Educating for Curiosity, Empathy, and Imagination

Through the end of the 20th century, education evolved in slow and systemic ways. The Industrial Revolution in the late-19th century ushered in the Industrial Age, and the digital revolution in the mid-20th century spurred the emergence of the Information Age. In the traditional model of education, born in the Industrial Age with a one-size-fits-all approach, students learned about history and how to read, write, and do arithmetic. The education system emphasized memorization and judged students by their ability to recall factoids on multiple-choice exams.

Today, rapidly evolving technology is transforming the way that knowledge is imparted and absorbed. The internet now plays a crucial role in the digital educational environment. In 2005, Daniel Pink wrote the book A Whole New Mind, where he introduced the term “the Conceptual Age.” According to Pink, the Conceptual Age demands that students develop areas of the brain that include empathy, design, innovation, story, play, and meaning—namely, higher-order thinking skills. “If we want students to become good critical thinkers, we need to teach critical-thinking skills, rather than assuming that students need to learn basic skills before they can engage in higher-order thinking.”

Twenty-first-century skills of collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity have changed the way we, Jewish educators and leaders, need to approach the way we teach. The questions we need to answer in an ever-changing world are critical to how we lead our schools. Namely, how do we foster curiosity in our students in both Judaic and general studies? How do Jewish educators ensure that tradition is immersed in new educational methods? Are we throwing out memorization of text for the benefit of critical thinking? What is the role of the Jewish day school educational leader? How do we effect everlasting change that remains true to Jewish tradition while moving students to care? What is innovation in Jewish life? The answers to these questions must reflect the vision, mission, and culture of each school. Yet, without these answers we run the risk of graduating generations of apathetic students who do not see the relevance of elementary, middle, and high school education in their lives.

Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” Imagination, ideation, empathy, creativity, and innovation should not happen in one room or one lab. Imagination and innovation are mindsets that happen in an environment that celebrates students’ stories, passions, interests, and goals. This environment needs to go beyond the “innovation room” or the “makers space” that have become almost ubiquitous in today’s educational landscape. In order to spark each student’s innovative curiosity, these ideals need to be part of a full school culture and the way we teach every child, all the time.

Crucial to this mindset shift is education. Educating faculty happens through systemic and comprehensive professional development and understanding that the changes will not be immediate but will take time. As with every professional development initiative, support, role modeling, feedback, and accountability are the avenues for culture change. Ultimately, we want our Judaic and general studies faculties to have shared language, plan together, and view integration, curiosity, and critical thinking as their mandate and responsibility when teaching the next generation of critical thinkers and leaders.

At Carmel Academy, we have dedicated years of professional development and parent education to ensure that through traditional sacred text learning and critical thinking skills, our students gain empathy for the world, identify needs, and take action. An example of this is our Yamim Noraim project-based learning that we undertook with our middle school students this fall. At the center of Rosh Hashanah tefillot are three unique blessings: Malchuyot, Zichronot, and Shofarot. The liturgy describes three characteristics through which we can relate to God. Malchuyot: crowning God as King; Zichronot: remembrance; and Shofarot: blast that calls to action. Then on Yom Kippur we read the Avodah, the detailed account of ancient Jewish service to God.

Our middle school students learned, experienced, and took action on these blessings—first by studying the verses and then further exploring the meaning of those verses through experiential programs that took them off campus into the real world. We wanted the liturgy to come alive for the students, to transform the words on the page with a clear, cohesive message for the way we live our lives.

Our eighth graders studied the liturgy regarding crowning God as King through the idea of service. In visiting the US Military Academy at West Point, they learned why people dedicate their lives to service through military work. Our students heard about personal sacrifice and the satisfaction of giving back. After the trip, they discussed what it means for them to have a calling to serve something bigger than themselves. They reflected on what might be their calling to serve and how the trip connected back to the Malchuyot prayers.

Our seventh-grade students studied Zichronot, the idea of God as one who remembers our actions, our merits, and our intentions. They visited a cemetery where they cleaned old graves and made “remembrance” stones, which they then placed on the graves of people who are too easily forgotten. They explored the question, “What is the role of memory in our sacred tradition?”

Our sixth graders studied the liturgy surrounding Shofarot and visited the Anshe Chesed synagogue in New York City where they learned about a homeless shelter that runs every night at the synagogue and met with leaders of Midnight Run, which provides food for homeless people. There, the students learned how the synagogue’s call for action is to care for the homeless.

This liturgy asks us to take action, to remember those who are not as privileged as we are, and to support those who face challenges that we cannot imagine. The end result of this project-based, experiential-learning program is enduring lessons that we hope our students will remember and act on for life.

Effective leaders think deeply about the needs of today’s students, they are curious about how to best reach each and every faculty member and child, and they demonstrate and provide space for learning, experimentation, failure, and success. In today’s educational environment, we can claim success when our students leave our schools more curious than when they entered, when they are empathic and assume responsibility for making the necessary changes to improve the world, and when they take risks and understand that failure is part of success.

Nora Anderson is in her 15th year as Carmel Academy’s head of school. She has been a presenter at RAVSAK and PEJE Conferences, served as a mentor in the RAVSAK / AVI CHAI SuLaM program for heads of school with limited Jewish background, and is currently a mentor in the Day School Leadership Training Institute (DSLTI), a joint JTS and AVI CHAI foundation venture. Nora has also served on the Board of the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and is a member of the CAIS Leadership Institute Steering Committee.