The whole thing started when someone told Michael Steinhardt that birthright israel made it “cool to be Jewish.” (And I thought that was our role here at Jewlicious.) At a meeting with Canadian birthright alumni, The Canadian Jewish News reported, Steinhardt said that it was “unfortunate to rely on these 10 days to do the job that should be done in all sorts of other areas – day schools, preschools, general education…I think our overwhelming focus should be on our children and therefore on the education of our children,†Steinhardt said.
The education of children is important, yes. But are day schools the answer?
Steinhardt said he doesn’t know. It seems to him that day schools are “unlikely to ever attract the majority of non-Orthodox Jews, and that’s a great conundrum. I’m not interested in a small elite being educated in day schools, and the rest of the non-Orthodox population being allowed to be painfully under-educated.â€
He believes the Jewish community hasn’t been “experimental enough†with day schools. “I think that the single institution that is most needed in the Jewish world is the day school at the same level of religiosity as the average non-Orthodox Jew, meaning a day school far less religiously demanding,†but one that emphasizes the highest academic standards and a more secular teaching of the Bible. He wants the Jewish community to have “better day schools, with better teachers and a more vigorous program, and insistence upon more involvement of the family.â€
“Better teachers.” “More vigorous programs.” “More involvement of the family.” Yet, far “less religiously demanding,” “more secular.” This poses a major conundrum for educators: whose teaching of Judaism is most comprehensive? Most authentic? Most relatable or livable or realistic for 21st Century Jewry? Most complex and “big-picture”? Is it more vigorous to include multiple viewpoints, which can confuse but which also portray a bigger picture perspective on what it’s like to be Jewish these days? Or is a unified, more traditional, more “Torah-centered” (to use a term from the Jewlicious @ The Beach conference) approach less confusing and more descriptive?
One of the problems I perceived during my yeshiva education years was that often, my peers were learning things one way in school and then went home to observe things differently (or not observe at all). How can you ensure that the home environment reinforces tradition, observance, or the other educational messages which are imparted in the educational environment? Can you require a contract for parents, stating that by enrolling their child in school they are agreeing to a certain level of observance at home? Would parents sign such a contract? And what level and hashkafah of observance would that be (Orthodox, Conservadox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Jewish Renewal, Ashkenazi, Sephardic)? Would Israel be treated as a Zionist construct, post-Zionist, or merely Middle Eastern History and politics?
The Jewish educational system is far from perfect. But what kind of changes will help? And should we be careful that in adding all of these “more”s, we don’t create an education that ends up being even less perfect?
I have too many people who went to non-orthodox or near-orthodox dayschools whose practice of Judaism (at least at the level they were taught in school) did not survive the classroom to think that education at dayschools is a panacea. It may sound cliche, but involvement in the community, secular or religious, starts and ends at home. Getting the “kids” involved will do nothing if the parents aren’t encouraging the involvement.
For the most part, the dayschool people who come to my college could care less about Jewish life on campus.
while i agree with steinhardt that education is key– i think he is focusing on the wrong age-group. informal jewish educational programming is more important and successful (when done right) during the lower school-high school years. yes, the aqcuisition of textual, conceptual, and linguistic skills are necessary to properly enage our tradition in an honest and thurough manner, but really all of that can be learned later on in life- at an age where people are mature and intellctually savy enough to balance out theories of who wrote the bible and the notion that, ‘hey- God can exist in my life’ all at the same time. i say, stick with the 18-26 year olds steiny. give THEM more educational opportunities than a 10 day trip to Israel. give THEM the tools to lay a solid Jewish foundation for their future families. afterall, they’re the parents of the next generation anyway.
I have so much to say about this, I am speechless. For once.
Me too, darn it. Ummm… day schools are good, m’kay.
I can’t believe I’ve caused such speechlessness. Maybe I should have mentioned premarital sex in the post.
I’m not sure there’s a solution…just because I have negative things to say about the absolutist haskhafah of my own yeshiva day school education doesn’t mean I’m sorry that’s where I went, and I don’t think any other model works any better…many of my friends who went to non-yeshiva day schools emerged with little lasting observance or big-picture understanding…
Maybe if I’m lucky enough to find the right guy and start a family, then I’ll worry about where my theoretical children are going to school.
I promise to post about this when I have some real time.
Wow…Zundel deported and now Wolfgang Droege (once led the neo-Nazi Heritage Front) murdered. What in the world is B’nai Brith Canada going to do?
Esther,
Great post btw.
FWIW,
in the Montreal I grew up in where the majority of Jewish kids went/go to Jewish day school (ultra-orthodox, religious, religious for non-religious, or non-religious schools), I understand that the inter-marriage rate is one of the lowest in North America.
It’s a tough situation but in the end it boils down to the child’s interest, because if it just isn’t there, cramming it down his/her throat won’t help.
All my Jewish friends went to dayschool or some other form of Jewish education when they were younger (perhaps only on Sundays). They learned the alefbet and a bit about Israel and the Jewish holidays. Now they can’t tell you the alefbet, haven’t the foggiest clue what’s going on in Israel (and tragically, don’t care) and call ME to find out about the Jewish holidays.
I never went through any kind of Jewish education really, and much of what I have learned has been because my interest has lead me to read and learn. I know exactly what’s going on in Israel and I am trying to learn Hebrew.
Why did the dayschool stuff never stick with my friends? Where did they lose interest? and because they lost interest, will they decide not to send their kids? Or will they dutifully send them but only half heartedly support them?
I have no idea how to fix it, but I would say it would have to start with making the lessons more dynamic and exciting. How? I have no idea, I’m not an educator.. only a pupil.
Alot of people say summer camps are important. The catch 22 here is that if the parents don’t want too much Judaism in their lives, or none at all, then they won’t send their kids to Yeshivas, even if it were free. Unless the education level was so much greater than a public school, but this would be difficult to attain w/out a tuition.
But maybe to a summer camp there might be more of a possibility.
It’s a vicious cycle. The answer really is that this is what happens on any exile in history. You have steady assimilation and eventually the community dies out.
The answer really in the long term is Aliyah.
My experience is that day schools make a world of difference — among those I know, it’s night and day compared with those who went to “Sunday schools” or after-school programs. No comparison.
Esther, I don’t see the dissonance between what happens at day school and at home as a major problem. In fact, the opposite. In lots of families, the parents end up relying on their kids for more and more religious knowledge. But insisting that only parents who are willing to be observant should send their kids there would cut massively into the proportion of kids attending such schools. In cities where many non-observant Jews send their kids to day school, anyway. (Maybe this is a “traditional” vs “religious” thing: in many families, it’s perfectly normal to feel more comfortable at an Orthodox synagogue and not be particularly Orthodox in observance.)
But — to branch out for a sec — if they’re really worried about this stuff, there’s something else that should be going on. GET NORTH AMERICAN STUDENTS INTO ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES.
Not to shout or anything, but this so obvious and so neglected to me that it’s stunning. Right now the “Overseas Schools” function to attract kids into a ghettoised, one-year, non-Hebrew porgram. That’s gotta change. We need them to do what needs to be done so that when kids in Tucson, Manchester, Nice or wherever finish high school, the universities they’re considering including Israeli ones. “Hmmm: U of Arizona or Ben Gurion?” etc.
That’d mean:
– translating all the Web site program info to English and French, pronto.
– setting up English-, etc-language admissions processes that are coordinated with overseas schools, and offer “ulpan+admission” categories — you’re admitted to Political Science, but you have to be enrolled in our ulpan classes first until you can pass the Level Whatever exam.
Imagine it. Not-very-involved kids who think, hey, why not Israel if I’m going to go away to college. They sign up. They learn Hebrew. They learn Israel. They maybe even end getting a job. They stay.
Or they come back. But with a different outlook, for sure. Birthright’s great. But imagine if Israeli universities committed to a goal of 30% foreign student enrolment by 2020.
I too am looking forward to someday spending Yom Kippur on the beach with the Sabras, but let’s get back to discussing Judaism, something that’s much too important to be left in the hands of either Israelis or rabbis 😉
Conservative Apikoris took a position on this issue against day schools and for other forms of Jewish education on his blog entry from March 18th:
cj-heretic.blogspot.com
He and I then debate the issue at length in the comments. Perhaps that’s why I can’t seem to get inspired right now to argue this issue again. Long story short: our kids have benefited tremendously from their (late) entry into Jewish day schools, perhaps in part because our family life was changing toward increased observance. The knowledge they’ve acquired will position them much better as adults to make whatever choices regarding observance/affiliation they will make. There have, of course, also been downsides to the experience: small class sizes can make for stunted social development, and often it seems the schools are struggling for financial survival because of declining support in some communities for this type of education.
The idea that one can “catch up” on missed childhood education is debatable at best. My own experience is that my kids have learned much more Hebrew in far less time than my own struggles. They can rattle off Torah stories and learnings at the snap of a finger; it will be a long time, if ever, before I can do so.
My older model grey matter just doesn’t absorb such information as easily – it’s filled with too much TV trivia from the 70’s and 80’s – not so useful, unless one wants to play “Trivial Pursuit” at parties or discuss the midrashic understanding of various Star Trek episodes. “For the world is hollow and I can touch the sky” – that’s deep stuff for a TV science fiction show, and long before The Matrix authors were born (the films are a kabalastic masterpiece, according to one well known Chabad rabbi). OK…
I went to a conservative day school. My parents were conservative. Like many kids I knew, we had three sets of regular dishes: Milk, meat and trief (Chinese food, etc.).
Even though I hated it at the time I’m glad I had the day school experience. It gave me the tools to decide how I feel about Judaism, and it taught me a lot. Regarding the difference in home vs. school traditions, I agree with you. I think that some parents probably send their children to Hebrew school to get the education that they can’t/won’t provide or simply because they don’t have enough faith in the public school system. At the same time, it probably conveys a “Do as a I say, not as I do” attitude. In my case, home reinforced what I learned in school and rounded out the education. There’s a lot of stuff that I’ve forgotten and I still research every holiday before it happens but I’d have forgotten a lot more if it weren’t for the reinforcement and home and at my orthodox grandparents’ house.
At the same time, I think that sending children to day school often inspires parents to become more involved in Judaism themselves.
Reponding to some of the comments above, I think that some people end up less religious after day school because after having it shoved down their throats at school for years (7 in my case, Senior Kindergarden – gr. 6) they need to break away. It’s not that different from Catholic school girls who rebel (Jewish girls just have less sex and longer skirts. 🙂 ).
What changes need to be made? Well, good teachers would be a start. Way back when I was in Hebrew school (17 years ago- geez), Hebrew courses weren’t always taught by qualified teachers but by unqualified Israeli immigrants. Maybe some of them DID have teaching degrees, but I remember my mom complaining about the fact that it seemed that they’d give just any Israeli a teaching job, before wistfully talking about her Hebrew school education. I like to think that the teachers are well trained in the subjects that they teach.
I think day school is a better idea than Sunday school and night school. I worked at a shul’s school once a week and the kids were rowdy and bratty. Part of the reason for that was that they WERE spoiled brats (it was the neighbourhood) but it was also that they HATED Hebrew school. Who could blame them? Their parents were schlepping them to Hebrew on the weekend when they’d rather be out with their friends or sleeping in, and during the week when they could be out playing or watching TV. After putting in a full day of day school who would want to rush to night school? Evening/Sunday school really isn’t fair. At least with day school you get it over with during the day and you don’t feel like you’re missing anything.
>“unlikely to ever attract the majority of non-Orthodox Jews, and that’s a great conundrum. I’m not interested in a small elite being educated in day schools, and the rest of the non-Orthodox population being allowed to be painfully under-educated.â€
Interesting. The condundrum that _I_ see is that only the elite can afford to educate their children in day school. The tuition is enormous. I feel like I owe my parents big time for what they spent on my education because one year of Hebrew school cost more than 1 year of university.
>“I think that the single institution that is most needed in the Jewish world is the day school at the same level of religiosity as the average non-Orthodox Jew, meaning a day school far less religiously demanding,†but one that emphasizes the highest academic standards and a more secular teaching of the Bible. < That sounds a little bit like the Hebrew school that I want to. >“He wants the Jewish community to have “better day schools, with better teachers and a more vigorous program, and insistence upon more involvement of the family.†< Makes sense. What I'D like to see? Public funding of Hebrew schools. Catholic schools (here) are funded by tax dollars so why not Hebrew schools? On the other hand, "better teachers" cost money. You get what you pay for.
I agree with NeoConservative Guy. We’re considering a reform day school for my son, not yet 3, with a Hebrew immersion program. We’re hoping he picks up more Judaism than myself (my after-hours “Hebrew” school taught little more than memorizing the letters) and my husband (zilch. No Jewish education at all).
I wandered away from observance in my 20s and early 30s, as did everyone else I knew, including Catholics and mainstream Protestants. People have different spiritual needs at different points in their lives. Sometimes it takes a near-death experience to bring one closer to HaShem, as it did with a friend nearly paralyzed in a car crash.
For most folks, you settle down, get married, see how lovely your ketubah looks over your mantel, and get hooked. Then the kids come along and you want something more profound, more earth-shaking, for them than the meager scraps you got as a kid. And you find yourself wanting to set a better example for them too. So along with giving up belching in public or cursing, you drag them to Tot Shabbat and enroll them in synagogue pre-school and open a Coverdell account (a tax shelter for private school tuition).
Our local Lubavitch rabbi is fond of saying about Jewish observance, “Something is better than nothing. We all do what we can.”
Great posts, great responses. I am an educator in a public school as well as a “Sunday school” who has done extensive doctoral research on Jewish education; the comments here are just as academically, socially, and religiously sound as anything I have read in the journals. The day school educational quality issue gets divided by 1) prohibitive cost 2) levels of observance 3) effective vs ineffective teachers and teaching methods and 4) support at home. As mentioned, support at home is often the most important factor. There is a ton of research on how to incorporate brain-based, reflective, metacognitive, differentiated learning strategies into the Jewish curriculum in order to effectively transmit meaning, but 1) the regular volunteer teacher doesn’t know those strategies exist, much less where to find them and 2) professional development is often unheard of at the day school/Sunday school level because the focus is on the information (note: that is a generalization; there are schools that focus very closely on prof. development for teachers and on effective transmission of knowledge). Having parents sign a contract of attempted and improving observance would be (and could be) awesome at all levels of observance. Treating the student’s learning as a family learning opportunity is very healthy because it encourages the idea of lifelong learning and congregations as learning communities. Looking at Rozensweig’s Lehrhaus concept is a great start to using lifelong learning strategies to revitalize (but not destroy or water down) day schools because of the emphasis on multi-layered student-teacher relationships and lifelong learning (which is, as has been mentioned, an integral issue—-how to not only impart information but also to encourage self-efficacy and self-directed learning in order to maintain adults who see themselves as constantly learning and involved parts of the Jewish community). Ok, sorry, I’ll stop vomiting random dissertation information at you!
Ziva: Your “random dissertation information” is great. It validates our comments and concerns and reflects the fact that the issue is complex, to say the least. I always liked to think that its merely an issue of parental support and supervision – but clearly, it’s not that straightforward. Now I have to reread your comment, dictionary and Google in hand. Thanks!
ck, I thought you read all the posts and comments with dictionary and google in hand.
After attending Jewlicious @ the Beach, I have begun reading the website on a more regular basis. I have been accepted to a Masters in Jewish Eduaction program, and will likely begin after a year in Israel. I agree with most of what I have read on here, and think it is great that there are even a hand full of people discussing this issue. From a college student’s perspective, I think our whole system is in need of an overhaul, and simple patchwork won’t do. I really believe it is going to take a lot of dedicated and qualified individuals to turn the Jewish educational program around in this country. I think for now, it is important to inspire and train the people of my generation to become Jewish educators for the future. If it wasn’t for programs like birthright and other efforts being made to engage 18-26 year olds, I think the future would be a lot less bright. There’s more I feel like I want to say, but I think I got the important stuff out there. I think to sum it all up, as much as going into Jewish education has to be a selfless endeavor, more should be done by the Jewish community to entice qualified and potentially willing Jewish youths to go into the field. Our parents’ and grandparents’ generations need to help show us why it is the right path to take.