I don't know what you're doing...
Morah Shaina and Morah Donna, I don't know what you're doing…
...but you're doing it right. I was going to keep my son home from school today because he was congested this morning, but he cried and carried on that he wanted to go to school. When I took his temperature and it was fine and I realized that it was probably just allergies, I told him he could go. He literally jumped for joy! I asked him why he was so happy to go to school and he replied that he learns such "cool and fun stuff." I was really touched by his love and excitement for learning, and I feel that it is a credit to his wonderful teachers. Please continue the great work! I cc'd the administration because I felt that they should know what treasures they have on staff!
Why I Love Torah Day School (Copy)
By Holly Cin, a TDS parent of 3 boys
I love Torah Day School because my children want to go every morning. They get dressed with enthusiasm and ask to be dropped off early. They enjoy being there and learning is a joy for them. I say this proudly, without exaggeration, and I say this also with the understanding that without joy, there will be very little desire to learn, and without the desire to learn, very little “education” will ever take place.
An education is not about acquiring information, and it's not about test scores. Today, with unlimited information literally at our fingertips, nobody suggests that our kids sit in front of a screen and “google” all day because clearly, information is not the point. Stuffing our kids with data to memorize and then parrot back to us does not mean that any actual learning is taking place, in the same way that eating a meal and then regurgitating doesn’t mean that any nutrition is being digested.
An education, on the contrary, is in large part about learning what to do with information, how to process it in order to express thoughts and ideas. Indeed, the primary purpose of education is to have us learn how to use our minds as human beings who think logically, creatively, and independently, not as parrots or robots. While the tools and the access to information have changed rapidly in the past generation, the key still remains the content of our ideas. We can have awesome powerpoint presentations with impressive graphs and flow charts, but if we do not know how to organize and emphasize our ideas and key points, or even how to make points at all–then all we have is a fancy way of saying nothing–lots of form with no substance.
By the same token, reading is a tool, the means and not the end, so personally I am not interested in whether a child is reading by age four, whether by natural ability or by pushing and prodding. What I want to know is if that child is still reading at age 10 and 15 and 20. It’s not the mechanics of learning that is important but rather the love of learning that counts. It counts because it is the only thing that endures once the mechanics have been mastered.
There are several reasons why TDS is a great place for kids to learn. You enter some schools and you immediately feel the environment is sterile and cold, that it is an institution of learning with the emphasis on institution. Everything on the walls has been placed there with the eye of a decorator, not of a child. The children are stiff and proper and if the clothes were different you might think you were observing soldiers. On the contrary, TDS is filled with warmth and happiness. You see it in the faces and the postures of the children who are relaxed, and in the faces of the teachers and the staff who are friendly and ready to talk to you.
The teachers, in addition to being competent and skilled, are generally patient and kind. There is no fear and certainly no humiliation taking place in the classroom. There is no harsh discipline because the teachers and students treat each other with dignity and respect. The teachers understand and are sensitive to the children’s need to move around, to have recess and blow off steam, and they respond to those needs rather than merely push through with the day’s lesson plan. Indeed, one of the keys to being an effective teacher is knowing when to push and when to pull back, to understand that no real learning occurs when the conditions aren’t favorable.
The classroom at TDS is also worth talking about. It is a place that the teachers and students take pride in, not because it is filled with the latest educational tools and gadgets and not because its filled with fine furniture or fancy blackboards or expensive pictures and charts. They are proud of their classroom because it is filled with the work that they produce and the ideas that they generate in that classroom, both individually and in groups. It’s not perfectly orderly like a museum but there is a working order. The kids feel at home in their classroom, not like guests and not like strangers. While there are rules that everyone agrees to abide by, the children at TDS experience the freedom to move, to touch, to sit at a desk or get cozy on the floor, and this freedom is the catalyst for learning. It’s a place where the kids can play, experiment, get hands-on, and get messy, where nobody is worried about their clothes. It’s a place where people are more important than property and what goes on in a child’s mind is of the utmost priority.
Another reason why TDS is a great place for an education is that the class sizes, and thus the faculty/student ratio are small. While there is private tutoring during school hours for children who require extra attention in certain areas, the classes are small enough that, in general, there is no real need to segregate and label children according to their learning abilities. In other words, because the class is small, the teachers are flexible to allow the students to work at their own levels, rather than having them all be exactly at one class standard. As well, because the class size is small, the teacher has the time and ability to dedicate to each child according to his or her needs. In my experience so far, the teachers at TDS challenge their students while encouraging them. They do not apply undue pressure so the children aren’t nervous and they do not lack confidence.
In addition, because the teachers act as leaders and mentors as well as surrogate parents, they earn not just the respect of their students, but their love. The relationships they form continue even after the child moves on to the next grade and beyond. My child, for example, who is entering third grade in September, is still very close with his first grade teacher whom he catches up with each day during recess or carpool. In sum, what you have at TDS is the feeling of a very close-knit family, an environment that generates genuine caring and concern for everybody.
Until now I’ve explained why I believe that TDS is a great place for an education in general. Now I’m going to add why it’s such a special place for a Jewish education. A Jewish education means a moral education. It means teaching the children what is right and what is wrong, teaching them ethics and values, how to treat others and how to treat themselves, because devoid of a moral compass, the greatest minds in science will dedicate themselves to evil. Devoid of a moral compass, the most successful businessman will be ruthless in his regard for others and the environment. So more important than learning subjects is to learn those subjects within the context of Torah ethics, of what is permissible and what is not in the eyes of G‑d.
I have roughly 18 years–and probably less—in which to educate my childen before they leave my nest and create their own. More than anything else, I want to instill in them a love of G‑d, His Torah, and the Jewish people. While my children–from the youngest to the oldest–all come home from TDS ready to discuss the weekly parsha–and in impressive detail—and while my children are learning to read, write, speak, and pray in Hebrew quite beautifully, I believe that without a passion for Yiddishkeit, without a love for what the Torah is all about, the knowledge won’t suffice. Again, it’s not the knowledge itself but the application of that knowledge–knowing what to do with it; how to share it, how to spread it, how to engage with the texts and apply the lessons to our lives–that is the crux of the Torah education that I seek for my children. TDS instills in my children the joy and love of Torah, and with that joy and love as a foundation–coupled with the intellect that Hashem has blessed them with—I am confident that they will pursue the knowledge and live their life accordingly.
Finally, one of the most important reasons why TDS is a wonderful place for a Jewish education is that the teachers practice what they preach. They teach Torah because they believe in Hashem and they live by His word. There is no contradiction between what they say and what they do and this is the most important lesson of all that I could have my children be taught. The Torah is not just another subject to study for the sake of knowledge but the very foundation of our life and I want my children to be guided by it. Indeed, I want everything they learn to be filtered through the lens of Torah–from art to science to math to politics. These topics are not separate from the world Hashem has created but rather integral parts.
In my opinion, Torah Day School is a precious gem in the Houston community and I feel blessed to be a part of it. TDS welcomes Jews from all walks of life and levels of observance to be part of the TDS family.
My Dear Morah Yaffa,
My Dear Morah Yaffa,
Thank you for all your hard work. I consider it an incredible gift to be able to teach children Lashon Hakodesh and to do it well. There are those things that I cannot do for my children so I must look elsewhere for it. Hashem, in His infinite kindness gave you to us. I know our children are in the hands of a master teacher. I have seen a big change in my child. Her confidence in Hebrew is improving. I believe it is because she has a Master teacher to challenge her. You not only care about practical Hebrew skills but you also push the children to grow as individual. When my child is successful then she knows that she doesn’t have to be timid. Thank you for never giving up and always using your Sight of what each child can be and for using your many many skills to bring our children to master Lashon Hakodesh.
Enjoy the flowers and have a Good Shabbos!
A TDS Parent
That is how they will get there!
Dear Mrs. Susman,
Thank you for all your hard work! I have always maintained that TDS teachers have a big job keeping secular studies on par with the depth of Torah learning that wells from the Chassidim’s heart. I believe TDS succeeds because of wonderful teachers like you. Like a master gardener you know when to push and when to pull back; always wanting the seedling to grow but always pushing, all the same, with sweetness and kindness. It is a tremendous gift to be able to teach our children to approach learning with confidence. It makes uptake and retention of new skills so much easier.
I myself have learned through following your example, not to get caught up in a hectic lifestyle, but to somehow focus on calm confidence. Now when I work with my child I am now mindful to show her through example to attend to our work with calm confidence.
Thank you for believing in my child and for being able to see her at a place where she will have mastered her trouble spots. That is how they will get there!!!
Thank you again!
Enjoy the flowers and have a Good Shabbos
A TDS Parent
Torah Day School is the Place To Be
It all begins with an idea.
Torah Day School is the Place To Be
by Mrs. Amy Shannon (3rd grade teacher)
Torah Day School is the place to be,
To grow and develop, I know you’ll agree!
The school is the greatest, the teachers supreme,
The children intelligent, with such self esteem!
The Judaic and Hebrew are taught with such care,
They daven and bench and Thank G‑d with prayer.
The parsha, the Chumash and mitzvos we do,
The holidays and history of us as a Jew.
We learn this all, and secular, too,
Reading, writing and math are a few…
Science and social studies, computers they love,
Our children are heads and shoulders above!
There are programs in school, such as academic fair,
We go to New York, San Antonio, you never know where!
We go to Galveston, museums and the park,
Ask us a question about Lewis and Clark!
We have tutoring, game day and taekwondo class,
We even had an artist, a blower of glass!
We had speakers to come from NASA and such,
We love to learn, and we learn so much!
A sofer, an author a meteorologist,
We learned about rocks from a mineralogist!
After school we have fun with many activities,
We celebrate holidays with many festivities!
Basketball teams and Girls organizations,
Color war games where we have many stations.
Father- Daughter breakfast and spaghetti lunch,
Pizza is a highlight, we eat a bunch!
Art class and yearbook and Father-Son Learning,
Chronicle Spelling Bee and whatever you’re yearning!
Grow green dress up day and library week,
Big sister program, when it’s friends that you seek!
Tzivos Hashem program and awards we have known,
By the way, we know every bone!
Rosh Chodesh plays and Home for the Aged,
We love to entertain, and we can’t be upstaged!
We love to watch nature and we see it for real,
A bird in the water fountain was pretty surreal!
A place for a nest, the bird must have thought,
Watching eggs hatch and all that it taught!
Nature at our own back door,
What a way to learn and explore!
Chanukah essays and dreidels and Seder,
We are the best school from tots to 8th grader!
There is so much we do here, Torah Day School is awesome,
It is so much fun to watch the kids grow and blossom!
Why I Love Torah Day School
It all begins with an idea.
By Holly Cin, a TDS parent of 3 boys
I love Torah Day School because my children want to go every morning. They get dressed with enthusiasm and ask to be dropped off early. They enjoy being there and learning is a joy for them. I say this proudly, without exaggeration, and I say this also with the understanding that without joy, there will be very little desire to learn, and without the desire to learn, very little “education” will ever take place.
An education is not about acquiring information, and it's not about test scores. Today, with unlimited information literally at our fingertips, nobody suggests that our kids sit in front of a screen and “google” all day because clearly, information is not the point. Stuffing our kids with data to memorize and then parrot back to us does not mean that any actual learning is taking place, in the same way that eating a meal and then regurgitating doesn’t mean that any nutrition is being digested.
An education, on the contrary, is in large part about learning what to do with information, how to process it in order to express thoughts and ideas. Indeed, the primary purpose of education is to have us learn how to use our minds as human beings who think logically, creatively, and independently, not as parrots or robots. While the tools and the access to information have changed rapidly in the past generation, the key still remains the content of our ideas. We can have awesome powerpoint presentations with impressive graphs and flow charts, but if we do not know how to organize and emphasize our ideas and key points, or even how to make points at all–then all we have is a fancy way of saying nothing–lots of form with no substance.
By the same token, reading is a tool, the means and not the end, so personally I am not interested in whether a child is reading by age four, whether by natural ability or by pushing and prodding. What I want to know is if that child is still reading at age 10 and 15 and 20. It’s not the mechanics of learning that is important but rather the love of learning that counts. It counts because it is the only thing that endures once the mechanics have been mastered.
There are several reasons why TDS is a great place for kids to learn. You enter some schools and you immediately feel the environment is sterile and cold, that it is an institution of learning with the emphasis on institution. Everything on the walls has been placed there with the eye of a decorator, not of a child. The children are stiff and proper and if the clothes were different you might think you were observing soldiers. On the contrary, TDS is filled with warmth and happiness. You see it in the faces and the postures of the children who are relaxed, and in the faces of the teachers and the staff who are friendly and ready to talk to you.
The teachers, in addition to being competent and skilled, are generally patient and kind. There is no fear and certainly no humiliation taking place in the classroom. There is no harsh discipline because the teachers and students treat each other with dignity and respect. The teachers understand and are sensitive to the children’s need to move around, to have recess and blow off steam, and they respond to those needs rather than merely push through with the day’s lesson plan. Indeed, one of the keys to being an effective teacher is knowing when to push and when to pull back, to understand that no real learning occurs when the conditions aren’t favorable.
The classroom at TDS is also worth talking about. It is a place that the teachers and students take pride in, not because it is filled with the latest educational tools and gadgets and not because its filled with fine furniture or fancy blackboards or expensive pictures and charts. They are proud of their classroom because it is filled with the work that they produce and the ideas that they generate in that classroom, both individually and in groups. It’s not perfectly orderly like a museum but there is a working order. The kids feel at home in their classroom, not like guests and not like strangers. While there are rules that everyone agrees to abide by, the children at TDS experience the freedom to move, to touch, to sit at a desk or get cozy on the floor, and this freedom is the catalyst for learning. It’s a place where the kids can play, experiment, get hands-on, and get messy, where nobody is worried about their clothes. It’s a place where people are more important than property and what goes on in a child’s mind is of the utmost priority.
Another reason why TDS is a great place for an education is that the class sizes, and thus the faculty/student ratio are small. While there is private tutoring during school hours for children who require extra attention in certain areas, the classes are small enough that, in general, there is no real need to segregate and label children according to their learning abilities. In other words, because the class is small, the teachers are flexible to allow the students to work at their own levels, rather than having them all be exactly at one class standard. As well, because the class size is small, the teacher has the time and ability to dedicate to each child according to his or her needs. In my experience so far, the teachers at TDS challenge their students while encouraging them. They do not apply undue pressure so the children aren’t nervous and they do not lack confidence.
In addition, because the teachers act as leaders and mentors as well as surrogate parents, they earn not just the respect of their students, but their love. The relationships they form continue even after the child moves on to the next grade and beyond. My child, for example, who is entering third grade in September, is still very close with his first grade teacher whom he catches up with each day during recess or carpool. In sum, what you have at TDS is the feeling of a very close-knit family, an environment that generates genuine caring and concern for everybody.
Until now I’ve explained why I believe that TDS is a great place for an education in general. Now I’m going to add why it’s such a special place for a Jewish education. A Jewish education means a moral education. It means teaching the children what is right and what is wrong, teaching them ethics and values, how to treat others and how to treat themselves, because devoid of a moral compass, the greatest minds in science will dedicate themselves to evil. Devoid of a moral compass, the most successful businessman will be ruthless in his regard for others and the environment. So more important than learning subjects is to learn those subjects within the context of Torah ethics, of what is permissible and what is not in the eyes of G‑d.
I have roughly 18 years–and probably less—in which to educate my childen before they leave my nest and create their own. More than anything else, I want to instill in them a love of G‑d, His Torah, and the Jewish people. While my children–from the youngest to the oldest–all come home from TDS ready to discuss the weekly parsha–and in impressive detail—and while my children are learning to read, write, speak, and pray in Hebrew quite beautifully, I believe that without a passion for Yiddishkeit, without a love for what the Torah is all about, the knowledge won’t suffice. Again, it’s not the knowledge itself but the application of that knowledge–knowing what to do with it; how to share it, how to spread it, how to engage with the texts and apply the lessons to our lives–that is the crux of the Torah education that I seek for my children. TDS instills in my children the joy and love of Torah, and with that joy and love as a foundation–coupled with the intellect that Hashem has blessed them with—I am confident that they will pursue the knowledge and live their life accordingly.
Finally, one of the most important reasons why TDS is a wonderful place for a Jewish education is that the teachers practice what they preach. They teach Torah because they believe in Hashem and they live by His word. There is no contradiction between what they say and what they do and this is the most important lesson of all that I could have my children be taught. The Torah is not just another subject to study for the sake of knowledge but the very foundation of our life and I want my children to be guided by it. Indeed, I want everything they learn to be filtered through the lens of Torah–from art to science to math to politics. These topics are not separate from the world Hashem has created but rather integral parts.
In my opinion, Torah Day School is a precious gem in the Houston community and I feel blessed to be a part of it. TDS welcomes Jews from all walks of life and levels of observance to be part of the TDS family.
Todah Rabah, a letter of gratitude, from a TDS Family
It all begins with an idea.
From the Landweber Family
B"H
Dear Mrs. Lazaroff,
Three years ago when I walked into your office and asked you to educate my daughter, I know you said yes with reservations. Well, there are no words that I can find to say THANK YOU for all you have done. Thank you, not only for what you have done for Daniella, but even more for what you and Rabbi have taught me.
Never have I felt so alive as I do when I am able to come and learn with you. Gleaning the truth from Torah as I learned on Shabbos afternoons with you made it all seem real and relevant. I now make sure to find time everyday to learn and Daven, because you made it come alive. I see it in Daniella, the joy she has at Shabbos dinner when we go over her Parsha questions, and she not only answers them, but goes into depth with her answers.
The staff you have put together is phenomenal. Their caring and understanding of the needs of each student, in order to bring out their best, is extraordinary. The foundation that Daniella has received, I know will serve her well as she enters the newest chapter in her life, living in Israel. This has been a three year relationship that will remain at the forefront of our lives. I can't thank you enough for all that you have done. I will send you periodic updates as our family continues to grow, im yirtzeh Hashem Hashem, in Torah and Mitzvot.