Education Rip-Off

Basic English words for "quiz-game" I made up for my high school students last year.

This is now the season when Israeli children return to school. For some it's the same old school but a different class/grade, and for others it's a new school completely. Israeli parents have a lot of choices in education styles and curriculum when choosing schools for their children. In most cities, towns and regions there are regular "state" or public schools, which aren't religious, state-religious and atzma'i-"independent," which are chareidi. In the religious sector, for boys there's also the Talmud Torah, which is charda"l, a "zionist chareidi" style of education.

In recent years men who left the chareidi way of life have protested very vehemently about how the curriculum in the chareidi schools left them at a terrible disadvantage in trying to learn a profession, study in a university and/or get a decent job. The curriculum in the chareidi boys schools only prepares them for yeshiva life. It's almost totally Talmud with very basic math. And in some schools the classes are taught in Yiddish, so that their Hebrew is sub-par. A neighbor of mine who left the chareidi world says that they aren't even taught to write basic compositions, just to memorize and recite. The norm in recent years in the chareidi world is for the husband to "learn" in a yeshiva full-time as a job, get a small stipend, and be supported by his wife. That's why in the girls schools, there is a general bagrut, matriculation curriculum, in which the girls learn math, English and other subjects on a level which allows them to study for a profession and get a good job/salary.

The newscasts about this problem, which I saw, left out the fact that it's not just former chareidim who  suffer from badly conceived curricula. When I taught English in yeshiva high schools I discovered that many of my students in the lowest/remedial groups weren't there because of a lack of innate ability. They hadn't failed the English entrance exam, because they had a serious learning problem. They failed because their parents had sent them to an elementary school that didn't teach English at all or just made it into a joke in order to claim they taught it. They certainly didn't teach it on the level that a state school, religious or not, demands. And many of the same students, otherwise good students and highly intelligent, had serious problems in math for the same reason. The parents of these children aren't chareidi. They just thought that the religious level would be higher in the "talmud Torah." But those same parents wanted their children to learn professions and even go to university as adults, so for high school, they looked for schools with bagrut, matriculation curricula.

Of course, no good yeshiva high school will take boys missing English and Math, and whatever school would accept them would have to put them in remedial groups. In most cases, the students never really catch up.

So, please do your children a favor. Use "backwards planning" when choosing an elementary school. First think of your child as an adult who will have to work and earn a living. Then think of the type of post-high school study and training needed for that, then the type of high school and then the best sort of elementary school to prepare him/her for that sort of education. And, yes, there are many good state-religious-torani elementary schools which do their best to prepare students for both a Torah observant life and a top university education.

Israeli Curriculum for Arabs in Jerusalem, A Pragmatic move?

Last night as I was observing Arab families shopping in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin, I couldn't help but notice how loving many of the fathers were towards their kids.  Suddenly I thought to myself:

"Would these fathers want their children killing themselves as a tool to murder Jews?"

Then I wondered if maybe I was just projecting my own love and value of life over ideology and hate.  Do the Arabs who promote terrorism and pass the evil onto their children shop in the Jewish-Israeli shopping center, Sha'ar Binyamin?  Do I meet, work with, serve a typical cross-section of Arabs or are these the less ideological, more pragmatic ones?

From body language and tones of voice, I can easily see many of the Arab parents admonishing their children to behave properly in the stores.  Many of the Arabs who shop in the Sha'ar Binyamin stores are forbidden to enter "Israel proper," sic, most of the State of Israel and nearby shopping/industrial areas like Mishor Adumim.  They need the right certification for that.

In the more than two and a half years since I began working in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin there seems to be a slight rise in the percentage of Arabs who speak Hebrew with me.  Prior to that I used mainly English and pantomime to help them select clothing to buy.  Having a good grasp of Hebrew is a key tool for getting good jobs and a good education for the Arabs here.  The Arabs lucky enough to be employed at even the Israeli Minimum Wage jobs in Rami Levy Discount Supermarket make more money than a qualified teacher in cities such as Jenin and Shechem.  I've had discussions with Arab English teachers who told me how little a teacher makes there.

So I'm not at all surprised to read that five Arab schools in Jerusalem are switching to the Israeli school curriculum.

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- The director of education in Jerusalem has urged families with schoolchildren in Jerusalem to be aware that at least five Palestinian schools are switching to Israeli education materials.
Sameer Jibril said the Ebin Rushd and Abdulla bin Hussain schools were using Israeli education materials in the seventh and eighth grades. The Sour Baher school is using them for fourth, fifth and sixth grades, and the Ibin Khaldoun school uses it for seventh graders.

There are Arabs who are ambitious for their children and want the best possible education for them. By following the Israeli curriculum, it'll be easier for the students in these schools can more easily get into universities and get better jobs. 

Another reason the schools are switching to the Israeli Curriculum is that they will have a larger budget and higher salaries if they become part of the Israeli system.

The Israeli municipality in Jerusalem offered to increase salaries for teachers and principals who agree to implement the plans in their schools, the official said. The proposal would add about 2,000 shekels (about $550) per student enrolled in schools using Israeli curricula.

As we all know, money speaks; money speaks very loudly.

Statistics show that Arab family size is shrinking.  Many Arab families do still indoctrinate their children to do everything to oppose the State of Israel and are dangers to us, but my gut feeling is that more and more are pragmatically accepting Israel and don't want Arab rule.  They are in touch with their family and friends in Arab countries and know how difficult life is there.  That's not the life they want.  I also see over and over that local Arabs take visiting friends and family members to Sha'ar Binyamin to go shopping.  It's one of the major "must-see" sights and experiences when visiting.  The Arabs come on "shopping tours,"  oohing and ahhing over what we have to sell.  I've been told more than once that our simple family clothing store reminds them of America.

I see a great irony in the fact that despite Israel's foolish (and dangerous) decision in 1967 to allow the Arab schools in Jerusalem to continue with Jordanian curriculum, it's due to the Arabs' needs that almost a half a century after the Six Days War they are adopting Israeli educational requirements. G-d willing it's a step in the slow but sure path to a true peace.