Saved by The Bell

Angry people and employees going on strike.

On Tuesday, facebook and email groups, whatsapp and more were full of panicky "how will we travel... manage etc during the BIG STRIKE?" Schools, public transportation, museums, sick funds, government offices etc were all supposed to be closed on Wednesday.

I answered one of those requests about "How will we travel?" with "We'll know tomorrow." That's because after forty-five years in Israel, especially the last decade or so, I know that these strike threats are no more than negotiations tactics, especially when they are so early in the day.  Tuesday night I was at a friend's apartment in Jerusalem so I could easily get to Matan in the morning, and we had almost no doubt that the strike would be averted.

Nowadays, especially with a Likud Government of a very anorexic 61 MKs that does not want elections again, Bibi will order the government representatives to MAKE A DEAL! And that's what happened.

General public strike averted at the last moment

Illustration Photo Credit: Channel 2 News

It's not that the public agrees with the Workers Unions; today's Israelis refuse to be inconvenienced for even a second. And there's nothing more inconvenient than a strike. Just days after the kids went back to school after the long Chanukah vacation, the very last thing that parents want to deal with is finding their kids at home and all the logistics of trying to work and care for them simultaneously. Even more annoying than the public transportation being on strike is when teachers strike. And considering that the last Netanyahu government barely lasted a year, he does not want elections to be an annual tradition.

Bibi bought some peace for a bit, and we'll see what his opponents have up their sleeves next...

The Usual Political Blabbering

Officially the great accomplishment of the recent Israeli school strike was to reduce class size.


Class size went up drastically, when the budgeting was changed. The government used to give a set amount for a "class" of a certain number and up. Then it was changed as a payment "per student." So it's vital for the school to put as many students in a class as they can. Also, in schools like the one in which I teach, there's pressure to accept and hold onto negative (problematic and disruptive) students, because the schools need the money.

So, there's a very quick and easy way to reduce class size if Education Minister Tamir and her bureaucracy really wanted to. And there's a very simple recommendation that Irgun Morim, Teachers Union, head, Ron Erez, could make if he really wanted to help the students and teachers. Just go back to the old budgeting system.

According to an article in the Jerusalem Post, Tamir is promising to reduce class size in ten years! Ron Erez thinks that 7-8 would be a fine compromise. Here's what I sent to talkback:

It's all a joke. The kids in elementary school will be finished with high school by then. That's the loss of another generation.

That's what happens when you let politicians run things.

Does Anyone Care?

Israel just suffered its longest ever teachers strike, which closed many high schools for a couple of months. Teachers' salaries are extremely low. Considering that we teachers are expected to have university degrees, ironically, there's no way we can afford to send our own children to university. They have to work their way to cover tuition and expenses.

I presume that the university students, unable to study do to the ongoing, semester-long, strike of senior lecturers, are taking advantage of their time to earn money to cover their expenses. It looks like the semester is lost. Will the universities return all the money paid? It seems to me that nobody really cares.

Last week it was revealed, and not for the first time, that Peace Now is backed by foreigners, the same one who are working hard to establish an Arab Terror State in our Heartland. But the media is in cahoots, and all that they care about is stopping Jewish building in Jerusalem.

Show you care.

Simply Put--Israel's Longest Teachers Strike

Prime Minister Etrog Olmert finally met with Irgun Morim's Ran Erez. They lit the Chanukah Menorah together. They showed it on the TV news, but I couldn't find any pictures on Google.

One point for Olmert, since now Ran Erez can't say that Olmert refuses to meet him.

The government, which always claims it doesn't have enough money, has invested heavily in TV ads for the "reform." A young mother touts its praises, ending with:

"And now Dan's teacher will invest more/work
harder for him."

As an English EFL teacher, who teaches general grammar, because the general curriculum stinks, I find that ad highly offensive. It says that the "reform" will make the teachers work harder, meaning that under today's system they're not working hard enough.

Honestly, I don't think teachers will work harder once they realized that their pay has actually been reduced. And those who can't figure it out are too dumb to be good teachers. Teaching isn't a factory job.

I'm amazed at the amount of people who can't figure out what the government has offered. I guess my genes, as CPA's daughter, have kicked in on this:

Think of it this way.

• You're a photographer being paid $500- for five pictures a month, which is $100 per picture.


• Your boss says, I'm offering you more money, a raise in salary! You'll be getting $700 per month, but you have to give me nine pictures a month. "You take more than five pictures a month, so instead of throwing them out, I'll take four more." That means that each picture is now worth $76.66.

Now, for the big philosophical question:

Is this a raise in salary or a reduction?

Yes, you take take more than five pictures, and sometimes you sell them to others for $100 or more, but once you get only $76.66 per picture, your overall value will go down.

At first teachers were told that they'd have those "extra hours" in school for preparation, but then, it was clarified. Teachers would be required to use the hours for individual and small group tutoring and other required tasks. Also, those extra hours are mostly for "homeroom" teachers, known in Hebrew as מחנכים mechanchim, "educators." Subject teachers will not be allocated all the extra hours, and then due to the reduction in hourly pay, and insufficient need, their monthly salary will be reduced.

Fishtandei vu?

Comprendes?

Has this clarified anything for you?

thanks to na for pic info

Wasted Education Budget

Yesterday's workday was spent proctoring exams*, pre-tests for the Israeli English Bagrut, Matriculation Exams. There's a reason I wrote "exams" in the plural. To pass English, a student must take four separate exams.

That's right, not one, nor even two, and there are three levels, known by their previous titles, the 3 point, 4 point and 5 point. Students must pass three different written tests and one oral interview test. For the interview test, they must complete a research project, because half the points on the interview are based on the project.

It doesn't take much imagination to understand that a hefty part of our measly four hours a week instruction are spent preparing for these exams.

• In most schools, the work begins in the 11th grade, so we spend a year and a half on it, but that's not the budgetary problem, it's just the pedagogic one.


• The budgetary problem is that each written test is marked separately, not a cheap process,


• and students with Oral Testing accommodations require specially paid teachers,


• and the teachers doing the interview testing also get paid separately per student.
• Proctors who come to supervise the students being tested are also paid.


• Of course, some students redo tests and even test for more than one level.


• There are three testing seasons: winter, first summer and "second chance" summer.


• Don't forget there's lots more than English in the Israeli school curriculum!

Yes, all of this cost a lot of money... but it's for the students' benefit.

Only a few years ago, there was only one main testing season, the end of the school year in late May, early June. The winter testing was rarely used in schools, since testing, and its preparation, took up much too much class time. Most subjects were tested at the end of the 12th or 11th grades; generally one test, not more than two were given to 10th grade students, just to "break the ice."

Now both English and Mathematics are "modular." Students must pass a certain number of consecutive tests to have passed the subject matter. In Math, the curriculum requirements for the individual tests aren't connected, which makes things very complicated, if a student needs to go "up or down" in levels, like in the English 3, 4 and 5 points. English has A, B, C, D, E, F, G Exams and two levels of oral interview tests.

Are you confused?

The testing system resembles Frankenstein's monster on steroids, but a lot more expensive.

We teachers are struggling to teach our subjects, but we find ourselves mired in the testing system.

Instead of the eduction budget going to teaching, it's going into testing, proctoring, grading, etc. Instead of being able to invest our limited teaching hours in teaching the subject matter, we must prepare our students for the tests.

Unfortunately, the final result is that today's students fail yesterday's exams. The new systems, teaching methods and curriculum are inferior to the old. Even worse, today's new teachers are the products of the new methods. And here in Israel, the politicians insist that only new, freshly minted, academically trained teachers can improve matters.

So far, the news is that no agreement has been reached to end Israel's longest teachers strike. The government refuses to admit that they're offering a reduction in salary (the hourly wage,) and bli eyin haraa, he should remain strong, Irgun Morim Head, Ron Erez refuses to accept such an outrageous proposal.

*Even though I'm totally in favor of the strike, the union members in the school where I work have voted not to strike but to observe sanctions and restrictions in what we do besides actual classroom activities.