By Abigail Klein Leichman - February 2, 2020
One of 12 children born to Bedouin parents who could not read or write, Aulfat Abu-Laban Altouree always felt the Israeli Arab education system was lacking.
So, after growing up in the mixed cities of Lod and Ramleh, she earned a degree in formal and informal education from Beit Berl College.
During a course on alternative educational approaches, she visited a Waldorf school in Karkur near Haifa. Waldorf schools are based on anthroposophy, an educational philosophy integrating academics, arts and practical skills. This was the answer she’d been seeking.
“When I left Karkur, my heart stayed there,” she says.
After attending an anthroposophy seminar, Abu-Laban Altouree became convinced that Waldorf schools could transform Arab communities — if only teacher training could be adapted for their own language and cultural context.
Putting that dream on hold, Abu-Laban Altouree meanwhile started a program at a Lod community center to fill in educational gaps for Arab women who had married young and didn’t finish high school.
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