Centrist Jewish Education - A Closer Look

The school year has pretty much begun. Or is about to. Parents have by now made their decisions about what kind of school they want to send their children to. Indeed, their children are already enrolled and in some cases already attending classes. So, I’m a bit late to the party. But I still feel I have to make my case for what kind of school a Jewish parent should consider sending their children to.

If you are an adherent of the religious right wing or the religious left wing, this post is not for you. But if you are neither of those and wish to send your child to a school with strong values that does not compromise, I believe the choice should be a Centrist school.

As a Centrist, this may sound a bit self-serving. But hear me out.

First, Centrist education must be defined. One must know what it is, and what it isn’t.

After speaking to an official at one such school, I was told what I feared was the case with many parents today. When they see a word like “Centrist,” they think “middle of the road”. A school that has no ideals other than to take a bit of this and a bit of that and call it a day.

Many idealistic parents reject a school like that in the mistaken belief that their children will lack the idealism taught in schools that identify with a strong right or left Hashkafa. They tend to believe that a Centrist school has no Hashkafa at all but reflects some sort of midpoint between left and right. They fear that a Centrist school will not inspire their children with the kind of idealism that a school identifying with either the right or the left would try to instill.

As a result many idealistic parents will opt for a school that promotes ideals to their right or their left (depending on which way they might lean) as a means of instilling an idealism they mistakenly believe a Centrist school is not interested in providing.

The result is that schools at either end of the spectrum are often the most sought after by parents, while the Centrist school may be seen as wishy-washy.

That is unfortunately the consequence of identifying as neither right nor left. It is difficult to convince parents who see a school that way that are badly mistaken.

It is important to disabuse the Orthodox public of that image and explain that Centrism is not some mathematical midpoint between right and left. It is a distinct Hashkafa…

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