Lumanny the Space Jew
Aakosir
Lumanny the Space Jew
I've been going to religious Private schools all my life, pretty mcuh, exept Kindergarten at Public School. Let me tell you, Public School is INFINITELY better than Public Schools. The work is so much more challenging and you can actually talk about religion without getting buried in red tape.
And plenty of kids over the years have been atheist or agnostic (especially back in high school) and have gotten by just fine. Actually, eighth grade year I was best friends with a boy who was an agnostic studying under Satanism. Sure, he got in trouble when they caught him reading the Satanic Bible in the Bathroom during a Torah service, but he actually aced Judaics Class because even though he didn't believe in any of it, he was amazing when it came to analyzing texts.
My current school is this huge Jewish microcosm of Atheist Jews, Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, and Orthodox Jews. Kosher Kitchen and vending machine to satisfy all. It is amazing. And despite splitting up into our separate prayer groups, we all get along just great. I'm best friends with this really cool Modern Orthodox guy and a few conservatives. And one other reform and one atheist.
A lot of people expect that one set of ideas is being forced upon us, but that could not be further from the truth. We are constantly engaged in this dialogue and debate about the way things are, especially when it comes to Talmud study, which is just that. And the atheists do just fine at my school as long as they keep their grades up, which requires attention but no belief.
And plenty of kids over the years have been atheist or agnostic (especially back in high school) and have gotten by just fine. Actually, eighth grade year I was best friends with a boy who was an agnostic studying under Satanism. Sure, he got in trouble when they caught him reading the Satanic Bible in the Bathroom during a Torah service, but he actually aced Judaics Class because even though he didn't believe in any of it, he was amazing when it came to analyzing texts.
My current school is this huge Jewish microcosm of Atheist Jews, Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, and Orthodox Jews. Kosher Kitchen and vending machine to satisfy all. It is amazing. And despite splitting up into our separate prayer groups, we all get along just great. I'm best friends with this really cool Modern Orthodox guy and a few conservatives. And one other reform and one atheist.
A lot of people expect that one set of ideas is being forced upon us, but that could not be further from the truth. We are constantly engaged in this dialogue and debate about the way things are, especially when it comes to Talmud study, which is just that. And the atheists do just fine at my school as long as they keep their grades up, which requires attention but no belief.
Public schools are better than public schools? XD And if you were going to say private is better than public than I will have to disagree. My high school offered some pretty tough classes. You just had to be a good student to get in to the AP and Honors classes.
I chuckled at the Kosher vending machine =^_^=
But my main question is; What is an Atheist Jew??? I can't figure out how that would work.
If you haven't been to both Private and Public you can't have an educated opinion. When I went to Public school I was bored literally to tears. Mental Health Proffessionals told me to seek private school. Private school has been so much better.
And did you forget that Judaism is a religion AND an ethnicity? So you can be Jewish ethnically but not even believe in G-d. We have quite a bit of that at my school. Minyans and minyans of them. All Jews at my school but some more religious than others in both extremes. They practice Judaism more as a culture.
By the way, in case I forgot to mention, my school does actually teach evolution. I mean, they touch on 7 days' Creation in Bible Study but in Science class and History class it is all Evolution. Homo Habilis to Homo Erectus to Neanderthals and Cro Magnons to us now in the Cenozoic Era. Fascinating stuff, really. Amazing.
But, LOL, my Orthodox friend doesn't believe in it. Neither does this one Orthodox Rabbi at school... but he's quite the character, actually. Notorious for his 'Zhe voman, she belongs in zhe kitchen' old country attitude. Very Orthodox. But he chants torah really well at the gender-separated minyan. And like I said, we just have all kinds of Jews at my school.
My mom teaches at private schools and I get the feedback. There are some kids who are in a lower grade in public because they did not learn enough from the private school to be in the higher grade. There is an academy, called Gerstal, it cost 15k for your kid to go and the music teacher does not teach them the notes. He writes in the notes and only teaches the fingerings. That is not learning music correctly. A friend thought she was going to be held back in public school because the private school taught them nothing about reading. But she's doing great, thanks to mentoring. In private schools the teachers do not need degrees, the advisors don't even need degrees. Hm... I think I know a good bit about private school. Another one my mom is teaching at now, a wacko Christian school, the principal was screaming at a 5 year old, in the hallway, because he would not go to class.
And no, I did not forget Judaism is also a culture. I was just thinking on religious terms.
