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I thought I'd write about this, as I think it is a world precedent.
A few days ago almost a third of Israeli school students went on a strike against a newly proposed reform to the schooling system. The reform, among other things suggests lengthening school days and studying 5 days instead of 6, and suggests changing the length of vacations, mainly - severely shortening the summer break (2 months now) and the passover holiday (3 weeks). The new reform also suggests a school code which defines almost everything, but ignores completely such issues as the role of the student, the rights of the student and so on.
The students are also mostly angry that the national student's council is too weak and does not represent their voice, as they were completely left out of the committe which worked on the reform - infact the student's voice was completely unheard of in the preparation of this reform. And the student's council just lackeyd along without seriously peeping.
This reform is the largest yet in the Israeli education and is meant to improve both the quality of education and the state of schooling in general.
So what is so ground breaking about this strike?
It was organized completely by the students, without involvement of organizerd bodies such as the national student council. It was thought up and organized via the internet using a few web pages, and nation wide instant messaging and a whole array of SMS communication.
The ministry of education panicked and demanded punishing the strikers - which I think is pretty stupid.
The beauty is - that no official body stood behind this and this event happenned out of total "anarchy" using the new tools of electronic communications.
ICQ, MSN Messanger, SMS messages and a few ugly webpages is all it took to get almost a third of the students on strike. And it is not because the rest haven't heard - rather because they feared (justifiably) the school reprisal.
I think it is both dangerous (as this could potencially cause total anarchy eventually, as students go out of control) but also beautiful as it shows the power of inter-personal communication and the power the younger generation has - which it isn't afraid to use.
Your thoughts?
A few days ago almost a third of Israeli school students went on a strike against a newly proposed reform to the schooling system. The reform, among other things suggests lengthening school days and studying 5 days instead of 6, and suggests changing the length of vacations, mainly - severely shortening the summer break (2 months now) and the passover holiday (3 weeks). The new reform also suggests a school code which defines almost everything, but ignores completely such issues as the role of the student, the rights of the student and so on.
The students are also mostly angry that the national student's council is too weak and does not represent their voice, as they were completely left out of the committe which worked on the reform - infact the student's voice was completely unheard of in the preparation of this reform. And the student's council just lackeyd along without seriously peeping.
This reform is the largest yet in the Israeli education and is meant to improve both the quality of education and the state of schooling in general.
So what is so ground breaking about this strike?
It was organized completely by the students, without involvement of organizerd bodies such as the national student council. It was thought up and organized via the internet using a few web pages, and nation wide instant messaging and a whole array of SMS communication.
The ministry of education panicked and demanded punishing the strikers - which I think is pretty stupid.
The beauty is - that no official body stood behind this and this event happenned out of total "anarchy" using the new tools of electronic communications.
ICQ, MSN Messanger, SMS messages and a few ugly webpages is all it took to get almost a third of the students on strike. And it is not because the rest haven't heard - rather because they feared (justifiably) the school reprisal.
I think it is both dangerous (as this could potencially cause total anarchy eventually, as students go out of control) but also beautiful as it shows the power of inter-personal communication and the power the younger generation has - which it isn't afraid to use.
Your thoughts?
but for now, this is great news from Israel. Do you have a link to an english news article about it?
First day attendance was pretty sparse. Teachers crossed the line (like dont expect me to honor your pickets the next time YOU strike, Ms. American Federation of Teachers) Our hope was to get the attention of the city govt, bd of ed, and embarrass the school before the kids got too nervous about their grades. NYT and Daily News did stories. The News talked to us, and wrote an article that slanted our way/ The Times talked to the admin and wrote a statement that slanted THEIR way (newspaper of record my foot). Not enough to make real trouble for the school, not with so much else happening in the city. And not much time, these are kids who DONT want their grades to suffer.
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