[etni] Fw: re: Purposely Making English as Difficult as Math

From: "Ask_Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
To: "ETNI List" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 07:44:11 +0300
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barry Silverberg" <barisil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Purposely Making English as Difficult as Math


Ahhhh!  Nothing better to start the day than anonymously written letters
dealing with

dark clouds of conspiracies and menacing, monoltithic powers that be.  I
thrill if in my inbox i find a new installment from Barry Hamish, who always
has new proof as to who killed Rabin, who killed cock Robin and  how the
freemasons have taken over Israeli politics to
lead us to our doom.  Or maybe the Jackie Masons.

The problem is that the worst rumors are usually true.

Anyway, I attended a regional  meeting with the Mafmarit back in 1997 in
Tveria when the mafmarit was fairly new.

Maybe it was 1987.  Maybe I just dreamed all this up.  My colleague Gitit,
who shall  remain nameless, was there too.  Anyway, the notes i took have
her (i.e. Judy)  saying that soon, the 5 point exam will be for only the
strongest students.  OK.  But  a few years later, the NBA came in, which
seemed to push a lot more students to a bagrut certifcate and
if it was catering to any political pressure, it was to allow more high
school graduates.

Maybe the proposed new system will be to teach Math in English, or vice
versa.

PS:  Please don't mention bombs in connection with weddings until my son is
safely  hitched, which is after June 6.

Thank you.

Barry Silverberg


Anonymous wrote:
>I recently attended a wedding in Jerusalem. There I met a couple of old 
>dear
> friends. (She is an experienced English teacher and her husband is the
> principal of a very large successful high school.) During our debate about
> the HOTS issue, her husband dropped a bomb:
> He claimed that recently at a "kness menahalim" this issue of HOTS, he
> claimed, was partially explained. It seems that there is a disagreement
> between the heads of English at the MOE and those heading the overall
> general education departments: The latter claim that it is unreasonable 
> that
> only about 5-8% of our pupils pass the 5 point bagrut in Math, while a 
> much
> higher percentage of graduates succeed in English. Hence, there are plans
> underfoot (perhaps the HOTS is part of this??) to make the 5 points exams
> MUCH harder in English, and the 4 points equally so. What about the weak 4
> pointers? They'll have to "make do" with passing the 3 as do many pupils 
> in
> math. The difference of course is that 4 points in math is not a general
> requirement rather primarily a "must" for university students interested 
> in
> the math and the sciences, while the 4 point exam in English is a
> prerequisite for everything in higher learning.
> I wonder how we can check this out????? Any ideas???? If this is indeed
> true, (I don't doubt the veracity of my friend's words,) is there nothing
> we can do to protest???


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[etni] Fw: re: Purposely Making English as Difficult as Math

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