I.          Let’s begin with the most notable aspect of Israeli history, its tumultuous foreign relations.  When Israel was reestablished in 1948, it was immediately attacked by six Arab armies.  This was only the first of seven wars it’s fought since then, the most recent being last summer’s war against Hizbullah.  This state of perpetual war has affected all aspects of Israeli society, including education.  While American students tend to enter college immediately after high school, Israelis between the ages of 18 and 21 don’t attend school at all; instead, they serve in the military.

          So instead of preparing students for college, as American schools do, Israeli schools help students acquire the skills they’ll need to survive in a hostile environment.  If they've been coddled as children, they won't be of much use in the military. In fact, they may not make it through the military alive.  Poorly-trained soldiers die in war.  So whereas American schools make special efforts to shelter students from any danger – in part to avoid lawsuits – schools in Israel take a more Darwinian approach, hardening students to the rigors of war. Field trips, especially, are more physically challenging.

          When I was twelve, I went on an educational “excursion” near Jerusalem.  We climbed a mountain, then walked around its peak on a foot-wide pathway.  On our right was a wall of rock; on our left was a thousand-foot drop into a valley strewn with boulders.  The path was one foot wide.  And we spent four hours hiking on that path.  Later that same day, I broke this finger (hold up finger) against a stone while trying to escape a leech-infested river.  Here I’m standing next to a landmine field at the Sea of Galilee (see picture below).  Dangerous?  Yes.

          Even in the classroom, teachers foster a state of anarchy promoting the survival of the fittest.  In my sixth-grade class, an in-class fight resulted in one student hurling a knife across the room, stabbing another student between the eyes.  He was never disciplined.  On a lighter note, I was once duct-taped into my chair by a fellow student in ninth grade, again during class, when a student debate over politics turned acrimonious.

II.       Then again, politics is an especially polarizing subject in Israel.  Even apart from the controversies fueled by over half a century of war, Israelis have harbored intense ideological beliefs since the early days of the Zionist movement, which brings us to a second major historical trend.

          Jewish immigration to what is now Israel intensified around the turn of the twentieth century, a consequence of renewed Russian anti-Semitism.  These years also witnessed the rise of a socialist regime in Russia.  Socialism was then a promising ideology, one which strongly attracted many East European Jewish intellectuals.  Widespread Jewish immigration from that region therefore transplanted socialist and collectivist attitudes to Israel.  Even today, Israeli culture is grounded in this socialist mentality.

          In Israeli schools, students reflect socialist attitudes by orienting themselves toward the class, rather than the individual student.  Teachers encourage and expect such collectivist behavior.  How is this done?  In socialism, economic wealth is equally distributed.  In Israeli schools, students' most important assets are also equally distributed.

          For example, during recess, when students eat, they share their lunches with everyone.  Food is a public, not a private good, and is consumed by the community, instead of the individual.  When I first attended school in Israel and refused to share my sumptuous desserts with my classmates, I was shunned.  I learned quickly.  Once, after my Bible teacher declared that my water bottle was “too full,” she confiscated it, and to equalize all students’ water supplies, she used it to water a plastic plant.

          But the belief that everyone should receive equal shares has more serious consequences for education.  During tests, students cheat to achieve equal grades, and are aided by teachers.  Once, when I refused to cheat on a test, my frustrated teacher gave me the correct answers and insisted that she wouldn't accept my test unless I wrote in the correct replies to achieve the proper grade. 

          And teachers’ socialist attitudes bring about, not just an equal distribution of grades, but an actual leveling of knowledge among students.  When my math teacher realized that I already knew algebra, she sent me outside to work in a garden, furrowing the soil and digging fish ponds, instead of studying math.  Since giving me additional math instruction would have put me ahead of the rest of the class, the teacher attempted to keep me at the same level as everyone else by preventing me from learning.  However, I foiled her plans and learned about gardening.

          Punishments are also equally distributed.  When my teacher impulsively resigned on my birthday because an egg-throwing celebration got out of hand, the class enthusiastically clamored for a collective punishment, so everyone could suffer equally.  Israeli students have truly internalized socialism, on a level much deeper than politics.

III.      As I've said, preparing students for military service became an objective of Israeli education over half a century of war.  And socialism, which originated in Europe and spread to Israel through immigration, provided the cultural foundations of Israel’s education system.  Other European concepts also found a place in Israeli education.  Chief among them – and the third historical trend I’ll be discussing – is a system of learning based on private tutors.  Over the years, it’s become entrenched in the education system and nearly replaced teachers as a means of teaching.

          In this tutor-based system, students learn primarily from private tutors, whom their parents hire to give individualized lessons at home.  At school, teachers are expected only to administer tests and discipline (although, as we’ve seen, they don’t provide much of the latter).  They’re not required to actually teach their subjects in depth – which is a real weakness in an education system.

          I’m not alone in my assessment.  David Gordon, a senior advisor to the Education Ministry, noted that “Any visitor to an Israeli high school is almost certain to hear a teacher say something like, ‘I don't deal with education, I'm only a teacher.’”  I can corroborate his claim, again from first-hand experience.  Once, at a school conference, my parents asked my geography teacher why she didn't teach geography.  She replied, “What do you think this is, America?  If you want your son to learn geography, go hire a private tutor!”

          But tutors are expensive, and few parents can afford more than one or two.  Only the wealthy can hire tutors in every subject, so the rich receive better grades.  And if students learn mostly from tutors at home, why go to school?  Many students frequently skip school, and the wealthier ones, who learn everything at home, go to school only to socialize, or attend their favorite classes. 

          For example, in high school, I sat next to the daughter of the publisher of the prominent Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz.  She had more private tutors than there were subjects taught in our school, and as a result, she often would come to school only on Fridays, when we had a five-hour-long art class.

          This is one of the more farcical aspects of Israeli education, but like all the other humorous experiences I’ve described, it has deep historical roots.  Indeed, the inimitability of Israeli schools stems from the three main historical forces that have molded the education system over its sixty-year lifespan: Continuous warfare requires that students prepare for the army in school.  Immigration provided Israel with a socialist approach to education.  The European tutor system, also transplanted through immigration, nearly eliminated teachers' responsibility to teach.  Thus Israeli education has been molded largely by forces that have little to do with education.

          And here's an effect of these forces:  If I were giving this speech in Israel, most of you would be just finishing your military service, or beginning your undergraduate studies.