THE ROAD TO THE SCHOOL

  

As Sevda, the teacher, walked down the tree-lined road toward the school, her heart fluttered with excitement. Today was the opening day of the newly built school in the village. The children and their families were thrilled. But were the children the only ones happy to finally learn how to read and write? Of course not—there were grandmothers and grandfathers, young mothers who had been married off early and never had the chance to study. Just as people decorate sacrificial animals during holidays, the villagers had decorated the school with joy. Saving a person from ignorance was equal to the joy of a holiday.

Our country, which had survived so many hardships and wars, could overcome anything. But ignorance—ignorance clung to us like a nightmare in every era. And now, children no longer played outside; they wandered through the wires of technology. Their games were virtual, their farms were virtual, their affections were virtual—even the professions they dreamed of…

The generation of students who read books was slowly becoming extinct. In this age when everything had turned digital, humanity had forgotten how to hold a pen. Writing had become a burden on our hands. When it was this easy to open up to the whole world with a single button, plowing a field, writing a novel, becoming a shoemaker, or being a teacher in a village was no longer going to be easy.

Aware of this, Sevda had prepared herself for every kind of difficulty. No matter the circumstances, she would take care of each person—child, youth, or elder—one byone. For unlike in the city, there were no distractions in this village. She had to turn that into an advantage.

The words of the teacher she had loved so much in high school never left her mind:
“A nail saves a horseshoe, a horseshoe saves a horse, a horse saves a commander, a commander saves an army. Never underestimate even the smallest action. If you are clear and determined, you can guide your students.”

She did not want to lose even a single student in her class of nineteen. “I must do my best and create the right reasons,” she told herself for motivation. Because creating reasons was up to us, but the outcomes were not in our control.

She planned every lesson so that her students would both learn and enjoy themselves. In life, usefulness and joy existed together. Every piece of knowledge they learned was something they could apply to their everyday lives.

They even held math classes outdoors. While planting saplings, they calculated the distances between them. In life sciences, the elders of the village were invited to the classroom because transferring real-life experience made learning stronger.

They boiled water on the stove to observe evaporation, and learned about fermentation using only flour and water. Each child had a learning style suited to their own nature.

To some, Sevda explained things step by step; for others, she prepared models. For those who wanted to learn independently, she even set up a small workshop.

“I cannot save the country,” she would say, “but I can raise the young people who will.” When she first came to this village, she had made herself a promise on that road to the school: the greatest good a teacher can do is to value every student. Because every person does good in a way that suits their own nature.

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Experiential Design Teaching is a knowledge community that produces strategies for designing our future based on past experiences.

The "Who is Who", "Mastery in Relationships" and "Success Psychology" Seminar Programs offer the needed methods for those who want to be happy and successful in life by solving their problems and achieving their goals.

"There is only one thing in life that can never be discovered; The better one..."

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Yahya Hamurcu