Source: Torah Aura Bulletin Board
Idie Benjamin and Dale Sides Cooperman reflect on how we sometimes get derailed from our central goals while working at preparing our school children for Passover. We often spend a great deal of time talking about Passover & its mitzvoth rather than actually experiencing them with our students. They follow with some great examples of how to shift to a real effective experiential Passover curriculum.
They begin their reflection with some meaningful questions:
- What does it mean for a young child to be ready for Passover?
- What are we doing?
- Why are we doing it?
- What are the enduring understandings for this class of children at this chronological and developmental age, and with these particular interests?
- How will it all connect and make sense with their lives outside of school?
- In all the telling and rehearsing and making, have we considered what Pesach is really about?
They follow up with good suggestions for dealing with matzah, karpas, charoset and the Ten Plagues by creating meaningful experiences.
They conclude:
"What children learn “about” is not as important as the enduring understandings and the relevance of the meaning they make in the present. Experience is not the best teacher; it is the only teacher (Bev Bos). Help children to create meaning by thoughtfully providing meaningful experiences. Help them to understand what it means when we say that we all went out of Egypt."
Read their post on the Torah Aura Bulletin Board.