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I am just a bit hesitant to express the following view regarding "teaching"
t'fila. I am afraid it may taint my reputation as a progressive educator.
However, I figure that I might as well try out a radical thought with
fellow educators who may be able to shed further light on the topic.
I am not certain that good t'fila comes about through teaching about the
meaning of t'fila. I think it has to do with shukaling - - - and
verbalizing the words audibly, and keeping one's legs together while
davening k'dusha and sh'mona esrai, and conforming to all the other
requirements of t'fila as dictated by halakha (not that shukaling is
necessarily a halakha.) I also think that some people have very spiritual
moments davening that do not include how much concentration they had on the
meaning of words or ideas. Some people - I would say even many people -
feel moved or "in touch" with their davening experience upon hearing a good
tune selected by the baal t'fila. They daven those phrases with ferocious
kavana!
Getting the student to voluntarily do these things is part of the bigger
question of developing commitment to halakha. To get there, however, we
have to model the desired outcome in our schools. We need to create an
environment of maase hamitzva. So just make kids daven. Provide them with
a talk free environment and create the expectation that davening is an
obligation of halakha - yes, but also of the school. Bring in graduates
who are available to daven with the school minyan who take t'fila
seriously. Have faculty daven together with the students.
Now I am not suggesting that we should do away with teaching about
t'fila's deeper meaning. This too is good, but it is not what brings the
typical kid to have deeper t'fila. I would suggest that davening with
"kavana" comes as a result of either becoming "turned on" to Judaism or as
an outgrowth of the skill of knowing how to daven. So let's make them
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