We are the People of the Book. All aspects of our religion are rooted in the laws and history found in various texts. We have the Tanakh (the five books of the Torah), the books of the Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs, the Book of Esther and the Book of Ruth, among other writings. We have books on the interpretation of the Torah, the Midrash and Talmud, as well as the Zohar and the Book of the Maccabees. We also have books on Jewish law, including the Shulchan Aruch and the Mishneh Torah. Finally, we have the Siddur, our book of prayers. Our possession of this vast collection of written works has made our people an educated one.
The Talmud says children should go to school starting at the age of six. In 75 BCE, elementary schooling became compulsory for Jewish children, and secondary education in a Beit Midrash, house of learning, goes back to the period of the Second Temple. When formal education could not be found, Jewish parents established their own schools and hired private teachers for their children up until the 18th century. Through the 19th century, young men generally studied in yeshivas run by their local rabbis. European Jews started Jewish day schools for children, or cheders, as an alternative to a more secular education, which have continued as part of American Jewish education.
Today, over 200,000 Jewish children attend over 750 Jewish day schools, and hundreds of thousands of other Jewish children attend religious, Hebrew, and congregational schools.
For us Jews, education is deep inside our heritage. And nothing is more fundamental to education than teachers. The original purpose of rabbis, our spiritual leaders, was to serve as teachers of Torah. Traditionally, our Jewish community holds teachers in high regard. But some others, apparently, do not.
Under a new bill proposed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to ease the state deficit, the livelihoods of public teachers would be hurt drastically. The bill would force teachers to pay more for insurance and pensions, and remove most of the collective bargaining rights of teachers’ unions, effectively crippling them. Many teachers and other public employees, who are also affected by the bill, have risen in protest, causing some schools to shut down temporarily. Students have also protested, opposing legislators have left the state, and everyone seems to have an opinion on the issue.
But what is a Jewish opinion on the issue? I understand there are individual opinions among our Jewish population, but I would like to take a look at what the Talmud has to offer in the debate, along with the tractates they come from:
“Who quarrels with his teacher might as well quarrel with the Holy Presence.” –Sanhedrin
“Who declines to endow a scholar with his worldly goods will see no blessing.” –Sanhedrin
“A teacher who surrenders the respect due to him is no longer respected.” - Kiddushin
“The real guardians of a state are the teachers.” - Hagiga
However, the phrase that best captures the meaning of the previous four is this one from the great sage Rav Simeon bar Yochai:
“If you see cities uprooted, know that it came about because they did not maintain teachers' salaries.”
In short, it is wrong to force teachers, the guarantors of our nation’s competitiveness and survival, to have their compensation reduced, benefits cut and bargaining rights erased for the sake of fiscal responsibility. In fact, it is not fiscally responsible to have teachers bear the burden of our debt, as it greatly reduces the appeal of the job to future potential candidates. Wisconsin needs good teachers, and if those with the minds to be good teachers are put off by the financial hardships teachers will face under this bill, Wisconsin’s educational system will be hurt. For centuries, we Jews have taken pains to secure worthwhile education for our young. We should not stop this effort now, when Wisconsin is at risk of falling behind in academic standards. Now is the time to revisit the value placed on teachers in our tradition and make sure that our education is not something to be negotiated in Madison. He who honors the teacher’s needs will in turn be honoring the children’s needs.
Connor Warhman lives in Fox Point is a sophomore at Nicolet High School.
The Coalition for Jewish Learning is the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
