Sharif remained the chief editor until 1980. Many other publications used his poems and stories as well.
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Tourandokht Moghavemi |
Ravesheno Elemntary School was founded by my late husband Abbas Yamini Sharif in 1957. We started up in a building located in then Fisherabad, now Sepahbod Gharani |
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