Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Jewish Education Can’t be Optional

by ; orginally posted on InterfaithFamily.com

For four years, we tried a day school education for our son. For the first two years, it worked. The secular education was excellent, our son’s Jewish identity blossomed, and his knowledge of Jewish history, texts, and the Hebrew language grew.

But our overall satisfaction with the education didn't mean that we thought the school was perfect. It wasn't, no school is. We wished there was a greater sense of community and felt that the Jewish studies program was too narrowly focused. But our son was thriving, so it was easy to overlook these issues.

In our son’s third year, the school put in place a new administration. It adjusted the secular curriculum and teaching style in a way that didn't work for our son. Now the lack of community and the prayer and language focus of the Judaic education nagged at us. Still, we gave the changes a chance. But by year four, it was obvious it was time for a change.

Moving from day school to a non-Jewish learning environment meant that our son would attend religious school starting in the fall. Some of our extended Jewish family and the day school administrators suggested that we let him skip it for a year since he would be ahead of the other students. I wouldn't consider it.


I didn't care that he was practically fluent in Hebrew. I didn't care that his understanding of the Torah was deeper than other children his age. I didn't care that weekday Hebrew and Sunday school might be filled with much drudgery. And I didn't care to listen to my son whine about going before he even attended a single class. He was going to religious school. Period. The end.

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