Chabad’s School of the Future

When Chabad Shluchim travel to obscure locations around the world as emissaries of the Jewish people, setting up shop near college campuses, large cities, and even tiny rural towns to share the vibrancy of our religion with just one more Jew, they must confront the logistical challenges of providing their children with a traditional Lubavitch education and interactions with Orthodox children their age.

Until recently, Shluchim had only two options: adding homeschooling duties to parents’ already busy schedules, or sending their young children off to board on their own at out-of-state schools.

However, in September 2006, about a year after Skype added video-calling to their list of features, another method of Lubavitch education was introduced, one which has opened the doors to a whole new level of worldwide Chabad connection.

Through an organization known as “The Shluchim Online School,” shluchim are able to enroll their children in virtual classes, connecting them via webcam to teachers and classmates often located hundreds of miles away. A project of the Connecting Yaldei Shluchim [children of shluchim] program (a division of The Shluchim Office, the international resource center for Chabad Lubavitch), the Online School connects teachers from places as varied as Omaha, New York, and Maryland, with children living anywhere from Texas to Vermont, South America to Australia. The children are able to see their teacher on their monitors, as well as any child in their class whose mike registers that he is speaking.

Combined, the Meyer and Lillian Nigri School for Boys and the Shluchim Online School for Girls enroll over 500 students between ages 4-13. The Online School expects a high level of commitment: no slacking off is tolerated despite the school’s unusual design. Absences and latenesses are recorded (excluding latenesses resulting from technical difficulties,) homework is assigned on a daily basis, tests are printed, filled in, and faxed in to teachers by students, and report cards are sent out regularly. Students are encouraged to exercise outside during their recess as they would in a typical school, and the student handbook explains that in order to maintain a certain level of respect for the Torah learning that goes on in their classes, the school dress code is to be followed during school time. Girls must wear polos or button-down shirts in pink, blue, or white, and boys are required to wear button-down shirts of white or blue. Students have the option to purchase school vests and sweatshirts as well, giving the students a feeling of solidarity.

Children in the Online School learn to read Hebrew as well as Yiddish. They learn Tanya and other Chassidic thought in addition to Chumash and Navi, halakha, and (for boys) Mishnayiot and Gemara. “The level of learning is phenomenal,” attests Rabbi Avremel Blesofsky, a shaliach at the University of Iowa who has several children enrolled in the Online School. “It’s well organized, has a good curriculum… [and] is constantly improving.”

When asked if he believes that his children are getting as good an education as those in traditional schools, he emphatically replied that, “It may be even better!” His third and fifth graders spend many hours learning each day, from 8:30 until 2:00, and they love it: when given the option to skip school, they decline – they don’t want to miss class.

Through this program, not only are these children able to study subjects which few others in their local surroundings have even heard of, they are also able to form friendships with children who are in similar life situations: the only Orthodox family in miles, constantly welcoming strangers into their homes, always expected to behave as perfect models of ideal Jewish children to the outside world. They often form such strong friendships with classmates that when the school meets up “in real life,” which it does several times each year for Shabbatonim and other programs, the children feel “bonded instantly,” as “they [already] kn[ow] each other but have never seen each other [face to face],” says Blesofsky.

The Online School platform utilizes various tools to make available the same social opportunities present in a traditional classroom. Each student is equipped with a headset and microphone, and most use a webcam as well; they can ask and answer questions, see their classmates when they are speaking, use a “whiteboard,” and learn in independent groups in smaller “breakout rooms” within the classroom. All the students gather for Rosh Chodesh assemblies, or rallies for other events. The school even offers after-hours homework help with volunteer high school students, and the eighth grade girls produce a yearbook and enjoy a graduation trip together. Many children go on to board in other communities for high school.

Much thought has been put into the school’s design and technology: video tutorials explain which equipment is necessary, how to set it up, and even how fast an internet connection is required based on the number of children the family wants to teach online simultaneously (listing connection speeds for up to 5 children).

Distance learning has been common since the 16th Century (via mail courses), but with the advent of the internet and instantaneous video connections, online schooling has become a realistic way to bring learning and community to those who would otherwise have no access to a Lubavitch classroom. As technology progresses, increasing benefits become available to the Jewish community, limited only by the ingenuity of those who realize the opportunities surrounding them. The Online School helps these children feel connected and supported in their roles as shluchim, wherever they are in the world.