From the Rabbi's Study
Education Considerations Intersect Passover
March 2004

As a parent of school-age children, I am constantly wrestling with education dilemma/s.

There are many aspects and questions to this dilemma. They intersect with our Jewish life, and so make the dilemma that much more complicated. It begins with the day school/secular school choice; shifts to the public/private school choice, and all of the economic factors these entail; and then spreads to the supplementary school and private tutoring questions.

When I became a parent, I was struck by the enormity of it all - not just the awesome-ness of the gift of life, but the weight of responsibility that had just been thrust on me. I remember thinking how EVERY choice I now made had an impact on this tiny, helpless being! And now, I must just how my children will LEARN!

That impact seems to grow as they do, and yet this is not just a dilemma for individuals who are actively parenting their own offspring. It is a challenge for all members of a given community, whether as citizens of a given jurisdiction, or as part of a religious community that takes on education for its youngest members.

As a parent of a Baltimore city student, my attention has been drawn lately to the complicated morass that we find ourselves in vis-à-vis the Baltimore City Public School System - one that has little to do with education, and much to do with accountability and public trust. It had sent me into a tizzy, forcing me to re-examine my choices, especially in the overall sense of sharing in the responsibility of educating my children with those in the broader community, and ensuring that they can grow into effective and helpful citizens of their many communities.

These rambling thoughts about education are actually also thoughts about Passover, which comes up soon in our liturgical calendar. On the night of April 5, many of us will launch our seders with a series of questions posed by the youngest participants, beginning with the perennial child's word: Why?

That the question is not: What? gives me great comfort, as I struggle with my own choices for education my children. If we all continue to ask ourselves on an ongoing basis - why? … --- Why teach this or that? Why be involved in teaching/caring for/being involved with the children's activities and programs of our synagogue, city or community? Why learn/teach in this way or setting? --- our community, and our children, will grow into their best as Jews, and as citizens of their worlds.

One more question: Why should we all be concerned with these questions? The Talmud, in Tractate Sanhedrin, answers:

One who teaches another's child TORAH is regarded by the tradition as one who gave birth to the child.

Teach a child your Torah. And consider doing so through the many ways available here in our shul, our Reconstructionist community, our city, and beyond.

No'ar Hadash is the newly-formed Youth Group of the Reconstructionist Movement. In the Chesapeake Region we kicked off No'ar Hadash activities as part of the Shabbaton in January.

Currently there are two kallot (teen weekends) each year for High School students. The North American Teen Kallah this year will be March 26-28, 2004 hosted by Bet Am Shalom in New York at the Kutz Camp in Warwick, New York. For more information and for an application go on www.noarhadash.org. There will also be a Teen Kallah at the JRF Biennial in Portland Oregan, November 11th-13th.

Throughout the rest of this year and next we look forward to starting seed groups in all our congregations. We would like to work with Middle School students to lay the foundation for a future thriving youth group. Parents and teens are warmly encouraged to contact Ben Schein, our Regional Youth Contact at Bhschein@alumni.upenn.edu to bring No'ar Hadash programming in your synagogue.

Jackie Land, Regional Director
Chesapeake Region, JRF
JLJRF@aol.co

SIDEBAR:
- a blurb from LISA LIBOWITZ - Va'ad Hayeladim