We began our journey of understanding Atatürk by learning the meaning of the Republic on October 29th.  We remembered the story about the animals in the forest, with the candidates who wanted to rule.  We decided among ourselves the best one and, in fact, the animals chose that leader.  During this time, we realized that it is considered a freedom to be able to have an election.  We talked with our teachers about how Atatürk made sure that everyone was happy and able to live without fear.  We are happy at school and we could not accept any unhappiness.

Atatürk wanted everyone to have the chance to learn, to read and write, so he made the alphabet easier.  It used to be very hard to read and write so few people knew how to do this.  This made it difficult for people to know their rights and to follow what was happening in the country.   Since it became easy to read, people read lots of books, newspapers and magazines. They were able to learn new information and teach their friends and family.  As children grew up, they learned and asked questions about what they did not know.

Atatürk brought innovations to schools.  Every child should learn to read so that they could follow the news, read books, newspapers and magazines.  They should be able to learn by reading.  People understood that children have ideas and that these ideas should be heard.  Schools became a place where children liked to go and a place where they could discover new things.  After learning all this, we are so thankful to Atatürk for making schools a happy place for us. 

As we were looking through the Atatürk photographs that we brought, we saw how much he loved children.  There are many photos of him with children.  We wish that Atatürk was still alive and that we could see him.  Thinking about this made us sad.  Then we learned that Atatürk had left the country in the hands of the children.  We wondered why, when there were many older people.  Atatürk thought that children understood him better than anyone else – that’s why.  He said that children are clever and have a pure heart.  He wanted children to be hard working because the republic he founded could only excel with lots of hard work.  He felt that only hardworking children had the courage to work hard and advance their country. For this, he counted on children. 

After learning all this, we wrote a poem with our class.  We listened to songs about Atatürk and made posters with his pictures.  As soon as we got to school on November 10th, we thanked Atatürk as we put our flowers on the bust at school.  The posters we made earlier were hung at our ceremony.  At 9:05, we observed a moment of silence as we heard the sirens.  We looked downward in sorrow as we thought about losing him.  Then we sang the national anthem, proudly looking at the Turkish flag.  Hacer Gündebahar, a teacher from the Blue Star class, talked to us about what we learned about Atatürk this week.  Then each class was excited to recite the poems they had written.  Finally, the whole school sang the Atatürk song:  “With a child’s pure heart, as we grow bigger, every day we learn more about you, we love you more, dear Atatürk”.

We realized that we do not need to actually see Atatürk to truly understand his greatness.

We remember Atatürk with respect and gratitude every single day.