In the early years of the pulpit rabbinate part of my career there were a number of gentlemen who lived in my community who were Holocaust survivors. Their formal education had ended after a few years of cheder. Not necessarily because of the war but because that's all there was in their shtetl.
Their knowledge and understanding of Tanach put me to shame. Not just Tehillim. I mean all of Tanach. And a good part of Shas mishnayos too.
Their teachers did not teach "Ivrit b'Ivrit." And yet, these men, as young students learned the language of Tanach well enough to self learn all the parts they were not taught in the few years they sat in formal class.
I raise this point because, while I agree with Rabbi Berkowitz that pedagogy is indeed the critical factor to address in any discussion of standards, the insistence that the language of instruction is the cause of our students' problems in understanding Tanach (and other kodesh subjects as well) does not hold up in the face of previous generations' successes.
The single factor that impacts on student success in learning that is controllable by a school is the quality of the teacher at the front of the class. We have very dedicated men and women going into the teaching profession. Many of them have no formal training in how people learn, or how to prepare a lesson. Rather than look for people who are fluent in Hebrew to teach kodesh classes, or spend money on training our current teachers who are not at that level of comfort, we would be wiser to spend our professional development dollars on training our teachers to be teachers.
This focus requires more than a "one off" professional development session before school starts. It means ongoing, well thought out, focused programs to address key areas of pedagogy that our teachers might lack. In a perfect world, each teacher would have a personally tailored plan (differentiated instruction anyone?). To start, though, we could identify broad areas where many teachers feel they would like help. This presumes a culture of openness and safety, not something always found in all school unfortunately,
Standards, and the curricula they imply, are crucial as well. Broadly accepted standards will be a significant challenge, though not insurmountable. Not every school has to accept every standard; there are plenty, though, that all can accept.
But even the best curriculum and standards will not achieve the results we desire unless the teacher in the room is capable of implementing and guiding our students to learning them. We must start with teacher education. And since our teachers do not all pass through one singular portal to reach our schools, we have to take the responsibility for training them. The lack of a formal program at YU is not the reason we have a problem (though having such a degree would certainly help). It is the job of school leaders to take the lead. The title principal is short for principal teacher. It is the leaders' job to teach the teachers.
Eliyahu Teitz
