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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
^•8* Two
American News Report .... By Ben Gallot
Open Classroom Tested
At Synagogue School
Initial results of an experiment
using the “open classroom” meth
od for two grades of a Reform,
religious school—in which pupils
are encouraged to study in their
own way and at their own pace
Jewish topics which interest them
—pose a challenge to critics who
argue that real learning can take
place only ui the more formal
and disciplined classroom setting.
That conclusion has been reach
ed by Cherie Roller, a Brandeis
University education major. She
is supervising the experiment irk
the second and third grade
Hebrew classes of Congregation
Temple Beth El Center in Bel
mont, Mass. The synagogue con
ducts a six-hour-a-week school
with mandatory attendance only
through the third grade.
Miss Roller persuaded the syn
agogue officials to understake the
experiment on the premise that
Jewish educators must, in teach
ing children, provide them with
the kind of classroom experiences
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which will positively unite them
with their Jewish heritage, a
function the Jewish home in the
United States no longer performs.
She reported on the experiment
in “Response.” the intellectual
journal of the Jewish activist
movement, published at Brandeis
University.
Miss Roller reported that two
adjacent classrooms were put into
use, connected by a door which
is never closed during classroom
sessions. The pupils are free to
explore the open classrooms, as
well as the hall, the library and
sanctuary, individually or in
groups, she reported, and to
choose their own activities. She
and two aides, both Jewishly
committed and knowledgeable
college students, teach the
classes.
She said the arguments for the
open classroom approach for
Jewish child education were that
it allowed the teacher to “build
the room and to give the child
a Jewish environment within
positive Jewish experie n c e s
which he does not get else
where”; and it enables the
teacher “to involve parents di
rectly in the learning process.”
Since the use of space is high
ly flexible, she declared, “we
are constantly changing, adding
and removing things.” The
atmosphere thus created is "re
laxed and informal. The class
usually starts with an “asepha,”
a gathering of teachers and
pupils on a large multi-colored
rug, originally an occasion for
announcements but now used
“to introduce new Hebrew vo
cabulary or new ideas and con
cepts to the class as a whole.”
The children are nine to 11 years
old.
After the asepha, the children
can choose their own activities
for the day and each day is dif
ferent because each child uses
the room-space differently, ac
cording to his or her interests,
concerns and feelings on a par
ticular day.
Miss Roller described some of
the activities of a given day.
Michael and David “are dec
orating the Holy Ark—which we
made out of heavy tri-wall card-
hoard—with a picture of Jer
usalem. Their crayons are
strewn out on one side of them
and their Hebrew books open
on the other and they are prac
ticing their B’yad Ha’Lashon
(Hebrew) dialogue while they
color.” David and Chuck, sitting
in the large over-stuffed library
chairs, “are reading, David
about the Baal Shem Tov,
founder of Hasidism.” During
an asepha, Miss Roller had read
a story from Meyer Levin’s
Classic Hasidic Tales. David
borrowed the book and for two
weeks ignored all other class
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activities until he finished it.
He then told the class some of
the tales he had read. “So many
others wanted to read the book”
that Miss Roller had to get
another copy
David then read another book
of legends about the founder of
Hasidism and every now and
then he asked What is a
tzaddick”” or “why do these
people dress this wav?" That
touched off a long discussion
and some of the pupils went to
the school library to get answers
for themselves.
Chuck started tp read about
the Holocaust and one day he
sought information on the menus
on which Soviet Jews are fed
in forced labor camps That
made him curious as to what
Jews had to eat in Nazi con
centration camps. He went to
many sources which he read in
detail. Later, he told Miss Rol
ler he had built a concentration
camp model at home. He began
to ask questions from his read
ing, such as “is it true that if
babies were bom on the trans
port trains, they were thrown
out of the doors?” and “Cherie,
I don’t understand why they
picked on Jews.” She said that
member of the class struggled
for more than an hour with
such problems and eventually "a
whole group gathered around
to join the discussion.”
Miss Roller said there ap-
appeared to be few limits to the
creativity of the children. A
child reading the story of Noah
and the Ark “came in one day
with two buckets of stuffed
animals and some bedspreads
which he used to construct an
ark which took up one-fourth of
the classroom.” The model came
under peer criticism as incon
sistent with the text, since it
contained three teddy bears, one
frog and no food. The children
dealt with the problem by de
claring one teddy bear a frog
and drawing pictures of the food
Friday, June 2, 1972
mentioned in the Jewish Scrip
tures.
Continued on page 3
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