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Social Commentary

Rabbi Chaim Navon
Why Teachers

are Irreplaceable

hen I was in first grade, I Why not? Because knowledge is accu- other things, they recommend put-
watched a classic Israeli mulated in databases while wisdom is ting a much stronger emphasis on
Wchildren's show, in which accumulated in human beings. online learning. However, they also
they offered an educational predic- agree that online courses can only
tion: in another 10 years there'll be The Rambam spoke of wisdom as a replace certain aspects of teaching.
no need for teachers, and all stu- level of human perfection. A person
dents will study from computers. At who remembers a lot of facts is not There is a kind of online course called
the time, that prophecy made a great a wiser person or a more complete a MOOC (Massive Open Online
impression on me. But that prophecy one. Our Sages called such a person: Course). They put the best lecturer
didn't come true, and hopefully, it "an ass bearing books." This is knowl- in the world in front of a camera,
never will. edge, not wisdom, and for that, all one and the result is supposed to be the
really needs is Google. But when you best course in the world. The prob-
Not one decade has passed, but four, look for wisdom, Rabbi Google won't lem is that it doesn't work. The drop-
and education is still impossible with- help you much. out rate from these classes is close
out teachers. As we are seeing before to 90%, and among the few who stay
our very eyes, when trying to swap They tell of a woman who came to till the end, many of them fail the
teachers for computers, the results are a Rabbi on Erev Pesach to ask him exams. The companies that produce
not that great. whether she could use milk to fulfil these MOOCs are now focusing on
the mitzvah of the four cups of wine.
Current distance learning is only The Rabbi wrote her a generous vocational courses, which are much
half the problem. The Israeli Educa- check, and she left his house happy shorter and goal-specific. In other
tion Ministry has been experiment- and crying. The Rabbi's son asked his words, you can watch the best lec-
ing with distance learning during father: "Abba, why did you give her turer in the world and gain a lot of
emergencies for a few years now, but money?" "Because son, if she wanted knowledge, but you won’t glean much
differently from how the teachers are to drink milk on Seder Night, it wisdom.
using it today. In the early days of this means that not only doesn't she have Because of this, I dare to bet that
Corona crisis, the MoE suggested a money to buy wine, she doesn't have even in another 1,000 years, our
concentrated program: recording les- money for meat either." descendants will still be learning
sons to be broadcast to children all from human teachers. It could be
over the country. That was an abject I'd challenge Rabbi Google to come that they'll learn engineering from
up with that solution.
failure. Almost no-one tuned in. advanced AI programs, but they'll
Through trial and error, teachers and It's not just the Rabbi's sensitivity, still learn Torah, wisdom and poetry
principals have learned that there is which is certainly an important attri- from real human beings.
no alternative to individual teachers bute. I'm talking about the knowledge
facing the students he or she knows. accumulated through life's experi- Even in another 1,000 years, young
That's how we've reached the impro- ences – the ability to take a question children will sit and gaze admiringly
vised solution of Zoom learning. At about Seder Night and intuitively at their wise teachers. Because just
least the teacher sees the students, connect it to human nature, to famil- as we need air, light and love, we also
which is much better than nothing. iarity with the laws of meat and milk, need wisdom, and wisdom is only
and to a sensitive heart. Data is a col- found in wise people. Information
Nevertheless, perhaps we can extract lection of informative details; wisdom can be learnt, but wisdom is infec-
something good here: children are is a human trait, and it is only possi- tious. And here the heart sighs: when
learning from real teachers and not ble to absorb it from connecting with will our children be able to catch this
from knowledge bases. It's certainly human beings. beloved "virus" again?
possible and worthwhile to use
knowledge bases, even computer- Researchers Tamar and Oz Almog
ized ones. But they will never replace recently published a book about the Rabbi Chaim Navon is a renowned author
human teachers. failures of our universities. Among and educator

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