[HANASHIR:8667] Re: A dilemma teaching Chad Gadya

[H & R Shubert <notfranz...>]

I had a similar experience when teaching David Melech Yisrael to a 4-year
old class in a reform preschool.  When I started teaching the kids already
knew the song but nothing about the man.  So I told them the story of David
and Goliath - not in a gory way. The kids were fascinated and very
attentive.  The preschool teacher was mortified.

Once while telling the story of Purim with Fran Avni's wonderful song, A
Silly King, (from her Latkes and Hamentashen recording) at another Jewish
pre-school in a community center, a teacher muttered that teaching about
Ahashverosh telling Vashti to vamoose was bad role-modelling.

In a modern Orthodox  pre-school where I now teach, the teachers feel it is
important to teach the children their history and their stories, these
things are rarely issues.  The kids come away with a much stronger education
and a deeper sense of who they are as Jews.

Rachelle

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Rachelle Shubert
Lay Cantor Rishon
Temple Israel, Ottawa, Ontario

Choir Director
Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, Montreal, Quebec

Music Educator
Hebrew Foundation School, Dollard des Ormeaux, Quebec
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