Upending the Grammar of the Conventional Religious School

This article provides an overview and analysis of a relatively new phenomenon: congregational schools that have altered the conventional grammar of schooling, either through their structural arrangements or through their curricular approaches. Five pre-bar/bat mitzvah models are discussed: family schools, schools as communities, informal / experiential programs, afterschool/day care programs, and those that deconstruct and reconstruct the conventional model. In addition, three curricular innovations are examined: project based learning, learning organized around the interests and abilities of the students, and Hebrew Through Movement. Also considered are the factors that are necessary to the survival and proliferation of these new structures and curricular arrangements.