Buca Sınav Koleji 9. sınıf öğrencilerimizden Ezgi Türkel, Zeynep Özdoğan, Emine Güven başkalarının hayatlarını olumlu yönde etkileyen ancak tanınmayan olağanüstü bireyleri (kahramanları) sanat projesi ile onore eden, İngilizce araştırma yapıp makale yazdıkları bir yarışmaya (Art Effect: Unsung Heroes) katıldılar. Eğitimci Jane Elliot’un hikayesinin öğrencilerimizi nasıl etkilediğini ve onların nasıl bir sanat eseri yaptıklarını yazdıkları İngilizce makaleden okuyabilirsiniz. Kahramanın hikayesi ile ilgili ayrıntılı bilgi için ise: https://www.lowellmilkencenter.org/programs/projects/view/brown-eyes-blue-eyes/hero

 Jane Elliott: To Be Continued 

One day we were watching a documentary about discrimination in our history lesson. It deeply affected us and we investigated further about this issue. Later, when our English teacher introduced us to this competition (Art Effect: Unsung Heroes), we already knew which hero to choose. We chose Jane Elliott, an educator and a social activist, who fought against the racism and discrimination in her unique way.

Jane Elliot transformed her students’ lives with her groundbreaking experiment. The experiment made it to local newspapers and appeared on TV shows, even became a documentary material yet the majority of the world has no idea about who she is.

We decided to paint a series of pictures in a filmstrip to explain what happened in the past, still affecting us today. We wanted to display the artwork on the wall that we see every day when we use stairs. Therefore, we wanted to draw our peers’ attention so they pause in front of the artwork to think about it. Moreover, an artwork painted on a wall is permanent so future generations will see it as well.  In the left rectangle of the filmstrip there are some students who are almost black and white, only their eyes are colorful: blue and brown. They are positioned as two separate groups. That symbolizes Jane Elliot’s experiment. In the middle square, there is a chalk board with words (words about equality, humanism etc.) written on it, and Jane Elliot is in front of the chalkboard. Her posture tells us she is explaining things related to words on the board to her students. Lastly, on the right and final square of the filmstrip, there is an eye which is half brown half blue. Our intention with this eye is to indicate that our differences don’t change the fact that we are human and deserve to be treated equally since we are all part of the same universe.

Ezgi: Discrimination is a topic that we all have to be aware of. Differences are not important when we are all equally human beings. Just because someone has a different physical appearance or marginal standpoint, it doesn’t mean they deserve to be treated unequally. Our differences can be thought of as different parts of the same puzzle.

Zeynep: When I was researching about this experiment, I learned many things about discrimination. Many of them were direct in the past, but still there are some subtle discriminations such as mental/verbal abuse, all forms of violence etc. But the world is changing and our hope is to stop all kinds of factionalism and violence in the future.

Emine: We cannot choose our physical appearance, and we all have many kinds of differences from each other.  If we were exposed to discrimination based on our physical appearance, that would be unfair. This kind of awareness that Jane Elliot has created can change people’s point of view, and thus it can change the world.

Our artwork is on the wall of our school corridor so that our peers see it, which is our primary concern. We also wanted to introduce Jane Elliot and her inspirational work to our community. That is why photos of the artwork, her story are uploaded to our school’s website, and to the school’s social media page. This way everyone in our community (i.e teachers, parents, and their friends) will learn about the project and about Jane Elliot. To be continued… 

Ezgi Türkel -Age 16 (9th grade)

Zeynep Özdoğan -Age 15 (9th grade)

Emine Güven -Age 15 (9th grade)