[etni] Re: Panel proposes ideas for stanching school dropout rate
- From: Micaela Ziv <zivmica@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: sommerbtch@xxxxxxxxxxx, etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:01:10 +0300
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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