Sunday, April 06, 2008

An open message to R' Yaakov Horowitz

Apropos this conversation on the Admar's blog

Almost everyone I know davens in a cheredi-type shul and thinks the HS options are awful; for that matter, the elementary school options are only a drop better. All of us want a curriculum with less Talmud, more emphasis on secular subjects and skills, but all of us are terrified to demand it from our schools because we've been conditioned to believe such desires are borderline treif.

All of us live in the real world. All of us know math and science and reading and writing and rhetoric are critical to success in the real world. And though all of us are horrified at the functionally-illiterate-no-skill students being graduated by the charedi schools, not one of us has the guts to do anything about it. You'll notice I am speaking in the second person: I'm complicit, too. I'd love to send my son(s) to a school that better reflects my core values, but the path of least resistance is the path most taken.

Rabbi Horowitz, this is where you can help: WE NEED A NO COMPROMISE SCHOOL. We need a school that is unquestionably frum while also offering a secular education that is of the highest quality. We need a place that prepares our kids for both the Mir AND Harvard so no options are foreclosed. We need a school, to quote one of your own commenters, that isn't "trying to raise a community of beggars that can’t afford basic needs." You might be the only bigwig in the Charedi world who understands this; certainly, I know of no one who actually owns a school and sees the big picture the way that you do. So to you we turn, and to you we look expectantly.

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