An educator for over forty years, Chaye Kohl has taught Judaic and General studies in elementary, middle, and high school and on the collegiate level, and has served many functions in educational administration. Ms. Kohl is currently the English department chair at Ilan High School (Ocean, NJ).

Chaye Kohl explores what role parents should have in determining a school’s educational agenda.

It is common for Europeans to speak multiple languages, but in the United States English reigns, and most students do not begin to learn a second language until they enter high school. Jewish day schools break that mold. Hebrew language instruction is promoted in elementary school, with language readiness programs that are introduced in pre-school. Some students learn Hebrew easily – viewing the language acquisition as fun at best or a necessary evil, if they are at the other end of the attitude spectrum. But speak to Jewish day school parents or chat with Jewish day school graduates and you will often hear these refrains: “My child went to day school for twelve years and he still can’t speak Hebrew!” Or, “I spend so many hours in Hebrew language class and I don’t understand a thing.” Are we failing our students? (Double entendre intended.)

In my experiences in various day schools, Hebrew language instruction is often not professionalized. In other cases, if the school has restructured the program using successful research based models, some veteran teachers choose not to follow those models. (Interestingly, these same students who “don’t remember a thing” often discover that they indeed have some language proficiency.) But students do not always perform well in Hebrew language classes, and may complain of an “impossible task” or a “boring subject.” Unhappy children report back to parents and this often motivates parents to intercede with teachers and administration.

Some years ago when I was principal of a Jewish high school, the head of school met with me to explain that major changes were needed in Hebrew language requirements in the high school. Students who “could not learn Hebrew,” or who preferred not to continue Hebrew language studies after grade eight, would need some other foreign language credits. The high school course of studies would need to have an alternate track for Bible, Prophets, and Talmud, because not all students would be expected to have a working knowledge of Hebrew. Not only should these new classes not utilize Hebrew as the language of instruction, teachers/students would not be expected to use any Hebrew language text at all.

I lost sleep considering that students would graduate from this school without a working knowledge of Hebrew and with limited exposure to our cultural heritage in its original language. At first I was terribly saddened. Then the passion flared, and I put my thoughts into an e-mail. I asked the head of school to share the document I put together with the board of directors before they voted to implement this new policy.

My letter argued that students should graduate with basic Jewish cultural literacy and a proficiency in Hebrew Language was essential to this category. I presented my case for Jewish day school literacy. The head of school told me that my letter caused a stir, followed by good discussion, and a decision to allow me to seek other ways to provide students with basic Hebrew language literacy, despite parents’ desire to give up on having their children learn Hebrew.

Jewish day schools should provide all Jewish students with cultural literacy in both general and Jewish areas. Although no one expects all graduates to become mathematicians or scientists, we require them to have a working knowledge of Algebra, Geometry, Biology, and Chemistry. We recognize that our students need a certain level of English language reading and writing skills so they can read college texts, write term papers, understand newspaper articles and analysis, and write business memos.

The educational vision clouds when Jewish literacy comes into play. I have heard the refrain: “This is what the parents want.” Parents are educators of their children, but early on they acknowledge that they cannot provide all the information their children need to succeed in this world – so they remand them to schools, where the children can receive a quality education. As educators, we cannot shirk our responsibility to provide the necessary level of Jewish cultural literacy these children require to function in the Jewish community. And sometimes we have to educate parents with regard to what Jewish cultural literacy looks like.