From: clmn@ellis.uchicago.edu (Bill Coleman)
Subject: Re: Day Schools v Supplemental Schools
Reply-To: clmn@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Department of Economics
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 03:12:49 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.002132.23760@udel.edu> carroll@bugs.cis.udel.edu (Mark C. Carroll) writes:

Quoting me:
>>
>>I contend that, if one is determined to keep sight of reality, one cannot
>>constrict the options in this way.  From the standpoint of the individual
>>parent who wants to provide a Jewish education to his or her child, the
>>reality is that supplemental schools are NOT an option.
>>
>>Later in the post, I'll address the issue of synagogue skills.  What I mean
>>by Jewish education, however, is broader than that.  Jewish education involves
>>both belief and practice.  If one wants to inculcate the notion that Judaism
>>is a way of life and, in particular, a way of life worth practicing, then the
>>supplemental school has been shown to be unsuitable and day schools are the
>>only way to go.
>
>I disagree _incredibly_ strongly with this.
>
>What teaches children that Judaism is a way of life is the presence of
>Judaism in their lives. It doesn't matter whether they study Judaism for
>several hours out of the day in dayschool or for several hours out of the
>day at home or in supplemental school.
>
>In my home as I was growing up, I was constantly aware of my Judaism.
>Judaism is a fundamental part of everything that I do, and everything
>that I am. When I was in elementary/high school, I went to hebrew
>school three days a week, and attended a normal public school. But my
>entire life was Jewish, no matter where I was, because my parents
>taught me and showed me the role of Judaism in my life. They sent me
>to our Rabbi to learn to read Torah. After I was bar-Mitzvahed, I
>continued to study with my Rabbi. These days, I'm mostly occupied with
>graduate school, but I still go to synagogue regularly, and I blow
>shofar at my synagogue at home for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
>
>Quite a failure for those awful supplemental schools, neh?
>
>I'm not saying all this to brag: my point is simply that you can close
>your eyes and say that all the problems of Judaism will be solved if
>we just send our kids to day school, but it's not true. What matters
>is the role that Judaism plays in your life, and that's determined
>first and foremost by your life at home, with your parents. If the
>parents don't bother to make Judaism a central part of life at home,
>then Judaism isn't going to matter to the children no matter what
>school they go to.

In a way I can't argue with anything Mark says here.  I certainly agree
wholeheartedly that the home environment is the key variable above all
else.  Nor can I claim that every child who attends a supplemental school
will be lost to subsequent Jewish practice.  Like Mark, I am myself the
product of a supplemental.  Going the other way, I can't claim that day
school attendence is a guarantee of... well, of anything.

Arguments from individual anecdote don't take us very far, though.  No
generalization is without its exceptions, certainly any social science
hypothesis.  So the successes of the supplemental schools and the failures
of the day schools don't really invalidate my claims until and unless they
become frequent enough to cause the contrary generalizations to fail.

Look, I don't regard my claims as especially bold.  It's incredible to me
that one can spend any time observing the supplemental school situation
without immediately recognizing the bankruptcy of the concept.

Quoting me again:
>>
>>This is a different goal than what I outlined above.  IMHO, this neatly
>>expresses the central contradiction which makes the supplemental schools
>>untenable.  The idea is to simultaneously assimilate and maintain Yiddish-
>>keit.  At this late date, isn't the evidence overwhelming that this is 
>>impossible?  The children see the contradiction instantly and I say this
>>speaking from personal experience.  The kids completely understand that
>>their own parents do not take the religious school program seriously.  The
>>supplemental schools, even the Reform, teach as they must that Judaism is a
>>way of life.  But all anyone wants is for the kids to "remember their
>>heritage" to a degree sufficient to motivate them to find a Jewish marriage
>>partner.  This goal of assimilating and not assimilating at the same time
>>is simply unattainable.
>
>Nonsense.
>
>We are all partially assimilated. You're posting from the University
>of Chicago, which is a non-Jewish school. You work every day in a
>world dominated by non-Jews. You probably read a non-Jewish paper in
>the morning, and if you watch television, you watch TV which is
>written by and for the non-Jewish culture that you live in.
>
>What matters is limiting the degree to which we assimilate. We have to
>be functioning parts of the society we live in. We need to be able to
>communicate and interact with the people we meet in our lives.
>Learning the skills to be able to do that is assimilating. What makes
>us Jewish is that underneath all of the assimilated skills is a Jewish
>heart, and a Jewish life. We maintain our Jewishness despite the fact
>that we have to assimilate to function. We are a part of society, but
>we keep a part of ourselves back, in order to maintain our identity.

I think we are arguing semantics here.  I'm perfectly willing to accept
Mark's terminology.  Of course, all of us on the Usenet are partially
assimilated.  It remains true that the traditional practice of Judaism
requires a degree of particularism unusual in contemporary society.  Here
at the University of Chicago, for example, I am cut off from certain
forms of beneficial social activities due to considerations of kashrut
and shabbat.  My claim about the contradiction of the supplemental schools
is that they represent an official ideology which is at variance with their
actual practice.

Let me argue from individual anecdote :>) merely to illustrate the point.
Once I confronted the synagogue rabbi of the supplemental school in which
I was teaching.  It's been so long ago that I have no idea what I was com-
plaining about.  I do recall the reply.  He said, "Bill, a member of our
board, and an important contributor, recently came to me in a state of
extreme agitation.  He has a child in our first grade and the child went
home one day and wanted to know why the family failed to light shabbat
candles.  The first grade teacher had taught that Jews light candles. 'What
business of yours is it to interfere in my home?' he exclaimed."

Now, what sort of messages do you expect that child was getting.  More to 
the point, what do you suppose the synagogue management said to that teacher
and to the other teachers in similar circumstances.  And, my real point, what
sort of message do you think was being received by this child's classmate who
might come from a more religiously serious family.  THAT's what I'm really
worried about!
-- 
Bill Coleman
clmn@midway.uchicago.edu