Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I thought I would share this with my ETNI friends. It is not so much about English teaching as it is about the time wasted in test preparation, but it might be a fun piece of writing (I'll give it a title and you can submit it to the ministry for approval) to use/analyze in a five or seven point class. Dear Principal X: I write in the spirit of dialogue that you invited at the beginning of the year. I write because I am troubled that my dear son Y does not seem to be fulfilling the simple assignment I have set out for him, which is, each day, to learn something and have fun. I asked him yesterday what he had learned in school, and his reply was "nothing." While this response is not surprising for a teenager, I did not allow the conversation to end there. As we discussed his day, he indicated that in math, the class was practicing for the Meitzav. They were practicing something that he has known a few years already. When I asked why they continue practicing something they know, he indicated that the teacher commented that when they can do it 100%, then they can move on. This troubles me on a number of levels. The first is that understanding of concepts in math is not correlated to perfect execution of those concepts. Indeed even very young children are capable of understanding advanced concepts, but at the same time are notorious for making mistakes in calculation. For me, it is much more important that my child learn the concepts of math, their interplay and their beauty, than that he be able to execute them perfectly every time. It is true that perfection comes with practice, but it must also be on a foundation of understanding. I have repeatedly gotten the impression that my son's math classes are less about understanding new concepts in math, and more about applying certain formulas in certain limited contexts, especially as they may appear on tests. While this may be easy to measure and grade, it does nothing to inspire a love of the subject and to cause students to want to learn more. Instead of building on a natural curiosity, it kills it. I am further troubled that valuable time that should be spent on learning new concepts is wasted on test preparation. The Meitzav, as its name implies, is intended to take a snapshot of the level of student achievement in a school. To waste time trying to prepare for it actually reduces the level of student achievement. This is time spent not learning something new. It also sends a very poor message about the priorities of the school. It says that the school cares more about how it looks to the ministry than how it serves its students. If the school would care more about how it serves its students than how it appears on an exam, student achievement would actually be greater and exam results higher. It is also highly disrespectful of the students and the parents. I send my dear son to school to learn and to enjoy learning. Instead of coming into an environment that respects those goals, he is asked to perform mind-numbing repetition of known concepts. Precious time is stolen from his life for nothing. He is too "good" and too respectful to walk out of class, but I wish he would. So on to the dialogue. What is your vision of the purpose of this school? How do the environment you create and the "teaching" that goes on contribute to this purpose? My vision is that school should be a place where students' curiosity is piqued and where the space is given to explore and develop a life-long love of learning. When this is achieved, students will continue learning outside of the classroom, and there will be no need to worry about how they will look on the Meitzav, because they will on their own have advanced beyond the basic level the Meitzav requires. Where it is not, students come to see school as a chore and a bore and a usually frustrating waste of their time. This is not how I would like my children to perceive school or to view the prospect of "learning." I look forward to your reply. Yours truly, David R. Herz drh16@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:davidrherz@xxxxxxxxx> davidrherz@xxxxxxxxx P.S. This was sent to the principal in a particularly broken Hebrew, assisted by Google. If anyone would like to help me come up with a more professional translation, I would like to submit this as a letter to the editor. ************************************** ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org ** post to list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** David Lloyd: ETNI founder & manager http://david.greenlloyd.com ***************************************