Dear Shalom,
It has been my experience that wise people ask wiser people for advice. I greatly appreciate seeing the written responses and opinions about the ethical dilemma you posed regarding student admissions from a list of Who's Who in the field of day school leadership.
Some names I know and some I know of, but all of these experts speak with the credible experiential wisdom gained from a career of immersion in Jewish educational leadership. I encourage you to solicit input and feedback from such luminaries in future issues of Lookjed as it adds a dimension not always available to practitioners in the trenches.
Perhaps the day school field should consider taking a page out of the Yeshiva University play book when it comes to convening Jewish experts. I wish in addition to having "Orthodox forums" (which based on reading published essays from the forums, I am sure are excellent) to convene the top world class experts in a particular Jewish field to address current issues, we could have broader Unorthodox forums to convene the top world class experts in the field of Jewish education. The resulting presentations could then be published in book form or on the web to allow greater circulation of ideas discussed at such gatherings.
I hope that type of model will emerge in any future conferences held by the yet to be named mega day school organization in formation. I can only imagine the richness of learning that would take place if the type of personalities who provided their written responses here were gathered together in person with a dozen more similar elite level scholars in the field. Many would gain much from such a gathering of the top educators in the Jewish world with a wealth of experiential wisdom to share.
That said, I want to echo the point made by some of your expert respondents to this dilemma that each case is unique and it is hard to extrapolate from theoretical cases without knowing the details and the stories of the people involved in a particular scenario. I believe Rav Gustman used to say first pasken the person, then pasken the Shaylah.
I have seen great people with my own eyes answer the same question differently for different people based on their unique circumstances that subtly shifted the response needed. I have even seen the same question asked by the same person answered differently based on a nuanced variable that arose in the interim.
One size does not usually fit all. One size fits one size. That is why I believe most leadership is situational. It is very difficult to give pat answers about some aspects of leadership. There was an excellent handbook for day school leaders written a few year's ago by an experienced principal that I was very excited to read until I realized that not every situation is possible to cover in a handbook or guide for educators.
Taking off my educator's hat and putting on my parent of a child with special need's hat for a moment I feel compelled to reiterate this point. What is a high priority for our child and family (typical Jewish communal integration and not segregation in a "special need's" environment) may not be a high priority for other families or children with the same label.
This variable makes the answers given to the question posed somewhat lack transferability to a similar situation with different people involved. My esteemed colleague Michael Berger put it best when he expressed the opinion that some people's definition of "best interest" values having a Shabbat chevra (which provides Jewish experiential education and identity development) more than they value having a slightly more sophisticated educational environment.
Ultimately if one reads any of the Ruderman foundation literature it is clear that some Jewish communal institutions are lagging behind when it comes to empowering individuals with special needs and their families to maintain some locus of control in decision making about life impacting situations that determine how much they can be involved in the Jewish community.
As many can attest, we risk losing entire families from the Jewish community when someone decides to play God with the fate of other human beings. The resulting alienation of that family can make them feel unwelcome as part of the Jewish community.
I am encouraged by the posted description of the approach taken by Bruce Powell at his school. I believe it illustrates how a "here's why it can work" approach is sometimes more effective than a "here's why it can't work" approach.
Shalom,
Elisha Paul
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2016 09:45PM by mlb.
