Recently, an article was published in the Jewish Daily Forward (http://www.forward.com/articles/149983/?p=all) about the decline of Solomon Schechter schools in North America. LGA was singled out as a school of growth. Our own, Morah Devorah Bromberg Seltzer quoted accolades about what we are doing right and for a little while I basked in the glow of our position in an otherwise gloom and doom piece about Jewish day schools and dwindling enrollment.
I know that many parents in the LGA community read this article with much excitement. When word spread that LGA made the national press, everyone was elated but as I and others further examined the article we definitely saw it as a double edged sword. A few of you commented to me that the article really didn't paint an accurate picture of Jewish day school life and were a bit astonished by the tenor of the negative article questioning why was it so negative. Is LGA such a unique Schechter school?
While, yes, LGA has a unique place on the Schechter landscape. Our video that we submitted to the Avichai Foundation captures our essence and spirit. (You still have time to vote and encourage your friends and family as well.) http://www.dayschoolvideoacademy.org/VideoView.aspx?MovieId=172. We are not unique because LGA as all other Schechter schools are guided by a set of expectations that help all of us frame for our students ways to live a Jewishly rich life all the while teaching about being concerned global citizens. All Schechter schools hold very tightly to the ideal of academic excellence at the core of their mission. I don't think there is a school in the network that doesn't believe that this is central to our success. Our constituencies wouldn't have it any other way.
I have had the privilege of walking into many different Schechter schools and working closely with other heads of schools at Solomon Schechter day schools throughout North America. We each "do" Schechter differently. 43 different ways. This is what I have learned to love about our movement of schools. Whether it is Solomon Schechter of Greater Boston, Gross Schechter in Cleveland, or Community Day School in Pittsburgh, or any of the other schools in the movement, many of our schools are the pride of our greater communities because of our focus on the whole-child, the diversity of our community is astounding and who our graduates become.
Schechter schools get a bad rap. Being a movement affiliated school, we are guided by principles yet are given enough leeway to understand and support local cultural mores and standards making us true community schools. LGA is a fine example of that and something that the entire Pioneer Valley is very proud of. With pride, we hold our head up proudly as a Schechter school.
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I need to go back and read the original Forward article again, because, honestly, I didn't find it overly negative. When a movement loses a third of its member institutions over a fairly short period of time, it indicates that something is wrong. The Forward is an excellent newspaper. I would expect nothing less than that they would point to this significant trend.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I personally agree with your perspective – there is nothing fundamentally unsound about the Schechter pedagogy that makes the movement's decline inevitable. It is most definitely possible to build a vibrant, contemporary school within the Schechter fold.
Concern and alarm are both merited but there is no reason to be overly pessimistic. A new generation of leadership can lead to a revival of this valuable educational movement.