[etni] Fw: teaching to THINK; etc.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Esther Revivo - estherrv@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: teaching to THINK; etc.

I have been following with interest the input of teachers regarding our need 
to be the "saviors" of our pupils, whereby we
 are teachers of much more than English as a FL, since if WE don't teach 
many things, the pupils will simply not learn them. Indeed, just two years 
ago one of the teachers of Lashon Ha'Ivri at our Ulpana thanked me for 
teaching my junior high students the basics for penning a decent 
composition. He said it made his life much easier when they reached the 
tenth grade!!! (As someone previously mentioned, I remember writing 
compositions in elementary school!!)

One glaring problem I have met with in class is the lack of  basic 
analytical THINKING. I recall as an elementary school pupil in upstate N.Y. 
we never once decorated notebooks, but we sure as the dickens did unseens as 
young as in the third grade.

When I made aliya after completing university abroad,  I studied Jewish 
studies for a year at Michlala Yerushalayim in Bayit Vegan. One of my 
teachers invited a group of us to a Shabbat meal. There he mentioned that he 
greatly preferred teaching Jewish Law--- Halacha--- in our class of 
"chutznikiyot" rather than to the Israeli girls. For, he was deluged with 
questions about the subject at hand and each lesson was lively with sharp 
analytical queries. In the Israeli program, however, he claimed that the 
girls calmly sat writing down his lecture word for word, in such a way that 
occasionally he would say something illogical just to check that they were 
awake and actually following his line of thought.

In addition to this lack of analytical thinking (I can't pin down why this 
is so, by the way,) I find it troubling that every year I must hold "quiz 
bowl" type competitions to enlarge general knowledge that is so basic, it is 
ridiculous. Even gifted students today have a problem naming the continents; 
capital cities; who fought on which side during major wars, and other 
rudimentary facts.

Why is this so? I can only say that as a mother of five, (my youngest is in 
college,) our dinner table was always alive with debate on general knowledge 
issues. We had trivia games in the house as well as other games to promote 
general knowledge.  We read books to our children before bedtime, and they 
saw us reading all the time. I am sure that I am describing the same 
scenario in many of your homes.

What is the solution? I have no idea. I am on early retirement teaching 1/3 
a misra due to health reasons and am thrilled that I now need only help out 
with the bagruyot (prepping and giving tigburim) without shouldering the 
responsibility. Optimistic about the future in our field, I am not. My Mom 
had a doctorate and was a h.s. teacher and guidance counselor in NY State. 
She not only earned a marvelous salary, but no less important, as a teacher 
she was on the par with engineers  and accountants in regards to how she was 
respected and appreciated by her pupils, their parents and society at large.

It is ironic that the Jewish People who for generations in the diaspora 
would even go hungry to pay teachers for their pupils, should finally gain 
their own state and then neglect education in the dreadful way we witness 
today.

Se la vi. I still love my job, love my pupils and go to work with joy, 
however I am far from the starry eyed naive teacher of yesteryear.

Esther Revivo
Ulpanat Tzvia
Sedot Negev, Netivot


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