5 - Community as a Means and an End in Jewish Education

Summary

INA DELIGHTFUL but underappreciated book entitled Back to Basics, Fran Schräg opens by posing a question about the purposes of education in general. What, he asks, are our most fundamental aspirations for any particular educational endeavour? The question may seem intractable, but Schräg offers a helpful method for thinking about it. Adapting a thought experiment from the political philosopher John Rawls—the thought experiment that generated Rawls's Theory of Justice and launched a revitalization of liberal political theory—Schräg suggests that we try to imagine what aspirations might hold true not just for contemporary education but for the education of our great-grandchildren.

The virtues of the thought experiment are, first, that we cannot claim to know what society will be like for our great-grandchildren, what their Status will be within that society, what the culture will value, or what will be necessary for the common good; but second, that we may be presumed to care about our great-grandchildren. In other words, the thought experiment allows us to abstract our enquiry from accidents of history on both the societal and individual level, while also maintaining a personal connection with it sufficient to motivate a deep commitment to the welfare of the students. For Schräg, the thought experiment generates what he calls ‘three key aspirations'. First, students will care about arguments and evidence. Second, students will be disposed to continue learning. And third, students will acquire the capacity to continue learning. These aspirations, he believes, can withstand the test of time, and can apply to students in widely varying situations.

Now, for those who have attended to recent discussions of Vision’ in Jewish education, many of which have focused on defining and articulating visions of the ‘educated Jew’ as the ideal outcome of Jewish education, Schrag's arguments may be intriguing. After all, he is presenting a vision of an educated person; he is taking a stand on what such a person will consider most important, and what education can aspire to provide or promote. Schräg is not concerned here with Jews in particular, of course, and some readers may wonder whether his arguments stand in tension with the goals of Jewish education, as they understand them.