[etni] Fw: criticism of unknown teacher

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sharon Tzur" <sharontzu5@xxxxxxx>
Subject: criticism of unknown teacher


I would like to react to Dov's criticsm of the "unknown teacher" who
followed the Irgun directives not to do projects.

A - I resent the use of the term "fellow travelers" - with its Stalinist
implications as a way to refer to an Irgun member who followed the Irgun
directive.

B - Dov seems to suggest that the unknown teacher chose not to follow the
ministry rules (concerning the project) as a way to "skimp" and to make life
"easier". That's like saying that when teachers go on strike, they do so
because they prefer to sleep late and spend the day reading instead of
teaching.

I have no doubt that the teachers who are calling most insistently for
additional pay for teachers doing projects (and implementing the irgun
directive as part of the struggle) are doing so because they have been doing
the projects for over six years - the way they should be done according to
the Ministry directives - and it is a lot of work. In fact, Dov states in
his letter that "teachers --- bullets working on these projects for months".

Now I know that there are teachers who don't bother to do the project
properly - who simply send the students home to do the project over the
summer, who only collect and grade the final papers. I know there are
teachers who let the kids get away with just copying and pasting from
Wikipedia, with an occasional rewording.  I guess such a teacher doesn't
really care if teachers get paid for the project or not. However, those of
us who do the project the way it should be done have to invest a tremendous
amount of work on the projects.

In our school, we do the projects in four stages - each stage is submitted
and graded; we were taught that the project should involve process writing,
which means grading the process and not just the final paper. We were taught
that the project must be based on sources, and that these sources should be
integrated into the paper, and not copy-pasted. This means that in order to
assess the paper intelligently, one has to read - or at least skim - the
sources. And of course, the project is done in ADDITION to traditional
assessment (exams). I would ask Dov - is there any reason that we should go
on doing all this hard additional work for no pay? Other teachers whose work
involves projects (such as Biology) are paid for their effort.

Any type of sanction that the union calls for will be -  by definition -
not going according to the Ministry rules. That is true even of a one hour
strike called to protest violence against teachers. I have been in the field
for 30 years, and unfortunately, I have to say that with the exemption of
Yossi Sarid/Shulamit Aloni under the Rabin government, teachers I can't
remember teachers ever having gotten anything we deserved without struggling
for it. For example, it took two years of refusing to go out on class trips
and hikes before it was agreed that a teacher who spends 24 hours a day with
a class deserves to be paid for that time. Other achievements have come as a
result of strikes and other sanctions.

I know that often there are union members who refuse to go along with their
union's sanctions - and I think that they are the ones who have some
explaining to do. They can go along being the "nice" teacher, while others
have to face their students and explain why their union has called for
sanctions - and yet  - eventually, when the sanctions pay off, ALL the
teachers end up getting better conditions, including the teachers who
refused to implement the sanctions that brought about the change.

Naturally, this year, when the union directed us to stop doing projects
(which we do in our school in 10th grade), we filled in that time with more
literature - but eventually, if we count literature in all three modules -
instead of counting the project in one module, that will also be against the
Ministry rules. Naturally, we try to everything to see that the students
don't suffer. However, don't we teachers deserve any consideration? And is
it fair that students who did not do projects because of their teachers'
sanctions be given a zero? During the year of the two month strike, the
Ministry published the mikud early so that the students' grades would not
have to suffer because of the strike. Perhaps the Ministry should be
thinking of how to see to it that the students who did not do projects this
year not be penalized.

I end with a query. Other than sanctions, how else can teachers bring about
a change in the current policy?

BTW - Do you know that teachers of Civics and Hebrew language were given one
hour a year for a year as compensation for having to change over to a new
bagrut program? Why have English teachers never been given such
compensation?



----------------------------------------------- 
** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org 
   or - http://www.etni.org.il **
** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx **
** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **
-----------------------------------------------

Other related posts: