Newspaper Page Text
Friday, April 28, 1*967
(J
N ISRAELITE
Pag* Itn*
Silver L
ining
By DR. SAMUEL SILVER
Columnist Dreams Up Scheme
For Religious Education
(A Seven Arts Feature)
I have dreamed up a scheme of
religious education so outlandish
that it has been scorned by sea
soned educators and pooh-poohed
by everyone I
have broached it
to.
Nonetheless, the
idea, though ad
mittedly amor
phous even in
my own mind,
grips me, and
perhaps readers
of this publica
tion can aid me in giving it
sharper delineation or arguing it
into oblivion.
My idea is that religious edu
cation should involve the entire
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family, cutting across every part
of the temple set-up.
According to a master plan,
each week would be devoted to a
specific theme. That theme would
occupy the attention of all religi
ous school classes, in accordance
with their level of understanding.
It would also be featured at the
worship service. It would trail off
into the adult education group
and also be reflected in the pro
grams of the men’s club and sis
terhood.
Efforts would be made to in
volve the entire family at home
in concentrating on the theme,
with projects that would impel
parents and children to study to
gether and make the subject part
of the family table-talk as well.
The theme would be announced
in the temple bulletin and per
haps spill over into the daily
press, giving the publicity com
mittees a chance to explore the
topic in depth.
Let me give an example of
what I mean, as I vaguely dis
cern it in my mind’s eye.
Let’s say this year the series
of topics would be taken from
the Torah portions. Week No. 1,
would, therefore, be Creation
Week. Every religious class would
examine the sedra, or that por
tion of it that will be read at the
Sabbath service. Of course, the
younger children would explore
the passage to the best of their
ability; the older children would
operate on a higher plane.
Questions about the sedra and
its significance would be prepared
.in advance, and this would be the
stuff of the religious school ses
sions. Arts and crafts groups
and older children would look
into the commentaries to see how
the Creation story was treated in
post-Biblical literature. The tem
ple bulletin would provide a
treatise on the Creation story.
At home, parents and children
would be motivated to discuss the
Genesis account of Creation. Do
they believe it? What was its
purpose? What can you learn
from it? Is the United Nations,
in a sense, the upshot of the
unity-of-the-world concept found
in the opening verses of the
Bible? In comparative religion
courses, the idea of man’s fall in
Christianity and Judaism could
be dealt with. In Hebrew classes
the vocabulary of the opening
Genesis verses would be explored.
The finale of all this activity
would be the Sabbath service,
when part of the passage would
be read and preached about, and
perhaps followed through at a
Torah session.
The next week, the subsequent
sedra would be treated the same
way.
You’ve already seen all the
flaws in this peculiar scheme,
haven’t you? What would you do
about texts? You might ask.
What would you do the follow
ing year? I don’t have answers
to these demurrers. I might of
fer the suggestion that all text
books could be used as collateral
reading. What to do the next
year? I’d be willing to do the
same thing, focusing on other
parts of the Torah portions. Or
I’d be willing to dream up a new
series for each year. On what
hook learning hangs bothers me
less than my desire to see it mo
tivated. One year I would even
suggest a more exotic idea: an
alphabetical sequence. The first
week everyone would get absorb
ed with Abraham; the next week
with Baruch; the third, with
Cyrus; the fourth with David; the
fifth with Esther, etc., etc.
Artificial? Unsystematic? Un
orthodox? Yes, but something
along these lines would knit to
gether various segments of con
gregational faith, which now
seems at sixes and sevens. Some
such plan would bring the fam
ily into the educational orbit. And
it is true, I believe, that anything
the children study ought also to
evoke the attention of their par
ents. Or, conversely, if we want
children to regard something as
important we must prove to them
that adults think it is important,
too. Shared learning is the most
effective type of learning, is it
not? .
And if you suspicious educators
can also see in this idea a rabbi’s
way of trying to increase temple
attendance, your suspicion is cor
rect. But what is wrong with that
objective? Why shouldn’t the wor
ship relate to the temple study
program, and why shouldn’t the
curriculum be relevant to other
congregational activities?
This concept is an attempt to
knit the temple units together. I
might call the endeavor an in
tegrated program, but that might
suggest the wrong associations.
I am mindful, for example, of
the architect who told a southern
building committee that he would
try to integrate the sanctuary
with its outdoor setting. He was
told not to use that word, in
tegrate, and instead he substituted
“harmonize.”
I might call the program an
attempt to fashion an organic
congregation, but that would have
Reconstructionist overtones, which
are not meant.
Not only am I unclear about
the configurations of my scheme.
Not only am I unsure about what
name to attach to it. I can’t even
try it out. I’ve outlined it to the
educational director of my own
congregation. But he has told me,
in effect, to stick to religion.
Is the idea really as preposter
ous as I’ve been told?
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