Op-Ed: Montessori Yeshiva?
Can many of the problems faced by students in today’s Yeshivos be solved by allowing them to have more autonomy over what subjects they learn and when they attend Seder? In the following op-ed, author Dovber Schwartz explores such possibilities. He explains that we are teaching Bochurim to learn, but not how to learn, and suggests an entirely new approach to Yeshiva education.
Many Bochurim today struggle to advance in their learning. The challenges they face are twofold; textual and analytical.
Disregarding content for a moment, the texts Bochurim learn are stylistically cryptic and complex. First of all there is the language barrier facing the student, in which he must learn the languages of Talmudic Hebrew and Aramaic. The second area of difficulty is that even after being able to translate the words, the text of gemara is quite often unintelligible unless one is familiar with the style and flow of a sugya.
The textual problem, while challenging, is quite simple to solve. In order to achieve fluency students require an intensive immersion in Hebrew and Aramaic. Only by repetition and constant exposure to the text will students acquire the skill set required to understand and learn a sugya on their own.
The second challenge is analytical and far more difficult to solve, posed by the unique nature of Talmudic logic. There are certain types of thinking and analysis that are required for students to successfully master Talmudic learning. Students must learn to follow how a sugya develops from its conception to its climax. Even the simplest and most straight-forward sugyot can contain layers upon layers of stages and turning points within the evolution of the Halacha being discussed.
Once the students’ critical thinking of the Talmudic text is somewhat developed, the next stage is to enter the world of the Rishonim. An entirely different set of thinking skills are necessary to properly appreciate the Rishonim. The student must come to be familiar with the way the Rishonim often radically alter the conceptual framework of the sugya. He must become comfortable with the diverse and different styles of learning that the Rishonim use. The Ramban’s style is quite different then the Rosh or the Ritva’s. He must be given the skill set of being able to juggle different approaches to the same text without becoming confused and overwhelmed by the implied ambiguity of the text. All this, of course, before even going near the intense hair splitting geder-ridden world of the Achronim.
In other words he must be taught how to learn instead of simply learning. Just learning the gemara and mefarshim will work well for the textual area of difficulty mentioned before, but it won’t work for the critical thinking area of difficulty.
All too often a bochur is only made “to learn” in yeshiva. Years upon years of learning later (if he applied himself), he will indeed be able to read and understand gemara and mefarshim quite well. But he will be lacking a systematic and comprehensive approach to learning. He will often be ignorant to the big picture of a sugya and be unable to verbalize the sugya’s central principles around which all the shakla ve’tarya revolves. He will often be unaware of the halakhic threads of the sugya and lack an appreciation for how the poskim adapted and applied the gemara to real life scenarios.
Instead a bochur should be given skills and tools with which to engage the gemara in a dynamic and interactive way. (Of course for a teacher to give these skills he must have them himself, which is all too often not the case.)
The secular world is currently undergoing an educational revolution in which many of the basic and assumed principles of traditional schooling are being challenged. Many of these principles have been demonstrably proven to be inefficient and often harmful. In their place newer more effective models such as project-based learning, student-centered instruction, and blended learning, to name but a few, are being implemented.
Perhaps it is time we start to engage with our educational system in a conscious and active way. Perhaps it is time we revamp some of the ways we educate our children. This might mean something as simple as the idea that bochurim should be given more individualized attention. Perhaps having yeshivot create a systematic syllabus of material and desired skills with tangible and clear benchmarks for measuring success is a good first step towards transparency in our educational system. It might mean something as radical (or simple, depending who you ask) as taking away the mashgiach. Recently several yeshivot have experimented with this to no small success. After all, if a bochur does not want to be in zal why should he be forced to come? This is 17, 18 and 19 year old young man we are dealing with. Moreover, compulsory attendance creates an environment of fear and is a sure way to foster irresponsibility and negative attitudes towards learning.
Perhaps it means individualizing the curriculum. If a bochur loves learning Halacha why is he learning gemara le’iyun for four to six hours a day? Let him spend less time on iyun and more time on a subject that speaks to him and attracts him. If the open ended abstract give and take of intense iyun is not for him then allow him to gravitate towards areas of learning that are more orderly and systematic. Thank G-d there is no dearth of variety and diversity within the vast corpus of Torah. Education should be about nurturing and guiding the student’s abilities instead of imposing on him pre-conceived standards about what he should primarily be skilled at.
Even if a bochur loves learning iyun for 6 hours a day, there are still vast amounts of nuance within the iyun world. Maybe he loves mefarshim that are grounded in pshat and involved in cross referencing from other places in Shas (think Tosafot, Rosh, Maharsha, Maharam Shif etc.).
Maybe he can’t stand being limited to text and loves the more conceptual and intense analysis of the Shaagas Aryeh, the Ketzos and others. Perhaps he likes learning the global systems of iyun such as the Rogatchover, Reb Chaim Brisker and others. Possibly he gravitates towards learning seforim that discuss the very principles and rules of Talmudic analysis such as Hamidos Le’cheker Ha’halacha, Klalei HaTalmud and others. Perhaps he simply loves Tanach and learning Chumash and Navi in depth with commentaries. Maybe he loves literary analysis seforim like the Malbim and others.
Whatever the case , a student should be encouraged and given freedom to delve into areas of Torah that attract them, that they are good at and that they therefore feel and see accomplishment in.
Another idea would be to regulate the chavrusa system more. Bochurim spend most of their day out of class in a free environment. This is a breeding ground for creativity and self-generated learning. Something the secular world has recently been gravitating towards. But the area where bochurim spend most of their time is the least regulated. Guys often just choose their friends, creating a situation where pairs of chavrusas are all too often two students with no interest and/or skill in learning . Besides for the obvious benefit of pairing weaker and stronger students together, there is another scheme that can be implemented. It is a scheme that many groups and corporations have begun using in the last ten years or so to great benefit.
The scheme is based on the Myerr-Briggs model in which people are tested for natural cognitive and emotional proclivities. After determining what type of thinking people are naturally comfortable and good at, groups are then formed based on diversification of ability. So bochurim with what’s called J temperaments (a tendency to think in orderly and clearly defined ways) would be paired with bochurim who have P temperaments (a tendency to think in creative and abstract- less defined ways). Creating a situation where people benefit by being forced to work with people who think and process information quite differently than them.
These are just some ideas. I am not advocating one specific approach over the other. I leave that to the experts in the field. I am merely saying that this is a conversation that needs to be had. It is time for an open and honest conversation. Einstein famously defined insanity as continuing to attempt the same thing while expecting a different result. We cannot continue educating our children the same way and expect a different result. Our children deserve better.
Dovber Schwartz is an author, blogger, and law student. He is currently writing a book analyzing the conceptual innovations of the Rogatchover Gaon and conducts a textual source-based study group once a week. He also tutors bochurim and ba’ale battim, and can be reached at berryschwartz@gmail.com.
On stand bye
Well said but no one is listening
My kid goes to a mesifta that is a standard run of the mill experience
The teacher’s are ok and mean well but somehow they’ve
Don’t get it, and not really open to change in a meaningful war
I put up with it because it’s in town and not keen in kid going sway, it’s affordable barely and the let kids adjust for individual circumstances
But still they really lack the skills or courage. To environ what
You are talking about
The True Yeshiva System
Today is actually the day when Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim started. The schedule was and is different then all other Yeshivos. It was actually put together by the Rebbe Rashab.
If a bochur desires to delve into other parts of Torah, he is encouraged to do so in all the free time that he has. (The bochurim that care realize how much time this really is).
Montessori in Crown Heights is a Fraud
A lot of what’s written here is true, but there are some who are using this information to convince innocent people to send to a new crown heights “montessori” school that is completely not in line with Yiddishkeit and chassidishkeit. I had a child in the school and i consulted with many mashpiim and rabbanimw who have all ruled that Lamplighters Yeshiva in CH is a disaster for yiddishkeit and lubavitch. It’s a Churban that is happening in our very own neighborhood and innocent families are being lured into paying thousands of dollars for a tainted Hashkafa that may chas veshalom stay with their children forever :(
well said!
thanks
Lamplighters
Right on. We need to be brave enough to make the changes our children so desperately need to be successful: learning that speaks to the passions and interests of our students with trained, professional teachers … An environment where choice is celebrated and a child is encouraged to ask questions and think critically…
There’s a Chabad Montessoti school in Crown Heights- Lamplighters Yeshivah – true Chassidic al Pi Darko education. Finally.
a mom from out of town
Thank you for the article. I wish some people with money would put together an alternative program , for those of us who do want or need.I can not understand why there is no alternative program for bochurim who are good kids and do not do well with reg system. That is what I am davenning for to be changed.Do you know anyone like me?
mesora
(#3 sounds like someone from the uneducated who is scared of losing his place in an uneducated system).
The write of this piece is generally correct. Problem is two generations have been “educated” in an unstructured system, so it’s the blind leading the blind, so to speak. I’m not speaking ill of the subject material, just the way it is presented to all students – whether 1st grade or “graduate” (whatever that means in this unstructured system).
How many people in any position of authority (or position at all) in the current system know what “curriculum” and “syllabus” are? There are no experts in the field – field being the local CH schools, and every “Lubavitcher” “zal”
Can you imagine a structured education in Zal? . Accountability to educational standards in 6th grade? Language fundamentals (in any language, in any grade, in any CH school?
The educators, and most parents of the “educatees” aren’t knwoledgeable enough to even demand what uis necessary.
I’ve come to the conclusion that what is being offered is good for to whom it is being offered. The few that know or sense more and better is needed, will either remain uncomfortable or make a new schooling system. And since the latter is a lifelong effort which requires money and passion, it’s probably the former that will remain, with band-aids and patches.
From the heart
Secular education brings the same evils as unfettered Internet access. Keep your kids safe from it, stick with what learning is proven over hundreds of years.
For #8
I think you have missed an important point…..no one said WHAT is taught is in any way questioned. Rather, different people learn in different ways, and if all are forced to learn in ONE way, then some students are being shortchanged. The reason that they end up being shortchanged is that their teachers are not schooled in pedagogy, they are schooled only in the subject being taught. This is an inadequate model. It is not a professional teaching/learning model. It would not be the goal that secular education should take precedence, but the core of the curriculum can be absorbed and still embed an element of choice WITHIN the frame of every and all usual expectations of the past. Sometimes choice shows a respect and understanding of the individual’s readiness and openness to a particular learning. One would hope that a sincere teacher at least consider ways to improve or expand their profession, no?
What are teachers really there for?
I agree that this conversation must occur. We owe it to the future of our goals and ideals. At the same time, I think the conversation must include professionals from more than one point of view. Those professionals from the fields of education,child development, learning/teaching psychology, traditional models, current research, comparative research, data, examples, input from past and present students, and communicated experiences of students /families/teachers have to be there in order to really have an effective/productive conversation. Then make some decisions! Act on them! However, if those who become involved enter and remain closed to change or closed to what is already working, then I fear not much will come from a conversation. That would be sad.
#8
I don’t understand what you are referring to when you mention “secular” and “internet”. I interpreted the author’s references as a desire to improve the quality of education with an enhanced model of education that would offer more option in WAYS to learn the curriculum already there. There was no mention of secular or internet exposure. As a teacher myself, I know that there are students who become more open to learning when they are offered a certain amount of choice in their learning. However, I do not say that they may learn about anything they want. I DO at times tell them that they may choose “this’ or ”that” at a particular time in the day. It is always part of the core curriculum. It makes no difference when they learn those particular concepts anyway, but it sometimes makes a difference to the student with a more independent or creative personality, for example. That choice may provide a kind of freedom that actually lets the student’s mind free up to learn the next mandatory concept that I DO present to him/her. It’s an educationally and psychologically sound practice. I have seen its effectiveness many times, and no student has lost or missed any mandatory learning therein. To the contrary, some students have learned more in the end, because of their experience in a bit of autonomy…..no secular, no internet, no problem.
Holding the sacred in education....
Hundreds of years have offered SO much to us, yes! The only thing is, as I look around and observe, sometimes I wonder what happened! We have fighting, arguing, yelling, disrespecting others, talking behind others’ backs, smoking in people’s faces, child abuse or other abuse, etc., etc. So what is the learning for? Has it really been learned? As a Jewish psychologist and teacher, I maintain that part of the problem is a lack of knowledge as to how important HOW we learn is, not only WHAT we learn. We can all learn the same important material, but we do not all learn best in the same way. If a student has been shamed year after year for not knowing something, he will have scars we can not see. These scars can affect aspects of his life indefinitely. His relationships, his career, his self esteem, etc. can be affected. He may not know why he can not listen another’s opinion, but it might be that no one bothered to listen to his difficulties in learning. If someone had understood, instead of shaming him, the teacher would have said any number of things…. “Let’s try breaking this down into smaller steps. Maybe I was speaking too quickly. Sometimes it helps to close your eyes and just listen, so that you are not distracted by what you see around you. Do you think it might help if I wrote this down for you to study at home? Let me hear you repeat back to me what you heard me say…that way I’ll find out where I need to assist your understanding. Why don’t you take a 10 minute break away from books and see if you come back refreshed. How about if you stay a bit after class so we can see how I can help you out. Here’s a tape of this lesson for you to take home. Here is some extra practice. This is a game that can help you learn this, and it can be fun. It’s o.k. if you didn’t get that yet. We will be working on it for a while. Not everybody learns in the same way. We’ll find the way that you learn best.” ETC.!!!!! Please, let us continue the hundreds of years of magnificence and remain cognizant that within those years are embedded a desire for truth, intelligence, healthy questioning, integrity, compassion, learning, self improvement, commitment to our children’s welfare, and love for our fellow Jew and all people. If a better way of educating can effect any of the above in a positive way, which I think it can, then we have to take a real look at this issue.