Jewish Apathy - Part 2
Elder Avraham at the Protocols blog provides a link to an editorial in the Jewish Press by Rebbetzin Jungreis. This editorial is a letter she received from the principle of a boys elementary school discussing the problems with frum girls falling off the path while in high school.
The following comments, while focusing on the female teenager, can very easily and should be considered for males as well.
I agree with Avraham's assessment that parents need to be more active and work a little harder to determine what school their daughter/s should attend. We should not be too concerned when a girl is 13 whether she will get the "appropriate" shidduch when she is 19. Parents need to simply make sure their daughter is in the right environment. Let's face it, we all rebel as teenagers. The question is to what extent. Now, the letter wants to claim that rebellion starts because of modern technology, like instant messenger. This might be true in some extreme cases, but I think the majority of rebellion is simply the result of the teenager wanting to assert his/her own autonomy. For those extreme cases, I am not sure there is much we can do.
In general, as the letter's author points out, maybe the education system needs changing. Teenage girls should not simply have to study and memorize multiple commentaries on a verse or some halachot. They should be taught how to think and question. I will even leave out the issue of learning Gemara, which personally I don't see as an issue. Girls should learn Gemara. I don't see any reason why they shouldn't. But even if the school does find problems with this, there are other things to teach. Teach them how to live in the world without feeling alienated for being Jewish. Teach them to wonder about why we practice the law (as I discuss in Jewish Apathy - Part 1). By not stressing thinking in Torah study, especially where they are exposed to other subjects, we will doom the teenager to the fate we are trying to prevent, apathy.
Furthermore, simply making more things taboo, like instant messenger, will not solve the problem. It will only cause more chaos and rebellion, especially if the parents do the things they say are forbidden. Parents need to be role models. If the parent doesn't think it is good, then they shouldn't do it. We need to get back to the system were parents are active. The school should even attempt to ascertain from the parent what they envision. If the school doesn't attempt to cater to the families, then they also fail. The two environments together need to work closely to improve the quantity, and with that hopefully increase the quality of the student.
Elder Avraham at the Protocols blog provides a link to an editorial in the Jewish Press by Rebbetzin Jungreis. This editorial is a letter she received from the principle of a boys elementary school discussing the problems with frum girls falling off the path while in high school.
The following comments, while focusing on the female teenager, can very easily and should be considered for males as well.
I agree with Avraham's assessment that parents need to be more active and work a little harder to determine what school their daughter/s should attend. We should not be too concerned when a girl is 13 whether she will get the "appropriate" shidduch when she is 19. Parents need to simply make sure their daughter is in the right environment. Let's face it, we all rebel as teenagers. The question is to what extent. Now, the letter wants to claim that rebellion starts because of modern technology, like instant messenger. This might be true in some extreme cases, but I think the majority of rebellion is simply the result of the teenager wanting to assert his/her own autonomy. For those extreme cases, I am not sure there is much we can do.
In general, as the letter's author points out, maybe the education system needs changing. Teenage girls should not simply have to study and memorize multiple commentaries on a verse or some halachot. They should be taught how to think and question. I will even leave out the issue of learning Gemara, which personally I don't see as an issue. Girls should learn Gemara. I don't see any reason why they shouldn't. But even if the school does find problems with this, there are other things to teach. Teach them how to live in the world without feeling alienated for being Jewish. Teach them to wonder about why we practice the law (as I discuss in Jewish Apathy - Part 1). By not stressing thinking in Torah study, especially where they are exposed to other subjects, we will doom the teenager to the fate we are trying to prevent, apathy.
Furthermore, simply making more things taboo, like instant messenger, will not solve the problem. It will only cause more chaos and rebellion, especially if the parents do the things they say are forbidden. Parents need to be role models. If the parent doesn't think it is good, then they shouldn't do it. We need to get back to the system were parents are active. The school should even attempt to ascertain from the parent what they envision. If the school doesn't attempt to cater to the families, then they also fail. The two environments together need to work closely to improve the quantity, and with that hopefully increase the quality of the student.
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