Prime Minister Yair Lapid's seemingly innocent address to first graders on Sept. 1 was, in my opinion, frightening.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
He said, "Dear students, there is something you are really good at, and you don't know it yet. That's the whole idea of school – that you have something that, over time, you'll discover you're really good at. That you have an area of excellence which you don't know yet, and that you will discover here at school because there will be people who will work together with you and help you understand what you are best at."
First of all, this is simply not true: statistically speaking, most people don't have "an area of excellence."
The sweeping promise that there is something everyone is really good at shows that the prime minister has the same vision as Bazooka Joe: he promises our children that by the age of 21, they will reach the moon, and those who don't understand where the moon is, should go to the school counselor's office and she will arrange for an attainable one.
What can a good education system provide all students? The most important thing: meaning. People feel it when they are connected to something that is not mentioned in Lapid's remarks, something bigger than themselves.
Israeli boys and girls who are about to start learning how to read will be the only ones, perhaps, to have the privilege to learn the words of King Solomon, the wisest of all men, in the original language. This is a small example of the connection to Jewish history that was not mentioned by the prime minister at all.
A high-tech superpower where education is free is the result of two other great stories: the Zionist story, which turned a two-thousand-year-old dream into reality, and the universal story of the scientific revolution, which began with the Renaissance. These two were omitted from Lapid's remarks.
Articulating a real vision, which would lead to a generation of drive and ability to survive in the Middle East, is probably not Lapid's "area of excellence."
Such a remark does anything but help a child become a successful link in the chain of generations.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
