Community Views

Editor's Notebook

When Educators Forget
The Audience Is Listening

Quick: Name 5 Great
Accomplishments

IRA WISE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

PHIL JACOBS ED TOR

A few years ago,
my wife Audrey
and I went to see a
movie at a theater
in Los Angeles. Af-
ter the previews
and the cartoon
character telling
us not to litter, the
screen went black;
a deep, low thrum began rum-
bling from the rear of the theater.
It quickly grew louder as the
sound moved toward the front.
Out of the blackness, dark blue
letters — THX — filled the
screen. Below them appeared
"The Audience Is Listening" in
the same eerie color. After a sec-
ond fade to black, the thrumming
ceased abruptly, and the film be-
gan.
It was a promotion for the
new THX sound system
which has been installed
in some of the country's
most high-tech the-
aters. THX is cut-
ting edge
sound tech-
nology, a
prod-
uct

of George
(Star Wars)
Lucas' LucasArts
Entertainment
Company. It is now
available at a few theaters in the
metropolitan Detroit area.
The ad campaign is designed
to tell us that filmmakers used
this technology because they are
aware that we, the audience, are
listening to and judging the prod-
uct.
Audrey often says that I see
the world through schmaltz-col-
ored glasses. It was natural then,
for me to think about the THX ad
in terms of Jewish education and
everything we hope to accom-
plish. Children everywhere will
tell you that religious school is
boring. Teachers in many places
bemoan the so-called "fact" that
students and their parents are at
best apathetic to Jewish educa-
tion. And parents in some places
have been heard to say, "My kids
are so over-programmed, I can't
make them come to temple."
I believe that part of the prob-
lem is that we educators some-
times forget that "The Audience
Is Listening." When teachers fail
Ira Wise is the educational
director of Temple Emanu-El.

to engage students and their fam-
ilies in the acts of teaching and
learning, those students decide
that Jewish education is boring
and irrelevant to their lives.
When we are able to hold their
attention by making Jewish ed-
ucation exciting and help them
apply Jewish learning to their
lives, students' interests in being
lifelong learners increases.
When we are unable to capti-
vate students, when we fail to
hold their attention, they natu-
rally turn to other,
more challenging
interests. As
my father,

Listening. Our children are very
sophisticated and can handle so-
phisticat,ed challenges. I believe
that our religious schools are full
of preadolescents who are not
only computer literate, but are
well-versed in the art of actually
writing computer programs.
Once a child has mastered a
video game, he or she will discard
it because it is no longer engag-
ing. I believe we must make all
of our Jewish educational pro-
gramming more exciting and
more challenging than it has ever
been. We need to demand more
of our students, their parents and
of our teachers.
Finally, we must empower
parents in our synagogue
communities to become even
more than an audience;
they should become partic-.
ipants who make demands
of educators. We must
teach ourselves to de-
mand more and different
challenging educational
experiences for us and
our children.
The Agency for Jew-
ish Education has
heard that message
delivered in the report
of the Giles Commis-
sion; the Nirim pro-
gram, developed in
cooperation with the
Jewish Educators
Council, provides
training of Jewish
teachers on a scale
no one institution
could attempt.
The Agency lis-
tens to the needs
of the schools and
provides some of
the high- est qual-
ity faculty devel-
opment available
anywhere. And
we are seeing a
similar total qual-
44140,* ity approach
throughout the
who is a salesman, would say, Agency — the high school video
"You have to remember who your project, which is both revolu-
customers are." Exactly.
tionary and on target, is but one
There is not a congregation in sterling example. While nation-
the United States that has not ex- al organizations are wondering
perienced a marked decrease in who's killing the great bureaus
religious school enrollment be- of Jewish education, Detroit has
tween junior high and high transformed the dream by lis-
school. When I was interviewing tening to the audience.
for a job 31/2 years ago, many of
If we continue to remember
the congregations who were look- that The Audience Is Listening,
ing to hire an educator were and if we remember that they are
telling applicants, "We need to not a passive audience but full
revitalize our high school pro- participants in the educational
gram." That's only a small part process, as teachers of their chil-
of the real solution, though. To dren, lay leaders and as lifelong
retain students after bar mitzvah learners, we will not have to wor-
and through high school gradu- ry about continuity. And as mem-
ation, we must make certain that bers of the community who may
their religious school experiences not be part of the leadership, if
before bar mitzvah are stimulat- we want our grandchildren to be
ing and "cool."
Jewish, then we must get in-
Remember: The Audience Is volved now. ❑

\

If you had to se-
lect the five
greatest accom-
plishments of
" your life up to
this point, what
would they be?
Think about
that. What are
five achieve-
ments you've filed away that
you are proud of? What makes
them great?
Some of us would point to the
birth of our children. For oth-
ers, it's graduating from college;
getting married; overcoming
tragedy. What about the last-
second shot at the buzzer that
carried your team to victory? Or
the time you successfully tuned
your own car? The exam in that
impossible course you took that
you not only passed, but aced?
What is a great accomplish-
ment? What do we use to mea-
sure these levels? For most of
us, it's through the media. A su-
permodel has great physical
beauty. How many girls and
young women do we know who
stay quietly frustrated because
they don't see themselves mea-
suring up to the supermodel?
How about the millionaire ath-
letes of our times? Does a hit you
might have made in a softball
game measure up to greatness?
Does being a strong, silent
type make a man great?
We spend too much time
fawning over the stars, and not
enough time giving ourselves
or one another credit for what
we call "small victories."
Suggestion: let's get rid of the
word "small" here. Great
doesn't have to be judged by
whether or not it's an action
that happens on television or in
the movies. Great doesn't have
to be big, either.
You find the time to donate
blood. That's an act of great-
ness. Put your pocket change
from the end of the day into a
pushke. Another act of great-
ness. Your children do the same
thing? Even greater.
You make a pact with your-
self to stop excessive alcohol
drinking. You decide to stop hit-
ting your kids, your wife. A
champion in my book.
You decide, no matter how
difficult a task it is, to stop talk-
ing about other people in a neg-
ative way. The greatest.
The lamp.
Never told you the story of
the hurricane lamp. It's true. It
happened when I was 9. My
mother (of blessed memory).
One of her "greatest" accom-
plishments was the money she
put away to purchase an an-
tique lamp. She worked hours
of overtime as a secretary for
the state. She spotted the lamp

at an exclusive antique store,
and she would not be satisfied
until it was in her home. She
loved this pink glass and gold
light. It sat in a place of honor
on a cherrywood drum table in
our living room.
One evening while watching
a sports television show, I
demonstrated my ability in the
sport of bowling. With my pre-
tend ball in hand, I eyed the
pins. With total concentration,
I got set for an anticipated
strike.
I anticipated all right. Be-
lieve me, I struck as well. The
imaginary crash of the pins in
front of me was substituted by
the crash of a circa 1920s lamp
meeting a cold linoleum floor.
Months later, after my re-
lease from solitary, I had what
for me was an affirmation of a
great lesson still held close to
my heart.
There were two baseball tick-
ets at risk this day. It was a
Sunday morning. Since the
lamp incident, my father (of
blessed memory) found anoth-
er antique lamp similar to the
first. It went on the drum table.
With a game to go to that af-
ternoon, part of my teshuvah
involved vacuuming the living
room, dining room and hallway.
We had an old canister vacuum
with a long cord. (Please skip
ahead at this point if you can't
stand the blood and gore.) Try-
ing hard to re-enter the world
of mentshlecheit, I started vac-
uuming. I was around the cor-
ner, in the hallway, when the
vacuum needed a small tug.
The look on my mother's face
as she held the broken lamp
globe in her hands was unfor-
gettable. To this day, I'm sure
that table stuck out its leg.
Getting back to the expres-
sion. It wasn't anger this time.
This time it was disappoint-
ment, hurt. Forget the baseball
tickets that would be given
away for my misdeed. Forget
the fact that the linoleum and
the carpets were clean. This
was a "great moment." I had let
someone down. It took two bro-
ken lamps, both symbolizing a
tremendous sense of accom-
plishment and enjoyment to my
mother, for me to understand
how hurting someone hurt me
as well.
This happened over 30 years
ago. It's still one of the five
greatest events that I can re-
member.
Lessons learned are great
events in our lives. Now, go
ahead and re-think. What were
those five greatest accomplish-
ments in your life? Was it the
jump shot at the buzzer. Or was
it something your mom told
you. ❑