Education Minister Naftali Bennett has managed to set two main goals for the education system since entering the ministry. Last year, it was strengthening the study of mathematics, but now the emphasis has shifted to bolstering the study of Judaism.
“Studying Judaism and excelling in it is more important to me than studying math and sciences,” Bennett said at a ceremony on Monday marking the 40th anniversary of the Tali Foundation, which funds Jewish enrichment studies in secular state schools.
“Even as a high-tech power that exports knowledge and innovation to the world, we must be a spiritual power and export spiritual knowledge to the world,” he said. “This is the next chapter in our Zionist vision. That’s how we’ll return to being a light unto the nations. From Zion shall come forth Torah and the word of God from Jerusalem.”
It is a simplistic viewpoint, that places the two worlds in a form of childish competition. It is not only a pedagogical mistake. These are deeper problems – which lower the status of the humanities and liberal and universalist values, while simultaneously strengthening Orthodox control of the secular schools.
Bennett is continuing what he sowed in the new civics textbook, which was an attempt to change the character of the official state educational system and imbue it with more religious motifs. While he demonstrates activism and intervention in the secular school system, the state religious and Haredi sectors, which are closer to the ideological and political world of the chairman of the Habayit Hayehudi party, continue to function as they see fit, without interference or intervention.
Bennett added that “no sector has a monopoly on Judaism.” That is an important recognition, which has been made in the past too, but has yet to be translated into actions and budgets. Orthodox groups receive 90 percent of the budget intended for Jewish identity activity in secular schools. Many of them are identified with Bennett’s party. Bennett has chosen not to deal with this anomaly, which is the responsibility of the Education Ministry’s “Torah Culture Branch,” that supervises the teaching of Judaism in the secular state school system.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.741950Bennett did not provide details about the “spiritual knowledge” that needs to be exported to the world – a superficial, arrogant and isolationist statement in its own right – and how the desire to serve as a “light unto the nations” fits in with, for example, the broad criticism around the world of the occupation.
But from what we have seen – the civics textbook, which puts emphasis on the religious dimension over the democratic one, the broad plan to significantly strengthen the study of Judaism, and the increase in the budgets for the “Masa Yisraeli” program and the centers for deepening Jewish identity – we can learn what is missing. First and foremost it is the world of the humanities, which has suffered from devastating neglect for many years.
The humanities are based, among other things, on casting doubt. Similar to all universal principles, they bear a message of equality. These principles have no place in the educational-political vision Bennett is promoting.
[Source:- Haartez]
