Dear Education Minister Rabbi Shay Piron,
Happy Hanukkah.
I am writing, against popular opinion, to express my displeasure at your announcement regarding the shortening of summer vacation from school.
My complaints are not against shortening the vacation per se. What troubles me most is the motivation and the attitudes expressed in your announcement. I refer to the first two sentences of explanation of the summer school program, on the ministry website, which reflect your public statements on the subject. This comment, which should worry all responsible adults, is the premise that the Education Ministry is meant to take responsibility for Israel's children, in your words, "seven days a week, 24 hours a day."
Socialist parenting, sir, failed long ago. Children are the sole responsibility of their parents. Statements and attitudes such as yours are harmful to family life and to the children themselves, not to mention that they are populist and impossible to put into practice.
At school, teachers are seeing a gradual decrease in children's responsibility for their own actions. This moral degradation is all too visible in our parks, shops and movies. Ever rising levels of juvenile vandalism, crime, teenage pregnancies, as well as cyberbullying, highlight the nation's declining ability to "educate toward values."
And no matter how professional they are, school staff cannot possibly change this situation.
Yes, the ministry is responsible to offer educational experiences, as well as volunteering opportunities, vocational preparation and enrichment activities to Israel's children. However, these are simply services that the government must offer to the public. None of these can replace parents' responsibility for their children's ethical, moral and even educational development.
The responsibility to discipline our children rests with us, the parents. No matter how many hours a child spends in school, the school situation is limited to the teaching of basic skills and facts that every child will need to become a productive adult, with the ability to hold down a job and hold her own in a conversation. School can reinforce morals and ethics by presenting the ethical sides of historical issues and current events. The staff will do a far better job of encouraging the children to think morally if issues that take place on school grounds are dealt with in an educational manner, with supervision, discussion and teachers modeling their own moral choices.
But none of this can change the fact that for a child to develop a true moral identity, his parents and family have to make it undeniably clear that "the buck stops here." Children have to know that their parents are responsible for them, and that the children are accountable to their parents, 24/7. Parents (or their replacements when there is no other choice) must know that they are the only people who can give true, unconditional love -- the foundation upon which social demands are built. We disempower parents when our government even hints that the buck stops with some amorphous entity, which provides different faces and attitudes every year, and even within the year.
Parents must be given the support, encouragement, tools and the expectation that we are in charge of our children. Summer camps or summer school are the places to enhance, not create an ethical or kind generation. Hugs, consistency, rules, late-night conversations, shared meals and shared experiences over the course of years and decades -- those are the groundwork upon which choices and behaviors can be taught and required. The government must not attempt to take away from parents, or even hint that parents can abdicate these jobs and leave them to hired hands to do in their stead.
The ministry must recognize that how we parents fill our children's free time reflects upon our moral fiber. Choosing from educational and extracurricular options offered by public and private organizations serves as yet another opportunity to model intelligent and healthy decision-making.
The ministry certainly should offer more programming, possibly during every school vacation, but the choice of what programming is appropriate for each individual child must be made by each family, in keeping with its deep understanding of each child, his wants, interests and needs.
The ministry's presentation of new educational programming cannot be "educating around the clock," as that is solely, legally and morally the parents' job. The motto should be, in keeping with the ministry's true responsibility, "to offer well-planned, pedagogically sound, goal-based opportunities to further the education that we, the nation of parents, want for our children."
Chana Rosenfelder is a wife and mother, remedial teacher, case manager for special-needs children, and community activist.
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