I wrote this book under the intense mobbing of the administration at Istanbul Beykent University Foreign Languages School, which completely disregards all pedagogical approaches, has no connection with English teaching methods and techniques, and actually has no concern to teach English.
Due to my long-standing opposition to the administration's unscientific and pseudo-educational system, which has no place in any educational approach, I have been subjected to investigations based on lies, slander, and baseless rumors in an attempt to discipline me and integrate me into this irrational system.
While writing this book, I told myself one thing: 'They will do everything to discredit you, try to drive you crazy, and will spare no effort to push you to suicide.' (Indeed, they did) But no matter what happens, live on and hold onto this book. Cling to this book so that maybe you can change something in the world, write this book so that maybe one day you can broaden someone's horizon in this world.
As the administration's mobbing increased, turning to this book became my hope, and I truly realized that there is no place in Turkey for people who love their fellow human beings, idealists, and those who believe in science, reason, and methodology. This realization also made the information about colonialism in my mind more current and visible.
In a colonial country, I grasped that being an educator is not a viable option or form of existence. Whether the government is right-wing or left-wing, my belief was solidified that positions in the education system would be filled with individuals who are willing to perpetuate the colonialist, kemalist, rote-learning education and apply top-down pressure and psychological terror to maintain it. In a colonial country, a state official or anyone who has taken on any position can behave as ignorantly and irrationally as they like. If they insist that two times two is five, I believe and observe that there will be thousands of school principals and teachers who will say that two times two is five, tomorrow. While having such administrators can be infuriating, having such teachers is both depressing and painful.
I think that teachers who are willing to deny thousands of pages of pedagogical knowledge in order to please the administration and not hesitate to slander their teacher colleagues for their own small interests is a reality for every idealistic teacher or educator reading these lines. Therefore, I assume that teachers who live on just to collect their salaries and try to cover their own ignorance by slandering other teachers to appear knowledgeable are also obvious to most of the people reading these lines.
Thus, I want to thank firstly the ALMIGHTY GOD who gave me the strength to endure, then MYSELF for showing the courage to fight against all injustice, unlawfulness, slander, lies, and mindlessness during these processes, My lawyers HALİL ONUR ODABAŞI and MUKADDES ODABAŞI, who have always been by my side legally during this difficult time, DİLEK ÖNDER, who provided all kinds of support while completing my master's thesis, the relevant administrators of Istanbul Beykent University Foreign Languages School, which ended my childish faith in Turkish Academia with its mobbing and psychological terror, and DR. MARIA KATHARINA WIEDLACK in the English-American Literature Department at the University of Vienna, who accepted to be my doctoral supervisor and became a light and hope for me during this challenging time.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to ALL VALUABLE TEACHER COLLEAGUES who carry the light of knowing how teaching should be done in their hearts, even though they cannot truly demonstrate their real teaching knowledge and skills due to the irrational attitudes of administrators, and I believe that, despite everything, we may one day be able to apply what we know in the most beautiful way...
