Het belangrijkste onderwijsproject van Givat Haviva is Children Teaching Children. Wie de jeugd heeft, heeft immers de toekomst! Dit programma wordt vanuit Nederland door onze Stichting ondersteund.
Het project is opgezet in 1986 om via een dialoog wederzijds begrip te kweken. Het biedt een tweejarige cursus aan, voor leraren en leerlingen van de lagere klassen van Joodse en Arabische middelbare scholen. Per week besteden de deelnemende groepen met hun eigen leraar twee lesuren aan het project.
Thema’s binnen het project zijn:
- de plaats van het individu in de maatschappij
- de verhoudingen tussen de verschillende bevolkingsgroepen in Israël
- de relatie tussen Joden en Arabieren in de Staat Israël
- problemen met de eigen identiteit in verschillende culturele en nationale achtergronden
- vraagstukken rond puberteit en adolescentie.
Daarnaast ontmoeten Joodse en Arabische leerlingen elkaar een paar keer per jaar op de Campus van Givat Haviva. Samen met hun eigen leraren en begeleid door coördinatoren van Givat Haviva.
Het project stelt hoge eisen aan de deelnemende leraren. Zij worden voorbereid op hun taak in onder andere een vierdaagse workshop op de campus. Daar ontmoeten zij veelal voor het eerst hun collega’s ‘van de overkant’. Zij volgen vaardigheidstrainingen waarbij gebruik gemaakt wordt van beeldende kunst en expressie.
Eens per twee weken bezoeken de coördinatoren van Givat Haviva de deelnemende scholen. Dan bespreken zij het verloop van het Kinderen leren Kinderen programma en zetten zij de te volgen koers uit. Door het intensieve en diepgaande karakter is dit programma een belangrijke pijler binnen Givat Haviva.
Dit schooljaar (2021-2022) nemen 10 Joodse en 10 Arabische scholen aan dit programma deel, waarvan twee paren door onze Stichting worden gesponsord.
Sinds het ontstaan hebben meer dan 30.000 leerlingen en leerkrachten aan dit programma deelgenomen.
Update programma 2018-2019 (in English):
For your information we have an update on two of the nine pairs participating in the CTC program 2018-2019:
Pair 1: Meiser School – The Democratic School of Pardes
Hanna Meiser School
Meiser School serves students from first to eighth grade from two Arab villages – Meiser and Umm-al-Qutuf. In total, the school has 422 students in 19 classes. The school also hosts teachers from the Kibbutzim Seminar in Tel Aviv as student teachers with the first to third grade classes. One of Meiser’s unique aspects is its status as a “green school”, under which the school teaches science as relating to sustainability and stresses personal environmental responsibility, including classes taking turns being in charge of cleaning the schoolyard. It also prioritizes shared life between Jews and Arabs with integrative programs bringing students together with Jewish peers from elementary grades on.
The Democratic School of Pardes Hanna
The Democratic School of Pardes Hanna serves students from kindergarten to twelfth grade. In total the school has over 500 students with five sections divided by age. This school’s unique strengths include providing each student with a personal mentor who supports him or her and helps build their class schedule. Math, English and Hebrew are the only mandatory subjects. All of the other offered classes are optional, which allows students to craft their own unique schedule in accordance with their interests. Some of the most popular classes include theater and robotics. There is also an open space for free study periods. Student life is rich and focused on participation, as students have a considerable amount of control over decisions.
The 2018-2019 school year has just begun. The groups from both schools began with 4 uni-national preparation meetings each, in which they prepared for the binational encounter by exploring themes of personal and collective identity, values, the importance of Arab-Jewish encounters personally and regionally, and expressed their expectations and any fears about the upcoming meeting. The first bi-national encounter was held with 50 students on October 21, at the Gallery of Palestinian Culture in nearby Um El-Kutuf. The children participated in experiential activities, got to know each other, and learned about the history of the area. They will continue to process their experiences in follow-up uni-national meetings, as well as to prepare for the coming binational encounters. (Pictures from the binational encounter below.)
Pair 2: Musheirfe Junior High School – Megiddo School
Musheirfe Junior High School
Musheirfe School opened in 2014 in an effort to increase retention of Musheirfe and Bayade students, who previously had to travel to school in another village. The effort succeeded, and the junior high is home to 280 students in ten regular and one special needs classes. The school building is new, and while lacking sufficient learning and outdoor spaces, the staff is experienced and to providing a warm and accepting home and optimal learning environment to support pupils through any social and emotional challenges to develop the independence and resilience to realize their personal potential in the context of strong social and religious values. The school makes a special effort to involve parents, viewing them as full partners and involving them in educational activities, discussions, and workshops, including a monthly workshop on parenting skills. The school also sponsors a number of special activities to develop responsibility, excellence and cooperation, of which CTC is one.
Megiddo School
Megiddo is a 6-year school that serves all of the Megiddo Regional Authority, with about 1,200 students. As a kibbutz movement affiliated school that was founded and for years was under Hashomer Hatzair, youth movements are very active and the curriculum and extracurricular programs feature many special areas of study, such as art, robotics, and social issues, beginning from 7th grade. The school’s philosophy emphasizes education for ethics and social awareness to a degree that is rare in Israel, and their participation in CTC is part of this focus. Its facilities and offerings are richer than those of Musheirfe, and in the program, the Megiddo students share topics and activities with their peers, which they would not encounter otherwise.
The 2018-2019 school year has begun. The groups from both schools began with multiple uni-national meetings in preparation for their first binational encounter, which was held at the Megiddo School on Nov 14. (Pictures from the binational encounter below.) The Megiddo-Musheirfe CTC pair is in 9th grade and this is their second year together, so they are moving on to tackle some of the more complex and challenging topics. From last year’s emphasis on similarities, they are now looking more closely at their differences and examining feelings of personal and group identity. Even basic assumptions about what should be discussed are not necessarily shared; for example, the Jewish students, preoccupied with the conflict with Gaza, expected the Arab students to inform them on their perspective, which, at age 15, they were not prepared to do, nor do they hold a single, unified position. In addition to the topic at hand, the students renewed their acquaintance from the previous year, visited Megiddo’s robotics lab, and heard about the school’s robotics team, which everyone found fascinating.
