Jewish Education Change Network

Alternative Day School education

Hi, I am new to the network and am in the process of applying for an Ed.D in Jewish Educational Leadership. My focus and passion is Jewish day school education, of which I am partly a product...but would like to see transformed. I am curious as to why you think there are no alternative Jewish Day schools? Why have they all maintained a traditional approach to education?My question stems from our approach to Jewish education but as I have continued to discuss and think about it I cannot but ask the same of the secular curriculum. Would love to hear your thoughts.

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Permalink Reply by Andrea RC Kasper on May 16, 2011 at 6:04am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3h_pp8CH...

Just posted this in the videos but wanted to add it here...this is one of the issues that I would like to see addressed in day schools

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Permalink Reply by Daniel C. Petter-Lipstein on May 23, 2011 at 8:46am

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With all due respect to those who have contributed to this discussion, there is no need to "imagine" alternative day schools, they are very real and exist right now and they are called Jewish Montessori schools.

My three children attend Yeshivat Netivot Montessori in Edison, NJ. The school started with five children in a basement in 2000, today we have over 100 children from ages infant through sixth grade. It is true Montessori, applied to all learning and subjects and true Torah lishmah. There is an infant class, a pre-primary (18 months to 3 years), primary (3 years to 6 years), lower el (grades 1 through 3), upper el (grades 4 through 6). Bezrat hashem, we will have a full graduating class in three years.

There are no tests, no report cards with letter or number grades and no nightly homework. The curriculum is integrated. My children learn about fractions and apply those lessons to humash lessons about maasrot. My 2nd grade daughter is doing a three month research project on Tanzania and they speak Swahili there, so her 3-D, interactive haggadah had the four questions in Swahili, which she proudly read after doing them in Hebrew on the seder night. For purim she made mishloach manot by baking African mask cookies, fruit salad with fruits found in Tanzania and creating a paper mache calabash bowl.

We have fifth graders doing independent research projects with oral presentations on figures like Chaucer and Genghis Khan.

There are similar Jewish Montessori schools like this with elementary programs in Brooklyn, DC, Chicago, Toronto, Atlanta and Scottsdale. There are many more preschools that are Jewish Montessori and more are opening each year. A wonderful Jewish Montessori pre-school called Olam Jewish Montessori is opening in Irvine, CA bezrat hashem in September.

Beren Academy in Houston is a wonderful school, but they are not realizing the full benefits of Montessori since as far as I know, the Montessori instruction is only for general studies, not Judaic subjects which are taught more traditionally.

I recently wrote an article entitled, "Superwoman Was Already Here" which is about general Montessori, but all of the stories and examples are taken from Yeshivat Netivot Montessori. The article was favorably noted in a blog of that bastion of progressive thought, Forbes Magazine. Link below has the link to my original article.

http://blogs.forbes.com/stevedenning/2011/03/24/montessori-is-an-ex...

I am happy to connect people wherever they may be to Jewish Montessori schools so that they can see what I am talking about for themselves.

Best wishes,

Daniel Petter-Lipstein

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Permalink Reply by Andrea RC Kasper on May 23, 2011 at 9:21am

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for sharing with us the many wonderful Montessori Jewish Day schools. I had heard about the one in Houston and posted about it a while back. Certainly your children are in a fabulous school and as you mention there are others like it. Thank you also for the link for your article, which enjoyed reading and could not agree with more! I especially could relate to the concern for the greater American society in wanting to help prepare our children for the future as it will be, helping to develop within themselves the tools for inquiry, ways to attack problems and the confidence that comes from understanding process.

The newly opening schools are a testament to what Jewish families are looking for more and more. That said, Montessori is one such model and I am sure there are others, as well an those not yet developed which would serve our community, exist and the idea of stopping to re-imagine what Jewish day schools can be would be a loss to the community.

Personally, I would like to see some of our schools focus on skills beyond the academic realm, carpentry, agriculture, arts, electricity, etc. We need to help young Jewish men and women understand that there are amazing fields out there in the world that are not purely academic. I would like my children and other Jewish children to see that there are more options available to them than what they currently see reflected back to them among the Jewish community.

Cheers,

Andrea Kasper

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Permalink Reply by Daniel C. Petter-Lipstein on May 23, 2011 at 9:39am

Andrea,

Thanks for the feedback.

I totally agree that there should be continued exploration of truly alternative models and Montessori is not the only solution. But starting schools is hard and I wanted to ensure that people knew that they did not need to reinvent the wheel and had a strong platform to work from.

Montessori is easily replicable because there is a proven system and it is not dependent on the genius of a few visionary educators. Though it does take certain kind of dedicated educators to implement, but not someone who is inventing whole cloth.

Do you know what Maker Faire is? I just attended it yesterday here in Northern California (I am here because people want to start Jewish Montessori schools in the SF BAY Area and we are trying to help them).

Maker Faire is where people who make all kinds of things come and show what they are making. it is kind of a science fair on steroids or WIRED meets Burning Man meets Craft show.

Would love to see in a few years a Jewish Education Maker Faire and have that inspire the types of schools you discuss.

I will tell you that I was just at an extraordinary school in Southern California called New Community Jewish High School where they have an artist in residence and the arts are a critical part of the approach and curriculum.

The bigger underlying issue is that the Jewish community, and really the larger society, does not value work that requires the hands as much as the mind. So schools that taught people to be farmers, welders, carpenters and artists would be challenging unless they could also demonstrate that those schools send kids to prestigious colleges.

Have you seen Race to Nowhere? This captures the current American crisis in education due to these warped values quite well.

Where are you know and what are you doing?

I am just a passionate parent.

Happy to exchange e-mails and continue via regualr e-mail.

Andrea RC Kasper said:

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for sharing with us the many wonderful Montessori Jewish Day schools. I had heard about the one in Houston and posted about it a while back. Certainly your children are in a fabulous school and as you mention there are others like it. Thank you also for the link for your article, which enjoyed reading and could not agree with more! I especially could relate to the concern for the greater American society in wanting to help prepare our children for the future as it will be, helping to develop within themselves the tools for inquiry, ways to attack problems and the confidence that comes from understanding process.

The newly opening schools are a testament to what Jewish families are looking for more and more. That said, Montessori is one such model and I am sure there are others, as well an those not yet developed which would serve our community, exist and the idea of stopping to re-imagine what Jewish day schools can be would be a loss to the community.

Personally, I would like to see some of our schools focus on skills beyond the academic realm, carpentry, agriculture, arts, electricity, etc. We need to help young Jewish men and women understand that there are amazing fields out there in the world that are not purely academic. I would like my children and other Jewish children to see that there are more options available to them than what they currently see reflected back to them among the Jewish community.

Cheers,

Andrea Kasper

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Permalink Reply by Andrea RC Kasper on May 23, 2011 at 10:28am

Hi,

I have to see The Race to Nowhere -will see if we can find it online.

I have not heard of the Maker Fair but LOVE the idea of one for Jewish education. Let's make it happen!!!! Seriously.

Also, the artist in residency is fabulous, I have been writing a lot about that idea on the Arts in Jewish ed on the network. I think it is something that is rather simple to do, not expensive and gives students what I have come to think as the most important aspect of arts' education...seeing artists making art!

Andrea