[etni] Re: Panel proposes ideas for stanching school dropout rate

To all of you who can read Hebrew, I highly recommend a book written by Einat 
Wilf and her mother Miri Wilf (a former teacher) called "Behazara leAlef-Bet". 
It tells the public what really goes on in schools, what the real everyday 
problems are and how little learning can take place. She claims that 
complaining about the teachers is not a solution and is not the point. If you 
give teachers the proper conditions to work in, most of them will do a good 
job. In the book she also makes practical suggestions as to how to put things 
right without increasing the budget and without setting up endless, completely 
useless comittees to tell us what we already know. Perhaps you should read the 
book and write to the minister to suggest that she read it too! If anyone does 
read it and has something to say to the author, please let me know and I will 
pass it on. 

In order to offset some of our frustrations, I also recommend a book (in 
English) called The Optimistic Jew by Tsvi Bisk (you can get it in Tsomet 
Sefarim and other places). His premise is that if we put our minds to it we, as 
individuals, can do a great deal to make things better. There is also a Russian 
version for those who prefer......
Have a great summer evryone - you deserve it.

Best,
Micaela Ziv  

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: sommer ben 
  To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 11:31 PM
  Subject: [etni] Re: Panel proposes ideas for stanching school dropout rate


        Michele is of course absolutely right.



         Classrooms of 40 students and chairs, 20 tables and a teacher teaching 
frontally with a b/w board are ( simply and stupidly in terms of immediate 
costs ) 'cheapest' of all.



        You justify it by saying that everybody deserves to be 'ioni' - in the 
academic stream.



        This is dishonest sophistry. 



        It's like saying everybody deserves a holiday in France, and then 
throwing them all off the white cliffs of Dover. Those who are natural or 
already good swimmers make it.







        A decent system would not have gutted the primary system with budget 
cuts - rather it would have spent money to make sure that any child who fell 
behind or had difficulties was helped while the educational gaps were just 
beginning and mostly fixable.  







         


       


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