Just spinning this out of some of the education discussion on the 9/11 threads (this one in particular-
https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=107667.0), as well as some of the recent discussion about education standards. In my head, I think that there are about 5 different Jewish educational models here in the US, and I am curious if I am missing nuance and/or how popular each of these is.
Obviously, I can't say any of these is correct, but figured I'd lay them out here and ask people for insight. In my mind the 5 models are (in now particular order):
- Chasidish / Heimish Yeshiva Model
- Yeshivish Model
- Modern Day Schools
- Hebrew Language Charter Schools +
- Talmud Torah
- Chasidish /Heimish model - Torah studies are the ikkar (main focus), and we spend almost all of the day on them. We do teach basic math and english skills to fulfill our state requirements, but not much more. They aren't necessarily taught by certified teachers. We don't expect our students to go to college at all.
- Yeshivish Model - Torah studies are the ikkar, but we also feel that our students should get a quality secular education in the limited time we've set aside for it. We learn torah most of the morning and secular studies start in the afternoon. One of the reasons for this is that we hire qualified teachers from public school who want to moonlight by teaching another class or two. It's doubly beneficial, because we pay them less money and our kids get a quality secular education. While we do expect many of our graduates to ultimately go to college (preferably at night or in a yeshiva-centric program), we expect them to do so after a few post-HS years in the Bais Medrash.
- Day School Model - Both secular and Torah studies are important. We have full-time qualified teachers for both, and our schedule is relatively balanced between religious and secular. We expect our kids to go to college (after 1-2 years in Israel) and we prepare them for it. This obviously is both Orthodox and other denominations (Conservative and non-denominational) as well.
- Charter school model - in order to get around Church vs state issues in the US we've created a Hebrew language charter school. The school teaches everything in hebrew but we can't teach any religious studies. We can teach Israeli and Jewish history from a secular context. For the Shomer Shabbat members of our community, there are organizations that run after school torah learning programs for our students.
- Talmud Torah -our kids go to regular-public schools, and we just have after school programming for them to learn about Judaism.
Thoughts? did I miss something? I will caveat to say that I have limited experience/knowledge of Bais Yaakov, but I imagine that many would fall into one of these categories?
