Amit

“We don’t call this place ‘school’ and don’t refer to ourselves as just teachers”

Amit Briness – “I started my career as a teacher in an ordinary school. Soon enough I understood that for many students the current education system in Israel just doesn’t fit.  As part of the Dror Israel movement, we established the Human, Nature and Society Educational Center in Karmiel, where I have been working as an educator for the last eight years.

“Although we are part of Israel’s official educational system, we are quite different and unique – with around 20 kids and four educators per class. We can operate this ratio thanks to our communal way of living: all of us, the educators, live on the nearby Kibbutz Eshbal.

“Our educating method is based on dialogue and discourse. The content is up to date and relevant to the society surrounding us. The system usually sends us kids who arrive feeling that they are failures. Our job is to make them understand that they are individuals who have the ability and skills to fulfill their dreams and aspirations.

“We are not a private school. Everyone can join us and there are no extra tuition fees. We try to make the classes as meaningful as possible, occasionally using project-based learning. We don’t hand out grades, choosing instead oral evaluation based on a dialogue with the protégé, concerning his/her behavior and learning projects. Numbers say nothing about how good you are as a human being.

“Our methods and values derive from the deep belief that valuable and meaningful education is the only way to fix and change our society.”