THE CASE FOR THE WORLDS FIRST JEWISH HYBRID SCHOOL

One of the fastest growing concerns of the Jewish Day School parent is the forever rising costs of tuition. It is a dilemma that is not going away anytime soon, rather it is a rapidly growing concern. For the first time in our history, higher earning parents are raising concern over the rising costs of tuition and the constant need to keep subsidizing costs on behalf of the lower income parents. As the local federations continue to pull back funding from the scholarship accounts of our local day schools, and the larger donation continue to dwindle, schools are being forced to raise tuition costs and use monies to cover their scholarship students that would otherwise be funding the growth of the institution. We must end the never ending rising cost of tuition.

The second growing concern is the ability of the traditional day schools to keep up with the rapidly changing needs of our 21^st century student, the student who will learn information in fifth grade that will likely be outdated by the time he reaches the workforce. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet. Our students are the future of an emerging world, battling challenges that we as adults, never had to face; our sacred Torah will serve as their moral compass only if we teach them how to navigate the seas. We must end the one size fits all model of education.

Welcome to the Hybrid model, solving the tuition crisis as well as the one size fits all educational structure. If we want to encourage our children to think outside the box, to explore, and develop into the future of tomorrow, we must take them out of the box. Allow them to collaborate rather than cheat, to love and embrace Yidishkiet rather than just read about it in a book, to learn at their own pace, rather than be held back by their peers. To advance beyond their grade level with the help of technology. Schools all across the nation are slowly doing away with the traditional 1960’s classroom model, frontal teaching, homogeneously divided classrooms and a one size fits all education.

Florida is home to the nation’s leading online school program, offered completely free to our children in return for taxpaying dollars that we would otherwise have no benefit from. We must take advantage of what is out there. Imagine the savings schools would incur as a result of eliminating half its staff and textbooks. When pitching a new sales concept, the first rule is always to create the need. The need is clear, and those looking for change don’t need to be sold. However, for this concept to become a reality it will take all involved to commit. As the old adage goes ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. I would love to hear feedback from all those wanting to invest in our future.

FOOTNOTE: Blended learning is an educational approach where the traditional classroom is integrated with an online component. A web-based Learning Management System contains curriculum and course materials, and ties the two learning environments (classroom + online) together. In a blended learning model, the teacher conducts lessons during scheduled class sessions, and students are assigned independent study online. The students receive face-to-face instruction during class meetings, and then logs into a LMS for independent study (or virtual group collaboration) to continue their learning and to complete assignments.