For Iraqi Students, Hussein's Arrival Is End of History

"Sir, sir, sir, sir," begged a hefty 15-year-old. "Because the revolution was demanding independence and because it was supported by Germany and Italy, sir," the boy continued, without pausing for break.

"And remember where the spark for independence came from?" Abbas asked. "Woodrow Wilson, after World War I," three voices seemed to say at once.

On this day, the discussion never strayed into the modern period. When it does and students ask about Hussein, such as during a class this year in which someone compared him to Adolf Hitler, "I dance around the question," Abbas said. "It could be trouble for me."

Jamal Khalid Amin, principal of Mansour High, where about half of the 1,000 students are Sunni Muslims and half are Shiite Muslims, said educators have been intimidated into silence, and not just by government bureaucrats. "This is Iraqi society now -- if you say anything good about Saddam, you will be killed. If you say anything bad, you will be killed by someone else," he said. "We used to be only afraid of Saddam. Now there are many people to fear."

Some additions to the curriculum have already been made. The Shiite politicians who surged to power after Hussein fell insisted that books on Islamic history be infused with more information about figures revered by Shiites, such as Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad. They also removed all references to the "Persian enemy," the once-mandatory description of Iran, a Shiite theocracy.

But the silence of the history texts on the subject of Hussein's rule remains a particular concern, educators say. So far, it has meant different lessons taught in different regions, cementing already pronounced fissures.

In the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north, where Hussein's army carried out a brutal campaign of killings and forced relocations in 1988, teachers lecture freely on the atrocities committed against their relatives.

But in Tikrit, the hub of the area north of Baghdad where Hussein was born, history teachers take a starkly different approach. "We clarify for them that some of the information they get is incorrect and not precise," said Khaldoon Yunis, who teaches history at a local boys' school. "We tell them the reality of how the Persians are the enemy and hate the Arabs. And of how Saddam is a historical leader for the entire Arab nation."

Mohammed Abdul Rahman, a provincial education official in Anbar province, a restive, Sunni Arab-majority swath of western Iraq, said the different teachings were "the start of separation among the people, especially the youth."

"You have the Sunni teacher telling his students that the war with Iran was honest and that Iran is the enemy," he said. "On the other hand, the Shiite teacher tells his students that the war was caused by the Saddam regime against a friendly country and that Iraq lost."

In mixed areas such as Baghdad, teachers say they mostly follow the letter of the text, sometimes confounding students.

"I have so many questions," said Ali Muhammad Dawoud, 14, a student at Mansour who will take his history exams in two months. "Right now the only answers I get are from my friends, my parents or on television."

Special correspondents Omar Fekeiki and Naseer Nouri contributed to this report.