In um, the Jewish day school system has incorporated the ruthless, cutthroat mentality of Wall Street, but not the professionalism. We have taken the bad and discarded the good.
As for money, it is inconceivable to me that tuitions can increase without end, yet teacher salaries remain essentially the same. The Jewish public must know what money is coming in and where it is being spent. Parents seeking financial assistance are put through the ringer. The schools must open up as well if they claim there isn’t enough money.
People should also realize that all too often a school that finds some extra money is all too likely to use it to beautify the front lawn than to give teachers a financial boost. Where are the priorities? If there is not enough money to provide the best of everything, then insuring that schools can hire and retain the best and brightest teachers, insuring that teaching is an attractive long-term career for our best and brightest, must be the absolute first orders of business.
If there is money left over after properly compensating our teachers, then we can provide state-of-the-art gymnasiums, computer labs, extracurricular activities, extravagant field trips, and other non-essentials. A generation ago none of these perks was available, yet students were more Jewishly committed and, I suspect, happier as well. What we remember most about our years of schooling are our teachers. The best teachers – and, God help us, the worst.
As for gedolim, instead of trying to mass-produce them in factories, the emphasis should be on providing an authentic and meaningful Jewish education for the greatest number of people while eliminating the callousness and myopia from our institutions. The natural effect of creating an atmosphere in which all students have a positive experience and can reach their potential is that those with the greatest potential will become gedolim. Trying to force the issue with the most brilliant children while dismissing or destroying others doesn’t seem to be working out very well.
History and our current generation have shown that the Jewish community only acts when its back is against the wall. We might be able to stagger on this way for a little while longer. But I dearly hope that people will care enough about the future of the Jewish people, if not their own children, to step out of the anonymous shadows and bring meaningful change to the system.
