Home
Log in / Sign Up
    Private Messages   Advanced Search   Rules   New User Guide   FAQ   Advertise   Contact Us  
Forum -> Chinuch, Education & Schooling
NYT Article about NYC Yeshivas not teaching basics
  1  2  3  9  10  11  Next



Post new topic   Reply to topic View latest: 24h 48h 72h

amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:30 pm
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/0......html

Opinion
My Son’s Yeshiva Is Breaking the Law

Ultra-Orthodox schools must provide a proper education, but politicians aren’t holding them accountable.

By Beatrice Weber and Chaim Levin
April 7, 2021

Video by Chai Dingari
Video
transcript
3:37/3:37
My Son’s Yeshiva Is Breaking the Law
Ultra-Orthodox schools must provide a proper education, but politicians aren’t holding them accountable.

My son is 8 years old. He tells me he wants to be a scientist when he grows up. But his ultra-Orthodox Jewish school doesn’t offer any sciences. Even the math and English, it’s only four hours a week. There is a law in New York State that all private schools have to provide an education at least equivalent to what’s being provided in the public school. There’s almost 60,000 children in New York that attend these type of schools. The school is breaking the law, but the city and state officials are not doing anything about it. Meisha Ross-Porter, you’re our new chancellor. Please make sure every child in New York gets the education they deserve. Betty Rosa, you’re commissioner of education, this is already the New York state law. Just enforce it. Yeshiva is a boys’ school. In 2019, a New York City investigation found that only two out of 28 ultra-Orthodox yeshivas met the basic standards. The boys in my community, and my son, are essentially being prepared to become Jewish scholars, rabbis. The hardest thing for me is to see what happens when you don’t get that education. I was one of those boys. I went to a yeshiva called Oholei Torah in Crown Heights. I didn’t learn enough history to even know who Martin Luther King was. Oftentimes you’ll see politicians afraid to do anything or even say anything, because the community votes as a bloc, and it’s a powerful voting bloc. “The mayor was facing re-election, loath to offend voters in the Hasidic community.” What these politicians are doing is that they’re invalidating the experiences of thousands of people, including myself, who were denied a basic education. When I left the yeshiva system, I had no idea how to get into the job market, and I didn’t feel like I had any options or a way forward in terms of a career. I didn’t even have a high school diploma. This is not about suppressing the religious education. Many yeshivas offer a Judaic study curriculum and an academic study curriculum — math, science, history, geography. The modern Orthodox schools, the Catholic schools, the Quaker schools — there are so many schools that do this really successfully. I’m no longer part of the community. Because I’m divorced and I have an agreement with my ex-husband, who is part of the ultra-Orthodox community, I have to send my child to an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva. This is an ad asking for teachers, and it explicitly says, [speaking in Yiddish] “You don’t need to know anything.” It does say if you went to a yeshiva, there’s a strong possibility that you participated in college programs. “College” is written like “collage,” but I think they mean college programs. The teachers are coming from the same system, and then they go and teach. These are the teachers they’re looking for. It is so, so maddening. I want my son to be able to fill out a job application, write a college essay, just the basics. I am begging you as a mother, please enforce the law to make sure my son gets the education he deserves.

My Son’s Yeshiva Is Breaking the Law
3:38My Son’s Yeshiva Is Breaking the Law
15:37
Meet the KGB Spies Who Invented Fake News
14:16
The Seven Commandments of Fake News
17:27
The Worldwide War on Truth
3:37
My Son’s Yeshiva Is Breaking the Law
From the Playlist OpinionView All Videos
Ultra-Orthodox schools must provide a proper education, but politicians aren’t holding them accountable.

What do you want to be when you grow up? That’s not a common question for boys attending ultra-Orthodox yeshivas in New York. That’s because many of these schools focus on Judaic studies, preparing students for a life of religious scholarship — at the expense of basic reading, writing, math and science. New York State law mandates that private and religious schools provide a curriculum equivalent to that of public schools, and a 2019 report by New York City’s Department of Education found that only two of the 28 yeshivas it investigated met these requirements. This is especially problematic, considering that the city’s yeshivas receive over $100 million in state funds annually.

Authorities have failed to enforce the laws, allowing the community, which is a strong and unified voting bloc, to disregard secular education requirements. In the video above, a mother pleads with city and state officials to enforce the law so her son can receive one of the most basic rights: education.

Beatrice Weber (@beawebwriter) is a former member of New York’s Hasidic community. Her son still attends an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva.

Chaim Levin is an alumnus of Yeshiva Oholei Torah, an ultra-Orthodox school in Brooklyn.
Back to top

amother
Sienna


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:35 pm
Goodness
Public schools have been out for a year, while the teachers unions fight for still more time off and the students learn "bupkes". Why learn when you can just Google the answers?

I hope the ridiculousness of this article at a time like this will speak for itself.
Back to top

amother
Mustard


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:37 pm
Why are Jews their own worst enemies?
This keeps happening, and we all know you can’t compare Frum boys and girls Middos to public school students.
Back to top

amother
Linen


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:39 pm
https://m.facebook.com/beatric.....ype=3
Back to top

SixOfWands




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:40 pm
amother [ Sienna ] wrote:
Goodness
Public schools have been out for a year, while the teachers unions fight for still more time off and the students learn "bupkes". Why learn when you can just Google the answers?

I hope the ridiculousness of this article at a time like this will speak for itself.


Public schools haven't been "out" for a year. They've been learning remotely. Which is difficult, but not on the par of what is being claimed in that editorial.

But why would they knowingly send their kids to these schools?
Back to top

amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:42 pm
SixOfWands wrote:
Public schools haven't been "out" for a year. They've been learning remotely. Which is difficult, but not on the par of what is being claimed in that editorial.

But why would they knowingly send their kids to these schools?



The author of the story sends her son to one of these schools because she was forced to in her divorce agreement. There's a video in the story you can watch
Back to top

amother
Ginger


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:43 pm
amother [ Mustard ] wrote:
Why are Jews their own worst enemies?
This keeps happening, and we all know you can’t compare Frum boys and girls Middos to public school students.


Because we are not doing right by our boys, and parents' frustrations peak at differing times.

Midos, while critical as they are, won't help someone become a scientist or gain parnossoh skills.
Back to top

amother
Red


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:45 pm
As long as yeshivos and chedarim don’t teach the basics they will have articles like this.
As a mother of Chassidishe boys it pains me that they need to use a calculator to add and subtract numbers over 20, they didn’t learn how to do it on paper) cannot multiply or divide, and definitely don’t know anything more in mathematics.
They cannot talk to their own dentist and their spelling is awful.
We’re not talking rocket science here.
Our kids deserve better.
Back to top

imorethanamother




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:47 pm
Exactly. In Los Angeles, the union negotiated to work no more than six hours a day, INCLUDING all time spent preparing lessons and grading lessons and parent communication. So that's four hours, max. Right now there's a lawsuit because some teachers are only putting in 90 minutes A WEEK of zoom time.

https://www.the74million.org/a.....time/

https://losangeles.cbslocal.co.....plan/

https://www.freedomfoundation......L.pdf
(see page 9 for the 90 minutes per week)

They've abandoned all special needs students, middle schoolers and high schoolers have unprecedented absentee rates, the UFT Randi Weingarten wants to keep schools closed indefinitely, the 2-case rule in NY essentially assures schools are constantly closed, a huge percentage of the female workforce just disappeared to help raise their kids and teach them while school is closed, education tests show that education is at an all time shocking low, POC reading scores in below 20%, and THIS GUY wants to run an op-ed about why his in-person yeshivas aren't doing enough for the kids?

I'm not surprised at all this comes from the NY Times.
Back to top

tigerwife




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:48 pm
I hate generalizations like this.
Back to top

amother
Aubergine


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:53 pm
Speak to the chassidish mothers here anonymously, and recognize that this is a real problem. We dont have a voice. People that speak up are considered crazy, and rebellious, and the kids suffer for it. Leaving means losing extended family. EVERY CHILD deserves to have an education REGARDLESS if the parents dont want him to. . Teh basics, basics basics. if teh opposing side would use organizations like Pearl, to better the curriculum instead of using all their resources to fight those who bring these issues to the forefront (bec. face it, the only people who could Stand up are those who already left, and have nothing to lose anymore).
Back to top

naomi2




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:55 pm
She's trying to fight city hall here, and I mean the chabad institution as well as the real city hall. She should know better than anyone else how far the Lubavitch community would go to fulfill the Rebbe's wish.
Besides for that, I agree that yeshivas should teach their students English subjects and most in Flatbush do. However, airing our dirty laundry in public takes away all the sympathy I had for this parent. And, it's laughable now when public schools are on zoom and learning zilch.
Back to top

amother
Green


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 6:58 pm
amother [ Aubergine ] wrote:
Speak to the chassidish mothers here anonymously, and recognize that this is a real problem. We dont have a voice. People that speak up are considered crazy, and rebellious, and the kids suffer for it. Leaving means losing extended family. EVERY CHILD deserves to have an education REGARDLESS if the parents dont want him to. . Teh basics, basics basics. if teh opposing side would use organizations like Pearl, to better the curriculum instead of using all their resources to fight those who bring these issues to the forefront (bec. face it, the only people who could Stand up are those who already left, and have nothing to lose anymore).


Totally agree with you
Back to top

amother
Lilac


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 7:01 pm
A lot of you get defensive, and I do understand. But we can’t act like this isn’t a problem in certain communities. I’ve seen plenty of times, in school suggestion threads, parents say that certain schools don’t teach much or any secular subjects. Now, parents want to send their kids to these schools for their own personal reasons, but stories like these will continue to come out from former and current frum people who feel jaded that their parents sent them to these kinds of schools or like the woman in the article, divorced and has to send her kids to those schools.
Back to top

amother
Red


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 7:16 pm
naomi2 wrote:
She's trying to fight city hall here, and I mean the chabad institution as well as the real city hall. She should know better than anyone else how far the Lubavitch community would go to fulfill the Rebbe's wish.
Besides for that, I agree that yeshivas should teach their students English subjects and most in Flatbush do. However, airing our dirty laundry in public takes away all the sympathy I had for this parent. And, it's laughable now when public schools are on zoom and learning zilch.


It's dirty laundry because parents have tried talking to chedarim for years and they don't care. My husband can't sign his own name.
He doesn't know the difference between uppercase and lowercase. He can't read script and sends me his faxed POs so I can read them to him.

It wouldn't be dirty laundry if they would actually do something to change the situation.

(Not that the Yiddish Dept is any better. Most boys do not know how to write a short paragraph in Yiddish either. Never learned about punctuation and confuse when to write a yid and a vav etc.)
Back to top

amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 7:21 pm
amother [ Red ] wrote:
It's dirty laundry because parents have tried talking to chedarim for years and they don't care. My husband can't sign his own name.
He doesn't know the difference between uppercase and lowercase. He can't read script and sends me his faxed POs so I can read them to him.

It wouldn't be dirty laundry if they would actually do something to change the situation.

(Not that the Yiddish Dept is any better. Most boys do not know how to write a short paragraph in Yiddish either. Never learned about punctuation and confuse when to write a yid and a vav etc.)


So what do you do for your own kids education?
Back to top

amother
Linen


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 7:28 pm
naomi2 wrote:
She's trying to fight city hall here, and I mean the chabad institution as well as the real city hall. She should know better than anyone else how far the Lubavitch community would go to fulfill the Rebbe's wish.
Besides for that, I agree that yeshivas should teach their students English subjects and most in Flatbush do. However, airing our dirty laundry in public takes away all the sympathy I had for this parent. And, it's laughable now when public schools are on zoom and learning zilch.

Is her son in a chabad cheder?
Back to top

amother
Red


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 7:30 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
So what do you do for your own kids education?


I let my kids watch English videos and they have picked up a lot of English.
I encourage Yiddish & English reading, I taught my husband how to add and subtract on paper using the carry over method (He was amazed, "Wow this is brilliant, who came up with this?" Lol)
I want to get a Math tutor for my son, but it is expensive and I am already paying tuition.
Cheder today took over being mechanech and is neglecting to teach actual studies. I would like to be the chinuch voice in my child's ear, and send him to Cheder to learn how to learn to read, write and study.
I will probably be teaching them whatever I can by myself, which I think is very unfair of the Cheder.
Back to top

cnc




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 7:32 pm
naomi2 wrote:
She's trying to fight city hall here, and I mean the chabad institution as well as the real city hall. She should know better than anyone else how far the Lubavitch community would go to fulfill the Rebbe's wish.
Besides for that, I agree that yeshivas should teach their students English subjects and most in Flatbush do. However, airing our dirty laundry in public takes away all the sympathy I had for this parent. And, it's laughable now when public schools are on zoom and learning zilch.


This- the irony of the timing....

Otherwise, her article might have had some partial validity to it.
Back to top

amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Apr 07 2021, 7:34 pm
cnc wrote:
This- the irony of the timing....

Otherwise, her article might have had some partial validity to it.


What is ironic about timing?
Back to top
Page 1 of 11   1  2  3  9  10  11  Next Recent Topics




Post new topic   Reply to topic    Forum -> Chinuch, Education & Schooling

Related Topics Replies Last Post
Nyt mini crossword
by dena613
7 Mon, Mar 25 2024, 10:46 pm View last post
Mesivta rebbeim and rosh yeshivas..
by amother
4 Thu, Mar 21 2024, 7:51 am View last post
Biggest Lighting stores in NYC (Bklyn and Manhattan)?
by amother
3 Tue, Mar 19 2024, 12:56 pm View last post
Travelling to NYC
by amother
4 Sun, Mar 17 2024, 10:20 pm View last post
Resources for Pesach basics
by amother
0 Sun, Mar 17 2024, 9:38 am View last post