As we begin the school year at Posnack School, our 51st year as an educational institution, I wanted to take a moment and share with you a few thoughts on education from our Jewish heritage that stretches back over 3,000 years.
No imperative in the process of education is more fundamental, more significant, and more crucial for a student’s successful learning experience than, “Teacher, know your students!” A successful learning experience is measured not only in terms of a student’s intellectual growth. As important in the successful learning process is for the teacher to assess their strategies in conveying the knowledge. Our Jewish legal system states, “…the study of Torah outweighs all the commands.” (Torah here refers to all of God’s wisdom displayed in the universe). It stands to reason, then, that Judaism has much to say about the teacher’s responsibility in carrying out this most cherished mitzvah. The Torah highlights two tools in the teacher’s tool bag.
The annual Pesach Seder, while ostensibly centered around a meal, is the night of transmitting the fundamental principles of Judaism from the generation that knows them to the generation that does not. In short, the Seder transforms a meal into a night of learning. A careful look at the Haggadah, the Seder manual, reveals all the steps every teacher learns in a college course on pedagogy. In fact, the Haggadah, the teacher’s manual for this learning occasion, is an expertly composed classical lesson plan.
The Haggadah includes an introduction explaining why we are learning tonight; a start-up activity to capture the curiosity of the students (all those assembled for the Seder); 4 goals for the lesson; individualized responses in anticipation of the various kinds of questions learners will ask based on their academic development and level of engagement; it includes a minimal companion text to be studied; activities and audio-visual aids; and even an assessment of the learning experience. A reward for the learning culminates with a sumptuous meal centered on the objects that were just analyzed.
To repeat, since this night is devoted to relating our most fundamental principles and values, the great rabbis could not leave this Godly command without providing their astute guidance in how to accomplish this charge. The great sages of the Talmud have outlined for us how all teachers are to conduct every educational process to achieve maximum success. The Pesach Seder is over 3,000 years old, but every college Department of Education would concur with and appreciate the wisdom and insight displayed in how the Pesach Seder is put together and conducted. We should not be surprised. As I mentioned before, education is at the core of Judaism. Great care must be given by every teacher to this process whether teaching Judaic studies or the wisdom of God displayed in secular studies.
But there is another critical component to the educational process that must also not be overlooked. While the above process is necessary regarding the purely technical aspects of a teacher’s presentation, every good teacher also knows there is another dimension to the process of learning. I am referring to the teacher-student relationship. True, the teacher must know if the student is a visual learner, audio learner, tactile learner, what have you. And the teacher must work at creating a variety of ways to deliver the lesson. Engagement of the learner is key, of course. But what of the interpersonal teacher-student relationship? Does the Torah address that issue?
To answer this question, let’s look at the first chapter in the Book of Bamidbar (Numbers). Here we find that God commands Moshe to count the people of Israel. What was the purpose of the count? The Ramban (Nachmanides), commenting on verse 45, offers two reasons: 1. To get the aggregate number, the whole count of the people. This total would manifest God’s kindness to Jacob, transforming the original 70 souls who came down to Egypt into a nation of over 600,000 people. 2. Each Jew would pass before Moshe and Aaron and “be known to them by name.”
On this second reason, the Rav, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik explains, at this point in the destiny of the Jewish people, one year after receiving the Torah at Mt Sinai, Moshe was to assume his most important role. Moshe is not referred to as king, messiah, savior, or redeemer. He is referred to by the simple title, “rabbenu,” “our teacher.” To fulfill the role of teacher, Rabbi Soloveitchik mentions, Moshe went door to door, house by house to meet each person. Moshe wanted to know each person individually, not just as a part of a whole. He would ask: What is your name? How does your family live? What is your background? Where are you from? What are your individual interests, hopes, desires? In other words, Moshe, as their teacher, wanted to know exactly who each person was. What makes that person tick? What motivates him or her? Each one had unique experiences that shaped their world view. Each one would be his student.
The Torah takes the time to point out this counting process because it is as important to a teacher’s role as are their technical lesson plans. Creating a personal relationship between teacher and student is vital for the student’s learning experience to be successful. Rabbi Soloveitchik points out the Torah uses the term “b’mispar sheimot,” “by the number of names,” suggesting an intimate relationship the teacher has with every student.
To be an effective teacher, then, requires establishing a personal relationship with each student separately. A child is not just a student in a particular grade. All eighth graders are not the same and they don’t learn the same way. Knowing the student on a more personal level may help the teacher convey the lesson in a better way to a specific student and may make the student more receptive to the teacher’s words. As you can well imagine, the Ramban tells us that Moshe’s census, getting to know each person, took many days. Building a positive teacher-student relationship centered on the individual student’s unique personality is as important to successful instruction and learning as is knowing the individual student’s learning skills, aptitude and academic needs. To paraphrase Dr. Cuenca, “No technological advancements, including AI, will ever replace this vital component, establishing the interpersonal teacher and student relationship, crucial for successful learning to take place.”
Wishing each of you a successful year of learning together.