Addendum to my last post:

It seems that upon my completing the reading of the discussion surrounding Reforms in Traditional Talmud Education, I am convinced that we are missing the point. I don't think it is fair to assume Rav Soloveitchik's philosophy as being the true explanation for why we should learn Gemara a certain way. I think we need to encourage our students to question what they read from whatever perspective they feel appropriate (under the guidance of a teacher). There is no need to limit ourselves to one style of learning. We, as teachers (or future teachers) need to be well equipped to answer questions from all perspectives. It isn't fair to the students that we should ignore the questions they ask. Furthermore, the answers we provide need to be well thought and serious. We cannot simply give second rate answers. To simply provide a standard answer to the questions we are asked is both unfair and highly dangerous. If the student wants something more substantial, then quite often the standard answer is not enough. Therefore, it is our job as educators to reform the system of teaching by becoming better equipped to handle all types of questioning and not fall back into standard methodology in order to keep safe. We need to tread on the tight rope in order to better reach our students.

Furthermore, I have a serious problem with the need to force upon all students the same Talmud education just because there is a need to keep tradition. I think it is harmful that many of the students walk out of high school and do not have any appreciation for the non-legal parts of Judaism. The students think those subjects are cool because no one spends much time on them. The problem is that we are ultimately teaching a methodology that creates spiritually deficient people. The need to use Hazal as a springboard is something that i think more educators need to look into. We can no longer ignore the stories about demons or say that those stories are nonsense. Perhaps we need to reexamine how we view the world. I myself always was bothered when we would be in shiur and just glance over a nice piece of Aggadah because it wasn't something traditionally discussed in a class (שיעור). We are providing more harm for our students, living in the contemporary world.