Late last night (actually 2 a.m. this morning), 21 students arrived from Turkey for a month long program at the College. Despite being tired and jet-lagged, they arrived promptly at 11 a.m. for my class on International Human Rights. We had a wonderful discussion of the concept of human rights as well as the sources and content of those rights.
I was impressed by the level of their interest, their understanding of the topics, and their proficient English language skills. They enthusiastically engaged in debate about enforcement of human rights in their country and were especially interested in comparisons with the U.S. They were surprised to learn that many rights that appear in the Turkish Constitution are not listed in our Constitution.
This is the third year of our program with Turkish students. This morning I was reminded about the great value of such exchange programs. I am sure that I learned more than the students from the discussion. More important, however, is the fact that through such programs we can develop deeper understandings of the differences and similarities that exist across cultures and nations.
I sincerely thank you for your praises Mr. Braveman and would like to go ahead with disscusing politics and other hot issues of US and Turkey with you.
Posted by: Muohammad | July 06, 2009 at 05:18 PM
Wow. This is exciting. I am curious to know what details of the constitutional comparisons were interesting to the students.
Posted by: Jennifer Kumar | August 03, 2009 at 09:18 AM