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Its now the norm to have a mesifta with only 30 boys per grade, independent of the elementary school, and craved out to be a tiny niche box where the boy is squeezed into. (There is alef plus alef elef minus beis plus plus reg beis etc).
The issues with this is
1) it puts so much pressure on the boys to fit into a small box and get into the one they desire.
2) The costs are so high which is a strain on parents to foot that bill. Because its so small they can’t rely on the law of large numbers and they aren’t part of the bigger mosod.
Whjere does this madness come from? We all grew up going to torah temima or torah vodaath, Mir Chaim berlin, 2-3 classes per grade, same school from K to K. I know the rosh mesiftas have torahs why this is better. I think its nonsense and they just want a shetla. Of course there is a bit of truth but they make a bigger deal about its advantges for self serving reasons.@Chaim87
There’s only one person who can change the system. YOU.
Write an article in the Voice of Lakewood and the Lakewood Shopper explaining how crazy it is, and that’s how you plant the seeds of change in people’s minds.these are hard tradeoffs: large classes allow students to listen to best teachers; smaller classes allow more attention to individual students.
Probably, you want smaller classes in younger grades.There is also economics – as so many are now qualified to be teachers, B’H, but not anything else, salaries should be lower and smaller classes relatively more affordable. Similar situation existed in US in 19th century when women could work as teachers, but not anywhere else. So, if you go to larger classes, then even more teachers (who are also parents of school students) who will have no jobs.
“We all grew up going to torah temima or torah vodaath, Mir Chaim Berlin” where English subjects were taught as well giving the bochurim skills when they would eventually go out to work. Now the only option Kollel Yungeleit have after years in Kollel is teaching and it’s barely a Parnassah for a large family, putting the weight on the wives and fathers in law. Bochurim who don’t fit into the mold have no local options like the above mentioned schools and many need to go out of town for options.
shomer, to add: there are online schools, either Jewish or private or, in some states, even public, where you can enroll our kids
in addition to your cheder. Kids might require your help at the beginning to navigate academics and some weirdness of non-Jewish curriculum.One of the biggest complaints that I’ve heard from Rebbeim at the yeshivas you’re mentioning, such as Torah Vodaath, about the multi-class system following through into high school, is that in high school they divide the classes up by aleph shiur, beis shiur, etc. is that a boy who is in the beis or gimmel shiur in a bigger yeshiva can (and often will) feel like he is walking around all day with a sign on his head that reads: “I am a dummy”.
By separating out these divisions, you can have the rebbeim focus on making each class of students feel good about where they are and inspire/push them to grow further.Different students genuinely have different kishronos and should be taught based on their abilities, not the next guy’s abilities.
Another point worth making is that the legacy yeshivas you are referring to were from a totally different point in time. Klal Yisroel has grown immensely since those institutions were created. They were the best option for their time; today’s rapid growth makes replicating that nearly impossible.
Chaim, in terms of secular studies – a lot of mesifta graduates are not able to write, and sometimes speak, normative English. This precludes employment outside of the kahal, and maybe it is fine with some.
If you have basic education (and your parents too so that they can direct you), then you can pick up accounting classes on a side, get online degree, etc. But if you don’t even getting a degree from heimishe online place does not fool anyone (and haval that it is really gnevas daas).
As to freebies, they all come out of “full tuition” paying customers like you. As any distorted monetary system it creates wrong incentives. When every kid’s father is a rebbe in the same school with free tuition – who will pay them salary?!
There’s truth to what you’re saying, but 2 issues.
1. There aren’t enough rebbi jobs for the amount of kollel people that have no career options other than to be a rebbi.
2. Have of the “Rabbeim come out with more” you mentioned is basically relying on tzedaka from the rest of the community. But as you said, the earnings have not kept up with the COL. So that is not so sustainable.When Yoav made a mistake, he went to his childhood teacher and asked whether he taught zeher or zahar … Gemora is ambiguous whether he killed him or not, probably on purpose … So, it is parents who are responsible for teaching kids Torah, profession, swimming (Kiddushin 32). I presume you learned this gemora in Chaim Berlin. So, if you later sent your kids and grandkids on a different derech “because everyone else does it”, it is on you.
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