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Abstract
This article provides an overview and analysis of a relatively new phenomenon: congregational schools that have altered the conventional grammar of schooling, either through their structural arrangements or through their curricular approaches. Five pre-bar/bat mitzvah models are discussed: family schools, schools as communities, informal / experiential programs, afterschool/day care programs, and those that deconstruct and reconstruct the conventional model. In addition, three curricular innovations are examined: project based learning, learning organized around the interests and abilities of the students, and Hebrew Through Movement. Also considered are the factors that are necessary to the survival and proliferation of these new structures and curricular arrangements.
Notes
1 Jonathan Woocher, personal communication, December 17, 2013.
2 See the following websites (http://innovatingcongregations.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Coalition-Handbook-Vol-21.pdf;
http://lev.jewishlearningventure.org/; http://www.cjp.org/Innovative-Models-JLC-Pilot-Programs.aspx; http://issuu.com/nadivlev/docs/ce21brochure_online).
3 This will be discussed below in the section on family schools.
4 In Congregations in Conflict, Penny Edgell Becker (Citation1999) identified a type of churchgoer who is only interested in worship, and does not stay around to socialize after the service. In Sacred Strategies my coauthors and I suggest that a comparable group for Jews might be congregants who are only interested in sending their children to the religious school.
6 These programs were gleaned from the The Pedagogic Reporter’s “Annual Roundups of New Programs in Jewish Education.” See especially Winter 1974–1975 and November 1988.
7 Lisa Langer, personal communication, January 2012.
8 One small congregation has found a clever solution; they divide the year into three trimesters, and require all families to attend their family school for the trimester of their choice. This means that for three months a year the family experiences what I would call the full-strength enculturating option (http://sholomnj.org/node/30).
9 Their website offers 10 explanations for the name (http://tbsmayim.org/what-were-all-abou/why-mayim/).
11 Thanks to Saul Kaiserman for sharing with me these quotations from interviews with the mentors.
12 See (http://innovatingcongregations.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Coalition-Handbook-Vol-21.pdf), p. 158.
13 The number of contact hours for the day camp plus the family programs is equivalent to about 4 hours of religious school a week, depending upon how many weeks the school is in session.
16 See (http://blog.jtsa.edu/reframe/about/).
18 See (http://www.rodefsholom.org). The website appears to have been last updated in 2011, so no information on baseCamp, created in 2012, is on the Internet.
19 This term was popularized by a report of the AVI-CHAI Foundation (Wertheimer, Citation2005).
21 Nitzan is an umbrella organization for 11 of these schools (http://www.nitzan.org).
22 See, for example, the Havayah program at Temple Beth Elohim (Aron & Moskowitz Citation2009a, pp. 249–254), and the Arts, Theater Music (ATM) program at Congregation Or Ami, Calabassas, CA: (http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/?s=Using+the+ATM+to+Bring+Teens+into+Temple).
24 Laurie Phillips, personal communication, March 20, 2014; Lori Forman-Jacobi, personal communication, May 12, 2014.
27 Connections Interim Memo, March 15, 2014.
30 Personal communication, Jan Katzew, February 27, 2009.
31 Personal communication, Gail Dorph, May 21, 2014.
32 See (http://innovatingcongregations.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Coalition-Handbook-Vol-21.pdf), Chapters 2–4.
33 See (http://bie.org/).
35 Rachel Happel, personal communication, May 22, 2014.
36 See (http://kenesethisrael.org/jquestk-6/).
37 Cited in (http://www.cjp.org/Innovative-Models-JLC-Pilot-Programs.aspx).
39 Greninger in Ruach, the congregational newsletter, December 2009–January 2010.
41 BM3T stands for B’nei Mitzvah Magical Mystery Tour (http://tbewellesley.org/article.aspx?id=83751862700). See also Aron and Moskowitz (Citation2009a), pp. 254–258.
42 See (http://www.hebrewthroughmovement.org/).
43 There is also an expectation that its students will enjoy Hebrew much more (Greninger, Citation2014).
44 Most of these teachers are in congregational schools; several are in day schools or independent afterschool care programs, and at least one is in a Chabad school.
45 See, for example, Let’s Learn Hebrew Side-by-Side (http://LetsLearnHebrew.org), an online and hands-on program for teaching Hebrew decoding to fifth and sixth graders.
46 Teachers from three communities were surveyed—Atlanta, Baltimore, and Milwaukee.
48 Ibid. See also Dorph (Citation2011).
49 I use quotation marks here, because it is difficult to think of teachers who teach so few hours as professionals; I do agree wholeheartedly that teachers require intensive staff development.
52 See (http://www.jewishboston.com/Nina-Price/blogs/1230-cjps-teaching-technology-fellowship-is-launched).
53 See (http://blog.jtsa.edu/reframe/about/).
54 See (http://www.legacyheritage.org/ip/).
58 See (http://www.explora-torah.com/Explora-Torah/Welcome.html; http://hebrewcollege.edu/torah-godly-play).
59 See (http://www.bnaimitzvahrevolution.org/).
60 See (http://innovatingcongregations.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/benchmarking_report_-_final.pdf), p. 8.
61 See (http://www.thejewisheducationproject.org/sites/default/files/uploaded/PDF/JEP_LOMED_Phase_II_Final_Report_2013107_RC2.pdf), p. 7.
62 A careful review of this study is beyond the scope of this article. It would address some of the questions I had as I read the report: Is dividing students into small groups equivalent to creating purposeful relationships between them? Were some of the classroom examples truly content rich? This type of discussion would be a crucial second step in laying out a research agenda for congregational schools.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Isa Aron
Isa Aron, Professor of Jewish Education at the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, is founding Director of the Experiment in Congregational Education, Codirector of the B’nai Mitzvah Revolution, and the author of three books on congregational education. E-mail: [email protected]