Author: Jon Mitzmacher

Dr. Jon Mitzmacher is the Head of the Ottawa Jewish Community School. Jon is studying to be a rabbi at the Academy for Jewish Religion and is on the faculty of the Day School Leadership Training Institute (DSLTI) as a mentor. He was most recently the VP of Innovation for Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools. He is the former Executive Director of the Schechter Day School Network. He is also the former head of the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, a K-8 Solomon Schechter, located in Jacksonville, FL, and part of the Jacksonville Jewish Center. He was the founding head of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Las Vegas. Jon has worked in all aspects of Jewish Education from camping to congregations and everything in between.

Leap of Faith – The Sequel

I wrote a blog post last year after returning from our school’s second annual Middle School Retreat (my first with the school) at Camp Ramah Darom in Georgia, entitled “Leap of Faith” (you can read it here). One of the great 21st century learning pedagogies is the gift of reflection. And one of the gifts of living by a school calendar (which, parenthetically, is equally true of the Jewish calendar) is that it often gives you the chance to experience and re-experience similar events on a yearly basis. And so now after having had a week or so to reflect on this year’s Middle School Retreat, I wanted to spend a little time unpacking this most powerful of experiences.

[You may wish to reread my most recent blog post here and/or check out the brief video we made of it here for a taste of those experiences.]

The other advantage of having taken an additional week or two to share my thoughts is that I am not writing in the feverish afterglow of the experience. We’ve come down from the high, but the carryover effect carries on. And that’s what it is really all about isn’t it? Transferability? The magic bullet of all successful informal educational experiences is how well they transfer back into “real life”. Sure it is amazing, the best-time-of-my-life when you are in the middle of gorgeous scenery flying down the zip-line. But is it still amazing back in the science lab?

Yup.

Or at least so far. We have work to do to nourish the spark from the retreat and keep the flame lit through the peaks and valleys of a school year. But when I walk the halls and see our Middle School students, I can see the bonds born from horseback and hikes remain intact. Similar to the positive impact on athletics in the small middle school (you can read that blog post here), our ability to create community is vital to our continued success. We are not sixth graders, seventh graders and eighth graders…we are a middle school. We are not just students, teachers and administrators…we are a family.

Final note: If you are an MJGDS middle school family reading this, you may be wondering what the big deal is with the Schnupencup. If you are someone who has been a student, camper, teacher, staff, or participant in just about anything I have done in Jewish education since 1989…I hope you are smiling. If you have no idea what I am talking about…it is just a matter of time!

Fingers up!

“We left as a school and came back as a family.”

Wow.

That’s all I can say. We got back yesterday from our four-day Middle School Retreat and it was everything you could hope for in a Jewish informal educational experience. We had learning, games, athletics, prayer, social bonding, community building, hiking, zip lines, a campfire, and a friendship circle to boot. It felt like we squeezed a summer’s session of camp into just four days…and we are all tired enough to prove it!

After having spent a good chunk of time, in between catching up with the rest of the school, putting together a video of our experience, I will let the video to the talking – for this week. I will likely have more to say next week when I’ve had a chance to properly process and reflect.

The flip camera was held by lots of hands and so I apologize to parents and students that not everyone made it in – it is not a reflection of anything other than happenstance. We will more than make up for it with the photos to be published on our website soon. It is, I hope, a taste of why this retreat is such an important part of our middle school. Our relationships are forever changed – for the good. We will be able to do things within the walls of the classrooms that we never would have without having spent time together outside of them.

I am now going to go home and rest.

Jewish Holiday-Palooza!

How many Jewish holidays can we pack into a two and a half day school week?

Lots!

We are doing our best to pack both the authentic celebrations of holidays we are in school for (as you will see below) and foretastes of holidays to come like the mini-Simchat Torah celebration we will have later today (of which I will not have time to make a mini-movie of due to the half-day schedule).

If a picture is worth a 1000 words…hopefully, a couple of short movies of our students living the Judaism we teach in the classrooms outside their walls will a blog post make! Here’s a brief look at our week. Enjoy!

And the fun doesn’t end today! We hope to see many families celebrating the holidays that are to come this week – especially Simchat Torah! Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate the gift of Torah – and to let your children see you enjoy the love of Judaism.

Monday? Off on our Middle School Retreat! I’ll blog all about it when I get back.

Chag sameach!

Marching with Fruits & Vegetables (5772 Remix)

We are deep into the holidays! We have come out of Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur and headed straight into Sukkot. It is amongst my favorite times of the year.

Not because we have a half-day and I have to sprint out of here to buy ingredients for cholent, finish my sukkah, and get ready for the holiday am I going to revise and update a blog post that I originally wrote last year here. I am going to revise and update that blog post because I don’t know how to say what I want to say during this time of year any differently…and because I don’t imagine the issues it raises will markedly be different this year (but I am open to being wrong!).

So…without further adieu…

I love Sukkot! Talk about “A Floor, But No Ceiling”!

This is absolutely my favorite holiday of the entire year. There is nothing else like it on the Jewish Calendar – sitting outside in a sukkah you built yourself (which I actually did this year!), with handmade decorations from your children, enjoying good food with friends and family in the night air, the citrusy smell of etrog lingering and mixing with verdant lulav – this is experiential Judaism at its finest.

But here is a complicated truth: Even though our school will be closed on Thursday and Friday for Sukkot, it is reasonable to assume that the majority of our students will not be found in synagogue enjoying what is known as “The Season of our Rejoicing”. But many or most were in synagogue last weekend for Yom Kippur. So when it comes to “atoning” we have a full house, but for “rejoicing” we have empty seats?

If our children – if we – only experience the Judaism of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and not the Judaism of Sukkot, the simple truth is that we are not exposing them to the full range of beauty and joy our tradition has to offer. So why, in fact, is this what typically happens?

I’m not entirely sure, but I think it has to do with the exotic nature of the holiday. As someone who did not grow up celebrating this holiday, upon coming to synagogue as an adult and watching a congregation march in circles waving fruits and vegetables – well this was not the Judaism I knew! Truth be told, there are surely pagan accretions to the way that we honor the harvest roots of this holiday which may seem alien to the typical prayerbook service. But for me, that is precisely what makes it so unique, special and not-to-be-missed!

No one likes to feel uncomfortable and adults especially are wary of feeling uneducated or unprepared. I know how I felt encountering Jewish ritual for the first time as an adult – it was scary. I, however, was lucky. I was pursuing a degree in Jewish education and, therefore, had all the support and resources I needed to learn and grow. I realize that most adults coming at Jewish practice for the first time (or the first time in a while) are not so lucky. The amount of “stuff” Judaism asks of us to do – building the sukkah with precise specifications, shaking the lulav and etrog in the proscribed way, chanting less-familiar prayers, coming to synagogue on unfamiliar days – can be overwhelming.

But don’t lose the forest through the trees…I’d simply ask you to consider this: When building your child’s library of Jewish memories, which memory feels more compelling and likely to resonate over time – sitting in starched clothes in sanctuary seats or relaxing with friends and family in an outdoor sukkah built with love and care?

You don’t have to choose just one, of course, that is the beauty of living a life of sacred time – there is a rhythm to the Jewish calendar, evocative and varied. Come to synagogue for the High Holidays, to be sure. But don’t miss out on Sukkot (or Simchat Torah or Shavuot or “Add Jewish Holiday Here”). Let this Sukkot truly be the season of our great rejoicing. I hope to see many students in synagogue this Sukkot. I hope to see many parents push themselves out of their comfort zones and join the parade. Pick up your fruit and vegetables and march with us in a circle.

Chag sameach.

It isn’t just good education; it’s good business.

I feel similarly to how many synagogue presidents must feel heading into Kol Nidre this evening as I prepare to write my first business blog nearing the eve of Yom Kippur! The rationale is hardly the same. Synagogues reserve Yom Kippur for their annual “High Holiday appeals” because this is the time they have the most people in the seats, not necessarily because the message of fundraising fits with the theme of atonement. I do not presume that as families are preparing for the holiday that I will have a similarly huge burst in blog readership!

A personal note…

…apropos of the time of year. Let me take this opportunity to offer my sincerest apologies to anyone whom I may have hurt or offended over the past year. Let us forgive each other (and ourselves) for our all-too-human foibles and pledge to make this new (Jewish) year one of growth and community-building.

And now to the topic at hand…

I have been asked by our good friends at the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) to become a guest blogger on the topic off “How 21st century Jewish education is an issue of financial sustainability?” First off, thanks to my new, good (and for now virtual) friend Ken Gordon, PEJE’s fantastic Social Media Manager for the opportunity! I’m excited to wrestle with that question and share my thoughts with colleagues in the field. [My posts with PEJE will appear here on their home page for blogs impacting the Jewish day school field. I recommend the page for regular viewing or subscription if you are interested in the field. I am cross-posting this first one in my own blog as a trial run.]

From PEJE’s 2009 strategic plan, they define “financial sustainability” as “increasing the resources available to schools and professionalizing the development capacity”. This is part of PEJE’s overall shift in mission from an organization dedicated to growing the number of Jewish day schools to an organization dedicated to sustaining Jewish day schools. (I’m oversimplifying a bit.) So…how can being a 21st century Jewish day school increase resources and professionalize development capacity?

As I have been thinking about this question, my initial reaction is to try to avoid providing obvious answers. If this is, however, to be my introductory blog post on this topic, I do want to share my initial thoughts on the subject because they may be crossing your minds as well. This was my off-the-top-of-my-head response when Ken first asked me to blog on the topic:

…to me it fits very much with why we feel 21st century learning is so vital – with increased competition from Hebrew charter schools, independent schools, and suburban public schools AND a perilous economy – we have to brand Jewish day schools as being the kind of school most likely to provide a high-quality 21st century learning experience – that we are the future of SECULAR education because we are JEWISH.

Totally flips the script on prospective parents. “Too Jewish?” No such thing. Parents looking for excellence in 21st century education should be more concerned with “Jewish enough?”

Now the truth is that I could not be more passionate about this idea. Over the last year and change of my current headship, I have seen firsthand the power of 21st century learning in action and have been convinced that this is the only viable path forward for Jewish (particularly non-Orthodox) day schools. To be financially sustainable really only (!) requires two consistent streams of revenue: tuition and fundraising. You can only increase tuition revenue by adding students. You can only add students if you have a great product. So if embracing 21st century learning values increases the quality of your product, being such a school should drive enrollment and, thus, tuition revenue up.

And I absolutely believe this to be the case. But as a philosophical concept, it doesn’t really answer the question. Because all I’ve done is suggest that if you want your school to be really successful it should be a really good school. You don’t need me to point that out. The more interesting question, to me, is how being a 21st century Jewish learning institution impacts the business of schooling? What I am interested in exploring through these occasional blog posts is how we can apply the pedagogies of 21st century learning to the managerial and business aspects of running a Jewish day school to ensure they maximize financial sustainability as defined above.

[Disclosure: I have been the head of two Jewish day schools owned and operated by synagogues. Neither school has a dedicated “Development Director” or a “Business Manager” or a “Department of Institutional Advancement.” Both schools outsource a fair amount of their business functions. I do have an MBA from the American Jewish University, which has come in extraordinarily handy in light of those two prior sentences. So the good and the bad is that I have, as a head of school, had a fair amount of experience doing development and business operations without a lot of the training. I am particularly interested in seeing how development directors, business managers, fundraisers, etc., respond to the ideas I am proposing.]

What are the 21st century pedagogies I am suggesting be applied to the business of schooling?

Transparency, collaboration, technology, reflection, global connectedness, authenticity, and prosumerism (which I will define as the paradigm shift wherein the learner is the producer, not the consumer, of content.)

How can these ideas increase the sustainability of Jewish day schools?

Please lend your voice to the conversation – comment freely and often or email me directly ([email protected]) if you are still a bitsocial media shy. With your feedback, I look forward to exploring these and other ideas at the nexus of 21st century learning and financial stewardship that will be focus of this yet-to-be-named blog to be published however-often!

We’ve Got Spirit!

Yesterday morning, my first grader, Eliana, woke up early to come into our room to make extra sure that we had remembered to put her MJGDS Marlins shirt in her day-of-the-week clothes organizer because she had to wear it for spirit day.

Each time I passed her in the hallway, she reminded me that I was to get her out of aftercare in time for her to watch the big game.

When I came to pick her up in aftercare to walk her over to the gym, she (and her 3-year old sister) was so excited she flew out of the room.

Eliana had never seen, nor probably heard, of “volleyball” prior to yesterday’s first home game in school history. Didn’t matter a whit. She had spirit.

And she was not alone! We had an overwhelming amount of students, parents, alumni and supporters in attendance to share in history. We won the first (of three) game and as we drew closer to the clinching point, you would have thought we were about to win the Final Four, not the first game of a girls middle school volleyball match!

I blogged last week, here, about the value of athletics in the (small) Jewish day school after our first road game. The energy yesterday afternoon, however, took things to exponential levels. It really proves the point; in terms of rallying school spirit, it is really hard to top athletics. And school spirit is not insignificant. It is not as important as academic achievement, inculcating Jewish values, and developing character. But in terms of that intangible “something” that gives you pride in being part of something larger than yourself and encourages you to want your children to be part of something special? It is hard to put your finger on it, but you can kind of tell when you’ve got it or when you don’t. And heading into another sweet Jewish new year…we’ve got it!

In other updates, we went live this week with edJEWcon and our first application from another Schechter Network Day School came in within the first few hours! We have been utilizing our social media and with the Network’s social media roll-out to begin soon, the buzz on the event will only continue to grow. (For continuing updates on the conference, click here. For background information on edJEWcon, click here.) So when it comes to 21st century learning, MJGDS certainly has spirit as well.

Heading into Rosh Hashanah this evening feels this year to me like slipping into a comfortable, warm bath. I have a wonderful opportunity to put workaday concerns aside and concentrate on making meaningful use of the gifts of time, family and friends. After relying on the kindness of the community last year, Jaimee and I are blessed to be able to open up our home to new friends this year. We are looking forward to days of communal meals, honest reflection and creating Jewish memories to carry us forward into 5772.

From my family to yours, let me wish everyone the sweetest of new Jewish years…

Shanah tova u’metukah,

Jon, Jaimee, Eliana & Maytal

Why athletics matter (more) in small schools

Let’s begin with a hearty “Mazel tov” to Coach Jared Goldman and the MJGDS Lady Marlins Volleyball team on their historic first match this past week at Hendricks Middle School! (Check out this article in our local news here!)

Our school turns fifty years old this year and this was the very first athletic adventure we have ever embarked on. The final score mattered not a whit (and, yes, we did score points as well) – the excitement from the student-athletes, their parents, alumni, and supporters who packed the tiny parking lot and bleacher seats was palpable and meaningful. Our girls did their best and will only perform better as they grow more experienced and practiced in their sport. [Local plug: First home game in MJGDS history takes place in the gym on Tuesday, September 27th at 4:30 PM. Wear your Marlins gear and come out to support our team!]

So as one of my favorite sports shows would ask, is launching middle school athletics at our K-8 Schechter Day School a “big deal, little deal, or no deal at all?”

Big deal!

First let’s look at it from the perspective of the participants. Let me quote (liberally) from “Co-Curricular Physical Activity and Sport Programs for Middle School Students: A Position Statement by the National Association for Sporty and Physical Education’s (NASPE) Middle and Secondary School Physical Education Council (MASSPEC).” [That is a mouthful! You can read the entire position statement here.]:

“All students should be encouraged to participate in such after-school programs regardless of their ability and prior experience with organized sports. The primary purposes of these programs are to provide opportunities for students to:

improve self-esteem and feelings of competence through positive interactions with their peers and adults
acquire new skills and refine those previously learned
learn to function effectively as members of a team or group
improve personal health and fitness levels
to have fun and enjoy physical activity”

Those all sound like things we would like to see for our middle school students, no?

But beyond the benefits to the participants there are significant benefits to our school and our community worth mentioning.

Athletics are vitally important to our ability to maintain and grow a healthy middle school. They demonstrate to ourselves and our parents that we are capable of providing the kinds of experiences one ought to find at the middle school level. And that includes the opportunity to play, cheer and support athletics. (I thought our alumni were as, or more, excited about the volleyball game than the players or their parents!)

Jewish Day Schools – especially the small or midsize ones – have a lot to get done. We have to offer 100% the secular academic programs of local independent and/or suburban public schools. We have to offer the highest-quality Jewish studies program available. We have to offer all the resources of well-rounded schools – Art, Music, Library, 21st Century Learning, P.E., etc. AND we also have to offer athletics, the school play, the yearbook, TV production, and all the other extracurriculars.

Fair?

Doesn’t matter. It isn’t a choice. Non-orthodox day schools heading into middle (and high) school face enormous attrition challenges. We have to find the “torah” of volleyball as we do the “torah” of math (not to mention the “torah” of the actual Torah). We, at our school, have dipped our first toe in the water. It certainly isn’t easy finding sports we have a critical mass to compete in, but based on the energy it has brought to our school and our community it was well worth it.

We may not be hanging any championship banners from our gym any time soon. But we will be adding great spirit and community-building to our school when we host the first home game in the school’s 50 year history next week.

Go Marlins!

Jon’s #NoOfficeDay – The Results Show

You can read, here, all about the history and reasons for the #NoOfficeDay I took this week at our school.

So…how was it?

It was super fun!

So much fun that I was telling someone that evening that I didn’t want to go back to work the next day because I knew I’d have to make it Jon’s #OfficeDayToMakeUpForNoOfficeDay!

But it was well worth it! It was so great to spend the day where the real action is – in the classrooms and hallways and lunch rooms and parking lots. Will it have the desired carryover? I am really going to try. If your budget is the most honest reflection of your values, than your schedule has to be a close second. It is time to put my time where my mouth is.

This is the finished product – Jon’s #NoOfficeDay – The Movie! Thanks to Talie Zaifert, our Admissions & Marketing Director, for the iMovie tutorial. My goal was to use this opportunity, not only to get out of the office, but to role model the attempt to master new 21st century learning tools. This was my first attempt at using a Flip camera (hence the horrible camerawork) and using iMovie – so all mistakes belong to me alone.

Thanks to all the other agencies and school leaders for inspiring me to join them outside the office!

Enjoy! (And you might want to take a motion sickness pill…)

Sticks & Stones

It has been a big month for this blog!

The trouble with major initiatives and new programs is that it makes the “normal” weeks feel boring by comparison! Over the last three weeks, I’ve introduced edJEWcon 5772.0 (with frequent updates via Twitter, @edJEWcon, about exciting keynote speakers and the application process); Jon’s #NoOfficeDay, which takes place this September 13th and will be the subject of next week’s blog post); and described The Inclusive Jewish Day School we are striving to be. Who can keep up the pace!

This week, I have nothing quite as sexy to report on, but it may be of equal or even greater importance to the overall health and wellbeing of our students and our school. I want to talk a little bit about “bullying” and how our school and synagogue is striving to keep our children physically, emotionally and spiritually safe.

“Bullying” (which I am putting in quotes to signify how loaded a term it has become) exists in all forms and in all schools. It can be qualified (physical, emotional, virtual or cyber, exclusionary, etc.) as well as quantified (how many children affected, how often do incidents occur, etc.) – but it cannot be responsibly ignored. The only relevant question is how to reduce it – how do we make our schools and synagogues as safe and nurturing as we can?

Surprise! There is no magic bullet! There are tons of books, programs, videos and assemblies of different qualities that schools often use to address this issue. So why is it still so prevalent?

My guess? It takes an institutional commitment that is hard to maintain in order to reduce bullying to its most minimal level.

Thanks to the hard work of two of our parents (one of whom has children in both our Day and Religious Schools) and our new Second Rabbi, Jesse Olitzky, we are in the process of developing just such an institutional approach to reducing bullying at the Jacksonville Jewish Center in all its schools and programs. We will look to incorporate successful strategies from other schools, the latest research, survey data from our children, parents and teachers, and the synergetic partnership of our clergy to couch everything in the Jewish values we strive to live up to each and every day.

Consider this the teaser.

Together, we look forward to making our schools the safe nurturing environment for learning we have been entrusted to create. Working together – parent, student, teacher, administration, clergy, Preschool, Day School, Religious School, Makom, USY, etc. – we will do more than any of us could accomplish alone.

This is not a “Day School” issue – you can be a parent in any of our schools or programs to participate (and the more variety the better). You don’t have to be a parent at all, in fact. If this subject speaks to you and you want to be part of the solution, please let me know and you can be part of the planning.

Next week: Video from Jon’s #NoOfficeDay!

The Inclusive Jewish Day School

While the rest of the country is preparing to head “Back to School” after Labor Day, we are completing our SECOND WEEK of school already!

We have lots of exciting things going on:

You can check out the ongoing saga of the “Frognapping of Froggy Mitzhopper” by visiting our website and clicking on the videos here. (I think my acting chops are rounding into fine form!)
The MJGDS Marlins are about to make history by playing the first away game in our school’s 50-year history! You can order booster shirts by emailing the School Office ([email protected]) and can read more about the Marlins on the PE Blog here.
Singapore Math Parent Night will take place on September 12 at 7:00 PM. You can read more about our philosophical shift towards a new math curriculum here and about our move to Singapore Math here.
As announced in last week’s blog, my #NoOfficeDay will take place on September 13th. I am excited to spend my day with teachers and students and I look forward to blogging about my experience.

But what I really want to write about this week is a remarkable development taking place within our school – our growing ability to become the inclusive Jewish day school our community and families deserve. I wrote the following in a prior blog post at the end of last year:

“We have also taken great strides in our outreach to special needs families and in our current practice in putting together processes for dealing with the mechanics of delivering services. We take it as a positive sign that KoleinuJax has gifted us (in collaboration with Jewish Family & Community Services and the Jewish Community Foundation of Northeast Florida) the monies necessary to expand our program next year by allowing us to hire and train additional support staff in classes where we have children with special needs.”

We are two weeks in and “shofar so good”! (I only have until the High Holidays to enjoy my favorite pun…sorry in advance!) We have, shofar (see how much fun that is!), sent out assistant teachers to a Duval County training and hosted a training of our own for our entire faculty. We are presently meeting with prospective special needs educators for the purpose of scheduling observations of our classes and, then, targeting training specific to the needs of our children and our teachers. We have been meeting and communicating more frequently with parents of special needs students in our school with the goal of being as proactive as we can as sacred partners. And finally, thanks in large part to the hard work of two parents in our school, we are preparing to become eligible this month to receive McKay Scholarships.

The McKay Scholarship Program (according to its website) is defined as such:

“Florida’s school choice programs ensure that no child will be left behind by allowing parents to choose the best educational setting—public or private—for their child. The McKay Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program provided over 22,000 Florida students with special needs the opportunity to attend a participating private school during the 2010-11 school year. The McKay Scholarships Program also offers parents public school choice. A parent of an eligible special needs student may choose to transfer the student to another public school.”

The Martin J. Gottlieb Day School is committed to doing its part to serve the special needs children of the Jewish Community of Jacksonville. Our eligibility to participate in McKay signals our desire to be in the conversation as a possible “best educational setting” for Jewish children with special needs. It does not mean that we are automatically capable of handling each and every situation appropriately. It does not mean that we are, in fact, the “best educational setting” for each Jewish child with special needs. It is hard to imagine any (private) school that can possibly claim to be that – there is way too much variation in resources, mission and children for any one school to be the “best educational setting” for every child. It does mean, however, that we have elevated ourselves into the conversation – we are invested in being capable to work with families to determine if we are the best setting, to prepare a structure for children to be successful when they enroll, to establish processes to evaluate our successes and failures, and to maintain healthy communication to take next steps as they occur.

McKay provides families who are usually already burdened with the additional expenses associated with special needs with funding that could make or break the difference between being able to afford private school tuition or not. It is our sincerest hope that IF Jewish families in Jacksonville would like their children to have a Jewish day school education and IF our school is capable of meeting their needs, that McKay will allow those families a choice they may never have had available until now.

Disclaimer: My wife is a special needs educator whose academic and professional experience is with “special education inclusion”.

I recently reviewed my research in this area and I think this link, here, from the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) provides good definitions, a concise history of inclusion, decent explanations of federal law, a fair framing of the debate between “full inclusion” and “resource room”, and examples of academic research. I encourage you to read the whole thing. But for my purposes, let me quote a few highlights:

Inclusion
Inclusion is a term which expresses commitment to educate each child, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the school and classroom he or she would otherwise attend. It involves bringing the support services to the child (rather than moving the child to the services) and requires only that the child will benefit from being in the class (rather than having to keep up with the other students). Proponents of inclusion generally favor newer forms of education service delivery.

This would be an accurate expression of our attitude and aspirations for the children in our school with special needs. (Please understand that GIFTEDNESS is a SPECIAL NEED. “Inclusion” includes our philosophy of how we strive to meet the needs of gifted students as well.)

I am being this descriptive because I want to address a common concern – how will having special needs students in my child’s class impact the experience ofmy child? Or, won’t the teacher have to spend so much time focusing on the special needs students that s/he won’t be able to provide my child with the individualized attention we expect in private school?

First the research…

There is no evidence that the inclusion of special needs students has any negative impact on the academic experience of the other students if the classroom is structured and staffed appropriately. This is why the conversation about whether or not a school is the “best educational setting” is so important. We have to be honest with parents about our resources and abilities. We should never bring in a child with needs we are not confident we can meet – that risks harm to the child and to the class. Each child and each situation is different and is handled case by case. But with the right attitude, support, and training – we are moving to be more capable with more students.

So if there is no impact on the academic experience of the other students…might there be other extremely important and positive outcomes of having special needs students in the classroom? YES!

While researchers are cautious in their conclusions, there are some positive signs. In particular, students in special education and regular education showed several positive changes, including:

A reduced fear of human differences accompanied by increased comfort and awareness (Peck et al., 1992);
Growth in social cognition (Murray-Seegert,1989);
Improvement in self-concept of non-disabled students (Peck et. al., 1992);
Development of personal principles and ability to assume an advocacy role toward their peers and friends with disabilities;
Warm and caring friendships (Bogdan and Taylor, 1989).

Do these not seem like the kinds of values a Jewish day school ought to live by? Would this not represent our highest aspirations for the moral development of our children? Does this not seem like a good way of making menchen?

We have a passion for meeting the needs of the Jewish children of Jacksonville – special or otherwise. One doesn’t have to choose between meeting the needs of special needs children or the highly gifted (or the overwhelming majority of children who are neither). Our work with special needs children and their families does not detract from our work with all of our other children and families – it enhances it.

When my daughter graduates (please God many years from now) from the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and I watch her walk across the bimah to receive her diploma, my wife and I will surely be proud of her academic achievements (whatever they may be). But we will be even more proud of who she will have become having learned to love and respect all her classmates no matter who they are, what they know or can do, or however quirky their personality traits might be. And we will be blessed for having had the ability to have her educated in a place that doesn’t require families to have to choose between.