Dear Shalom,
I am hesitant to respond for fear of sounding defensive as a product of day schools for 20 years and a professional working in day schools for an additional 20 years.
I would feel remiss however, if I didn't comment on the post impuning day schools use of time in your previous edition. There is a difference between data and stories but nonetheless the post was largely made up of unverifiable anecdotes.
If I would provide (which I can) ten stories of classes of day school graduates who are largely observant or ten stories of gedolim who are thrilled with day school graduates Jewish literacy it would not prove anything either.
How would a student (even a day school student) who presented such unfounded statements be graded by a teacher on the quality of their assignment if one was turned in without a reference or study to back up claims made?
Anyhow, Rav Hutner wrote that there is a flood of heresy rampant in the world and the only hope to avoid drowning in it is entering our modern day teivot-the Jewish day schools.
Survival as a Jewish people is the basic goal that is being kept alive by day schools, camps, and Israel. Educational goals are important but let's not miss the basic achievement that the day school's have made, namely we have a thriving observant Jewish community largely because of day school graduates leadership and participation in those communities.
So to answer the question what are day schools doing with all that time, I would venture to say they are slowly and painstakingly with great perseverance and dedication building relationships with Jewish youth that help create a foundation to inspire young people to build a strong Jewish identity. I think that this is often accomplished more by text people than text books.
There are many competing values in the world that our students are exposed to and day schools do for the most part an excellent job in providing a counter balance to the prevailing cultural norms that are antithetical to Judaism.
The research data that actually exists that I am aware of indicates that day schools are like buying blue chip stocks instead of lottery tickets. They may not succeed all the time as much as we would like but they usually outperform the alternatives available.
Students who attend twelve years of day school, Jewish camps, and have a post high school Israel education experience are more likely to be affiliated Jews than those who do not have these experiences.
If Gladwell and others are correct it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in anything. Jewish identity probably needs at least the same amount of time to produce young people who are expert Jews.
Shalom,
Elisha Paul
