JEWISH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

“Few would disagree that if Catholic schools are to continue to develop quantitatively and qualitatively, changes must be wrought.”     

JEWISH EDUCATORS VS. MIXED MARRIAGES

Mixed marriages are a hemorrhage in the body of American Jewry. In the average Hebrew school classroom 20–25 percent of the students will someday marry out. Even in day schools 5–10 percent will marry out, although most of them will influence their spouses to convert. (Jewish children who do not receive a Jewish education will marry out in even higher percentages, and rarely influence their partners to become Jewish.) This exogamy (outmarriage) results in a doubling of the divorce rate. In addition, the majority of the children of exogamous manages do not identify themselves as Jews. Can Jewish educators influence some of these children to consciously seek Jewish mates? only if they try.     

FUNDAMENTALISM AS A CHALLENGE FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

“. . . human experience is shaped, molded, and in a sense constituted by cultural and linguistic forms. There are numberless thoughts we cannot think, sentiments we cannot have, and realities we cannot perceive unless we learn to use the appropriate symbol systems ... to become religious involves becoming skilled in the language, the symbol system of a given religion.” — George Lindbeck ^{1 1}George Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1984), 34.

“My child is not learning anything. All they do in there is play.” — disgruntled parent after observing a preschool church school class.

     

FROM KNOWLEDGE TO WISDOM: A NEW CHALLENGE TO THE EDUCATIONAL MILIEU WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

The epistemological paradigm, known as post-modernity, challenges some of the presuppositions of educational systems in general, and of religious education in particular. One of these presuppositions is the exaggerated primacy given to knowledge attained through reason. However, the paradigm shift invites us to make a transition from knowledge to wisdom—to the integration and transformation of knowledge into human experience. This transition helps us incorporate into the learning process those particular ways of learning that are preferred by many women, bringing us to a more holistic conception of religious education. It enables us to establish a new relationship between learners and educators in the model of a learning circle.     

THE SUBVERSIVE CURRICULUM: WHAT RELIGIOUS EDUCATORS ARE LEARNING INFORMALLY AND INCIDENTALLY

This study examines the informal and incidental learning that occurred among ten religious educators in the Roman Catholic school system in Newfoundland. In phase one, two researchers conducted focus groups and administered questionnaires to collect data. In phase two, one of the researchers conducted individual interviews with study participants. The types of learning identified are classified into three categories: theological knowledge, professional knowledge, and knowledge about oneself. The learning reported is then discussed in relation to the informal‐ and incidental‐learning theory of Karen Watkins and Victoria Marsick.