[etni] Fw: from Anonymous re genuine attempts at reform
- From: "Ask" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "Etni" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 23:12:01 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: ELEANOR ZWEBNER - eleanorz541@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: from Anonymous re genuine attempts at reform
Dear Anonymous,
Not being a fowl -- only in a foul mood - my feathers at least, have not
been ruffled by your comments. However, I think your name should clearly
be changed to Naive, not Anonymous.
I am a veteran -- this is the latest in several "reforms" that nothing
positive gets done. Although Shlomo Dovrat may have been sincere in his
ideas , I do not see it -- or today's reforms as a genuine attempt to do
more than squeeze teachers for more working hours at low pay.
First of all, the Histadrut reform IS the Dovrat recommendations with VERY
few cosmetic changes when dealing with the teachers. Not only wasn't a
single teacher on DOvrat's committee, there was not even a representative
fro m either teacher union. This says much about the regards in which
DOvrat and the Ministry under Livnat/Tirosh held teachers. They were not
considered worthy / acceptable partners to formulate the reform.
DOvrat's recommendations recognized changes needed in the school
infrastructure in order for the long school day which was the core of his
program -- to take place, Changes like workspace for teachers, bigger
lavatories (more teachers in the buildings all day at any given time) and
other. BIBI -- Finance Minister at the time, laughed and said that these
ideas were a fantasy. The program was built on a lie.
Today's REFORM takes only the teachers' contribution into account -- no
class reduction (Dovrat in his 300 pages mentions in one paragraph that it
is recommened to reduce class size to no greater than 35 ).
REAL reform : --
return the hours!
reduce class size!
Institute the long touted "long school day" which has been promised for 20
years (-- like moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem -- always dropped at the
last minute )!
change the teachers' ed programs so that the stdent teachers must do a
semester or a year of student teaching / an internship completely under
PAID guidance, instead of throwing inexperienced but motivated kids into
the water to sink or swim
Pay teachers GOOD salaries so that young people will be interested in
becoming teachers
Yes -- it is a knee-jerk reaction, because what is suggested is NOT a
reform -- it is abuse.
Anonymous wrote:
Whether we like it - or admit it - or not, the latest Reform (and the
Dovrat
one that came before) is a genuine attempt at restructuring teaching so as
to save education in this country. It rewards better teachers and does not
reward mediocrity. I said "genuine attempt" - I didn't say that they would
necessarily have worked. What the public sees, though, is teachers
rejecting
both reforms in a knee-jerk reaction. What the public sees is Ran Erez
who,
instead of handling the negotiations properly (and worrying about a strike
fund) talks about appealing to the UN. He does not have to rely on a
teacher's wage to make ends meet, as I do.
With apologies to those whose feathers I have ruffled.
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