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Rabbinic Insights: On Jewish Education and Modern Technology

San Diego Jewish Times, February 24, 2006

By Rabbi Wayne Dosick

I was recently “channel surfing” when I came across an animated cartoon of the story of Joseph and his brothers. It was well done, with what they call in "the industry" -- high production values. I kept waiting for the Christian twist to the story, but it never came. Here was a biblical story, in engaging format that we could heartily embrace and endorse.

It got me to thinking. Without much input from rabbis and Jewish educators, there are hundreds of television shows, videos, and DVDs about Bible, and Jewish history, and archaeology, and, yes, theology — the "Big Bang," quantum physics — and comparative religions, the Holocaust, and modern Israel that are being made by Disney, and Pixar (now merged), the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, PBS, and more.

And, it seems that Berlitz, and the State Department, and the CIA and others have learned to teach Hebrew more quickly and effectively than we have.

Our children are technocrats. They use audio, video, DVDs, computers, and iPods; they upload, and download, and do all manner of technological feats. This has led to a "30 second attention span," yet it has also opened worlds that were not even imagined until the last few years.

And we are still teaching Hebrew school like we did 30 and 50 years ago.

Now, most thankfully, and with much admiration, we can say that today's Jewish educators are dedicated, and enthusiastic, and highly creative, and deeply committed. They have made Hebrew school much more palatable than it has ever been.

But, the afternoon Hebrew school is still the worst educational form ever invented by humankind. We get the children — and many of the teachers— when they are already exhausted from a full day of secular school, and when they would rather be out doing something else. We try to teach Hebrew — which, like the study of any language, requires consistency and repetition — in an hour on Mondays, and an hour on Wednesdays, with no reinforcement in-between — an almost impossible task. We try to teach everything else — Bible, history, prayer, rituals, holidays, Holocaust, Israel, Jewish values and ethics — in the few remaining hours.

Is it any wonder that, with most children, we fail far more than we succeed? What we need is a complete overhaul — not of Judaism, not of what we need and want to teach, not of the commitments we have, and traditions we want to pass on — but of the delivery systems of Jewish education.

We need to take advantage of all the amazing educational delivery systems that are already out there, and that are being tested and tried every day. A student can now get a BA from the University of California, completely online; an MBA from the University of Phoenix, completely online; Ph.D. by distance learning. Besides being flexible in timing and cost, these programs do not sit 20 or 30 students in a classroom and teach them all with the same methodology; they take into account the many different modalities — some say 9; some say 12 or more — by which students — children and adults — best learn, and individualize the methods and delivery of instruction. Old molds are shattered in secular education. Why not in Jewish education?

These preliminary ideas need a great deal of thought and shaping, but here's just a little bit of what we might be able to do.

Let's, for example, teach Bible and history through technology. We can use much of what is already out there, and we can develop what we need. There are certainly enough Jews in the entertainment and technological industries so that we can get all the expertise we need. We do not need to have our children sit in a classroom and listen to a teacher talk. Our youngsters can buy or borrow the software, or download it, and watch — and learn — Bible and history. We can laser-focus our content to age and developmental levels, and to varieties of learning modalities.

It can be the same for Hebrew language. There can be reading skill and language skill computer programs; there can be video and computer games that can be very, very effective learning tools. Our children need basic reading skills; acquisition of a basic vocabulary, and basic grammatical principles. Technology can provide the learning rubric.

Students then make up learning contracts with their teachers, and — well supervised by parents, who become an integral part of the learning process, rather than just carpool drivers — accomplish the work. Children work at their own pace and in their own ways. There are measures of progress and accomplishment. There are a wide variety of motivations and incentives, rewards and consequences. (I'm so sorry. You are not yet eligible for bar mitzvah. You have not completed your learning contract and demonstrated your competency. The onus is on you, the student and you, the parent. We have provided all that you need; you are responsible for accomplishing it.)

Teachers are always available in the Language Lab and in the classroom. A student can "drop in" any afternoon or early evening to get any help or instruction.

Every six weeks or so, the children and their parents get together on a Sunday afternoon, or for a Shabbas morning service and lunch, or for a Friday evening dinner and service, or at a Tuesday evening gathering, and work, together with the teachers on the material that has been covered in that time period. There are biblio-dramas, and historical re-enactments. How much will a student know and remember when his father dresses up as Rashi, and offers biblical commentary?

Twice or three times a year, the families spend a Shabbas weekend together, either in town, or at a campsite, for a full experience of living Judaism. Together, they delve into text, into the authenticity of Jewish learning.

So, what do we do in the classroom, when the student comes once or twice a week? The school continues to do what, in many schools is being done now — it teaches the children to "do Jewish," participating in experiential Jewish learning. There is great benefit and connection in baking a challah, and making a Havdalah candle.

And most, we do what we are supposed to do best — but which we do most poorly. We teach our children about God, and faith, and prayer, and Jewish values. We talk GodTaIk. We pray, we sing, we meditate, we find ways to come close to God. We speak of God's word and will for us. We learn how God wants us to behave. We learn to build up our broken world.

We surely can find ways far better than we have now to give over cognitive Jewish learning — for our children to learn their heads.

Then, our Jewish educators, our rabbis, our cantors, our teachers — and our classroom hours — can be dedicated to what our children need most — helping to grow their Jewish hearts and souls.

Rabbi Wayne Dosick, Ph.D., the spiritual guide of the Elijah Minyan, an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego and the Director of the 17: Spiritually Healing Children's Emotional Wounds. He is the award-winning author of six critically acclaimed books, including Golden Rules; Living Judaism; and Soul Judaism: Dancing with God into a New Era.