“As yeshiva graduates with advanced training in diverse areas of educational theory and practice, we can state with confidence that yeshivas provide students across all levels of ability with enriching educational experiences that stimulate their cognitive, intellectual, practical, social, and moral development.” This sentence, included in a letter sent today to the New York State Board of Regents, belies the notion that Yeshiva education requires government intrusion and control.
Signed by nearly 600 education professionals, all yeshiva graduates and whose qualifications include “master’s and doctoral degrees in education or related fields from accredited colleges and universities, and state teacher’s licenses or comparable credentials,” the letter urges the Board of Regents to reject the proposed regulations, arguing that they do not suitably address the needs of yeshivas which need improvement, or measure the success of those which do not.
From both a personal and a professional level, the educators reject the “trope of yeshivas’ educational inferiority” which is contradicted by their own achievements, and conclude by saying, “In its refusal to employ objective assessment of actual student achievement and its insistence on dictating the design of instruction, the present proposal is both deeply flawed on its own terms and antagonistic to traditional Jewish schools in particular.”
If you have not yet submitted your comment, please do so today at YeshivosByChoice.org or via text 646.766.1110.
Educators
I still dodnt get it ,the fact of the matter is that most chasidesh mosdos with the exception of bobov dodnt even provide a basic secular education for their boys,you can go to Williamsburg and monroe and u will find that the average person’s english is mostly at a 6 or 7th grade level so how will this ever change from within when it never changed for the past 60 years,I grew up in this system and I am still chasidesh dodnt I and my children deserve a basic english education?
Who is stopping you from sending to a school with a superb English education? The point is that schools decide their curriculum & then parents decide which school they like. There are a plethora of frum schools to choose from in the tri-state area. We’ve all seen schools that tried to open & didn’t succeed. Obviously you are just in the wrong place.
If most of the parentbody wanted more English – thats what you would get.
The problem is that they vote for Democrats.
Muti Klein: it will change, as the letter so eloquently stated, “through innovative and culturally sensitive support, collaboration, and dialogue with educators and parents.” Surely not by placing yeshivos under the responsibility of the public schools, and not by requiring matched hours of specific courses.
Multi, It has been proven over and over again that the lack of English studies has not kept chasidishe people from being successful in life. That’s the bottom line. This is about education and setting our children up for success and surprisingly enough, there’s enough children who went to satmar and the like and are very well off. In my opinion, success for a child has nothing to do with which school they go to but more about the home they come from and how they were brought up by their parents. I know People with big college degrees who struggle and then there’s the yeshivishe/kollel/rebbes who became very successful in business. The government has a lot to learn from us before they open their big mouths.
That is not true while there are a few very wealthy satmer graduates that are very successful there are many that are struggling working at places like b&h and bus drivers/taxi drivers that are struggling because they were not given the opportunity to become accountants, lawyers,doctors etc.I am not part of the satmer community but have many cousins living in in monroe and Williamsburg.
Muti, A few things. The folks you mention have a 2nd grade understanding of english. If they had a legit 6th grade level of education I do not think we will be having an issue today.
I sort of agree with you. These signers are not from the Chassidish community. They all had a legit education. The fact is the Chassidish community secular education has some very serious issues. However if the government forces us into making changes it could be dangerous.
In a perfect world the outcome of all of this is government does not force us to make changes BUT the chassidish community wakes up and starts education their youth a bit better then they are doing now.
Don’t take the Government money, then you can do what you want.
Out of towner ur right I went through the chasideshe system and I barely got a third level english education.