Newspaper Page Text
*•§• Two
THE SOUTHERN ISRABJTE
Friday, Aug. 6, 1971
AMERICAN NEWS REPORT
Students at Elite Day High School
Challenge Its Policies
Fresh proof that the Orthodox
community has not been left un
touched by the Jewish youth re
bellion has emerged at one of
the nation’s best Jewish day
high schools, the Ramaz school
In Manhattan. The Ramaz com
plex, which includes a nursery,
primary school and full high
school, is sponsored by Kehillath
Jeshurun, a leading Orthodox
synagogue whose rabbi, Joseph
H. Lookstein, is the founder and
until recently principal of the
complex.
The ferment at the elite co
educational day high school has
been made manifest in two de
velopments. One was a poll of
the 250 high school students
about their opinions of the Ju
daic courses at the school, which
comprise about half of the stu
dent’s total course load. The
poll was conducted by the Ram
Page, a sprightly-edited publi
cation of the high school stu
dents. As a follow-up, the ener
getic young editors sponsored a
roundtable discussion for stu
dents on that topic. They also
interviewed a number of the
teachers separately on the is
sues raised by the students.
x t
According to the poll, about
one of four of the 167 students
participating in the survey con
sidered the Judaic studies “un
interesting or worse.” The
roundtable involved nine stu
dents chosen at random from
each of the four classes. One
concensus of the roundtable par
ticipants was that many Ramaz
high school teachers “are either
not dedicated enough or are
lacking certain qualities neces
sary for good teaching.”
The response by an adminis
tration spokesman, Rabbi Josh
ua Bakst, the headmaster, was
that school officials have con
sistently encouraged such ex
pressions of student freedom of
opinion. Rabbi Bakst also told
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
that while he did not necessarily
agree with the recorded views
of the students in the poll and
at the roundtable, he felt such
student-sponsored evaluations
were useful. He said that two
years ago, the administration
had initiated a student-faculty
administration committee and
that the administration strongly
favored “constant dialogue”
with students seeking to discuss
such matters. He cited, as an
example of administration pol
icy, the fact that his office was
always open to such students.
He added that he regarded the
complaints from the students as
an indication that they “want
more” in courses content and
that, in that sense, the com
plaints were considered con
structive.
According to the poll, the
study of Jewish history was by
far the most appealing to the
students. Many students said
they considered the study of
Jewish philosophy “extremely
worthwhile.” But, according to
the poll report, half of the stu
dents said they look on study
of the Talmud as “irrelevant”
or “uninteresting." One student
remarked that “double periods
by Ben Gallob
of Talmud are synonomous with
the rack in the Middle Ages.”
Students at the roundtable
contended that many members
of the Judaic studies faculty had
been at the school much longer
than the secular studies teachers
and that, as a result, the Judaic
courses teachers “tend to be in
flexible in their teaching meth
ods and find it difficult to over
come their pedagogical inertia.”
Most of the students felt that
pressure from tests and grades
in the Judaic courses should be
eliminated. Most of the propos
als for changes in course con
tent focussed on student wishes
for “relevance to modern times.”
They argued that courses in
Zionism, anti-Semitism, com
parative religion, Yiddish and
contemporary Jewish problems
“should be offered to all class
es.” Both in the poll and during
the roundtable, the students
urged that they be allowed “a
much greater role in planning
and selecting courses” in the
Judaic studies.
The teachers agreed with
some of the criticism and rejec
ted others. One agreed that
teachers should be enthusiastic
and also should “respect and try
to understand students’ prob
lems in an open-minded fash
ion.” Another said he felt stu
dents should have “an important
role” in planning their educa
tion. But two of the teachers
defended study of the Talmud,
one asserting that its principles
“can be applied to modem
times” and the other declaring
that the Talmud “teaches logical
thinking.”
Despite the severity of the
student criticism, another
roundtable consensus was agree
ment by the students that they
had learned much at Ramaz
and that they intended to con
tinue their Jewish education,
after graduation, to satisfy the
curiosity created by their
attendance at the high school.
Rabbi Bakst told the JTA
that the student criticism was
understandable but that it was
also true that they did not un
derstand the complexities of
teaching in today's world. He
said it appeared that some of
the student critics compared
their classroom experiences with
the impact of a top-quality tel
evision documentary on a con
temporary issue but that it was
impossible to conduct day-to-
day teaching at such a level.
Rabbi Haskell Lookstein, son of
the school’s founder and its cur-,
rent acting principal, told the
JTA that for the past three
years, the school’s senior class
has designed its entire scholastic
program, except for secular
courses required by state edu
cation law for all types of
schools.
Rabbi Bakst described the
ideological make-up of the high
school student body as around
60 '■ to 70 percent Orthodox,
allowing for the problems inher
ent in such definitions. All stu
dents are graduates of primary
day schools, with about 70 per
cent coming from the Ramaz
primary school. He said tuition
was $1,600 a year, plus $300 for
the building fund, or about
$7,500 for the four-year pro
gram. He stressed that no qual
ified applicant was rejected for
lack of funds and that many stu
dents attended on scholarships.
Copyright 1971, JTA
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