The remaining 1,253 students attend five Jewish day schools, which, in a
majority of instances, are hard-pressed for cash, she said.
Jordan and Noah Hadas, director of adult education for the Agency for Jewish
Education, shared their perspectives on the various kinds of Jewish
educational programs in San Diego during interviews on Wednesday, April 10,
at the agency's offices on Mercury Street in Kearny Mesa.

Pre schools

Although there are nine Jewish preschools in San Diego County, there are not
enough to meet the demand of the growing Jewish population, Jordan said. The
result, she added, is that there are numerous Jewish children attending
Christian preschools.

How critical a problem is that? "In preschool, you learn about holidays, so
they learn about Halloween, Christmas, Jesus and things like that," Jordan
replied. Far preferable, she said, would be if those same children could
attend Jewish preschools and begin to form their identity.

Jordan said preschool is a time when Jewish families often are influenced to
institute or bring back Jewish practices to their homes.

Like supplementary schools, Jewish preschools are disadvantaged by low pay
for teachers, making it difficult to attract experienced educators, she
said.

Supplementary schools

Most Jewish students learn about their religion, history, customs, Israel
and something of the Hebrew language in classes that they attend after a
full day of activities at a public school. These "supplementary" classes are
conducted in 10 San Diego County schools operated by congregations and, in
the case of the High School for Jewish Studies, by the Agency for Jewish
Education itself.

At such schools, Jordan noted, "most of the teachers are congregants, so we
would call them Oavocational tachers,' people who may be moms, or just
active synagogue members."

In many cases, she said, supplementary school teachers have no background as
educators, so the supplementary schools "depend on the Agency to do their
teacher training. We do that with about 10 workshops in August, five
workshops in September, assorted other workshops during the year as the
schools ask, and with seminars for principals."

This year, Jordan said, the Agency embarked on a pilot coaching program in
which 16 teachers are mentored by Annette Segal, a master teacher and former
principal of the High School of Jewish Studies.

Segal "goes into each classroom once a month, observes, gives the teacher
feedback on what she observes, does four workshops at each school for those
teachers and gives them specific techniques that they can use, and contacts
them by phone and/or fax as many times as they want.

"Meanwhile, the Agency prepares materials that these teachers can use in the
classroom. They don't have to spend time making them, or finding them; we
give it to them." 

The program reaches only 4 percent of the 400 teachers who are employed in
Jewish schools of all types throughout the county. Next year, if funding can
be found, the Agency hopes to coach 40 additional teachers.
Besides not being trained educators, most supplemental school teachers
"don't know Judaic content," Jordan said. They may know holidays because
they observe them in the synagogue. If they know Bible it is either what
they learned as children or, if they now go to synagogue, they are learning
Bible."

As for teaching Hebrew, Jordan said, one principal recently commented at a
meeting that her supplementary school has "teachers who are one page ahead
of their students." Jordan reported that at the same meeting "two other
principals said Oyou are right, I have teachers like that.'

"Three other principals were horrified to hear that, but there are a group
of teachers out there who really don't read Hebrew, but who are teaching our
kids Hebrew," Jordan said.

"There are also people out there who barely celebrate Jewish holidays who
are teaching our kids about the holidays."

The Agency director said not enough money is allocated to lure professional
teachers to the supplementary schools. "A supplementary school teacher
probably earns $18 to $50 an hour, with $50 being for the specialist," she
said. 

"You have to assume that anyone who is just teaching six hours a week
doesn't need to earn the income, but some of those people do need to earn a
living, so they are teaching in two separate supplementary schools, or a day
school also."

Such a work schedule is possible, she explained, because some supplementary
schools "meet Tuesdays and Thursdays, and others meet Mondays and
Wednesdays. The high school meets at night. So one could theoretically teach
four afternoons, four evenings and maybe a Sunday.

"One of the things that we need to do: We need to get some full-time
professional teachers here who can teach in many places, get a pension, get
health benefits and teach our children."

In the absence of competitive pay, Jordan says, "we are lucky that we have
so many dedicated avocational teachers."

Day schools

Jordan expresses greater satisfaction with the Judaic education that
students receive at the five day schools: Beth Israel Day School, Chabad
Hebrew Academy, San Diego Jewish Academy, Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School
and Torah High School.

"It's very good," she said. "Some of those kids have three hours a day of
Judaic studies. That¹s a lot, so those kids are learning. Even two hours a
day, that's ten hours a week."

Are the students being shortchanged on other subjects that are taught in the
public schools?

"No," replied Jordan, "and do you know why? Number one, in some cases they
(Judaic studies and other subjects) are integrated, and number two, they
don't waste time with stuff like they do in public school. Kids don't get
busy work; they use every moment. They don't need to put 20 math problems on
the board if they have learned it in five. They may get two (problems) at
night, for a week or two, to make sure they don't forget it, but they don't
need to do 20. They can go on to something else."

Such rapid advancement, said Jordan, is because Jewish schools "have a much
more homogenous group of kids; their parents come in and have much higher
expectations (than parents of public school students). There is nobody in a
day school whose parents don't have high expectations, so it makes a big
difference in how you can teach."

That's not to say there are no problems. Jordan said that even in the day
schools, students are not mastering spoken Hebrew the way they are learning
prayer Hebrew. Furthermore, the day schools "are doing okay, but they are
struggling for money, really struggling, and they are struggling for
students," Jordan said.

"About five years ago, one of the major foundations in our country asked me
how much room we have in our day schools. If more people wanted to go, how
many more could they take? We have incredible capacity. Every one of our day
schools, except for the Torah High School, have brand new buildings, which
they either just built or bought. They have incredible capacity; they could
probably have three times as many kids in Jewish education."

Unfortunately, day schools are "fabulously expensive," Jordan said. "Tuition
in the day schools for kindergarten through sixth grade is about $7,600 to
probably $9,000 per year. And for sixth grade through 11th grade, it is
$8,500 through $10,000."

Some families face tuition for each of their children and may also have such
Jewish communal obligations as synagogue membership, JCC membership, perhaps
even Jewish camp fees.

While the tuition is less expensive than that charged at fine private
schools such as Bishop's or La Jolla Country Day, "it is a lot for many
families," Jordan said. Even though there are scholarship programs for the
students, supported by the United Jewish Federation as well as by private
fundraising, for many families, "it is still not enough."

Jordan said she was among those who questioned whether San Diego County
really needed five Jewish day schools. Wouldn't it have been better if the
schools, which represent different religious streams or emphases within
Judaism, had found a way to share resources and physical facilities?
"I was in the forefront of that idea," she said, "but parents vote with
their feet. If the schools have students in them, then the community can't
say Oyou shouldn't have erected it.' So then the question is, ODoes the
community have a responsibility to help the schools?'

"That is a tough question: Yes, because we want to educate Jewish kids,
absolutely. The flip side is, OWhy can¹t we educate Jewish kids in fewer
schools without empty seats?' It is a hard question for the community. I
think we need to fund our schools better."

High schools

Whereas once the supplementary High School for Jewish Studies was the only
Jewish high school in the county, today there is the Torah High School, with
separate classes for boys and girls, and a growing coeducational high school
program at the San Diego Jewish Academy.
Jordan said a bright spot is the fact that high school attendance is up
everywhere -- at the day schools and at the AJE's High School for Jewish
Studies.

One problem faced by the latter, according to Jordan, is trying to please
those who believe studies should be quite rigorous and those who feel the
High School for Jewish Studies ought to be a place where students can have
fun and socialize with each other.

"We do both," Jordan said. ³We run a Hebrew track for 80 kids who get high
school credit, and it is very demanding. They meet 4 1/2 hours a week, and
their teachers are well paid. They are part of the same program (for which)
the Academy is doing a pilot curriculum."

On the other side of the spectrum, she said, are "some wonderful programs
like art and dance. Both the rabbis and some parents are asking, and
everyone has different answers, OIs this what you should be doing? Shouldn't
they be only taking content? Is it okay for them to just be doing the fun
stuff?'"

She said such elective courses have Judaic content in that they deal with
Jewish topics. The acting class, for example, put on a play about the
Kindertransport. Some students who attend the High School for Jewish Studies
attend public schools where there are no other Jewish students, so this
provides an important opportunity for socialization community that worries about continuity.

Special needs

Jordan said children with physical or mental disabilities comprise 10 to 15
percent of any school-age population, and "it sometimes is higher with
really smart people. If it is just 10 percent (of the San Diego County
Jewish school population), it is over 400 kids. So we want to create
awareness."

Recently, the United Jewish Federation awarded a grant to AJE for a
three-year program to "put some special-needs educators in our schools, to
help our teachers to a better job of teaching our children."

College, family 
and adult education

The Judaic Studies programs at San Diego State University and UC San Diego
are treated in separate stories in this edition of Heritage. The heads of
these two programs hold ex-officio positions on the board of the Agency for
Jewish Education and are bridges between the teachers in the Jewish schools
and their institutions.

The Agency sponsors a program called Pathways to Judaism that allows
families of mixed religious backgrounds to study Jewish religion and customs
together on Sundays. Typically, 30 families participate in the 30-session
course.

"We are probably the only community that does Pathways this way," Jordan
said proudly. "We run it like a school and we haven't backed down. Funding
has said to us, 'Can't you give 5-10 sessions?' and we have said, ONo we
can't, we need to do what we are doing. They are really learning something.'
"Now some Jewish families ask if we couldn't do the same for them, but you
know it costs us almost $80,000 to run Pathways. It is heavily subsidized by
the community."

Noah Hadas, AJE's director of adult education, said the Florence Melton Mini
School is another intense Jewish learning experience for adults offered
through the Agency.

Conducted in 60 cities in the English-speaking world, the Melton program
examines issues in the light of traditional and modern Jewish learning. For
example, a recent discussion group focused on the question of Divine
Providence. 

"Melton doesn't just say this is what Divine Providence is according to
Judaism or this is what Judaism believes," said Hadas, who shares teaching
duties with Rabbi David Kunin of Ohr Shalom Synagogue and Rabbi Carol Stein
of the San Diego Jewish Academy.

"Rather, we read from the Torah, we read Talmudic text together as a group
and everything is done in the classroom. There is no homework, no tests. We
read together and we discuss it. It is amazing how you take the concepts
which seem to be distant, like Divine Providence, and then as we are
discussing it, Sept. 11 comes up, or the Holocaust, and the class can see
how these concepts can be transformed and make sense in a contemporary way."
The Melton program costs participants $500 a year. ³The actual cost to the
Agency is $800," Hadas said.

Far less intense, but serving to open new vistas on Judaism, is the Festival
of Jewish Learning, an annual potpourri of special events and lectures. This
year as in the past, most of the festival's lectures were at venues
throughout the county over the noon hour, on the theory that people might
leave their offices for a quick brown-bag study session and then return to
work. 

"Although some 30 lunchtime sessions attracted an average of 30 persons,
many of them were retired persons rather than executives seeking quick
intellectual nourishment" Hadas said. "I think it is a fiction to think that
nowadays in American society people leave their places of employment at
lunchtime to go learn and come back. There is a study out that Americans
work more hours than any other country in the westernized world. It is
really tough to get people to leave their jobs, so I think we need more
evening events."

Whether one talks about day schools or lunch-and-learn sessions for
executives, the question inevitably facing educators is "How do you measure
success?"

"You can look at the head count, and that is one measure you can't ignore,
but then you can also look at some of the expressions of people as they
leave," Hadas replied.

"If you have fewer people but you are impacting their lives and you have
people coming to you and thanking you for providing some Jewish knowledge or
connection to their heritage, that is worth it also."