9 ms·

Turkey's 'Mathematics Village': Changing education one equation at a time

167 points by mbaytas 8y ago

aytekin 8y ago
Such a beautiful school in such a beautiful location. I've been to Sirince a couple of times. It is famous for its wines.
nyc111 8y ago
> He was sued that same year by the state for illegal construction and illegally creating an educational institution. I congratulate Prof. Nesin for creating such a place. No one will remember the stupid bureaucrats who tried to obstruct this unique place but the village will remain.
- darkhorn 8y ago
  They sued him because he was critisizing Erdoğan.
  - buraksarica 8y ago
    Just google “Ali nesin Erdoğan” and you will see the opposite mostly. He doesn’t admire Erdoğan but he is liberal enough to analyse him fair.
    - kolpa 8y ago
      "analyse him fair" is criticism (true for anyone, not just Erdoğan). But as I hear, Erdoğan doesn't tolerate fair analysis.
      - bulkan 8y ago
        Because fair analysis means that he gets criticised !
      - dman 8y ago
        Erdogan cant stand Real Analysis. Giggle
    - zaarn 8y ago
      Fair analysis is no longer permitted in Turkey. Their highest literacy rates are found in the prisons where they put the journalists and critics of the government and that's not a joke or something.
  - afsina 8y ago
    I don't know. I saw him in national TV channel two years ago (state owned one) giving a lecture to high school kids on quadratic equations. It was a superb lecture, and trust me he could not appear there if Erdoğan had a quarrel with him.
3327 8y ago
I went to this village and was a student of Ali Nesin. The village is intense and grad students go there to do full on set theory and group theory. Glad it is getting recognition.
grangerize 8y ago
I have spent there 2 weeks in 2013. It was an amazing experience. What I liked the most was that it was more like a commune. Everybody helped with cleaning, doing the dishes and cooking. Everybody was eager to learn from each other, treated each other with great respect and there were no signs of age discrimination. Today, I am still in touch with people I met at the village. Some of them are way older and some of them are way younger than I am. I wish I could go back to see how it is now.
IngoBlechschmid 8y ago
The Mathematics Village is also well-known for hosting workshops and summer schools on advanced topics (graduate level and above) in mathematics. For instance, currently there is a summer school on diffeology, categories & toposes, and non-commutative geometry: https://plus.google.com/+UrsSchreiber/posts/Y3JCNohQJ3D https://plus.google.com/+UrsSchreiber/posts/Y3JCNohQJ3D
linkmotif 8y ago
Woah count me in, I'm there! Soon as I get rich :). I've been looking for this place.
- haskellandchill 8y ago
  I too look forward to spending some cozy times with maths when I am comfortable. However my bank account has been near zero for a decade, I must at a certain point admit I will not achieve this vision and get on with life. Not there yet!
  - linkmotif 8y ago
    Hey you wanna Haskell and chill?
    - haskellandchill 8y ago
      Not really anymore haha. It's more a state of mind. I wanna do proofs and chill these days.
gkya 8y ago
I have wrote a bit about the situation of Turkish education system here, in the form of three big consecutive comments. Here is a link for anybody interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15373653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15373653 [Edit: rereading this series of comments I linked above, I note some mistakes in there. E.g. the wealth tax was collected from Muslims too, albeit at a wildly lower rate compared to non-Muslims. Apart from this sort of details though, it should be fine and rather accurate. Any corrections are welcome!] Basically the education has lately become an ideological battleground, and the 1980 coup has furnished the controls to the government to play with it at every level however it wants. This situation combined with an air of anti-intellectualism has caused the education and academical system to rot. Hopefully the upcoming vote will bring a change for good. If there will be anyone ready to listen, I have tonnes of feedback ready to be given, and I believe, hopefully again, I'm far from alone in that.
- l5870uoo9y 8y ago
  Very informative, thanks.
- 101km 8y ago
  Thank you for the linked post. I'm glad to see you have hope for a positive change. Can you reconcile that with the purges in the Turkish education system after the 2016 coup? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Turkish_coup_d%27état_attempt#Aftermath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Turkish_coup_d%27état_att... I'd love any reason to be optimistic here.
  - gkya 8y ago
    Removing Gulen and the like from the education system was long overdue, as they are a political org with an agenda, butbthe purges went too extreme. I have heard stories where people cant find decent jobs because the read at a Gulen lycee, albeit unknowingly. Another which worked at one for one month as a teacher and didnt have any ties to the org itself, but still cant find a job because of that. We say in turkish: the wet was burnt because of the dry. A proper law-bound state would clear the innocent ones in a snap. Muharrem Ince promises to execute every change necessary for such a state and to revitalise all the institutions. I believe him. I want to believe him. And I believe he will be elected. There is no other way out. Basically this is the most important election ever in the history of the Turkish Republic.
madengr 8y ago
Reminds me of the Mentats in Dune.
roadbeats 8y ago
It’s one of the most beautiful places on earth, so should be in your bucket list if you like to travel. Visit Şirince, stay in Nişanyan Houses and see Math Village. Here is a few photos I shot that time; https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16155210870/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16155210870/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16156704877/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16156704877/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16327089302/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16327089302/ Note that Şirince is near Ephesus: https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16150595997/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16150595997/ P.S Şirince wine is a scam. Mr. Nişanyan explains it in his book Aslanlı Yol.
- t0mislav 8y ago
  Wow. I just realized I was there 2 years ago. Didn't know back then about this math thing. (colleagues from Turkey office, Izmir, wanted us to show Ephesus etc)
- Cenk 8y ago
  Wow, really good photos. My family once visited close to there and I remember everyone telling us the wine is a scam too.
  - jfim 8y ago
    What's the issue with the wine? A cursory Google search did not turn up anything.
    - roadbeats 8y ago
      Just saw this. Mr. Nisanyan's book "Aslanli Yol" has a section claiming all the wine in Sirince is made outside Sirince, but they're just branded as Sirince wine for marketin purposes.
- simonebrunozzi 8y ago
  Looks very much like Umbria (Italy), where I grew up.
nurettin 8y ago
I grew up with Aziz Nesin's humorous books and later read Ali Nesin's "who is afraid of maths?". They helped me immensely while searching for meaning in life. (An adolescent endeavor, as I later noticed) What a family of geniuses. Turkey definitely doesn't deserve them.
- tugberkk 8y ago
  "Turkey definitely doesn't deserve them." This is a very wrong thing to say. Ali took his education elsewhere, yes; but Aziz Nesin grew in that country.
  - nurettin 8y ago
    And he succeeded as a human being despite that. Amazing feat.
    - tugberkk 8y ago
      Yes, great feat indeed. This country exactly deserves these kind of people in order to grow.
- _r5wf 8y ago
  > What a family of geniuses. Turkey definitely doesn't deserve them. What an arrogant opinion.
  - nurettin 8y ago
    How is it related to arrogance?
- mda 8y ago
  "Turkey definitely doesn't deserve them." I literally rolled my eyes on this.
candiodari 8y ago
There was an article in a French newspaper that details the real story about education changing in Turkey. The education system has moved from being mostly secular to being extremely orthodox islamic. Newly brought in last year: jihad (and no, not "the peaceful kind"), and removal of evolution. New this year, the how righteous of the punishment of stoning is. The illustration from that article was that several girls one day came home crying, panicked and scared from school. What had happened ? They had been shown a video of the stoning of a woman, and had to endure their teacher defending this as just for 30 minutes. Apparently this is now the new normal in Turkey. Here's some related articles: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/devout-generation-education-turkey-changing https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/devout-generat... https://www.politico.eu/article/erdogan-turkey-education-news-coup-analysis-curriculum-history-istanbul/ https://www.politico.eu/article/erdogan-turkey-education-new...
- _r26q 8y ago
  I’m sorry but this is not true. The depiction of Turkey by the french media is just false. This is NOT something normal. In fact, for me, the Turkish education system works better than the French education. And Islam is not part of the education at school in Turkey. School in Turkey is about actually learning and carring about each other. (I am a Turkish-French. I live in both coutries.)
  - bariscimen 8y ago
    "In fact, for me, the Turkish education system works better than the French education." lol. stop lying
    - buraksarica 8y ago
      Do you have opportunity to compare? I mean he/she at least is bi-national. Why do you call someone liar on his/her own ideas?
      - bariscimen 8y ago
robert_foss 8y ago
I guess this village is only accessible to Mathematicians who weren't harassed or fired due to alleged ties to the Gulen movement. Turkey really is treading the fine line of facism.
arisAlexis 8y ago
this is until Sultan Erdogan closes it down. Probably you also get expelled if you don't believe in the Quran. Sad but true. Article tries hard to make Turkey appear like a good place to innovate and it's probably the worst oppression for academia in this century with a huge amount of professors in jail since 2016.
- gkya 8y ago
  BS. Why do we chop time up in random 100 year periods? Oh because it helps us distance ourselves from the original fascism and it's Aryan bastard! But it doesn't work, it's recent even if you append an I to the XX. Turkey is in a moment of crisis. Hopefully we're near the end. Also, this organisation is not a governmental one already. It is a mathematical rebellion. Ali Nesin is one of the most dissenting intellectuals.
  - arisAlexis 8y ago
    your comment is a general rant. you disagree that many academics are in jail or that erdogan is taking your country backwards to authoritarian state that obviously hinders innovation?
profalseidol 8y ago
Very nice website relative to the websites of corporate owned news sites.

167 points by mbaytas 8y ago

Such a beautiful school in such a beautiful location. I've been to Sirince a couple of times. It is famous for its wines.

nyc111 8y ago

> He was sued that same year by the state for illegal construction and illegally creating an educational institution. I congratulate Prof. Nesin for creating such a place. No one will remember the stupid bureaucrats who tried to obstruct this unique place but the village will remain.

darkhorn 8y ago
They sued him because he was critisizing Erdoğan.
- buraksarica 8y ago
  Just google “Ali nesin Erdoğan” and you will see the opposite mostly. He doesn’t admire Erdoğan but he is liberal enough to analyse him fair.
  - kolpa 8y ago
    "analyse him fair" is criticism (true for anyone, not just Erdoğan). But as I hear, Erdoğan doesn't tolerate fair analysis.
    - bulkan 8y ago
      Because fair analysis means that he gets criticised !
    - dman 8y ago
      Erdogan cant stand Real Analysis. Giggle
  - zaarn 8y ago
    Fair analysis is no longer permitted in Turkey. Their highest literacy rates are found in the prisons where they put the journalists and critics of the government and that's not a joke or something.
- afsina 8y ago
  I don't know. I saw him in national TV channel two years ago (state owned one) giving a lecture to high school kids on quadratic equations. It was a superb lecture, and trust me he could not appear there if Erdoğan had a quarrel with him.

3327 8y ago

I went to this village and was a student of Ali Nesin. The village is intense and grad students go there to do full on set theory and group theory. Glad it is getting recognition.

grangerize 8y ago

I have spent there 2 weeks in 2013. It was an amazing experience. What I liked the most was that it was more like a commune. Everybody helped with cleaning, doing the dishes and cooking. Everybody was eager to learn from each other, treated each other with great respect and there were no signs of age discrimination. Today, I am still in touch with people I met at the village. Some of them are way older and some of them are way younger than I am. I wish I could go back to see how it is now.

IngoBlechschmid 8y ago

The Mathematics Village is also well-known for hosting workshops and summer schools on advanced topics (graduate level and above) in mathematics. For instance, currently there is a summer school on diffeology, categories & toposes, and non-commutative geometry: https://plus.google.com/+UrsSchreiber/posts/Y3JCNohQJ3D https://plus.google.com/+UrsSchreiber/posts/Y3JCNohQJ3D

linkmotif 8y ago

Woah count me in, I'm there! Soon as I get rich :). I've been looking for this place.

haskellandchill 8y ago
I too look forward to spending some cozy times with maths when I am comfortable. However my bank account has been near zero for a decade, I must at a certain point admit I will not achieve this vision and get on with life. Not there yet!
- linkmotif 8y ago
  Hey you wanna Haskell and chill?
  - haskellandchill 8y ago
    Not really anymore haha. It's more a state of mind. I wanna do proofs and chill these days.

gkya 8y ago

I have wrote a bit about the situation of Turkish education system here, in the form of three big consecutive comments. Here is a link for anybody interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15373653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15373653 [Edit: rereading this series of comments I linked above, I note some mistakes in there. E.g. the wealth tax was collected from Muslims too, albeit at a wildly lower rate compared to non-Muslims. Apart from this sort of details though, it should be fine and rather accurate. Any corrections are welcome!] Basically the education has lately become an ideological battleground, and the 1980 coup has furnished the controls to the government to play with it at every level however it wants. This situation combined with an air of anti-intellectualism has caused the education and academical system to rot. Hopefully the upcoming vote will bring a change for good. If there will be anyone ready to listen, I have tonnes of feedback ready to be given, and I believe, hopefully again, I'm far from alone in that.

l5870uoo9y 8y ago
Very informative, thanks.
101km 8y ago
Thank you for the linked post. I'm glad to see you have hope for a positive change. Can you reconcile that with the purges in the Turkish education system after the 2016 coup? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Turkish_coup_d%27état_attempt#Aftermath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Turkish_coup_d%27état_att... I'd love any reason to be optimistic here.
- gkya 8y ago
  Removing Gulen and the like from the education system was long overdue, as they are a political org with an agenda, butbthe purges went too extreme. I have heard stories where people cant find decent jobs because the read at a Gulen lycee, albeit unknowingly. Another which worked at one for one month as a teacher and didnt have any ties to the org itself, but still cant find a job because of that. We say in turkish: the wet was burnt because of the dry. A proper law-bound state would clear the innocent ones in a snap. Muharrem Ince promises to execute every change necessary for such a state and to revitalise all the institutions. I believe him. I want to believe him. And I believe he will be elected. There is no other way out. Basically this is the most important election ever in the history of the Turkish Republic.

madengr 8y ago

Reminds me of the Mentats in Dune.

roadbeats 8y ago

It’s one of the most beautiful places on earth, so should be in your bucket list if you like to travel. Visit Şirince, stay in Nişanyan Houses and see Math Village. Here is a few photos I shot that time; https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16155210870/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16155210870/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16156704877/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16156704877/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16327089302/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16327089302/ Note that Şirince is near Ephesus: https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16150595997/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16150595997/ P.S Şirince wine is a scam. Mr. Nişanyan explains it in his book Aslanlı Yol.

t0mislav 8y ago
Wow. I just realized I was there 2 years ago. Didn't know back then about this math thing. (colleagues from Turkey office, Izmir, wanted us to show Ephesus etc)
Cenk 8y ago
Wow, really good photos. My family once visited close to there and I remember everyone telling us the wine is a scam too.
- jfim 8y ago
  What's the issue with the wine? A cursory Google search did not turn up anything.
  - roadbeats 8y ago
    Just saw this. Mr. Nisanyan's book "Aslanli Yol" has a section claiming all the wine in Sirince is made outside Sirince, but they're just branded as Sirince wine for marketin purposes.
simonebrunozzi 8y ago
Looks very much like Umbria (Italy), where I grew up.

nurettin 8y ago

I grew up with Aziz Nesin's humorous books and later read Ali Nesin's "who is afraid of maths?". They helped me immensely while searching for meaning in life. (An adolescent endeavor, as I later noticed) What a family of geniuses. Turkey definitely doesn't deserve them.

tugberkk 8y ago
"Turkey definitely doesn't deserve them." This is a very wrong thing to say. Ali took his education elsewhere, yes; but Aziz Nesin grew in that country.
- nurettin 8y ago
  And he succeeded as a human being despite that. Amazing feat.
  - tugberkk 8y ago
    Yes, great feat indeed. This country exactly deserves these kind of people in order to grow.
_r5wf 8y ago
> What a family of geniuses. Turkey definitely doesn't deserve them. What an arrogant opinion.
- nurettin 8y ago
  How is it related to arrogance?
mda 8y ago
"Turkey definitely doesn't deserve them." I literally rolled my eyes on this.

candiodari 8y ago

There was an article in a French newspaper that details the real story about education changing in Turkey. The education system has moved from being mostly secular to being extremely orthodox islamic. Newly brought in last year: jihad (and no, not "the peaceful kind"), and removal of evolution. New this year, the how righteous of the punishment of stoning is. The illustration from that article was that several girls one day came home crying, panicked and scared from school. What had happened ? They had been shown a video of the stoning of a woman, and had to endure their teacher defending this as just for 30 minutes. Apparently this is now the new normal in Turkey. Here's some related articles: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/devout-generation-education-turkey-changing https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/devout-generat... https://www.politico.eu/article/erdogan-turkey-education-news-coup-analysis-curriculum-history-istanbul/ https://www.politico.eu/article/erdogan-turkey-education-new...

_r26q 8y ago
I’m sorry but this is not true. The depiction of Turkey by the french media is just false. This is NOT something normal. In fact, for me, the Turkish education system works better than the French education. And Islam is not part of the education at school in Turkey. School in Turkey is about actually learning and carring about each other. (I am a Turkish-French. I live in both coutries.)
- bariscimen 8y ago
  "In fact, for me, the Turkish education system works better than the French education." lol. stop lying
  - buraksarica 8y ago
    Do you have opportunity to compare? I mean he/she at least is bi-national. Why do you call someone liar on his/her own ideas?
    - bariscimen 8y ago

robert_foss 8y ago

I guess this village is only accessible to Mathematicians who weren't harassed or fired due to alleged ties to the Gulen movement. Turkey really is treading the fine line of facism.

arisAlexis 8y ago

this is until Sultan Erdogan closes it down. Probably you also get expelled if you don't believe in the Quran. Sad but true. Article tries hard to make Turkey appear like a good place to innovate and it's probably the worst oppression for academia in this century with a huge amount of professors in jail since 2016.

gkya 8y ago
BS. Why do we chop time up in random 100 year periods? Oh because it helps us distance ourselves from the original fascism and it's Aryan bastard! But it doesn't work, it's recent even if you append an I to the XX. Turkey is in a moment of crisis. Hopefully we're near the end. Also, this organisation is not a governmental one already. It is a mathematical rebellion. Ali Nesin is one of the most dissenting intellectuals.
- arisAlexis 8y ago
  your comment is a general rant. you disagree that many academics are in jail or that erdogan is taking your country backwards to authoritarian state that obviously hinders innovation?

profalseidol 8y ago

Very nice website relative to the websites of corporate owned news sites.