How Would You Like Your Grandchildren Educated?
Most of our readers — and possibly you reading this — don’t have children, let alone grandchildren…and that means we have time, and obligation, to build the world we’d like them to live in.
As such, PresenTense ran an amazing event last night in Jerusalem, focused on the future of education in the Jewish State. And you didn’t have to be in Jerusalem to participate (I’m in New York at the moment): all you had to have is a connection to the internet. Here’s one example of a remote-participant, Gabby Schoenfeld:
(Gaby is an an informal Jewish educator who is trying to enable young Jews to have life-changing experiences through service and social justice programs in Israel and throughout the world.)
“I want my grandchildren to know how to ask questions. I want them to have strong Jewish and secular knowledge bases, but more importantly, I want them to understand how to ask questions in order to gain more knowledge. As a group leader for many kinds of Jewish trips and programs, my most satisfying moments are those in which I am able to set a tone and atmosphere in which the participants feel comfortable to constantly ask me questions–about Israel, about Judaism, about Shabbat, about me, and my life choices. Sometimes the questions are amazing, but sometimes people just don’t know how to ask or where to start. I want my grandchildren to be educated in a nurturing but challenging environment, one in which they learn how to ask questions about anything and everything.”
You can read more — and contribute — online here.
for background on this unique event, check out our prior post, A Web 2.0 Educational Innovation
Ariel Beery is Co-director of The PresenTense Group and Editor and Publisher of PresenTense Magazine.