Here’s the “conventional wisdom” narrative most Israelis have accepted regarding
“the poor periphery.” You have to feel bad for the people stuck in the upper
Galilee or southern Negev. Far removed from life in “the center,” the people in
peripheral communities languish, living out their lives in small, broken-down
communities in dire need of everything that lacking resources to attract a
“higher quality” population. Shotgun efforts, like “development town” strategies
have done little or nothing to raise these communities’ standards of
living.
Meanwhile, the blue-collar jobs that were the life-force of many
of these communities have been steadily disappearing, with factories closing
down on a regular basis, and young people doing everything in their power to
escape to the center of the country, where the action is. Those who do get out
have a chance to live a decent middle-class life; those who don’t remain mired
in the mud, creating a multi-generational “cycle of poverty” that the best
efforts of the government have been unable to eradicate – and which gets more
embedded and severe each year.
That’s what many Israelis still think of
when they hear the term “periphery.” But the truth is that things have changed
drastically in recent years – hi-tech has replaced old-tech factories in many
towns and the high price of housing in the center of the country has encouraged
the development of new communities in heretofore obscure places. And, perhaps
most of all, the easier access to the Tel Aviv metropolitan area – thanks to the
expanded routes of Israel Railways and especially the expansion north and south
of the cross-Israel highway Road 6 – have put many more communities in the magic
“commuting zone,” turning places like Yokneam and Dimona from languishing
outposts to bedroom communities. With their lower-density (i.e., less crowded)
lifestyles and relatively cheaper housing prices, these new-old communities have
been revitalized by a younger population and new economic
opportunities.
If there has been anything that has been holding up real
development of the periphery, it’s been education – or a perception that
education in these communities is not as good as education in the Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem areas. As every parent knows, education in Israel is no bargain as it
is; everybody’s got their pet peeve. But you have more educational choices in
the center, and you also have more opportunity to make up for school’s
shortfalls, with endless after-school informal educational activities
(“chugim”), tutors galore, and access to libraries, cultural attractions,
etc.
Those are things the big city will always have over distant bedroom
communities, but now, thanks to World ORT, schools in Israel’s periphery will
have a big advantage over many schools in the center, one that could more than
make up for the other advantages schools in the center enjoy. Beginning this
year, in cooperation with various government ministries, the organization has
begun setting up the first 300 of an eventual 1,000 “smart classrooms” in
schools in the Negev and Galilee. The project, to be completed by 2013 at a
total cost of NIS 100 million (nearly $30 million), will turn previously
languorous classrooms into hotbeds of hi-tech activity – preparing kids for the
jobs of tomorrow, and making the communities those schools are located in
today’s hot real estate prospects.
So just what is a “smart classroom?”
In the Word-ORT project, it means equipping schools with the latest audiovisual
equipment, and a computerized workstation where the teacher’s desk once stood,
allowing instant access to online educational resources. Each student gets a
laptop, as well. And tying it all together is an electronic whiteboard, which
allows students and teachers to interact using computer programs that let
students manipulate letters, figures, and numbers to create, and especially to
learn. You can see a good example of a game designed for interactive classroom
whiteboard use at http://goo.gl/VXKnJ, all about what happens when you
administer the wrong blood type to a patient!
That smart classrooms help
students concentrate better and retain information more effectively is
well-documented. A study by Israel’s own Henrietta Szold Institute, which
specializes in behavioral research, determined that not only do students in
smart classrooms enjoy studies more and pay more attention to what they are
learning, but that there are also fewer discipline problems, with kids more
amenable to helping teachers keep the peace in class, instead of disrupting and
wasting the class’s energy on cleaning up behavioral messes. Obviously, if
students are less bored, they’ll be more likely to pay attention.
But
there’s more to smart classrooms than just keeping kids interested in the
material.
The jobs these kids are eventually going to end up doing – no
matter what the industry – are going to be very computerized, and are going to
require a high level of advanced education.
Nowadays, of course every kid
has a smart phone and is totally wired 24 hours a day, but for many, the hi-tech
experience begins and ends at SMS texting and Angry Birds-style games. Some
people believe that the ambidextrous use of hands and fingers in these pursuits
improves eye-hand coordination, but we all know just how much of a waste of time
Facebook really is. It seems to me that unless they make an effort to do so,
kids don’t necessarily see the hi-tech tools they are using as a gateway to the
future.
But in the smart classroom, they do. If these classrooms do
nothing else, they allow students the opportunity to see themselves as part of
“the stream” – the global village where things happen and the future is being
built – and not just residents of a “backwater.” A kid studying in a hi-tech
classroom can easily envision himself or herself working in a hi-tech startup.
NIS 100 million is a substantial investment, but the ROI (return on investment)
on that money will be far, far higher.