Hinuch Hadashot - Education Newsletter

WHAT JEWISH EDUCATION OUGHT TO BE

 by Chaya Oliver
 
I have been working within the realm of Jewish education for the past eleven years. I started out as a substitute teacher and a teacher's aide. I have taught students in every grade from Kindergarten through 12. I even developed curriculum for a community-wide high school program. Nevertheless, it wasn't until this past year that I truly began to see myself as a professional Jewish educator. Up until last year, working in Jewish education was mostly a way to make a bit of extra money to help get me through school - first, a four year undergraduate degree, and then five years of rabbinical school.

So what changed? I was ordained and I started applying for full-time rabbinic positions. As I went through the job search process, I realized that the jobs that I was most passionate about -- the ones that I could really see myself succeeding in - all were rabbi/educator positions. All of those positions, however, were ultimately filled by rabbinical candidates with Masters in Education. So, there I was, a freshly minted
rabbi without a job.

I sat back and thought about the next step in my journey. I reached the conclusion that if I really wanted to be a Jewish educator -- if I wanted to do justice to my future students, teachers, and community members -- I should probably stay in school for another year (the thought of which, after nine years of post-high school education, made me shudder) and get my MAEd.

Looking back on this past year, all I can say is that choosing to stay in school to get my MAEd was one of the best decisions of my life. Yes, I did get offered a full-time position as a Director of Education. And I realize now how unprepared I was to take on such a position before I earned my MAEd. I knew next to nothing about administration, teacher observation, curriculum development, navigating boards and committees -- the list just goes on and on.

Also, throughout my MAEd courses I began to explore the many challenges facing Jewish education in North America today. By acknowledging and grappling with these challenges, I began to develop my own vision of what Jewish education ought to be.

1. Jewish Learning Should Be Lifelong-- and the Jewish community should help make it so. Jewish education should be more about pathways, less about individual programs. Jewish educators know the experiences that should pave this pathway -- from a Jewishly-rich early childhood education to ongoing adult Jewish learning. We even know quite well how to deliver many of these experiences. But we don't make it easy to take this journey. We fragment and compartmentalize Jewish education instead of weaving and integrating it. Institutions hoard learners or abandon them, rather than "handing them off" to others when they are ready for their journey's next stage.

So, it's time for a Copernican shift that will put the consumer of Jewish learning at the center. Every educational institution should see itself not only as a provider, but also as a steward, responsible not just for teaching, but also for guiding its learners along the path of their journey.

2. Jewish Education Should Be About Things That Really Matter.  Decades ago, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel warned against undermining the impact of Jewish education by trivializing its content and message. The Jewish education we offer should be both relevant and profound. It should focus on what contemporary curriculum specialists call "big ideas of enduring value" -- the core understandings (which
Judaism has in abundance) that give shape and meaning to the details through which they are expressed.

Jewish education certainly should teach facts and skills. But its ultimate aim should be less the transmission of knowledge than the transformation of lives. As Franz Rosenzweig advised, it will begin with the learner, lead her into Torah, and then back out into life. It will begin with the learner's real needs, real situation, real questions. It will be "personal" in the fullest sense: addressing individuals in their uniqueness and engaging the whole person, not merely some portion labeled "Jewish."

3. Jewish Education Should Help Build Vibrant Jewish Community.  Jewish learning is in its essence a collective enterprise. So, the Jewish education I envision should be as much about building a dynamic Jewish community as it should be about mastering texts or learning traditions. It should be both experiential and consequential. Na'asah v'nishma - "we will do, and we will attend" -- with the "doing," the "attending," and the "we" all inextricably intertwined. Jewish education should be active and engaged,
inspiring and guiding Jews in their quest to be a kehillah kedoshah- a sacred community with a world-transforming mission.

Jewish education should seek out opportunities to strengthen the connections among Jews, not to divide them into smaller, self-contained enclaves. Martin Buber wrote that every true community needs a purposive center. Community is created by the radii that connect each point to that center, thereby defining a circumference that is connected as well. Our center is Torah. As we connect more deeply to it, we will connect more strongly to one another. We surely will debate what Torah demands, but we will again recognize that it is precisely this debate that defines our commonality.

Rabbi Chaya Oliver was ordained from the Zielger School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University and received her MAEd from the Fingerhut School of Education, also at the American Jewish University. She has held many positions within
the field of Jewish education over the past eleven years, including supplemental school teacher (K-12), adult education teacher, youth group assistant, camp counselor, curriculum developer, and administrator. This year she is excited to begin her postgraduate school career as the new Director of Education at Congregation B'nai Zion in El Paso, TX.

TO SEE THE LIGHT

"When God began to create heaven and earth - the earth being Tohu Va'vohu (unformed and void)...God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light..." (Genesis 1:1-3)  Just as God took what was Tohu Va'vohu and created light, so to do we take time each year to take stock of our lives in the past year and make light out of our personal Tohu Va'vohu.  It is during the time of the Chagim (The High Holiday time period) that are provided with the opportunity to take stock of our past year's accomplishments (both good and bad) and melt them down into an unformed mass (tohu va'vohu) in order to sculpt and shape the coming year.  This is our chance to make a fresh start, to gain a greater perspective on the world and our place in it. 
 
Every calendar has a set rhythm and we are aware and accustomed to these rhythms.  The seasons change every year at the appropriate times, and holidays come and go according to those seasonal changes.  Education, though, is not dependant upon the calendar.  Learning is a non-stop, trans-calendar flight through life.  Although the school year is artificially structured so as not to subject students to classrooms during the heat of the summer, it does give students the opportunity to have a check-in with themselves regarding their past performances.  Regardless of what the report card states at the end of the year, the next year is a clean slate and the opportunity for students to refine their scholastic game. 
 
Jewish education, though, is rhythmic in the sense that the Torah drives the calendar, not the other way around.  Jewish education is a life-long process with no clear "graduation" from structured learning.  A large percentage of adults are now filling synagogue classrooms around the country as a way for them to gain what they missed when they were young.  It is a vast misconception that Jewish education ends with B'nai Mitzvah.  One becomes a B'nai Mitzvah; the ceremony is the opportunity for a young adult to demonstrate to the adults of his/her community that they are ready to handle the duties asked of a Jewish adult.  Learning should not end there. 
 
It is my sincerest hope that in the year 5772, B'nai Tikvah extends itself to become more of a community of learners (and teachers).  It is my dedication as a Jewish educator to see that the young people of this community become enlightened by their learning, and that they cannot wait until they return to Religious School the following Sunday/Tues/Wed.  I wish for every person of this congregation to take their Tohu Va'vohu of Jewish knowledge and create for themselves a spark of light that will carry them on their life-long Jewish journey.
 
Shanah Tovah!!
 
 Phil