<HTML>I thought I'd signed off for the summer! Rob Toren points out that
generally speaking private schools , who operate without benefit of Boards
of Education, are regarded by parents as more educationally effective than
Public Schools. From this he concludes that the Jewish School system does
need any central servicing body. May I respectfully point out that I am
not suggesting a 'Central BJE' (Rob's description) for all Jewish schools
(an impossibility, for many obvious reasons), but something rather
different (again, proposal available to any one who emails me). Every
private school has access to full choices of curriculum and teaching
materials for every course that they offer; they also have wonderful
professional resources available through a plethora of local and national
organizations (ASCD, NASSP. ISM etc etc).=20
Good Jewish schools will take advantage of these services, but for the
Jewish dimensions of our schools -- including the issue of leadership
development that Rob refers to -- we need something else, and it does not
exist at present. (The private schools would be different if their
teachers had to invent every course, every year.) Despite Rob's
admonition not to seek symptoms, the recent discussion about the
ineffective teacher may be analyzed very clearly in terms of "where the
submissions are coming from", reflecting attitudes to what is currently
called Human Resource management in the Jewish school system. Organize,
professionalize, or we will never reach our potential.
Paul Shaviv, Headmaster
CHAT - Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto
200 Wilmington Avenue,
Downsview, Ont M3H 5J8</HTML>
