What Educators Are Saying

When you invest in education, you make a better product.

Shira Hochheimer

Director of Data and Technology and General Studies Department chair,

Women’s Institute of Torah Seminary and College

Baltimore, Maryland

On Prevalence

Why are so many more kids diagnosed with learning differences nowadays? The real answer is because we’re better at [getting a diagnosis].

We’re identifying problems earlier, we have the tools to work with the problems, and if we can’t work with them, we have the resources and the connections to send children to get the help they need to be successful.

Ahuvah Heyman, Ed.D.

School director,

Bnos Yisroel

Baltimore, Maryland

How to Help All Students

In order to have a quality classroom, you need to invest in quality teachers.

If a teacher’s been in a school for ten or fifteen years, and she’s a quality teacher, she will continue to grow . . . . But [due to the inadequate salaries] we’re not able to keep the right teachers because it’s not sustainable to stay in the profession. The turnover rate is extreme in our schools. And this does not allow for development of mastery.

If we believe that children are our future, then as a community, we need to invest in them.

Shira Hochheimer

On Parental Involvement

Don’t assume that because your child is getting decent grades and the rebbi is writing nice comments that everything is fine. The parents who come to me in eighth grade because their kid can’t get into any high school are often completely shocked.

This is because some schools—especially some rebbeim—don’t want to give bad grades. They don’t want to discourage their students.

So the weak kid gets a B. And as a parent, you think, “Okay, maybe I’d rather my kid get A’s, but a B isn’t so bad.”

Then it turns out your kid can’t read Hebrew and suddenly can’t get into a high school.

Don’t assume everything is working because nobody is calling you into the principal’s office.

Be a partner.

Talk to your child.

Notice whether your child can actually read. Speak to teachers and ask them to be honest. You need to be super alert and super involved.

Because the sooner it [a learning challenge] is caught, the less damage is done.

Rabbi Pesach Sommer

Judaic studies teacher,

Ramaz Middle School

Manhattan, New York

Every child deserves the opportunity to be successful in school.

Ahuvah Heyman

On Torah Without Impediments

We spend lots of years teaching our students Chumash, Mishnah, Gemara and halachah, but not really addressing the big G-d questions, soul questions . . .

Kids have all these big questions and don’t usually get them answered.

I started teaching a class to eighth graders where I answer some of these hashkafah questions.

It’s once a week and not based on levels, and unlike Gemara class, everything is in English.

I introduce my students to all sorts of sources: midrashim, Rav Kook, Rebbe Nachman.

And what I find every single year is that there are kids who think they really dislike Torah learning. What they really don’t like is sitting in a classroom where they can’t do what other kids are doing.

Once you remove the impediment of decoding and let them learn in their own language, they come out loving the class.

Rabbi Pesach Sommer