12/29/2023 0 Comments Themes for color war![]() Kids are fairly savvy, and they are able to distinguish between Judaism being enjoyable and appealing to them and fun that happens to take place in a Jewish environment. ![]() The answer is more than simply "If the kids are having fun in a Jewish context, then they will enjoy being Jewish." Frankly, I do not think that that is true. ![]() But it is a challenge that explains what is important about color war. This is a major challenge facing educators, and it is one that I will write more about in a different post. But more than that, they want them to come out of the school with a positive feeling, not only about themselves but about Judaism as well. Obviously they want them to know how to read Hebrew and to learn Chumash. However, I would suggest that there is an additional layer of education that people want for their children when they send them to a Yeshiva day school. After all, despite all of our efforts to put some degree of content into color war (theme material, Tanach-based scavenger hunts, trivia competitions, and so on and so on), the fact is that most kids do not learn all that much during the days of color war, and thus formal learning does effectively grind to a halt during this time. If it is so that their children can learn both Torah as well as general studies in a Jewish environment, then I can understand why color war sounds like a waste of time. If it is because they are legally obligated to send them to school, then obviously they are wasting their money paying for Yeshiva. Why do people send their children to school, and why do they send them specifically to a Yeshiva day school? There are many possible answers. However, as I have become more seasoned as an educator, and as I have been intensely involved in the preparations for color war for several years, I have become pretty well convinced that this is not only a good use of time and resources, but that, in fact, this is fully consistent with what a school exists to do. And, since I did not have color war when I went to school, it went against my own pre-conceived notion of what was appropriate for school and what was not. I will admit that at one time early in my career, I was not fully on board with the idea of taking three days away from learning for a series of games and artistic presentations. That is the question that we hear every year from a few people - isn't color war something done in camp? Isn't school for learning, not playing? And, of course, we never had this when I went to school, so it is not necessary and is a waste of time and resources. ![]()
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