I have not yet gone out to see the burned spaces in the Jerusalem mountains, and I still have not been able to find a method of running a school during Corona.
I am a forester in the past and a Jerusalem manager in the present.
A combination not found every day, but suddenly I found myself jumping from thoughts from arena to arena about two weeks ago.
For about 14 years, I worked as a forester in the Jewish National Fund in this very area.
Mount Eitan, Mount of Pilots, Nahal Ksalon and the Forest of the Saints.
I participated in planting, pruning, thinning, care of planted forest and natural woods.
In the 1990s, a very significant process of change took place in forestry, and an approach of managing an Eretz-Israel forest appropriate to the conditions of the natural environment developed.
All the time, at every stage of the work, there was the "fire" in the background.
The types of trees, the distances between them, the height of the pruning, special care at the roadsides, the infrastructure of water pipes within the area.
Excision and excavation near built localities and facilities.
Along with fire drills, cases and reactions and contact with various factors found in the area.
The fire that happened about two weeks ago once again taught us what was known in advance.
You can not expect everything, you can not prepare for all the possibilities at once.
The wind regime, extreme dryness, and apparently malicious arson combined and caused a very severe result.
Thankfully there were no casualties, and thank God - the economic damage was also relatively low.
At the same time, the unexpected corona is also, like a fire erupting in the forest it raged again last month, and to our delight it seems that in recent days it has been halted again. This time it was the wave of people recovering or getting vaccinated who suddenly became infected, and became hospitalized in critical condition. The corona, with its variety of variants, moves and passes even when not seen. Just feel. And how to feel. Until you can breathe. The lungs are screaming for oxygen but something in the system is not working. The dangerous stage is the collapse of systems. I walked away from company, prayed alone and not in the minyan, I went into voluntary isolation.
As an individual I realized that the corona is here to surprise.
As a manager I realized last year how much I do not understand.
Recently I and my friends on the school's educational staff have been preparing for the next school year.
We completed the preparation of lesson plans, pedagogical approaches, curricula and most importantly - the preparation of alternatives.
What will happen?
How do we open the year?
How much will we meet outside and how inside a building?
What are the options for a staff member in isolation, and when will an entire class learn from a distance?
Prepare almost everything imaginable, and know that not everything can be anticipated.
Still, we in the educational staff know and feel that we must start a year as a series.
Must go out for a school year on time, along with reducing the possibility of infection.
A few meetings for Rosh Hashanah, a few words about Yom Kippur and another short meeting for Sukkot.
Must the meetings.
It is clear to us that the damage caused by the disconnection to students, parents and the educational staff can be very great and irreparable.
Personal conversation, excitement from discovery, the look in the eyes, the sound of the voice, a small smile - are the lifeblood of the educational act.
Let us breathe.
