Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Reimer, Joseph

Titel

The Conversation Continues

Ist Teil von

• Journal of Jewish education, 2007-07, Vol.73 (2), p.147-148

Ort / Verlag

Taylor & Francis Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2007

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Taylor & Francis

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In this article, the author shares a few points of clarification to amplify the argument he puts forth in his article titled, "Beyond More Jews Doing Jewish: Clarifying the Goals of Informal Jewish Education." The author argues that socialization and education are two social processes that often overlap and reinforce one another. The purpose of this article is not to separate socialization from education as social processes, but to call attention to a problem of goals. He believes that often in the Jewish community the goals of socialization dominate the agenda and overshadow the goals of education. In a community that is so anxious about its continued survival that many a spokesperson will subsume any educational enterprise under the banner of socialization, the author firmly believes that this way of thinking is both limited and damaging to the very cause it proclaims. As a scholar, the author is most fascinated by the learning that takes place in settings that people call "informal." Though the author studies aspects of learning in these settings that are more structured and focused on skill acquisition and values development, he agrees that equally fascinating is the question of content learning. The author also contends that his discussion of the goals of informal education makes no sense without further consideration of the educators who would enact these goals. Finally, the author states that he cannot stress too strongly the role of standards of excellence in informal Jewish education.