Chicago Jewish Academy - Memoirs Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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74a Day Sedan! Educating the Jewlsh chlld has been one of the most important problems confrontmg American Jewry smce the arnval of the first Jews to thus country The fallure to solve this problem successfully has perhaps been one of the mam causes for the gradual decline of orthodox Jewlsh hfe ln the Lnxted States Why has the Amerlcan Jewlsh educatlon system not met wlth great success? When the Jews began to 1mmx grate to thus country they were carrxed away by the 1dea of democracy After hundreds of years of persecution the Jews finally were destlned to be on an equal status wlth their fellow Amerlcans They therefore strove to be more democratlc than the natxve Amerlcans and ln so domg they abandoned thelr rellglous practlces not re alxzlng that one of the most outstandlng prlnclples ln a democracy IS the prlnclple of freedom of rellgron and the rxght to be dlfferent In thelr attempt to become oriented with the Amerlcan way of llfe they neglected the Jewish educatlon of thelr chlldren As such there was no understandlng of the mltzvot and the chlldren were maturmg wlth no rellglous phllosophy whatsoever Yes the parents would remem ber how much they and thelr ancestors had sacrlficed m the name of rellglon but would their chlldren of the second generation? Is It any wonder then that the number of observant young Jews was rapldly on the dCCllIlC9 The sltuatron was grim Intermarrlage was steadlly lncreaslng A solutlon had to be found The Jewlsh people began to look about them The Cathollcs seemed to be able to keep their youth and were even galnmg strength Why had they succeeded with thelr youth whereas the Jews had faded Apparently thelr strength lay 1n thelr parochlal educatlonal system After decades of experxmentatlon wlth the late after noon Hebrew school the Jewlsh day school appeared to be the only solution Some argued that the day school was undemocratlc and agalnst the prmclple of free edu cation To whlch other replied Must we be more d mocratlc than the rest of America? Durmg the past ten or fifteen years the day school movement has spread rapldly and extended to c1t1es all oyer the Umted States It has become the mam project of many Jewnsh commumtles and synagogues The reasons for the growth of the day school moye ment are many Parents who believe ln the tradltlonal way of Jewish llfe realize that only ln such a school can thelr child recelye a complete Jewlsh education Certainly the Hebrew school whlch convenes for an hour or two eyery day cannot posslblv accomplish that which the day school can ln seven hours The Hebrew school lacks adequate tlme to teach those subjects necessary ln rellglous educatlon Furthermore the day school teaches not only by mstructxon but much more effectlvely by practlce The child knows that each mormng he yolns wlth hrs classmates m Tfilah or that after eatmg they wlll all bentch torether These are but two of the many lelmous obseryances whrch are the natural thmff lll a day school Throu h these practices as the chnld ma tures he gams an understandmv and an appreclatxon of that which he obseryes By attending one school for both rellglous and secular tudres the child reallzes the equal Importance of both whereas lf he attends Hebrew school after sxx hours of public school his sense of yalue already tells hlm that hls I'CllglOllS educatlon IQ consldered secondary to his secular studles Moreover the problem of soclal relationship whxch has been one of the most acute problems that the Jewxsh parent and chxld have had to face has also been solved ln a measure by the day school By helng surrounded w1th Jew lsh friends the student even when enterlng teens where thls problem IS most serlous has no need to seek social companlonshlp ln non Jewrsh clrcles Thls ln turn would tend to decrease the number of mtermarrlages Day school educatlon IS argued by many to foster segregation and thus leave the child unaware of other types of people and other rellglons The truth 1 how ever that the child who recelyes lnadequate JCWlSll tralnmg understands l1ttle of hrs own relxglon and will therefore not understand and IS not ready to understand the rellglous beliefs of others On the other hand by studying the prmclples of hls own rellglon he becomes more adequately prepared to evaluate other rellgxous bellefs ln general the student m the day school usually comes m contact wlth non Jewlsh teachers and certamly wlll become acquainted with many non Jewlsh nelghbors ln the communlty lt IS further contentlon that Amerlca has a public school system which teaches no rellglon 1n keeplng with the constltutlonal prlnclple of spearatlon of church and state As such what harm can posslbly come to the Jewish falthr' It IQ mevltable however especlally durlng the seasons of Chrlstlan holldays for the chlld not to feel the strong religious Chrlstlan spxrlt Because he IS aware of the enthuslasm of the other children at these tlmes and because he wants to be one of the group he auttomatlcally becomes attracted to their hollday splrlt and lts customs The txme element too must be considered Parents have found that their chlld receives both rellglous and secular education ln approynmately the same number of hours that the would recelye just the secular educa txon ln the public school Thr FIXBS the chlld more time for 0UlSld8 actlyltxes Perhaps lt may be thought that because the program IQ so condensed the standard of the day school IG lower than that of the publlc school Statistics howeyer proye thls to be absolutely untrue The day schools rank amon the hlghest One of the mam reasons for thls IQ whereas the publlc schools are so oyercrowded the day school classes are small and therefore the teacher has more time for the lndnldual pupll The mere fact that the enrollment 1n the day school IS rapldly lncreaslng and that more and more day schools are heme founded IS the proof of the success of thus moyement We can look forw ard to the future lkll0Vtlll0' that such chools wlll bun, '1 harp Increase Ill the number of both rel: nous leaders and laymen NIILLICENT FASMAN Fifty three . 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