Noah’s thoughts
Nov 25, 2002 Homeschooling
Today on the way back from the dentist, Noah was talking about the difference between Junior Great Books and religious school at the temple.
“It’s strange,” he said. “Because at Junior Great Books you can do crazy things if you get there early but it’s a whole different thing at Religious School. At Junior Great Books the early kids fall down the stairs and say that Buddy [the cat] pushed them but at religious school they want order.”
“That’s true,” I said. “At Junior Great Books the kids are really teaching themselves but at religious school, the grown-ups are doing the teaching and they want things to be a certain way while they do that.”
“They’re both fun,” my wise boy said. “But they’re very different. When the kids are teaching themselves, they don’t really need as much order. I like a little bit of order but not too much all the time.”
In religious school, the kids are learning about the holidays and they’re learning some basic Hebrew. They teach the same things over and over but they stress different things in each year. Judaism is very complex; there are lots of layers. He goes to religious school because I want him to learn the prayers and the rituals, especially because I can’t teach them correctly — I’m having a tough time learning them myself. I also want him to take for granted that he’s Jewish. The religious part of it — the whys and the why nots — I’m happy to do at home.
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