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Rabbinic Insights: On Jewish Education and Modern Technology
San Diego Jewish Times, February 24, 2006
By Rabbi Wayne Dosick
I was recently channel surfing when I
came across an animated cartoon of the story of Joseph and his brothers. It was
well done, with what they call in "the industry" -- high production
values. I kept waiting for the Christian twist to the story, but it never came.
Here was a biblical story, in engaging format that we could heartily embrace and
endorse.
It got me to thinking. Without much input
from rabbis and Jewish educators, there are hundreds of television shows,
videos, and DVDs about Bible, and Jewish history, and archaeology, and, yes,
theology the "Big Bang," quantum physics and comparative
religions, the Holocaust, and modern Israel that are being made by Disney, and
Pixar (now merged), the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, PBS, and more.
And, it seems that Berlitz, and the State
Department, and the CIA and others have learned to teach Hebrew more quickly and
effectively than we have.
Our children are technocrats. They use
audio, video, DVDs, computers, and iPods; they upload, and download, and do all
manner of technological feats. This has led to a "30 second attention
span," yet it has also opened worlds that were not even imagined until the
last few years.
And we are still teaching Hebrew school like
we did 30 and 50 years ago.
Now, most thankfully, and with much
admiration, we can say that today's Jewish educators are dedicated, and
enthusiastic, and highly creative, and deeply committed. They have made Hebrew
school much more palatable than it has ever been.
But, the afternoon Hebrew school is still the worst educational form ever invented by humankind.
We get the children and many of the teachers when they are already
exhausted from a full day of secular school, and when they would rather be out
doing something else. We try to teach Hebrew which, like the study of any
language, requires consistency and repetition in an hour on Mondays, and an
hour on Wednesdays, with no reinforcement in-between an almost impossible
task. We try to teach everything else Bible, history, prayer, rituals,
holidays, Holocaust, Israel, Jewish values and ethics in the few remaining
hours.
Is it any wonder that, with most children, we fail far more than we succeed?
What we need is a complete overhaul not of Judaism, not of what we need and
want to teach, not of the commitments we have, and traditions we want to pass on
but of the delivery systems of Jewish education.
We need to take advantage of all the amazing
educational delivery systems that are already out there, and that are being
tested and tried every day. A student can now get a BA from the University of
California, completely online; an MBA from the University of Phoenix, completely
online; Ph.D. by distance learning. Besides being flexible in timing and cost,
these programs do not sit 20 or 30 students in a classroom and teach them all
with the same methodology; they take into account the many different modalities
some say 9; some say 12 or more by
which students children and adults best learn, and individualize the methods
and delivery of instruction. Old molds are shattered in secular education. Why
not in Jewish education?
These preliminary ideas need a great deal of
thought and shaping, but here's just a little bit of what we might be able to
do.
Let's, for example, teach Bible and history
through technology. We can use much of what is already out there, and we can
develop what we need. There are certainly enough Jews in the entertainment and
technological industries so that we can get all the expertise we need. We do not
need to have our children sit in a classroom and listen to a teacher talk. Our
youngsters can buy or borrow the software, or download it, and watch and
learn Bible and history. We can laser-focus our content to age and
developmental levels, and to varieties of learning modalities.
It can be the same for Hebrew language.
There can be reading skill and language skill computer programs; there can be
video and computer games that can be very, very effective learning tools. Our
children need basic reading skills; acquisition of a basic vocabulary, and basic
grammatical principles. Technology can provide the learning rubric.
Students then make up learning contracts
with their teachers, and well supervised by parents, who become an integral
part of the learning process, rather than just carpool drivers accomplish
the work. Children work at their own pace and in their own ways. There are
measures of progress and accomplishment. There are a wide variety of motivations
and incentives, rewards and consequences. (I'm so sorry. You are not yet
eligible for bar mitzvah. You have not completed your learning contract and
demonstrated your competency. The onus is on you, the student and you, the
parent. We have provided all that you need; you are responsible for
accomplishing it.)
Teachers are always available in the
Language Lab and in the classroom. A student can "drop in" any
afternoon or early evening to get any help or instruction.
Every six weeks or so, the
children and their parents get together on a Sunday afternoon, or for a Shabbas
morning service and lunch, or for a Friday evening dinner and service, or at a
Tuesday evening gathering, and work, together with the teachers on the material
that has been covered in that time period. There are biblio-dramas, and historical
re-enactments. How much will a student know and remember when his father dresses
up as Rashi, and offers biblical commentary?
Twice or three times a year, the families
spend a Shabbas weekend together, either in town, or at a campsite, for a full
experience of living Judaism. Together, they delve into text, into the
authenticity of Jewish learning.
So,
what do we do in the classroom, when the student comes once or twice a
week? The school continues to do what, in many schools is being done now it
teaches the children to "do Jewish," participating in experiential
Jewish learning. There is great benefit and connection in baking a challah, and
making a Havdalah candle.
And most, we do what we are supposed to do
best but which we do most poorly. We teach our children about God, and
faith, and prayer, and Jewish values. We talk GodTaIk. We pray, we sing, we
meditate, we find ways to come close to God. We speak of God's word and will for
us. We learn how God wants us to behave. We learn to build up our broken world.
We surely can find ways far better than we
have now to give over cognitive Jewish learning for our children to learn
their heads.
Then, our Jewish educators, our rabbis, our
cantors, our teachers and our classroom hours can be dedicated to what
our children need most helping to grow their Jewish hearts and souls.
Rabbi Wayne Dosick, Ph.D., the spiritual guide of the Elijah
Minyan, an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego and the Director of
the 17: Spiritually Healing Children's Emotional Wounds. He is the
award-winning author of six critically acclaimed books, including Golden
Rules; Living Judaism; and Soul Judaism: Dancing with God into a New Era.