Cyprus-Forum.com

[Sotos]

Mills I don't think I prefer your new domain. The two opposing governments are Cyprus and Turkey. What that has to do with the school? Maybe it should be 1forall.org ?

[Mills Chapman]

Hi Sotos,

I'm referring to the two governments in Nicosia - de facto or de jure. Talat and friends might be Ankara puppets who aren't recognized by anyone else, but they are still an elected group that administers the affairs of that side of the island.

[Mills Chapman]

Hi Everyone,

I just thought I would post links for two cooperative learning videos that I have found on Youtube. As some of you may recall, cooperative learning would be a key feature of The Cypriot School. Neither video is by me, and I have no clue who the people are behind them. Still, something for now:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEh8Z0sbiRE
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_9k2CIh ... ed&search= (the volume is really low on this one.)

Other news for the time being:
1. I made some edits to www.1for2.org since my last post.

2. By chance at a friend's apartment, I met the assistant of one of the two U.S. congressman who focuses on the Cyprus problem. She understood my plan and will help me meet her boss when my proposal and website are finalized (still at least a year away).

3. I got the site, www.cypriotschool.org , as the "brick and mortar" site for this proposed school.

4. I found out that former U.S. Ambassador Mark Klosson went not only to my small college but also to my high school (which is in a different part of the U.S.). So, when the time is right, I hope to meet with him.

Cheers, Mills

[free_cyprus]

Mills Chapman
i admire your noble efforts in trying to find a solution for cyprus, and even thinking of the cyprus problem, the shool is a good idea but it will not solve anything, becouse even if they build sucha school and they put this theary into active practive, for me it will nto work, firstly the people of cyprus willgo to this schoool as turkish and greek cypriots ...............you alreaddy have a division there just by saying these few works that im turkish or greek cypriot. most people in this forum do not even understand the psychological implication of that single statment i have just made to you above,
secondly they will go to this school reading history books that have been written printed and published both in turkey and greece, fi cyprus is to have any chance of sirvival in the freedom we seek without abondaning the ideas such as im greek and turkish this will be the greatest single obstackle to any improvement on the island for aslong as we carry thins thought forward we are turkish and we are greek cypriots, with this we carry everywhere with us the history of athens and ankara, this si wehre the implications lies, and there is somany other factors flags, national anthems, turkish and greek mainland armies in cyprus, and so forth and so forth and so forth. what has athens and ankara have in common when it comes to cyprus they are both guilty in history of invading a small island and occupying it, and then they became the goos guys they became our garontors for the supposed independent os cyprus. its very much like putting the fox to gaurd the chickens,

[Mills Chapman]

Free Cyprus,

Thank you for reminding me that I have not fully posted my proposal online. If I had, you might have been able to read it and see that I cover

a) the issue of the students seeing each other as GCs, TCs, or simply Cs

and

b) how history would be taught (through a cutting-edge approach backed by educational researchers)

The following is a cover letter that I sent to Michael Moller's office at UNFICYP after I read a quote from him in this article, http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.ph ... &archive=1 . He said, “What more can UNFICYP offer 43 years on, given the absence of significant progress on the political process?”

I have yet to hear back from Moller's office. The links below should answer about 90% of your questions, if not more. Thanks for your interest, free_cyprus.

The Cypriot School: The Missing Catalyst for the Cyprus Solution

A missing catalyst exists for solving the Cyprus problem: a school mainly for the children of the two Nicosia administrations. If Mehmet Talat and Tassos Papadoupolos had young children who were cooperating on group projects every school day and then telling their fathers about it at the dinner table each night, these two men would feel increasingly obliged to be more cooperative with their counterpart, and, in turn, creative when brainstorming a solution to the Cyprus problem. While they do not have children of the same age, their colleagues do.

Remarkably, the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States have yet to consider The Cypriot School. If successful, this schooling model could be replicated in twelve other conflicts, such as in Jerusalem and Baghdad. This widespread applicability would frame The Cypriot School’s cost as a worthy R&D expenditure for the international community.

Points for consideration:

• The Cypriot School - extended summary:
http://www.1for2.org/extendedsummary.html

• The Cypriot School’s applicability to resolving twelve other conflicts:
http://www.1for2.org

• The Cypriot School – full proposal
http://www.archive.org/download/The_Cyp ... oposal.doc

• The Cypriot School in the news:
http://www.reportfromcyprus.com/old/Pea ... cation.htm

• How can one school help solve a conflict?
http://www.1for2.org/howcanoneschoolhel ... flict.html

• Why Cyprus first for this type of school?
http://www.1for2.org/the13conflictsandt ... first.html

• For the best conflict resolution results (all factors are present in The Cypriot School model):
http://www.1for2.org/forthebestconflict ... sults.html

• What is cooperative learning?
http://www.1for2.org/cooperativelearnin ... rning.html

• Cooperative learning in Cyprus and Turkey:
http://www.1for2.org/cooperativelearnin ... urkey.html

• What was missing from the Annan Plan:
There was nothing in the Annan Plan on education in any sense except for broad strokes of “strengthening education and culture…” and generalities about the need to write history textbooks from a more inclusive perspective.

• FAQ about The Cypriot School:
http://www.1for2.org/thecypriotschoolfr ... tions.html

• A key note from a conference in April of 2007 for scholars focusing on the Cyprus problem:

This past April I (Mills Chapman) spoke in Denver at a conference for Cyprus conflict-resolution scholars, and half of the twenty in attendance had once been or were Fulbright scholars. I was the only individual who stated that Cypriots younger than the age of 15 are the way to the solution. In this envisioned school, which would eventually carry through to the secondary level, the only new students each year would be two-year-olds, who presumably all have to go to preschool or daycare somewhere in Nicosia.

• Relevant points in three slides from a survey completed in February of 2007, The UN in Cyprus: An Inter-communal Survey of Public Opinion by UNFICYP:
Please visit http://www.unficyp.org/survey%202007/Survey2007ENG.pdf and note the following about these three slides:

G3. “Support for different types of inter-communal contact”
Not one of the options offered is a shared school, let alone one in which many of the students would come from families linked to the two Nicosia administrations.

H1: “When do you expect that the Cyprus problem will be solved?”
Note that the majority on both sides believe that the problem will not be solved in the immediate future. This belief will help them to be more amenable to a strategy that has a long-term approach.

I5. Support of alternative ways to bridge the gap between the peace process and the people of the two communities in Cyprus:
As in Slide G3, there is no mention of helping to start a shared school. Thus, one can conclude that UNFICYP and the UN have yet to think of this.

• The future online home of The Cypriot School
http://www.cypriotschool.org

[kurupetos]

Dear Mills,

I think that you are wasting your time with imaginary situations that don't offer anything in terms of solving the cyprus problem. In other words, you are thinking the american way which is a totally different thing. The americans are people of multi-mixed descent from all around the world with no former history. In the case of Cyprus you have one of the oldest countries in the world with a greek influenced history of 3000+ years. It would be ridiculous to think that a GC would simply forget about his/her greek heritage and built a cypriot one (which by the way was tried by the British during the British rule of Cyprus with the opposite effects!). In my opinion greek cypriot and turkish cypriot schools should remain even in a united cyprus (e.g., similarly to french, italian and german language schools in Switzerland or english and french language schools in Canada). Anyway in all solution plans proposed by the UN (a.k.a. USA, UK) the separatist characteristics are very strong and made it clear that there will be two constituent states (GC & TC) within the federal government.

[Mills Chapman]

Hi kurupetos,

I probably wasn't clear in my last posting, but this school has nothing to do with students "forgetting" or "not being taught" their Greek or Turkish heritage. I do state in my proposal that there would be a class period a day for homogenous langauge instruction (ie, Greek or Turkish) in which they would also learn about their ethnic heritage's customs and traditions.

What this school would be trying to do implicitly is encourage each student to identify more with their Cypriot identity than either their Greek or Turkish identity. Instead of motiviating students to first think they are Greek or Turkish and secondly Cypriot, the school would use certain strategies - that also lead to better cognitive learning - to motivate students to pride themselves first and foremost on their Cypriotness and then their ethnic identities.

I do realize that a lot now is vague in this proposal, but hopefully that will change with time.

Thanks for your interest.

[CopperLine]

In one sense I can't help but admire Mills' enthusiasm and energy. It does not appear to be jaded either by cynicism or, more worringly, history. I don't want to squash this hopefulness, but has anyone read Graham Greene's brilliant book (set in 1950s Vietnam) called The Quiet American ? (There's also a reasonably good 2002 film adaptation starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258068/

Lord Byron, the 19th century British philHellene, wrote :

'This is the patent age of new inventions,
For killing bodies, and saving souls.
All done with the best intentions.'

A worthy caution.[/i]

[kurupetos]

What this school would be trying to do implicitly is encourage each student to identify more with their Cypriot identity than either their Greek or Turkish identity. Instead of motiviating students to first think they are Greek or Turkish and secondly Cypriot, the school would use certain strategies - that also lead to better cognitive learning - to motivate students to pride themselves first and foremost on their Cypriotness and then their ethnic identities.

What Cypriot identity? You cannot built on something that doesn't exist. If it exists give me some examples. The tragic events in 1974 and before and the forced division for 33 years had vanished every hope for a common national identity. The first think we need it's a solution that will unite Cyprus and then anything else.

[Mills Chapman]

CooperLine,

Thanks for the compliment.

Ironically, I just watched that film about three weeks ago. Same version as there is also an older one that came out while Greene was alive. Trust me when I say that I'm not in the CIA like Fraser's character nor an aging journalist looking for a wife a third of my age (like Caine's character). Interesting quote by Byron, but I have no intention to kill anyone's body nor their soul.

Btw, did you pick your username based on James Taylor's song? It's a good tune.