Who are our learners?

In graduate school I learned about Joseph Schwab's "Four Commonplaces of Education" - the four 'commonplaces' that must be considered when creating an educational program.  They are 1) the learner, 2) the teacher, 3) the subject matter, and 4) the context / milieu of the learning.  If any one of those things changes, the whole educational experience will change.

So... who are our learners in Jewish education today?  And how does that affect what kinds of educational programs and experiences we create?  I've been thinking about this a lot, especially when I spend time with my havurah.  I am in a havurah with 7 families (my own family included).  All families are members of our Reform synagogue, and are raising their children as Jews.  Of the 14 adults, we have the following:

-7 born & raised as Jews (1 in Israel, 6 in the United States)
-1 raised secular, and 6 raised in other religious traditions (2 have converted to Judaism, 2 others are considering or in the process of conversion)
-3 Hebrew speakers
-3 Chinese speakers

I could go on with statistics, but you get the picture.  None of the 7 families is comprised of parents who were both raised Jewish.  Our backgrounds are all over the map, yet we all want to connect to the Jewish community.  Despite our very different experiences with religion and religious communities growing up, we are all dedicated to Jewish life and want to raise our children with a meaningful sense of Jewish identity.

So the question and challenge for today's Jewish community is this: what kinds of educational experiences will speak to the hearts and minds and souls of every child in my havurah?  

Dinosaurs, Jews, and Time

Like many others his age, my four year old son is obsessed with dinosaurs.  He reads dinosaur books & encyclopedias like it's his job, and we have spent hours upon hours talking about all the different kinds of dinosaurs, which dinosaurs lived during which periods of the Mesozoic Era, etc.  I have to admit that prior to about 6 months ago, I knew practically nothing about dinosaurs.  Whatever I may have learned in school was long forgotten, my brother never went through a dinosaur phase (as far as I can remember), and I was never really interested in learning more.  However, my knowledge of dinosaurs has skyrocketed in the last few months - thanks to my son - and it's gotten me thinking a lot about the nature of time, as well as the role of humans and Judaism in the universe.

From what I understand, dinosaurs lived from about 250 to 65 million years ago.  That means dinosaurs roamed the earth for about 185 million years.  There were various kinds of dinosaurs that came and went during that time, but still, that length of time totally blows my mind.  185 MILLION YEARS.  How can I possibly wrap my mind around that amount of time???  When my son and I learn about different kinds of dinosaurs - like Diplodocus of the Jurassic Period (~150 MYA) and T Rex of the Cretaceous (~65 MYA) - we find that they lived something like 80 MILLION YEARS apart from each other.  For my son, those are just numbers, facts to be learned and regurgitated, as he tries to understand which dinosaurs lived at which times.  For me, however, those numbers represent something else - something bordering on the spiritual.  I am filled with awe that the earth has been around that long (even with several 'mass extinctions' in the earth's history), and I become totally paralyzed in my thinking about 'time' when I consider the vast length of time that dinosaurs were here.

By comparison, humans have been around for something like 50,000 years.  From what little I know of evolutionary science, 'homo sapiens' developed from other 'homo' species over the course of about 2 million years, but humans as we know them today have 'roamed the earth' for 200,000 years at most.  According to Wikipedia, humans reached 'full behavioral modernity' about 50,000 years ago. 

Normally, 50,000 years seems like a REALLY LONG TIME.  In the Jewish community, we think of our biblical stories as taking place a LONG TIME ago - to the tune of 3,000-4,000 years ago.   Even Jewish life in the 19th century (just 200 years ago) seems like a long time ago.  So what do I do with the knowledge that dinosaurs not only lived more than 65 million years ago, but that they were on earth for 185 million years?!  And that two different dinosaurs may have lived 50-100 million years apart?!  That's really amazing, mind-boggling...  It makes our time as humans on earth seem like a blip on the radar, barely even measurable in the broad scope of things.

To me, all this raises the ultimate question - the question of meaning and purpose.  Why are we were?  What consequence does our existence have?  How can we find / create meaning if we realize that the span of our human lives is so tiny compared to the long existence of life in general? 

I think there are many ways to answer the question, but for me personally, this is where Judaism and Jewish tradition steps in.  Judaism teaches us to value life - no matter how short it is - and to sanctify the time we are here.  There is a teaching by Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Psischke (1765–1827) that helps us figure out how to do this.  He suggests that we should always carry two notes in our pockets. The one in the right pocket reads: “The world was created for my sake.” The one in the left pocket reads: “I am but dust and ashes.” In other words, we should always be aware of our microscopic existence in the world, humble enough to recognize that we are nothing 'but dust and ashes.'  At the same time, we must not only go through life with that mindset, for that would lead to nihilation, to a sense of complete purposeless and emptiness.  Instead, we should also sometimes take the approach that 'the world was created for (our) sake.'  We should feel that our actions do indeed matter, that there is meaning in the universe and meaning in our individual lives.

While trying to live between the two "pockets" or two extremes, I'm still totally blown away by the time frame of the dinosaur era, and the comparably miniscule time frame of human existence... how could I not have realized this until now???  I guess it's true what they say - you really do learn a lot from your children!

Empathy

This video was created for a hospital setting, but it makes me think about empathy in synagogue life too.  How would our work / our schools / our programs look different if we really tried to see the world through others' eyes?  Or... if we could at least acknowledge the very limited scope of our understanding of what another person is experiencing at any given moment... it's a very humbling exercise to think in this way...

Project Based Learning (PBL) in Action

We have been experimenting with Project Based Learning (PBL) in our Religious School this year.  Ron Berger is one of the leaders of PBL in the secular world of education, and his book An Ethic of Excellence is truly inspirational.PBL is - and is not - what it sounds like.  It is learning that involves a 'project', but not just any project. 

PBL is a form of education that leads to "good work," or work that is...

• Good in Quality
• Has academic rigor, accuracy, craftsmanship, beauty
• Good for the Soul
• Is engaging & fulfilling for students and teachers
• Good for the World
• Contributes beyond the classroom (has an audience beyond their teacher / class)
• Builds character, citizenship and 21^st century skills

There are four characteristics (or principles) that make a given project "PBL":

• It is work that matters in the world (authentic, not contrived) – has a real audience and purpose
• The teacher offers support for student discovery (print and online resources, and experts to consult when needed) - i.e. constructivist learning
• The teacher builds a supportive and challenging culture of critique which involves multiple revisions of the work (a first draft is never the final draft!)
• There are opportunities for public presentation of work that makes a difference in the world (should be work that matters, does good, and has an impact on the world)

To get a better sense of the third bullet point (creating a culture of critique), check out this video of Ron Berger showing students how a first grade boy named Austin learned to draw a butterfly:



Austin's Butterfly: Building Excellence in Student Work - Models, Critique, and Descriptive Feedback from Expeditionary Learning on Vimeo.


Our Omanut (art) students were the first to experiment with this type of learning, as they created a "Guide to Art in Israel."  While the project was chosen by the teachers, the students did everything else - the content, the layout, the research, illustrations & text, etc.  The students created multiple drafts of each illustration, using the technique of 'peer critique' to learn how they could improve their work.  We are publishing the book and will sell copies in our Temple gift shop and online.  

Our Teva (nature) students followed suit with a Guide to Teva (nature) in Israel.  Their book has already been published and looks fantastic!  The Teva students did not go through the process of peer critique / multiple revisions, and I am hoping that if we do similar PBL-work in the future that we will give the project more time to allow for multiple revisions and a somewhat higher 'quality' in the final product. That being said, the students really loved working on something that has real-world significance and has a real audience outside the classroom.

Another class did something that might fit under the heading of "PBL" as well... our Shira (music) students studied the teachings of Pirkei Avot as well as the history of Jews immigrating to America in the 19th /20th century, and they wrote their very own musical called "Life's Lessons"!  The play (a piece of 'musical theater') involved an original script as well as three original songs - all composed by the students (with the help of their teachers, one of whom is a professional composer).  Here's the performance they did for our whole Religious School on April 28th.  They did an amazing job!

If you are an educator thinking about incorporating PBL in your program, I would be happy to speak with you.  We learned a lot this year about what works, what doesn't work, and what the challenges are in using PBL in a part-time Jewish educational context.  It's been a fun road, and despite the challenges, I think the students found great meaning in creating things that have real-world value.

Re-thinking the "School Year"

In the past I've written about why I can't stand the term "Religious School" - because what we do in Jewish education is not described well by the word "religious" or by the term "school."  However, in one way we are exactly like a "school": we have a "school year."  I have caught myself using that term over and over again in recent weeks - "We are almost at the end of the school year."  "I am busy planning for next (school) year."  "We just opened registration for next (school) year."  As I sit with the notion of ending one year and starting another, I am struck by how stuck we are (and I am) in this mode of a "SCHOOL YEAR."

As a rabbi and mom, I wish there weren't a 'school year' for Jewish education.  I wish I could take my kids to synagogue every week for both study and prayer, in age-appropriate settings.  I look to my Mormon sister-in-law who goes to church with her family every Sunday - rain or shine, winter or spring, holiday or not.  From what I understand, the members of the church spend about an hour in communal prayer (with childcare / programming available for the very youngest kids who can't sit that long) and about an hour in learning / educational programs divided by age and gender (they have adult men's learning, adult women's learning, and kids programs for various age groups).  They join together for worship and study no matter which Sunday it is in the calendar year.  It could be a 'holiday weekend' (like Labor Day or Presidents Day weekend), a school vacation (winter break, spring break, summer break, etc), or just a regular old Sunday.  No matter what, the community is there to gather, pray, and learn.

I know this exists in the Jewish world.  In my congregation the best parallel is our Friday night worship, as we have Shabbat services every single Friday night of the year, and you will always find a critical mass of people together to worship.  The times vary, and the style of worship varies a bit, but there will always be a community there to gather and pray.  We have Shabbat morning study and prayer as well - our (adult) Torah study is pretty well attended, though our Shabbat morning worship does not draw a large number of congregants on a regular basis (it's mostly the friends and family of b'nai mitzvah students).

That being said, our Shabbat programming is not always feasible for families with young kids.  We do our best to offer kids programs on a regular basis (monthly, for example), but the piece that's missing for me is the whole-family, whole-community gathering for weekly study and prayer.  We arguably have that, but it takes place on Sunday mornings, is geared toward children ages 5-13, and is called "Religious School."  We have ~375 kids in our Religious School, along with about 50 teen TAs and ~25 adult teachers.  Kids participate in their educational programs, and parents frequently join in for a 30-min worship service (tefillah).  So we do have a weekly gathering for study and prayer for families with kids.  But it takes place during the "school year" and we take frequent breaks.  We never have Religious School on secular holiday weekends (like Presidents Day), during most school vacations, or for ~ 4 months during the summer.

Our Religious School schedule is determined by design - for logistical, practical, and financial reasons.  We know (or assume) that many of our families will not come on holiday weekends.  [We even went so far as to stop offering Religious School on the Sunday of Mothers Day because attendance was so low for many years in a row.  Mothers Day is now an official "Jewish holiday"!]  We know (or assume) that our families will not come during the summer due to vacations, summer camp, etc.  We also have a professionalized staff of teachers (unlike Mormon churches which rely on members to do the teaching, un-paid)... and our teachers need a break, time to plan their curricula, etc. (Side note: I, too, really enjoy and benefit from the down time that a break in the school year affords me!) Last but certainly not least, we only budget for a certain # of weeks of Religious School per fiscal year - somewhere in the range of 25-28 weeks of classes.  Again, that is due to the fact that we have a professionalized staff. 

However, given all these realities, I have found myself coming back to the question, "What if we did away with the notion of a 'school year'?"  After all, I assume that we do Jewish education during the 'school year' because we based our model after the public schooling model.  But we have already moved away from the public schooling model in many other ways.  And isn't Jewish learning a lifelong, year-long commitment?  Why do we abandon ship for four months every year?  What makes us so different from the Mormons, who commit to weekly worship and study as a family?  We are the "People of the Book," after all!  Could we consider a different model?  If we offered Jewish family learning on a weekly basis all year long (maybe on Shabbat?), would anyone but me be interested?  Has anyone in the world of Jewish education asked these questions before?   If so, where did the conversation lead?

Follow-up on 'literacy'

Perfect follow up to last week's post about Jewish literacy... check out Thomas Friedman's article about higher education.  The key point for me as a Jewish educator is his spot-on comment that " increasingly the world does not care what you know. Everything is on Google. The world only cares...what you can do with what you know."  I'd emend his statement for Jewish education to say "Increasingly it doesn't matter what you know about Judaism.  Everything (you're wondering about can be found) on Google.  It only matters what you can do with what you know."  In other words, what kind of Jewish life do you live?  How do you find Jewish knowledge and apply that knowledge to living a meaningful Jewish life?  It's not about what you know anymore - in the secular world or in the Jewish world.  It's about what you do.

Jewish Literacy vs. Identity

One of the things I've been thinking about recently is the question of goals in Jewish education, and more specifically, the goals for Religious Schools (also known as "part-time supplementary congregational educational programs"). If you could boil it down to one thing, what is the primary goal of Religious School? 

From what I gather, in the past - perhaps 50 or 100 years ago - the answer was likely related to Jewish knowledge.  Parents sent their children to Religious School so they could improve their understanding of Judaism.  They wanted their children to learn Hebrew, prayers, Jewish history, Torah stories, etc.  However, I think the goal has shifted in the last 10 or 20 years from Jewish literacy to Jewish identity.  In previous generations, Jewish identity was more of a 'given.'  You might have more or less knowledge of Judaism and its traditions, but there was a clear sense of Jewish identity.  Today, identity is multi-faceted, and we all make choices about which of our identities matter most.  Given the rise of inter-faith marriages, along with the notion that each of us makes choices as a "sovereign self", it is not a given that all children raised by one or two Jewish parents will necessarily view themselves as Jewish.  Therefore, our Religious Schools have begun to emphasize Jewish identity above everything else. 

This is certainly true at Temple Isaiah.  We say in our Religious School Program Vision that our goal is for "our children, our families, and all members of our community... to be challenged, exhilarated, and energized by the power of Jewish ideas and traditions."  In other words, we want them to WANT to be Jewish.  We want our families to identify as Jews and find meaning in our sacred tradition.

Of course, you cannot teach Jewish identity with teaching Jewish content.  We hope our students will learn Jewish knowledge and improve their 'literacy' as Jews.  However, there is sometimes a tension between the goal of Jewish literacy and the goal of Jewish identity. 

And so I ask you, dear blog readers - what do you think?  In what ways does the tension between the goals of teaching Jewish identity and Jewish literacy play out in Religious Schools?  In what ways are those two goals complementary?  If you are a parent, what are your goals for your child/ren?  What are the benefits and what gets sacrificed if we were to focus more on identity than literacy?  And vice versa - what are the benefits and what gets sacrificed if we were to focus more on literacy than identity? 


P.S. Coincidentally, David Brooks wrote an article for the NY Times today which talks about Western vs. Chinese views of learning.  The article addresses, at least in part, the tension I outline here.  He describes the difference between seeing learning as an 'academic' / knowledge-acquisition process, vs. learning as a moral process... there's definitely a parallel with my thoughts here!