And now for something (almost) completely different…

Let’s try something different. Let’s move forward. Let’s focus on goals and outcomes, on growth and on moving Jewish Education and the role of the teachers and lead educators to the next level. Facebook, e-mail in boxes and phones have been busy for much of the past week with friends and colleagues talking about, wondering and speculating about what will happen to CAJE—the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education—now that they have announced the cancellation of this summer’s Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education.

The difference I am suggesting is that we not get bogged down in history, gossip or recriminations. I believe that the lay and professional leadership of CAJE is doing everything they can to solve the fiscal dilemmas that led to the decision. And I have tremendous respect for them and for CAJE Executive Director Jeff Lasday in particular. I am not a finance person. I don’t have the answers. I call upon everyone who cares about Jewish Education to be part of that solution. If you have ideas or access to serious funds, contact CAJE directly.

I believe we cannot wait for that solution before beginning the conversation. So let’s have another conversation at the same time. Let’s talk about what’s next. The conversation might be helpful in revitalizing CAJE. It might be useful in figuring out where our field is going. We can’t wait because our students are not going to be able to wait for us to figure it out.

Enduring Understandings
CAJE was born amidst the protests and self-assertion of the young people of the Sixties. The founders wanted the Jewish Communal Establishment to pay attention to and fund the development of teachers and of innovative methodologies. The history is written elsewhere – and it is worth reading. As educators we should approach the dilemma of where next by wiping the slate clean.

[By “educators” I am referring to classroom teachers, directors, principals, clergy, bureau/agency personnel, JCC folks, informal educators, college teachers and program professionals, artists of all kinds serving early childhood, synagogue schools, community schools, day schools, camps, Israel programs, adult learners…you get the idea. The whole gamut of people engaged in transmitting our heritage and identity from all movements and non-movements. The usual suspects!]

What are our goals for the first half of the 21st century?

1. We need to develop the skills of new teachers and recruit lead educators from their ranks. We need to connect them with the vatikim – the veterans – so they can learn from the masters.
   
2. We need to develop the skills of the vatikim. We need to connect them with the newer, younger teachers so we can learn from their creativity and enthusiasm.
   
3. Moore’s Law says that that the data density of integrated circuits double every 18 – 24 months. That means computers continue to get faster, more complex and able to store more data more cheaply. Just as computer capacity has expanded, so too have the lives and capacities of our learners (and their teachers). Remember “Alternatives?” It’s not such a counter-culture term any more. We need to foster creativity in and out of the classroom and in the design of our learning structures. We need to be nimble and we need to talk about how we do that, share best practices and brainstorm together. Some of this can be done on Facebook, wikis and blogs. Some of it needs to be done face to face. Perhaps in smaller local meetings as well as at a conference
   
4. We need a place where we can gather as a learning/teaching community. Some have suggesting regional conferences. Others – myself included – believe the impact of a national conference is essential. While the expenses to individuals might be greater, the ability to bring teachers and scholars and artists to a single location once in a year and the economies of scale make a compelling argument. I remember the impact on me as a first year religious school teacher at CAJE 10 in DeKalb, IL when we sang La’asok B’divrei Torah over Voice of America to the Hebrew teachers of the Soviet Union. The impact is significant.
   
5. Finally, we have to lose the “The way we have always done it” or the “we don’t operate that way” approaches. They lead to stagnation. There is something valuable in consistency. There is also something valuable in responding to current realities. Maybe summer is not the best time to meet—or maybe it is. Perhaps there are alternatives to college campuses—or perhaps they are best suited to our needs. I don’t know. I just know we need to see what works now. That doesn’t mean we have to repeat every conversation every year. We just need to check in once in a while and compare our actions to our goals. When they don’t match, one of them has to change.
   

The Challenge
As many have been, I have been re-inspired by the candidacy and election of President Barack Obama. I am not particularly moved by his ethnicity or politics. I am moved by his message of hope, by the idea that we can each live the American dream if we work for it together.
So here is the take-away. I was not elected for anything. I am not more or less skilled or knowledgeable than you are. I do not have all of the answers. But I believe that together we do have them I have shown you preliminary list of what I think we need to do for our teachers and ourselves. I am still expanding and refining it. Join me. What are your needs as a teacher? As a learner? As an educator?

Let’s begin the conversation. At some point—very soon—we will need to figure out how organize and implement those needs and how to pay for them. Hopefully, while we are learning together, our colleagues will right the ship of CAJE and that can continue be our community’s vehicle. Kein yehi ratzon…

[I want to thank my friends at Torah Aura for giving me a larger platform than my Facebook status to share what I have been thinking and discussing with a few people for the past week. I am not running for anything. I just wanted to go beyond the usual “someone-ought-to-do-something” in which we all engage from time to time. Someone ought to. Someone is you and me.]

Originally posted on the Torah Aura Bulletin Board Blog, January 23, 2009

Mentoring as a Growing Activity

When I was a student in the Rhea Hirsch School of Education, I was blessed to have clinical faculty members—professionals in the Los Angeles community—serving as my mentors. They provided a strong practical counterpart to the formal learning we did with Sara Lee, Michael Zeldin, Isa Aron, Bill Cutter and the rabbinic faculty. These mentors helped shape me as a temple educator, modeling behaviors, giving me responsibilities within their schools and then helping me to reflect upon those experiences and draw lessons from them. When Evie Rotstein invited me to be a part of the Leadership Institute, I knew that it was my opportunity to pay forward the gift the College-Institute. I would like to share three ways in which my participation as a mentor in the Leadership Institute for Congregational School Educators has impacted my practice as an educator—as a mentor, as a learner and as a colleague..

As a Mentor
When my wife and I were expecting our first child sixteen years, ago we devised a test for ourselves. We called it the Ethan-test. We used it to examine our own actions. We asked ourselves whether we would do something we were contemplating if our unborn son were ten years old and watching us. Would we want him to emulate us? If the answer was no, we didn’t do it. It was a great way to parent reflectively.

I have found myself being more proactively reflective as an educator because of my involvement as a mentor in the Leadership Institute. As I prepare for and engage in meetings with my mentees, I fond that I use a variation of the Ethan-test—call it the reflection test. This is a little different. In essence, I try to look back to when I was a student at HUC meeting with one of my mentors. They were both gifted and/or well-trained enough to know that I needed their help in developed analytical skills of reflection, not just their accumulated wisdom. So my self-test is to think about what would have been most helpful to me as a mentee.

During my three years as a mentor, I have fought the natural impulse to respond to questions or problems posed by my mentees by either telling them what I would do or merely by telling them about a similar situation I have faced and how I dealt with it. To be sure this is sometimes appropriate, but I have found it to be more beneficial to the mentee in the long run to ask probing questions that help him or her to examine the situation and develop their own strategies. It’s like the Chinese parable about teaching someone to fish so they can feed themselves forever. While it would be flattering to have them hang on my every word and to continue calling for my help for the remainder of our careers, that would not be helping them. And in developing their skills, I further refine my own.

As a Learner
The opportunities to continue my professional learning with the scholars who have shared their work and insight with the LIC has been incredible. Sometimes I feel like I am working on a second masters. It is rare that was professionals get to return to the safety and warmth of the College-Institute for such in-depth study, and that has been an incredible gift.

I remember near graduation in 1991 I promised myself I would find time for study on a regular basis. While I have had varying degrees of success with that, both on my own and with various chavruta partners, the Leadership Institute has given me a renewed discipline. Moreover, most of my chavruta study has been in the classic texts of the Talmud and Midrash. The institute has brought me to the feet of some of the top minds in education today, such as Joseph P. McDonald, Dr. Bonnie Botel-Sheppard, Dr. David Ellenson, Dr. Jonathan Woocher, Dr. Lisa Grant Jo Kaye, Dr. Jeffrey S. Kress and Dr. Steven Brown. Learning from them as well as from all of the Judaic teachers has been a trhill. And more importantly, when I was a student seventeen years ago, my classmates and I were all embarking on new careers. Our conversations had the high certitude of the relatively inexperienced. I knew everything because I had been a teacher and a camp counselor.

Nearly two decades later, I am learning with my fellow mentors and participants in the program as professionals in the field, with a wide range of experiences. The conversation is now among seasoned people who are only too well-aware of how much we don’t know. The learning is much richer and deeper, because we are all capable of digging deeper. We can truly appreciate what our teachers are saying and are more able to make meaning from it. My mentees and I have all had the opportunity to apply methodologies learned at the institute to our practice as educators.

As a Colleague
Joshua ben Perachyah said: “Provide for yourself a teacher and get yourself a friend.” His words in Pirkei Avot 1:6 remind us that Jewish learning is not meant to be the solitary activity of a scholar in a tower or a hermit in a cave. We need partners in learning. My participation in the institute has given me many such partners and enriched the network of colleagues on whom I can count on to tell me the truths I cannot see and imagine possibilities I could not visualize on my own.

This has spurred me to try and create similar mentor/mentee and collegial relationships among the teachers in my school. My congregation and view my participation in the LICSE as an honor. We also view it as some of the most meaningful and essential professional growth for me ever available.

I want to thank the College-Institute, the Seminary and the Federation for the insight and vision to create the institute, and Evie, Dena, Jo Kaye and Steve Brown for making it a reality and for me to participate.

Originally presented to the Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, May 4, 2008

Time Wars Episode IV: A New Beginning?

In the late 80's I helped research an article by Joel Grishaver called Time Wars. In it he explored ways in which educators had succeeded in overcoming the shrinking amount of time available for religious school. There were some very creative solutions that in retrospect may have only been possible in the places where they functioned. Over fifteen years later the challenges have continued to mount. I would like to explore the role of time in Jewish education and issue a challenge to my colleagues.

Eight Days A Week — I Lo-o-o-ove You...
I was recently asked to consult with a colleague at a Conservative congregation and members of her school board. They were interested in how we had managed our curriculum review several years ago and wanted to explore how to go about their own. When we sat down, one of the first things the vice-president for education said was: "There are families that would like us to go from three days a week to two days. Can you help us?"

This was a very different question from the one I thought I was coming to address, and at the same time it was the same thing. The concern of the leadership was the overall quality of the education each child receives. It had been the belief of this congregation that there were a variety of essential skills and body of knowledge each graduate should possess—and that led to the schedule they currently had. Some members felt that their children could be given a proper education in two days.

As I see it, the two groups are answering different questions. The leadership was focused on the learning outcome. Those advocating a schedule change were focusing on the number of days per week. I believe both have some validity. The leadership, through a review of both the curriculum and of actual classroom practice needs to determine whether the time they have is being well used. Then they need to decide whether they need the time they have to meet their revised learning goals. They are at the beginning of the process. I suspect they will raise the bar on their goals and their faculty and will need the time they have. Because they have always had it, and because there has not been a huge groundswell opposing it, I suspect they will keep the three days.

The twice-a-week advocates do have an important point. As a school, we have an obligation to make good use of our students' time. The demands on an eleven year-old have increased massively over the past 30 years. There are many sociological reasons, none of which I will address for the simple reason that Jewish educators can't change them. They merely are. How we each deal with the many parents seeking an exception to the norm to accommodate their child's special interests (dance, musical instruments, choirs, elite sports teams, etc.) varies from educator to educator and case by case. The one thing I continue to observe as I speak to parents and colleagues is that the demands on us to reduce time decrease as the children's reports of enjoyment and good use of time increase.

So it seems to me the questions are:

1. How much time and frequency do we need to meet our educational goals?
   (This assumes we have developed goals that are in concert with the mission of the synagogue.)
   
2. How well do our parents and students understand our educational goals, and how bought into them are they?
   
3. How well are we using the time we have?
   
4. How do our students and parents perceive how well we use the time we have?
   

The Challenge—What Would Walt Do?
Walt Disney Imagineering is the master planning, creative development, design, engineering, production, project management, and research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company and its affiliates. Representing more than 150 disciplines, its talented corps of Imagineers is responsible for the creation of Disney resorts, theme parks and attractions, hotels, water parks, real estate developments, regional entertainment venues, cruise ships and new media technology projects.

In 1957 a man named Richard Sailer wrote an article entitled "BRAINSTORMING IS IMAGINation enginEERING." In that article he coined the term imagineering, which became the cornerstone of the Walt Disney Company's design concepts and eventually the name of the part of the company that creates the rides and so much more.

When asked how someone should prepare for a career as an imaginer, Doug Wolf a Project Manager with Walt Disney Imagineering said:

"Dream and pursue your imagination and goals. Do anything that stirs your
creativity—read, write, draw, observe and travel. Learn what you enjoy and excel
at, whether it be model-building, drawing, writing or construction. See if
there's a fit. Most likely there is since Imagineering encompasses almost
everything imaginable. But above all, enjoy what paths your life travels and
learn from each experience." (http://www.imagineering.org/)

A number of years ago, I wondered how we could apply the principles of Imagineering to Jewish education. I invited some colleagues to join me in developing a CAJE module where we each presented some ideas for re-imagining the religious school experience. The participants used those ideas as a jumping off point.

So let me issue a challenge to you, my colleagues. The question is time. I am not asking how many hours or days per week are optimal. I am sure we could all answer that, and whatever our answers were, they would be right for our own setting and wrong for someone else's. Instead, I want to ask you to consider the many demands upon our students' time and upon their parents.

Think about the time our teachers have available and how we compensate them. Take as granted that less is not more when it comes to time. Imagine how we can reasonably or unreasonably bring our students to spend more time at the task and joy of Jewish learning. Don't just think outside the box. Toss the box aside. I look forward to your responses.