education

Arthur Miller’s death was the occasion for almost universal praise. Critics and writers ignored Miller’s common intellectual malaise of hating his own country because it failed to practice an abstract ideal of perfect justice, while condoning and even supporting extremely repressive regimes because they mouthed the right slogans about human rights, self-determination, equality etc.

Israel claims to offer free education, but in fact parents pay not only once, but twice: high taxes finance a bloated educational bureaucracy, then poor teaching and various fees create a costly “gray education”. The recently published Dovrat Commission report attempts to solve these problems, but no mere administrative and technical reform can save a system whose failure is rooted in misguided objectives and a faulty ethos.

Some readers questioned the contention in my last column that Israeli academicians are largely responsible for inculcating an anti-market mind-set in elites.

For those who need further persuasion, allow me to provide several additional examples.