School Daze: Cap & Gown Ban; Buddhist Temple

turkce links to original Turkish article

(Posta Newspaper, 29 March 2015)


    "Enough of this West-inspired madness!"

The district office of the National Education Ministry in Pendik,
Istanbul, has sent a letter to all private and public schools
announcing a ban on caps and gowns at graduation ceremonies.
District education chief Coskun Otluoglu explained the reason
for the ban as follows: "to avoid a clash of values and conflicts
between students." (!)

Additionally, in his letter Otluoglu stated that "our schools are
places where we nurture youth who have morals and good
character, and who adopt national and human values."  He
instructed school officials to take all necessary measures to
implement the cap and gown ban.

Mehmet Aydogan, head of the local teachers union Egitim Sen,
however, asserted that "this ban is aimed at distancing eduction
from the symbolic values of modern and secular teachings."

Although the practice of graduates throwing their caps in the air
at graduation is thought to be a Western tradition, there are those
who claim that it dates back to the Islamic civilization in Andalusia,
Spain.  According to this view, caps were thrown in the air for
the first time at Cordoba University 1,200 years ago. It is clear
that the Pendik education office has no knowledge of this.


                  Pendik district of Istanbul

===============================================

turkce links to original Turkish article

(Posta and Sozcu Newspapers, 29 March 2015)


        Will do double-duty as ITU's multiplex...

The Rector of Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Mehmet Karaca,
has announced that a mosque will be built on campus in response
to requests from students.   Answering questions on the ITU24
internet site, Karaca said "Not just a mosque. If they want we'll build
a synagogue if enough requests come."

After Karaca said this, ITU students started a signature campaign
as follows: "our Rector, Mehmet Karaca, said he will build a mosque
because sufficient requests were received and that he'll build anything
else based on receipt of sufficient requests.  Therefore, we want a
Buddhist temple."

As of 1700 hours on 27 March, 5,858 related requests had been logged
on the Change.org internet site. Everyone is now wondering how
Rector Karaca will respond to this request for a Buddhist temple at ITU.


    Might be a clash of architectures...