(Live here in the stories) – Yitzhak Toito • Author of the book “Collecting Gifts from the Floor”
“Listen,” I began. “A professor from the Technion, who wanted to relax a little from the pressure of work, went to the sea.
See a fisherman watch on his boat.
‘Can we have a spin?’ The professor asked him, ‘An hour will be enough for me.’
‘Yes, why not?’ answered the fisherman. ‘It will cost you NIS 200.’
They went out to sea.
On the way, the scholar asks the fisherman: ‘Tell me, have you ever studied, let’s say… mathematics?’
‘No’, answers the fisherman.
‘So you’ve lost something like a quarter of your life. Maybe… biology?’
‘No’.
‘Well, you’ve lost something like a third of your life. Maybe you once studied physics?’
‘Never,’ replied the fisherman indifferently.
“You’ve lost another quarter of your life.”
Not a few minutes pass and a big wave overturns the boat and they are thrown into the water.
‘Professor’, the fisherman shouts to him over the noise of the waves. ‘Did you ever learn to swim?’
‘No. Never’, shouts the frightened professor.
‘So Professor, you have lost your whole life,’ the fisherman answers him.
What doesn’t work?
You see,” I continued, “this is no longer a joke, and I’m getting to the point.
You, in some work meeting, when one of your colleagues tastes something from the close-up on the table and… boom!!! Something gets stuck in his throat and he begins to choke. What are you doing? In a few seconds he will turn blue.
The brain will not receive oxygen and… bar minan.
No one around has learned and even if they have, they haven’t practiced enough, so that it gets into their head that with one simple action, you can save the guy.
further.
Your son goes out with friends on a mandatory trip after school. Trekking in Bolivia, or in any other remote corner of South America. The guys were bragging and can’t find the way. lost Mountains, jungle, no civilization in sight and no communication. What to do? Where do you turn? what is the direction how are you doing
They didn’t learn at school how to navigate by the stars. They didn’t learn how to start a fire without modern means. They didn’t learn about the types of plants you can eat to survive.
Another example.
Your daughter returns in the evening from her friend’s house and someone will take care of her. She doesn’t know how to defend herself.
It was not in the core subjects.
The gifted girl has five units in molecular biology. The professor had it too, and now he’s swallowing water. asked the fisherman.
take another one.
Mazel Tov. The boys they met at the Technion get married and the young couple opens a bank account.
Persuading them to invest here and there, take a loan of one kind or another, and other such things that are important for their future. In fact, it is important for the future of the bank. Mix them.
They have no background in the field and have not received basic economic education. is nothing.
They were top of the class in their yearbook. Nice for them.
further.
We read a newspaper, listen to the radio, watch TV, news, reality shows, it doesn’t matter what. We don’t think about the fact that everything is carefully planned, down to the last detail, that behind every word uttered in the media, every word written in the newspaper, or seen on the screen, there are people, people like everyone else, and they are commercially motivated, and in consideration of their personal, political, and similar opinions and ambitions.
Even the ‘news’, which is supposed to be completely clean, is far from it. very, very far away. And not just here, all over the world. We must know that we are bombarded with information, biased and subjective information. This is life, and you have to learn it, and you have to know it, and you have to deal with it.
Respite, a little healthy silence. good for digestion
My friend sounded curious, “So you’re actually saying that survival should be taught?”
The power of a group
“Not exactly. But kind of.
What I’m saying is that I see in my imagination a school that will teach real life.
Not at the expense of everything else. After all, everything else can be learned in half the time.
In the second half they will learn about life.
People like to call it ‘life skills’, but that’s not an accurate definition, it’s much more than that.
I want them to learn and internalize, for example, the power of unity. of a group.
Let them also learn through team sports games such as basketball, football, etc., assuming they have the appropriate teachers.
Do you understand? The lion is the king of animals not only because of his appearance, but also because of his strength. But a group of little hypocrites, who are worth nothing individually, but work in coordination as a group, can subdue him, subdue the king. He has no chance against them.
I want them to learn to play chess. Let them learn how to plan as many moves forward as possible. How to anticipate the opponent’s move. How to entice him to do something to earn something else.
In fact, how to wage war.
And I want them to learn poker too. that they learn to read the person in front of them. I want them to be at such a level, that they make the opponent think that he is sure that they are bluffing, when they are not.
Let them learn to play backgammon like the regulars in the neighborhood. Let them understand that you can plan in detail, but when you throw a dice and rely on randomness, don’t come with claims later, if the result doesn’t suit you. And in the meantime, if you have no choice and you have to bet, you’ll use your head there as well. think Think how to minimize damage with the little you have. In other words, I want them to learn life. simple”.
My Life
I made my friend think.
“Everything you mentioned already exists in the form of classes, teams and groups. What did you innovate?”
“You made me laugh,” I told him back. “Of course there is. They teach how to win a basketball game, in soccer, whatever you choose. But there winning the game is the goal, nothing more.
I mean that a teacher, or a trainer, will stop the training in the middle, present some case, some problem, and ask the students to solve it based on what they just learned in the training. I’m talking about the game as a means, not an end. I want them to apply the principles of winning in the game, in the real game. And the real game is life.”
“What would you call this school?”
I shrugged “maybe – My Life…”
Additional articles in Haifa – Haifa News:
This is a chapter from the book ‘pick up gifts from the floor’.
More details can be obtained at the following link. Just press…
Yitzhak Toito
Born in Haifa, and has a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in physical education.
Last year he published his non-fiction book “Collecting Gifts from the Floor” which is full of unconventional ideas, casually woven into the plot and which the reader is invited to simply pick up from the floor.
Itzik is now nearing the end of his next book.
More stories by Yitzhak Toito published in Hai Pa:
