The question is not Why teach? rather, the curricular questions are what. when, to whom, how and how much? Obviously, the answers to some of these overlap, but some principles seem clear enough.
When? To Whom? Being able to learn Gemora is dependent on pre-requisites that include cognitive abilities, language readiness, and prior knowledge. Several programs ensure prerequisite skills and a structured approach, such as Zilbermann, Barkai, and Rav Meir Pogrow. There is no reason to teach Gemora to kids who have insufficient background in Chumash, Nach and mishnah. Yet this is what is happening in many frameworks. This system either doesnt work or works poorly. When exactly did we decide that ben esser lamishna should become ben esser latalmud especially in chutz laaretz, but even for Hebrew speakers? One of the things that research has made clear in many advanced subject areas, is that starting early has no advantage aside from status. Kids who start later with stronger background skills, catch up very quickly and often surpass the early- starters.
What? It makes no sense to start teaching a masechet in Gemora to kids who are unfamiliar with that masechet in mishna. In addition, it is not clear, that deciding to teach THIS or that masechet in ninth grade, is suitable. Appropriacy is usually the other way around: Which masechet is appropriate fot THIS ninth grade? That may mean curricular shifts in a school on a yearly basis. Similarly, it may not be helpful to introduce tosfot/os too early. The question of bekiyut/us vs, iyun has a long history, but certainly, for kids for whom Biblical Hebrew , Rabbinic Hebrew (lashon chazal) and Aramaic are second, third and fourth languages, and who are struggling with any or all of these, adding tosfot would seem a questionable pedagogy.
How? Mishna is in Hebrew. Gemora by and large is not. So Mishna helps as far as structure and content but not language. When my son, who has ADD and is dyslexic, was a year before learning gemora, we did chumash with Onkelos, 10 minutes a day. We got through all of Bereishit and all of Shemot by the end of the year, and he never had a problem with gemora, in spite of the differences between Aramit Glilit and Aramit Bavlit. Not all kids need preparatory learning, but at least some do. Another way of doing this, is to teach some familiar midrashim (familiar to the students) that appear in Aaramit in the gemora, before introducing gemora learning itself. The content is not new. The language is. Relevance is another big issue. We do not teach legal issues of torts, taxation, jurisdiction, contracts in English (or modern Hebrew), yet we fully expect kids to be passionate about such issues in Aramaic. It wouldnt hurt for social studies (civics) or ezrachut (Israeli curriculum) programs to pick up on some parallel issues. There are many amazing teachers of gemora, so I will not discuss the pedagogy of teaching sugyot,. But no other consideration is as important as a good teacher.
How much? This depends on curricular goals. What is the purpose of teaching gemora in your school? Is it preparatory to being able to follow daf yomi (and today is the yahrzeit of reb Meir Shapiro, 7 Cheshvan), or is it preparatory to being able to handle the more intense shakla vetariya of learning? The lower the curricular goals, the less curricular time will be devoted and the lower the ultimate skills of students.
Dr. Debbie Lifschitz
