Tell me about BRURIAH these days

amother

Thu, May 02 2013, 8:41 am

We live in Lakewood. Not the typical lakewood yeshivish family. My husband works, and our kids are not sheltered. We are a pretty with it kind of family. Im thinking about sending my daughter to bruriah. Im not thrilled about what I hear about the highschools here. Can you tell me about the girls that go there, and anything bith positive and negative about the school. Thanks

slushiemom

Thu, May 02 2013, 2:31 pm

I went there 10 years ago. I had a really great experience, and I wish there was a bruriah in israel to send my own kids to! about the amother who said there's pressure- when I was there there were 4 parallel classes in each grade, 2 honors a "high regular" and a regular. I was in high regular, and tehre really wasn't pressure for us- the honors classes all pressured themselves a lot.

I can go on and on, but I need specific things you want to know about- feel free to ask more specific questions

amother

Fri, May 03 2013, 11:41 am

I was in Michalala 2000-2001 year from TAG. The only girls who knew as much/more than me (I have always been a motivated self-learner and know and remember many, many random things and sources and connections from various places in Tanach) were the Bruriah girls AND they were fun, friendly, and all around awesome. If it hasn't changed much since then, my impression is that it is a fabulous school.

ROFL

Fri, May 03 2013, 5:18 pm

Does you dd fit into a mold of a wonderful student, without any social issues? Is she friendly, and creative? Does she ask intresting questions, but is not out of the box, with questioning authority, If you answer yes to the questions above she will fit in nicely.

saw50st8

Fri, May 03 2013, 6:42 pm

I graduated in 2000. It has definitely shifted towards the right since then. Maybe talk to some of the lakewood teachers who may be able to give you a different insight.

If you are interested I can put you in touch with someone who is currently there.

amother

Sat, May 04 2013, 10:39 pm

My daughters graduated from Bruriah, the most recent, 2 years ago. They loved school and made wonderful connections to many teachers, and are still in touch with some of them. A number of the teachers come up from Lakewood.
My DDs are good students and worked hard on their studies, but they were also involved in many school activities including sports. Definitely an academic (and college) oriented school, as well as stressing chesed, middot, etc.
I hate to label my family, but we are modern orthodox, and are very serious about our daughters' learning, davening, etc., They don't watch tv, and many of their friends don't although many other students do. There is a range of types of girls in the school, although the range isn't that huge, and the grades are big (90+ girls in each of my DD's grades) so there is room to find enough friends.

amother

Thu, Dec 26 2013, 3:49 pm

I am also considering it. Right now my daughter is in a bais yaakov school. She is birght, worldly and wants a good education. How different is the Bruria Hashkafah? What types of girls go there? Are there many girls who wear short skirts? Is it true the frummer girls are in the honors classes?

amother

Thu, Dec 26 2013, 4:38 pm

amother as an alum and as a current Bruriah parent:

Bruriah is not the continuation of a Bais Yaakov education. In my girls' grades I do agree that you are most likely to find more "frummier" girls in the higher honors track. There are still some in the lower honors section. For the 3rd and 4th track, it is less likely to find many girls who would me happy to be described as "frummy" or to be one of the few girls from the school to attend the Bais Yaakov convention.

Don't get me started about the short skirts. In the olden days, Mrs. Newman A"H was fairly tough on dress code violations. Now, though the dress code states, "knees covered when sitting..." that is simply not true for a large percentage of the girls. The current administration is more wary of alienating the girls than upholding their own dress code rules. There are girls who cover their knees but do so because they choose to, not because the school is enforcing any rule that tells them to do so.

Education wise, there are some truly excellent teachers, some good teachers, and a few duds.
This goes for the limudei kodesh and secular teachers.

amother

Thu, Dec 26 2013, 6:09 pm

amother wrote:

Why don't you send to Manhattan HS? Excellent education and center right hashkafa. The girls are BY girls which is not the case of the typical Bruriah girl.

amother

Thu, Dec 26 2013, 6:36 pm

[quoteMy daughters graduated from Bruriah, the most recent, 2 years ago. They loved school and made wonderful connections to many teachers, and are still in touch with some of them. A number of the teachers come up from Lakewood.
My DDs are good students and worked hard on their studies, but they were also involved in many school activities including sports. Definitely an academic (and college) oriented school, as well as stressing chesed, middot, etc.
I hate to label my family, but we are modern orthodox, and are very serious about our daughters' learning, davening, etc., They don't watch tv, and many of their friends don't although many other students do. There is a range of types of girls in the school, although the range isn't that huge, and the grades are big (90+ girls in each of my DD's grades) so there is room to find enough friends.][/quote]

I could have written the above reply. My youngest graduated 4 years ago. We are MO, very serious about learning, and davening, etc. (just as written above.) My daughter LOVED Bruriah. She loved the learning, the activities (there's something for everyone), she absolutely loved the teachers, and she had a wonderful large group of lovely, serious (and fun!) girls as friends. To this day, she is in touch with her teachers, some of whom live in Lakewood or Passaic.

fmt4

Thu, Dec 26 2013, 7:07 pm

My sister is in Bruriah. She is spiritual, deep and fun-loving. She is not thrilled there. She likes some of the girls and teachers, but she finds it to be to academically focused and not enough hashkafa and spirituality. School is hard for her, but if your daughter is more academic and less spiritually needy, it might be for her.

amother

Thu, Dec 26 2013, 8:09 pm

Graduated from there about 10 years ago, absolutely loved it. I think I have about 10 Bruriah sweatshirts still lurking around from different teams, clubs, trips and functions. Smile

I don't know what it's like now with the change of the administration and change of times.

amother

Coffee

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 12:22 am

amother wrote:

Is gemara taught in Bruriah?

Went to an open house event four years ago, and asked the same question. At that time, we were told that the girls learn topics with photocopied sheets from gemara as reference material (not from the sefer) but do not learn skills for independent gemara study. We do not have a student there, so no other info.