Forcing a “core curriculum” into hareidi-religious schools would be likely to have unintended consequences, warns Dr. Tzvi Zameret. Dr. Zameret, until recently the head of pedagogy in the Education Ministry, spoke in a weekend interview with Maariv.
“I think there’s no such thing as a core curriculum,” Zameret declared.
“Of course, hareidi students have to learn English and mathematics and one other science, but we cannot force them to learn new Hebrew literature, Zionist history, our civics books or Bible criticism,” he continued.
“I think that any force when it comes to this – like the force of the ‘melting pot’ back in the day – is dangerous,” he added.
What the government should do, he said, “is to force only the things regarding which there cannot be compromise: we cannot give in on learning a foreign language… But we have to know that we cannot force a different way of viewing the world.”
“I believe much more in the path of gradual, willing integration than in aggression, which extracts a price,” he concluded.