by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.
A day with similar temperatures, about 2 years ago. It was frigid, as it is today. So cold smoke froze in the air. Click image for source.
When I went to bed last night it was -1 degree Celsius outside. This morning Montreal woke to a temperature of -23 with a wind chill factor of -36 and the news that it will stay that way, maybe even getting colder, until Monday. Cold as all get out.
It wasn’t easy getting started this morning, but now I’m in my classroom alone at my desk with a warm cup of green tea steaming in front of me. My students are about to start a Science exam in another room – it’s needed to graduate and all of the kids have failed it at least once already, some up to 4 times. But I didn’t teach them Science this year, so their Science teacher is with them while I have a few precious hours to myself in my classroom. Wow. That hasn’t happened since … hmmm … last term maybe?
So I am cherishing this time I have to clean my desk, organize my papers, and even update this blog during the day. Wow!
I teach Grade 10 English and Grade 11 English, so I have two sets of different written productions to go through and assess. I also teach Grade 11 Student in Society and I have their end of term written reflections to read and assess.
And of course, I need to prepare for the final History tutorial that will take place at 2:30 today because tomorrow morning Collin will have his precious classroom time while I invigilate a History exam that the students are all writing for at least the 2nd time, some for the 3rd, 4th, or more time. Not to mention begin preparing the Economics course that replaces the History course once the exam is written.
Is it end of term for you as well? How is it going for you?
Sometimes re-framing is a demolition job. It can be a lot of hard work. Image found on sheribarbre.blogspot.com. Click to view source.
I.
I try to teach my students to care. To care about each other and that, in order to do so, we need to go outside of ourselves. It is probably one of the more difficult things I try to do, and it isn’t always something I do explicitly. It is in our actions together, it is in hearing their stories when they are arguing or sad or hateful and then re-framing them to see them from the other’s perspective – because there is always an other in these stories.
…She’s such a …. I hate her, him, them. She, he, they think they are hot shit. If he doesn’t stop I’m going to have to get him. She thinks she’s all that just because she…
It is in trying to get them to talk to each other but more importantly to listen to each other. With some of my students, I get the sense that empathy, sharing, and caring are truly foreign to them and so I need to work all that much harder to re-frame their stories and push them toward a caring future.
II.
On January 7, 2009 8 Jewish women occupied the Israeli consulate in Toronto to put pressure on the Canadian Government to withdraw support from Israel. To show their disgust, their outrage at the ongoing assault against the people of Gaza. To show how abhorrent the idea is that Israel’s actions are being done in our name, in the name of Jews.
We are Jewish women, not in our name.
Shame on Canada, shame on Israel.
These are war crimes.
Not in our name.
III.
So why does this video remind me of my students? Or rather, lend me to think about them? My hope is that somehow my constant re-framing of stories will help to lead my students toward a future of questioning, of wondering why things are happening, and of trying to re-frame the stories that don’t sit right with them. I hope to see a student I taught in a video like this one day, trying to re-frame a story that isn’t right.
The attacks near the United Nations school really got to me.
Women at a United Nations school after fleeing their homes. Gaza residents faced severe power shortages and other deprivations. Photo: Mohammed Salem/Reuters. Click for source (NYTimes).
It is hard to write about what is going on in Israel and in Gaza. There is an assumption that because I am Jewish I am automatically pro-Israel in any situation. There is some guilt involved in speaking against Israel. But why is it that because I am Jewish I am intrinsically tied to a Jewish state? I can not be tied to what is going on now, in my name, in Israel and in Gaza. In order to keep my head high, in order to continue teaching with integrity, I must speak my voice against this violence. Against this wrongness, this desperate and utter wrongness.
âIf I am not for myself, who will be for me?
But if I am only for myself, what am I?
And if not now, when?â (Rabbi Hillel)
The Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians rejects the Israel governmentâs pretensions, which claim to be interested in peace with the Palestinian People. The negotiations with the Palestinian Authority of President Abbas have achieved nothing at all, and the colonization of 500,000 settlers and 600 checkpoints continue to function and even expand despite the treaties for the formation of the Palestine State.
The cease-fire by the HAMAS-led government during the past year — for 6 months — was respected in spite of the generally closed crossing points preventing the entry of food and medicines by either Israel or Egypt and in spite of the exchanges between the group Islamic Jihad and the Israel military. Previously, there has already been a unilateral cease-fire from HAMAS, over a 16-month period, as well.
The legally elected government of HAMAS is committed to a ceasefire that could be extended for 10 years with the further resolution of outstanding issues for the refugees and Jerusalem, as announced by HAMAS in the News York Times and the Washington Post. Israel and Egypt must leave open the crossing points into GAZA, to allow the necessities of life to enter. The major political parties in Israel have refused to respect the cease-fire of the past six months, supporting closing the border crossings. Israel has sabotaged the prospects for a cease-fire and peace with the Palestinians. The HAMAS-led government has agreed to end rocket attacks when the crossing points are opened.
With the refusal of Israel to negotiate a cease-fire it is now the responsibility of progressive Jews internationally and the Israeli Jewish opposition to voice our revulsion at the irresponsible and criminal leadership of many Jewish organizations such as the Canada-Israel Committee, Jewish National Fund and the Canadian Jewish Congress. The need for a Jewish voice of opposition to declare that Israel does not act in our name is urgent. Protests from Jewish organizations are multiplying internationally, affecting the Jewish communitiesâ consciousness. The eight brave Jewish women who occupied the Israel consulate in Toronto further exposed Israelâs brutal invasion of GAZA and broke through to the international media in the name the Jewish opposition.
Israel acts in contradiction to the Jewish Peopleâs will and interests.
We speak out now to denounce the intransigence of the State of Israel. We refuse its pretensions to be acting on behalf of Israeli civilians; it acts for the interests of the militarized State. By calling Israel the âJewish Stateâ the media is giving credibility to that power and does not differentiate between Zionist Israel and the Jewish communities internationally who do not have a vote in Israel.
Israel needs to release the Palestinian political prisoners if the Israeli soldier Shalit, held in Gaza, would be released. Currently there are 11,000 Palestinian prisoners.
It is not the Jewish People who are at war with the Palestinians, but rather the State of Israel and its allies internationally. We are in solidarity with the Arab and Islamic cultures who oppose the attacks from Israel.
While it is questionable that Israeli civilian towns are targeted, this does not explain the mass targeting of the Gazan population. So far, there are 800 deaths, averaging 54 per day, a systematic massacre. Eighty per cent of the Gazan population are refugees, expelled from Israel.
We call for an international organized Jewish revolt against the Zionist State of Israel, publicly rejecting its claims to speak for Jewish communities everywhere.
