Given the realities of our circumstances, we must recommit ourselves to the core educational objective of relevance. We must acknowledge that such apath requires core change in the fundamental infrastructure of our schools.
This means committing real resources to achieving concrete, measurable progress in the following critical areas:
1) Curriculum. What’s needed is a vision specifically designed for the modern American student. The principles of this vision must permeate all textual study and imbue it with relevance.If the child is not shown how the concepts of the text are relevant to his life, the experience is both futile and alienating. These ideas must be articulated in both the Torah and general studies curricula and student life in the school.
2) Intellectual atmosphere. Questions on any topic must be welcomed and responded to without any fear of rejection on the part of the student.
3) Assessment. Clear proceduresneed to be implemented to determine whether a student is, in fact, developing properly through the stages of maturationinvolved in attaining love for Judaism. Great care must be taken to measure students’ skills in the creative application of relevant Torah principles to their lives. A 95 in Gemara is not always a measure of a love of Judaism.
Constraints of space and time do not permit for a full discussion of the issue and its possible solutions. But at least we have begun to honestly frame the problem. We cannot close our eyes to the magnitude of this situation or the responsibility we all share in revitalizing the Jewish educational system.
I invite all interested community members to begin this dialogue. As we learn in Pirkei Avos, “You are not required to complete the task, yet you are not free to withdraw from it.”