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FROM THE DESK OF PRESIDENT ROBERT FISHMAN
Although most bulletin articles are addressed to the Temple membership as a group, this month I would like to speak directly to the parents of children enrolled in our Religious school.
I’m thinking about the school and your children – in some sense, our children – who are receiving their religious education. I am wondering if each of us can answer a few questions:
o Why do we go to the effort of sending our kids to our school?
o What makes the school attractive to you?
o What do you expect your child to learn at the school? Is there something besides learning that we want them to come away with?
I think it is important to pause for just a few moments to think about the answers to those three questions. Would you mind sharing those thoughts with me (robertfishman@comcast.net or 508-584-3769)?
And if you could go a step further, please comment on this statement:
Your child is leaning what you expect him or her to learn. I believe this statement to be true because not one parent has called me to tell me otherwise. Not one parent has sent me an email nor has any parent stopped me within the Temple to tell me that the school is not delivering on the educational mission.
So, if the above is true (or even if it is not), are you doing some things at home to reinforce what your child(ren) are learning in religious school? These days we generally agree that our children internalize the modeling we present, the patterns we show, as they move along their own journeys.
What are some of the important activities that will shape your child(ren) as they move from childhood through the teen years to young adult and adulthood? Do they include:
o Soccer and services
o Practicing the Aleph Bet and practicing piano
o Baseball and Bat Mitzvah lessons
o Hebrew vocabulary and swimming lessons
o Service attendance on a Yom Tov that falls during the week?
Is the schooling merely a duty for the family to endure or is the beginning of a life long commitment to our religion? All of these secular activities (and more) and all of the religious activities (and more) are important, but the fact is that though both sides are important, the religious activities seem to get less focus, less attention in many families.
Here are some ideas that I have used – admittedly with mixed success – maybe they would work for you:
Whether you have a comfort level with the religious artifacts and services or not, come to services with your child – change your Saturday morning routine (at least sometimes) and come as a family. Services start on Shabbat morning at 9:30 and end around 11:45. If you can’t be there the whole time – that’s OK. If you need to leave before the service is over, that is OK or arrive late that is OK. Don’t let your inability to attend the entire service keep you from attending any of it.
On Sunday mornings, when it’s time to drop children off for Sunday school, demonstrate how important it is to perform a mitzvah by coming into the building to attend minyan. Imagine what your children would think if they saw your commitment, if you came into the building when they do.
More hints for modeling:
Come to any one of the classes given by our Rabbi. There’s so much to learn and I find Rabbi Cohen’s classes are interesting, thought-provoking and interactive. You might agree. The classes are listed in the bulletin and in the e-mails about “dates to remember” Read the bulletin and come to the class. If you haven’t been to other classes, it’s OK. So far at least, the classes have not required learning from one in order to attend another – the Rabbi teaches them so that no class is predicated on attending the one before it. And there is no implied commitment to attend the next one.
No matter what you do, do something. Show your kids that you are committed to their education - both religious and secular. Prove to them that you are serious about religious classes. Give them the space and time to do the homework – ensure that they learn the lessons and show them by good modeling that you are sending them to Religious School because it will become part of the foundation, part of the essence of who they will become. It will be as much a part of them as the way that they utilize their secular learning when they get older.
Is there something you’d like to do that we can help with? Let me know. Let Fran Litner, our educational director, know. Let the Rabbi know.
I hope to see you soon – comments may be sent directly to me robertfishman@comcast.net
B'Shalom,
Bob Fishman
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