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ABSTRACT
This article examines case studies of two part-time synagogue education programs, a conventional “Hebrew School” and an alternative program modeled after Jewish summer camp. Using the lens of teaching of Bible to children in Grades 3–5, the study provides insight into similarities and differences between the two types of programs and the impact of the program structure on the proliferation and/or staying power of one or the other. I found that factors of success in synagogue education may not be dependent on a program’s structure (“school”/“camp”) but, rather, on factors such as professional learning and content knowledge, among others.
KEYWORDS:
Notes
1 Others include (a) the need for the entire synagogue or, at the very least, the entire education program to be part of any change, (b) a clear articulation of a shared vision or sense of purpose, and (c) putting the learner at the center.
2 Two attempts to categorize the alternative programmatic frameworks that arose in the past 20 or more years, Aron (Citation2014) and the Jewish Education Project of New York (unpublished) found that the most ubiquitous types of changes were structural in nature. A smaller number of changes were categorized by Aron as “pedagogic.”
3 JEDLAB is a closed Facebook group comprised of more than 5,000 Jewish educators. JEDLAB members serve in every conceivable Jewish educational setting and role.
4 Posted on March 28, 2014.
5 The number of possible synagogue-based alternative programs according to these criteria was surprisingly small. Two additional possibilities, one a camp program that partially took place at an actual camp and the other a project- and chavurah-based program, were in transition and therefore not available for this study.
6 Hebrew is taught separately. Children have multiple Hebrew learning options for the midweek session.
7 I use the term “teacher” throughout for simplification. However, in the alternative program the role closest to that of a teacher was called a “unit head.” At times, for simplicity’s sake, the term “student” is used to refer to learners in both the conventional and alternative programs.
8 This may have to do with the fact that both programs are in Reform congregations. Rosov Consulting (Citation2013) note in their report on Learner Outcomes and Measurement for Effective Education Design (LOMED) that Conservative congregations, even those experimenting with new programs, were more focused on a knowledge of the text while Reform congregations sought outcomes that had to do with identity development and meaning-making.
9 The unit heads are paid $25 for every hour they spend meeting as a staff during the summer. Payment for faculty meetings during the year are folded into the yearly salary in line with the practice for all CAY faculty.
10 In my conversations with them, each of the CAYCamp staff members (excluding Rebecca) used the nomenclature of school in discussing CAYCamp (teacher, students, school). This is addressed more fully in the section of this article entitled “The use of language: Does calling it camp make it so?”.
11 These two indicators, in particular, are also at the heart of Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, Citation2005) the curriculum design framework used in writing the CHAI curriculum.
12 I have chosen to use the term “experiential” education and not “informal” education. A number of essays in Bryfman (Citation2014), point out that the terminology for the “outside the classroom” educational experience is still in flux and a definition not yet agreed upon.
13 Every CHAI lesson includes a section entitled “Evidence of Understanding” and a listing of the “knowledge” and “skills” students should acquire through the learning experience.
14 Rebecca referred to Berger’s (Citation2003) approach to project-based learning in which long-term final projects frame the learning throughout a given unit or time period.
15 By way of contrast, approximately 10% of children at CAY attend Jewish camp, 5% of which attend the regional URJ camp. Rebecca and members of the clergy spend time at camp in the summer but not to the same degree as the CSS staff.
16 Medura time can be equated with classroom time in a conventional school.
17 In previous years the campers were required to wear CAYCamp t-shirts at every session. They protested and during my observation only unit heads and camp staff wear them.
18 Keruv is the term used to describe the work of bringing Jews closer to Judaism, commonly used in certain Orthodox communities.
19 Jewish day school and preschools are also immersive Jewish educational experiences. They are not mentioned here because they do not exist within the context of a supplementary congregational framework.