Reflection Task 3

Person of the Year

             

If I were to choose the person of the year, my candidate would be Andy Murray. 

      Anywhere in the world, it is privilege to help children. Everybody knows about the immigrant crisis which grows rapidly these days. Andy Murray  ,famous tennis player, did not ignore this problem. He has been born on 15^th. May 1987 in Glasgow. He is actually from Scotland, but he has British citizenship. Andy Murray is the second tennis player in the world grading, and he is my favorite tennis player with his humble characteristics, too. He won the championship twice in the world’s most prestigious tournament called Grand Slam. He achieved a great success by getting golden medal in London Olympics. Addition to these achievements, I believe this year Andy Murray has become the champion of hearts, too. He has started a hopeful campaign, which aims to help immigrant children in need. It is good to see that his campaign is reaching its aim successfully. Murray has announced that he is going to donate 50 Sterling for each “ace” he gets. So far he has saved 83 thousands Sterling with the supports of his sponsors, his fans, and other volunteers. This gorgeous movement of him brought a huge attention. I think it is a good example for other sportsmen to do something for current immigrant issue. Murray who is going to be a dad soon revealed his emotions by saying “I remember saying I should do something while watching news about Syrian immigrants’ having difficulties to look after their children. The situation of the campaign is really fine. I would like to thank everybody who supports me in this project.” Moreover, UNICEF thanked Murray for his contributions, and stated that nearly ten thousands children have got a blanket with his helps. In conclusion, I completely believe that Andy Murray has done a great thing for immigrant children. We all know that children are our future, and we should care about them, we should do our best to help them. In this term, I think the world needs more people like Andy Murray who could not neglect those little children trying to escape from war. Anywhere in the world, it is privilege to help children. Everybody knows about the immigrant crisis which grows rapidly these days. Andy Murray  ,famous tennis player, did not ignore this problem. He has been born on 15^th. May 1987 in Glasgow. He is actually from Scotland, but he has British citizenship. Andy Murray is the second tennis player in the world grading, and he is my favorite tennis player with his humble characteristics, too. He won the championship twice in the world’s most prestigious tournament called Grand Slam. He achieved

a great success by getting golden medal in London Olympics. Addition to these achievements, I believe this year Andy Murray has become the champion of hearts, too. He has started a hopeful campaign, which aims to help immigrant children in need. It is good to see that his campaign is reaching its aim successfully. Murray has announced that he is going to donate 50 Sterling for each “ace” he gets. So far he has saved 83 thousands Sterling with the supports of his sponsors, his fans, and other volunteers. This gorgeous movement of him brought a huge attention. I think it is a good example for other sportsmen to do something for current immigrant issue. Murray who is going to be a dad soon revealed his emotions by saying “I remember saying I should do something while watching news about Syrian immigrants’ having difficulties to look after their children. The situation of the campaign is really fine. I would like to thank everybody who supports me in this project.” Moreover, UNICEF thanked Murray for his contributions, and stated that nearly ten thousands children have got a blanket with his helps. In conclusion, I completely believe that Andy Murray has done a great thing for immigrant children. We all know that children are our future, and we should care about them, we should do our best to help them. In this term, I think the world needs more people like Andy Murray who could not neglect those little children trying to escape from war.

Reflection Task 2b

DOCTOR WHO

Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC from 1963 to current day. It is about time and space adventures of the Doctor who is a Time Lord from Gallifrey. He has a spaceship named Tardis, and he travels in time and space with it. The Tardis looks like a police box from outside and bigger on the inside. This programme has such a significant part of the British culture that the words “Tardis” and “Whovian” ,meaning fans of the Doctor Who, have places on dictionaries. According to scenario, the Doctor always travels with a companion generally a human. I believe with this situation, producers reveal that human beings are going to be an important part of the space in the future. I also agree with them in that point because I think people

will achieve some great space missions in the near future. In planets he visits, the Doctor tries to stop wars, save innocents, prevent and punish evils, so we can say that he is a good man fighting for good people or other creatures of universe. In this TV serial he is shown as the clever and merciful guard of goodness. Whenever he hears of a devil on a planet, he teleports to there and tries to clean that planet from evils. Although he makes some mistakes, he always finds a solution to them. Moreover, the fact that the Doctor goes through regeneration and changes his appearance, maybe convey a nice message. To explain, he changes his physical appearance not his personality. No matter what he looks like –old, young, handsome, poor- he always behaves in the virtues of morals. In my view, here the producers show us that physical features are not important. What matter are the characteristics of a person, the way he treat to others, the way he sees the events. Apart from all these, what is interesting for me is that most people in the serials do not know that the Doctor saved them. This can mean that even

though we do not know there are always somebody who trigger the movement of goodness, who try to make all people live in peace, who bring happiness to place they arrive. All in all, I believe the implications and messages that Doctor Who conveys are very meaningful and lovely. 

Free Reflection Task 2

Enhanced Human Beings 

Today, so many things that we could not even imagine a few decades ago can be done thanks to advanced technology. Nevertheless, some of these advancements lead to controversies. One of the most controversial issues is enhanced human beings. There could be some possible good and bad effects of enhanced human beings on society. First of all, enhancing human beings can prevent incurable diseases, enable full health to people, and end pain and aging. Hence, people would not be worried about not only their own health problems, but also their beloved ones’, and there would be more happy people than today as a result. Second, there would be synthetic enhancements to the human skills such as exorbitant intelligence and memorization, immoderate physical capability, and strength and beauty. The outcome of this situation could be that there would be no competition. To explain, if everybody was enhanced, would it be necessary to compete for a job, a sport or beauty? The answer would most probably be “No.” As everyone was almost equal in abilities, such things would be meaningless. Third, this technology could not be available for everybody. In particular, only wealthy people could afford it, it this technology was not cheap. This means only wealthy people could benefit from enhancements so that they would be more beautiful, cleverer, stronger, and as the ultimate result richer. Consequently, the gap between the rich and the poor would increase. These two sides might even feel disconnected from each other as if they were not in the same society. To summarize, the technology of enhancing human beings could end up with both positive conclusions in science and medicine, and negative conclusions in society and economy. We should be prepared in case it will come up.

Reflection Task 2a

I want to tell about the news: “The Guerrilla Girls, After 3 Decades, Still Rattling Art World Cages” by New York Times. The Guerrilla Girls is a founding by some anomalist women for about thirty years. This activist, feminist art collective fights against gender inequality in the art world. Why I chose that article has three main reasons. First reason is the fact that I do agree with the Guerrilla Girls in that most of the past women artists were not valued as they deserved. Their art works were great, but; just because they were women, their works were not regarded as valuable. To illustrate, according to the news, in 1984 Museum of Modern Arts staged a major exhibition with hundreds of artists, however; only a few of them were women or artists of color. I think such things in the art world are big mistakes because everyone should know that the art has no gender or race. Another reason is that I admire the Guerrilla Girls for their founding. I think this founding is really necessary to draw attention to the inequality in the art world. There were other foundings established for this aim in the past, too. Nevertheless, this is the almost most prominent one because their protests are brave and clever. They raise awareness of people. To exemplify, Cindy Sherman, artist, says “I remember all their posters in So Ho, seeing them everywhere. It just opened my eyes more and more to being aware of how museums show fewer women. I definitely see that they’ve had influence in the art world, but it still has a way to go.” Lastly, I appreciate that the Guerrilla Girls wear gorilla masks, keep their identities a secret, and take names of dead women artists. I appreciate that as they do it in order to take attention and keep those women artists’ memories alive. Besides, in that way they can have the freedom of speaking up more easily. To conclude, because the art is a part of culture, and the culture comprises everyone, we should not let the art to be dedicated to only a one gender or race. Consequently, I think we should support Guerrilla Girls as this founding is a successful example of raising voice against such inequalities.

Reflection Task 1a

 If I wanted to join in a student group at METU, that group would be AGT (Ankara Gönüllü Takımı). There are some reasons why I would want to join AGT. First reason is that this group is formed by volunteer students who want to build a bridge among the people from different social status. I really want to be a part of it. Second, I like their projects for children. To exemplify, every weekend they go to houses of some families most of whom are from low economic status. They help these families’ children with their homework, also they deal with children’s daily life issues. A special connection is developed, therefore they become friends. This project is exciting for me as I like spending time with children; moreover, it is nice to know that I could do something useful and beneficial for them. Addition to these, members of AGT organize some special events throughout the year such as visiting some museums, visiting Anıtkabir, going to cinema, celebrating 23th of April and summer camps. As you can see they do really nice stuff, and I believe I could be helpful in this group with performing events. Lastly, by doing volunteer stuff and meeting people and children from different background may help me improving my social and educational skills. As a result, I would most probably feel happier and more peaceful. Considering all these, I suppose AGT would be the most suitable group for me. Consequently, I have already met them, and above this writing there is a picture of our meeting. Now I am waiting for a call to join one of the projects of theirs.

Mother Knows Best !

Free Reflection Task 1

        I would like to write about the article: “What is Education For” by David Orr. It simply tells six wrong beliefs about the bases of modern education, and six new keynotes to alter them. Actually there are many points that I agree with the author. First of all, according to this article, that the purpose of education is giving you the means for upward mobility and success is a wrong belief, and I think so, too. To exemplify, when we ask some primary school children what they think about the purpose of education, they generally just say “being successful and having a good job.” They think education is only related to schooling or work life. However, it should not be in this way. We all must be aware that education needs little to do with success. Secondly, the author suggests that today there is a rapid increase of data, words and paper, but this explosion should not be taken for an increase in knowledge and wisdom. I believe that is a very important point. Owing to the circumstances of this era, we all use these things heavily for a subject matter, but this situation is not a sign of good education. We need to use them because we live in an environment that requires this. Also, it should be clear that the goal of education is not mastery of subject mastery but of one’s person. Apart from all these, this article has many benefits that assist me. One of them is that it helped me about how I criticize my educational life in a right and useful way. Also, this article is beneficial for other people in terms of understanding what education is for and what education must be for. It can broaden one’s horizon. All in all, considering the relevance of the article to our daily life, I think not only academicians but also everyone who wants to get correct and useful information about education should read this article.