Source: eJewish Philanthropy
Andrea Rose Cheatham Kasper, outlines her award winning proposal for the establishment of Yadaim, The Academy of Applied Academics. Yadaim, is an exciting and dynamic re-imagination of vocational schooling and relevant, engaging Jewish education, creating opportunities for students of many talents to find a place to develop and grow while offering them a myriad of potential career paths.
Andrea's Yadaim proposal was one of the winners of this the 2011 Jewish Futures Competition which dealt with prosumerism, the idea that people have evolved from simply being consumers to actively creating the world and experiences they seek.
In Andrea's words:
"At Yadaim, high school aged students work in multi-aged work groups engaging in hands on projects with a focus on production. The school is equipped with fully stocked woodwork, welding, and textile studios. There are specialized rooms to learn about electricity and plumbing. The school shares land on a working farm, running its own community supported agriculture (CSA) and brings food from the earth to the table in a teaching kitchen preparing food for the school community. Yadaim focuses on the arts with studio space for visual arts, music and dance…
Yadaim’s fundamental goal is relevancy in all areas of learning… Just as the textile work, farming, art and welding are applied at Yadaim, so is Jewish learning. As Judaism is grounded in agricultural practice, Yadaim uses these principles on the farm. The work of the Mishkan, provides ample opportunities for building and creation in various materials, all the while entrenched in Jewish thought. The kitchen is another area where students can experiment with the ideas of the ever expanding definition of eco-kashrut and its application to current ideas of food justice and ecology. As the school focuses on production, issues concerning Jewish business and ethics are applied as well."
See Andrea's proposal on eJewish Philanthropy.