<HTML>There is no question that Chinuch professionals are driven by a sense of
mission. I agree with previous statements that simply by raising a
teacher's salary by a few hundred dollars we will not solve what is
lacking. The issue is developing that sense of mission in our own students
to carry-on, the same way that we probably entered the field due to the
sense of purpose that was instilled in us by our teachers.
And that is where the financial issue does come back to haunt us. I have
had countless guidance sessions with my students about selecting careers
and majors and it is so frustrating to see so many who in theory would
have the drive to go into chinuch (and have the real internal l'shem
shamayim drive that would make them excellent!) but are scared off by the
fact that they fear they will not be able to make a living. This is
compounded by the "aliya factor" where my students fear that a career in
chinuch is not financially wise if they want to move to israel where the
language barrier would force them (in their eyes) to work only in the
seminary circuit where job opportunities are limited and pay is low.
For women students this can be compounded even more by the fact that many
return from Israel with a goal of marrying someone who will be devoting
serious amounts of time (at least in the early years of a marriage) to
learning/semicha/kollel/etc. - not to mention that kids are getting
married
younger and younger these days and the pressures on our women to get out
of college quickly and start working are so high. I could
go on and on about the general society pressure towards a goal-oriented
approach to education (liberal arts education for the sake of education
seems to be a dying ideal from what I understand from people in the
colleges) and the need to make money, etc.
Therefore what turns out is that those of us in career guidance have an
almost impossible task when it comes to trying to motivate students to
follow their natural talents and inner drive and become chinuch
professionals.
I think, therefore, that a more holistic approach needs to be taken - and
starting from a relatively early stage in our educational system. There is
no question that the burden must fall on the lay-leadership and school
boards to raise the necessary funds to be able to pay educators a salary
that is representative of the societal value we place (or should place) on
education. But that is only a first step. We must train our students to
almost "idolize" teachers and Jewish communal workers. Our shul Rabbi's
also deserve better (training children to walk out on the Rabbi's sermon
as an example of poor education, in my opinion). If we do this from when
they are in diapers, then perhaps we stand a better chance by the time our
students are selecting careers. Career guidance counselors and college
guidance people who are committed to funneling our brightest and our best
towards chinuch would also be a step in the right direction (how can we
expect the message to get across when most high school college guidance
counselors make the ivy leagues the goal and of course most parents and
society in general is pushing them that way).
In short, we have a lot to do to get the job done!
David Katz</HTML>
