The Supreme Court on Tuesday 4 Shevat 5773 heard a petition seeking to halt state funding to any talmid torah that does not include so-called core subjects in its curriculum. This refers to basic secular studies such as math, science and English.
The court signaled that such funding is indeed problematic because it does not have a law providing a framework for such funding since the schools in question fail to adhere to the Ministry of Education curriculum, which is used as the guideline.
The court indicated that either the framework of the law must change or the funding must be halted. The court will continue debating the matter at a future date.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
1. It is their money. He who pays the fiddler, calls the tune. That is why the really frum schools don’t accept zionist money.
2. The problem is not math, science or English — all of which could be taught from a Torah perspective – though bitul Torah remains an issue. Something could be worked out. The big problem is the zionist demand to teach Israeli civics from a zionist perspective. A perfectly reasonable demand from their point of view, and a totally unacceptable one from our’s.
Never thought of Math, Science or English as secular subjects. Seems as kodesh as anything else!!
“That is why the really frum schools don’t accept zionist money” – not sure that ‘really frum’ is the correct description of those schools.
There is only one core subject.
I have never heard of a cheder that doesn’t teach math. Chadarim that don’t adhere to the core curriculum still teach math, dikduk, spelling, reading/reading comprehension and writing skills. Correct, those chadarim do not teach science or English.
#1’s second comment is correct. The proponents of these laws are fully aware that there is a limit to how much kids can do in one day. Their real agenda is to force chadarim to reduce the time devoted to Torah learning and increase time on secular subjects, and eventually to require Israeli civics with textbooks approved by them.
If learning math and science was good enough for the Rambam, why isn’t it good enough for everyone?
English, has become the Lingua Franca of our time, and therefore should also be included in any core cirriculum.
The only core subject is torah. Regarding the other important subjects like math,sciences, how can one say its bitul torah when many of our great hachamim mastered astrology and mathematics!
I cant see in my view what is wrong teaching only the mere basics of math!???