Whatever the solution, you have hit on something- parents need to be involved for it to be successful.

I think the whole model needs to be rethought. Hebrew school is dead. Ongoing Family Jewish Ed needs to be the new model.

Now, what’s that mean????

Obviously, the starting point is expectations. The typical supplementary programs I have seen aim at the bar mitzvah, with post-bar-mitzvah retention contingent on the social opportunities the TYG offers. Not good enough! But no kid is going to want more unless the school makes it enjoyable the parents make it non-negotiable, and there is no end point– lifelong learning has to be more than a slogan. (Note: I’m not an educator, but I am a product of supplementary Jewish education, and have also observed it as a parent, grandparent, and spouse of a religious school teacher.)

I don’t know that the model I grew up with exists anywhere today at a primary school level — but it is a model that the independent minyan community should understand — a parent-run independent school, no synagogue connection, no bar mitzvah focus (if the parents wanted that, they got it elsewhere), guided by a great educator and taught by the best teacher in town. Clear focus: fluency in spoken Hebrew, along with reading, writing, and comprehension; strong identification with Zionism; religion as a cultural artifact. We learned all the appropriate brachot, celebrated all the holidays, and did not wear kipot in class. Correction: we didn’t wear yarmulkes, nobody knew the word kipa then. We didn’t have class on yom tov, but we did have class on Christmas day, albeit in the morning instead of the prevailing two day a week after school schedule. I remember being indignant about that — if my father wasn’t going to work, why should I have to go to school — but I went. No fancy school building either — we met in rented space above a bowling alley.

Could the model be replicated today? Im tirtzu. In those days, there were no day schools. The general options were synagogue schools (one day a week, unless you wanted a bar mitzvah, in which case you added “special Hebrew” two afternoons a week), or the community talmud torah (4 afternoons a week), or private tutoring for a rote bar mitzvah. And my guess is that for half the Jewish kids I went to school with, it was none of the above.

All in all, BZ has it right. Jewishly committed parents are the most likely to have Jewishly committed children — and will find a way to pass the torch.

I think there’s a need to try a few different things. The supplementary model doesnt work as presently structured. Maybe there’s a way for students to get school credit as an elective for a more rigourous afterschool course… maybe shuls should consolidate their supplementary schools…

Its not clear that day schools are THE answer. But maybe they can offer supplemetary ed programs to bolster their income and relieve shuls of the burden of running schools. shuls can negotiate a discount for their members vs. the general public, or maybe the supp. program is only open to shul members (i dont like that but as a way to keep the shuls happy….)

other ideas?

In that case, how can the Jewish community justify using its resources to pay for teachers of secular subjects and other services that are provided by the state for free?

“predictors” = correlation
“makes a difference”, “generators” = causation.

You can’t do that.

It’s possible that the causes of increased Jewish identity among day school graduates are in any way whatsoever related to day school itself (and it’s also possible that building runways on your island will cause airplanes to land with cargo), but trying to conclude this based on correlation alone is pure speculation.

Another plausible mechanism is that parents who send their children to day schools tend to be more Jewishly committed themselves than the general Jewish population, and Jewishly committed parents are more likely to have Jewishly committed children. These studies don’t control for these other variables.

I would say the opposite: living an active Jewish life in the Diaspora (outside of Kiryas Joel, etc.) means being Jewish in a world that is not completely Jewish, and therefore a fully immersive Jewish experience does not adequately prepare a student for this. I went to Jewish camp for many years (and camp is even more immersive than day school since it is 24/7, but is shorter-term), and it was an important and valuable experience, but as I have written, I think camp fails to provide all the tools for living Jewishly in the “real world”, and I suspect day school is the same.

This post makes clear that, as more and more people of our (my and Raysh’s) generation have children, and those children reach school age, there is going to be a real battle for hearts and minds. The day school partisans have to make the case that day school is inevitable and indispensable (not just the only option for serious Jewish education, but the only possible option for serious Jewish education), and those of us who want to see new models of serious supplementary Jewish education have to make the case that no, it’s not.

Why is this narrative of inevitability necessary? Why can’t day school compete on a level playing field? Because, as laid out in detail in this post, it’s wildly expensive (when a public-school education is available to all Americans for $FREE), and after shelling out all that money, the quality of the secular education (especially at Orthodox day schools) isn’t necessarily all that good, and the quality of the Jewish education (especially at non-Orthodox day schools) isn’t necessarily all that good either. Day school is also contrary to the values of many American Jews who believe in public education. And so, to succeed, day school has to make the case that there are no viable alternatives.

The easiest way to make that case is to point out that Hebrew school sucks. You’ll certainly find no argument from me (as a Hebrew school alum) on that point. But to compare apples to apples, the comparison has to be between day-school-as-it-is and Hebrew-school-as-it-is. And people are realizing that day-school-as-it-is is financially unsustainable, and the model needs to be modified (and this post calls for such modifications). So day-school-as-it-should-be has to justify itself relative to supplementary-education-as-it-should-be, not just the easy target of Hebrew-school-as-it-is. You invoke the independent minyan phenomenon in the post; just as this phenomenon does not take established Jewish structures for granted, the next revolution in Jewish education doesn’t have to either, and need not be restricted to day schools and synagogue-based Hebrew schools.

Part of this case also involves fearmongering about children’s future Jewish identity. (Thank you, Raysh, for not playing the intermarriage card, which is played too often in these situations.) This way, day schools (as well as other Jewish educational institutions) are not held accountable for their educational outcomes, but only for their “impact” on later Jewish identity. I put “impact” in scare quotes, because the studies that demonstrate a relationship (which are often carried out by people working for the institutional structure that is being studied, which seems like a massive conflict of interest; are these studies ever published in peer-reviewed journals?) usually don’t distinguish between correlation and causation, and don’t correct for the selection bias of which families choose to send their children to day school (or Hebrew school, etc.).

Even if this case is weak, all it takes is convincing a critical mass, and then it becomes a self-sustaining and self-fulfilling chain reaction. People who aren’t otherwise inclined to send their children to day school might see that that’s what all the other serious Jewish families are doing, and so there’s no one left who would be interested in making serious supplemental Jewish education happen (even if they like the idea in theory). And so they send their children to day school, and this disparity becomes even more pronounced.

The day school “tuition crisis” (rising costs, combined with a struggling economy which affects both parents and donors) may be a “crisis” for the pro-day school crowd, but for the rest of us, it’s a golden opportunity. Because rising tuition raises the activation energy of that chain reaction, parents will think twice before jumping on the bandwagon, and will be more amenable to creating strong alternatives. (As you show in the post, the “crisis” has reached the point that even Orthodox parents are thinking twice!) I hope we can make the best of this opportunity.

I wish this didn’t have to be so zero-sum, but I don’t see another way when the day school model depends so fundamentally on delegitimizing alternatives.

Back to work now, but I still have more to say.