Understanding Humanity's
Ultimate Questions
Ray Levi, Head of School
There are many ways in which, looking back, I might frame the 2009-10 school year.
Our statistics tell much about our stability during a period of uncertainty:
- A combination of frugality and dedicated Board fundraising has provided budgetary stability despite loss of traditional sources of funding.
- The large number of Annual Fund ambassadors suggests a commitment to our mission.
- Unlike many independent and Jewish day schools our enrollment is holding steady.
- Our retention for the coming year is impressive during even better times.
But it is the story behind the statistics that seems more important, for throughout the last two years, we have kept our focus on education, on the ultimate questions, on teaching that provides deep personal significance.
Interestingly, what began as an effort to frame a case statement by our development committee emerged, with input from our teachers, administrators, and Board members, as an expanded vision for our students. Consider the hope we place in our students as community leaders in the spirit of Heschel’s goals. Read: community vision.
The process to achieve this vision was enhanced during the year by a focus on collaborative planning among our faculty. Time has been set aside each week for teachers to work together on shared assessments, to plan curriculum together so that student experiences across classes are shared, and so that teaching is a much less lonely activity. With funding from the AVI CHAI Foundation, we have been pioneers in the use of a case study approach that encourages strategic, data-driven decisions at our Leadership and Administrative Team meetings and which we have extended to our teaching team and departmental meetings.
I might also use outcomes as frames to look back at the year:
Judaism: As the first grade celebrated having learned all the letters of the alef-bet, they dramatized stories they had read during the year. There were students who shyly announced their names during Children Around the World, now belting out whole scenes—in Hebrew. Lower School students were introduced to midrash in our enrichment classes—and wrote their own midrashim. Older students in rabbinics class looked at such contemporary issues as abortion and personal space through the lenses of Jewish texts. A high point for me took place during Shavu’ot study when a group of 15 HMJDS Upper School students joined15 adults in a student-led session looking at the Halakhah of Facebook.
Academics: Highlights include enhanced writing programs in third and fourth grade with some amazing personal narratives written by fourth graders. Read the results of their newspaper study by checking out the current newsletters. Seventh graders were introduced to formal debate, looking at ethical issues raised by advances in genetic research. They were articulate and passionate, yet respectful of one another’s perspectives. Civility can reign in adolescent classrooms. We introduced a Capstone Project in the 8th grade, offering the students an opportunity to apply skills learned throughout their HMJDS careers as they picked a social issue of concern to them. Working with a faculty mentor, they wrote a formal research paper and shared their findings through a multi-media presentation. Danny Kahn, who studied homelessness, created a website that included material drawn from his own work as well as links to other resources. I particularly enjoyed an original song that offered a creative dimension and was sophisticated in its use of technology, yet had a wonderful, characteristically HMJDS informal and un-selfconscious quality.
Community: The seeds for the Capstone Project were laid during the VOICE program and in the extraordinary outpouring of activity for Haiti. Our Upper School students interviewed community leaders as part of the sixth grade ethics projects and as they rubbed shoulders with Jewish and political leaders during their trip to Washington, DC. Yet discussions with Senator Klobuchar were balanced with time taken to interact with the homeless.
I recently heard passionate human rights advocate Azar Nafisi, a teacher, author of Teaching Lolita in Tehran, and now an American citizen, describing a national need for a creativity bailout so that we can be assured that our youth will develop both empathy for those of differing backgrounds and the commitment to find solutions to our world’s problems. As I have watched our students through this year, I am confident that at HMJDS we do not need a creativity bailout. I am confident, as I hope you are, that we are indeed passing the lesson of Judaism to the next generation. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our teachers, and the support of our Board and larger community, HMJDS continues to teach General Studies and Judaics as subjects of the deepest personal significance. Thank you for your role in allowing us to move from strength to strength.
B'shalom,
