Recently I had given a presentation about “Women in Muslim countries and Turkey” to a group formed of priests predominantly, upon the invitation of a Turkish woman theologian living in Germany. The group, which invited me, had aroused my interest more than the discussions there. I had met each of them individually. I can’t write their names, since I didn’t ask for their permission; however, the tasks they conduct are more or less as follows;

….. Deputy Manager in a high school; teaches mathematics, biology, philosophy.

….. High school manager; English, history and Protestant Church history teacher.

….. Priest; works as a consultant in a hospital.

….. Priest; manages the department in the Churches Union where the women-men equality is discussed.

….. Nurse; works in the births and deaths  section in line with the church.

….. Social pedagogy and sports teacher; gives religious education to primary school teachers.

….. Priest; responsible for religion lesson teachers and the context of the religion lessons in 100 public schools.

All of the members of the group, who are mostly German Protestants, were experts in the “Religious pedagogy” field and working in line with the Church. I had learned that in Germany, the instructors, who are experts in the religious pedagogy field, takes charge in every level of school starting from kindergarten, and that they must pass a special training. I don’t how much religious pedagogy takes place in our divinity and education faculties. However, religious education, which is an important part of a country’s culture and identity (believer or non-believer), may benefit from an individual when mixing it with pedagogy, which bears equal importance with the divinity information. The divinity instructors are required to be experts in these two fields. In the same way, religious children’s books must also be evaluated in the same fashion. If we are talking about religious education, we require the universal methods of science. If not, everyone will attempt to conduct  religious education on their own, as they did until now, and everyone will explain the religion that they themselves  follow. As things stand today,  there exists a vicious cycle of generations, which cannot learn about their religion under the anti-religious or religious image.

                                                                       …

We are the first generation that developed the idea of kintergarden in the Islamic segment. In the days where there were no kintergardens in a neighborhood, unlike today where there are three, we had regarded this as an essential need, and worked on it as a project. Those were the years, when the headscarf ban was the most intense and we retreated to our houses. First we had established house kintergarden. The idea of Elif kindergarten had  sprung from that. We had organized under the guidance of our schooled people regarding the education. After method pursuits, our education priorities, presentation of the contexts and many other tasks that requires servitude, we had closely seen our deficiencies in this area. Before anything else, we didn’t have a methodology. While pondering over  “How and what will we explain? What will be our priorities? Is having the kids recite basmala before eating and memorize two-three prayers enough for a start? How should the abstract concepts that form the essential of creation and divinity be presented?” we founded our remedy in forming and education group under the guidance of NeclaKoyak, who presents a unique view and study in this field. The “Mother Education Seminars”, which still continues today, had also come out from this core study. Even though I couldn’t continue the education more than three years, because of my impatience, it gave me the chance to see where we stand. In the following years, some kindergartens that answer this demand had been created in the private sector. However, I’m not really sure if this is what religious education is really all about...

I had encountered many questions, thanks to my observations and fixations in my article, which I had written for the Religion Magazine two months ago. To be honest, making fixations are the easiest part of the task. The difficult one is to put methods in the resolution point. At a point, where we are being dragged by the era, we are trying to designate a stance in our own ways. We also want this stance to have a religious claim. Maybe this “claim” is what’s killing the magic of the task. If we can be content with being a normal, random, good person, then everything will be different.

We will neither forget “the other”, nor the reality!

Also, there are youngsters, whom I didn’t mention in my article, but mentioned from time to time in other articles and who are contrary to this. Youngsters, who occupied themselves with great incidents, like destroying capitalism or changing the world system, who are outstanding in philosophic and theoretical discussions. However  what will happen to them when they get in touch with the life, which we can’t quite make out….

To whom we couldn’t teach how to be “religious, egoist and narcissist” at the same time…. This is a generation, which had lacked the dosage of modesty in order for them to be self-confident. Maybe we couldn’t teach them, because we also failed to do this. I don’t know the reasons, however I’d like to share a suggestion of my friend regarding the question “what should be done?”: “Being busy with tasks that touch a person directly. Even if it’s simple as cutting the nails of an elder, being an invisible voluntary part of a social study.”

Rendering life meaningful can only become possible by increasing the good deeds. We cannot destroy capitalism, we cannot prevent our country from integrating with the world system, and we cannot make the world a more just place. However, we can succeed in not being a “capitalist” ourselves. With the occasion of this article, I present my gratitude to everyone who worries about  this matter.