The pandemic has disrupted our lives and routines in many ways and presented challenges and opportunities for the field of early childhood Jewish education. While the impact of the pandemic is not monolithic, each educator has had to grapple with the complications and effects of pandemic life.

During this challenging year, thirteen early childhood Jewish educators and professionals from Israel, UK, USA and Turkey have been meeting regularly. Together, we explore the ecosystem of early childhood Jewish education, the relationships within the system and their effect on our practices and the children we raise. In a recent meeting, we discussed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our practices, the children and educators, the families and our communities. The following reflections consider how adaptations challenged assumptions and core professional practice and generated implications for the future. 

Better Attunement to Students' Needs

The challenges of virtual learning and pandemic-driven constraints provoked an examination of beliefs around best practices and children’s needs. For example, without undermining the challenges during the early closures many programs experienced, the virtual experience elicited new ways of thinking about young children's self-directed explorations and creativity. These observations and insights continue to inform educators’ perspectives back in the classroom.

One England-based participant described how, at home, young children were exposed to fewer materials when tasked with an activity. However, their creativity, individuality and problem-solving skills were at work when the expectations were less prescriptive. This educator professed that “when they weren't given as much, they did more.”

Another member from England echoed these sentiments as she confronted pre-pandemic ideas about “formal work” once back in the classroom. She asserted, “It is better to just be with the children and have that social interaction because that is what they need.” The group described how they became more aware of the needs of young children in nuanced ways due to the context of the pandemic on children’s lives and routines.

Similarly, an American participant shared that the main effect of the restrictions within the school was the importance of “not rushing.” Prior to the pandemic, her program supported a busy schedule with guests leading different activities, such as music, yoga and swim. But as “nobody came into school,” the children and teachers did not spend much of the day rushing from one place to the other. With an open schedule, this educator was “more focused on the needs of the children.” Overall, there was a shift from prescriptive approaches to the prioritizing of individual children's interests, capacities and needs. 

Anxiety-less Separation

Another phenomenon that challenged normative practices for many were changes to pick-up and drop-off routines. Drop-off is often an opportunity to invite families into the program and ensure that young children and their grownups have space and time to separate with as much comfort as possible. While this practice is informed by our knowledge of child development and interrelated beliefs about attachment, safety and family partnerships, the pandemic restrictions obviated the normative practice for families to enter the building.

However, educators reveled in the positive impact of these changes. One expressed that without the children’s grownups present, drop-off was “more about the teacher and child.” This was emphasized by those in the group who reflected that drop-off was “smoother” because children are “happy and engaged with the teachers instead of [with separation from] their parents.” As such, necessary changes allowed educators to challenge assumptions and norms that produced new ways of viewing routines for the future. One Israeli highlighted this paradigm shift: “I used to think it was nice for parents to come into the gan (preschool), but now kids come in… so much better for the kids. We start the day and they are not thinking about the parents the whole time.”

Family Participation: Opportunities and Constraints 

Technology complicated many teaching practices and relationships, particularly with families. As such, it was viewed both as a constraint and a mechanism for flexibility and accessibility. The reliance on technology carries various equity considerations that demand attention. Not all families have access to the internet or have the necessary devices for full participation. Furthermore, some explained how religious outlooks about internet use clashed with many of the new norms of communication and teaching, or that some families were concerned about their young children leaving a virtual footprint.

In terms of its inclusive potential, Zoom was a useful tool for incorporating multiple members of the family. One England-based professional shared that storytimes for the children in the class evolved into family affairs. Family members were able to “Zoom in” to important school programming. Another in England detailed an incredibly successful virtual family drop-in that led to discussions in the group about how to best support and include families in the future. The power of technology opened doors to facilitate a connection in a time of isolation.

Indoor and Outdoor Space

Just as educators experienced both restrictions and options due to technology, some discussed how adaptation was impacted by space and environment. One described how their program, which already valued and prioritized outdoor play, was well equipped to meet the demands of the pandemic restrictions. As classes ventured through more outdoor play, they noticed the positive influence on both the children and the faculty.

However, others reflected on their limited outdoor space and limited building and classroom space. One American shared about their creativity in moving around the large building and how the young children were flexible in this process. Others discussed the few options they had for moving outside of the classroom, constraining their flexibility to address and reconsider practice in response to pandemic considerations.

Space plays a central role in both challenging and supporting practices with young children and families. As the participants engaged in a deeper exploration about space, the environment and its role in practice, a more nuanced understanding of each other’s context emerged.

Implications for the Future 

During the pandemic, educators, children and families all experienced and learned the importance of adaptation. Educators discussed trying new things, experimenting, assessing the outcomes and collaborating with others. These are important skills that children and their teachers often employ and will continue to use throughout their lives. It was within the need to change that inventive approaches emerged.

These participants revealed the ingenuity of early childhood Jewish educators as they faced the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on practice. Their openness and reflective skills were showcased as they reexamined values, goals and beliefs about young children, professionalism and families. For some, the pandemic caused few changes to their programs. For others, the pandemic led to grave interruptions to children’s and faculty’s daily routines and interactions.

New Best Practices 

The extreme, new reality that the pandemic created forced us to change our practices. There was no book or theory to guide us through this process. In some ways, it empowered the educators to take responsibility, ask many questions, experiment and make choices that fit the children with whom they work and their communities. How do we take these lessons and experiences to inform future practices and relationships? What will “stick” and challenge what we once assumed was “best practice”?

While the major takeaway for all was that “children are amazing,” reinforcing the importance of investing in young children and “being present” with them, several questions arose about how these experiences will continue to impact professional roles and practices. The lockdowns and new classroom needs created urgency to reflect on the impact on educators. One teacher expressed that during lockdown, she was “on all the time”; the work never stopped, and boundaries were blurry. We must ask, how do we go beyond lauding educators to ensure that they are valued and compensated for their expertise and time?

The following is a list of questions based on these reflections and realizations concerning the long-term impact on professional practice that was shared back to the group.

1. How will these global perspectives on “being less prescriptive” reinforce the need to question assumptions about expectations and interactions with young children?
2. How will new insights about drop-off impact future program policies, and how will this be communicated to the families?
3. How will the inclusive practices afforded by Zoom lead to new programming approaches towards family partnerships?
4. How will the reliance on technology continue to inform how we address issues of equity?
5. How will we use important contextual factors like space to further reflect on our work with young children?
6. How will we disseminate newly curated resources to support each other across geographical location and program type?

Serena Deutch, Director of Admissions, Jewish Community Day School (JCDS)

Our pluralistic school in the Greater New Orleans area, serving infants through sixth grade, began the 2021-2022 school year by reaching a new enrollment record. However, long before the pandemic, the school’s future was not always certain.
Originally named New Orleans Jewish Day School (NOJDS), JCDS was founded in 1996 and grew steadily. By 2004, it boasted 85 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. In August 2005, however, Hurricane Katrina decimated the homes of much of the Greater New Orleans Jewish population, and many were slow to return to town. NOJDS was already struggling when the economic crisis of 2008-2009 made a day school education a luxury. By 2013, the school had fewer than thirty students, all in K-5, and had changed its name to Community Day School in an effort to broaden its appeal.

The tide began to turn with the hiring of a veteran Jewish day school educator, Sharon Pollin, as head in 2013. During her tenure, she reestablished the school’s Jewish identity and strengthened its general studies program, which helped enrollment grow. The school was renamed again, now as Jewish Community Day School of Greater New Orleans, and finally fulfilled a longstanding vision of adding the Reggio-inspired Susan and Howard Green Preschool. When Brad Philipson, a native New Orleanian with a background in secular schools, stepped in, he brought a fresh perspective to a preschool through sixth grade school with an enrollment of 72 children.

In June 2020, I began my tenure as admissions director with an understanding of the school’s history and the importance of building upon its recent period of renewal. My passion for Jewish community-building underscored the importance of helping this community thrive.

The summer passed by quickly; I sifted through unresolved, pre-lockdown admissions files and ushered applicants through the process. Before long, school resumed in person, and a new admissions cycle had begun, even while we received more applications for the current year. We partnered with the largest hospital system in the region, Ochsner, to develop our Covid protocols, bolstering our school’s reputation among the medical community. While stricter than most peer schools, the enforcement of those protocols combined with a supportive parent body meant that the number of per-capita Covid cases and even exposures during the 2020-2021 school year were among the lowest in the city. Students added after the start of the year eventually led to a new peak enrollment. Eighty-seven students might not sound like much, but for JCDS, it represented a giant exhale, a sense that things really were going to be okay.

As someone new to day school admissions, I relished the chance to experiment with innovative ways to recruit and engage families. When the annual Sukkot BBQ was canceled due to Covid restrictions, we pivoted to a Sukkot Scavenger Hunt that partnered with local synagogues. The virtual open house had more attendees than previous in-person events. A strong partnership with the Parents Association, also under new leadership, led to more creative community-building opportunities.
Amidst this period of growth, we haven’t lost sight of the school’s deep, personal relationships and our care for one another. In August 2021, we welcomed 100 students, the highest enrollment in the school’s history. Shortly thereafter, on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ida raced through Louisiana, displacing families for weeks. Class group chats and Facebook communication sprang up, and families hosted playdates in their evacuated cities, from Houston to Atlanta.

An online Shabbat program included recorded greetings from day schools across the country, and the continued support for our school has been unwavering at this pivotal moment. In the years since Katrina, the school didn’t simply revive itself—it took the concerted effort of dedicated leaders, community members, educators and families to help manifest the continued growth of our school. We are happy to be together once again, and we look forward to a bright future.

Aviva Walls, Head of School, and
Amy Pernick, Director of Admissions, Gesher Jewish Day School 

The numbers are impressive: In just 18 months, our enrollment has increased by just over 50%, from 106 to 173. One might think the story behind this statistic is a simple one. We offered in-person learning five days a week when area public schools weren’t able to do the same. However, there are far more factors that led to Gesher’s success than one might presume. Behind those statistics lies not only a favorable physical environment, but also a supportive board, a shift in school culture toward embracing feedback, a dedicated and passionate team, the desire for community and connection, and a bit of luck.

Our size was an asset; we are fortunate to have a large building situated on 28 acres of land. Additionally, the Governor of Virginia issued specific regulations for school reopening, meaning that we had guidance to follow as we crafted a plan that would allow us to keep our students healthy and safe. Our team never wavered in our commitment to do what was needed to safely reopen for in-person learning.

Gesher’s announcement that we would be opening for five-day-a-week in-person learning, juxtaposed with our local county schools’ announcing their plan for hybrid-learning model, led to a surge of new inquiries and applications throughout the summer of 2020 and into the fall. Within a month of school starting, we were “Covid full,” unable to safely accommodate any additional students for the school year. In Amy’s words, “After having been at home in quarantine since March, the rush of applications over the summer felt like I was drinking from a firehose. I felt personally responsible for making sure that every family I spoke to felt cared for and heard after the collective trauma that we had all experienced.”
During those frantic summer months, our board gave us the leeway and support (both personally and financially) to make quick and nimble decisions. Our ventilation system was upgraded, masks and hand sanitizer were purchased in bulk and four event tents were purchased and installed to provide shelter for outdoor learning. The most significant change involved knocking down eight walls to create double-sized classrooms to accommodate social distancing. Supportive board aside, the other greatest key to our success lay in securing two of the best medical advisors a school could need. One was the chief epidemiologist for our county’s health department, the other a veteran pediatrician who also serves on the school reopening committee for the Virginia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Together, they provided a wealth of knowledge and wisdom, answering questions from our faculty and parents and supporting us through difficult operational decisions.

Despite all our preparation, we were still more than a bit anxious about our decision to teach in-person. There was an unspoken fear that we would be lucky to stay open beyond the first six weeks. However, with the partnership of our community, the dedication and sacrifice of our faculty, and the help of Hashem, we remained open for the entire year.

The news of our success quickly spread throughout the larger community. By April, we celebrated not only 100 days of school in-person, but 100 new student applications for the upcoming school year! With so many prospective students to meet, Amy re-imagined the admissions process rather than simply sticking to what had worked last year: “It was critically important that we convey the warmth of our community every step of the way, despite limitations that meant many families were making enrollment decisions without having set foot in the school.” Even families that ultimately turned down our offers of enrollment remarked on the care and attention they received.

We knew that successful admissions would only play a small part in ensuring Gesher’s long-term growth and success. By increasing our retention efforts, we built trust and connection with our current families. We solicited feedback (both favorable and constructive) during check-in phone calls and sent out surveys multiple times throughout the year to ensure that every voice was heard. We found ways to create Covid-safe outdoor events and made morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up opportunities to engage and connect as well.

While Covid may have attracted a number of our new families to our school, it was their desire for belonging, for the community and connection that we have fostered at Gesher, that has kept them engaged with us and helped us retain nearly 70% of our new students even when public schools reopened this fall. We are incredibly grateful and proud of what we’ve accomplished together this past 18 months, ensuring that the next generation of Gesher students are grounded in belonging and Jewish joy.

Laura Lavine, Head of School, Syracuse Hebrew Day School

For the third consecutive year, our kindergarten class has more students than in recent memory. In fact, this September’s class is the largest in more than ten years.

The continued growth of our K-6 school is attributable to a number of variables, including the high quality of its general/secular education, it's Hebrew and Jewish studies instruction, art and music including Jewish music and individual instrumental music lessons, physical education, a beautiful library with accompanying instruction, small class sizes, additions to faculty and greater financial stability. Our technology surpasses that of most elementary schools in the area: not only do we provide a device for each student and have Viewsonic boards in each classroom, we have a brand new broadcasting studio complete with a green screen that our students use every day.

This continues to be a challenging time for families. No one could have imagined that we would be facing a third consecutive year of Covid. Fortunately, with support from our families, students, employees, board of directors, and greater community, we kept Covid at bay and had no Covid transmissions during the 2020-2021 school year. We provide a safe environment, allowing teachers to focus on students and their learning. However, if in-person instruction is not possible this year, we are prepared to shift to online learning again on very short notice, as we did in the spring of 2020.

Now in its 61st year, Syracuse Hebrew Day School continues to earn its reputation for educational excellence for Jewish and non-Jewish students. That reputation helped our enrollment increase by 50% for the 2020-2021 school year during Covid. I am especially pleased to note the families that are continuing with us even after public schools returned to relatively normal operations. Some families enrolled their children at SHDS last school year because we opened for full-time, in-person instruction last September. They are staying because they value the individualized education that their children are receiving and the intimacy of our small school community.

Ali Reingold, Director of Admissions and Marketing, Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor

Spanning more than 45 years and the only Jewish day school in town, our TK-5 school welcomes families from the broadest range of Jewish practice and observance, embracing the idea that the tent is big enough for us all, and that a strong community is built through the celebration of both our similarities and our differences. Over the past several years, with students numbering in the high 40s to low 50s, we employed a robust, multifaceted recruitment strategy to increase visibility and enrollment. Offering an exceptional, whole-child focused education in general studies, Judaic studies and Hebrew language, HDS found itself positioned as an excellent school in a crowded market, with a plethora of local public, private and charter options.

In March 2020, as the whiplash of the Covid-19 pandemic overwhelmed schools, everything at HDS went virtual: teaching, learning and even admissions. When we reopened for in-person instruction for the 2020-2021 school year, the school’s Covid-19 protocols prohibited visitors from entering the building. Could admissions work continue remotely? Would interested families still fall in love with HDS from afar?

The admissions department saw this not as an obstacle but as an opportunity. Reflecting on experiences from the past, it became clear that the strategies that had allowed HDS to successfully build relationships with prospective students and families would remain the same, whether in-person or on Zoom. Conversations would still begin with an authentic description of and deep dive into the mission-driven educational product. There would still be a strong commitment to holding space for parents to show their thinking, ask questions and address concerns. And the school’s desire and ability to build community would be evident throughout, as every interaction between school and family would be professional, genuine, and warm.

With the admissions team poised to pivot to remote work, inquiries began increasing, as parents in the Ann Arbor area searched for in-person instruction for their children. The power of word of mouth had never been more evident, as HDS parent ambassadors, armed with gratitude towards and passion for the school, spread the word within their communities.
I spent hours on Zoom with interested parents. As an alumni parent myself, I understood the importance of taking the time and care to learn each family’s story, helping them make connections between their current experiences and those that HDS would offer their child(ren). Teachers, still eager to connect with potential students as a part of the admissions process, constructed unique games and activities that could be played via Zoom, each one tailored to that child’s interests.

Ultimately, the admissions team spent hours online, with parents, with students and with each other, as they reviewed and evaluated the growing number of new applications. Seats filled, and a waitpool was created. By the end of the 2020-2021 school year, HDS counted its enrollment at 59 students. We are thrilled to say that for 2021-2022, after retaining nearly all of the new students who had joined the previous year, and adding 27 new students, enrollment currently stands at 70. Our school—the students, the staff, and the families—is truly a joyful, and now growing, community of learners.

San Diego Jewish Academy (SDJA), an ECE-12 community day school, has an enrollment of over 700 and has grown 27 percent in just two years. While we know that many families enrolled in private schools as a direct result of the pandemic, SDJA was also uniquely set up to meet the needs of our community thanks to several recent initiatives: middle class tuition modeling, increased tuition assistance and an enhanced learning center to meet the needs of a wider group of students.

Virtual Experiences

Within this context, in our recruitment campaign for 2021-2022 we created new and different opportunities for our prospective families to learn about our community, school programs and educational opportunities. We transitioned smoothly to virtual tours with a four-step approach in which I learned about the prospective family, shared about the school, gave them a virtual tour of the campus and discussed next steps. While the enrollment outcomes were positive, I recognized the challenges, the near impossibility, of creating a virtual campus experience that would reflect our dynamic school. Creating the feel of community, sharing the excitement and the true feel of campus, is difficult through a computer screen.
To find best practices and understand what worked for other similar schools, I leaned on colleagues from other day schools in Southern California. I participated in their virtual open houses and informationals. I was inspired by their creativity and how they captured the excitement on campus, the passion of their teachers, and authentic student experiences. Participating in their events inspired me to create a virtual framework that more effectively shared the dynamic story and the strong community encompassed in the SDJA experience.

In addition to our virtual tours, we created other virtual experiences, including A Day in the Life of a Kindergartner, a student Taste of Kindergarten, as well as a middle school informational, a high school informational and parlor meetings. Creating virtual events presents challenges, and I am proud that our staff and community rose to these challenges and embraced the urgency to create new experiences for our recruitment process. As we did, we began to appreciate the several important positive developments that came from hosting virtual events: We expanded our reach to a wider audience, in part by being able to share event recordings; both parents attended these events, as opposed to only one parent during in-person events; and we reached families that were considering relocating to San Diego before they made the move.

Transitioning to Hybrid

Now, as we begin the 2022-2023 admissions recruitment season, we remain under the shadow of the pandemic and the many unknowns that come with it. Thankfully, our local ordinances enable us to welcome students and our prospective families on campus, giving us more “tools in the toolbox” as we move forward with recruitment efforts. We will implement a robust hybrid approach to recruitment so that those on-campus experiences for prospective families are paired with virtual experiences. That might entail an online meeting between parents and administrators, or a more dynamic virtual tour of any one of our campus learning spaces—from the garden, to the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Thinking, to a Hebrew class and more. By embracing hybrid, we will create more touchpoints than ever before throughout our recruitment process.

Our Strategy

As I plan for recruitment for next school year, I’m excited for the following: We will be conducting a study to learn more about our 150 new families from the last two years and the current makeup of our school. Those new families constitute one third of our community. We want to know where they come from, what languages are being spoken at home, their synagogue affiliation (if any), which families are alumni, and why they ultimately chose SDJA. With this information, we will be able to target our recruiting efforts even more effectively to reach more prospective families, as well as better understand our current families and address their needs and expectations accordingly, with retention in mind.

Last May, as Covid restrictions loosened, we began small group tours for new families who had never actually stepped foot on campus. We look forward to continuing these, in which our administrators offer brief welcoming remarks followed by a campus tour led by our admissions team with our parent ambassadors on hand to answer questions. We give our teachers notice ahead of time so they are not caught off guard when guests arrive in their class.

In line with the strategic reasoning for small group tours, we will host additional targeted events that meet the needs of our community. We have learned that an open house experience—and all the planning that entails—did not offer a strong ROI. Over the years, families expressed appreciation for events clearly planned with their needs and backgrounds in mind. We enjoyed success with this model for a number of different groups, including events with our Spanish speaking families entering ninth grade and incoming kindergarten families from a particular synagogue. We have found that the families that join our smaller events are more likely to apply and enroll, and this will be an integral part of 2022-2023 recruitment strategy.

We again will hold our virtual Day in the Life events—for middle school and high school, as well as kindergarten—and informationals. It was clearly beneficial for families with busy schedules; they are able to Zoom in from anywhere to join the event, continuing the wide reach of our recruitment efforts.

Importantly, we will continue to use our engaging and successful parent ambassadors to follow up with our prospective families and to help recruit their friends. We have found that the personal relationships and insight provided by our parent ambassadors are invaluable to families looking at SDJA and provide an important personal connection to our school as new families join our growing community.

We will continue active engagement with our key community partners, such as PJ Library, youth group directors, the local JCC, and other key leaders and organizations. These relationships enable us to get in front of more families, showcase the opportunities SDJA could present for their child, and inform them of our affordability initiatives.

If this last year has taught us anything about recruitment, it is that we must meet families where they are. This past year, it was mostly virtual. We found that much of the virtual programming was beneficial and believe that a hybrid effort combining the success of the past year with an even stronger in-person connection when possible will be a winning combination for our recruitment efforts going forward.

Once again, we will continue to be adaptive to the current situation and be nimble enough to change course to create opportunities for our community to learn about the benefit of a Jewish day school education and experience.

by Debra Campbell

Over the past 8 days I had a rare, transformative experience. What was rare was the fact that it was actually transformative, and I’m not easy to transform. Thanks to Prizmah, I joined a group of educators from Jewish day schools around the country to participate in a professional development program that looked like it was made for folks who love the arts.

The program, called Consenses, was created and taught by Sally Taylor (daughter of James Taylor and Carly Simon, who, unbeknownst to them, lived in my home while I was growing up). Sally, a brilliant artist in her own right, is also a mighty fine educator. The content appeared to be of value to me as an artist and art teacher, but I wondered if it would be of much value in the area of social and emotional growth for my students or how it tied into Jewish principles. I am humbled by how much I initially underestimated the value of the experience.

Sally teaches in metaphors. The first one she spoke of was the Indian parable of the elephant and the blind men. These men, who had never seen an elephant before, come across one and try to figure out what it is by touching the part of the body they encounter first. They all claim to have the absolute truth based on their limited experience. They each ignore the others’ subjective perspectives, which are all equally true. Sally and her associate, Janie Howland, were going to try to open our eyes, our minds and our egos to understand that we do not own absolute truth; we can better listen to other points of view. Yep, I was going to encounter my first elephant.

We began by playing a game of Essences, which Sally used to play with her mom. If I were to describe Truth, what color would it be? What would it taste like? What would it feel like or smell like? Using all your senses, you experience Truth. Then we began Consenses.

The website describes Consenses as “an artistic game of Telephone using every medium of art as a language through which to grow a broader understanding of the world around us. At Consenses, we believe that the nuances of our individual experiences are lost when we use spoken word alone to express ourselves, and that more can be revealed working together than fighting for the validity of our singular and limited beliefs.”

Our prompt, given to each of us in secret, was “Why is this night different from all other nights?” from the Passover seder. We didn’t know until the end that we each had the same one. This prompt was to become our elephant.

By the end of the program, I felt like I had the experience of being all four of the children at the seder. As a human being, I learned to listen so deeply to another opinion that I could reinterpret it and share in it, even have it exist next to my own opinion.

As a teacher, I was plunged into the cold water of having to create something by using mediums that were not my strength. I had to park my ego and make music through a paper towel tube or write poetry using a meter and structure I’m sure no one has ever seen before. I then shared this with a gifted group of teachers and Sally Taylor. No one cracked a smile.

I got the chance to experience what I tell my students: There is no wrong answer. I lived the experience some of them must have when they want to create something wonderful but it doesn’t turn out “perfectly.” I think I can now ease them through the process more confidently, helping them to accept other students’ opinions and perspectives.

Back to the prompt of the age-old Jewish question, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” During the process, I visualized the rabbis discussing points in the Talmud and yeshiva students studying commentary and presenting all sides. I understood Passover and the seder in a deeper way than I had ever thought about it.

As an artist, I learned that my experience mattered. It validated my style and mission and reminded me that I don’t have to appeal to everyone’s taste. In fact, I can’t appeal to everyone’s taste. I can only be part of a whole, not the whole itself. I don’t have to create art to match the couch.

Now, I can say with conviction, no one should ever think it’s just art. Art is a modality that can bridge conflict. It can communicate non-verbally those ideas that are bigger than words or less scary than words. It can diffuse differences and bypass the intellectualizing to get right down to the heart of the matter.

Thank you Sally Taylor and Prizmah for showing me my first elephant.

by Ilisa Cappell

The research on coaching is clear: individuals in coaching relationships benefit from improved work performance, relationships and communication skills. They often report increases in self-confidence, self-awareness and an ability to reflect on their own habits and motivation and how they impact others. A growing body of research demonstrates that coaching is a key lever in strengthening leadership capacity.

And yet, like any intervention focused on sustaining change, it takes time. There is no secret sauce to leadership development and there are no quick fixes. In fact, the notion of fixing is not part of the coaching mindset. Coaching is a long-term investment in individuals.

According to the International Coaching Federation, coaching is a “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership.”

The ROI from coaching is not as easily measurable as enrollment numbers or fundraising dollars. A study by the International Coaching Federation study found that the difficulty of measuring ROI was one of the biggest barriers to implementing coaching. While there is a need to develop more measurable ROI figures that demonstrate the impact of coaching, Sherman and Freas argue that “We have yet to find a company that can’t benefit from more candor, less denial, richer communication, conscious development of talent and disciplined leaders who show compassion for people.”

If we are to attract and retain top talent to our schools, if we are to develop powerful learning communities where our Jewish day school and yeshiva professionals feel engaged, find meaning, feel connection and fulfillment, we need to ensure that professional development opportunities engage the mind and the souls of our educators while helping them to embrace opportunities for growth.

Three years ago Prizmah piloted an initiative to deepen the leadership capacity of school leaders. A group of 16 school leaders developed their skills as coaches through a training program with Pearl Mattenson and Jane Taubenfeld Cohen. Each leader previously had worked with a coach; this program trained them in the skills of coaching. Our first goal was programmatic: to develop a cadre of coaches who can coach leaders in the field. Our second goal was more ambitious: to support school leaders in developing a coaching culture within their schools and to use coaching as a method for working with senior leadership teams. A commitment to coaching emerged out of Prizmah’s commitment to ensuring that our schools can continue to attract and retain top talent in the field, and that providing meaningful opportunities for leaders to develop, to learn and grow in their roles, is a key strategy to make that happen.

Coaching as Professional Development

Coaching provides a space for personal development. In contrast to interventions that treat the symptoms caused by a challenge or problem, coaching addresses the underlying issues and creates space to fully unlock one’s creative energy in a system.

For example, some leaders may struggle with time management and, in a traditional environment, they may be asked to take a course on productivity to address and fix the issue. Through a coaching lens, we take a different approach. The course on productivity may solve short-term challenges but will not address deeper and persistent issues that may be related to an individual feeling inadequate, engaging in avoidance of feelings that make them uncomfortable, resulting in procrastination. Coaching gets at the heart of the thought processes and habits that may get in the way of one’s performance in the workplace. Coaching is not about fixing someone; it is about enabling individuals to bring their full selves into the workplace. This work helps to cultivate self-awareness, a key disposition that strengthens one’s leadership capacity.

From Individual Coaching to a Coaching Culture

When our schools shift from investing in coaching for one or more individuals in a school to coaching as a key part of the school’s strategic employee development, they show they are invested and believe in their staff and in their personal and professional development. The emerging research shows that not only does this approach help to prepare individuals for their leadership positions, it also enables organizations to attract the right talent to their teams.

There are numerous ways to move from one-on-one coaching to a coaching culture. Each path requires time, intention and a vision for what is possible.

• Create time and space for the work.
• Develop a shared understanding of why your team is exploring a coaching culture.
• Articulate clear goals and allocate time and resources.
• Develop a foundation of trust and celebrate that which is going well.
• Imagine what might be possible when working within an organization that has developed a culture of coaching.
• Identify small, practical steps that one can take to work toward implementation.
• Ensure celebration of success along the way.

In a coaching culture, the emphasis is less on supervising or managing employees and more about an investment in developing individual strengths, overcoming challenges and enabling individuals to be in the driver’s seat. Coaching cultures typically emphasize soft skills inclusive of empathy, awareness of one’s emotions and the impact on others; they focus on how to use that awareness to drive results and harness the change they want to see within their own areas of work and the organization. Coaching cultures provide fertile ground for employees to focus on developing behavioral change that can lead to results and professional satisfaction.

The research on the impact of coaching demonstrates that:

• Coaching meetings between people can strengthen relationships and can increase job satisfaction and morale and strengthen bonds between individuals.
• Leaders need to demonstrate a commitment to develop themselves through coaching.
• Coaching requires commitment, consistency and dedication from leadership.

In a coaching culture, leaders can learn new things more quickly and adapt to change more effectively. Coaching cultures exist when groups of people embrace coaching as a way of making holistic improvements to individuals within their organizations through formal and informal coaching interactions. Coaching can form an integral approach to how leaders develop their team’s talent and can be embedded within the existing performance and feedback management systems. It can increase performance of leaders within an organization.

Coaching demonstrates a clear commitment to the growth of individuals. And this work takes time.

“Win Deep, Not Shallow”

In her book Fear Less: How to Win at Life Without Losing Yourself, Pippa Grange talks about the notion of “win deep, not shallow.” She describes “winning shallow” as occurring when we try “to avoid not being good enough, winning to beat the other guy, winning to be seen as good enough.” In an interview with Brene Brown, Grange describes this “victory” as one born of comparison, scarcity and self-doubt.

“Winning deep,” on the other hand, is “where you actually can feel the richness of your journey, you are attached to the joy and the struggle, you are attached to the mess and it is generally done for reasons outside of yourself… Winning deep is more satisfying...and ultimately closer to unlocking our deepest potential. Because it comes from the heart, mind, and soul, it stops you seeing your potential as something you might miss out on. Instead, you see it as vast, untapped, and available. It allows you to compete and create until you have nothing left in your bones to give. And it means you’ll fear less.”
When we are grounded in an orientation of curiosity and desire to learn, we can grow. We talk a lot in Jewish education about what will attract and retain talented professionals in the field. A major study recently released by CASJE shows that Jewish educators who actively seek out opportunities to learn are often seeking personal meaning in their work. They see Jewish education as contributing to society; they have a greater love of Jewish learning and want to contribute to the Jewish community and to others. Similarly, supporting leaders through coaching cultures in our schools is one way in which to create fertile ground to nurture leaders throughout their career.

However, developing coaching cultures takes time. To bring this culture to fruition, a school needs leaders who themselves have experienced and benefited from coaching, along with champions of the culture who are able to coach one another within their school communities. As the school leaders who contributed to this issue of Kaleidoscope make clear, they have felt deeply impacted by both experiencing coaching themselves and by coaching others with whom they work.

Join me in learning about stories of impact from school leaders who have invested in their own professional growth and development and have made the choice to impact others, both within and outside of their own schools, through the intentional practice of coaching.

Making Time to Reflect

by Susie Tanchel

“Coaching enables heads of school to step out of the pressures of the day-to-day running of a school and to take some time to think more deeply about how they want to show up and do their work,” says Tanchel. “In the ‘run school run’ mode, people don’t get many opportunities in the week to step back and to reflect. Coaching also gives a person space to understand how a given situation is impacting them as an individual and in their role. It’s a gift to have a place to process emotions that don’t get processed elsewhere and to have someone listen deeply to you.”

Tanchel generally meets weekly with her clients, and in her experience the coaching relationship has covered the first three years of a head’s tenure. “New leaders are establishing their leadership style, building their team, and working on a work-life balance in a job that is all-encompassing.” A coach is someone who is deeply invested in the head’s success, and not otherwise intimately connect to the school. Moreover, a coach can look at multiple perspectives with no specific desired outcome other than the head’s learning and growth.

Many new heads of school have coaching built in to their contracts, and often one of the first tasks of a new head is to find a coach. Tanchel says that having a good fit between head of school and coach is most important. She recommends interviewing two to three coaches before making a decision. “Who asked the kind of questions that made you think?” Tanchel thinks is a helpful lens through which to evaluate the match. “Did you learn something? Were you comfortable? Did you feel you could confide in this person?”

For Tanchel, coaching is sacred work. “In the coaching space or ‘container,’ heads can step back and really think more broadly about themselves as leaders. The concern about constantly being ‘on’ or thinking about who else is in the room falls away in the coaching relationship.” Importantly, coaching is not about asking a consultant for advice on a specific challenge or about avoiding mistakes. Coaching, to Tanchel, is about the client reflecting, learning and growing.

Ezer Kenegdo: Support with Opposing Perspectives

by Rafi Cashman

“Coaching is not a passive activity,” says Cashman. “It is an active mode of self-learning.”

Drawing on transformational experiences with three coaches in his career and his first years as a coach himself, Cashman believes that coaching can influence how a leader “behaves, makes choices, interacts with others, prioritizes, and does his/her work.” These so-called “soft-skills” areas can have tremendous impact.

“Leadership and change-making is most profoundly about who you are as a human being—your personality, the way you relate to others,” says Cashman. “The best prerequisites for entering into a successful coaching relationship are self-awareness and self-reflection.” Additionally, says Cashman, having a really powerful question or problem to solve is a great motivator and a great way to ensure productive growth and impact over time.

A coach understands you, comforts you, pushes you. Cashman compares the partnership to the concept of ezer kenegdo, the Biblical “helpmeet” who literally helps by offering an opposing perspective. The most productive coaching relationships are ones where people are self-reflective and vulnerable, where each side trusts each other’s best intentions.

In contrast to therapy, there is no diagnosis; in contrast to mentoring, there is no inherent power structure. “Coaching starts from a positive stance that is about rallying internal strengths to address challenges,” says Cashman. “There is an expectation of openness in a coaching relationship and a belief that individuals have within them the ability to understand and change dynamics.”

“The first two coaches I worked with were when I was in new positions. They helped me make sense of what I did not know and helped me understand how to respond to new challenges.” In his third coaching experience, Cashman came with a particular goal based on challenges he had been facing. The coach helped him identify, articulate and reframe the problem.

“Coaching starts from the mindset that there is nothing ‘wrong,’ and that individuals have within themselves the capacity to address whatever problems or challenges they are facing,” says Cashman. “The coach is there to help make sense of the challenges and bring out those inherent capacities.”

Elevating Talent

by Peg Sandel

Sandel’s idea of coaching starts with professional sports. A coach begins by looking at the strengths that a person already possesses. Coaching doesn’t really teach a new skill; it brings out the talent and expertise of the athlete in the service of driving toward a goal.

As head of school at Brandeis Marin in Northern California, Sandel is an avid consumer, promoter and provider of coaching. “Coaching can help people imagine who they might become in ways they couldn’t achieve on their own,” says Sandel. “That’s where leadership comes from.”

"Coaches help us peer into our blind spots,” says Sandel. “A coach offers perspective that can allow us to see things that haven’t yet come into view. Additionally, a coach may have been there before and can say ‘You can do this’ in a way that builds confidence in new leaders. In this way, coaching leads to growth, and that helps a leader achieve goals.”

“Sometimes, working with a coach helps someone see themselves the way others see them,” says Sandel. This is especially helpful for people embarking on new headships. “Developing an awareness of your personal leadership presence, how you hold your body, recognizing when or how you choose to speak—these are all part of knowing how you come across to others.” It is important for leaders (and teachers) to develop an awareness of their own presence. Does it make people feel uneasy and exacerbate power differentials? Or does it invite partnership?

When leaders work with a coach, they come to embrace a mindset of reflective conversation, of recognizing interpersonal dynamics and exploring how those dynamics serve shared goals (or not).

In Sandel’s experience, schools can build and develop a culture of coaching across their teams. “Even though a lot of coaching relationships are 1:1, the stance of a coach can be a great tool to build strong teams. Coaches understand that we work within a network or a system of relationships. Within school teams, it is helpful to cultivate a mindset of working collaboratively toward shared goals with a shared purpose. We may each have a different area of responsibility, but when we collaborate, we create a more cohesive experience overall.” When the leadership team embraces a coaching mindset, they see the talent and potential in others and help draw that out. They also emphasize a sense that each person is part of a whole and that the school is at its best when people support each other.

“The coaching mindset is not punitive or judgmental,” says Sandel. “It is ’How can we grow from here? Let’s get curious, and be open and honest.’” That frame of mind can be enormously helpful throughout a school community, because it creates space to reflect on successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses.

At its core, coaching is about creating a safe space where it is okay to be vulnerable about the challenges one faces at work and share concerns. In a coaching culture, mistakes are opportunities for learning. “This doesn’t mean that a coach might not share hard feedback,” says Sandel, “but the coach is there to find the teachable moment and offer support. It is a stance of partnership in facing challenges, rather than an adversarial mode.”

Hitting the Sweet Spot

by Adam Englander

Having worked with his coach for nearly eight years, Englander believes deeply in the power of coaching, which made it easy for him to decide to become one himself. “Coaching is the most important way to help a new head of school, the smartest money a school can invest in a leader. Even the most experienced head of school can find coaching enormously valuable.”

Englander describes four primary benefits of coaching for leaders at any stage of their career:

1. Coaching affords a leader a safe place in which to talk about the most challenging issues, which almost always involve highly complex interpersonal relationships. “The best leaders are not those with extraordinary fundraising or administrative skills,” says Englander, “but the people who know how to make things work with the people on their team.” Honest conversation and role-playing can help get to the heart of challenges.
2. Working with a coach means having a true confidante. Many senior leaders feel “lonely at the top,” and the coaching relationship relieves that sense of isolation.
3. Coaching focuses on a sweet spot for most leaders, what Stephen Covey calls the “important but not urgent” quadrant of the Time Management Matrix. “Most leaders spend time putting out a lot of fires and often fall behind on critical things,” says Englander. “Coaching helps leaders be more proactive and own their agenda instead of solving problems all the time and inadvertently avoiding their own long-term goals.”
4. Nothing beats the care and attention of a coach who is truly invested in a leader’s success. “When my coach knew I was having a tough week, she sent me a text just to let me know she was thinking of me,” recalls Englander. That personal relationship has sustained him throughout his years in school leadership.

In the past ten years, coaching has really become a given for heads of school, says Englander, and the effects are improving leadership at all levels of schools. “Senior leaders very often need to coach their direct reports,” says Englander. “When you have experienced coaching yourself, you can engage the same techniques.”

Getting the most out of a coaching relationship begins with a deep-rooted belief in the ability that anyone can grow and do better. Making a good match, asking the right questions and a healthy dose of humility empower a head to create an environment at school where people can perform their best.

“Coaching has been the single most impactful ingredient in my growth as a leader,” says Englander. “I hope that all senior leaders have the opportunity to experience the benefits.”

by Suzy Israel

As a young teacher, for the two months before I met my first class, I desperately searched for the yellow binder. I looked in every classroom but it eluded me. I searched on my hands and knees and climbed on ladders. I looked inside file cabinets, under tables, in boxes, and on every imaginable bookshelf. Nowhere. The three-inch yellow binder, the only hope I had of receiving a prior third-grade teacher’s notes and support, was not to be found, at least not yet.

That year of teaching was a challenging one for me, as the first year is for many new teachers. I struggled to meet the needs of my young learners, and I struggled with my feelings of inadequacy as a teacher. I remember the face of Jake, a happy and willing student, who finished all of his work almost immediately upon receiving it. Providing differentiation for Jake was well beyond my capacity as a new teacher, I didn’t even know where to begin. That year I worked harder than I did in any subsequent year of teaching, but my challenges were intensified by my certainty that the answers to all of my problems could be found in that missing binder.

I happened upon the yellow binder in October of my second year of teaching. It was at the bottom of a box of fresh reams of paper, waiting for me all along, and I had missed it. Over the course of the coming weeks, I paged through the binder as if I had personally unearthed the Dead Sea Scrolls. I put sticky notes in pages that I thought would be useful and annotated many of the margins. By the time I had read the binder cover to cover, I was overcome with a feeling that surprised me and continues to surprise me to this day.

The work in that binder was skillfully and lovingly prepared by a teacher who had taught the material for years before me. She had covered all of the curriculum and had spent time planning for different types of students with a variety of educational profiles. And yet, something about the contents of that binder didn’t feel quite right. As I sat and pondered the heavy binder, I thought about what I had hoped I would find within its pages. I had been eagerly searching for the answers to many of my questions—and there they were, bound by three large rings. I then thought about the students who would be in my classroom the next day and the day after that, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to teach directly from those materials after all.

Although I continued to refer to the assiduous work of the master teacher who left me her notes for years to come, they weren’t mine, and somehow, they didn’t quite fit. What I thought I needed, the easy access to good materials, did provide me with a feeling of great comfort and support. But I came to realize that what I really needed was to continue to spend time digging deeply within myself, to find my own voice in the classroom, and to create a binder of my own.

Solitude and Loneliness

The thing I remember searching for over 25 years ago has since become emblematic of the type of support that I have pledged to offer (and not to offer) to school leaders through my work as a coach. A professional coaching relationship is based on the belief that the coachee has the capacity to solve his or her own problems and is intrinsically capable and able to lead. In this coaching paradigm, professional and personal growth come about through a collaborative partnership of equals, aimed at maximizing the potential of the client. The work is synergistic and aims to build capacity, rather than solve a particular problem.

School leadership is paradoxical in nature. On the one hand, the leader is the public face of the school every day—at the school dinner, at a basketball game, in the local synagogue. Simultaneously, leadership is solitary. No one knows the daily demands of the job or the many directions in which one is commonly pulled. No one knows all the information that must be kept confidential, the tough decisions, the emotionally-charged conversations. Because there is only one principal, there really isn’t anyone else in the school with whom that person can truly collaborate, which is inevitably isolating.

In his article “The Effective and Reflective Principal,” former superintendent John Ritchie points out that “Solitude is not the same as loneliness, but it can easily turn into loneliness, especially when paired with the tiring public demands of the job.” Because of the complex nature of the work, a leader can feel lost in a sea of dynamic challenges and conflicting obligations, and these feelings can be compounded by expectations that he or she always knows what to do and should always exhibit bold decisiveness. A coach partners with clients to determine which are the biggest questions that need to be addressed and then explores avenues for the client to arrive at answers that fit his or her leadership style and beliefs.

Helping Leaders Create Their Own Binders

The best coach will never offer the leader a three-inch yellow binder. A coach will instead afford the leader a space to collaboratively process particular situations and empower him or her to be conscious and deliberate about decisions and pathways.

It is true that the work of the school leader can be complex and even isolating. And at the same time, it is this very complexity that makes the work immensely rewarding. Every day is filled with the unexpected, the dynamic, and the joyful endeavor of educating children.

As a coach, I have learned to always assume that my client is a capable professional, an expert in his or her field. It is my responsibility as a coach, as a thought partner to my client, to ask thoughtful questions and to actively inquire in order to facilitate the choices they are about to make based on their beliefs, and based on the contents of the binders they have written for themselves, whatever color they may be.

One of the classic Tisha B’Av texts comes from the Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 24b, which tells the story of Rabbi Akiva laughing when he saw a fox darting among the ruins of the destroyed Temple. In response to his incredulous companions, Rabbi Akiva quoted from two prophesies—one about the utter destruction (featuring a fox) and another about a scene of redemption in Jerusalem. Now that he had witnessed the specific fulfillment of the destruction, he told them, he knew that the redemptive vision would also come true. “You have comforted us, Akiva, you have comforted us,” his colleagues shared.

There is comfort in vision, both in reflecting on the past and anticipating the future.

As a day of mourning, Tisha B’Av itself inspires reflection. This summer, as we bridge between all the challenges of a full year of pandemic restrictions and the unknowns of the year to come, many of us are finding some time to reflect on what we have learned and integrate what we will take forward.

There is so much at the core of our day schools and yeshivas that helped us cope through the worst of the pandemic. Forging a broad sense of community, recognizing and meeting the needs of the whole child, taking into consideration the social and emotional components of learning in addition to the quality of academics—these are integral to the values and practice of a Jewish day school, and so have been routinely embraced throughout. We now know how critical these factors are to getting us through the tough times.

Schools are foundations for hope—and the people inside those schools make hope a reality. Even if there might be no required accommodations, no masks, no remote learning, we know that the coming school year will not be the same as before Covid. Our hope and our forward-facing vision will draw on the best of what we learned and position us towards even greater success.

Tisha B’Av reminds us that loss and hope are intertwined. Having suffered many losses at all levels, we are not the same, and the changes we have withstood, upon reflection, can indeed give us strength to forge ahead. For me, a great loss this past year was Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l. I was recently rewatching the video message that he recorded about Tisha B’Av last summer. He quotes from the story of Rabbi Akiva in Makkot, reminding us that to be a Jew is to never let go of hope. He acknowledges the paradoxical phenomenon of the Biblical prophets—the greatest prophets of doom are the very same greatest prophets of hope.

My prayers this Tisha B’Av are for the ability to keep finding hope among even the hardest challenges. As schools turn toward a new year, may we all emerge from what has confined us and discover new ways of perpetuating hope through our children, families, and broader communities.