The last time I graded a student's paper was 1974, in a run-down school on the central California coast. I remember that my ancient desk teetered from age, a hundred scratches and dents in its wooden legs from dozens of school janitors cleaning up after class. The old blotter was stained and nearly worn through, one part even more discolored and thinning where past teachers' right elbows had rested on the green covering. I could see them sitting where I was now, red pencils clicking against their teeth, watching the last fall leaves blowing outside the windows after the kids had left for home.
As a substitute teacher, the paperwork could be as light or involved as you wanted. I liked to keep it unusual, which meant picking a subject or assignment completely outside the curriculum the youngsters were studying. Changes like this drove their regular teachers crazy, but the break in continuity sometimes kicked the children out of their rut so that they actually enjoyed learning for a change.
And therein lays the universal problem of state-sponsored education in providing an atmosphere where children can learn. The combination of "state" and "education" is something that I contend is an oxymoron, as many Israeli parents are beginning to find out now. For reminding me of this contradiction as well as old times, I wish to thank the esteemed education minister, Yuli Tamir.
Not only has Minister Tamir managed to antagonize whole sections of the population by redrawing the textbook boundaries of Israel in favor of the Arab Palestinians, but she is now blaming her own department's inefficiencies on a hapless economist and Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson. She seems to have forgotten one of the primary laws of thermodynamics, that your budget goes down as the public heat goes up, especially when your caterwauls embarrass the suits holding your purse strings.
But Tamir certainly hasn't forgotten the old diversion of blaming the messenger. Poor Dan Ben-David, he should've expected this public flailing when he innocently proved in 2000 that the national education budget was a monetary black hole. Six years later, he is still right, but, like most bean-counters, he hasn't a clue why it occurs, just that the hole exists. Meanwhile, Madame Tamir uses him as a foil against the finance minister, blaming Ben-David for the cuts that naturally grew from his pronouncements, even while asserting that her department's machinations are so complex that they defy analysis by anyone else but her cronies. At the same time Tamir's demands for more money increase, student achievement falls - even in areas that are getting more funds. Sounds logical to me - not.
It is a given that Jewish families are enamored with education, and I don't doubt that the people who set up the Israeli learning system had the best of intentions, most of them anyway. As the beast grew in size and demands, however, good intentions became social engineering, secular propaganda and forced attendance. Taxes increased, yet the students became less interested in what learning still takes place and input from parents was less tolerated. Problems worsened as the state's funding lessened, supposedly because the system needs more careful management. In actuality, some politicians didn't want to be seen as pounding sand down a rat hole. When all else fails, slash and burn the other guy's budget.
Overall, Dan Ben-David may not understand how institutions inevitably become locust hordes, but one doesn't need a degree to understand why it happens. It's a process of the natural accumulation of power. Size matters in government, particularly for the employment prospects of anyone who controls money-flow. Unfortunately, redistributing the wealth through top-down government management has never worked; but what ultimately counts with these bureaucrats is the power to influence children without parental consent, at the point of a gun if needed. Where the money goes is secondary.
Is it any wonder that more adults are keeping their kids home these days and providing their own form of education?
Actually, that may be part of the solution, though I'm sure some parents will play duck-and-cover when the idea of home-schooling is mentioned. Many families have a legitimate concern about how they'd devote time to teaching their kids while earning a living. Two incomes can be almost a necessity in Israel, just as it can be in the US. But who's the real priority here if not the children?
The truth is that the present systematized government schools were originally invented to instill social controls, not education, while teachers teach and children learn in spite of the regimented school system. Kids learn by exposure to a subject, then they spiral outward along expanding lines of interest, bouncing enthusiastically from one subject to the next. Breaking chains of thought and interest with bells, periods, and humdrum adults more concerned with control than teaching just disrupts the children's inherent ability to learn. After several years inside the system, students just want to survive the day by parroting what they think the teacher wants. Schooling at home can solve these problems, as it did for my kids.
From a strictly financial point of view, is paying taxes for a school you have little influence over really the ideal way to educate your child? The modern concept of state-sponsored education has only been around for a couple of centuries, and was so unsuccessful at the outset that it took army bayonets to finally establish it in many countries. Privately-funded schools, with teachers hired by locals or volunteer teachers from the community or clergy, have had a much better record than tax-financed schools and still do. If home-schooling is not for you, then forming a private school with other parents would be a great alternative, as it still lets you control funding and curriculum.
Yes, there are some legal and monetary hurdles to contend with. The success of home-schooling and private school movements in other countries, however, shows that parents can take back control of their children when enough people stand up and pull their kids from the system.
If nothing else, it would be worth seeing shekel-vampires like Minister Tamir looking for a real job instead of whining and sucking the public coffers dry.
As a substitute teacher, the paperwork could be as light or involved as you wanted. I liked to keep it unusual, which meant picking a subject or assignment completely outside the curriculum the youngsters were studying. Changes like this drove their regular teachers crazy, but the break in continuity sometimes kicked the children out of their rut so that they actually enjoyed learning for a change.
And therein lays the universal problem of state-sponsored education in providing an atmosphere where children can learn. The combination of "state" and "education" is something that I contend is an oxymoron, as many Israeli parents are beginning to find out now. For reminding me of this contradiction as well as old times, I wish to thank the esteemed education minister, Yuli Tamir.
Not only has Minister Tamir managed to antagonize whole sections of the population by redrawing the textbook boundaries of Israel in favor of the Arab Palestinians, but she is now blaming her own department's inefficiencies on a hapless economist and Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson. She seems to have forgotten one of the primary laws of thermodynamics, that your budget goes down as the public heat goes up, especially when your caterwauls embarrass the suits holding your purse strings.
But Tamir certainly hasn't forgotten the old diversion of blaming the messenger. Poor Dan Ben-David, he should've expected this public flailing when he innocently proved in 2000 that the national education budget was a monetary black hole. Six years later, he is still right, but, like most bean-counters, he hasn't a clue why it occurs, just that the hole exists. Meanwhile, Madame Tamir uses him as a foil against the finance minister, blaming Ben-David for the cuts that naturally grew from his pronouncements, even while asserting that her department's machinations are so complex that they defy analysis by anyone else but her cronies. At the same time Tamir's demands for more money increase, student achievement falls - even in areas that are getting more funds. Sounds logical to me - not.
It is a given that Jewish families are enamored with education, and I don't doubt that the people who set up the Israeli learning system had the best of intentions, most of them anyway. As the beast grew in size and demands, however, good intentions became social engineering, secular propaganda and forced attendance. Taxes increased, yet the students became less interested in what learning still takes place and input from parents was less tolerated. Problems worsened as the state's funding lessened, supposedly because the system needs more careful management. In actuality, some politicians didn't want to be seen as pounding sand down a rat hole. When all else fails, slash and burn the other guy's budget.
Overall, Dan Ben-David may not understand how institutions inevitably become locust hordes, but one doesn't need a degree to understand why it happens. It's a process of the natural accumulation of power. Size matters in government, particularly for the employment prospects of anyone who controls money-flow. Unfortunately, redistributing the wealth through top-down government management has never worked; but what ultimately counts with these bureaucrats is the power to influence children without parental consent, at the point of a gun if needed. Where the money goes is secondary.
Is it any wonder that more adults are keeping their kids home these days and providing their own form of education?
Actually, that may be part of the solution, though I'm sure some parents will play duck-and-cover when the idea of home-schooling is mentioned. Many families have a legitimate concern about how they'd devote time to teaching their kids while earning a living. Two incomes can be almost a necessity in Israel, just as it can be in the US. But who's the real priority here if not the children?
The truth is that the present systematized government schools were originally invented to instill social controls, not education, while teachers teach and children learn in spite of the regimented school system. Kids learn by exposure to a subject, then they spiral outward along expanding lines of interest, bouncing enthusiastically from one subject to the next. Breaking chains of thought and interest with bells, periods, and humdrum adults more concerned with control than teaching just disrupts the children's inherent ability to learn. After several years inside the system, students just want to survive the day by parroting what they think the teacher wants. Schooling at home can solve these problems, as it did for my kids.
From a strictly financial point of view, is paying taxes for a school you have little influence over really the ideal way to educate your child? The modern concept of state-sponsored education has only been around for a couple of centuries, and was so unsuccessful at the outset that it took army bayonets to finally establish it in many countries. Privately-funded schools, with teachers hired by locals or volunteer teachers from the community or clergy, have had a much better record than tax-financed schools and still do. If home-schooling is not for you, then forming a private school with other parents would be a great alternative, as it still lets you control funding and curriculum.
Yes, there are some legal and monetary hurdles to contend with. The success of home-schooling and private school movements in other countries, however, shows that parents can take back control of their children when enough people stand up and pull their kids from the system.
If nothing else, it would be worth seeing shekel-vampires like Minister Tamir looking for a real job instead of whining and sucking the public coffers dry.