The start of a new school year offers an opportunity to evaluate the education system's pluses and minuses and set some innovative goals that are within reason. Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar and the ministry's Director-General Dr. Shimshon Shoshani can claim some achievements. The New Horizon reform ushered in some welcome changes, while other positive developments include a strengthened periphery, a school year kicking off without a teachers' strike, a curriculum that emphasizes Zionist and nationalist values, including student trips throughout the country, and the teaching of the national anthem. Discrimination against Ethiopian students, the second-class status of girls in the ultra-Orthodox school system and - worst of all - the absence of a uniform core curriculum are among Sa'ar and Shoshani's prominent deficits. More than anything, what our education system needs is an emphasis on individual effort and self-determination. The last few decades have been characterized by a message that has diluted the individual's commitment to his or her's surrounding community, society, nation and public. Human and Jewish values have been replaced by the mottos: "I'm entitled to it," or "I'm owed something." More and more, the common student places responsibility for poor results on someone else - a parent or a teacher - and there will always be a father around to threaten a teacher who does not respond to his sweet child's every demand. The system's achievements must be preserved and recognized, yet the overall spirit needs to change. Each student must look out for him or herself and make an effort - the utmost effort. Each of them must strive to achieve not the best result (in any case, first place only goes to one person), but the best result that he or she can achieve using a combination of natural talent and utmost effort. This goal has a price that cannot be ignored. The student who does not fully live up to his or her potential, or is disappointed to discover that his or her friend's abilities are greater, might pay a personal price or require psychological intervention. This is not a trivial matter. In such rare and extreme cases, the public must help the student and prevent him or her from spiralling downward and allow him or her to continue on his path. No one disputes this. However, the main message needs to be one of effort that extends to math, gym and Bible studies. We must educate our youth with determination, avoid spoiling them and teach them to constantly strive to reach their goals even if they are not always attained. The world of yesteryear is also the world of tomorrow. The democratic West opposes theocracies, pure patriotism stands against personal fulfillment, the pursuit of justice and the willingness to fight for it face off against the injustice of piggish capitalism. Values struggle against the concept of "every man for himself." The Jewish people have prided themselves on two value systems: public assistance, compassion and mutual responsibility, on the one hand, and requiring each individual first and foremost to make an effort to achieve his or her goals before asking for public assistance. Rabbi Akiva expressed this by saying it is "Better to make yourself a simple Shabbat than to put yourself in need," or in the words of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, "Ask not, what your country can do for you. Ask what, you can do for your country." Some parents will surely be furious, as will some students. But Sa'ar could usher in a historic development if he sticks to the motto used by the elite Sayeret Matkal [General Staff Reconnaissance Unit] and that was coined by a British commando: "He who dares, wins."
