Revolutionizing Jewish Education

This is my first entry into the blogoshpere world. I never imagined myself sitting down to write a blog because first of all, who would read it? Second, in my educational training I was taught to avoid "frontal teaching" methodologies when at all possible. On the surface blogging would appear to be the most frontal teaching method ever invented. However, in time I hope this platform will evolve into a forum of collaboration as opposed to a platform in isolation.

The Problem

The problem I wish to address is the lack of professionally developed curricular materials which are available in the field of Jewish day school education. If you look inside the knapsack of the average day school student, you will probably find a slew of photocopied sheets flying about in every direction. Hmm. Underneath those sheets you will probably find a professionally designed science book, social studies book etc. Even if you do find a commercial Judaic Studies workbook of some sort, how does it compare in professional terms to the science or math book? Needless to say, the materials created for secular studies subjects have huge amounts of resources which go into their professional development which make them enticing, engaging and effective. The same can't be said for photocopied sheets or a workbook made by a teacher working on a project in his or her spare time.

Why is this important? For starters, don't we want our students to have a strong desire to learn Torah? Today's student is surrounded by so much professionally developed media, that to them these sheets must seem to have been printed before the flood. Wouldn't Torah be that much more desirable if it were visually appealing as well?

More importantly however, the lack of professionally developed materials really impairs the ability of our students to comprehend Torah. This is because our day school system is relying on a system of instruction which has practically no methodology to it. To explain, the average Jewish day school teacher is told when hired to "teach x perakim of sefer y" over the course of the year. There is no guidance as to which skills should be focused on, which vocabulary words should be stressed, how do the skills taught in fourth grade build on what was taught in third grade etc? In effect teachers are toiling to teach without any methodology or professionally developed material to work with. This leads to confusion on the part of the student as well. Everything just seems so random and confusing.

This is the problem I would like to address. How can we go about creating a professionally developed system to guide teachers and students alike which will be creative, engaging and enticing? How can we develop a system which will help our students acquire the skills they so desperately need to read our cherished texts? I don't mean to limit this to printed materials. Can we create digital media which will enhance student skills and understanding?

I have some ideas which I hope to outlay in the future, however most of all I would love to hear from others. Feel free to comment below and if this sounds like a project you actively wished to involved with, please join my Facebook group so we can connect and do some real collaboration. Is anybody out there?