Like every beginning, the start of a new school year is often a time that carries mixed feelings for students and parents: anticipation and excitement, coupled with apprehension, especially ahead of big school transitions: entering a new preschool, starting first grade, middle school or high school.
This ambivalence is, of course, natural, given the importance attached to school as a hopeful path to self-fulfillment.
But there is another important, often overlooked, dimension of school. And that is its role as an agent of community-building.
In our country, school has always had a central role in bringing diverse people together in a shared public space, helping them connect to what is common and together create the rich and vibrant human mosaic that is Israel.
School, after all, is a place where we meet what is beyond us. A place where we meet a diversity of viewpoints, of lifestyles, and the full range of textures and colors of human beings living together. Most importantly, it is a place to exercise the skill of pausing to listen and really hear what is being said by someone else, even and especially when they are different from us.
President Isaac Herzog as a child. (credit: Courtesy of the Herzog family)The crisis gripping Israel these past months have highlighted how indispensable learning to listen, hear, and engage in conversation with each other is to us as a collective. Even, and especially, across big differences.
Opening up to the “other”
Being able to be open to the ‘other,’ to clear out space in our hearts to understand perspectives that are different than ours, are the fundamental building blocks of our joint society. And there is no better time to impart them than in childhood, and no more important responsibility for us as educators and parents.
I share my hope that during this new year, students find in their schools, whatever their affiliation, places of nurturance and support where they learn to be their best selves. But, equally important, where they learn to meet, hear and dialogue with the many shades of people with whom they share a country, a heritage, and a future.
As the first day of school approaches, I convey my best wishes to all the students, parents, teachers, and principals, and to everyone that comes together to create the beautiful social tapestries that are our school communities.
B’hatzlacha!
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