Perpetual Student

By Rabbi Elyse Winick
KOACH Assistant Director
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

Anyone who is a long-term reader of KOACH publications knows that my favorite and most-quoted textual source is "From all my teachers I have gained wisdom, but from my students I have learned most of all." When I consider the state of Jewish education today, I can’t help but think of the innovative and creative folks who are students when they sit before me, but are educational role models for their peers and their own students as well.

I was a Hebrew School junkie as a kid. I have to admit it. I went early, stayed late and always volunteered to do more. Our Hebrew School sessions were two hours daily, Monday through Thursday. One year they switched the Thursday session to be more of a cultural experience rather than a classroom experience. I was mortified (please, KOACH staff, keep your laughter to a minimum). The classroom (in rows, no less) was an environment which worked well for me and I couldn’t understand what they hoped to gain by making the switch. Today I think I see things a bit more clearly.

A cousin of mine recently bemoaned the fact that her Conservative synagogue had standards for Hebrew School attendance and had requirements for how much school needed to be completed in order for a child to celebrate becoming Bar or Bat Mitzvah in the shul. She couldn’t believe that the school would dare interfere with her son’s extracurricular activities. How else would he have a well-rounded experience? I, in turn, couldn’t believe that she didn’t get it, didn’t understand that her child’s Jewish identity could not be crafted by an hour and a half weekly of participation in Jewish life. It was a stalemate.

The happy medium between my cousin and me lies not in the dilution of Jewish education, but in the ongoing discovery of different methods and styles which engage young people and make Jewish life compelling. Not every family will opt for a day school education. How do we provide as much passion and enrichment as possible in a supplemental school?

Comparatively speaking, I think day school educators have an easier task before them than those who teach in supplemental, or afternoon, schools. Day school educators are working with a self-selected group of families who have made Jewish education a priority. Their students do not come to them after a full day of sitting behind desks, minds already saturated, bodies weary from the day’s events. They are not competing with sports, dance, gymnastics, scouts or any of the other myriad after school attractions that are out there.

In the afternoon school we are challenged to present a lifetime of Jewish education in six hours (at best) a week. Those hours must be entertaining and engaging, must keep students interested and energized. It seems an insurmountable task.

Then I listen to the KOACH students who have been able to teach Talmud to afternoon students, who have transformed their classrooms into experimental labs in which students don’t sit silently and fill in photocopied sheets, but explore their heritage and sacred history through art, dance and music, through theater, video and writing, and in which teachers bring the characters of our past to life and transmit a sense of Jewish identity which is rich with meaning.

It’s clear that we still have a long way to go to reach nirvana, in both day and supplemental schools. But I’m starting to understand what I missed out on, sitting behind a desk in a row….

From my teachers I have gained knowledge…but from my students most of all. Y’yasher kokhakhem on the tremendous contributions you have made to young lives. I hope you’ll continue to teach all of us, but especially me, how to teach "outside the row," and make a lasting impression.

[Posted 9/30/02]