Stewart: A Teacher's Perspective

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A few weeks ago, shortly after I wrote the post about how I was finally feeling happy and well adjusted here, I dreamt that I was back at work teaching. Usually these kinds of dreams are nightmares, at least they are for me. In one of the recurring ones, I’m standing in the hallway talking with my colleagues between classes when I suddenly realize that I’m completely naked. I desperately want a towel, but there’s nothing close by. This latest dream, however, was different. I felt a palpable sense of relief to be back at work. I was happy to be there. Perhaps I am still adjusting.

My only experience in the field of education is in the US, so I have been curious to see how schooling differs here. In some ways, the US and Israeli systems are very similar. The Israeli school year is ten months long with a two month summer break. School starts at the beginning of September and lets out at the end of June. There are differences, though. Probably the biggest is that Israeli kids go to school six days a week (Sunday - Friday). Another difference is the breaks. Because Israel is a Jewish state, the school calendar is determined by the Jewish holidays. Early fall has a lot of Jewish holidays, which gives a very different feel to the beginning of the school year. Over a twenty-three day period (September 13 - October 5) we celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot, Shmini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah. I made some calculations. The school year started September 2. In the first six weeks of school, there were thirty-six potential school days. (Remember, students go to school six days a week.) Of those, students were off thirteen days—more than two six-day school weeks. The constant disruption must make it difficult to break from the summer mindset and establish a school routine. I’m not suggesting that students go to school on any of the holidays, but it strikes me as a hard way to start the school year.

The big news in education here is the teachers’ strike. At this point it involves only middle and high schools, so Zach is not affected. After the fall holidays, secondary school students returned to the classroom Sunday, October 7. Their teachers walked off the job the following Wednesday, October 10 and haven’t been back since. As I write this the strike is in day 28. There are three main issues. The first is salary. Beginning teachers earn less than $10,000 per year, and twenty-year veterans take home only $18,000. These are post-tax figures, so the situation a bit better than it looks, but it’s still bleak. I’ve been teaching nine years and my take home pay is more than double that of the twenty-year veteran. And the cost of living seems every bit as high here as in the US, perhaps even higher. Class size is the second issue. Up to forty students can be assigned to a class. The third issue is class hours. The government sets the total number of instructional hours in the school year, and teachers are paid based on this total. In a budget cutting move some years back, the government trimmed eight hours of instruction time from each week. Teachers want this time back. I don’t believe it’s primarily about the money. Eight hours a week is a tremendous amount of instructional time to lose. I have also heard that the infrastructure in schools is deteriorating and discipline is a serious problem at the high school level. The whole situation makes me sad. Teachers in the US complain about the low pay and lack of status. The state of affairs here is much worse on both accounts. And the implications are frightening. This country has few natural resources. What it does have is the brains of its citizens. And right now it appears that government leaders have little appreciation of the importance of education.

During our first visit to Israel in the summer of 2002, we briefly considered moving here. We love the country, the people, the culture, the history, and the language. But I also love to teach. And that, I believe, would be the real nightmare here.

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