Musings on Education to Uniqueness in a System that Tracks Pupils
Lior Avidan
Education is meant to be like a question mark - only then can it correspond to the definition of education. The moment it become "vocational" the question mark freezes and becomes a triple exclamation mark. Education then instantly becomes a craft rather than an art, a sweatshop for uneducated laborers denied the privilege of choice whose expectations have been crushed and dreams dulled.
That is truly one of the sadder parts of this story – these fellows have lost the ability to dream, the wings of these beautiful butterflies have been torn off. There are painfully countless children in Israel's socio-geographic periphery who were born into school tracking, grow up being tracked, and who are tracked to their deaths. They are born into a predetermined reality that dictates the paths of their lives from birth through all of life's meaningful crossroads – school, army, college and a family unit. Theirs is a world of constricting and restricting exclamation points that limit the range of exploration, of trial and error and, most of all, excludes the privilege of choice resulting from access to information and a sound and healthy self-image.
I would like to share a little of my school experience and personal encounter with vocational school with you. My time at school is a black hole of sorts, an emptiness of which I recall almost nothing. It is as though that period (a mere 12 years of my life) has been erased or never took place. I hardly have any memories of school, and those few I do carry are of several extremely negative events and one single positive one – yes one only – of my 4th grade teacher Rivka (she is also the only teacher whose name I recall), who gave me an affectionate smile when distributing reports at the end of the year. My father was present and basked in pleasure as Rivka's tired smiled flashed through her wrinkles while she praised the 90's and 100's I'd received in my report. Until then and ever since, I would not manage to elicit from myself the false efforts required to gratify the system. It goes without saying that I never again qualified for any smiles, tired or not. My only solace during elementary school was a tree that could be seen from my classroom window; I would dissolve into it, become consumed in daydreams and be healed. Had it not been for that tree, the giving tree, my loneliness would have been harder to bear by far.
Until high school. During high school no tree came to rescue me.
As an "transparent" child, I remember the alienating experience that accompanied my stay in the prison they called Amal B High School. Asphalt, more asphalt, and graffiti on the walls. I knew I had to stay away from the guys in the mechanics course because they were the toughest, 'hoodies, those lowest on the social Darwinism evolutionary path. I was in the electronics course – computers – at the top of the social pyramid, a big fish in a small pond. I recall being scared to death of the arsim and frechot [epithets equivalent to "spics"] who would hang out at the edge of the school lot with bored looks on their faces at recesses and during classes as well, openly smoking, loud and vulgar, passing the time. No teacher dared approach them, of course. I also recall the mechanics course workshop's Volkswagen Beetle, ripped to shreds; a symbol of rage, it was more of a punching bag or smoldering relic than a teaching aid.
I was, as I said, a transparent child and there are very many like me. It took me years to snap out of it, to grow and bloom, to have the scars – like saw marks on my beautiful branches – heal, to connect to the energies, talents, intellect and creativity in me. To realize, with my innermost feelings, that the many treasures I bear did not meet with the right resonance and were castrated and repressed - not intentionally but unwittingly, out of goodwill. The intentions were good but the WAZE went wacky and misdirected actions resulted in countless warped, mistaken and distorted outcomes. So much for vocational schools and many other educational issues – such as learning disabilities and the way they were managed. But this is a matter for a separate discussion.
On the other hand, there is also reverse tracking – by which I mean tracking for prestigious and desirable professions, such as medicine and law. For example, a boy coming from a comfortable background who chooses to study jewelry and metalwork is likely to have several hurdles of prejudice and resistance, both subjective and objective, to overcome before fulfilling his goal. The odds are that he will give up his dream to become a metalworker at some stage and perhaps indulge in making jewelry in his spare time as a private hobby. That is, sooner or later, he will be steamrolled by the reverse tracking process – the depiction of academia and specific professional domains as the lofty refuge of pure and esoteric knowledge directly handed down to the superior few. I recall, in this context, the late Professor Leibovitch's saying that in order to complete a university degree one had, at the most, to be a "book-carrying ass"...
Reverse tracking is also a painful reality, make no mistake about it. I recall a Rabbi Nachman story – "The exchange of the king's son with the son of a servant". Who is it that determines who is a king's son and who is a servant's son?! What determines this hierarchy and how many such exchanges take place in the world between my mission and my calling or, in simpler words, between my authentic desire and my actual employment and life situation?! How many of us are truly free people who respond to our heart's command without being distracted by the background noises of considerations of social status, image and stereotypes?! For the most part, we are not even aware of the exchanges with which we live because we have already been cast in the concrete mold of our "original landscape". A powerful template indeed...
There is a Hassidic saying: If a person can polish sapphires or become a baker, he should polish sapphires despite the fact that bread is more frequently consumed. That is, if a person holds a creation, a craft, or an art that he seeks to bring into the world yet he hesitates at forging his unique path in the world, he must dare and choose his unique path despite any considerations of income, prestige and social acceptance. By doing so he fulfills his true person, becomes a king's son once again, a truly free individual, and all of creation joins him in singing praise; this is because thanks to him, creation becomes more whole and harmonious, a polyphonic chorus of diversity. In order that this Utopia become a possibility, true equality of opportunity must be created. The educational system must encourage personal expression and cultivate the uniqueness of every human being – his wonderful gifts and personal qualities - as having been created in the divine image.
Lior Avidan, group facilitator, BaMachshava program, Memizrach Shemesh
