May2015

COMMON
GROUND
How Effective Is Religious School?
by Rabbi Melissa Stollman
As the director of Lifelong Learning at Congregation Kol
Tikvah I am charged with providing Jewish educational
experiences, mostly in formal classroom settings, for
children from preschool to high school. As such I find myself
often asking, how effective is supplemental religious education
in instilling faith-based values, a strong sense of religious
identity, and a deep understanding of religious history and
traditions?
Supplemental religious school faces many obstacles in the
21st century. Competition for a student’s time is ever present
as children feel pressured to participate in sports and
extracurriculars or spend additional time doing homework.
It’s not that Jewish education is not a priority, but that these
other demands often need to be met first.
However, putting religious education on the back burner
often leaves a vacuum for how, and from whom, a child
should learn important Jewish values, such as tikkum olam
(repairing the world), tzedakah (acts of charity), and g’milut
chasidim (acts of loving kindness). This is at a time when
children are developing their core sense of identity and starting
to individuate from their parents.
In liberal Jewish life the notion of “commanded-ness”
does not always resonate. We are no longer a society of
“have to” but one of “choose to.” Synagogue affiliation
and religious school fall into this category. Therefore, our
teaching strategy is to expose students to Jewish history
and traditions, Hebrew language, and prayer. We focus on
exploration, questioning, understanding, and practice. This
helps students to develop their own sense of Jewish identity,
belonging to the Jewish people, and a belief in God. These
things cannot be taught explicitly, but evolve over time and
are best integrated into one’s sense of self as a child matures
into a young adult. Therefore, the role of effective supplemental
Jewish education is to teach a core competence of what
it means to be a liberal Jew and to instill a sense of confidence
about being a Jew, which in turn gives that person a
strong sense of conviction and Jewish belief. P
Rabbi Melissa Stollman is the director of Lifelong Learning at
Congregation Kol Tikvah in Parkland.
by Father Thomas Wisniewski
In Mary Help of Christians as in many Catholic
parishes, there are a variety of ways to educate the
members of the parish. We are fortunate to also
have a school to assist with the religious education
of the parish. Supplemental religious education,
though, is not solely for the children or teens; there
are ways for adults as well to enrich their faith and the
understanding of the same.
Speaking to the youth of the parish, most notably
those of primary or middle school age, we have a
faith formation on a daily basis in the school. For
children who are in the public school system we have
weekly faith formation sessions. The curriculum for
both is determined on a national level ultimately by the
bishops of the United States. The course of study is
age-appropriate and covers not only doctrine – what
we believe as Catholics – but also why we believe
what we do. However, not all education is classrelated.
The most important part of faith formation is
the celebration of who we are in word and sacrament.
What is learned supports and strengthens and helps
us understand who we are. It is who we are as we
come together in Sunday Eucharist that is the fullest
expression of our life in Christ.
Ultimately, though, all supplemental education is to
reinforce the faith life learned in and through the family.
The Baptism rite in the Church states the following: “...
you are accepting the responsibility of training them
(your children) in the practice of the faith. It will be your
duty to bring them up to keep God’s commandments
as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor.
Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”
The family lives the life of Christ for one another.
Religious education seeks to strengthen and bring a
fundamental understanding to the reality of that life and
what it means to our world. P
The Rev. Thomas Wisniewski is the pastor of Mary
Help of Christians Roman Catholic Church in
Parkland.
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MAY 2016