In reading the discussion between Aharon Frazer and Rabbi Yissie Kaminetzky (a couple of old friends), the question that comes to mind is what Rabbi Kaminetzky's rationale is for wanting students to begin learning Gemara during their Middle School years. Having taught Middle School students for over a decade, I can understand Aharon's point - on educational grounds, Gemara is certainly inappropriate for 6th graders, and is over the head of a decent number of 7th and 8th grade students as well. That being the case (and my say-so does not make it established fact, but I believe that many share the same experiences), what is the reason, other than Aharon's "keeping up with the Joneses" desire to start Gemara earlier and thus seem somehow frummer or more authentic?
Rabbi Kaminetzky claims that he feels that Middle Schools should start Gemara so that students can build the vocabularies and Gemara skills. I have to disagree on both counts. I have found that main difficulty that many Middle School students have with Gemara is following the shakla v'tarya, and thus they basically try to repeat back key phrases - and thus teachers either dumb down their assessments or lose their students. That being the case, is this really the best way to pick up vocabulary? Wouldn't students pick up the key words just as fast if they waited a year or two and learned them while learning a text that they were developmentally ready for? The same argument goes for Gemara skills - which skills are we talking about?
Keep in mind as well that Middle Schools generally have the practical consideration of limited time to worry about. While there are some high schools which give Gemara 2-3 hours per day, rarely is there a Middle School that does that, and thus the choice is often a mutually exclusive one between Mishna and Gemara. Given that choice, which one will be best understood and appreciated by the pre-analytical minds of 12 year olds?
For a test case of these ideas, I would suggest looking at Maayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls in Teaneck. They tend to draw girls who have learned Gemara in Middle School as well as those who have not learned it at all. And yet they do not have separate tracks for those two groups of girls. What happens? Those who have not learned Gemara before high school usually make up the ground within the first months of their high school careers. Why is that? I would suggest that since their minds are now more ready for Gemara, they are able to pick up all of the skills that their classmates laboriously and sometimes painfully acquired in the previous two or three years. Something to think about.
Aaron Ross
Yavneh Academy, Paramus, NJ
