Alternative Minyan

One of the constant comments that I am receiving is regarding the need to give students options in their prayer choices   Consensus is not whether they want to daven or not - but rather they may not have found or experimented with the right environment or learned the proper tools

Schools, and especially small schools, are limited to what they can offer their students in terms of environment.  The limitations may be set either because of numbers (the population dynamic of the school) or ideology (a belief that students' practice must reflect what happens in the adult service).

For those educators out there looking to see what is trending in the more liberal Jewish community, there is an option to go to One Shul - which offers live online services and classes.  OurJewishCommunity.org offered a video streamed Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur service - they even had a children's service! Their slogan is: Bringing Judaism to People where they are.  One final adventure into expanding the borders of your minyan is to think of the Khan Academy's approach to micro lesson plans.  Check out this NYTimes article on on how they are blending their digital, personalized approach into the traditional classroom.

I would be curious to hear your thoughts on these and other platforms for engaging students in tefilla.

What is the Best Environment to Teach Davening?

Welcome to all of the new followers of the blog. A reader shared the following thought, "Actually, I think schools are probably the worst environment to foster tefilla!"

If true, then this is a harsh reality for the upcoming school year! What is the ideal environment to foster tefilla? For those educators who have spent the past few months at summer camp - do you feel this is true?

How can we overcome the grind of the school schedule and academic environment that often make tefilla a particularly difficult sell for students? One idea is to find ways to disarm the students - have them release their fears or self-consciousness about tefilla. This can be accomplished by starting with a song or video that asks for a reaction or poses a question. Naturally there is a tension between accomplishing the davening of the day and explaining/expounding the meaning behind the prayers; educators must identify this balance and leverage it to their advantage as teachers. Thinking of the principle that sometimes Less is More, how much can you "cut out" of the davening to "add" to the content and feeling of the time spent in the tefilla?

I want to make one more point on this methodology of disarming students' aversion to davening. Teaching the skills to cope with the momentum of davening on a regular basis has to be one of your meta-cognitive goals. In the real tefilla world, there are highs and lows, seasons where it is easy to feel the meaning and times where it feels empty/regular, mornings where it feels overly scripted and numbing and others where your tears appear at a single word in the siddur, days when it is easy to get up to pray and others where you pray that you don't have to go - you want your student to be able to navigate all of these situations, not just on the easy days. That is why one of my favorite trigger movies for a conversation on tefilla is Bill Murray's Groundhog Day (1993) which has interesting parallels for experimentation with a ritual that is performed everyday and explores a possible outlet for a transcendent experience. Check out the movie and let me know what you think.