הגיד לך אדם מה טוב ומה ה' דורש ממך
כי אם עשות משפט ואהבת חסד
והצנע לכת עם א-לוהיך
מיכה ו:ח
“I will tell you mankind what is good
and what God wants from you:
Only to do justice and love kindness
and walk humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8
Rabbi Goldmintz cited this quote in his summary of the comments and observations that were made by several faculty members in their extraordinary presentations at our annual Teacher In-Service Day. Dr. Jucovy together with Rabbi Kobrin, Mr. Miller, Rabbi Rubin and Dr. Zeitchik designed the day’s program with its focus on character education and a school’s responsibility to transmit values.
The six teachers who spoke represented various disciplines: Dr. Milowitz, English; Rabbis Flatto and Joel, Talmud; Ms. Slonim, Science; Ms. Kolatch, Math; and Ms. Strapp, Tanakh.
Rabbi Rubin paraphrased some of the most salient points made by the presenters and highlighted some additional issues for consideration. He asked the faculty to imagine how confused our students must feel as they learn from and listen to so many different teachers, everyday, who unwittingly model a variety of values because “any type of environment that we create in our classroom is actually informed by a value.” Rabbi Rubin sees this confusion as good “in that it fosters doubt and doubt creates questioning and questioning also leads children to form concrete, productive responses.”
Mr. Miller views the discussions in English classes as wonderful opportunities for students to develop the vocabulary they need for moral argumentation and for exploring the values needed for evaluating behavior. In supporting his remarks, Mr. Miller cited Dr. Thomas LaConna, who said, “There is no such thing as a value free education —everything a school does teaches values including ways teachers and other adults teach students.”
Ms. Kolatch stressed the importance of respect and the need for listening and Ms. Strapp spoke about developing meaningful relationships with students and the importance of role modeling. Ms. Slonim expressed her concern for “the commons,” namely the common responsibility we should have for each other and for the space we share. Rabbi Joel spoke about rules and how we struggle with them personally and Rabbi Flatto, citing Rabbi Dessler z”l, explained that, “There is not one rehabilitative epiphany that students experience but the building of moral character is a day by day process over the four years of a Ramaz education.”
In summation, everyone agreed that there are a set of core values that we all are challenged to foster in ourselves and in our students: respect for others’ opinions, for tradition and for community, creativity, open-mindedness and honesty, intellectual rigor and empathy.
We have uploaded three of the lectures. Click on the following link to hear the presentations made by Rabbi Goldmintz, Rabbi Joel and Dr. Milowitz.