Today, while strolling on my bicycle through Rothschild avenue in Tel Aviv, I discovered that a new art exhibition had just started: large white banners with the copy of three different pictures on each side are hanging from the trees above the alley: most of them are paintings, by Israeli artists, old and young, some from before the state foundation, such as Nachum Gutman. The pictures all have one common theme: Tel Aviv (for more information, see Tel Aviv's municipality website at: http://www.tlv100.co.il/HE/News/Pages/omanut_bashderot.aspx, in Hebrew, or: http://www.tlv100.co.il/EN/Pages/EngHome.aspx, in English; for more about contemporary art in Israel, see: http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/7070).
The sight of the the various pictures, which depict various places in Tel Aviv, filled me with joy. I asked myself why and here is the answer I found: because I recognized almost every place depicted and I saw pictures by artists whom I have known or do know personally.
If you happen to be in Tel Aviv in September, then by all means do stroll down Rothschild avenue, as well as Ben Gurion ave. Although life in Tel Aviv is not always easy and pleasant, it is a pleasure to see that we have so many fine artists and also so many beautiful places here in Tel Aviv.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
About schools and education in Israel
In Israel schools traditionally start on the 1st September. This is about the time when various newspaper articles are published about the catastrophic state of Israel's educational system. Public schools in Israel are indeed in deep trouble: classrooms are notoriously overcrowded, with an average of 32 pupils per classroom in high schools; school teachers are underpaid and too often they take advantage of their sick days; both my children, Ben and Elinor, have experienced repeatedly their teachers leaving in the middle of the school year, with temporary replacement teachers in between, which means constant readjustment. Nearly every year, the ministry of education makes new cuts in the number of teaching hours; last year, my daughter Elinor had a free day on Thursdays, due to the accumulation of such cuts. Parents feel helpless. This is also the reason why so many parents decide to take their child's education in their own hands and to found a private schools, such as the Kesem school, an environmental open school in the Jerusalem area, just to name one of them.
Although Israel spends more than most other countries on education, Israeli school children obtain very little personal attention from their classroom teachers. In secular schools, problem number one is the low discipline. Eventually, the pupils who do well at school do so mostly thanks to their parents' involvement and their financial investment in private teachers. As a result, the gap between school kids who are children of well educated or well off parents and those whose parents have little education and cannot afford providing their kids private lessons keeps growing.
The educational crisis has been going for years already. A retired school principle from the Afula area once explained me, while we were discussing the issue at a family dinner, that back in the 60s, when he was a high-school pupil, only about 30% of the children were aspiring to graduate and study at university, all the others would leave earlier to acquire a technical education or just started working; back then high schools were able to provide quality, since they were meant for the intellectual elite. Nowadays, high schools have been imposed the role of baby sitters; on top of it, they must provide equal chances for all. Since Israel basically is a state of immigrants from all over the world, this means supplying public school education not only to the children of well educated Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Haifa citizens, but also to children of Russian immigrants from Moscow, Kiev or Riga, to newly immigrated religious Yemenite Jews who know only biblical Hebrew; to the children of Ethiopian immigrants who have been living for years in impoverished communities and neglected by the authorities for various reasons and speak mostly Amharic; to the children of Arab Israeli citizens, either Muslim and Christians, to the Bedouins of the Negev desert and of Galilee; to children from poor peripheral settlements, such as Dimona or Beer Sheba. The Arab citizens in Israel have a school program of their own in Arabic. But there is more to this complex mosaic: the religious population - they also have public schools, the "khinukh mamlakhti dati".
Many in Israel are dissatisfied with the public school system. Over the last 10 years, more and more private schools have been created by various communities, both religious and secular, in order to provide a better education for their children according to their own beliefs: almost 30% of Israel's schoolchildren study in a private school; many of them are officially acknowledged by the Ministry of Education, although the ministry is far from encouraging this tendency. With more and more young Israeli citizens receiving education in a private institution, some people here are deeply concerned about the cohesion of the Israeli society in the future.
Although Israel spends more than most other countries on education, Israeli school children obtain very little personal attention from their classroom teachers. In secular schools, problem number one is the low discipline. Eventually, the pupils who do well at school do so mostly thanks to their parents' involvement and their financial investment in private teachers. As a result, the gap between school kids who are children of well educated or well off parents and those whose parents have little education and cannot afford providing their kids private lessons keeps growing.
The educational crisis has been going for years already. A retired school principle from the Afula area once explained me, while we were discussing the issue at a family dinner, that back in the 60s, when he was a high-school pupil, only about 30% of the children were aspiring to graduate and study at university, all the others would leave earlier to acquire a technical education or just started working; back then high schools were able to provide quality, since they were meant for the intellectual elite. Nowadays, high schools have been imposed the role of baby sitters; on top of it, they must provide equal chances for all. Since Israel basically is a state of immigrants from all over the world, this means supplying public school education not only to the children of well educated Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Haifa citizens, but also to children of Russian immigrants from Moscow, Kiev or Riga, to newly immigrated religious Yemenite Jews who know only biblical Hebrew; to the children of Ethiopian immigrants who have been living for years in impoverished communities and neglected by the authorities for various reasons and speak mostly Amharic; to the children of Arab Israeli citizens, either Muslim and Christians, to the Bedouins of the Negev desert and of Galilee; to children from poor peripheral settlements, such as Dimona or Beer Sheba. The Arab citizens in Israel have a school program of their own in Arabic. But there is more to this complex mosaic: the religious population - they also have public schools, the "khinukh mamlakhti dati".
Many in Israel are dissatisfied with the public school system. Over the last 10 years, more and more private schools have been created by various communities, both religious and secular, in order to provide a better education for their children according to their own beliefs: almost 30% of Israel's schoolchildren study in a private school; many of them are officially acknowledged by the Ministry of Education, although the ministry is far from encouraging this tendency. With more and more young Israeli citizens receiving education in a private institution, some people here are deeply concerned about the cohesion of the Israeli society in the future.
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