Chinuch 2.0

Gershon Distenteld is co-head of Fixed Income Securities at Alliance Bernstein and a frequent guest on CNBC. And behind the scenes, he is fighting for changing the way yeshiva education gets paid for. He believes that the current system, where parents pay tuitions that are way beyond the reach of typical families is a "Big Bubble" waiting to explode.

In this casual conversation, we discuss what's broken with the system and how things have to change in order for it to become sustainable in the long term.

Questions, comments, and guest ideas can be submitted on chinuchshow.com

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The seder is a time when parents have the ultimate responsibility of chinuch - giving over the mesorah of yiddishkeit by telling the story of yetzias mitzrayim to their children.

However, often times there's a struggle to do it right. The kids come with overflowing notebooks, and the other people around the table have thoughts to share, which leaves precious little time for the father to do his part.

Ideas and strategies on how to do the seder the way it was meant to be be done.

04:27 With Rabbi Yosef Deutsch, author of Let my Nation Go (Feldheim, 1998) and many other books in the series.

31:06 With Rabbi Sender Haber, Rabbi of B'nai Israel of Norfolk, Virginia (more info on the community here) and author of the best selling The Mosaica Haggadah (available at this link).

Questions, comments, and guest ideas can be submitted on chinuchshow.com

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The first thing children are taught in school is chumash, and for the most part, they never stop learning it.

But are we really teaching it the right way?

Rabbi David Fohrman has spent his whole life devoted to the study of chumash and the proper way to study its deeper meaning.

In this wide-ranging conversation, we spoke about how we give kids the wrong perspective about chumash from the very beginning when we tell them sensational stories about the parsha, such as the extending hand of Pharoh's daughter when she rescued Moshe from the Nile River in Parshas Shemos.

There is so much depth and meaning in Chumash that can only be realized by a careful study of the text, which is sorely lacking in the way we teach our children.

Rabbi Fohrman has developed a very large following and his lectures, books, articles and videos are available on his website alephbeta.org. There is an entire teacher curriculum which can be used for classroom instruction. Contact Rabbi Fohrman through his website at [email protected].

Questions, comments, and guest ideas can be submitted on chinuchshow.com

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For years, boys high school english in most yeshivas has been poor to non-existent, or even eliminated entirely, because of lack of interest from both the boys themselves and the hanhala.

Of course, this effects our boys' marketability in the job market when it is time to go out and earn a living. Many boys leave high school without learning the basic skills needed to land a job, such as writing, speaking, business math, etc.

Rabbi Mordechai Weissmann started The Machon as a teacher in a Baltimore high school to directly address this problem. Because the current system wasn't working, he didn't try to fix it.

Instead, he eliminated the existing method and built an entirely new method of teaching boys the critical business and life skills they need to succeed in the workplace.

Amazingly, the boys actually enjoy their english studies now, and the curriculum is even approved by state boards as a valid high school education.

Listen to how this revolutionary program works - and how you can help.

Rabbi Weissmann can be reached at [email protected]

Questions, comments, and guest ideas can be submitted on chinuchshow.com

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Why are so many of our childrens' schools experiencing huge teacher turnover? 

How can rabbeim and teachers get better control over classroom misbehavior?

Are the principals and school administrators properly supporting their staff so they can do their jobs well?

Sometimes as parents, when we hear what goes on in our children's classrooms we wonder, "Is this what we pay tuition for?" Schools principals simply cannot handle the massive turnover of teachers, who often arrive without the proper training to handle a classroom.

Teachers also may often feel that they are not being properly supported by the school administration. This leads to classroom misbehavior, not covering the basic curriculum, and teachers quitting or having to be let go.

Naema Tenenbaum has years of classroom experience and has a Masters in Education and Instruction. She has put together a comprehensive development program for teachers on how to effectively manage a classroom and deal with misbehavior. There is also a section for school principals on how to hire teachers properly and give them the support they need to manage their classrooms and be better teachers.

Naema Tenenbaum can be reached at [email protected] or by phone at 443-465-3810.

Questions, comments, and guest ideas can be submitted on chinuchshow.com

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We reached out to our listeners to take part in a survey about their experiences in seminary and we received hundreds of replies.

On today's show, we discuss the surprising responses we received.

We discussed the responses to these questions and more:

Questions, comments, and guest ideas can be submitted on chinuchshow.com

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January is seminary season and seminary applications have all been submitted by now, with girls anxiously awaiting their outcome in just a few short weeks.

As a follow up to our Headlines show about seminary in Eretz Yisrael, we wanted to feature someone on the other side of the aisle to explain the positive aspects of the experience.

Rabbi Shimon Kurland is a Chicago native who has been operating Darchei Bina seminary for American girls for 26 years.

Darchei Bina was one of only two seminaries that remained open during corona.

In our conversation, we cover why seminary is important for some girls, who seminary is not a good choice for, what subjects are taught, the goal of the overall experience, and much more.

We also discuss the high cost of seminary and what can be done to make it more affordable.

Rabbi Kurland also shared with us the story of remaining open during COVID and how the girls managed under the trying circumstances.

Questions, comments, and guest ideas can be submitted on chinuchshow.com

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Yoel Judowitz is a super creative marketer, owns a branding & marketing agency, and is also a veteran teacher with years of experience in the classroom. His creativity led him to develop a revolutionary method of teaching that has captivated his formerly unengaged students, and as a result, has them learning and mastering the curriculum better than ever before.

We talk about his system and its advantages, and how it could be used with great results especially in schools and communities who suffer from an acute shortage of qualified teachers.

Just to be fair, we propose various theories why schools would resist this approach.

Reach out to Yoel Judowitz with comments, suggestions, criticism, and questions via email at [email protected].

Questions, comments, and guest ideas can be submitted on chinuchshow.com

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Everyone knows that the most fundamental aspect of chinuch is kriah - learning how to read properly. Yet too many kids never catch on to it, which leads to huge deficiencies that lasts throughout their lives.

Tova Rottenberg, a kriah educator in Cleveland, has developed a comprehensive system for teaching kriah called Aleph Beis . Together with her brother Shmuel Barkin, the Aleph Beis Kriah program consists of books, printed materials, and a web-based software program that instructs children in a systematic approach with an unusually high success rate.

In this interview, we cover the basics of kriah instruction, why it is so important, and how their system is able to achieve such impressive results with their students.

Aleph Beis is actively in the midst of developing a cutting edge program for teaching kriah using computer-based learning, which would be the first of its kind.

To find out more and get involved in this monumental project, I urge you to reach out to Tova to help get this project to fruition.

Every child that can learn how read properly is literally like saving a life.

Tova Rottenberg can be reached at [email protected] 

Learn more about their program at alephbeis.org

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On Monday students in Far Rockaway and Queens are able to return to their schools once again after having been shut down by New York State over Succos. 

On this show we interview Rabbi Dovid Frischman, a Rebbe and Menahel of the 6th & 7th grades in Yeshiva Darchei Torah about the whole back and forth during this period.

We discuss how the Rebbeim, talmidim and menahelim were dealing with the shutdown and how excited everyone is to come back to yeshiva.

Questions, comments, and guest ideas can be submitted on chinuchshow.com

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