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Ethical Students?
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emphasize the development
of moral reasoning skills, as
opposed to just telling young
people how they should act.
Kohlberg's thinking, known
as the cognitive-develop-
mental approach, while non-
theistic, mirrored Judaism's
concerns for the supreme
value of human life and social
justice.
Traditionally,
Jewish
schools have relied on the tex-
tual study of Tbrah and Hala-
chah (Jewish law) and the
teacher or rebbe as a role
model to instill ethical be-
havior. Charity or social ac-
tion programs, often called
mitzvah projects, have also
been part of the traditional
scene.
The emphasis was on moral
behavior. The development of
autonomous moral reasoning
received short shrift.
While those methods may
have worked well in the past,
Friedman insists, they are no
longer sufficient in contem-
porary America, where Jew-
ish values must compete with
the larger society's generally
material and secular outlook.
lbday, Friedman argues, ethi-
cal thinking must be looked
upon as an acquired skill that
is best taught as a separate
element of the curriculum
and in a "democratic" en-
vironment fostering open dis-
cussion, intellectual honesty
and acceptance of divergent
viewpoints.
"Preaching doesn't work,"
Friedman says. "The develop-
ment of analytic skills and
moral decision-making skills
requires a classroom in which
students are actively involved
in weighing moral dilemmas.
Otherwise the knower of
what's right and wrong may
not become the doer of what's
right."
Schiff concurs.
"Jerry is saying that the
impact of Westernization re-
quires Jewish education to go
further than it has," he says.
"I agree. If Jewish ethical
studies may be likened to the
whole of a pomegranate, then
it is time to take out the seed
of moral reasoning and study
it separately."
In Los Angeles, Sinai
.Akiba Academy, a 340-stu-
dent, kindergarten-through-
eighth-grade day school
affiliated with a Conservative
synagogue, Thmple Sinai, has
sought to institute the
Kohlberg-Friedman approach
over the past three years.
Joseph Hakimi, the school's
Judaic studies director, says
that while he lacks statistical
evidence, his sense is that his
students have benefitted.
They are "thinking at higher
stages of moral development
and doing it at an earlier age,"
he says.
"We can see it in their
behavior, in their heightened
sense of community. The ap-
proach is educationally
sound."
Stephen Bailey, who works
with Friedman's Institute on
Cognitive Moral Education
and is a consultant to the
Sinai Akiba project, adds
that "one clear sign of suc-
cess" has been that students
who have been exposed to the
new approach have been
"spontaneously bringing
Jewish ideas into the discus-
sion of moral dilemmas.
"In a Jewish day school,
that's exactly what we want.
It represents extracting what
they've learned in Judaic
studies and applying it to
every day problems," says
Bailey, a clinical psychologist
who left Baltimore in the
1970s to direct mental health
programs for Chabad in Los
Angeles.
Because the Kohlberg-
Friedman approach is so "in-
novative, teachers require a
certain amount of training for
it to work. Braverman, of
Yeshiva of Flatbush, said
teachers he has sent to Fried-
man's summer programs have
come back energized and anx-
ious to change their normal
classroom routine to accom-
modate the new methodology.
Despite such glowing re-
views, the approach is still
largely untested in Jewish
educational circles. Friedman,
as did Schiff, said that the
severe budgetary constraints
faced by most Jewish day
schools makes acceptance of
any new ideas difficult.
Seeking a way around that,
Friedman is also working to
establish a "traditional" high
school in Los Angeles that in-
corporates the Kohlberg ap-
proach while appealing to
centrist Orthodox, Conser-
vative and Reform Jews. The
school would adhere to
Halachah, but be co-ed.
"High schools are very im-
portant to the survival of
Jewish values," Friedman
says. "Elementary school is
not enough because young
children do not have abstract
reasoning abilities. To really
get them to the point of being
menschlichkeit, they have to
go to a Jewish high school."