A Rabbi's World: In Appreciation of Jewish Early Childhood Education
Posted By James BesserA Rabbi's World: In Appreciation of Jewish Early Childhood Education
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More than twenty years ago, when my now twenty-five-year-old son was in Nursery School, I learned how little I understood about how the minds of young children work.
Instead of walking him to school one rainy morning, I decided to drive. We were sitting at a red light when I noticed that the vehicle in front of me was a police van, and there was a horse inside. "Hillel," I said to my son. "Look at that horse in the police van!" There was a long pause, after which my son said, half to himself, "I wonder what the horse did…"
It was at that remarkable moment that I realized how much more than "child care" quality early childhood education is. And as I progressed as a parent and grew as a rabbi as well, I came to understand how precious the contribution is that quality Jewish early childhood education makes in the developing Jewish identity of a young child.
When I watch parents coming to the orientation that opens each year of our Jewish Early Childhood program, I am always keenly aware that, for many of them, it's the first time they're setting foot in a synagogue since their bar/bat mitzvah. Ambivalence abounds. Some very powerful rooting instinct pulls them back, but it's not an easy step for them, and their mixed feelings about their own Jewishness are written on their faces.
Their children, however, have no such ambivalence, and it is the magic of great Jewish early childhood educators that makes their first encounters with Judaism and Jewish living magical and enriching. At the most basic level, they learn to associate the very act of walking into a synagogue building with a pleasurable experience. What a concept! But of course they learn much more. They learn the joy of anticipating Shabbat's arrival, and how even Friday feels special because of it. They learn the wonderful rituals that make Jewish holidays special and unique, the importance of tzedakah, the special place of Israel in the life of a Jew, and maybe- just maybe- by learning how to play nicely with each other, they can extrapolate the importance of Jews learning to play and work nicely with each other as well.
Our Nursery School director of fourteen years, a wonderful woman named Adrienne Cohen, just retired following the completion of this past school year. As I stood with her at a dinner in her honor, I tried to come up with the right words to pay her tribute. I think I spoke nicely, but I realized as I was speaking that I couldn't really say enough. There's really no adequate way to acknowledge the contribution of a Jewish educator whose life's work has been to teach our youngest children how to love being Jewish.
Undoing the cynicism and alienation that some adult Jews bring with them to synagogue life is a terribly difficult challenge. I hope it's as difficult to lose the good feelings that are produced by a great Jewish Early Childhood program!
Do the teachers in your preschool make a living wage?
07/16/08 @ 10:27 AM | Posted By KishkemanRabbi Skolnik,
I certainly agree with the basics of this article. Yes early childhood care in a synagogue setting is a great idea. I want to try to look underneath this article a bit.
Does your shul, Rabbi Skolnik, provide health insurance to your preschool director and the preschool's line staff? We know that a preschool of (I will guess here) 150 children between 6 weeks to 5 years old needs at least a dozen or two dozen teachers to make it work. These teachers normally have to work hours that are earlier and later then the usual 9 to 5 and provided them leave and sick time is continuously stressful because they are charged with providing care to our youngest children. What would you try to do if you were the rabbi of my local Conservative synagogue that has a situation as follows:
I know that while my local Conservative's preschool also has a high level of accreditation and overall good standing in the community no one on the that staff is provided with employer provided health insurance. Full time staff can buy their own policy for about $600-700 a month. While many of these line staff teachers get paid $9-11 a month. Full tuition for a year of day care per child at our preschool is about $12,000.
So a full time line teacher needs to work close to two weeks just to pay for her own health care plan should the teacher elect to buy it through the synagogue.
In light of the recent rulings by the Conservative movement's law committee on the importance of providing a living wage, and all the press regarding the Conservative movement's call for a Hechser Tzedek that would partly focus on getting employees of kosher food plants better pay, health care and working conditions? Wouldn't you agree that we in the Conservative movement should be first working at getting our own houses in order regarding living wages and benefits before criticizing outside facilities? I think if we took polls of Conservative Jewish insitutions we would see tremendous pay and benefit differences between our rabbis/cantors and the rest of our full time staff that make our synagogue life run.
If we can't look in the mirror and see our own problems regarding pay and benefits in our own instituions that I feel our own calls for living wages and Hechser Tzedeks for other facilities is a non starter. Are you Rabbi Skolnik, or any of your Conservative rabbinic peers doing anything to examine the pay and benefit inequities in our own synagogues?
While it appears that few people write comments on these Jewish Week blogs, it appears even less that the people who write on these blogs comment with a rebuttal. I am hoping Rabbi Skolnik that you will write back regarding my questions. Thank you.
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