From public institutions to Jewish day schools, our educational system deserves low marks in the job of teaching morality, says Rabbi Hanan Alexander.
“I think people are tired of education for becoming a good doctor, a good lawyer and a good MBA,” said Alexander, author of a new book advocating a reconnection between education and spirituality.
The former Kensington resident suggests that parents today are searching for ways to turn their children into menschen. “People are really looking for morality in education,” he said. “I think people want to know what it means to be a good person.”
Entitled “Reclaiming Goodness: Education and the Spiritual Quest,” Alexander’s book was awarded the National Jewish Book Award in Education at an Oct. 30 ceremony in New York.
In an interview, Alexander says the time is ripe for changing our approach to contemporary education, which he maintains has become a secularized venture focusing largely on gaining tools for getting a good job.
“There clearly is a spiritual awakening today,” he said. “People are searching for spirituality in all kinds of different ways.”
Possibly fueled by widespread evidence of corporate scandals and corruption, “we want a moral compass and want our teachers and schools to help do that,” he said.
Alexander, 49, was in the Bay Area recently for visits connected with his work as head of the University of Haifa’s Center for Jewish Education and Department of Overseas Studies. Before moving to Israel three years ago, he was the vice president and dean of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.
He advocates a spirituality that is neither dogmatic nor purely personal — two approaches he calls dangerous.
Dogmatic spirituality can lead to extremism, he says, while personal paths can disconnect people from their community.
Alexander proposes a spiritual model “wherein we discover our best selves in learning communities devoted to a higher good.”
In his book, he advocates turning education into “an emissary of goodness.”
He describes his book as “deeply Jewish,” but notes that its message is applicable to people of other faiths. Public schools, he maintains, also should be encouraging students to pursue moral high ground. “I think public schools ought to talk about God, but not talk about a specific god,” he said.
Alexander calls upon the Jewish community to create “intensive spiritual hothouses” similar to Jewish summer camps, which provide children with a “communal immersion experience.”
Jews, he said, need to “transform the character of our communities” to mirror a Jewish camp’s spirit and values in daily life.
“Communal norms can only be transmitted when the study, practice and celebration of goodness is valued as highly by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and neighbors as it is expected to be valued by their children,” he writes.
Alexander believes that many Jews “are deeply disappointed with our synagogue life today. They’re concerned it’s empty and hollow and are looking for more.
“I think oftentimes synagogues appeal to the lowest common denominator.”
He said instead they should encourage congregants to “reach for more,” including a deeper commitment to Jewish life and to God.
Many Jews, he said, “want synagogues to stand for something.” And that something, he asserts, is a pathway to a wholesome life.
“They don’t want to be dictated to,” he said. “They want to be educated and enlightened and inspired.”