And do they know the Earth is round?

I was in the car listening to the radio tonight. During the news I heard Bennett, the Minister of Education, talk about his new English program. "Children in Israel need to learn spoken English... The ability to have a conversation in English is a necessity today... Our children will know how to speak English and not be afraid to open their mouths when they're overseas."  Later I heard other speakers discussing the program "A student can do a 5-point Bagrut in English and still not be able to speak." "Children need to speak a language before they learn to read it."

Bennett's quotes made the headlines, the interviewers sounded interested, but I think I've heard this before. Oh, right, I said it yesterday when I presented my English group to parents. And in the past to school principals. My motto "English is not just a subject in school, English is a language" basically sums it up. No, I'm not Galileo. Plenty of other people have discovered, researched and said all these things.  But now the top bureaucrat of education wants English to be taught as a language. This could get interesting.

The obvious question is - Will anything really change? Written English is so much simpler to teach. Students do exercises from a book and memorize vocabulary lists. Teachers prepare them for tests and then test them on the material they prepared. Tests can be graded quickly with numbers that go into a computer to be compared. Everyone can see which students are smarter and which schools are better. 

Now Bennett is talking about extra time for spoken English, debate clubs, oral exams. In other words noise, disagreements (maybe even political), no objective standards and all that extra time and effort! Teachers will need to learn new skills, and no one will be able to measure their success with standardized test scores. 

They will only have the satisfaction of hearing their students speak English and knowing that they made a difference in their lives.

Why bother?

Last week I attended the ETAI (English Teachers' Association of Israel) National Conference. In addition to the wide variety of lectures and workshops, we were given a chance to ask a panel, student-style, questions beginning with "Why bother". Most of us added "when..." such as "Why bother coming to a conference when we can meet online?" (short answer - the importance of face to face contact). Sometimes the most logical answer was "Don't bother", but one question really bothered me and I wish I had been able to answer -
     "Why bother having an English Day when my colleagues don't cooperate?"
Honestly, I barely see a connection between the two clauses (a word I picked up substituting in formal English classes). We don't have English Days for our colleagues, we have them for our students. English Day is a chance for students to have a positive experience in English,  and no matter what activities you choose they probably will learn something. It's a way to show them English as a spoken language and culture in a relaxed atmosphere. Whether they perform on stage, make crafts or play games, they will have achievements to remember that aren't graded.
It's unfortunate that there are teachers who aren't willing to put in the extra effort to do something special for their students, but don't let that stop you from doing your best.
Why bother teaching at all? Why bother preparing interesting activities, paying extra attention to students who are struggling as well as those who want to be challenged more, and making sure that everyone understands before you continue? If you do this to impress your colleagues, you will probably be disappointed by their reactions. But if you do everything you can to help your students, in the long run your efforts will pay off and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you made a difference.
And when your colleagues see this, they may decide in the future to join you.