Not Too Cool for School

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BY BROOKE COLLIER

World Jewish Digest, August 2005

Jessica Lissy had reached the pinnacle of her career as head writer for Blue's Clues, a children's television show on Nickelodeon. The 31-year-old Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude graduate of Yale University had been nominated twice for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Children's Series, was the proud inhabitant of a posh office and, even better, enjoyed the envy of her family and friends.

"I was the most popular girl within a mile," she said.

Still, something was missing. Despite her achievements, her work didn't feel satisfying. There was an itch that needed to be scratched. So in the summer of 2002, during a break from writing, Lissy made a return trip to the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where she had spent the academic year of 1998-1999. The experience was transformative.

"I just felt on fire with Torah," she explained. On a Pardes-sponsored spiritual retreat, Lissy and others explored the Jewish idea of happiness: do what God put you on this earth to accomplish. On reflection, Lissy discovered that, rather than writing for kids, she wanted to be working with them directly.

On her return from the retreat, she immediately enrolled in the Pardes Educators Program, a two-year degree that leads to a Certificate of Advanced Jewish Studies from Pardes and a Master of Arts in Jewish Education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Funded by the Avi Chai Foundation, graduates make a pledge to teach at Jewish day schools for three years after completing their studies. Since 2000, nearly 40 graduates have found teaching posts at Jewish day schools across North America, most at a growing number of non-denominational schools that take a pluralistic approach to Jewish education.

"I was excited about making a big change and the possibility of doing something really fulfilling," said Lissy, who recently completed her first year as a Judaic Studies instructor for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students at the Hannah Senesh Community Day School in Brooklyn, N.Y. "Pardes inspires a passion for Jewish text study, bringing your whole self into what you are doing and having respect for the text itself."

Lissy is one of a growing number of academic high-achievers and career builders who have chosen to eschew their high-paying jobs and fancy titles for a decidedly more humble profession: professional Jewish day school teacher. New programs geared to training intelligent, creative, and charismatic young teachers are drawing a new breed to day school faculties, and in the process are reinvigorating a profession.

Rabbi Daniel Landes, director and rosh yeshiva at Pardes, said day school teachers had long been stereotyped as "those who couldn't make it in other professions." Now, with the Educators Program, the goal is to make teaching "exciting" again.

"We attract cool, dynamic, interesting people attracted to the challenge of creativity and journeying together with their students," he said. "They have a fantastic impact on the Jewish world."

The majority of graduates from Pardes, and other programs like it, take teaching positions at non-denominational day schools, which attract students from Reform to Orthodox and strive to accommodate all in philosophy and observance. "[We] seek to meet the educational needs of Jewish children from across the spectrum of practice," said Dr. Marc Kramer, executive director of Ravsak, the Jewish Community Day School Network. "The schools try to be maximally inclusive and minimally intrusive. Every child whom we can serve we will try to serve regardless of economics and affiliation."

So far, close to 100 teachers have graduated from Pardes and other teachertraining programs like it and program administrators expect hundreds more graduates in the years to come.

One of the programs, Delet, will begin its fourth cohort this summer, with 22 new students. Delet "fellows" spend two summers training at Rhea Hirsch School of Education at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles and Brandeis University in Boston. They then spend a year working alongside a mentor teacher at one of any number of day schools in the two cities.

Delet's national director, Dr. Jane West-Walsh, explained that, until this point, most master's programs focused on preparing administrators and heads of schools, not classroom instructors. But with programs like Delet and Pardes training "front-line" teachers, she said, it "is one of the most important steps forward in promoting the prestige and visibility of day school teachers." This new focus increasingly allows the programs to attract top-caliber applicants. This coming year's Delet cohort includes a student from Dartmouth College and two Stanford University graduates.

In addition to Delet and Pardes, this fall the prestigious Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem is launching a twoyear teacher education program which will train 30 students - 15 for teaching positions in North America and 15 for Israel. The University of Pennsylvania is also currently developing a Master of Education program combining the best of its Graduate School of Education and Jewish Studies departments to train teachers to teach Judaic texts.

All About the 'Oh'

Dr. Bruce Powell, head of school for the pluralistic New Community Jewish High School in West Hills, Calif., and a recognized leader in Jewish education, said the challenge of educators is to change the sometimes negative perception of Jewish day school teachers.

"It's all about the 'Oh!'" he said. "How people say that 'oh' when you tell them what you are doing or what school you went to. Teaching is such a noble position, but if I say I'm a lawyer or doctor, the 'oh' is different. The very good news is that the change is starting."

Powell added that as more highly qualified teachers enter the field, salaries and benefits will rise.

"For the last 150 years traditional all-female positions like nursing, secretarial work, and teaching have had lower status as opposed to traditional all-male positions like law, medicine and accounting," he said. "Today that is changing. Forty to 50 percent of my faculty is maleÉ With benefits, job security, and pensions, people are starting to value teaching more these days. The more day schools can fund teachers, the better off we are."

Making the Change

Mark Shpall, 37, is an 11th-grade United States government teacher and the girls' basketball coach at New Community Jewish High School. A native of suburban Los Angeles, Shpall said that, growing up, he felt his professional options were limited to a few high-profile professions.

"As a Jewish male, there were only three positions that were acceptable - doctor, lawyer or accountant," he recalled. "I fainted at the sight of blood and I could barely add, so I had to become a lawyer."

But Shpall felt alienated by the legal field, and after some soul-searching, decided to take a different route. "It hit me after nine years of practicing [that] it was literally killing my soul."

He watched his wife Tammy affect hundreds of children a year as a middle school U.S. history teacher at a Jewish day school. So with her help, he made the move to teaching. But rather than attend an intensive Judaic program like Pardes or Delet, he opted to pursue a part-time Master of Arts in Education at Pepperdine University.

"The ability to connect with my students and players has been the best part," he said. "The chance to see them mature as humans and as students and knowing that I played a small part in that is amazing."

While his newfound profession has brought meaning to his working life, the salary of a teacher has been a major drawback. As an attorney, he was earning a six-figure income; his first salary as a teacher paid him about 60 percent less.

Nevertheless, he said the sacrifices have been "worth it 100 times over." Moreover, he has gained the respect of his former colleagues for his bold career change.

"It has been amazing how many lawyers or old colleagues of mine who tell me that they wish they could do the same thing but are unable to leave the paycheck behind," he said.

Brooke Collier is a freelance writer living in Philadephia where she is pursuing a master's degree in teaching at the University of Pennsylvania.

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