How Are Today's Torah Schools "Traditional"?
I recently came across this response to recent legal threats against elementary and high school-aged Torah institutions in New York State:
Ignoring the letter’s central issue - which lies well beyond my expertise - there was a tangential claim that I don’t understand. First though, the quotation from the gemara in Yoma 28b was probably only added as a broad analogy meant to inspire rather than as a literal proof text. After all, the subject of that gemara is clearly limited to yeshivas whose students are already accomplished Torah scholars (‘זקנים’) rather than children.
But it was this statement in the context of children’s education that confused me:
“From the time our father Avraham sat in yeshiva, the shape and form of the yeshiva never ceased from Israel…”
The authors of that letter are obviously in possession of background that I’m missing, because I’m not sure what elements of chinuch we share with chadarim in previous generations. As I wrote in my “Is More Torah Always Better?” post:
Some might argue that today's Torah schools are simply faithfully following the mesorah begun in pre-war Europe and that these are things we haven't the right to change. I'm not so sure.
While it's true that teaching Torah is all about accurately transmitting to our children what we've received, the ways we go about doing that are constantly changing. For instance, I doubt there was ever a cheder in 19th Century Eastern Europe where they:
Examined student achievement through written tests
Offered emunah programs
Employed social workers
Taught in English (or Polish)
Used lesson plans
Required teacher training
Included למודי חול curricula
Didn't hit misbehaving children
I probably wouldn't have sent my kids to a cheder that didn't make use of those innovations. but we can't deny that they were, indeed, innovations…
So I’m afraid I’m lost. Besides the obvious fact that Torah schools have always existed to teach Torah, in what specific ways can the chinuch our children experience be compared to that of our ancestors?
I am eager to find out what I’m missing. Can anyone fill me in?