[etni] Re: Re ETAI and other things
- From: Avi Tsur <tsuravi@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lev.abramov@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 07:26:00 +0300
Lev Shalom
I have known you for many years going back to the time that you were a teacher.
You most definately have a new approach and I am very open to new beginnings.
However, I have a very strong feeling that your fight is tainted with a lot of
bitterness which I am sure has its grounds for you. ETAI and ETNI over the
years have both served the teachers WELL and have been an uplifting source of
information, resources, contact, ... If teachers have had a grudge they always
had a place to vent their feelings and receive responses. I personally feel
that you have made your point and those who have agreed with you are much the
wiser as to what steps they can take.
We all have a right to be active in ETAI and on ETNI. If you do have so much to
say and do want to make a change, may I suggest that you join the ranks of the
profession. I, Avi, on a personal level, feel that it is not fitting to have
someone from the outside preaching to me.
In your final paragraph - "I wonder why I keep bothering you if you are all so
happy and everything is so good and all. Maybe starting a mailing list of my
own is not such a bad idea. Those who feel like fighting will join it. The rest
will continue talking and whining on ETNI, attending ETAI conferences - being
professionals. To each their own."
I do not think that the participants on ETNI are whiners and your choice of
words here is offensive. They have an opportunity to be heard, for the MOE to
read/see and hear them, and believe it or not, we do follow and give much
thought to what is happening in the field, what the teachers are going through.
Pedagogical changes to the new program have been made all along in light with
feedback from the field. I doubt if there is any other Inspectorate in the
World that is so attentive taking into account the feedback that is submitted
by the field. You and others are blind to this and unaware. You expect the MOE
and Dr. Judy Steiner to tell you evrything that is being done. EVERYTHING.
There are many teachers who are approached and can vouch for what I say. After
all, these are my colleagues and I/we care for our brethren (even though you
and others think otherwise).
Take care and all the best,
Avi
> Date: Sun, 23 May 2010 21:19:30 +0300
> Subject: [etni] Re ETAI and other things
> From: lev.abramov@xxxxxxxxx
> To: mggben@xxxxxxxxx
> CC: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Michele,
> you have not seen me at ETAI conferences for a while because I do not work
> for MOE anymore - since 2006, I only teach a group or two of college
> students.
>
> I can tell you why I feel so frustrated, so many years after leaving school
> teaching behind.
>
> Incomewise, there are two distinct categories of teachers: those who work
> for MOE because they need to pay the bills (the majority) - and those who
> keep themselves busy teaching rather than sitting at home and being bored.
> Familiar? Unfortunately, the latter category often determines the general
> approach towards the social struggle. They are often older; well dressed;
> bejeweled; with a status of a "senior teacher" (there is no such thing,
> right - but there is always a group of teachers in the team who invariably
> get the better classes; "all teachers are equal - but some are more equal")
> - no wonder that when one of these trendsetters says, while polishing her
> fingernail with a file, "What? How can you even think of quitting the
> Irgun/Histadrut/ETAI? It's a bad idea! I personally have been a member for
> many years - and I strongly advise you to stick to it!" - the younger,
> hungrier teachers feel discouraged to follow the thread, so to speak. They
> might not even realize that the "fat cats" simply don't care: their spouses
> make more than enough, or their parents have left them some money, so their
> own salaries are for pins. This erosion of the motivation to fight is the
> most outrageous part of the teachers room discourse.
>
> Needless to say, I sympathize with the former, much more numerous and much
> less privileged group, as I belonged to it during my career as a school
> teacher. I feel their pain. And all the things I've been writing to ETNI
> over the years (especially the later years - since I stopped teaching in
> school) are heated by the fire still burning inside me.
>
> There is no shortage of people willing to talk. To write letters. To post to
> mailing lists. To present at conferences. ETNI; ETAI; the unions... They all
> talk. And nothing changes. Classes do not get smaller, and salaries do not
> get larger.
>
> But when it comes to really doing something, making a statement, fighting
> for better wages and better working conditions of those teachers who have
> no-one to rely upon and no money but their meager salaries - all the talkers
> somehow go into the woodwork. And every time someone say "we need to do this
> or that in order to improve the situation," I always ask: who will bell the
> cat? And no-one says, "I will!"
>
> So I say, enough talking. Down with the talkers - they are useless. Time to
> fight. Time to shove those who only interfere with the fight out of the way.
> Time to get rid of the deadweight and get new leaders with a real agenda:
>
> - better wages
> - better working conditions
> - smaller classes
> - access to the decision-making process
> - real union representation
> - end the administration bullying
>
> Oh, where can we find these new leaders, ask you. Fire the unions and get
> the one you want - the one that will fight for you. I said it 7 years ago. I
> quit the Irgun 7 years ago. You are still feeding the talkers.
>
> I wonder why I keep bothering you if you are all so happy and everything is
> so good and all. Maybe starting a mailing list of my own is not such a bad
> idea. Those who feel like fighting will join it. The rest will continue
> talking and whining on ETNI, attending ETAI conferences - being
> professionals. To each their own.
>
> Looking forward to hearing from you.
>
> Lev
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 23, 2010 at 1:21 PM, Michele Ben <mggben@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > The support that the inspectorate supplies is:
> > 1) Encouraging teachers to attend conferences and mini-conferences for
> > their own support and professional development
> > and
> > 2) Help get venues for the above activities to take place.
> >
> > Lev, I haven't seen you at an ETAI conference in a while. Maybe come and
> > attend some of the sessions or give some before you decide to bash them as
> > you did in the final paragraph of your posting. You know that all sessions
> > are given by volunteers who invest their own time etc. in organizing the
> > session they give. You have given sessions in the past. Why did you give
> > sessions? To share your professionalism and ideas for working in the
> > classroom. And to hear feedback from those attending in order to develop
> > yourself. Everyone who gives a session does his or her best. People who
> > attend can come to a particular session or not. Everything is voluntary.
> > No politics are involved. No profit is made. It's beyond me why people on
> > this list have now decided to dump on ETAI to vent their frustrations. The
> > only "sin" people involved in ETAI have committed, whether they are on the
> > board or otherwise active in the organization, is to voluntarily give of
> > their own time, effort and knowledge and to share with others.
> >
>
>
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