[etni] Regarding Amotz Asa-El
- From: "Robert and Jodi Schenck" <rojo1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Etni" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 16:11:22 +0200
Dear Colleagues,
I am including a copy of the letter I sent Amotz Asa-El in response to his
dreadful article.
He wrote back, which I?m also including here, as well as my response to
that. Quite a day?s correspondence, for all the good it will do, I?m
afraid.
Hang in there all.
Jodi Schenck
Dear Sir,
As a veteran teacher of 17 years duration, with a BA from Northwestern
University (a ?Top Ten? University in the USA), who won the prize in 2007 as
High School English Teacher of the Year from the Education Ministry, and
earns 4500 shekels a month for full time employment, let me just take a
moment to clarify a few of the assumptions you recklessly hurl about in your
article.
The strike is not against Israel?s children, it will benefit them in the
long term. It is our children who suffer from overcrowded classrooms (41
kids in one of my classes, 39 in another etc.). In my district, the English
hours were cut from 6 per week down to as low as 3 in some classes. Native
Speaker classes are in danger of extinction in many parts of the country and
fresh, energetic young teachers are leaving the field in droves, if they
were foolish enough to enter it in the first place.
As a full time teacher who also has worked as a homeroom teacher and English
coordinator in my school to supplement my pitiful salary, I am expected to
be available until July 15th (the date of the Matriculation makeup exam) and
to return by August 15th for meetings. 4 weeks vacation (not 3 months) is
about what my husband gets in ?high tech?---but his work ends at the office.
I spend hours every night grading, preparing materials, speaking to
students/parents on the phone, attending meetings.
Lastly, regarding school holidays, although it may seem like we get an
exceptional amount of time off, according to the OECD (an international body
which compares the educational systems of more than 40 major countries
yearly) Israeli teachers work 42 weeks a year compared to 38 in England and
America. While many women go into teaching in order to work the hours their
kids are in school and to be available to their children when they are home,
our work does not end at the office, so to speak.
Contrary to the popular saying, ?those who can do, and those who can?t
teach?, I can and do many things?I am a playwright whose works have been
produced both here and abroad?however, I choose to devote myself to
improving the system from within, but it would be a lot easier and a whole
lot more effective with your support. Certainly the vast majority of
parents understand this as witnessed by their threat to remove their
children from school if we are forced back to school by court order.
I have actually witnessed a father tell his son who was failing one of my
colleague?s classes, ?Do you want end up a nothing, like your teacher??. Of
course a better salary isn?t a cure for all ills, but in a society where
wealth is oft times equated with success, few parents or students have
respect for a teacher who earns the same hourly wage as a teenage baby
sitter or dog walker.
As for the much vaunted Dovrat plan, although it had many good, if
implausible ideas, it was organized at considerable cost to the taxpayer
(the most conservative estimate was 3 million shekels) and included not one
single teacher on the panel! If you have not set foot in a classroom in the
last decade, you have no right making sweeping decisions that influence
those who do on a daily basis. One example of this is the much touted
?Reward for Merit?. A brilliant idea on paper, but in the nepotistic,
incestuous, self-serving world of school politics, giving over the decision
as to who ?merits? such rewards to school principals would be a boon for all
of the friends and sycophants of said individual and would serve none of the
really deserving ,hard working souls who don?t have time to waste fawning
over their school?s upper management as they are too busy teaching. I have
been inside those political battles as English coordinator of a staff of 11
teachers, and often as not the loudest or best connected teacher reaped the
benefits of her relationship with the principal, not the most talented or
innovative, and certainly never the newest or youngest.
I am certainly aware of the inconvenience of this strike, so too were the
airport, the hospitals or the port workers strikes, but we are not fighting
this for ourselves alone. We are doing this for the teachers, the students
and the system itself. Help us make school what it ought to be, a haven of
education and values, a place of real opportunity for all involved.
Thanks, and have a great rest of the week,
Jodi Schenck
The Guild Theatre?Ra?anana
PS Why don?t you suggest volunteering to the teens who are home---rather
than the mall, Israel?s injured soldiers would deeply appreciate someone to
read to them in Hebrew or English. I am sure there are myriad volunteer
opportunities out there for motivated youth.
Dear Jodi
With all due respect to the OECD's comparison charts, the fact is that
teachers here get in addition to July and August most of Nissan ? for Pessah
? as well a full week in Hanukkah, besides of course the High Holidays,
Purim, even Lag Ba'Omer. That's almost infinitely more than anyone else in
this economy, or any other for that matter.
As for your need to be available for meeting during some of this time,
surely you realize this does leave you with the rest of such a day readily
available for other productive activity, like writing plays. Moreover,
this strike includes the Junior High teachers. They don't prepare students
for matriculations and have the summer off fully.
Concerning Dovrat:
You yourself are saying that under the current system you face nepotism, so
you might as well lend an ear to the Dovrat Committee's management experts
who have a track record in building organizations where it does not exist.
Dear Amotz,
In your original article I felt you were perhaps uninformed or naïve, but I
am beginning to feel your answers are deliberately disingenuous if not
dismissive.
Regarding holidays, surely you know that in America, for example, teachers
are off for 3 weeks at Christmas, a week at Easter, Presidents Day, Martin
Luther King Day etc. Facts are still facts, Israeli teachers in High School
teach 4 weeks more than their American counterparts.
On the days that I have summer meetings I also have to drag my 8 year old
son with me, as I have no one to look after him, and on my salary, cannot
readily afford a babysitter, as she earns the same salary I do, and I don?t
get paid for those days, as they are inclusive in my much vaunted ?holiday?
pay. My play writing, along with many other enjoyable daily tasks, such as
laundry and speaking with my husband are accomplished around 2 a.m., after
my son is in bed and all of my schoolwork is done. I?m up at 6 to make the
bus to my job (as we actually need my 4500 a month to live on, I can?t
afford a car). I average about 4 hours a night, but thanks for trying to
help me arrange my daily schedule more efficiently.
I know nothing of Junior High, as I told you I?m an award winning High
School teacher, but truthfully, as you must know, the ?Irgun? represents, in
the vast majority, High School teachers, just as the ?Histadrut? represents
mostly elementary school teachers, which by the way, is why having the same
agreement for both is another silly idea of the Dovrat commission.
Finally, as to that august body, you failed to mention that the nepotism I
brought up relates to the ?meritocracy? idea, and that was just one of many
things wrong with the idealized, but unrealistic principles behind it.
Adding preparation hours at school, another Dovrat idea, again as in
America, is great, but not if there?s nowhere to work. Our teachers room
has no proper computers, no printer, and no privacy and 120 teachers are
supposed to all work there?
The Dovrat report was several hundred pages of Hebrew, and yet I waded
through it, hoping like many that it would be an answer to our prayers. At
least for the High School system it did nothing, and in certain instances,
more harm than good. I?m sure Dovrat?s designers ran great businesses, but
if the school system goes bust, we can?t just declare bankruptcy and pay our
students ten cents on the dollar, there?s a lot more at stake here.
In conclusion, rather than giving a chance to this well meaning but inept
attempt by businessmen to jury rig the already failing system, perhaps you
and others, might give an honest ear to those of us who do this every day,
and together, we might actually build something better for our children and
for those of us who teach them.
Have a lovely week,
Jodi Schenck
The Guild Theatre
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