I learned to play tennis on the public courts at Deer Park Junior High School in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland.   They offered clinics for kids during summer mornings—the courts were obviously reserved for children at those hours.  But, in return, there were signs indicating “Adults have preference on weekends.”

In addition, there were also all kinds of written and unwritten rules and norms.  You play for no more than an hour if others are waiting, you never retrieve a ball from behind the baseline of the next court while their ball was in play, and you “reserve” a court by putting your racket in the fence under the sign with the number of the court you wanted.

Were the courts always perfect?  No.  There is a certain “unevenness” in what to expect out of public tennis courts.  Some are in pretty good shape.  Others have major cracks, causing the ball to travel in all sorts of directions.  Yet others have grass and even large plants growing out of the cracks.  Nets can be too high or too low and with a crank that feels soldered in one position.  Some courts have fairly decent drainage, while others have puddles on them even 5 days after a rain shower.  It is rare to find public courts with lights but when you find them, what a treat!

On occasion, I have had the privilege of playing on fancier courts—Yale University has 20+ courts which get re-paved each summer in preparation for a tournament which for many summers was the final pro tournament leading up to the US Open.  I once played in an old-fashioned private club in the Philadelphia suburbs where white shorts and shirts and shoes were REQUIRED.  I have played in some pretty fancy tennis bubbles.  And of course there are the 26 clay courts of Central Park in Manhattan which have procedures and codes of conduct all their own (rules about how and when to sign up; leaving the courts the MINUTE the alarm sounds on the hour, etc.).

When I look back on the entirety of my tennis playing life so far, I think most tennis has been played on public courts.   The experience of growing up on the public courts made a big impression on me and likely for thousands of others.

There is a certain charm to public courts.  There is almost always a free court (though it may have cracks or branches falling from a tree which hasn’t been trimmed in a decade, and which is dripping slippery sap on the court).  You can often get a game with other tennis lovers just hanging out and looking for a game.   You often see a dad with a bag or basket of balls, throwing or hitting to an 8-year-old daughter who may or may not be the next Serena or Venus Williams.

And when all else fails, there is the practice wall.  But don’t worry.  Some desperate 3-some will find you and ask you to fill in—even if you will be the only guy for miles in the women’s doubles match!

For those of us accustomed to spending every summer at an overnight summer camp, the concept of a Sunday is foreign.   Sunday at a Jewish summer camp is a “yom ragil”—a regular day.   It is kind of like Sunday in Israel. 

As we coped with the heat and humidity of camp summers, we knew that we could cool off in the agam (lake) or in the misrad, the main office, where the a/c was always blasting.  Yet, I sometimes thought of those “stuck” in the hot city during the summer.  I couldn’t’ get the 1966 Lovin’ Spoonful song, “Summer in the City,” out of my head.  I will censor some lyrics but the song starts:

Hot town, summer in the city

Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty

Been down, isn't it a pity

Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead

Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head…

If “summer in the city” seemed a world away from camp, then what would “summer in the suburbs” be like?  After many weeks in the suburbs, I can say that I have finally seen a non-camp Sunday, and I can share two memorable highlights—a nightly happening, and a “once per summer” event.  

In our neighborhood, all of the neighbors assemble social distance-style near the home of beloved 90-something neighbor Dick, where his wife and another neighbor set up music stands and play a series of songs each night at sunset on flute and recorder.   The Star Spangled Banner and a few others make the nightly setlist. We were even treated to Shalom Aleichem on a recent Friday night. (Photos below from the recent neighborhood birthday gathering in Dick’s honor).

Today was the once-per-summer “One Day Giveaway”—“a community tag sale where everything is free!”  Neighbors look forward to this day.  They register online and can view a map of the dozens of other neighbors giving away stuff   It is officially 12-5, though early birds are often rewarded with the best worms—books, clothes, aquariums, ladders, desks and chairs, vegetable seedlings and more.  The key is to get rid of more than you take it, though it seems like many happily had it backwards!

I am sad about no camp, but am enjoying exposure to a world I had no idea exists–nightly music, free stuff and all the free tennis you can tolerate—assuming you beat the other players to the 6 nearby public courts!  (Perhaps more on that in a future blog).

Welcome to Summer in the Suburbs!

We all speak regularly of “best practices,” but what exactly are best practices, and when and how does something become best practices, and are they always “best?”   An article in thatcompany.com provides several fairly obvious definitions: 

-a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to any alternatives because it produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means,

-a set of guidelines, ethics or ideas that represent the most efficient or prudent course of action

I have been thinking of best practices as it relates to all of us making the transition from classroom education to Zoom education, and from day and overnight camping, to virtual camping.  It is wonderful that so many of us are in the same boat at the same time and are figuring it out.  Those of us in summer camping are learning “best practices” from classroom teachers who have a few more months of experience of what works. 

At Camp Ramah, our National Ramah Tikvah Network is about to launch a 12 session virtual vocational training program.  We are learning what works and what doesn’t work from teachers of vocational education who, three short months ago, had no idea how to teach online.  In a sense, so many of us are establishing best practices in a very short time and sharing them with our colleagues.  It will be interesting what will end up being seen as best practices in online education and camping.

In researching the topic, I came across a Forbes article by Mike Myatt who argues that there is a downside to using the term “best practices.”  He argues, “One of the most common reasons for pursuing best practices in a given area is to avoid having to “reinvent the wheel.” Think about it like this – if nobody ever reinvented the wheel, they'd still be made from stone.”

He goes so far as to say that there is no such thing as best practices” and he is trying to extricate the term from his vocabulary.  “The reality is best practices are nothing more than disparate groups of methodologies, processes, rules, concepts and theories that attained a level of success in certain areas, and because of those successes, have been deemed as universal truths able to be applied anywhere and everywhere. Just because someone says something doesn’t mean it’s true.”

Myatt introduces his concept of “next practices.”  “I began using the term next practices in an effort to focus people forward in their thinking. Why would you want to do business in the same fashion as your competitors? Don’t utilize your competition's practices, but rather innovate around them and improve upon them to create an advantage that can be leveraged in the market. Be disruptive in your approach and don’t fall into the trap of doing something in a particular fashion just because others do it that way – think “next” practices not best practices. Here’s the thing – best practices maintain the status quo and next practices shatter it.”

Admittedly, the field of online teaching and camping are young and thankfully, our fields are collaborative and not competitive.  I am not sure what “next practices” will look like in these fields, but it is important to keep in mind that even in a new field, there is room to be disruptive.  May be quickly find best/next practices which we can use to the benefit of our students and campers!

I was honored to present a webinar last week as part of the Shorashim Staff Series.  It was entitled, “Birthright Israel Trips and People with Disabilities:  How The Israel Multisensory Classroom Benefits Participants on Specialty and Neurotypical Trips” and is available for viewing on my website  https://howardblas.com/disabilities/israel-trips/. 

I have been privileged to lead many Shorashim Birthright Aspergers trips and Tikvah Ramah Birthright Israel trips.  I began my talk by sharing the fact that there are MANY specialized trips Birthright trips for young adults with intellectual, developmental, sensory and physical disabilities, as well as medical issues.  Many participants with disabilities are fully included on typical Birthright trips; others participate in the following specialized trips:

American Sign Language

Asperger’s Syndrome

Cognitive Disorders

Developmental Disabilities

Friendship Circle

Inflammatory Bowel Disorders

Yalla: Physical Medical Disabilities

Twelve Step Recovery

Yachad: National Jewish Council for Disabilities

The first accessibility trip took place in 2001.  To date, more than 2,000 participants have taken part in 75+ trips

I explained how specialized trips are structured, explored how Israel is the ultimate multisensory learning environment, and described what I think participants with disabilities “get” out of such trips—knowledge of and connection to Israel, the Jewish religion and to the Jewish People.  Perhaps most important—participants form friendships!

I was delighted when, a few days after my presentation, I received a copy of the report “Breaking Barriers: A Look at Birthright Israel Specialized Trips for Participants with Disabilities,” written by Fern Chertok, Rachel Minkin, and Daniel Olson.  I was one of the many participants, parents, staff members and tour leaders with whom the researchers spoke.

Chertok and Minkin also wrote an article in today’s ejwishphilanthropy, entitled, “For Young Adults with Disabilities the Loss of Specialized Birthright Trips is Particularly Poignant.”  While they are sad that participants with and without disabilities will miss some opportunities to travel to Israel during these Covid-19 times, they report on the importance of such specialized trips.

Some highlights:

“Our research team observed three specialized Birthright trips for young adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities and interviewed participants, their parents, and trip leaders. Almost universally, young adults on these specialized trips described their experiences in Israel as engaging, meaningful, and fun. Participants were excited to be in the Jewish state, to learn about its history, culture, and foods and to get to know Israeli peers. In this way, their experiences were very similar to those of their peers without disabilities. However, for young adults on specialized trips, participation in Birthright Israel had additional significance: a claim to their place in the normative “coming-of-age” experience for contemporary Jewish young adults, friendships with peers with whom they share the experience of being a person with disabilities, and new levels of independence.

Participants relayed how meaningful it was that they had a Birthright experience like their friends and family members without disabilities. They described their excitement at going on a camel or jeep ride, visiting Masada, and placing notes at the Kotel. Participants now had their own Birthright stories to share just like their peers without disabilities.

Historical sites were not, however, their most meaningful experiences. During an interview, one participant, when asked what she most looked forward to on her trip, initially stated riding a camel but quickly followed up with “to make friends.” Participants told us that, starting in their teen years, they had few or no opportunities in their home communities for social interaction with peers, especially with Jewish peers. They explained how important it was to them to have friends who understood and accepted them without having to explain their disability, and how much they appreciated experiencing Birthright with peers with similar disabilities. Participants and their parents often described the social contacts gained as one of the most important outcomes of their Birthright experience. One parent called it “the first miracle,” when he realized that his adult child, for the first time, had a circle of Jewish friends.

The concept of “dignity of risk,” describes the healthy development that is possible when persons with disabilities have opportunities to step out of their comfort zone. Participants on specialized trips described as life changing, the opportunity to try out new activities and manage challenges with the help of supportive trip staff on Birthright trips. Prior to Birthright, none of these young adults had traveled extensively without family. While in Israel, participants were responsible for daily routines of self-care, managing discomforts and stresses of travel, and decisions about what to eat and how to use their discretionary funds. Participants were well aware that they were reaching for and succeeding at new milestones of independence. As one participant exclaimed, “I went by myself halfway across the world.”

I have observed just how much participants with disabilities get out of their Birthright Israel experience.  As the researchers point out, many report that they have made friends for the first time.  The participants from my last two Shorashim Aspergers trips have recently had Zoom bus reunions; a 2^nd reunion is planned for each group this July.

My only “critique” of this trip is that we need to all do a better job getting the word out.  I know Birthright is working hard on this.   Let’s all shout it from the rooftops.  Tell friends, and neighbors and anyone with a Birthright-aged child that there IS an Israel trip for them!