You're all probably aware of the problems between Turkey and Israel. This week, there was a clash between Israeli soldiers and aid workers on a ship heading to Gaza. As of last night, news reports said four Turkish aid workers were killed. I don't know or understand what actually happened, but it was surely a tragedy. However, I'm starting to feel like the bigger tragedy is the way some Turks are responding to the situation. Many of my students have posted anti-Israel or boycott Israel items on facebook. Ok, I can understand the anger. However, I've recently noticed they've also posted extremely anti-Semitic, pro-Hitler statements. It breaks my heart that they can't seem to differentiate between anger at a government's actions and hatred towards a group of people.
Perhaps the problem lies in the education system here. Today, I sat through an almost Kafkaesque department meeting. The department has clear grading guidelines. If a student misses more than 20% of a class, he will fail. If a student earns less than 50% in the class (a very generous standard, in my opinion), he will fail. At our meeting, though, our department head discovered that only 1/3 of the students had attended 80% of their classes. The solution? Disregard the attendance policy. (My question about how they plan to enforce the rule in the future was summarily dismissed.) The same number of students also failed the classes. The solution? Do away with the grading policy. It blows my mind.
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