PDF | 20+ minutes read | On Jan 1, , Barbara J. Dray and others published History of special education. PDF | In this topical issue of The Journal of Special Education, leading scholars in special education reviewed the literature and investigated whether special. This paper charts the success of a parent-and teacher- led movement in Austria which campaigned for the integration of children with special educational needs.
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Module 1 Introduction to Special Education is the first module in Professional students in their classes, including those with special educational needs, learn. Keywords: Human Development, Educational Inclusion, Special Education, Early Childhood Educa- tion. Introduction chrisfalgocaput.cf If your child has a disability, special education can help Anyone can ask the school to decide if a child needs special .. pdf/chrisfalgocaput.cf
Identifying students or learners with special needs[ edit ] A six-year-old boy with Down syndrome is ready for his first day of school. Some children are easily identified as candidates for special needs due to their medical history. For example, they may have been diagnosed with a genetic condition that is associated with intellectual disability , may have various forms of brain damage , may have a developmental disorder , may have visual or hearing disabilities, or other disabilities.
On the other hand, for students with less obvious disabilities, such as those who have learning difficulties, two primary methods have been used for identifying them: the discrepancy model and the response to intervention model.
The discrepancy model depends on the teacher noticing that the students' achievements are noticeably below what is expected.
At which the teacher may make the decision for the student to receive support from a special education specialist. Before doing so, the teacher must show documentation of low academic achievement. The response to intervention model advocates earlier intervention. In the discrepancy model, a student receives special education services for a specific learning difficulty SLD if the student has at least normal intelligence and the student's academic achievement is below what is expected of a student with his or her IQ.
Although the discrepancy model has dominated the school system for many years, there has been substantial criticism of this approach e. One reason for criticism is that diagnosing SLDs on the basis of the discrepancy between achievement and IQ does not predict the effectiveness of treatment.
Low academic achievers who also have low IQ appear to benefit from treatment just as much as low academic achievers who have normal or high intelligence. The alternative approach, response to intervention , identifies children who are having difficulties in school in their first or second year after starting school. They then receive additional assistance such as participating in a reading remediation program.
Exceptional Learners: Introduction to Special Education
The response of the children to this intervention then determines whether they are designated as having a learning disability. Those few who still have trouble may then receive designation and further assistance. Sternberg has argued that early remediation can greatly reduce the number of children meeting diagnostic criteria for learning disabilities. He has also suggested that the focus on learning disabilities and the provision of accommodations in school fails to acknowledge that people have a range of strengths and weaknesses and places undue emphasis on academics by insisting that students should be supported in this arena and not in music or sports.
Individual needs[ edit ] A special education program should be customized to address each individual student's unique needs.
Special educators provide a continuum of services, in which students with various disabilities receive multiple degrees of support based on their individual needs.
It is crucial for special education programs to be individualized so that they address the unique combination of needs in a given student.
It is a legally binding document. The school must provide everything it promises in the IEP. In the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act IDEA is a federal law that requires that every school system in the nation must provide a free and appropriate public education for every child, ages 3 to 22, regardless of how or how seriously that child may be disabled.
Placement, resources, and goals are determined on the basis of the student's needs. Accommodations and Modifications to the regular program may include changes in the curriculum, supplementary aides or equipment, and the provision of specialized physical adaptations that allow students to participate in the educational environment as much as possible. For example, if the assessment determines that the student cannot write by hand because of a physical disability, then the school might provide a computer for typing assignments, or allow the student to answer questions verbally instead.
If the school determines that the student is severely distracted by the normal activities in a large, busy classroom, then the student might be placed in a smaller classroom such as a resource room. Parents of students with a learning disability must be aware of what type of disability their child has, so they can get access to accommodations such as speech therapy, occupational therapy and adaptive physical education.
For example, if a student takes an academic test and it indicates that the student struggles with reading comprehension, parents can request speech and language support or classroom accommodations, such as extra time to complete reading and writing tasks.
These approaches can be broadly grouped into four categories, according to how much contact the student with special needs has with non-disabled students using North American terminology : Inclusion : In this approach, students with special needs spend all, or most of the school day with students who do not have special needs.
Due to the fact that inclusion can require substantial modification of the general curriculum, most schools use it only for selected students with mild to moderate special needs, which is accepted as a best practice. Students may occasionally leave the regular classroom to attend smaller, more intensive instructional sessions in a resource room , or to receive other related services that might require specialised equipment or might be disruptive to the rest of the class, such as speech and language therapy , occupational therapy , physical therapy , rehabilitation counseling.
They might also leave the regular classroom for services that require privacy, such as counseling sessions with a social worker. Students with special needs are segregated in separate classes exclusively for students with special needs for the rest of the school day.
Segregated students may attend the same school where regular classes are provided, but spend all instructional time exclusively in a separate classroom for students with various disabilities. If their special class is located in an ordinary school, they may be provided opportunities for social integration outside the classroom, such as by eating meals with non-disabled students.
In the past, most students with special needs have been excluded from school.
These students may receive one-on-one instruction or group instruction. Students who have been suspended or expelled are not considered excluded in this sense. A General Education teacher and a Special Education teacher work as partners in instruction. Research-Based Methods- There has been a lot of research done about students with disabilities and the best way to teach them.
Testing, IQs, interviews, the discrepancy model, etc. Once that is determined, the next step is the best way for the child to learn. There are plenty of different programs such as the Wilson Reading Program and Direct Instruction Guided by student performance- While the IEP goals may be assessed every few months to a year, constant informal assessments must take place.
These assessments will guide instruction for the teacher. The teacher will be able to determine if the material is too difficult or too easy. Special schools may be specifically designed, staffed and resourced to provide appropriate special education for children with additional needs. Students attending special schools generally do not attend any classes in mainstream schools.
Special schools provide individualized education, addressing specific needs. Student to teacher ratios are kept low, often or lower depending upon the needs of the children. Special schools will also have other facilities for children with special needs, such as soft play areas, sensory rooms, or swimming pools , which are necessary for treating students with certain conditions. In recent times, places available in special schools are declining as more children with special needs are educated in mainstream schools.
However, there will always be some children, whose learning needs cannot be appropriately met in a regular classroom setting and will require specialized education and resources to provide the level of support they require.
An example of a disability that may require a student to attend a special school is intellectual disability. However, this practice is often frowned upon by school districts in the US in the light of Least Restrictive Environment as mandated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. These classrooms are typically staffed by specially trained teachers, who provide specific, individualized instruction to individuals and small groups of students with special needs.
Self-contained classrooms, because they are located in a general education school, may have students who remain in the self-contained classroom full-time, or students who are included in certain general education classes. In the United States a part-time alternative that is appropriate for some students is sometimes called a resource room. History of special schools[ edit ] One of the first special schools in the world was the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris, which was founded in It was the first school in the world to teach blind students.
K, for the Deaf was established   in Edinburgh by Thomas Braidwood , with education for visually impaired people beginning in the Edinburgh and Bristol in Education is controlled by the 26 cantons, and so special education programs vary from place to place. In England and Wales the acronym SEN for Special Educational Needs denotes the condition of having special educational needs, the services which provide the support and the programmes and staff which implement the education.
SENCO refers to a special educational needs coordinator, who usually works with schools and the children within schools who have special educational needs. The Special Educational Needs Parent Partnership Services help parents with the planning and delivery of their child's educational provision.
The Department for Education oversees special education in England. Most students have an individual educational plan, but students may have a group plan in addition to, or instead of, an individual plan. Group plans are used when a group of students all have similar goals.
In Scotland the Additional Support Needs Act places an obligation on education authorities to meet the needs of all students in consultation with other agencies and parents. At a young age students who have special needs in Turkey are provided special education from The Ministry of Education , who are responsible in giving them the education that they need.
All special-needs students receive an Individualized Education Program BEP that outlines how the school will meet the student's individual needs. Government-run schools provide special education in varying degrees from the least restrictive settings, such as full inclusion, to the most restrictive settings, such as segregation in a special school.
The education offered by the school must be appropriate to the student's individual needs. Schools are not required to maximize the student's potential or to provide the best possible services. Unlike most of the developed world, American schools are also required to provide many medical services, such as speech therapy , if the student needs these services.
According to the Department of Education, approximately 10 percent of all school-aged children currently receive some type of special education services. As with most countries in the world, students who are poor, ethnic minorities, or do not speak the dominant language fluently are disproportionately identified as needing special education services. Poor, refugies are more likely to have limited resources and to employ inexperienced teachers that do not cope well with student behavior problems, "thereby increasing the number of students they referred to special education.
Before , little action was taken to educate children with disabilities in Columbia. Children would be left home without much interaction with the outside world. In , special education was researched across the country and education programs were created.
After , people with disabilities were given access to public school classes. While there has been improvement over recent years, there is still slow development for special education programs and special education policy. The history of special education in Colombia can be categorized into three time periods: The period of planning ran from the years to the year The Ministry of Colombia in implemented a national plan for the development of special education called "Plan Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Education Especial".
The purposes of the plan was to create a national diagnosis of special education and to initiate programs for individuals with disabilities. In , the Ministry of education put the first law into action to introduce special classes in public schools that include students with disabilities, called Law The most recent development of special education in Colombia was Article 11 of Law , which was passed in The law states that "the Ministry of Education will define the policy and regulate the scheme of education for persons with special educational needs, promoting educational access and quality under a system based on inclusion in the educational services".
Education in Canada is the responsibility of the individual provinces and territories. However, inclusion is the dominant model. For major exams, Canadian schools commonly use accommodations, such as specially printed examinations for students with visual impairments, when assessing the achievements of students with special needs. All special-needs students receive an Individualized Education Program IEP that outlines how the school will meet the student's individual needs.
According to the Department of Education, approximately 6 million children roughly 10 percent of all school-aged children currently receive some type of special education services.
During the s, in some part due to the civil rights movement , some researchers began to study the disparity of education amongst people with disabilities. Board of Education decision, which declared unconstitutional the " separate but equal " arrangements in public schools for students of different races, paved the way for PARC v.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Mills vs. Board of Education of District of Columbia , which challenged the segregation of students with special needs. Courts ruled that unnecessary and inappropriate segregation of students with disabilities was unconstitutional. This law required schools to provide services to students previously denied access to an appropriate education.
In US government-run schools, the dominant model is inclusion. In the United States, three out of five students with academic learning challenges spend the overwhelming majority of their time in the regular classroom.
Journal list menu
These conditions involve challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. They also involve unique strengths and differences.
Autism is known as a disability that impairs the social interactions and communication skills of a person. People who are autistic tend to think and act differently than others.
For students with autism, there are apps called "visual scene displays" that are most helpful for children who are having difficulty with verbal skills, according to Jules Csillag, a speech-language pathologist who focuses on special ed tech. Apps such as SceneSpeak and Speech with Milo help autistic children develop storytelling skills with text-to-speech voice and interactive storybooks. Using apps like these in a classroom can improve autistic student's verbal skills.
There are several controversies surrounding the diagnoses and causes of autism. It's now believed that there's no single cause of autism. Research seems to suggest that autism is normally the result of both genetic and environmental influences.
If a student has down syndrome , assistive technology can help with their learning experience. Their brains have a late reaction when their neurological system sends a message for any task.
Because of this late reaction, they tend to take longer to complete a task than an average students. Down syndrome children tend to have shorter fingers and a lowered thumb making their ability to write more difficult. Also, some of the usual wrist bones are not formed, making it difficult to hold objects.
Slanted desks are one type of assisted technology that can aid in the successful ability to write. A three-ring binder can be used to create a slanted desk by turning the binder sideways.
Also, students with Down syndrome often try to hold their pencils by anchoring them against the thumb rather than using the tip of their thumb. Shortened pencils or triangular-shaped pencils encourage students to hold them correctly. Using any of these assistive technologies can help down syndrome students during their educational process. Today many people with disabilities are breaking barriers through the use of technology.
For some individuals with disabilities, assistive technology is a necessary tool that enables them to engage in or perform many tasks. Integrating technology will allow students to increase their self-confidence, self-motivation, independence and they will also be able to engage in different activities within the school.
Not to be confused with remedial education or gifted education. For the American television series episode, see Special Education Glee. For economically disadvantaged children, see Child poverty. Theory and models.
Physical Occupational Speech. Societal implications. Disability rights movement Inclusion Normalization People-first language Pejorative terms. Personal assistance. Socioeconomic assistance. Groups Organizations. Disabled sports. Disability in the arts Disability art Disability in the media. Disability Lists. Main article: Special education in China. Education in Japan. This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
October Learn how and when to remove this template message. Further information: List of special schools in Karachi. List of special education institutions in Lahore. Special Education Bulgaria. Special education in the United Kingdom. Special education in England and Special education in Scotland. Special education in Turkey.
Special education in the United States. Inclusionary education for students with special needs: Keeping the promise. Washington, DC: Paul H.
Brookes Pub. Integrating Therapy and Educational Services. Brookes Publishing Company. Support Networks for Inclusive Schooling: Interdependent Integrated Education.
Paul H Brookes Pub Co. Integration strategies for students with handicaps. Inclusion and School Reform: Transforming America's Classrooms. Time and learning in the special education classroom.
State University of New York Press. Retrieved Exceptional Learners. Pearson Education. Archived from the original on 7 January CS1 maint: Special Education Guide. Retrieved 22 March O'Brien, John, ed. Including students with intellectual disabilities in regular education classrooms".
Intellect Dev Disabil. Exceptional Children: Archived from the original on Making Inclusion Work. Upper Saddle River, N. Prentice Hall. Teachers, Schools and Society: BBC Online. Retrieved 13 June Strategies for teaching students with learning and behavior problems. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Special Education in Today's Schools 3rd ed. Merrill Prentice Hall. New Jersey. Archived from the original on 22 September From isolation to integration. A history of mental retardation in the United States.
Public policy and developmental disabilities: A year retrospective and a 5-year prospective on the core concepts in disability.
Odom, R. Horner, M. Blacher, Handbook on Developmental Disabilities , Guilford Press. Restructuring high school for all students: Taking inclusion to the next level. Brooks Publishing co. Remedial and Special Education. Assessment for disabled students: Archived from the original PDF on 13 January Archived from the original PDF on 16 September Department for Education and Skills.
November Students with Learning Disabilities Study Shakespeare. National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. Successful inclusion for students with autism: San Francisco: Instruction of Students with Severe Disabilities 7th ed. Transition from School to Adult Life: Models, Linkages and Policies.
Sycamore, IL: Sycamore Press. The promise of adulthood. Brown, Instruction of Students with Severe Disabilities. Except Child. Goals of the Knowledge Dimension". Breckenridge; Candace Vogler Disability's Criticism". Public Culture. Archived from the original on 26 July Special Teaching for Special Children? Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press.
Professional Uncertainty, Knowledge and Relationship in the Classroom: A Psycho-social Perspective. School Psychology Review. The New York Times. Review of the present situation in special education. Corwin Press, Inc. Achieving quality for all". Jonah; Rodda, Michael November International Journal of Inclusive Education. Experiences and Issues, Online Research Library: Issues and implications".
Disability and Rehabilitation. Retrieved 26 October Archived from the original on 17 September Anderson, Brian D. Silver, and Victoria A. School Reform News. Archived from the original on 6 March Archived from the original on 17 April Retrieved 17 April The longest road to inclusion".
International Journal of Educational Development. Disability and Social inclusion in Colombia. Saldarriaga-Concha Foun- dation Press. Teaching Exceptional Children Plus. A Colombian perspective: DGS Journal. Rethinking Schools. A retrospective examination of urban education: From "brown" to the resegregation of African Americans in special education—it is time to "go for broke".
Urban Education, 44 4 , — Teacher efficacy, tolerance, gender, and years of experience and special education referrals.
International Journal of Special Education, 24 1 , — The dreamkeepers: Jossey-Bass Publishers. The State of Learning Disabilities. National Center for Learning Disabilities. Huffington Post. Down Syndrome: A Promising Future, Together. Assisstive Technology". Down Syndrome. Birsh, Judith R. Wilmshurst, L. The complete guide to special education 2nd ed.
Teaching and Learning and Leadership. Snell, M.These assessments will guide instruction for the teacher. In , classes for socially maladjusted children were organized at the Manila Youth Reception Center.
History of special schools[ edit ] One of the first special schools in the world was the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris, which was founded in In recent times, places available in special schools are declining as more children with special needs are educated in mainstream schools. Once that is determined, the next step is the best way for the child to learn. Statped consists of 13 resource centres owned by the State, and 4 units for special education, where Statped downloads services.
For example, students with poor fine motor skills may be taught to print block letters , but not cursive handwriting. Special education is regulated centrally. Parents of students with a learning disability must be aware of what type of disability their child has, so they can get access to accommodations such as speech therapy, occupational therapy and adaptive physical education.
Blacher, Handbook on Developmental Disabilities ,
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The artwork on this note card was created by 5768 WRJ Art Calendar artist Césan d’Ornellas Levine.
This "Focus" section tells us what character attributes to value and how to achieve them.
Mark this from The Random House Dictionary, 1987: char-ac-ter 1. the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing. 2. one such feature or trait; characteristic. 3. moral or ethical quality. 4. qualities of honesty, courage, or the like; integrity. 5.reputation. 6. good repute.
Thus, your character is nothing more-–but also nothing less-–than the sum of traits that define your unique essence, with one significant addition: the term as defined above-–and as used in the "Character" section and in this guide-–always connotes positive, or morally desirable attributes. Further, and as the authors in this section stress, character is essentially an aspiration, a process that points to perfection but never quite gets there because humans are capable of failure and capable of evil. The task is to minimize the influence of your yetzer hara-–the evil inclination--and to maximize the expression of your yetzer tov-–the inclination to good.
Character development and achieving moral behavior, both deeply rooted in Jewish teaching, also concern parents and educators generally. In the United States, for example, achieving these goals became a national priority as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act of the U. S. Congress (signed into law January 2002), which included "Skills for Life" among its educational targets. For educators, that means helping students internalize a host of values organized in "Six Pillars of Character" that accord well with Jewish expectations:
While the "Focus" articles approach character development from a variety of perspectives, the understandings they share suggest three "Big Ideas" to explore:
1. '13 Ways to Become a Good Person' by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Citing Torah's view that human nature is morally neutral, Rabbi Telushkin invokes Jewish sources that show us how to control the evil impulse and harness the good. Much of the success in this quest depends on practicing self-awareness, which empowers us to modify behavior appropriately so as to improve character --"the goal of life."
Rabbi Telushkin provides thirteen practical ways, drawn from Jewish wisdom, to start on the path to becoming a good person. They emphasize repeating good deeds, surrounding yourself with people who practice goodness and wisdom, placing others before yourself, understanding your place in the larger scheme of things, and becoming aware of your motivations for acting one way or another.
Recording your behaviors in a "character journal" can focus your efforts, help you avoid improper choices, and provide a framework for seeing God as the "ultimate biblical model for character building."
2. Sidebar 1: '5 Common Character Weaknesses' by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. Rabbi Telushkin warns that there is a flip side to building character: the negative character traits that get in the way of achieving the goal. These impediments are easy to recognize because we've often experienced each in some degree. Overcoming the obstacles to character development lies in being aware of your behaviors and in concerted effort to avoid the pitfalls.
3. Sidebar 2: 'Questioning Your Character' by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Knowing which behaviors are good and which ones are bad is only the beginning of the process of character development. Self-assessment is an essential ingredient. Rabbi Telushkin's 18-item check list challenges you to be honestly introspective about your shortcomings and is an action plan for the hard work needed to become a better person.
4. Sidebar 3: 'Perfection is Not the Goal' by Rabbi Jan Katzew
Drawing on Jewish teaching, Rabbi Katzew reminds us that while character development is an essential life goal, it is a never-ending process whose objectives we may never entirely achieve. However, although perfection may always be beyond reach, being good is not, and we are not at liberty to desist from the task of self-improvement. We are capable of change and are obligated to seek a life of ethical balance in which our better self becomes more active than our yetzer hara, a balance that can help us begin to realize our potential as human beings created in the Divine image. In this way we will do "what is right and good in the sight of God."
5. 'I, Jacob' by Peter Pitzele
In Pitzele's midrash (moral commentary) on the account of Jacob's encounter with God (Genesis 35:25-32), Jacob considers his troubled life, acknowledges his imperfection-–the limp imposed by his God-wrestling—and reflects on its impact on the rest of his life. Assessing the consequences of his visible handicap, Jacob rehearses his many failures. Never able to escape the sign of his infirmity, Jacob wonders whether his affliction is blessing or curse. Acknowledging that he is less than perfect, Jacob vacillates between bemoaning his fate and accepting his shortcomings. He comes to understand that while he can never achieve perfection, he is capable of struggling to achieve it, that he can redress failure through teshuvah (returning to God), that we are all God-limpers and God-wrestlers, that the ultimate question is, "How do you limp?"
6. 'Whistleblowing in Washington' by Jesselyn Radack
Radack's account of her personal crisis of character takes us beyond theoretical discussions about choice and doing the right thing and plunges us into her real world of uncertainty, fear, and God-wrestling. As a legal advisor to the U.S. Justice Department in 2001, she informed the FBI repeatedly that they could not question John Walker Lindh, the celebrated "American Taliban," in the absence of counsel retained by his father. The FBI nevertheless proceeded while assuring the public that it was protecting Lindh's rights. As Lindh's trial progressed, Radack realized that the FBI had not informed the court about Lindh's attorney or about her official opinion.
Recalling a verse in her bat mitzvah portion, "You shall not follow the majority for evil, and you shall not follow many to pervert [justice]" (Exodus 22:3), Radack chose to blow the whistle and risk losing a career rather than remain silent and be partner to a miscarriage of justice. Drawing strength from teachers and the Jewish tradition, she steadfastly believes that she made the only choice. She continues to pay the price for choosing conscience over career.
7. 'A Torah of the Heart' by Rabbi Eric Yoffie
Rabbi Yoffie's parents helped shape his values, Yet, as a young rabbinical student, he was unable to find the spiritual guidance he sought, or answers to his questions about God, tradition, worship, and faith. He ultimately found support and sustenance in a personal bond forged with his Hebrew professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, who understood the importance of listening with patience and sympathy to one struggling for the right path and who taught him that his challenge was to overcome doubt and define the Torah he would teach the Jewish people. This caring and engaged teacher helped him to understand that he was not alone in his quest, that he could not expect certainty while struggling with theology, and that only he could determine his religious goals. Most important among the many things he learned from his teacher is that while you can find love of Torah in the text itself, it is insufficient without "the care and embrace of those who teach Torah." Today, as president of the Union for Reform Judaism, he continues to measure his relationships with those who seek answers against the model his understanding teacher provided.
8. Rabbi Bulman's Kiss & Other Lessons of a Newport News Childhood' by Rabbi David Ellenson
Rabbi Ellenson reflects on the values imprinted on him by caring teachers and role models—values which guide his character to this day. The HUC-JIR president tries to bring to his students the passion and joy of Torah study that he learned from a childhood teacher. From another formative role model he learned to extend dignity to all, because each person, created in God's image and despite personal limitations, can be God's partner in repairing the world.
Growing up in Virginia in the 1950s, Ellenson witnessed how an elected official suffered in the press and among his friends when he told his constituency to obey the law of the land and respect school integration. The experience presented the eleven-year old with a "profile in courage" that strengthens him to this day to speak out on moral issues; it also reminds him to behave with humanity even when no one else does. The moral anchors he learned in childhood help him define the virtues of character that he tries to exhibit: kindness, love of people, courage, leadership, gratitude, fairness, persistence, and love of learning.
9. 'Still Trying to be a Mensch' by Rabbi Jack Stern
A childhood life-threatening illness left Stern with a short leg and limited hip mobility. He recounts how he translated the care and concern he received from parents, friends, and medical personnel into a paradigm to see disabled people as "normal" and to appreciate the power of "constructive nurturing," a lesson that led him to an early life of social action. While old stereotypes sometimes intrude upon best intentions, Rabbi Stern is able to exorcise these stumbling blocks by recalling the humiliation of a Black childhood playmate who was forbidden by White adults to play with him and his friends.
Learning how to be a mensch (Yiddish: person of high character, considerate, honest, upright) is never-ending and sometimes unexpected, but lessons abound if we are alert to them. Rabbi Stern learned moral responsibility from a mother who upbraided her son in court for not accepting responsibility; from his wife, who counseled him to be honestly introspective so as to react appropriately to criticism; and from a woman worse off than he, who put his own obstacles in perspective. Rabbi Stern concludes that character is "a work in progress."
10. 'How to Become the Person You Want to Be' by Rabbi Edythe Mencher
Rabbi Mencher's vignettes demonstrate that spiritual growth (i.e. character development) takes place not in a vacuum but in "the context of wholesome relationship to others." She also teaches that character-building usually happens in the context of problem-solving rather than from academic discussions about morality.
In beginning the process of character change, Rabbi Mencher explains that most changes take place slowly and incrementally, but nonetheless change is indeed possible. It was this insight—specifically the noting of systemic change in nature--that gave a young shepherd named Akiva the confidence to overcome his obstacles and become one of our great teachers. Similarly, she says, we can overcome roadblocks to character development if our desire to do so is coupled with an awareness of the lessons in the world around us and our acknowledging that change is part of life. Another story emphasizes that defensiveness and fear of change are barriers to character development; that sometimes personal qualities we tend to think of as “positive” can have adverse effects if taken to extremes; and that small changes in behavior can lead to character growth. A third story reminds us of the dangers of choosing business obligations over the needs of family; that family interactions present opportunities to change for the better; and we need to realize the essential value of others and respond to them accordingly. We remove stumbling blocks in our relationship with others "one small character trait at a time."
C. "Big Ideas" to Explore
1. Each person is responsible for his or her actions.
The biblical prophets unambiguously championed personal responsibility. For example:
For Rabbi Eugene Borowitz, responsibility is a consequence of freedom: The root of Jewish teaching about human beings is that God "made" us free...Because we are free, we are responsible for our acts...that's why we feel so bad when we've broken something and lied about it or when we've told a secret we'd sworn to keep. Being responsible for our acts brings us our glory and our guilt. No wonder we keep wanting to blame other people for the evil we do. The Bible has Adam say, when God accuses him of eating from the forbidden tree, "That woman you gave me, she made me eat from it"(Gen. 3:12). Judaism knows there are many influences on us. Despite them, it insists that we are free and so, responsible. -Borowitz (1979), pg. 7
In my own liberal Jewish philosophy, personal autonomy has emerged as the most fundamental intellectual theme. Other thinkers believe that accommodating Judaism to science or the Holocaust or the State of Israel ought to be our major conceptual focus. For all their importance, I would argue that none of these issues deserves priority over the need to clarify the meaning and practice of personal self-determination within the people of Israel's continuing Covenant relationship with God. -Borowitz (1983), pg. 256
Freedom and choice are inescapable aspects of the human condition. Gough, for example, assumes that personal responsibility is primary, arguing that a good-person status is not only your major mission in life but is up to you to achieve.
Using your freedom to choose is the motif of Arendt's exposition of Adolph Eichmann's "I-was-just-following-orders" defense in his trial in Jerusalem in 1961 (see Hausner): What we have demanded in these trials...is that human beings be capable of telling right from wrong even when all they have to guide them is their own judgment, which, moreover, happens to be completely at odds with what they must regard as the unanimous opinion of all those around them….Those few who were still able to tell right from wrong went really only by their own judgments, and they did so freely....They had to decide each instance as it arose, because no rules existed for the unprecedented. -Arendt, pgs. 294-5
That evil can become banal does not excuse its perpetrators, just as the banality of goodness does not diminish the imperative to be good. A society that tolerates evil makes it easier for evil to occur; a social authority that tolerates good facilitates doing good. "Legitimate social authority-–hierarchal or peer authority -–facilitates both antisocial and prosocial behavior." –Blumenthal, pg. 45. For this reason-–and because we are commanded--Judaism expects us to choose acts of mundane goodness that will repair the world.
Nevertheless, evil behaviors occur in "good" societies and people rise to goodness in "bad" societies. Elie Wiesel emphasizes: "One of the perplexing questions to emerge from the Holocaust is what led some people to reach out and help victims while others turned their backs or became perpetrators. [Blumenthal] challenges readers to confront their own behavior and ask whether they live their lives in a way that facilitates the doing of good." –Blumenthal, dust jacket
Blumenthal asserts that "Prosocial attitudes must be 'carefully taught.' No one is born with a prosocial orientation....What is the teaching of goodness? What is the ideology of caring? The social-scientific and historical evidence suggest five such teachings.
Questions for Discussion
2. Overcoming the evil inclination is a gradual process, requires diligence and helps us approach the ideal set by God.
The No Child Left Behind Act (see above) triggered a massive effort by educators to produce a wide range of age-appropriate learning materials and led to the formation of the CHARACTER COUNTS! coalition, a project of the non-profit, non-sectarian Josephson Institute of Ethics (www.josephsoninstitute.org). Wes Hanson, editor of the Institute's basic primer, Making Ethical Decisions, notes in the introduction: Making ethical decisions requires the ability to make distinctions between competing choices. It requires training, in the home and beyond.
Yet however much the material is reworked, the real work remains with you. No one can simply read about ethics and become ethical. It's not that easy. People have to make many decisions under economic, professional and social pressure. Rationalization and laziness are constant temptations. But making ethical decisions is worth it if you want a better life and a better world. Keep in mind that whether for good or ill, change is always just a decision away.
Hanson's assumptions about character-development mirror Jewish teaching:
Thus, the tradition-–based on the idea of One God--enforces what modern education knows about developing good character. Note Wurzburger: I believe that, based upon Maimonides' interpretation of the biblical text, the verse "thou shalt walk in His ways" challenges us to cultivate an "ethics of responsibility." More is required than mere compliance with the explicit rules prescribed by Halakhah. We are commanded to engage in a never-ending quest for moral perfection, which transcends the requirements of an "ethics of obedience."
Jewish monotheism represents a radically different approach to religion. Its novelty consisted not primarily in the substitution of the belief in one God for the plurality of gods worshiped in polytheism. What was even more revolutionary in the Jewish conception of monotheism was… the attribution of moral perfection to God. –Wurzburger, pgs. 3-4
Questions for Discussion
3. God demands proper (ethical) behavior down to the smallest detail of daily pursuit.
That the Jewish goal of human behavior is to move the world closer to the ideal of perfection is clear from Leviticus 19, the Holiness Code. In this, and in other ways, Jews are different from other groups, a reality analyzed by Hertzberg & Hirt-Manheimer: Do the Jews make any contribution to anti-Semitism? The answer is, fundamentally and unavoidably, yes. Their contribution to Jew-hatred is that they insist on being Jews; by definition they challenge the dominant dogmas. From the very beginning, when Abraham broke the idols of his father, Terah, he insisted that the faith in the one God is true and paganism is false. He challenged the culture around him...So long as Jews cling to their own faith and their own values, they call into question the majority faith and culture.
Jews have the right to be different and to dissent from the majority culture. They have the right to demand that the majority culture accept them, and other people in the minority, for who they are. The test of a democratic society is its capacity to deal justly with people who are different, and especially those who question the majority's most deeply held assumptions. –Hertzberg & Hirt-Manheimer, pgs. 6-7
Questions for Discussion
Hannah Arendt. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York, Penguin Books, 1994 edition).
David R. Blumenthal. The Banality of Good and Evil: Moral Lessons from the Shoah and Jewish Tradition (Washington, D.C. Georgetown University Press, 1999).
Eugene B. Borowitz. Understanding Judaism (New York, UAHC Press, 1979).
Eugene B. Borowitz. Choices in Modern Jewish Thought (New York, Behrman House, 1983).
Russell W. Gough. Character is Destiny: The Value of Personal Ethics in Everyday Life (Rocklin, CA. Prima Publishing, 1998).
Gideon Hausner. Justice in Jerusalem (New York, Harper & Row, 1966).
Arthur Hertzberg & Aron Hirt-Manheimer. Jews: The Essence and Character of a People (San Francisco, HarperCollins, 1998).
Walter S. Wurzburger. Ethics of Responsibility (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1994).
See also: Seymour Rossel & Judy Dick. Sefer Ha-Aggadah: The Book of Legends for Young Readers (New York, UAHC Press, 1996): two volumes of selected gems of character instruction adapted from Sefer Ha-Aggadah, compiled by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky in 1908-1911, translated by William Braude, and published in one volume by Schocken Books in 1992.
Search URJ.org and the other Reform websites:
The artwork on this note card was created by 5768 WRJ Art Calendar artist Césan d’Ornellas Levine.
Show your WRJ pride with this zippered canvas bag. Features the phrase "Well-behaved women rarely make history" and the WRJ logo.


Most of us have seen various depictions of Noah’s Ark—from the large, box-like vessel to the one in children’s nurseries with the giraffes’ heads sticking out the top. But what did the Ark really look like? Can we really know for sure?
Figure 1. Artist’s depiction of the construction of Noah’s Ark, from H. Schedel’s Nuremburg Chronicle of 1493.
Figure 2. Athanasius Kircher (1600s) was careful to follow the Bible’s instructions and used a rectilinear hull, based on the dimensions in Genesis 6:15, including three decks, a door in the side, and a window of one cubit.
Figure 3. This 1985 painting by Elfred Lee was completed after multiple interviews in the early 1970s with George Hagopian, an “eyewitness” of a box-shaped Ark. (Image used with permission from Elfred Lee.)
Depicting the Ark—A Sign of the Times?
Noah’s Ark has been a popular subject for artists throughout the centuries. However, it is not easy to adequately depict this vessel because the description in Genesis 6 is very brief. To paint a complete picture, the artist must assume some important details.
As the invention of Gutenberg’s movable-type printing press in the 1400s made rapid and widespread distribution of the Holy Scriptures possible, Noah’s Ark quickly became the subject of lavish illustrations. Many designs were pictured, and some were more biblical than others. Often, artists distorted the biblical specifications to match the ships of the day. For instance, the picture shown in figure 1 has the hull of a caravel, which was similar to two of the small sailing vessels used by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
Unlike most other artists, Athanasius Kircher (a Jesuit scientist, 1602–1680) was committed to accurately depicting the massive Ark specified in Genesis. He has been compared to Leonardo da Vinci for his inventiveness and his works’ breadth and depth. This early “creation scientist” calculated the number of animals that could fit in the Ark, allowing space for provisions and Noah’s family. His realistic designs (figure 2) set the standard for generations of artists.
For the next two centuries, Bible artists stopped taking Noah’s Ark quite so seriously, and ignored the explicit biblical dimensions in their illustrations. These artists simply reflected the scholars of the day, who had rejected the Bible’s history of the world. Few Christians living in 1960 had ever seen a biblically based rendering of Noah’s Ark. Cute bathtub shapes and smiling cartoonish animals illustrated the pervasive belief that Noah’s Ark was nothing more than a tool for character-building through fictionalized storytelling.
Then in 1961 Dr. John Whitcomb and Dr. Henry Morris published The Genesis Flood, which made sense of a global cataclysm and a real, shiplike Noah’s Ark. This book was a huge thrust to help begin the modern creationist movement.
The primary focus in The Genesis Flood was the size of the Ark and its animal-carrying capacity. A block-shaped Ark was ideal for this, easily suggesting that the Ark had plenty of volume. Later studies confirmed that a ship with a rectangular cross-section 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high was stable. Images of a rectangular Ark strikingly similar to Kircher’s design rendered centuries earlier began to appear in publications (see figure 3).
The next few decades saw another popular phenomenon—the search for Noah’s Ark. Documentary movies and books claimed Noah’s Ark was hidden on Mt. Ararat, and primetime television broadcast some mysterious photos of dark objects jutting out from the snow. George Hagopian was one of the first modern “eyewitnesses” who purported to have seen a box-shaped Ark. And so it happened—Noah’s Ark was illustrated worldwide as a box.
When looking at history, artists in each generation have defined Noah’s Ark according to the cultural setting and what they knew at the time. While we used to see variety in the shape of the Ark, more recent depictions have seemingly locked into the box shape. But new insights—in keeping with the biblical specifications of the Ark and conditions during the Flood—suggest that it’s time we start thinking “outside the box.”
Thinking Outside the Box
While the Bible gives us essential details on many things, including the size and proportions of Noah’s Ark, it does not necessarily specify the precise shape of this vessel. It is important to understand, however, that this lack of physical description is consistent with other historical accounts in Scripture.1 So how should we illustrate what the Ark looked like? The two main options include a default rectangular shape reflecting the lack of specific detail, and a more fleshed-out design that incorporates principles of ship design from maritime science, while remaining consistent with the Bible’s size and proportions.
Genesis describes the Ark in three verses, which require careful examination:
6:14—Make yourself an ark [tebah] of gopherwood; make rooms [qinniym] in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch [kofer].
6:15—And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
6:16—You shall make a window [tsohar] for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.
Most Bibles make some unusual translation choices for certain key words. Elsewhere in the Bible, the Hebrew word translated here as “rooms” is usually rendered “nests”; “pitch” would normally be called “covering”; and “window” would be “noon light.” Using these more typical meanings, the Ark would be something like this:
The tebah (ark) was made from gopher wood, it had nests inside, and it was covered with a pitch-like substance inside and out. It was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. It had a noon light that ended a cubit upward and above, it had a door in the side, and there were three decks. (For the meaning of “upward and above,” see the section “2. A cubit upward and above” below.)
As divine specifications go, Moses offered more elaborate details about the construction of the tabernacle, which suggests this might be the abridged version of Noah’s complete directions. On the other hand, consider how wise Noah must have been after having lived several centuries. The instructions that we have recorded in Genesis may be all he needed to be told. But in any case, 300 cubits is a big ship, not some whimsical houseboat with giraffe necks sticking out the top. . . .
The scale of the Ark is huge yet remarkably realistic when compared to the largest wooden ships in history. The proportions are even more amazing—they are just like a modern cargo ship. In fact, a 1993 Korean study was unable to find fault with the specifications.
All this makes nonsense of the claim that Genesis was written only a few centuries before Christ, as a mere retelling of earlier Babylonian flood legends such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Epic of Gilgamesh story describes a cube-shaped ark, which would have given a dangerously rough ride. This is neither accurate nor scientific. Noah’s Ark is the original, while the Gilgamesh Epic is a later distortion.
What About the Shape?
Scripture only gives length, breadth, and depth. Ships have long been described like this without ever implying a block-shaped hull.
For many years, biblical creationists have simply depicted the Ark as a rectangular box. This helped emphasize its size. It was easy to explain capacity and illustrate how easily the Ark could have handled the payload. With the rectangular shape, the Ark’s stability against rolling could even be demonstrated by simple calculations.
Yet the Bible does not say the Ark must be a rectangular box. In fact, Scripture does not elaborate about the shape of Noah’s Ark beyond those superb, overall proportions—length, breadth, and depth. Ships have long been described like this without implying a block-shaped hull.
Scientific Study Endorses Seaworthiness of Ark
Noah’s Ark was the focus of a major 1993 scientific study headed by Dr. Seon Hong at the world-class ship research center KRISO, based in Daejeon, South Korea. Dr. Hong’s team compared 12 hulls of different proportions to discover which design was most practical. No hull shape was found to significantly outperform the 4,300-year-old biblical design. In fact, the Ark’s careful balance is easily lost if the proportions are modified, rendering the vessel either unstable, prone to fracture, or dangerously uncomfortable.
The research team found that the proportions of Noah’s Ark carefully balanced the conflicting demands of stability (resistance to capsizing), comfort (seakeeping), and strength. In fact, the Ark has the same proportions as a modern cargo ship.
Figure 4. The proportions of the Ark were found to carefully balance the conflicting demands of stability, comfort, and strength.
The study also confirmed that the Ark could handle waves as high as 100 feet (30 m). Dr. Hong is now director general of the facility and claims “life came from the sea,” obviously not the words of a creationist on a mission to promote the worldwide Flood. Endorsing the seaworthiness of Noah’s Ark obviously did not damage Dr. Hong’s credibility.
The word ark in Hebrew is the obscure term tebah, a word that appears only one other time when it describes the basket that carried baby Moses (Exodus 2:3). One was a huge, wooden ship and the other a tiny, wicker basket. Both floated, both preserved life, and both were covered; but the similarity ends there. If the word implied anything about shape, it would be “an Egyptian basket-like shape,” typically rounded. More likely, however, tebah means something else, like “lifeboat.”2
The Bible leaves the details regarding the shape of the Ark wide open—anything from a rectangular box with hard right angles and no curvature at all, to a shiplike form. Box-like has the largest carrying capacity, but a ship-like design would be safer and more comfortable in heavy seas. Such discussion is irrelevant if God intended to sustain the Ark no matter how well designed and executed.
Clues from the Bible
Some people question whether the Ark was actually built to handle rough seas, but the Bible gives some clues about the sea conditions during the Flood:
The Ark had the proportions of a seagoing vessel built for waves (Genesis 6:15).
Logically, a mountain-covering, global flood would not be dead calm (Genesis 7:19).
The Ark moved about on the surface of the waters (Genesis 7:18).
God made a wind to pass over the earth (Genesis 8:1).
The Hebrew word for the Flood (mabbul) could imply being carried along.
The 1993 Korean study showed that some shorter hulls slightly outperformed the Ark model with biblical proportions. The study assumed waves came from every direction, favoring shorter hulls like that of a modern lifeboat. So why was Noah’s Ark so long if it didn’t need to be streamlined for moving through the water?
The answer lies in ride comfort (seakeeping). This requires a longer hull, at the cost of strength and stability, not to mention more wood. The Ark’s high priority for comfort suggests that the anticipated waves must have been substantial.
1. Something to Catch the Wind
Wind-driven waves would cause a drifting vessel to turn dangerously side-on to the weather. However, such waves could be safely navigated by making the Ark steer itself with a wind-catching obstruction on the bow. To be effective, this obstruction must be large enough to overcome the turning effect of the waves. While many designs could work, the possibility shown here reflects the high stems which were a hallmark of ancient ships.
Figure 5. Scripture gives no clue about the shape of Noah’s Ark beyond its proportions that are given in Genesis 6:15, which reads, “And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.”
2. A Cubit Upward and Above
Any opening on the deck of a ship needs a wall (coaming) to prevent water from flowing in, especially when the ship rolls. In this illustration, the window “
ends a cubit upward and above,” as described in Genesis 6:16. The central position of the skylight is chosen to reflect the idea of a “noon light.” This also means that the window does not need to be exactly one cubit. Perhaps the skylight had a transparent roof (even more a “noon light”), or the skylight roof could be opened (which might correspond to when “
Noah removed the covering of the ark”). While variations are possible, a window without coaming is not the most logical solution.
3. Mortise and Tenon Planking
Ancient shipbuilders usually began with a shell of planks (strakes) and then built internal framing (ribs) to fit inside. This is the complete reverse of the familiar European method where planking was added to the frame. In shell-first construction, the planks must be attached to each other somehow. Some used overlapping (clinker) planks that were dowelled or nailed, while others used rope to sew the planks together. The ancient Greeks used a sophisticated system where the planks were interlocked with thousands of precise mortise and tenon joints. The resulting hull was strong enough to ram another ship, yet light enough to be hauled onto a beach by the crew. If this is what the Greeks could do centuries before Christ, what could Noah do centuries after Tubal-Cain invented forged metal tools?
Ramps help to get animals and heavy loads between decks. Running them across the hull avoids cutting through important deck beams, and this location is away from the middle of the hull where bending stresses are highest. (This placement also better utilizes the irregular space at bow and stern.)
5. Something to Catch the Water
To assist in turning the Ark to point with the wind, the stern should resist being pushed sideways. This is the same as a fixed rudder or skeg that provides directional control. There are many ways this could be done, but here we are reflecting the “mysterious” stern extensions seen on the earliest large ships of the Mediterranean.
How Long Was the Original Cubit?
Do we really know the size of Noah’s Ark (Genesis 6:15), the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:10), the altar (Exodus 38:1), Goliath (1 Samuel 17:4), and Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 6:2)? While the Bible tells us that the length of Noah’s Ark was 300 cubits, its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits, we must first ask, “How long is a cubit?” The answer, however, is not certain because ancient people groups assigned different lengths to the term “cubit” (Hebrew word ammah), the primary unit of measure in the Old Testament.
|Hebrew (short)||17.5 (44.5)|
|Common (short)||18 (45.7)|
|Babylonian (long)||19.8 (50.3)|
|Hebrew (long)||20.4 (51.8)|
|Egyptian (long)||20.6 (52.3)|
But when Noah came off the Ark, only one cubit measurement existed—the one he had used to construct the Ark. Unfortunately, the exact length of this cubit is unknown. After the nations were divided years later at the Tower of Babel, different cultures (people groups) adopted different cubits. So it requires some logical guesswork to reconstruct the most likely length of the original cubit.
Since the Babel dispersion was so soon after the Flood, it is reasonable to assume that builders of that time were still using the cubit that Noah used. Moreover, we would expect that the people who settled near Babel would have retained or remained close to the original cubit. Yet cubits from that region (the ancient Near East) are generally either a common (short) or a royal cubit. Which one is most likely to have come from Noah?
In large-scale construction projects, ancient civilizations typically used the royal cubit (about 19.8–20.6 inches [52 cm]). The Bible offers some input in 2 Chronicles 3:3, which reveals that Solomon used an older (royal) cubit in construction of the Temple.
Most archaeological finds in Israel are not as ancient as Solomon, and these more modern finds consistently reveal the use of a short cubit, such as confirmed by measuring Hezekiah’s tunnel. However, in Ezekiel’s vision, an angel used “
a cubit plus a handbreadth,” an unmistakable definition for the royal cubit (Ezekiel 43:13). The royal cubit appears to be God’s preferred standard of measurement. Perhaps this matter did not escape Solomon’s notice, either.
Though the original cubit length is uncertain, it was most likely one of the royal cubits (about 19.8–20.6 inches). If so, the Ark was actually bigger than the size described in most books today, which usually use the short cubit.
Was Noah’s Ark the Biggest Ship Ever Built?
Few wooden ships have ever come close to the size of Noah’s Ark. One possible challenge comes from the Chinese treasure ships of Yung He in the 1400s. An older contender is the ancient Greek trireme Tessarakonteres. At first, historians dismissed ancient Greek claims that the Tessarakonteres was 425 feet (130 m) long. But as more information was learned, the reputation of these early shipbuilders grew markedly. One of the greatest challenges to the construction of large wooden ships is finding a way to lay planks around the outside in a way that will ensure little or no leaking, which is caused when there is too much movement between the planks. Apparently, the Greeks had access to an extraordinary method of planking that was lost for centuries, and only recently brought to light by marine archaeology.
It is not known when or where this technique originated. Perhaps they used a method that began with the Ark. After all, if the Greeks could do it, why not Noah?
Figure 6. The Ark is near the maximum size that is known to be possible for a wooden vessel. How big was the Ark? To get the 510 feet (155 m) given here, we used a cubit of 20.4 inches (51.8 cm).
Designed for Tsunamis?
Was the Ark designed for tsunamis? Not really. Tsunamis devastate coastlines, but when a tsunami travels in deep water, it is almost imperceptible to a ship. During the Flood, the water was probably very deep—there is enough water in today’s oceans to cover a relatively flat terrain to a consistent depth of over two miles (3.2 km). The Bible states that the Ark rose “
high above the earth” (Genesis 7:17) and was stranded early (Genesis 8:4), before mountaintops were seen. If the launch was a mirror of the landing—the Ark being the last thing to float—it would have been a deep-water voyage from start to finish.
The worst waves may have been caused by wind, just like today. After several months at sea, God made a wind to pass over the earth. This suggests a large-scale weather pattern likely to produce waves with a dominant direction. It is an established fact that such waves would cause any drifting vessel to be driven sideways (broaching). A long vessel like the Ark would remain locked in this sideways position, an uncomfortable and even dangerous situation in heavy weather.
However, broaching can be avoided if the vessel catches the wind at one end and is “rooted” in the water at the other—turning like a weather vane into the wind. Once the Ark points into the waves, the long proportions create a more comfortable and controlled voyage. It had no need for speed, but the Ark did “move about on the surface of the waters.”
The box-like Ark is not entirely disqualified as a safe option, but sharp edges are more vulnerable to damage during launch and landing. Blunt ends would also produce a rougher ride and allow the vessel to be more easily thrown around (but, of course, God could have miraculously kept the ship’s precious cargo safe, regardless of the comfort factor). Since the Bible gives proportions consistent with those of a true cargo ship, it makes sense that it should look and act like a ship, too.
Coincidentally, certain aspects of this design appear in some of the earliest large ships depicted in pottery from Mesopotamia, not long after the Flood. It makes sense that shipwrights, who are conservative as a rule, would continue to include elements of the only ship to survive the global Flood—Noah’s Ark.
Scripture does not record direction-keeping features attached to the Ark. They might have been obvious to a 500 year old, or perhaps they were common among ships in Noah’s day as they were afterward. At the same time, the brief specifications in Genesis make no mention of other important details, such as storage of drinking water, disposal of excrement, or the way to get out of the Ark. Obviously, Noah needed to know how many animals were coming, but this is not recorded either.
The Bible gives clear instruction for the construction of a number of things, but it does not specify many aspects of the Ark’s construction. Nothing in this newly depicted Ark contradicts Scripture, even though it may be different from more accepted designs. But this design, in fact, shows us just how reasonable Scripture is as it depicts a stable, comfortable, and seaworthy vessel that was capable of fulfilling all the requirements stated in Scripture.


Today, as we process the shock of the events at our nation’s capital, we struggle to find a message to share with our community. ShalomLearning’s Jewish values curriculum makes Judaism relevant to the lives of our students. It gives them texts and sources to draw from when making real-life decisions. But which of our seven values speaks the loudest at this moment? Which one will best guide us to move forward?
Teshuvah (Repentance), can we reflect on what occurred and turn it around? B’tzelem Elohim (Created in the Image of God), aren’t we all deserving of respect? Achrayut (Responsibility), it’s our responsibility to respect government law and civil authority. The values of Hakarat Hatov (Recognizing the Good), Koach Haddibur (Power of Words), and Shalom (Peace) can each guide our behavior in peaceful and challenging situations. However, it was the Gevurah (Strength) unit that resonated with us today as it teaches us how to use our inner strength.
Our fifth grade Gevurah unit teaches students about the role of courage in processing an argument, the art of compromise, practical ways for standing up for rights and points of view, and the skill of consensus building. All skills needed at this moment of history.
Therefore, we are sharing two activities from this unit that help students practice conflict resolution wrapped in our Jewish teaching. May these teachings guide us as we teach our children that we have the power to express our will within a democratic process with Jewish values to guide us.
Activity 1: Arguing the Right Way/Conflict Resolution
15 Minutes In-Person or Virtual
Tell students: Today, we will explore how to compromise, argue, and stand up for your ideas. We will look at some scenarios and find the piece of truth that each side possesses.
- When you argue with someone, do you usually feel that you are right and they are wrong? Do you ever feel like they could have a legitimate point of view too?
- The Hebrew word for argument is machloket מַחֲלוֹקֶת. But the root of the Hebrew word is chelek חֵלֶק, or part. Why do you think the root of the word machloket מַחֲלוֹקֶת is chelek חֵלֶק, part?
- Do you think that in an argument each person may have part of the truth?
- When you disagree with someone else, but you acknowledge that they have a chelek חֵלֶק of the truth as well, how does that change things?
- Sometimes when you acknowledge other people’s chelek חֵלֶק of the truth, the result is compromise, pesharah פְּשָׁרָה. Do you view compromise as a good result?
Activity 2: What Would You do? Machloket מַחֲלוֹקֶת Scenario
15 Minutes In-Person or Virtual
Role Play Fishbowl: You may use the following scenario or choose a scenario that you know the students are confronting or that is in the news. If you have never led a fishbowl before, see this site for a helpful description. https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/fishbowl (5.3.4 Fishbowl Strategy)
It is the first day of school. Elaina has been away the whole summer and is looking forward to seeing her best friend Jessica. When Elaina gets to school, she looks all over for Jessica and finally finds her talking to a new kid. Instead of running over to greet Elaina, Jessica keeps talking to the new kid for ten minutes before she finally goes over to greet Elaina. Elaina is mad. How could Jessica keep her waiting for so long when they haven’t seen each other for two whole months? She tells her friend Andrea that Jessica has really changed and Andrea should not be friends with her. Jessica finds out and gets angry with Elaina.
Have two students play the roles of Elaina and Jessica. First, have them role play an argument where they are not interested in seeing the other person’s chelek חֵלֶק of truth and care only about the truth of their position.
Choose two other students to role-play the same argument. This time, they must acknowledge the chelek חֵלֶק of truth in the other person’s position.
- Who made choices in this story?
- How could you defend Elaina’s choices?
- How could you defend Jessica’s choices?
- What other choices could they have made that may have avoided a fight?
- Was there a chelek חֵלֶק of truth for each side of this story?
- What would happen if Elaina and Jessica took the time and effort to understand the chelek חֵלֶק of truth in the other person’s argument? What would be the consequences of the argument?
- What would have happened to the friendship if they talked out why they were each upset?
- How can respecting another person’s point of view and trying to see their chelek חֵלֶק of truth help you in other arguments and situations?
Please join me in welcoming our new CEO, Michael Feinstein.
As you can imagine, the need for quality online education, teacher training, and innovative curriculum design in Jewish education has been unprecedented in 2020. Enrollment in ShalomLearning’s programs has doubled since last year and now exceeds 12,000 students. But as Rabbi Tarfon famously said in the Mishnah, “the day is short and the work is great.” Thanks to a generous grant we have brought in a new CEO to lead us through our next phase of growth.
Michael brings to ShalomLearning over 30 years of experience as a leader of entrepreneurial businesses and nonprofit organizations. Most recently, he served the Bender JCC of Greater Washington as Chief Executive Officer for 12 years. (Michael’s bio can be found here.)
Our founders, Devin Schain and Andrew Rosen had a vision to transform supplementary Jewish education for elementary school children to keep up with the advancements in education technology. When I joined ShalomLearning in 2014, our enrollment was 307 students and 15 teachers at 15 Congregational School partner sites in six states. Today our enrollment has grown to 12,696 students and 1,728 teachers, 236 partners in 37 states and 8 countries! None of this would have been possible without the transformational grants from The William Davidson Foundation, The William and Audrey Farber Family Foundation and the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Family; our amazing staff and board and partnerships and supporters like you. There are thousands of people involved in keeping ShalomLearning going these days, and I am eternally grateful for all of you!
It has been an honor and a privilege to lead ShalomLearning through this tremendous growth. I am excited to hand the CEO baton over to Michael to help us grow our capacity. I look forward to spending more time on teacher training, programming, writing and publishing and overall advocacy for our continued growth. We are in great hands with Michael as our new leader and I look forward to another fantastic year of growth and spreading the light of living meaningful lives steeped in Jewish values.
It is always darkest before dawn. As you can imagine, we’ve been busier than ever and the ShalomLearning family has grown tremendously since our last newsletter. We are now helping our 200+ school partners get ready for a new year with 1500 teachers and 10,000 students. However, with the start of a new school season upon us, we’re hearing from many or our partners at religious schools about the challenges they are facing. The most common worry from education directors is this: enrollment is down because so many families are overwhelmed, and kids have too much Zoom fatigue already for yet another online lesson as Hebrew School appears as something “extra” in their schedules.
The other day, I woke at 5:30 am and went for a walk to reflect on this issue. The sun was rising over the lake and the water reflected the pink clouds lighting up the sky. “There’s God, showing off again,” I thought. It made me stop and just take in what Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called “radical amazement.”
“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the
morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted.
Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life
casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
In full disclosure, this is not my typical morning. Raising children and facing life’s endless challenges during a pandemic does not fill me with radical amazement at every waking moment. In fact, I have never known a time of such sorrow, stress, and suffering for the world in my lifetime, as the moment that we are in right now.
Our children miss camps, sports competitions, live theater and in person clubs and yes, being in school with their friends. We are all braced for another wave of COVID-19 with the cold and flu season coming. When will the vaccine come? Some say it could be another 2 years! To which I say “Oy! Come on!”
Many of my peers involved in Jewish communal engagement are deeply cynical about the future of synagogue life. And they have every reason to feel pessimistic. But reason itself has its own limitations. Our mind can only do what our mind can do. What about the heart? What about faith?
Now faith is a different story. Faith in Hebrew is “Emunah.”
We, as Jews, are part of a global community with a close connection to the Jewish people all over the world. And yet, a lot of Jewish religious life is based around home and family activities. If we do not at least try our best to bring some aspect of spirituality into our homes this upcoming Jewish new year, we will continue to feel lost. I know this all too well.
Surely we can find one or two hours a week to make Jewish life relevant for our children. This thrust into remote learning is an opportunity to use education technology in a more meaningful way. It’s ironically, even an opportunity to learn about ways to take advantage of the times you are unplugged. Each of our lessons includes a summary teachers can send to parents that include “Table Talk.” These are questions to be discussed at the next meal. Ideally over Shabbat dinner, but it can really be anywhere. We want to meet families where they are and help them connect to Judaism on whichever level they are most comfortable.
I believe that ShalomLearning is the best option to help synagogues and home schools right now. We train our teachers how to use Edtech seamlessly and we provide the turn-key lessons and support to make Hebrew School into a fun and engaging and relevant educational experience. We also provide “Hands On Activities” that can be used for safe, outdoor, socially distanced learning – including family education for all ages.
Math, reading and science are important. But so is our soul. We need to answer “the spiritual curriculum” (as Mussar puts it) that we face every day. Our children’s secular schools are trying to catch up with Edtech, and everyone is fried with screen time. I get it. But what are we doing as families in respect to educating and nurturing the soul?
Let ShalomLearning help. Open yourself to bring more spiritual Light into your home. Judaism provides so many beautiful and meaningful ways to navigate through the world. If we do not provide these opportunities for our families, we further the risk of the Light going out on our watch. And that would be the saddest day of them all.
The good news is that Shalomlearning can help your families and community learn how to live life in a Jewish way that will help you get through these dark days and help your synagogue get through this crisis.
At some point in the next 3-24 months, this pandemic will end its grip on everything, and we will be free to meet once again in person, go to concerts and restaurants and hug our friends and family. And I believe that people will want to return to synagogues and gather as a Jewish community, perhaps more than ever before.
Our souls need SOMETHING to bring a light into the darkness in the interim. So let us help you get through this period. Our lessons are designed that they can be taught in person, online, at home, or a hybrid. When synagogue life does return, you will not need to miss a beat in the education of your children. It will simply be, “Last week was Gevurah (Unit 3) lesson three at home. Today, welcome back to our building! Let us continue with lesson four.”
I thank God we have the ability to help religious schools. It is my sincere hope that we can all give Emunah (faith) a better try, as I know that ShalomLearning can help educators and families alike. In the end, we all have the same job in this dark period of history, and that is to do what the Jewish people do best: bring in more light.
I am glad so many families in grades K-2 are enjoying the games and activities-based curriculum shared by ShalomLearning earlier this month called, “The Tribe.” I originally created this program for “tribe-size” gatherings of families before joining ShalomLearning’s Board of Directors. With the current pandemic, I modified the activities for individual family use at home.
COVID-19 has created an urgent need for physical distancing, making it more important than ever to connect socially with family and friends. I’m excited to share a new program for K-2 families to use at home: Living Jewish Values. This program creates an additional opportunity for families to “check-in” for virtual, intergenerational values exploration and storytelling visits regularly with grandparents, aunts, and uncles, cousins, and anyone else you care about who may be feeling isolated.
Research by Emory psychologists, Dr. Marshall Duke and Dr. Robyn Fivush, has shown that children raised with family stories that give them a sense of being part of something bigger–an “intergenerational sense of self”-show increased resilience, less anxiety, fewer behavior problems, higher self-esteem, greater family cohesiveness, and improved chances of good educational outcomes.
As my Grandma Rose used to say: “Use it in good health!”
Five Easy Steps to Get Started
- Let your family/friends know you want them to join you in “Living Jewish Values.” Contact a family member/friend to let them know about the program and the first value “Welcoming Guests.” Ask your relative/friend to think of a 2-3 minute family story to share about the value.
- Watch the video about the value with your child(ren) about an hour before the scheduled call with the storyteller.
- Discuss the video with your child(ren). Please follow your natural curiosity or use our provided prompts.
- Have the scheduled call with your family or friend and child(ren).
- Process the video call with your child(ren). Answer questions, provide additional background or reframing and discuss connections between family stories on the call and the video.
Get started today with this lesson about Welcoming Guests: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Od-P4b4TjEj3M7LdJRFDCFgAIKNXmGCzRABVZvEWmmE/edit?usp=sharing
If you have questions or suggestions about this program, please be in touch with me at: firstname.lastname@example.org.
In the spirit of our current Jewish value unit: Koach Hadibbur, The Power of Words, I am going to post one good thing a day BECAUSE of this awful pandemic. You heard me- a good thing coming out of this crisis. Is that even possible? Let’s start with today, March 27th. Check back here each day to see the daily positive thought.
March 27 / 2nd of Nissan: Global CO2 emissions are down. Newly learned video conferencing behaviors are probably here to stay. And business travel and office spaces overall will probably permanently diminish after this crisis abides. More time at home with your family and better carbon footprints all around. Great article here https://e360.yale.edu/features/coronavirus-holds-key-lessons-on-how-to-fight-climate-change
Shabbat / 3rd of Nissan
March 29 / 4th of Nissan: Courteousness. Physical Distancing has been so very difficult. And yet, if you’ve been brave enough to go shopping and wait your turn to get in-keeping 6 feet apart has really brought about the “No after you,” culture. Granted everyone is terrified of getting contaminated, but there is something civil going on. People are feeling that everyone is in this together.
March 30 / 5th of Nissan: Household Chores. Some children are learning to do chores and help out around the house for the first time. It’s embarrassing to admit, but too many of us GenX parents have done way, way too much for our children (including the infamous helicopter parenting), depriving their abilities to learn not only self-reliance but the deeply satisfying reward of communal responsibility and the joy of contributing. Parents are drowning in getting their kids started on homeschooling, while learning how to work at home, watching their retirement accounts take a nose dive into an abyss or worse yet, figuring out what to do if they suffered one of the millions of layoffs across the country (if they have not already). This is our World War-ish moment, and parents are finding a newfound toughness. We are not asking our kids to help out with bribes or a “pretty please.” We are demanding help from our children. And the feedback I am getting from our ShalomLearning parents with this newfound authority is that the kids were waiting for these demands and stepping up to help. Honoring your parents is indeed one of our 10 commandments. Doing everything for your kids while they play video games is not! The stakes are too high now, to not see the value in compliance (which is what so many of us parents have been longing for from our children).
March 31 / 6th of Nissan: Appreciation of community and people and checking in on the ones we love. Have you ever felt such a need? How are they feeling? How are they doing? Have you done a zoom hang out with some old friends? If not, give it a try. The preciousness of having the privilege to know someone, whether at work or in play is sacred. We ARE creatures that relate to one another in profound ways. We need each other now more than ever. And compassion and kindness have finally grown as a priority to what was becoming an increasingly distant, self-centered society. There is a course correction happening in attitudes that are filled with positive energy and appreciation for “the other.” We are not alone in this universe. And the longing to clink glasses and share our hearts with a friend or loved one is something that we will not take for granted on the scale that it was occurring before this crisis, ever again.
April 1st, 2020 / 7th of Nissan 5780: Appreciation of physical contact. The ability to touch someone or play with friends. The current reality of keeping things safe is a whole new meaning for “6 feet under.” How we’ve taken our daily physical contact for granted! I am talking about the privilege of being able to shoot hoops with some pals or lay on a high five, or even to sit on a park bench. All is off limits for at least another month in this extended age of quarantine. Social media hasn’t figured how to give a supportive hug to a friend. “There’s an app for that” won’t cut it this time. But this blog is about what’s positive. Our appreciation is growing and that is positive. When we come out of this Corona protective measure to stay 6 feet away from everyone, we will appreciate the magic of physical contact with others so much more. So in the meantime, be grateful for all the people that you have touched in your life. Prepare yourself for a ramped up version of awe and wonder of being on this journey with our fellow humans when this awful virus is cured. Everyone you meet is in this lifetime together, and there will come a day when the masks and gloves are off again and you can shake someone’s hand, look them in the eye and say, “I appreciate you.” And you might even be able to touch your face afterwards without living in fear of contamination.
April 2nd / 8th of Nissan: Social Media is finally actually social. On the opposite side of yesterday’s reflection, I have a newfound appreciation for social media. Quite frankly, I’ve had no patience for social media over the years. And I do remain disgusted how personal data is bought and sold to the detriment of throwing elections and revolutions and tremendous horrors of public humiliation that have even caused deaths (In fact, our rabbis taught us long ago that to shame another in public is a form of murder, and quantifies it to being like 1/60th of death). Very powerful stuff and really a drain on anyone’s time if you just wanted to retrieve a message from an old friend. I joined these platforms to do the bare minimum, but now… things are different. Anything powerful like fire can burn you but…it can also warm you and help you cook and fill your house with light. With so many people in lock down, we need social media more than ever to stay connected. I can’t tell you how many people are sending me facebook live links to so many amazing musicians doing live performances.
Friday, April 3rd / 9th of Nissan: Amazing music creations and followings. We are inside a flood of creativity in the arts and music and writing unlike anything the world has ever seen. I am hoping that musically, there will be a ton of great new albums from great artists and so many people that have wanted to learn instruments but never had the time. Now they can finally be giving it a whirl. I predict that when this pandemic calms down enough to see music in public, everyone will want to get out and have fun and share their amazing new creations and genres. A revival and renaissance in 2021will resemble the Woodstock music festival of 1969 and draw in writers and painters getting together. This upsurge of creativity will approach the artistry of the great impressionist period of the 1870’s. And we shall all marvel in awe and wonder. And all of this will be due to the great “shelter in place” mandates of 2020.
Saturday, April 5th / 12th of Nissan: Shabbat
Sunday, April 5th / 11th of Nissan: A growing desire to change the current reality that the workers we need the most are often the most underpaid and badly treated. This is not just the paramedics, doctors and nurses who are obvious heroes, risking death every day to save lives. But I am referring to the caregivers at nursing homes and workers in the fields and grocery delivery people. The pizza delivery person is now a full on hero! Last week, I saw a news clip of New Yorkers, outside the Emergency rooms, applauding the healthcare staff, police and fire department as well as the essential workers who are keeping the lights on, keeping the supermarkets stocked, and risking their lives to deliver the food. Columnist Sarah O’Connor points out the uncomfortable truth of our labour market: as the workers we need the most are often underpaid and badly treated. It is time to make amends. And once the economy has recovered, these jobs will be made better, with more rights and hire wages.
Monday, April 6th / 12th of Nissan: Attitudes to health may also change for the better. Washing your hands for a full 20 seconds was a habit that was hard to enforce even in hospitals, “may be one of those behaviors that we become so accustomed to in the course of this outbreak that we don’t think about them,” Conis adds.