A grizzly bear in the field • A story from life ◄ Yitzhak Toito

Yitzhak Tuito - author of the book "Collecting gifts from the floor" • Stories

short brained

They pant, sweat and tear from the high effort.
And one tear.

There aren't many things that manage to blow fuses in my skull.
But one of the strongest of them is the definition of students
as 'those with special needs', 'children on the edge of the continuum', 'problematic'
Or a new and washed-up word that came in recently - 'complex'.
And all to justify the ongoing educational failure.
As if to say, we are not to blame - it is them.

So, until last summer I worked at a school.
A boarding high school for boys and girls in the suburb
of our city - Haifa.
And since it's my opinion I don't hesitate to voice it,
I very quickly became a 'complex' teacher.

Don't you follow the groove? Are you trying to get out of the square?
You are 'special needs'.
Or in the least severe case: 'He is no longer young, his time has passed.'

Fine, so be it, I'm doing mine.
I try to instill something in the future generation and hope
Let something be caught.

like what?

start of the academic year. The first of September
And as a physical education teacher, I am in my place, in the sports hall.
First physical education class with 9th graders.
just arrived New ones. Don't know the teachers yet.
And since we barely know each other,
Do a lot of posing.
Trying to make them a high place in the hierarchy.
human survival.
Darwin would have celebrated here.

And me? I tear them up.
Yes, yes, rips.
I have a fixed procedure for the first lesson for such.
Does not call names.

There are barely 45 minutes gross. Really cool.
I divide them into two groups and hold a group competition.
Both groups have the same task that they have to perform at the same time.
not an easy task. Hard effort, tearing.

And why is it in the first lesson?
Because that's how you can see in a few minutes
Who is the natural leader, who is the bully and who is trying to look like one.
Who's the cuter, who's the hotter... everything.
And since the task is a group one, they depend on each other
for success or loss.
Then, all screens fall
The truth is revealed and you can see everything.
And in all the hustle and bustle of the competition I follow.

Meerkat

I see each other's encouragement and help,
or the opposite.
What is the opposite?
For example, the nasty comments, the mockery are at least good and so on.
So, I'm waiting.
Get into a meerkat position. watching
I never wait long.
It always comes, and fast.

And here it came... the first curse.
A tenth of a second after it came out of the mouth of the claimant
To the crown of the cradle, I roared with the force of an alarm horn:
"under arrest."
Everyone froze for a moment.
Another roar: "sit."
They sat on the floor terrified, watching as if they didn't understand.
'what's wrong with him?'

grizzly bear

I stood in front of them with my hands on my hips
And I fixed my eyes on them.
The picture looks like this: a grizzly bear has just woken up
After the winter hibernation and he is looking for the first meal
for breaking the prolonged fast and the first thing he encountered,
It's a group of cute seals basking in the sun,
And what's left for him is just to choose
Who should start the meal?
Well, if you're not an actor, look for another profession.

I waited for silence.
My burning gazes were silenced.
I spoke quietly with a tendency to be dramatic.

Decide what kind of faucet you are

"Today is hot and you need to drink a lot.
After the lesson, you will leave the sports hall.
There are two water taps outside. Both are fine.
One is red, the other is green.
Until a week ago, the red one was used as a sewer pipe.
Now I ask you, from which tap will you drink?"

Everyone answered in unison, "Of course the green."
"Why?" I asked
"Because the red is dirty / because dirty water passed through it /
Because... because... because..."
I raised my hand for silence.

I spoke slowly and savoring every word.
The drama escalated:
"When you get home at the weekend
You will kiss mother and father - after cursing!
After you dirty your mouth with the stinking curses.
Kiss with the same mouth, through which sewage water passed.

If I were your father, I wouldn't want to get a kiss from you.
don't want to get dirty
I don't want sewage on my face.
Just like you don't want to drink from a past tap
It has stinking water."

They stared at me.
Well, at least listen.

The seed is planted

So what did they stop dirtying?
There are no magic solutions.
magic? Not at our school.

Two hours later, when I was walking through the yard during the big break
One of the students of that class, without feeling,
As if on the way, he issued a curse to his friend Wahad,
which would have given him an entrance ticket to any street gang
Respected in South America. without formation.
I reached behind him, grabbed him by the connection between the neck and the shoulder
And I clicked. with love. with lots of love..
It folded like a penknife after thorough lubrication,
while uttering broken syllables,
Even Avshalom Kor could not decipher it.

I put my mouth close to his ear and whispered:
"Don't kiss mom and dad for two months."
He quickly nodded loudly.

The boy understood... and the system?

The next day, in the teachers' room, the teacher turned to me
of the same class.
“Listen,” she said, “I had an education class this morning.
We talked a little about the Ten Commandments and I pointed to the matter of honoring father and mother.

Towards the end of the lesson, one of the students raised his finger
Requesting permission to speak and receiving it, he said:
"It's true teacher, we all have a serious problem with respecting parents."
"Why?" I asked them
"Because we've gotten used to swearing. We don't even notice.
It's like part of the language, our mouth stinks like sewage
And then with this mouth we come home
After two weeks we were in boarding school, and kissing
You are father and mother. It's not respecting parents, it stinks."

"I was surprised by the boy. For the better of course.
After the lesson I caught him for a conversation and he described to me
Their conversation with you, yesterday in sports class."

"No" I said to the kind teacher
"This is not a sports lesson.
It's an education class, which in my case also has sports in it.
Just like your class is an education class,
which also has literature or history...
Or whatever you teach.
And we are all, above all, educators
who also teach a certain subject in which they have specialized.
In short, your profession is the secondary specialization."

It took her a few seconds to recover.
"Okay, okay, but what do I say to the boy now?
Shouldn't he kiss his parents because his mouth is a sewer?"

Another fuse has blown.
"No" I cried. "You say to this amazing boy
that he has two options, or stop dirtying his mouth
Or stop kissing your parents. let him choose
And I know for sure what this lovely one will choose."

A long-term investment

I felt good. The grizzly bear did the job.
The play in class achieved its goal.
And this boy echoed her. excellent.
It's not always like that.
There are no magic solutions, but I know from experience, they will absorb.
It will be assimilated.

Yitzhak Toito

Yitzhak Toito, born in Haifa - 1956. Only son of six other brothers and one sister (yes, there is such a possibility). The setting of his childhood ranged mainly from the lower city to the splendor of the Carmel.

After four years of service in one of the Navy's elite units, he turned to teaching, and until recently served as a fitness trainer and physical education teacher at a high school.

These days his book was published "pick up gifts from the floor" whose plot takes place mainly in Haifa.
Has a master's degree in education and a bachelor's degree in physical education.

More stories by Yitzhak Toito published in Hai Pa: