Is Early Childhood Too Early for Hebrew?” This was the question posed by Tani Foger, EdD, a 2006 graduate of Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration and a school psychologist, at the inaugural colloquium of the new Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Division of Doctoral Studies at Azrieli Graduate School on Dec. 5...
Dr. Foger, a special education expert, focused her presentation on the immersion method of teaching Hebrew to preschoolers.
“Hebrew immersion programs in early childhood education will ensure that our day school graduates have a vibrant, facile and working relationship with the Hebrew language,” Dr. Foger said prior to the colloquium.
I really don't have anything useful to say about teaching American preschoolers Hebrew. It might be a good idea or it might not (all I remember from my preschool yeas was that I could master nuclear physics if cookies were involved).
What ticks me off is that there is a need for this. What ticks me off is that a conference needs to held in order to determine why kids can't speak Hebrew. What ticks me off is that after ten years of Hebrew classes I still futz around in the language. "Um ani rotzeh, I mean ratziti, I mean... Do you speak English?"
I have a question for the panel. How can it be that a day school student goes through ten years of Hebrew classes, gets straight A's, and cannot put together a coherent sentence? Forget about me for a second-- I was an awful, lazy student-- but I had friends who actually cared about school and got good grades. Their Hebrew is no better than mine.
The title of the conference should have been, "Why do our Hebrew classes stink?"
In my opinion there are two reasons. First, the stuff that is being taught has virtually no relevance to the actual spoken language. Kids come into tests knowing how to differentiate between poal and nifal, but really have no grasp of their practical ramifications. The second reason that the classes stink is that usually the teachers stink. When I was in school Hebrew teachers were almost always the rabbis who either did not speak enough English, or were not charismatic enough to give shiur... or both.
What we have here is ambivalence. On one hand modern orthodox schools are tied down to their bread and butter. We love the state of Israel, it is reishit smichat geulateinu, go buy Israel bonds, yada yada yada. Consequently,it would follow that it is pretty important to learn Hebrew. On the other hand there is still a small voice inside of them that cries Torah shebeal peh has been our legacy for two thousand years. Let's concentrate on that." So what then do we focus on? Learning Hebrew, or being Jewish? The answer? Neither.
The school that isn't concerned with this dilemna(and most of you can figure out which I school I am referring to) has no problem teaching their students Hebrew. They are quite certain which is more important. Ambivalence is the greatest obstacle to achievement. Take away the ambivalence and their is no problem achieving.
I am in no way suggesting that this school should be the model. However, if the modern- orthodox schools believe that learning Hebrew is important than what is needed is not to teach Hebrew in preschool. What is needed is Hebrew classes that don't stink.
10 comments:
OOS
1. Check for typos before publishing. That's what spellcheck is for. Who do you think you are, DovBear.
2. Don't be so hard on yourself. You weren't a lazy, awful student; just a lazy one.
3. I agree with your premise. It is hard to teach Hebrew and pass along a geshmak for Yiddishkeit. Most schools fail at both.
1. reishit TSmichat please
2. if the kids were totally immersed in preschool, it WOULD in fact help solve the problem. (not solve, but help). I think you already know that, but wanted to kvetch about a very legitimate taana.
From a pedagogical standpoint, early immersion is a failsafe method. The younger the child, the easier it is for them to pick up a language. By the time they are actually exposed to Hebrew as a second language, in most educational models, they're past the stage where learning a language is easy. But even then immersion works--even for adults. (Essentially, survival needs ensure you learn quickly.) Ideally, the children should be raised in a bilingual household, and hear their parents speaking both Hebrew and English from birth. Failing that, exposure in preschool works very well.
But you are right. Since the siddur doesn't contain the requisite vocabulary, I am unable to ask "where's the rest room, please".
I was educated partially in day schools and partially in public schools, so it's hard for me to really comment, but what would you think about teaching all classes in Hebrew. I know there are French and Spanish immersion schools here in California. They teach all, or almost all classes in the foreign language. If a student starts when they are in kindergarten or pre-school then I would imagine that they'd have a really great grasp of the second language.
The day school I went to for K-3 grades only spoke Hebrew for the second half of the day (when we were studying Judaic subjects). At the time I think I had a pretty good grasp of Hebrew for a 5-8 year old. But four years wasn't enough to permenantly imprint Hebrew in my brain.
i agree mostly - since my take on the subject was similar though in much less words.
of all the things to cover in their conference the fact that this seemed like a discovery seemed silly. but the reall matter should be how to fix it.
A bigger peeve of mine in particular is how the system fails in churning out kids who dont have basic competency in tanach while chiloni israelis take a required exam know it all
TTC
Because the elementary school system is all about optics.
Dad:
You can admit it, I was God awful as a student. Don't worry Mom isn't reading this.
Anon, Kish, and Fern:
As you mentioned in your comments I was not debating the merits of the program. In all likelihood, the kids would come out speaking Hebrew well. I know that I can't wait for my kids to come home from gan speaking hebrew to each other in our ancient tongue (is there anything cuter than little kids playing in Hebrew? "Tafasti!!!" Lo! Lo tafasta!!!").
However, I think that the question for American schools is what happens after preschool? Fern mentioned that although she had a good grasp of Hebrew in third grade she was not able to hold onto it after she left a surrounding where she was immeresed in the language. I think this is the challenge that the proponents of this method face. O.K. the little kids know Hebrew. Now that they are big kids and need to start learning real stuff, what language to we teach it in.
If we make a commitment to teach in Hebrew, what happens if the most scholarly and charismatic rabbi has a poor grasp of the language? Do we give up the love of yidddishkeit that this rabbi can give over to his talmidim because he can't speak Hebrew? The answer for me is simple-- no. The answer for the school that I mentioned in the post is simple-- yes.
But this is the basic question.
OOS- you're absolutely right about the deficiencies of the current teaching methods for Ivrit. However, the NETA program being implemented in many dayschools now is even worse than previous methods of teaching. The teachers sing its praises and the students pray for its demise. Perhaps student input would help in this situation.
As far as Ivrit teachers, it's not uncommon to find a random displaced Israeli teaching the class. A solid grasp of the language does not necessarily make for a better Ivrit teacher.
Limudei kodesh classes should be Ivrit b'ivrit. Those who come out of schools with this style of teaching seem to have a much better grasp of the language than those of us who only spoke Ivrit in Hebrew class.
Late to weigh in... I don't know much about the empirical studies regarding pre-school immersion and learning a foreign language. But I do know that it can be cruel and unusual punishment (as well as ineffective) if applied universally. Some children may naturally absorb the structure of a language by exposure and use while others may be lost. Two of my kids did not seem to benefit much in their Hebrew after being switched from a more "right" (Aduda) to "centrist" (Zionist) yeshiva. One of my kids has suffered through two years of the newer "NETA" approach and a number of us parents scratch our heads in amazement at its uselessness. Also, when other subjects are taught in Hebrew it may not be fair to measure mastery in the target subject if the Hebrew skills are not adequate. Ideally, schools would attune their methods to students skills.
That said, I agree that a lot may boil down to the teacher/personality, and it is a shame that we cannot seed schools with more interesting methods.
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