Tel-Hai Magazine 2022

Breaking barriers: inspiring success When Maoz Tzeiri arrived at the Centre for Learning Disabilities (CLD) at Tel-Hai, he was 25 years old, and unable to read or write. Today, at 35, he is the principal of a boarding school for youth at risk and holds Master’s degree in Education, from Tel-Hai College. This is his inspiring story.

Maoz had difficulties at school beginning in first grade. He sustained a head injury from a fall and spent part of that year at home. By second grade, large gaps in his learning had already developed. His be havior deteriorated and his teachers thought he should attend a school spe cializing in behavioral problems. Maoz had to face a placement committee. “That was one of the most difficult mo ments I remember,” Maoz recounts. “Teachers, the school principal, psychol ogist, counsellor – none of them had faith in me. But my mother fought hard to keep me at regular school and, thank fully, she succeeded.” Later, Maoz was assessed with learning disabilities: dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscal

culia, and ADHD. He was afforded some accommodations at school, such as dic tating his answers in exams, and having questions read out to him. He describes his experiences at school as a never-end ing battle: he had difficulty sitting in class and concentrating, and there was a great disparity between his desire to succeed and the painful reality. “I felt my teachers had given up on me” “As a child, I was aware of my teachers’ disappointment and frustration. I could tell they thought they’d tried everything with me but to no avail,” he says. “I suf fered criticism and judgment from my English teachers, who just didn’t accept that my difficulties were real. I was very hurt. What saved me during that period was the social side of my life. I spent much of my time in the scouts, and, in time, I became a counsellor.” Maoz finished high school with a partial matriculation certificate having some how managed to hide his inability to read and write. After high school, he par ticipated in a voluntary project for a year, before enlisting in the armored corps. On completing his military service, he decided to work in education. His first job was in the scouts in his home town, where he had found refuge during his school years.

“I was hired as the coordinator of a ‘tribe’ of six hundred scouts, a significant management role,” he says. “I received a lot of positive feedback. Later, I got a job in a small residential school for youth, who had committed crimes. Ninety per cent of the students there had learning disabilities and ADHD. I wanted to help them avoid the frustration and pain I’d experienced. I wanted to give them faith in themselves. I fought with them to go to school. One morning, when I told a student that he should not give up on himself, I burst into tears. All the difficul ties and challenges I had faced in the past suddenly overcame me.” Maoz remembers that the principal of the residential school once told him he was doing an excellent job with the chil dren but that it was hypocritical to per suade them to attend school, unless he tackled academic studies, and showed them he believed in his own ability to succeed. “I knew he was right, but the possibility caused me great anxiety. Nevertheless, I met with Yael Meltzer, then the director of the Center for Learning Disabilities at Tel-Hai College, who recommended a special, two-month preparatory program for students with learning disabilities. I moved north to join the program, sure that academia would not be for me,” he recalls.

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