Parents take over for teachers (archives)
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Honoring teachers on 'Educators' Day'
For first time, education system marks day to raise awareness of roles filled by teachers, educators in hopes of improving their status. In Herzl elementary school in Bat-Yam, parents replace teachers while treating them to breakfast feast
The education system marked its first ever "Educators' Day" last Wednesday, in hopes of raising the public's awareness to the role played by teachers and educators, and improve their status.
The Education Ministry issued a range of suggestions of ways to mark the day to local authority heads, principals and kindergarten heads.
The day was held in the memory of Janusz Korczak, a doctor, author, and Jewish educator, who operated in the field of education from the year 1904, and founded and ran two orphanages in Poland, trained educators and founded a humanistic education approach.
Each educational institute was to decide on the most suitable activities for marking this day. Schools interested in further training were granted assistance in accordance to their needs, such as in-depth examination of the educator's role, getting the students and parents involved in honoring the teachers, studying the various aspects of Korczak's pedagogical principles, and more.
The Herzl elementary school in Bat-Yam came up with an original idea to show gratitude to its teachers on this day. Wednesday morning, the parents planned a surprised for the school's teachers. Armed with pies, eggs, cheese, breads and salads, the parents snuck into the school and at the 10 am recess took over for the teacher for an hour, allowing them to take a break and rest.
Ruti Mashiach, one of the mothers involved, said, "We decorated the teachers' lounge and prepared pastries. We want to give the teachers one day of pampering for all their hard work during the year. Therefore, we volunteered to make them breakfast.
"They invest in our children, and stay behind unconventional hours. We are certainly prepared for the task of replacing the teachers."
The school's principal, Sima Parmon said, "This is a very nice gesture. Recognition for the hard work put in is very important to the teachers."
Regarding the importance of this day in improving the teachers' status, Parmon was less optimistic. "There is still a very long way to go before the teachers' status is improved. We must make up for the past. Here at the school we are trying to improve the dialogue between parents and teachers, through various activities, and this may enable us to improve the situation slightly."
