Character Development: The Central Theme of Chabad’s Educators Conference
Newark, NJ — Hundreds of educators from across the United States and Canada convened in the Robert Treat Conference Center on Monday and Tuesday, July 30th and 31st for two days totally dedicated to education. The conference was organized by the Education Office of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, Chabad Lubavitch International Headquarters.
More pictures in the Extended Article!
A number of educational themes were discussed at the conference, foremost among them the development of desirable character traits among students in Chabad schools. Presentations on that theme ranged, from a series of papers based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ob”m, to a survey of practical, recent research on the on character development and the promotion of positive interaction among students.
There was an intense series of intense workshops on the development of Talmudic learning-skills among students and the creation of a hierarchy of such skills. Presenters from as far away as Israel and Los Angeles came specifically to address the conference. Dr. Howard Shapiro who arrived at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, NJ where the conference was held, at 11pm Monday night and found a lively crowd debating the just concluded plenary session on character development, was flabbergasted. “Its incredible he said to a friend that you started 9:00 am and you’re still going at it close to midnight”.
Nationally prominent professionals presented at the conference. Among them was Dr. David Pelcovitz, professor at NYU, who presented on positive student communications while Dr. Arzi Shemer a special educator from Tel Aviv lectured on his unique style of training classroom teachers to include students with learning dysfunctions, and Dr. Joel Warshowsky presented on the effect of impaired vision on the development of reading skills.
Rabbi Mordechai Begun who came especially from Brazil to attend left saying that the conference exceeded all his expectations and he needed days to decompress and organize all the information he learned. Rabbi Nochem Kaplan the director of the Chinuch Office said his staff has been working for months to make sure the conference was meaningful and that its effectiveness would show on a daily basis, in the more that 140 Chabad elementary and high schools across the country.
