Judy Tuchten, who teaches secular subjects to students in the lower grades, said these study sessions bear the most fruit. The results are slow at first, but then they increase and they blow you away. The longevity of the student in the Ptach classroom is another asset, says Tuchten. It allows her to know each student in a way that cannot be mirrored by a regular classroom teacher. The Ptach classes each have one teacher for Hebrew subjects and one for secular disciplines.
Teachers often modify their teaching plans, as situations arise each day.
But the Ptach students participate, to varying levels, in school activities. Many of the students eat lunch and take gym class with their grade level. Some are mainstreamed for particular subjects, such as math or Hebrew. And most join the student body for morning prayers and library. Ptach was founded in Chicago 17 years ago by the late Rabbi Isaac Mayefsky.