From Dr. Eli Gottlieb's opening remarks at the MLI event, “What not to Teach?"- Presenting dark periods in history in high school curriculum” [Translated from Hebrew]

It is important to know how to bring together ideas and goals that seem to be contradictory and at the same time put emphasis on the process. This evening of discussion “What not to Teach” is intended to prompt a discussion, in which professional experience and research can inform each other, in order to clarify educational challenges and to look at educational practice from a new angles. In educational leadership, in order to know where you want to lead to, it is necessary to deal with the complexities of the world of education and to ask what are the basic values and beliefs of educational policies and practices.

I believe that there are two goals in teaching history that are in constant conflict. The first is to develop the ability to analyze and critically examine. The second is to cultivate feelings of identity and belonging. However, the public discourse in Israel tends to place these two goals in opposition, as opponents in a game with no winner. In the pendulum that characterizes the Israeli government, during one term of office the Ministry of Education puts emphasis on the objectives of belonging, yet in the next term puts more emphasis on critical analysis.

The title of the evening “What not to teach” emphasizes the practical aspect of the topic but also gives expression to the two tendencies that characterize discussion on educational questions: first, the tendency to focus on teaching rather than learning and, secondly, the tendency to focus on the details, rather than the process – the emphasis is on the teacher and the “what” rather than on the learner and the “how”.

I would like to invite all of us to a discussion that casts doubt on each of the basic assumptions that characterize the educational debate. It is important to raise understanding that the need to promote critical thinking does not have to come on account of cultivating a national identity, and vice versa.

To watch the lectures online (in Hebrew)