[Avodah] Public school or non-Orthodox day school?

[T613K at aol.com]

RAM writes:
>> But the OP, 
as posted, seems to include  a hava mina that RYBS's psak might go so 
far as to suggest that I'd consider  sacrificing my child's -- or 
someone else's child's -- chinuch in order to  avoid supporting a non-
Orthodox day school. And I, for one, am not willing  to consider that 
option.<<

Akiva Miller


 
>>>>>
You think that keeping the kid out of the non-O day school would  "sacrifice 
his chinuch"?  The opposite is true.  Keeping him /in/ the  non-O school would 
sacrifice his chinuch.  Do not think, "The non-O  school provides a good 
chinuch but we don't want to show support for  non-O."  Rather, as bad as the 
chinuch might be in public school, the  education in a non-O day school is /even 
worse/.  In public school he won't  learn anything about Judaism at all and 
will be left a tabula rasa, for his  parents or outside tutors to fill in later.  
In the non-O school he will  learn all kinds of sheker, which will be 
exceedingly difficult to eradicate from  his mind later on.   Much harder to write on 
a palimpsest than on a  tabula rasa.
 
In the "community" day school in Chattanooga where I taught, for example (I  
was the only Orthodox teacher they ever had, and I only lasted a year), the  
children were taught that Rivka loved Yakov because they were two of a kind --  
false, lying, scheming, conniving people, who plotted together to deceive  
Yitzchak and rob the innocent Esav of his birthright.  That was just an  example 
of a general rule that they were taught, namely, that the Avos and  Imahos 
were deeply flawed human beings, no better than you and me (thus, there  was no 
particular reason for G-d's having chosen them -- that was just  arbitrary).   
Paradoxically or inconsistently, they were  also taught (on alternate 
Tuesdays) that the Avos and Imahos never  actually existed, but the Torah was a 
wonderful work of literature, amazing for  the life-like characterization of its 
many colorful albeit fictional  personalities, whose lives taught us many 
wonderful lessons and who were  entirely allegorical.  Krias Yam Suf was 
allegorical, Ma'amad Har Sinai was  allegorical, and so on.
 
I used to joke around with a Jewish studies teacher named Chaim, who often  
told the children that Judaism teaches that all people are the same, we are all 
 the children of G-d and no one is any better or worse than anyone else and 
that  the lesson of Judaism is that we should love all mankind.  He used to  
ostentatiously high-five the black janitor to show how he loved all mankind and  
to prove what a tolerant and loveable humanitarian he was.  Paradoxically  he 
always used to tell the children that they should be very, very proud of  
being Jewish.  I used to say to him, "Chaim, what are you saying?  We  should be 
very, very proud of the fact that we are exactly the same as everyone  else?"
 
Now I have just summed up what is taught in non-Orthodox schools.  I  will 
add one more thing, which is that only ONE kid in my entire fifth grade  class 
in that school was halachically Jewish (a fact I did not know at first,  but 
found out one kid at a time).  Thus, if you think the kid in the Jewish  school 
will at least have Jewish friends -- think again.
 
Far, far better to send the kid to public school and supplement his Jewish  
education at home or in an after-school Talmud Torah or Sunday school.   Also 
be sure to send him away to an Orthodox summer camp.




--Toby  Katz
=============



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