[etni] [FWD: abusing the system]
- From: ask@xxxxxxxx
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 03:46:05 -0700
**** ETNI on the web http://www.etni.org.il http://www.etni.org ****
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: abusing the system
From: "Disillusioned Teacher" <disillusioned_teacher@xxxxxxxxx>
Dear All
I have an ethical question which I'd like to put before you. After
years of working as an English teacher, this year I felt obliged to
leave school as a result of a series of events which have left me
disillusioned and very pessimistic about the future of education in
this country.
To cut a long story short, I replaced a very 'vatik' coordinator last
year. I was astonished to find that she had been given 7 weekly
teaching hours to teach a 12th grade 3 point class, which she very soon
(unofficially) reduced to four, since some of the hours were late in the
day... We both taught 3 point students from the same home-room classes.
The day before the Oral Bagrut, my students complained to me that I was
being too hard on them. They claimed that the other class hadn't studied
any literature (we had!), nor had they done book reports (we had, and I
had told my students that those of them who hadn't done any would get
zero in the Oral Bagrut exam), and that the other students had been
told to prepare only four cue-cards. I checked this with students from
the other group (some of whom I had taught in the past) on the day of
the exam. Everything I had been told was completely true.
I informed the principal of this and urged him to choose some students
at random and check it out for himself. After some days he told me it
was true and we arranged a 'shimua'. It turned into a scathing personal
attack on me and at the end the principal declared that he thought we
should "lavo likrat" weaker students... One week later, at a general
teachers' meeting, he singled out this teacher as a "morah
mitstayenet". I did not give up and wrote a protocol of the meeting in
which I outlined the facts and recommended involving the inspectorate.
It was, of course, ignored. I then sent the school a fax asking merely
for acknowledgement of receipt of the protocol. I was called into the
principal's office and he told me that had no intention of
acknowledging the existence of the document. I talked to a person who
is well-versed in these affairs and was told that if I approached the
inspectorate, one of the results could well be the cancellation of the
class's English Bagrut exams .
This was something I was not prepared to risk...
So, I left with at least my integrity intact but with very little faith
in the education system. I have been offered a position in other
schools, but don't feel that I can, for the moment, be a part of the
system. My question to you all is: does this kind of thing happen in
other schools? What can be done to prevent this abuse of the system as
it currently exists?Any suggestions????
##### To send a message to the ETNI list email: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx #####
##### Send queries and questions to: ask@xxxxxxxx #####
Other related posts:
- » [etni] [FWD: abusing the system]
