An innovative educational program pioneered by Tel Aviv University educationalists is proving remarkably effective in teaching teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds the concepts of love and responsibility.
by Simon Griver
Liran pets his parrot. For the 13-year-old from Yokneam near Haifa, the bird means the whole world to him.
"I've never had my own pet before," Liran explains. "He is like a younger brother to me. There is so much I want to teach him. When I'm angry, he soothes me. I like to stroke his feathers, and I quickly calm down."
Indeed, the pets program at the Ramat Hadassah Youth Village (east of Haifa), now in its second year, has had remarkable results.
"The program breaks a cycle of emotional deprivation," explains Reuven Matmon, the principal of Ramat Hadassah's Residential School. "Many of these children come from homes where they are physically abused or their parents are criminals or drug addicts, or at best they do not always receive the love and affection that a child should be getting."
The pets program reinforces the love and affection with which the children are nurtured by the staff at Ramat Hadassah. Adds Matmon, "Our aim is to ensure that the children will not repeat the mistakes of their parents. The pets program teaches them how to channel their affections. They learn to love."
"The teachers back in Yokneam used to give me a hard time," recalls Liran. "So I gave them a hard time. But here at Ramat Hadassah, the teachers really believe in me. They really care about me. That motivates me to learn."
There are 216 students, aged between 12 and 15 at Ramat Hadassah; 70 of them are new immigrants from the former Soviet Union, 30 are from Ethiopia and 116 are Israeli-born youngsters. Ramat Hadassah is one of five residential schools operated by the Jewish Agency's Youth Aliyah, which, since its inception in 1933, has rescued hundreds of thousands of Jewish children from the Holocaust, from anti-Semitism worldwide and from disadvantaged backgrounds in Israel.
The pets program began in 1997, following research on the subject at Tel Aviv University. It has been so successful that dozens of other schools around Israel have sought advice from Ramat Hadassah on how to implement the program.
Etti Ben Sa'adon, the coordinator of the program, stresses the importance of learning to take on responsibility. Lior, 13, from Kiryat Yam has a chinchilla (South American rabbit). "I cannot wait to get back from class and see how he is," says Lior. "It's a big responsibility. If I forget to feed him, he could die." Lior also spends much of his spare time surfing the Internet and downloading data about chinchillas so as to be better equipped to care for his pet.
Anat from Haifa has some pet hamsters. "I love taking my hamsters to my room," she says. "I let them play on my bed. Sometimes I let my roommates touch them, too. And I take good care of them. I always feed them on time. I pet them a lot. That's how they know that I love them."
"Many of the children come from homes where nobody ever takes responsibility for their actions," says Ben Sa'adon. "So they must learn the importance of responsibility. They must also learn to care for others to better appreciate caring for themselves."
The ramifications of the project are immense and can be universally applied. It is particularly important that children who frequently have violent parents are given a small, and therefore vulnerable, pet. This gives them the chance to learn to protect, rather than overpower. But love is not enough. The children learn about routines, schedules and responsibility. Love carries with it responsibility. That is the critical lesson which Ramat Hadassah aims to teach.