Saturday, August 13, 2011

Ramaz (WOW continued)

For an example of having good yet non-coercive education, I think Israel should look to American models. It should establish a committee to look at different models and see what works and doesn't work, and come up with suggestions that can be applied to the Israeli school system.

The first model that comes to mind is that of the Ramaz (my alma matter) which caters to a student body that is about half Modern Orthodox observant, half non-observant. The school is hashkafically MO, but focused on teaching text skills, not on forcing an ideology down people's throats; it focused more on a life of Jewish knowledge and social action guided by the Jewish tradition and Jewish values than on strict halachik observance, which was taught as a fact (This is what rabbi A says. This is what rabbi B says. Now let's analyze it, bc its very interesting and intellectually stimulating) rather than an obligation (ie it was teaching it as descriptive, not prescriptive).

http://www.ramaz.org/

Other examples are Heschel, officially pluralistic, and Beit Rabban, both pluralistic and Montessori:

http://www.heschel.org/ http://www.beitrabban.org/

There is also the Gann Academy in MA: http://www.gannacademy.org/home/

There are also some places of higher Jewish learning that are pluralistic and could still serve as models on non-coercive Jewish education, though how much could be applied to an elementary/highschool setting, I don't know:

An all women's, non-denominational women's institute, with a high quality of learning and very supportive atmosphere. I am a huge Drisha fan and have studies there in the past: http://www.drisha.org/

Yes, its in Israel, but it's heavily anglo and caters to anglos:
http://www.pardes.org.il/


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