Reb Yudel asks the good questions

Reb Yudel , commenting again on the question of evaluating the success of schools (which was itself a blog on a previous comment of his!) asks whether the Montreal survey of Jewish day schools "correlated to parental commitment". [Short answer -- no.] But what does ‘parental commitment’ mean, nowadays?

Bear in mind when thinking about these issues:

--- Thirty or forty years ago, it is true to say that only a small minority of highly committed parents sent their children to full-time day schools. One of the huge achievements of Jewish ed. has been to draw into the system tens of thousands of families who would never have dreamed of Day School as an option. (J Day School population has tripled or more, from about 60k to 200k in 25 yrs). That is excellent -- you cannot complain for thirty years that parents don't send their children to day school, but then object when they do .... but the corollary is that widening the catchment of the schools alters them considerably.

--- the question of parental commitment has become MUCH more complicated. What does it mean???? I am frequently asked whether "today's parents" send their children to day school "for the right reasons". I don't know what the right reasons are, and I suspect that many parents cannot quite define why they are sending their children either. Parents and students are of new generations. Over the years I have seen many parents who claim loudly that "Jewish school is the only choice" -- and pull their kids out at the end of Grade 9 (do they have unrealistic expectations?); and many others who register their kids at the last minute, for whom sending their kids to Day School never entered their imagination, but who turn out to be students and families who gain huge amounts from the day school experience.

Bottom line – I cannot measure parental ‘commitment’, but I have a deep respect for the commitment of every parent who chooses a Jewish school, with its financial and other commitments, when there are many alternatives available. In other words -- how the students leave is of far greater concern that how (and why) they enter.