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Haaretz
original article
Thu., January 07, 2010 Tevet 21, 5770 | Israel Time: 11:44 (EST+7)
Last update - 11:08 07/01/2010
Teacher of a lifetime
By Gideon Levy
There is a pedagogic poem in Tel Aviv; through the curtain of indifference
and darkness, a ray of light. In an educational system that provides only
grades and sterile surroundings, the encouragement of thinking is
prohibited. It's a place where teachers are mute and educators blind in the
stupefying brainwash of propaganda, evasion and ignorance in the curricula.
But a courageous voice has been heard: The principal of Aleph High School of
the Arts, Ram Cohen, called his 11th-graders to a meeting last week and gave
them a real civics lesson, a real education in values. Instead of the usual
blah-blah, cheap Zionism and cheaper democracy, cliches within hollow and
specious cliches, Cohen spoke the truth to his students.
Cohen told his students about the occupation. He told
them that you can't brutally crush values the way Israel has been doing for
42 years and say we are educating for democracy. He asked them whether they
would be willing to live under an occupation. He told them he does not
justify terror but understands what leads to attacks. He called on educators
to tell students that the occupation is cursed and called on students to
serve in an army that protects security, not an army busy with the
occupation.
"Talk to each other, talk to your parents, go out and demonstrate," he told
them, doing what any educator should do. But in the Israel of 2010,
nationalist and militarist, Cohen's remarks raised a storm. MKs called for
his dismissal, he was summoned for
"clarifications" in the Education Ministry and the Tel Aviv
municipality. He was not allowed to give interviews, which is outrageous in
and of itself.
Education Ministry Director General Shimshon Shoshani was also shocked. "A
principal who thinks he can preach has no place in the education system,"
said our "educator" No. 1, comparing Cohen's civics lesson to the incitement
preceding the death of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. "I'm not opposed to
lessons with the homeroom teacher discussing the occupation as a concept,"
the director general squirmed. "Let people speak out for and against. Are we looking at what is happening in the West Bank as
occupation?"
The true face of the education system as collaborating with the occupation
was suddenly revealed. The director general compares murderous incitement to
remarks about human values; he still dares question whether the West Bank is
under occupation. He still thinks there can be a "for" and "against" to the
occupation. An education system that reconciles itself to yeshiva heads who
preach nationalism and racism, rabbis who sanctify every stone in a land not
ours, teachers who advocate the continuation of settlements that have been
invalidated by international law - these are all proper and not considered
"political."
Teacher-propagandists who do not tell their students the whole truth about
our history, who think democracy means voting on election day, civics means
demonstrating for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, Zionism
means traveling to Auschwitz and values means taking part in a telethon for
the Israel Defense Forces' welfare fund are accepted by the heavy-handed
system. An educator who tries to infuse real content into his job is called
in for clarifications.
Principal Cohen once talked about how he came to change his positions: From
his home in Modi'in, every day he saw a long line of Palestinian laborers
heading home on foot after a hard day's work because they are not allowed on
the apartheid road. Should he not tell this to his students? Is it not only
his right, but also his obligation to do so? Is it not essential for his
students to see what is going on around them, not only to go on the March of
the Living wrapped in the national flag, but to see the march of our
neighbors' lives?
Cohen's high school has changed since the bygone days when I was a student
there. Under his leadership it has become a school of thinking children. As
opposed to his obeisant colleagues, Cohen has also come
out against the militarization of the schools and their classification by
the number of combat soldiers they produce for the IDF. In so
doing, he has also done his job.
One of the side benefits of reading Israeli newspapers is learning casually
mentioned facts which are well known in Israel but almost unknown outside of
Israel. Classifying schools by the number of combat troops they produce is
something we expect to read of having happened in Nazi Germany. It is like
giving out points for the number of Hitlerjungend. Welcome of Israel.
Cohen is a real teacher of a lifetime, "the country's best teacher" as the
cheap contest underway now is called, in which his name will certainly not
be mentioned. Instead of sending him a letter of appreciation he is
excoriated; instead of calling on all educators to follow his path, he is
summoned to give explanations. If we had had a few dozen more educators like
Cohen in our day, maybe we would not have had a Goldstone report.
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