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The wake-up call before the bell: 12th graders talk about what really concerns the younger generation | Israel Today

2022-08-03T21:11:59.324Z


Four teenagers with a full belly about the schools • "The education system does not prepare enough for life" • "The politicians are disappointing" • "We also feel the cost of living"


They started high school taking classes only on Zoom, and they have a full stomach for the education system.

They are annoyed by the cost of living and disappointed by the politicians.

So what really concerns high school students?

"The goal of the education system is to give us tools to deal with life, but I go into life not prepared enough," says Ran Shai, 17 years old from Be'er Sheva, who will start his last year of schooling in the education system.

"I don't know what a mortgage is or what a paycheck looks like. A lot of students haven't acquired technological skills, we don't know what a healthy relationship is, or what happens to our bodies when we get older. The system needs to put a stronger emphasis on that."

In a year they will be wearing uniforms.

Enlisting in the BKOM (photographers have no connection to the news), photo: Yossi Zeliger

In a year they will put on uniforms, but in the meantime, they still have to finish the twelfth grade and their high school diplomas. The long and not always glorious journey in the education system and what they see around them arouses a lot of emotions in them. We met four opinionated teenagers: Liam Ariel Kotek from Herzliya, Ali Kadamani Mirka, Inab Kartsner from Kfar Adumim and Ran Shai from Be'er Sheva. The latter is also the chairman of the National Student and Youth Council, and it seems that the position requires: "It should be said that in recent years there has been an improvement, a process that the system is going through, there are more classes on everyday issues."

"It is impossible to spend so much time in the system without a load accumulating," says Enav, who studies at the creative Tzvia studio: "We have a lot of criticism, things I would change in the way I was treated over the years, in the material they taught us and in the way they taught us - subjects should have been taught certain in a more interesting way, which develops our thinking, to explore and not to memorize the material."

"You need to research and not memorize material."

High school students (archive), photo: Eyal Margolin Gini

Ali Kadamani, from the Druze High School for Sciences and Leadership in Arka, says: "I think the system does not work enough to bring together youth from different sectors, because in the end an education system is a system that is made up of different opinions and different populations. Personally, I would like to see more cooperation between Jewish and Arab students. In the end, the future of the country is the youth, if the relations between them are not good enough, the future of the country will be accordingly."

Liam from Herzliya adds: "I've been working for three years and I still don't understand my payslip, and that's information I'm missing. There's still no economics class as part of the curriculum, I'm not taught how to keep my money because it's very easy to lose everything."

"Working and bothered by the prices".

12th grade students, photo: Yehoshua Yosef

"The future is stressful"

With all the talk about money, it's impossible not to touch on the cost of living: "These are the feelings in everyone's homes - during the Corona period, not everyone worked, and the charges pile up. If I want to go to a cafe or a restaurant, it costs more. When you have to account for every time you want to go out From home with friends to a restaurant or a movie - it's stressful from what will happen in the future," says Liam.

Enav adds: "I work, but we, as teenagers, also feel the cost of living. Sometimes it's unpleasant to ask parents for money, you have to think twice about buying something or not." 

"You have to think twice every time you want to eat or go to the movies."

Cinema in Tel Aviv, photography: Yossi Zeliger

Ran: "A driving lesson today costs between 140 and 200 shekels, my license cost me more than 5,500 shekels in "damage" and I have friends who have reached 8,000 shekels. The most basic things are getting more expensive. Teenagers work more and even miss school, because They need to strengthen the house financially. I see it at home and with my friends." 

Ali: "I'm very upset about the gas prices. I was with my sister in the car and we stopped to fill up 'half a tank' and it cost her NIS 200, it's just terrible. I imagine what you have to do to go to work in a place that doesn't have good public transportation, you start your day with deficit".

Connection between notebook and computer

They are four opinionated teenagers, coming from the broad spectrum of Israeli society.

They still don't have the right to vote, but they remember well the last four elections.

Ran Shay describes: "We have reached a state of uncertainty, the politicians from all sides need to understand - we see what you are doing - and are upset with you, there is a lot of arguing and awkward language.

I would expect elected officials to set a personal example, the things they do reach the street as well." Enav adds: "It disturbs and frustrates us every time the country enters elections.

This causes the citizens to become groups and forget that we are one people." Ali says: "After every election that ends, another one comes.

It's sad because this money, two billion shekels, could have been invested in education, in our youth.

They are the children of Generation Z, they were born when smartphones and internet connection were a central part of our lives, and became an integral part of their growing up process.

And there are those who call them the "screen generation" and claim that they are superficial and self-centered.

"They know how to conduct themselves technologically better than our elders."

Generation Z (illustration), photo: Screen

"Obviously there is a gap, we come from different generations," explains Ran.

"The things I deal with are very far from the things my parents dealt with when they were my age. In the end, I know how to deal with technology better than the teacher and the parent, and it creates tension. We saw it in Corona when we faced teachers who didn't know how to open Zoom and we helped them. On the other hand, there are teachers who gave We have excellent tools to deal with technology. I think we need a connection between the notebook and the computer."

"The social networks don't manage me," says Ali, "it doesn't make me jealous either. The problem with the networks is that everything that is perfect is there. When teenagers see all their friends on the network happy and having a good time, they forget the less good parts - that they cry alone In the room - they leave it outside, and it can create depression. I think social networks are like a jungle and there are many animals - some cute, some dangerous. I prefer to take the good things."

"Bassa-sababa"

"Every generation has a stigma, and it turns out to be wrong," says Liam.

"The generation before us is also claimed to be a spoiled generation and that we are even more so. It may seem that we are superficial and constantly on social networks, but we use them. There are many network influencers who are leading important and amazing things on social issues - fighting a boycott, reducing gaps, donating for others. We They give things meaning."

"As teenagers, I think we are realistic. We know how to see the reality and that there is a problem here, the 'basa'. But we also see that there are many good things here, the 'good'."

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Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2022-08-03

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