Educational models should reflect our values and our values should be manifested in our schools. A Reconstructionist day school should model "living in two (or more) civilizations". Jewish day schools that isolate Jewish children in a totally Jewish environment cannot embody this Reconstructionist value.
We should be offended by the assumption that a Jewish religious education has to be provided in an exclusively Jewish environment. Providing a strong Jewish education to our children in an environment that truly prepares them socially and morally to live creatively in a multi-cultural society should excite us. Immersing our children in a Jewish culture that is part of two civilizations – rather than a Jewish culture isolated and segregated from the rest of society – means providing a complete Jewish education that is integrally connected to the broader community. We should reject the model of a segregated school that isolates our children from the broader community. The notion that our children should be segregated from the outside world to be immersed in Judaism is incompatible with the notion of a Jewish people that values living in two (or more) civilizations. We need an educational model appropriate to our values and appropriate to our vision of the future of Judaism, the Jewish people, and Jewish culture. We need a model of learning Judaism in two civilizations.
Furthermore, a Reconstructionist school should promote the ability to engage in values-based decision-making – both as a means for making personal decisions and as a method for interacting with one’s community. Values-based decision making assumes moral and spiritual development. Research on moral development clearly establishes the importance of confronting and dealing with moral conflicts and problems. A multi-cultural school environment that routinely deals with values conflicts and tensions is preferable to a mono-cultural environment that teaches students that one set of values is "right" or "correct" or "the way we do things". (Quality research on spiritual development is virtually non-existent. Rabbi Richard Schachet {of the Valley Outreach Synagogue in Las Vegas} and I are discussing writing a paper on this subject. Extant research suggests the same conclusion.)
I envision schools in which children from a variety of communities and faiths learn together and yet still have the opportunity to learn about their particular heritages and develop the skills necessary to creatively carry on their traditions. I envision schools that integrate the universal with the particular. Our schools place students into math classes by level of ability. We can also place them into religion, culture, or tradition classes by religion or culture. Our schools offer classes in Spanish, French, advanced placement English, and studio art. We can offer classes in Hebrew, Judaism, Chinese language and traditions, African-American history, Islam, and Christianity.
There are many communities that have a need to educate their children in a particular religious and/or cultural tradition. Usually these communities attempt to do so separately through a combination of day schools and supplementary afternoon or Sunday schools. I would like to see a school where these communities come together to provide a multi-cultural educational experience that includes particularist education in each student’s own tradition.
Such schools would embody the value of living in two (or more) civilizations. Such schools would actualize the values of diversity, interfaith and intercommunal integration. These schools would go beyond tolerance and pluralism to a vision of truly valuing diversity and differences. The communities that join the school community would share these values. Therefore the schools I imagine are unlikely to include many Orthodox Jews, fundamentalist Christians, or culturally traditionalist Muslims. They are likely to contain liberal and progressive Muslims, Christians and Jews as well as segments of the African-American community and Asian communities. And they are likely to contain individuals who are members of more than one of the religious and cultural communities that make up the school community (e.g. Muslim African-Americans, Chinese Christians, child of a Jewish parent and a Unitarian parent, etc.).
Different ethnic or cultural communities would look to the school and to their particular portion of the curriculum to meet distinct sets of needs. Multicultural education can (1) offer a balanced view of our shared history, (2) create cross-cultural understanding and further the goals of a pluralist society, (3) provide students of minority groups access to their own histories within the broader curriculum, and/or (4) help students from groups which have experienced discrimination or oppression to develop a sense of pride and self-worth. I envision schools that incorporate all of these goals within their curricula without imposing the latter two goals uniformly upon any group.
The schools would offer a "normal" P-12 curriculum reflecting the makeup of the school. The social studies curriculum would reflect the interests and concerns of the communities that are part of the school. Religious values would inform the science curriculum while empirical knowledge would inform the religious and cultural curricula. Religious literature, music and art from the school communities would enhance the humanities programs. The languages in which the cultures of the communities are preserved and transmitted would be emphasized and students would be encouraged to become multi-lingual. A school that includes both Jews and Muslims might therefore produce many students fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic. The "normal" curriculum would also include exposure to and education about each community’s traditions. Differences between communities would be dealt with honestly and respectfully.
Part of the day would be devoted to religious and cultural studies. Students would learn their own traditions. Jews would study Hebrew, Jewish history not covered in the general curriculum, and Jewish texts. Jewish students would also acquire cultural literacy and the knowledge and skills to practice Judaism. Development and oversight of the Jewish curriculum would be shared by the Jewish educators and by the Jewish families. Similarly, other communities in the school would develop their own curricula.
Before school formally starts, there might be different religious services for those groups accustomed to holding daily morning prayers. Groups accustomed to additional daily (or periodic) services would hold these services during school hours. The services would operate under the rules and guidelines of each community. Ideally, sacred space would be shared. In the school I envision Jewish worship would be egalitarian, but I can imagine a situation in which another group does not grant both men and women identical ritual equality in their services. The communities that comprise the school would handle regulations regarding attendance at religious services or observance of any cultural or religious practices. Each community in cooperation with the affiliated families would establish their own norms and rules for their children and would be responsible for enforcement.
This vision offers some very clear advantages and presents exciting challenges. For different religious and cultural/ethnic communities it offers a framework for pooling resources to provide a truly multi-cultural education that simultaneously teaches the knowledge and skills necessary for authentically transmitting religious and cultural traditions to our children. Developing such a school also provides the exciting opportunity to meet the challenges involved in developing a diverse educational community committed to respectfully and creatively resolving problems and conflicts. If we cannot be true to our own traditions and find a way to meet these challenges in the microcosm of a school, what chance do we have of imparting meaningful values to our children?
Indeed, the challenges are formidable. Values conflicts will continuously strain relations between the groups. Therefore an a priori commitment to pluralism, tolerance and cooperation among communities and an initial agreement on a broad variety of issues and upon a process for resolving the conflicts and problems that will inevitably emerge are absolute prerequisites. Among the kinds of issues that will have to be negotiated are:
- Celebrations and commemorations of events that are part of disputed or controversial histories (e.g. Israel Independence Day);
- Dietary rules and regulations, customs and preferences;
- Accommodating religious calendars;
- Values conflicts, e.g. clashes between values of egalitarianism and modesty, dress codes, etc.;
- Values conflicts: interdating, conflicting sexual moralities;
- Handling inter-group conflicts within the school, and separating and dealing with the components of such conflicts (class issues, cultural issues, intolerance, etc.);
- Conflicts over the use and display of symbols, iconography;
- Governance issues, areas/boundaries of communal autonomy;
- Staffing issues, diversity in staffing, staffing administrative positions;
- Conflicts between educators and families; professionalism as educators in conflict w/ needs or interests of a specific community
There are some very great advantages, however, to this model. First and foremost, it is a model that is both based upon our core values and feasible for our movement. Predicated upon working with other groups, this model requires neither a large number of Reconstructionist children nor a huge expenditure of movement resources. Also, because it is truly pluralist, such a school might be established within a public school system or as a charter school sponsored (in whole or in part) by a public university or similar institution. It does not necessarily have to involve a values conflict between our commitment to strong public educational institutions and the value we place on Jewish education. Indeed, creating such day schools could involve us, as a movement, in a "social action" project with important ramifications for strengthening public education.