Published Articles

In a special new Sight Line feature, we look at four growing trends in the early childhood arena.

Multi-generational Learning

The average age is 92 at Mount St. Vincent, a retirement home in Seattle, yet the atmosphere is alive and vibrant. That’s because Mount. St. Vincent shares its building with the 125 children and teachers of the Mount’s Intergenerational Learning Center preschool. Students and residents learn together, laugh together, and care for each other.

This preschool model is a way to maximize resources, but it’s also part of a growing trend of intergenerational educational programming, currently being explored by institutions across the field of early childhood education. Proponents of this model suggest that young children benefit from extra nurturing and attention, awareness of the aging process and comfort around those with disabilities, a chance to learn social skills, and preparation for the world beyond school. Older adults gain the sense of being needed and appreciated, an opportunity for social interaction, and a way to counteract boredom and loneliness.

What’s more, intergenerational learning holds value in the world of Jewish education as well, where there’s a particular focus on the transmission not just of knowledge, but also of a mesorah – a tradition. Intergenerational learning provides a framework for passing on Jewish values and experience from one generation to the next.

Learn more about this burgeoning trend through these additional resources: Penn State Extension’s Intergenerational Guidebook, Generations United’s Intergenerational Fact Sheet, and Virginia Cooperative Extension’s best practices in Intergenerational Programming.

Deep Experiences in Nature

For a few hours each day, preschool students at Fiddleheads Forest School in Seattle zip up their waterproof suits and head into the forests of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens to explore. They build shelters, hunt for earthworms, follow eagle calls, and go on “listening walks” where they silently focus on the sounds of the outdoors. Students are trained to notice, to take in what’s around them, examine, and formulate ideas about what they see. Outside the classroom it’s difficult to plan what students encounter, so teachers at Fiddleheads have gotten used to following their students’ attention, prompting discussion and investigation based on what they see and find interesting.

Fiddleheads Forest School is not alone. Early Childhood programs across the country are tapping into this concept of immersion into the outdoors by creating opportunities for children to interact with nature, and using the natural world as a key learning tool. Preschool students are being given more opportunities for child-centered outdoor investigations, unstructured play and exploration, and hands-on nature based activities.

New research shows that children who play and learn in nature grow up healthy, smart, and happy. What’s more, this model encourages exploration and curiosity, teaches scientific method and observation skills, supports creativity and problem solving, helps reduce stress, provides young children with positive experiences of the natural world, affords a wider diversity of learning experiences, and allows for increased physical activity – which reduces childhood obesity and leads to greater focus. Gardening and tracking the changing seasons helps develop patience and attentiveness and provides a platform to teach about nutrition. Outdoor exploration teaches social and emotional skills, as it allows for a greater variety of interactions with peers. Even in urban settings, early childhood institutions are finding ways to incorporate nature into the learning. They are planting gardens, exploring local parks, or just heading outside to peek at the weeds, smell the flowers, and find some insects.

For more information on deep experiences in nature for early childhood students, take a look at resources from these institutions: Early Childhood News, Head Start, Bank Street College of Education, NC State University, and Green Hearts.

Mindfulness for Miniatures

At the Children’s Community School, a preschool in Philadelphia, PA, students spend time breathing, stretching, and posing. They listen to bells, observe quiet time, participate in yoga-centered movements, and visualize thoughts. Students discuss how a high note sounds, how breathing like a snake makes their chest and mouth feel, and how sitting up straight and tall affects their body and thoughts.

This is all part of the school’s mission to infuse the curriculum with mindfulness, which, according to Jon Kabat-Zinn, the biologist who coined the term, is the act of “paying attention on purpose.” At Children’s Community School, students are trained to take notice of things like their breath and their movements. They learn to say things like “I notice that I’m tired” or “I feel like I need to move my body.”

Research is showing that being mindful and building self-awareness can have positive health benefits such as alleviating physical and emotional discomfort and stress. Coupled with studies demonstrating how mood and emotional states affect learning, this makes a strong case for purposefully instilling mindfulness in the classroom. There is a growing trend in early childhood education to do just that.

Traci Childress, the Co-Founder of Children’s Community School, speaks about the importance of building “mindfulness muscles” at a young age so that students become familiar with the routines and exercises and can use them to problem solve. And practicing mindfulness offers benefits for teachers, too, by improving their own well-being and helping them become more effective teachers.

For more information on mindfulness in education, take a look at these resources: Mindful Schools, Antioch University Mindfulness Blog, Association for Mindfulness in Education, Mindful Teachers, and Learning and the Brain.

-By Eitan Novick, for The Covenant Foundation

Inclusive Pre-Schools

When Joan Shrensky made aliyah in 1981, a friend with a child with disabilities, knowing of Shrensky’s background working with Head Start in the U.S., asked if she’d consider starting a gan that included children with special needs. Mercaz Harmony was born. Today, it’s known as Magen Avraham/Gan Harmony, and it serves 64 children—with and without disabilities—in four classes in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem. Children ages 2 to 6 with Down Syndrome, autism, developmental delays and other disabilities receive occupational, speech and language, and play therapies and an extensive “sensory diet” through the course of their long, stimulating day, alongside neurotypical children.

When children with disabilities from Magen Avraham graduate at age six, they go on to a wide range of programs—from special education schools, to mainstream and inclusive schools. And the typical children go on to a life of greater understanding of and comfort with people who are both similar and different from them.

STARS Early Childhood Intervention Program of the Evelyn Rubenstein JCC in Houston, Texas, an inclusive pre-school in the United States that could be thought of as a sister-school to Gan Harmony, is similarly impressive. In the Bertha Alyce Early Childhood School, approximately 10% of the 160 students, ages 2 to 5, have visible and invisible disabilities and developmental delays.

According to Faye Bankler Casell, a child development specialist and consultant to the program, who recently assumed the position of assistant director of preschool services, notes that the STARS program began more than ten years ago as a self-contained classroom— and has evolved ever since to be more inclusive. “The students were developing in the self-contained classes, but we realized that if they were primarily with other students who had social and speech and language delays, they won’t gain as much,” Casell reports. “A few years ago, our director felt we could do even better. Last year, we dipped our toes. First, one child was mainstreamed; by the spring, six were included. By this past fall, we were ‘all in!”

This school year, all sixteen students were included in the morning sessions, with the program carefully tailored to the needs of each child. Numerous therapies including speech and language, occupational and music therapy, were offered in a flexible manner. “I know it sounds insignificant, but the students with disabilities all had cubbies in the classroom with their typical peers–and their names were on the door and roster—with no distinction from the other students,” reports Casell. Students returned to the self-contained classroom for the periods after lunch. The next step in the evolution of the program? “Next fall, we are shuttering our self-contained classroom!”

The response to the increasingly inclusive program has been overwhelmingly positive. For parents of children with disabilities, notes Casell, “It has changed their attitudes about what their children can do”—and they are pleased that the special education staff is not hovering around their children. Some graduates of the program go on to attend public schools and participate in neighborhood sports programs; others attend special education pre-schools.

Parents of typically developing children are similarly pleased with the better staffing ratio and overall number of adults in the lives of their children. Casell observes, “When some of the typically developing children need various therapies or modifications, no one looks askance.”

-By Howard Blas, for The Covenant Foundation

Read more

Original Article Published On The Jewish Philanthropy

It is rare that two of my favorite topics – tennis and Judaism – have much to teach each other. A few nights ago, as I watched the New York Empire battle the Washington Kastle on Opening Night of the World Team Tennis season at the legendary West Side Tennis club in Forest Hills, New York, I realized that this action-packed, colorful, fast-paced, family-friendly sport has a lot to teach our synagogues and prayer services.

Mylan World Team Tennis (WTT), co-founded in 1974 by tennis legend Billie Jean King, is tennis with a twist. Players (many ranked in the top 200 in the world) are drafted to six teams and compete in twelve matches, from July 31-August 13th.

This tennis format is family friendly – instead of the traditional “first player to 6 games” set, the first player to win five games wins the set. And there is only one set – no best 2 of 3 (or 3 of 5) like in traditional tennis. Scoring is no ad, so the games end quickly. And team points are cumulative and tallied at the end. If the matches are tied at the end of five sets, there is a supertiebreaker. Fans watch five matches (men’s and women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles), played back to back on one very colorful court, they can cheer as loud as they want, and everyone goes him in under three hours!

These slight modifications to the traditional game preserve the essence of the sport, while adding excitement. Here are some lessons synagogues across the denominations can take from World Team Tennis and apply:

Give the court a makeover: courts are painted a very colorful purple, green red and blue – a far cry from traditional, monochromatic green or blue. It is amazing what a little fresh paint, polish, and color can do. Paint and freshen up that old shul building. And consider some new lighting as well.

Mix up the order of play: Each night, the home team coach determines the order of play for the five matches. Some nights, women’s singles leads off, while other nights, it is mixed doubles. It keeps the fans engaged and on their toes. While the matbeah tefillah – the order of prayers – is important, there is room for “mixing it up.” Experiment with new tunes. Consider adding or even “skipping” certain prayers some evenings or mornings.

Time limits get us out of here faster! In WTT, the clock is ticking. As soon as a point ends, the clock counts down from 25 seconds. Consider time limits to your synagogue service. Does a service really need to be 3 or more hours? A traditional service with a full torah reading in Israel takes no more than 90 minutes! (Basketball and even baseball are using clocks to keep the action moving). We have an important principle in Judaism of tircha d’ziburah – “paining” the community. Long services feel like torture!

Team consists of regular team members and special guests and is diverse: The core team, consisting of players from around the world, is on the roster all season, but several times a season, special guest players join the team. It is nice when the rabbi delivers the weekly sermon and the cantor leads the davening (prayer service), but guest d’var torahs – by congregants, visiting guests, other rabbis or educators in the community – add new perspectives. And lay leaders with the skills to lead the congregation in prayer add a lot to the team.

Make the players accessible to the fans: Following the match, all kids 16 and under are invited to the court. Players are seated at tables where they sign autographs and schmooze with the fans. Rabbis, cantors and members of the shul leadership should be accessible, reachable and relatable to community members of all ages.

Players are real people and model that no job is beneath them: The players come across to the fans as “real people” – they cheer for their teammates, and bring them towels, water and power drinks during the match. When rabbis and cantors relate to congregants as “fellow travelers” – parents, community members and citizens of the world, congregants can relate to them better.

Friendly staff do wonders for the franchise: Ticket takers, ushers, volunteers and on-court announcers are gregarious, friendly and helpful and help the guests feel good about being here. While ushers and volunteers smile and engage you as they walk you to your seat, playful announcers encourage audience participation. Helpful, friendly, welcoming synagogue staff who come over to introduce themselves to guests, bring over a siddur or Chumash and show guests the proper page make people feel welcomed – and inclined to come back again in the future.

The World Team Tennis season runs through August 13th with the finals taking place in New York City on August 26th. If you live in New York City, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, PA, Springfield, MO, San Diego, CA or Orange County, CA, come watch a match – and consider what this exciting tennis format can do to spice things up in your shul!

Read more

Social Justice may be understood through the many lenses found in Jewish texts, but perhaps none as foundational as “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). In an interview conducted by Covenant Award Recipient and Director of National Ramah Tikvah Network Howard Blas, Shutaf Inclusion Programs Founder and Executive Director Beth Steinberg explores how, from a Jewish perspective, “disabilities is a Jewish peoplehood issue.”

Q: Tell us about Shutaf

Shutaf was born out of parental need. Miriam Avraham (my co-founder) and I are both parents of children with disabilities who are now teenagers. We were tired of people saying, “No, there isn’t a program for your kid and no, we don’t want your kid.”

When we started, Shutaf was a summer program; we quickly realized how great camp was and that there was a significant need in Israel for programs for people with disabilities.

Since Shutaf was born in 2007, we’ve grown tremendously. Shutaf Inclusion Programs in Jerusalem now offers year-round activities for children, teens and young people, with and without disabilities. Our programs include day camps during the Passover and August vacations; afterschool youth groups; a Young Leadership Program for teens and young adults; Inclusion-Accelerator Workshops and parent gatherings.

Shutaf is a place of complete acceptance and inclusion for all kids of all abilities; religious and secular, rich and poor, from all cultural backgrounds.

Q: How can we understand inclusion as a social justice issue?

Including people into the larger Jewish community is a critical social justice issue. In fact, the word “inclusion” itself implies ex-clusion, and therefore warrants a social justice approach. Allowing every member of the community–especially those with disabilities–a way in means equal opportunities for all. That’s a good thing to work towards. That’s a good thing to believe in.

We need to X-out the word inclusion and come up with a better word. (The URJ (Union for Reform Judaism) is using a new term; “audacious hospitality.”) I recently taught at a synagogue in Philadelphia and people said, “Let’s just call it “welcoming!”

In the end, all words have limits and the issue is big—so many people are still marginalized. The bottom line: these are Jews who shouldn’t be left out of the conversation.

Q: What would an ideal inclusive world look like?

Inclusion is where everyone finds their place. It is a world where fewer limits are placed on people with disabilities. It is less about trying to include those with differences into our pre-existing settings (meaning, those settings that were built for people without disabilities).

In an ideal world, we would eliminate terms like “high functioning” and “low functioning” since they create divisions. It is not for any of us to say what a person is allowed to do and not allowed to do!

Q: What other programs in Israel are doing important social justice and inclusion work?

There are so many people in Israel doing great work in this arena. Here are just a few programs to check out:

  • Shai Asher (Milton’s Gift) is a non-profit career-training program for people with special needs, run by Menachem Stoplner, a social worker who lives on Kibbutz Shluchot.
  • Revital Lan Cohen is an elected government official (member of the Meretz party) and the parent of child with autism spectrum disorder. She has built a very impressive parent coalition which you can read about on her Facebook page.
  • HaBayit Shel Ronit runs a social program for adults with disabilities.
  • Bizchut is the Israel Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities.
  • Kaleidoscope promotes understanding between all populations by fostering the development of the social skills such as self-awareness and collaboration that form the foundation for respect for diversity and appreciation of multiculturalism. As a research-based educational approach, Kaleidoscope begins its process with skill-building workshops that emphasize reflection for educators, students and parents within Israel’s Jewish and Arab sectors.

Find out more about important organizations working toward inclusion, by visiting this site: http://www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2015/12/22/12-special-needs-organizations-in-israel/

Read more

Original Article Published at The Jerusalem Post

As the tennis world gears up for the Miami Open (March 21-April 3), often considered the “Fifth Grand Slam,” on par with such tennis events as Wimbledon and the US Open, Israel is preparing to welcome local and international talent to the similarly timed Israel Open.

The Israel Open, a $125,000 ATP men’s Challenger tennis tournament, attracts some big names to the Ra’anana Tennis Center March 27 to April 4.

Shlomo Glickstein, President of the Israel Tennis Association and former 22nd ranked player in the world, is proud and excited.

“It is very important for Israel to host such competitions and we love to host large events. It attracts sponsors, media and role models for our young players.”

Glickstein is also practical. “Tournaments like ours offer young tennis players the chance to earn ATP points.”

The Israel Open is part of the ATP Challenger Tour, a series of international professional men’s tennis tournaments.

Players who earn sufficient ranking points become eligible for qualifying or main draw entry at such ATP World Tour tournaments as the recent BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells or the Miami Open. Future events, like the three $10,000 tournaments recently held in Israel, are the third tier of international tennis competition.

The Israel Open attracts such well-known Israeli players as Dudi Sela, who climbed this week from No. 88 to 84 in the rankings, and Amir Weintraub (197). They are joined in the main singles draw of 32 by top 100 players Mikhail Youzhny (76th, Russia), Evgeny Donskoy (81st, Russia), and Ricardis Berankis (85th, Lithuania). Lukas Lacko (98th, Slovakia), who lost in a three-set final last year to Nikoloz Basilashvili, returns to Israel to play in this year’s Israel Open.

Other top players include Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, currently ranked 401. Tipsarevic received a wild card and is making his tennis comeback following foot surgery and a 17 month absence from tennis.

Israeli Yoni Erlich will enter the Israel open doubles tournament.

Erlich had a distinguished doubles career playing with Andy Ram, and continues competing in international tournaments, many with partner Colin Fleming of Great Britain.

Sixteen teams will also compete in doubles.

Youzhny is no stranger to Israel.

“I have been to Israel several times with my family for vacations. I love Israel and look forward to coming to Israel again.”

Berankis is looking forward to making his first trip to Israel.

“I have many friends in Israel and heard so many good things about Israel. I’m really excited to come and play this big Challenger tournament.”

Israel has become an increasingly popular destination for professional tennis tournaments.

In early February, Israel hosted 14 countries in the Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group I women’s tennis event. Top players, including Heather Watson (55th, Great Britain), Tsvetana Prionkova (59th, Bulgaria) and Jelena Ostapenko (84th, Latvia), competed at the Municipal Tennis Club in Eilat. The Israel team, anchored by Julia Glushko and Shahar Peer, finished in the top 4 of the event.

And Israel hosted three Futures tennis events in January and February.

Israeli Davis Cup team member, Edan Leshem and 16-year-old future star, Yshai Oliel, competed in some of the $10,000 Future events.at the Kfar Maccabiah Tennis Center.

Glickstein notes that , “We have some promising young players including Ben Patael, Tal Goldengorn, Yshai Oliel – they are eager to play and get results.”

Israel recently lost to Hungary in the Davis Cup.

The Israel Open was held in Ramat Hasharon from 2008-2010, was not held from 2011-2014, and was also played in Ra’anana last year.

Read more