Q&A: The Right to Education
The Right to Education
Question
A Haredi person whose eyes have been opened discovers that the state violated his right to an education, and in fact funded an “education” system that left him poor in the basic toolkit needed to make an honest and dignified living. He has to carve through stone with a disposable plastic spoon just to reach reasonable achievements.
And no less than that, he is left with a distorted sense of the proper attitude toward working honestly for money — and that second problem is even harder than the first, because it is rooted in the soul.
That is mainly what he was left with from the cheder. Oh, and also a little — or a lot — of savage beatings by frustrated teachers (some of them known pedophiles).
Is his obligation to go out and fight somewhat less than that of someone who did receive all the good things, was not discriminated against, and certainly did not have “education” funded for him that destroys from within the desire to go out and earn his bread honestly?
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Answer
I think the main claim is against his parents, not against the state. There is a claim against the state for not forcing the parents to fulfill their duty, but that is a fairly weak claim. In any case, he is not exempt from his civic duties. Whether he is “less obligated” is not a well-defined question.
The right to education is an obligation of the state under the UN, and it did not pay it.
Not only that, it knowingly funded the opposite in order to buy power.
Its share in the crime is not small.
The parents also, indeed, will not merit to see me serving in the IDF.
The question is about my obligation toward the state, which by its own hands greatly embittered our lives, literally.
How obligated am I to defend it?
Let those who benefited from it and screwed me defend it — they deliberately created a lower-caste class, and now the bill has come due…
When you fill up a cart and get to the checkout, you have to pay.
And the payment is that when I am needed, I feel less obligated…