Schools have a special place in all of our life stories. From time to time, we have gone to school with our bags, notebooks and books, and sometimes we have thought to ourselves: “Whoever invented this school never finished it!”. Our story takes place in an institution of higher education, in that physical space where some students go to graduate and receive a diploma, while others go further to learn something. Like many public institutions, universities are often pale in color. The spaces where young people spend a significant part of the day, which we expect to be full of marbled colors, are unfortunately depressing. Only this? The long corridors make you feel like you are walking on an endless road. In this educational institution, there are many classrooms lining the corridor one after the other. One of these classrooms hosts the students of course X and the lecturer for three hours once a week.
There has long been half-true, half-legendary information about professors circulating among the students, passed down from seniors to juniors. This was the case in our time, and it is the same now. Well, it seems that this tradition will continue in the future. Some of this information was that I was a difficult teacher and that I had poor grades. I didn’t have poor grades. I don’t know how hard I was in class compared to other teachers. But I wanted them to learn and I kept my expectations high for that. Despite the rumors, not a small number of students chose the course.
There were students from many different profiles in this course. Students who made good friends outside of school, who went in and out of class in pairs, who lived together, who traveled alone… Most of them came from middle or lower middle income families. Their parents sent their children to distant countries with the hope that they would finish a university degree, get a job and, I guess, have a better life than they did. What could they do, they were right…
As I walked in and out of the class, I would either see for myself who was good friends with whom, or who was preparing for exams together, or I would listen to their adventures and learn about them. Mostly, I would not leave the classroom between classes, and I would try to create an environment where we could talk to them outside of class. From the first class onwards, I would try to find out why they had chosen this course, their expectations from the course and their future plans/dreams.
I think university friendships have a special place in human life. For four years, young people laughed and cried together, spent the last money in their pockets together, and shared what they had today and what they lacked tomorrow. The pandemic was a period that many of them would not even want to remember. Being away from school had a negative impact on some students. Out of sight meant out of mind, but it also meant out of heart for friends, school and lessons. The reopening of schools heralded the beginning of a new semester. The new semester was like turning over a new page for both students and us. At this point, I wanted to fill this clean page with something new and my own. Since I was excited even when I was imagining the lesson in my head, I started preparations long before the schools opened.
I started buying big sheets of paper and colored paints and pencils. Things waiting to be used in the best place in my office… It was like a protest against the monotony of university. If time was not the old time and youth was not the old youth, we should not be the old us. Fortunately, I had a strong hand in this. For a long time I had participated in projects on different topics in various places and learned different methods. These methods, which I had not felt the need for until now, would be my savior from now on. After seeing that it worked, I was even more eager to learn new things. I was trying to turn what I had learned into something I could use and reach more students. Only students? From time to time, I would meet with young people outside the school and try to come up with new ideas for each new method I learned, saying “Young people, we should do this too!” or “It would be great if we could do something about that too!”.
One day, the first class of the semester after the introductions. A box between my hands, paints, papers, pencils in the box. Naturally, the students were surprised. First, I divided the students into groups so that they could work together with friends they did not know. I especially wanted them to be in the same group with different people. In the future, they might have to breathe the same air with people they did not want to work with, and it was useful to be prepared for this now. Then I gave each group a large piece of paper and asked them to choose the ones they needed and use them, leaving pencils and crayons in the middle. “… share with us on the paper what comes to your mind when you think of the word…” The aim of the activity was to see what the students had in mind about the topic we were going to cover in class that week, to see what they could write and draw about it, to show them and to encourage them to tell their friends about it. Young people who had never been together before came together around a common goal and tried to do what they were asked to do. As in some other cases, there were those who participated more, those who took the lead, those who said less, or those who were almost silent. I was encouraging them to get involved as much as possible, and when I saw that they were able to do more than I expected, I said, “You are acting, young people, I was going to tell you about this… Very good, keep up the same pace.” At the end of the activity, each group had chosen one or two speakers to tell the others what they had done. When I realized that the same people were leading the way in each group, I tried to encourage those who did not speak by asking, “Would you like to make the presentation?” At the end of the lesson, when the students who said that they were back in their elementary school days said that they enjoyed it very much and that they loved this lesson, my response was, “It won’t be like this every week next week, so let’s see if you will say the same things then.” Indeed, every topic covered in the lesson was very relevant.
Indeed, not every topic covered in the lesson was suitable for such methods. However, these activities continued every three or four weeks. These activities helped them to see that the topics we covered were not far away from us and difficult to understand, and to find something of themselves in the lesson.
I, who was not very familiar with social media, wanted to leave a question mark in the minds of those who saw and heard our activities and to make them use these methods. In the comments written by my graduate students who saw the posts, I saw that they regretted and wanted to do these activities with us and I felt that I was on the right track.
There were things that needed to change radically in our education system. However, since we did not have the power and authority to change this system altogether, we were trying to do something within our sphere of influence with our own efforts. The happiness of working together with someone who supported what we were trying to do was something else. In a meeting where we discussed and talked about what we could do for the students, we came to the conclusion that these methods I used should be shared with other professors. This time, unlike the previous ones, the event was open to the faculty, not just the department. It was an event where mostly young friends were involved. It was good to see that the methods I mentioned were of interest to those who would be teaching a few years later. However, just being interested would not be enough. I wanted everyone to construct their own lessons and push themselves to do so. At the same time, I knew that expanding one’s comfort zone was not possible or easy for every individual at any time and under any circumstances. At least I had done my best and left the ball in their laps.
One semester was thus over, and the students came to see each other and us, perhaps for the last time, with the happiness of graduation. It was also exciting that the valedictorian of the faculty at the graduation ceremony was one of my students. I remember that when his name was read out, I applauded him all by myself in the area where I was sitting. And when he said, “We came to the office today, we couldn’t find you. I’m glad I got to know you. I’m happy to have taken your course,” he replied, “We did our part. We are here, come and write and draw. Share it with us and we will rejoice with you.” Of course, while these words were falling from my lips, thousands of flowers bloomed inside me…
