Have "A" Reason to
Live! Our
education system is often considered very inadequate. From primary
school through high school, I was one of those who complained about the
system all the time. To prepare for the university entrance exam, we had
to review the same information over and over again. If the education
system were so perfect that we could remember all this information, the
Turkish people would be the most respected and civilized people on earth.
On television, we see
reporters asking models questions like, What was the date of Atatürk's
death? What is celebrated on April 23? When was the Turkish Republic
founded? All of them give incorrect answers, and we make fun of them, of
how stupid they are. But believe it or not, what we learned during our
school years is very likely to disappear from our minds. Don't just ask
models when the Turkish government was
founded--ask people at random. I'm sure most of them would be confused
about the answer!
When I was watching the
news about the solar eclipse, I saw that it's not only models who don't
remember basic primary school-level knowledge. I really had fun
following this story. I don't mean seeing people clapping their hands
when the sky was getting dark (although that was funny, too)--what I
really found amusing was a member of parliament and his speech about the
eclipse. When a reporter asked him how a solar eclipse happens, the MP
said that to answer that question, "we need to do astronomical research."
Come on, it's only the moon coming between the sun and the earth! Isn't
this something we're supposed to learn in primary school, and then
review in secondary and high school? An MP who doesn't know how a solar
eclipse occurs! "We choose, we lose!"
But although I complain
about the deficiencies of our memorization-based education system,
others might find our system would suit their way of learning. I read in
the newspaper that an American student memorized the 83,784 digits of pi
after the decimal point.
What can we say about
this person? Are students in America emulating our system? Or is the
American education system so easy that students have enough free time to
spend memorizing something infinite?
This student is only
15--there must be other stuff he could do! But it seems this wasn't
enough for him. His next goal is to memorize the next 10,790 digits. I
would describe him as crazy, but he's not alone. There's also a Japanese
psychiatrist--maybe he doesn't have any patients--who has decided to
memorize something infinite.
I would like to ask
these people, don't you have anything better to do? And I would like to
say to them, don't have just A reason to live--have a GOOD reason to
live!
Gülay Acar (COMD/III)
howtoreachgulay@yahoo.com
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