Don’t lie to our children
Op-ed: Lofty words can’t hide mediocre education system, embarrassing teacher salaries
Shana Tova to you, first grade students. I saw you on the first day of school, a little confused and lost, a little nervous, a little scared, and oblivious to the big words floating in the air above your heads. The mayor told you that you’re the future of our country, the principal said something about educational vision, and the teacher said you should sit quietly – yet in the midst of all that, nobody looked you straight in the eye and told you the truth.
As we’re currently in the midst of the month of repentance, we need to ask for your forgiveness at this time and admit that we’re lying to you. Kids, you would do well to listen, because this lie holds great meaning for you and you’ll be paying the price for it. It’s an old lie that is revived every year, when children like you step into first grade and are drawn into the education system without being told where they really are. So now is the time to admit it, and possibly ask for your forgiveness, even if we do not deserve it.
There is no educational vision in the State of Israel at this time. At most, the system hopes that you will make its way through it for 12 years and leave it with no harm done to you. The system also hopes that you won’t psychically harm yourselves, your friends, or your teachers too badly. Note that the system has no way of preventing this from happening; it did not come up with effective means to address the aggressors or the victims.
The education system would have liked to believe in excellence, because it’s more convenient that way and because this is proper these days, yet it does not possess the tools to cultivate the excellence in each and every one of you. It would be wonderful if you arrive with clear talents from home and parents who are able to invest great sums in developing these talents – that way, it will always be possible to boast of your accomplishments when inspectors visit the class and demand to see some achievements.
Yet if there’s a spark hidden in you that waits to be discovered, fanned, and ignited, it is highly doubtful whether anyone would notice it.
Future looks grim
After all, the people entrusted with your education, the same people who are supposed to instill in you respect for others, hunger for knowledge, and a desire for excellence, will have trouble believing they can actually do that this year too. In this day and age, this ability is measured, assessed, and rewarded mostly with money, and your excellence instructors, the teachers, earn such embarrassing salaries to the point where their economic existence is a sort of disaster in process.
This is also how the education system shows what it really thinks: The huge gap between the lofty words and lowly wages reflects social hypocrisy and growing indifference towards your education.
Had someone really cared, the system would recruit better people through higher salaries, and then we would be able to start talking about vision and excellence and all sorts of such important words. As long as the system does not do it, dear children, your only chance to grow as human beings, civilized people, and model citizens within this system hinges on your parents.
Most parents know this already, yet they are still unwilling to admit this to you. Their way of contending with this complex issue is simple: They identify breaches within the system and pay extra for better education than what it offers. They’re not telling you yet, but by the time you get older you’ll certainly notice who studied where, and why.
Had adults been truthful, they would tell you all of that and sum it up by saying that the system is mostly meant to produce mediocrity. Here and there it has islands of beauty, wonderful activity, passionate people, and proven success stories. Yet none of you has an equal chance of reaching such island of all places. You shall continue to make your way through the sea of mediocrity, children. This is all you can do, in the hopes of reaching a better place.
I would have liked to tell you that everything will be different in the coming year – that you will study more Jewish texts, that in fifth grade you will even study a little Arabic, that the “New Horizon” reform is picking up, that the new education minister is well familiar with his ministry’s bureaucracy, that your school had been painted white, and that they even found a budget for buying highlighters for your teacher, so this year she won’t have to buy them with her own money.
I would have liked to say all that, because just like many other adults I wish to paint your future in bright colors. Yet I can no longer do it.
The future looks rather grim and murky this year too, children. Do the best you can then. What we can offer you is mostly hope. As you will learn one of these days, hope is a sort of basic human feeling that is shared by those who cannot assume responsibly and bring change, and also by people who can bring change, but don’t want to.
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