J-ed Talks

I share Basil Bernstein's three fields of knowledge:  production recontextualization re-production Using this as a lens, I present a second idea about the quandary that Jewish day schools face in trying to meet the diverse needs of a diverse community. Since no real philosophy of Judaism within the community can be 'imported' into the school to meet diverse needs - because it doesn't exist, partly due to the fact that Jewish day schools are often the only institution in which diverse communities may combine (cf. the siloing of denominational synagogues) - a new philosophy has to be produced. Thus, Jewish day schools may serve as rich seeding grounds for new ways of thinking about Judaism.  It turns out that Jewish day schools, in addition to knowledge re-production (teaching and learning), may need to become sites of knowledge production and knowledge recontextualization. This may point to the complexity inherent in such endeavours as foundationally complex rather than merely technically complex.