Contempt Of Erudition And The Council For Higher Education
For several years, I also worked at the same college where Rivka Wadmany Shauman—the newly elected deputy head of the Council for Higher Education—spent much of her career. Most people have probably never heard of the small Teachers College of Technology, tucked away on a quiet street in the old north of Tel Aviv. At that time, the school was affiliated with the College of Management, and I taught at both institutions.
Like Cheers, the Teachers College of Technology was a place “where everybody knows your name.” It was intimate and familiar. Yet, despite its name, the college’s technological side was poorly funded and quite unimpressive. It hardly resembled an academic institution; instead, it looked and operated more like an outdated high school.
Students didn’t choose the college out of a love for technology or teaching, but rather because there were almost no entrance requirements—everyone was welcome. The college also offered a generous stipend (half of the tuition), which made it even more attractive. Since students at the Teachers College of Technology graduated with a teaching certificate, their tuition was half that of students at the College of Management.
To its credit, the college did serve an important mission: it gave weaker students from less privileged backgrounds a chance to earn a B.A., and it accepted those who would not have been admitted to any other university or college.
Still, there was little about the Teachers College of Technology to suggest it was an institution of higher education. I taught English there, and most of my students had neither completed the five-unit English matriculation exam (Bagrut) nor passed the customary psychometric test. It was also an open secret that exams at the college were revised to accommodate the students’ weaker level.
Given how much they struggled with English, I have no reason to believe many students excelled in other subjects.
Although inclusion and equal opportunity are worthy causes, appointing as deputy head of the Council for Higher Education someone so closely associated with this institution sends the troubling message that higher education in Israel has become another sad joke.
Professors who resigned from the Council in protest of Wadmany Shauman’s election explained that appointing a senior lecturer instead of a full professor makes her more susceptible to pressure. My fear, however, is that this choice poses a real threat to the future of academic research and scholarship. Wadmany Shauman completed her Ph.D. in 2004 primarily to advance her administrative career. She is not a prominent thinker or scholar but rather a manager and a politician. Her professional background comes from an inferior institution where academic excellence and critical thinking were virtually unknown.
Some time ago, during a debate between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former minister Silvan Shalom over the role of vocational schools in Israel, Shalom lashed out at Netanyahu with the words: “You send your son to welding school.”
And while our current Education Minister, Naftali Bennett, and head of the Council for Higher Education may have loved technology as a young man, I know his father would never have sent him to the Teachers College of Technology.
If Israel wishes to remain a land of future Nobel Prize winners, a hub for high-tech innovation, and a leader in the world of ideas, then the appointment of Rivka Wadmany Shauman is deeply regrettable. It demonstrates contempt for erudition and excellence, reveals poor judgment, and exposes petty political considerations.