by Meira Levi and Aharon Levi
You might say that teaching is our family business. My father has been teaching in yeshivos for over 20 years, and I began teaching in Bais Yaakov when I returned home from seminary. I must admit that it’s nice to come home at the end of the day and have someone to talk shop with, someone with whom I can compare notes. Sometimes I’m in class, and a student pulls a particular stunt or asks a particularly pointed question, and I have this sense of deja vu. Then it dawns on me that my father told me an almost identical story of that same thing happening to him a few years back. Just recently I shared with him a question I seem to get almost every other week: Why do we need to learn this?
Come, eavesdrop on
our conversation:
*
* *
Tatte: I’ve
probably heard that question hundreds of times over the years.
Meira: I
remember my own high school days having the same question. In tenth-grade
chemistry, we were learning about protons, neutrons, and whatever else goes on
inside an atom, I remember thinking to myself why do I need to know this.
Tatte: The
question seems to come up in almost every subject, even in math, which most
people tend to agree is useful in everyday life. The truth is we don’t really
use high school math in our lives at all.
Meira: I remember
being told by one of my math teachers that algebra was needed for when we were
out shopping for new Yom Tov clothing. Only with algebra would we be able to
calculate the sale prices and get the best deal. I have bought a lot of new
clothing over the years – and I have never used algebra – nor, I surmise, have
most people!
Tatte: The truth
is, the vast majority of students will never use anything of what they learned
in high school. There is that great quip by John Kenneth Galbraith that
“Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.”
Meira: We had to
know that the Magna Carta was signed in the year 1215. Why? Especially today,
when we can google it.
Tatte: In English
classes, students wonder (out loud!) why reading a novel by some random author
who is long dead about some random set of characters will help them in any way,
shape, or form improve their writing skills. I’ll tell you a funny story I just
heard: A fellow teacher read with his class the novel Fahrenheit 451, which was written in the 1950s and projected a
future reality set in the 2000s. The students were asked what they had gained
from reading the novel. They responded that it was utter nonsense and had been
a total waste of their time, as the expected reality had not occurred – as if
the point of the book was to predict the future. There is this feeling that
what we do in school has no real purpose, that it doesn’t mean anything for our
lives, unless it somehow plays a direct role in something we are doing or will
do.
Meira: I would
not have thought that my students would be quite as shallow as what you
described, yet just the other day one girl proclaimed that the book we just
finished made no sense and would not make any difference in her life. As an
English teacher, I feel as though I have an easy way out because being able to
communicate in the English language, whether verbally or in the written word,
is a valuable skill, no matter the profession. I tell my students that no
matter where life takes them, English is invaluable – the reading, the writing –
all of it.
Tatte: You are
100% correct. The process of taking what exists in our heads and bringing it
out into the world is intrinsically difficult, but it is a skill that can (and
must) be developed. Any form of writing, whether formal or not, helps this
process. Journaling alone, which is something that requires no proper sentence
structure, grammar, or spelling, has been shown to improve a person’s writing.
It’s incredible; a student who merely writes in a journal each day, without
guidance, without any instruction whatsoever, becomes a better writer. And as
you mentioned, being able to present one’s thoughts in a coherent, cogent form
is one of the most valuable skills a student can gain. Reading literature,
talking about it, thinking critically about it, and then writing about it is
one of the best ways to improve that skill.
Meira: Okay, we
covered the easy answer, but what about the rest of the subjects?
Tatte: We could
try to justify each subject and the skills it improves, but in the end, the
question suggests a complete misunderstanding of our education system.
Students, and sometimes parents too, tend to assume that everything we learn in
school is meant to be useful in a career. I think this notion comes from the
idea, often repeated, that a secular education is needed as a “hishtadlus,” as a step we are allowed to take for the sake of a
career. From that grows the mistaken belief that school is meant in some way to
be vocational.
Meira: It’s not
just high schools; college doesn’t really give you any job skills either.
Perhaps some skills, like learning a particular programming language, or
classes in engineering might be directly related to one’s job in those fields,
but most college classes seem to be more about surveying various topics within
a particular discipline.
Tatte: The system
of education in the United States was designed as a “liberal arts” education,
the goal of which is to give students a grounding in all the major areas of
study. An interesting fact: Did you know that, prior to the pandemic, U.S.
colleges and universities were considered one of our most significant exports,
bringing into our country more foreign capital than soybeans, steel, or oil?
There is a reason our education system is so prized (despite all its problems).
While iPhones may be made in China, the ingenuity that created them and the
profits reaped from their sales are all American. It has been shown many times
over that a doctor is a better doctor for having taken courses in the
humanities, and a writer is a better writer for having taken math and science
courses. The liberal arts education of our country, with its emphasis on
breadth of knowledge across all the major fields, regardless of one’s desired
career path, has been a major component in creating our country’s great
financial success.
Meira: Not only
does a liberal arts education bolster success in any job, but it also is
imperative for a person to be able to function within a diverse society. Just
recently, during Covid, I was struck by the importance of this. There were
countless articles appearing daily, and the only reason I was able to follow
them was because of my basic knowledge in science. I may not remember each step
of photosynthesis, but the scientific terms were familiar to me, and I was able
to connect with the information on a basic level.
Additionally, a broad
education allows you to communicate and connect with the people around you. A
liberal arts education puts a little bit of everything into your bag, allowing
you to be able to give and take with people who have many different interests
and professions. People say ignorance is bliss, but I think ignorance is
awkwardness. Imagine if you had never heard of George Washington? Awkward.
Tatte: Speaking
of ignorance, I believe the question itself is born from ignorance. Imagine the
following scenario: You are walking in an art museum and stumble into the modern
art wing. On the wall is a large canvas covered in red paint with a single
white circle in the left, upper corner. The museum likely paid millions of
dollars for this piece of art. We think: seriously, I could do that; my four-year-old
could do that. This is ridiculous; modern art is ridiculous. The reality,
though, is that we have no idea what compelled the museum to purchase and
display that piece of art. We likely have no idea what separates this piece
from what I might produce at my dining room table, and frankly, no one has yet offered
me millions of dollars for anything that I did produce, even if it might look
the same as the piece in the museum.
We are simply
ignorant of what qualifies as art, what distinguishes it, what makes it unique,
powerful, or valuable. Most students have no understanding of our educational
system, what skills might benefit them in life, or how best to teach them.
Their question is really one of ignorance. That being said, our teachers should
have a better understanding of what they are doing and why. Sometimes, though,
our teachers are ill prepared and ill equipped for their tasks and compound the
ignorance of their students with their own.
Meira: At the end
of the day, the brain is the center of the body. Chazal describe it as the kodesh kodashim of the body. Chazal
command us to take control of ourselves and regulate our thoughts and emotions.
To accomplish this, we must advance our brain. The different methods of
learning, whether memorizing, critical thinking, synthesis development, group
work, etc., build the different parts of the brain so as to ultimately improve
our avodas Hashem.
Tatte and Meira: There is still much more to say on this topic, but for now, we will
leave it there. If you have any questions that have bothered you about general
studies in our schools, please send them and any suggestions, topics, or
comments to the editor: adswww@aol.com.
