Aspecial Jewish Orthodox high school dormitory for girls 13-18 with learning disabilities and behavioral problems has opened outside of Jerusalem on a moshav (farm). The school uses new and unique methods.
The studies will spread out over the entire day. There will be activities made up of spiritual learning, secular studies as a basis for life, therapy, professions, extra-curricular activities, sports, creative projects, identity, hygiene, cooking, sewing and arts.
Unfortunately, special-needs children are often rejected by society, even ostracized. A great many of them who are treated in special frameworks do not manage to obtain the real personalized treatment that they need. They are usually in an environment which is not sufficiently normal, and this causes them to regress behaviorally and emotionally and to have cognitive blocks. That being so, our school will be based on a foundation of normalization. Within this framework will be varied activities for both normal and special needs girls.
The basis of the educational institution is mainstreaming and building the right to be equal.
We see in these girls a Divine trial. There is a need to help them fulfill their duties independently. Our job is to focus on the difficulty, and to find therapeutic ways to train the girls to be responsible adults, who will build their homes in a way that will enable them to be self-confident, independent and secure.
All the religious schools for special-ed girls who have behavioral problems, both in Israel and abroad, are similar—the curriculum includes arithmetic, reading, history, Jewish studies such as Tefilah, chumash, Nevi’im and practical laws: and, of course, computers. There is also speech therapy available as needed, and communication skills treatments twice a week. In all these schools, an unhealthy lunch is served, causing the girls to be even more hyperactive, and then, when the teachers cannot control them, they are drugged in order to sedate them.
In Brooklyn, New York, there are now 15,000 children who are not in school. Recently, a 15-year-old girl who was thrown out of the special-ed school she was attending, because of a curse-word she uttered.
Schools today, from necessity, are more like factories than like schools that provide personal treatment. They are just a framework consisting of the children showing up to school, with the parents paying tuition. Everything sounds very professional, but nothing more. The approach to the children is very impersonal. The teachers have to keep up with the curriculum, and this causes pressure both for the teachers and for the students. The accepted classroom teaching is not suited to everyone, especially those who have learning disabilities and behavioral problems.
We, on the other hand, are teaching in a very special, even revolutionary, way. We use the tools of practical work. We teach deeply, with much patience, how to listen carefully and, gradually, how to begin to think clearly, while calculating the consequences of the children’s actions.
Our principal is Rabbi Avraham Drri of Jerusalem, who is known for his professionalism in education and for his amazing organizational abilities.
Our diagnostician and counselor is Mrs. Orna Ram of Jerusalem. She is renowned in the realm of special-ed and known for her professionalism in the realm of diagnosis, focusing personal and personalized curricula. Her way of working is that of building the girls’ identities and making them an inseparable part of the community, as givers and receivers.
Over the years, her school, which is a regular school, mainstreamed special-needs girls. After a short time, the community accepted the girls as part of the general scene; all this was done lightly, with a positive approach, while maintaining both the framework and discretion.
Girls with behavioral and emotional problems treated by Mrs. Ram achieved higher quality of life. Unlike other institutions where there is a counselor, who meets with the students when there are problems within the framework, and tries to solve that problem alone, Mrs. Orna Ram works differently and in a personalized way. She has a few non-committal meetings with the girls and slowly but surely, she develops a program for each student with all the teachers and the families receiving the data and instructions as to how to implement the plan. At the same time, she conducts follow-up programs according to a system that she herself has developed over her many years of educational work. She is known for her extraordinary ability in the realm of behavioral treatment, and of building the identity and self-confidence of the child as part of the community. Her positive approach and her sensitivity to others are the basis of her work.
We think that the real meaning of professionalism and skill in this sensitive realm is that the professional, besides having experience and academic qualifications, has to have a born talent in order to be able to have a deep influence on our child. He/she must see and appreciate our child as a precious, delicate soul, and besides being able to love, he must also be very patient and devoted, and be able to accept the other as an equal. He must be an inspired person; he must not be a hypocrite; his presence itself should be palpable.
The Torah teaches us to educate every child in his own way—with love, acceptance and patience. The goal of true education is not to reach the finish line as fast as possible, but rather to teach slowly, with much love and care, so that the messages will be deeply etched in the child forever. This is not a question of success vs. failure, but of the process itself: what steps are taken in order to reach the finish line. The voyage itself, and not the goal, is the most important thing in order to achieve real growth. The most important thing is to truly believe in the child, and then the child will believe in herself.
Today, schools and parents lack the time or the skills to understand the educational process. The children run wild because they are not receiving what they need; no one understands them. Instead, they are blamed, and the result is more damage to their souls.
Please help these wonderful but unfortunate souls achieve a better life than they have had until now! These girls have a low frustration threshold; they are angry. Is there anyone who can hear their cry and see the vision? They deserve to be happy. They deserve to grow up and become adults with abilities and achievements, with a positive self-image and real values. Only then will they be able to love themselves—and love others as well.
For more information, call (718) 275-8000.
