DEFINING THE CHABAD DAY SCHOOL CRISIS

I have spent the last twelve years in education, primarily in the Modern Orthodox/Community Day Schools, learning and growing from the way they run and develop their schools. They are trying to prepare their children for a rapidly changing world, for jobs that do not yet exist, to solve problems that we do not yet know are problems, to equipping them with the tools and skills necessary to remain loyal and devoted Jews who are capable of becoming moral young adults and eventually parents, who can financially and emotionally support a family. At least they are trying…

For years our (Chabad) day schools have relied on the teacher-directed, one size fits all, learning for school “sage on the stage” approach to learning, it does not work any longer, schools today are learner-centered, personalized, learning for life “guide on the side” places of learning. The old Chinese proverb says it best "Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I'll remember. Involve me, I'll understand". For years we have churned out Yeshivah Bochrim and Seminary girls capable of doing one thing only, and when the square pegs didn’t fit into the round hole, we built ‘special Yeshivos’ for them, not realizing that we were setting them up to fail from the very beginning, by using the above-mentioned teaching methods. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are invested into these Yeshivos every year to ‘deal’ with the students that come out of the other end not necessarily only wanting to do the one thing they were taught to do. Why not invest those funds in the primary to middle school years of our children’s lives, so that every child, whether right brain or left brain, is given the skills and tools to face the future of his/her choice while maintaining the strong values and principles that only Chabad has to offer?

So many of our educators are putting their talent to good use in other schools, in schools where they would never send their own children, it’s time to use that talent to educate our own children. You may have read some of the recent Op-Ed pieces on some of the Chabad blogs, even though I am sure you have better things to do, that have very passionately and vocally expresses many of the growing and existing challenges we face within Chabad. It’s easy to identify the problems and to shift the blame; however, I know deep in my heart that the Rebbe wanted us to find solutions where we saw a ‘problem’.

Some of the problems are as follows: (in no particular order)

- A lack of professionally educated or trained staff.
- The absences of accountability.
- Weak teacher/administration work relationships.
- Weak teacher/ parent communication.
- Lack of classroom structure and or a unilateral discipline system.
- The reluctance to adopt or accept new teaching method and curriculum.
- The lack of a competent general studies education.
- Students that cannot critically think on their own.
- Students that are not being given the skills to become independent learners.
- Failing miserably in the area of basic respect for others.
- Failing to make learning relevant.
- Teaching for knowledge/facts/data only.
- The inability to apply skills.
- Not combating bullying
- "Teaching to the test”.
- Frontal teaching.
- Complacency.

To be honest most of our day schools are run like a Chasidisher Farbrengen, parents are begging for change, we now have an entirely new generation who desperately want to see something done to guarantee a better future for their own children, a Day School System that will recognize each child’s strength, a school that is student-centered, a school that will give each child what they need to provide for their families someday. I have and could cry for days without looking further than my own family and close friends, how much they struggle to support their families wishing they had some kind of ability to hold down a sustainable job. I firmly believe that along with a solid well balanced Judaic and general studies program that will give each child the ability and skills to be able to face the future, to leave the educational ‘System’ feeling confident to become the best at what that are good at, to use his/her G-d given talents to conquer the world, at the same time remain loyal and faithful to the love, warmth, and passion for Yiddishkeit, they are not a contradiction. I firmly believe that no matter how this generation has turned out, all of us want our children to be better role models for their children then we might be for our own.

A recent study of more than eight thousand individuals between the ages of eleven and thirty-one had eight common attitudes, behaviors, and expectations that clearly distinguished them from their parents and more than their predecessors of the 1960s, expect the following: (to name a few)

- Freedom to choose what is right for them and to express their personal views and individual identity.
- Customize and personalize, the ability to change things to better suit their own needs.
- To find out the behind-the-scenes analysis so they can find what the real story is.
- Collaboration and relationships to be a vital part of all they do.
- Entertainment and play to be integrated into their work, learn, and social life.


Not to recognize that today’s children cannot be educated by yesterday’s methods, that today’s children learn and think differently than the students of the past is a crime. We must and can do something about it. Yesterday’s Mechanchim are clearly doing a disservice to our children unless you think that we are producing well balanced successful adults. I would like to do so by setting up a meeting of the minds, a group of individuals that share a similar understanding, people who are capable of seeing the bigger picture.