SHOULD JEWISH SUPPLEMENTARY RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS BE LIKE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

Whether the Jewish supplementary school should be operated as if it were a public school depends on the goals of Jewish education. “In terms of ultimate goals, however, Jewish education is now at a crossroads.”¹ While all Jewish educators would probably agree with Harold Schulweis' statement that “it is our sacred task to create Jews,”² educators are not in agreement over what type of Jews we are to create and how we are to create them. Jewish educators can be divided into two groups. One group wants to create “educated, thinking Jews” — goal #1—while the other desires to shape children into “feeling Jews” —goal #2.     

THE GARY PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE CHURCHES∗

The purpose of this column is to keep religious educators abreast of relevant significant research in the general field of psychology. Its implications for methods and materials in religious education are clear. Religious educators may well take advantage of every new finding in scientific research.

Each section describes a group of findings which have been reported in PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS together with titles of these works so that those who wish may go to the original source.

This column is written as a service to religious educators by the Union College Character Research Project. All abstracts are used with permission of the periodical, PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS. The abstract numbers are Volume 35. Number 4, August 1961.     

THE RATIONALE FOR JEWISH EDUCATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE JEWISH EDUCATION MAGAZINE — 1929–1955

Questioning-asking has not only long been seen as a central component of Jewish educational practice but has also been thought to be part of a broader culture of Judaism. In this article, we apply cognitive-developmental theories to advance the discussion of the use of questioning in Jewish education. Such theories allow Jewish educators to more fully understand the function of questioning and to appreciate affective elements involved in the context of question-asking. Further, these theories connect question-asking with issues of identity development. Recommendations are made for Jewish educational practice, including an example of a cognitive-developmentally based questioning strategy applied to a biblical text.     

THE ‘NEW LEARNING’ IN ADULT JEWISH EDUCATION

The period between Passover and Shavuot has been dramatic from time immemorial, because it signifies the Exodus from Egypt — physical rescue — and culminates with the stand at Mount Sinai — the attainment of spiritual nationhood. Modern Jewish history has added an unprecedented tone of tragedy and drama, which is symbolized by Yom Hashoah and Yom Haatzmaut. The March of the Living to the Sites of Struggle and Extermination and to the Land of Life and Promise, took place during that two week period, April 18th – May 4th, 1990.     

THE PRIVATIZED PUBLIC: ANTAGONISM FOR A RADICAL DEMOCRATIC POLITICS IN SCHOOLS?

In an extended era of privatization initiatives, when accountability principles and competitive business logics pervade school discourse and practice, what is left of the “public” part of public schooling? When market rationality privileges individualism and competition and provides much of the justification for the aims of U.S. schools, how is the notion of the public good evidenced? In this essay Deron Boyles makes the claim that public schools inordinately function as private markets—as places where a unidirectional narrative of “givens” reinforce individualism, competition, and corporatization under the guise of merit, testing, and school‐business partnerships.     

SIXTEENTH‐CENTURY HUMANISM AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN

Until now Dutch historical youth studies have not focussed on the family as an educational environment. However, since World War I pedagogues have had high hopes of parents as educators of their teenage sons and daughters. On the basis of research into advice literature the author shows how family educationalists contributed to curtailing the ‘dangers’ of adolescence. Parents were recommended to loosen the reins on their adolescent children. This advice was based on different psychological theories. At first a physiological interpretation dominated educational thinking. During the twenties Adler's Individual‐psychology shifted attention to the relational aspect of the parent‐child interaction as well as to continuity in the educational relationship. In the thirties new psychological development theories gave birth to the concept of a ‘negative phase’ at the start of adolescence, followed by a neutral and even a positive phase concerning individual mental growth. This brought about a less negative appreciation of adolescence, regarding it as just one of the ‘troublesome phases’ in childhood. Only after World War II psychoanalysis made family educationalists shift their attention more exclusively to young children. Adolescence was no longer regarded as pathogenetic.

     

THE “NEW” SOCIAL HISTORY AND THE HISTORY OF MORAL EDUCATION

The rise of mass education systems in 19th‐century Europe and North America was often followed by establishment of programmes of compulsory moral/civic instruction. Few of the “new” social history's techniques have been applied to the latter phenomenon, although those techniques have produced broad reassessments of public education.

Using the example of France at the turn of the twentieth century, this paper offers such an application. It shows how a social history of moral/civic education would lend itself to comparative historical research, help our understanding of the roots of public social policy, throw new light on the question of social class, and invite reformulation of traditional administrative and intellectual history of education. The closing section outlines possible avenues of research, and offers bibliographical guidance on the development of moral/civic education in France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.     

CITIZENSHIP,EDUCATION AND THE NATION‐STATE. THE INCLUSIVENESS OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE NETHERLANDS

The aim of the author is to estimate the heuristic value of Meyer's (et al., 1985) social theory on citizenship, education and the nation‐state, in relation to F. Ringer's three dimensions of educational systems (i.e. ‘inclusiveness’, ‘segmentation’, and ‘progressiveness'). Rupp's thesis is that the inclusiveness and expansion of educational systems is related to the processes of the formation of nation‐state and citizenship institutions; their progressiveness and segmentation, however, to other socio‐political developments. It is suggested that national differences correspond to differences in centralized or decentralized polities.