Tuesday, September 1, 2009

the school year begins...

for the first time in... oh 20 years or so, I am not starting school with the rest of the population. its a strange feeling. most israeli schools opened today for the start of the 09-10 year, and its been a crazy mess here in Israel. those of you following the news know that immigrants from ethiopia were denied entrance to some israeli private schools, on the basis that they did not have a strong enough background for their grade schools. there were protests, saying that the exclusion was race-based and unfair. as of today some 48 or so ethiopian students have been allowed into private schools in petach tikvah.

that hasnt been the only problem. the education ministry decided it wanted to once and for all remove "nabka" from arab israeli school books. the term means "disaster", and is used by many israeli arabs/palastinians to refer to the creation of israel, and is "celebrated" (mourned?) on israel independence day. as a result, many arab teachers are threatening to go on strike if the ministry follows through. i personally side with the ministry on this one. if a national textbook encouraged ONLY a "disaster" day on the 4th of July, how would the us react? you are citizens of a country... you can agree or disagree, but you still need to learn at least both sides of the story.

on a personal level, today also marked the first day of mishpacton, or daycare, for Maya. she is going to an aunts, so its not like im leaving her with strangers.. but it was still kind of hard. its only a half day, so i will go soon to see how she did. it was nice to be able to run errands without lugging around the stroller or holding her... but i will be very glad to pick her up. ulpan is supposed to start sunday, so we will see how that goes. love you all, miss you all too

3 comments:

be'ershevaboheme6 said...

you mean nakbah right? not nabkah?

And I agree, children need to learn both sides, now if only we could get that point across to the schools in Gaza/West bank as well...

Batya said...

So you're both "going to school." good luck in ulpan; nothing's more important. I goofed it all those years ago, and my Hebrew isn't as good as it should be.

Lisa said...

thanks claire, the joy of mispellings....

i guess i am going back to school! the trend continues... i plan to learn hebrew as best as possible, though i worry its going to be hard. step by step