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  1. This idea is setting Jewish education back at least thirty years! Of course we need standard and rubrics. Students, parents, and teachers need to have an accurate assessment of what kids know. This kind of thinking is how you end up with middle schoolers who can’t fluently read Hebrew or navigate a Chumash or siddur. If we’re going to spend half the day teaching Jewish studies we need to actually teach something! Schools need all this and teachers who share a love of Judaism and help kids connect to Judaism in accessible ways. We need to have standards and expectations as well as space for kids to find what they love about Judaism. As for the woman who lamented her wasted tuition dollars on her son, who knows what his home life was like! To quote Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, “The Home can do little without the School, but the School can do nothing without the Home.” Let’s not date back Jewish education, but move it forward within a framework of professionalism as well as love of Judaism.

  2. Interesting post!

    Like anything in life, how we measure Jewish educational goals, impact and effectiveness is highly individualized….from a parent’s perspective.

    From an institutional perspective, we will always need clear curricular goals, objectives, expectations and measurable outcomes. Anything less, from a school’s perspective, will lead to a liaise-fare environment which at the end of the day is not what parents want, expect or demand.

    Life is a balance……and, so is effective Jewish education

  3. Why not having students spending Shabbos with their rebbe or moral or if they live in the same community going to seeing how their rebbe or moths for a Shabbos meal? Such out of class interaction might be very inspiring

  4. Kids should develop a love for all learning , for all wisdom both secular and Torah especially if you are teaching both
    the research is clear that responding to learning or acts of kindness with rewards including verbal ones impacts negatively on intrinsic motivation. Jerome Bruner said that children should experience success and failure not as reward or punishment but information. We should be helping kids focus on what they are learning and doing and not on how well they are doing. Instead of getting kids to think about the consequences of their behavior for themselves , help them reflect how their behavior impacts on others –

  5. I agree with this article! One of our ultimate objectives for our students is for them to be lifelong learners. Sometimes we can foster that in the classroom. Choosing knowledge over learning is a mistake. While assessments should ideally measure learning, they usually end up measuring knowledge.
    Yes— knowing how to read a siddur or Chumash is important but WANTING TO is more important!