[etni] [FWD: re: abusing the system
- From: ask@xxxxxxxx
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 06:30:02 -0700
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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: re: abusing the system
From: "linz" <linz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
It seems to me that at the main source of the problem here is the
pincipal.
Interestingly enough, Prof. Alice Shalvi wrote a commentary in last
week's
Jerusalem Post magazine on the Dovrat Report in which she expressed
hope
that this change will create teachers of more "moral probity". The
optimistic among us no doubt believe that many such teachers already
exist
and I too would subscribe to that belief. However, while Shalvi calls
for
change within the teaching force and the inspectorate, at no time does
she
mention the principals of the schools. The kind of story related by
"disillusioned teacher" is unfortunately not so rare. Until the
education
system in this country demands that principals must first of all be men
and
women of vision and virtue, have impeccable integrity and serve as a
personal example and inspiration to us all, have had the formal
training
to enable them to run a school both professionally and compassionately,
until then, there is little hope for the moral, cultural and social
future
of this counrty. There are very fine principals out there and I have
been
privileged to work and learn from quite a few of them. However,
unfortunately. too many so called "educational leaders" are "buddies"
of
the Rosh Moatza or some other notable in the education dept. of City
Hall.
Their professional credentials are dubious indeed.
One last word to you , the "disillusioned teacher". Don't give up. You
must
be devastated but the system needs you and it's those like you who can
really make a difference. You'll find the right climate to do it in.
Good Luck,
Lindsey Shapiro
Disillusioned Teacher wrote:
> 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????
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