During a conversation with a head of school about her grades 1-8 Chumash curriculum, she admitted that while they set a goal of material for each grade to cover during the school year, most teachers usually don’t achieve that goal. There just isn’t enough time. By the end of eighth grade, the students only complete the first two parshiot of Sefer Shemot because they have such limited hours for Chumash lessons.
I pointed out something that I think is true of almost every school and every teacher: When we let the calendar choose what to teach, we often end up missing the most important lessons. If we don’t consciously choose what should be covered in-depth, what to teach more superficially, and what to skip altogether, we often get stuck in the complicated narratives of Sefer Bereshit and never reach the most important lessons about Kriat Yam Suf, Matan Torah and Aseret HaDibrot.
Of course, in an ideal world, we would teach every pasuk, and teach it well and in depth. But we don’t live in an ideal world. Teaching hours are restricted. Students are limited in how much they can absorb. Reality forces us to choose.
The question is whether we are choosing actively, based on our curricular goals and what we want students to take away from their learning, or allowing the calendar to dictate what we teach.
Teachers As Curators of Knowledge
Teachers often don’t fully appreciate their influence as curators of knowledge. They choose how much time to spend on each pasuk, which questions to ask, and which meforshim to bring. Every decision communicates something about what matters.
Consider the stories of the Avot in Sefer Bereshit. Most of us would agree that Akeidat Yitzchak deserves significant attention. But what about the war between the Four Kings and the Five Kings? It is a fascinating story, but it may be too complicated and difficult for younger students to understand.
So how do we decide? Is one story more important because it is essential to understand the larger narrative? Or because it develops critical Torah-learning skills? Because it raises important ethical or theological questions, or because it connects to something that students experience in their own lives? Or because students will encounter it elsewhere in Jewish life – in Tefillah, in the Chagim, or in later Tanakh lessons?
These are not easy questions, but they are questions we should be asking.
What Are Our Criteria?
A good curriculum is not a list of chapters to cover. It should reflect a set of priorities. When choosing what to emphasize, teachers and schools might ask:
- What knowledge do we want students to carry with them?
- Which stories are foundational to understanding the larger narrative of Tanakh?
- Where can students develop essential skills?
- Which pesukim raise important ethical, religious, or theological questions?
- What ideas do we want students to continue thinking about after they leave our classroom?
- What texts connect to their lived Jewish experience and identity?
- What can be taught more efficiently, and what deserves time and depth?
Different schools and teachers will answer these questions differently, depending on their priorities. What’s important is that their answers should be intentional.
The Challenge of Planning
As teachers begin the new school year, these questions can make teaching feel even more challenging. It’s much easier to open the Chumash to the next pasuk and simply continue from where you left off. But teaching is more than moving forward.
Sometimes, good teaching means deciding to slow down. Sometimes it means deciding to skip ahead. It may mean teaching one story in extraordinary depth while treating another more briefly. And sometimes, it means accepting that coverage is not the same thing as curriculum.
Since we cannot teach everything, the real challenge — and the real work of curriculum design — is deciding what is worth teaching, why it matters, and what we want our students to remember. If we start by deciding where we want our students to arrive at the end of their education, we can then plan the best route to get them there.
Talk to Herzog Global about arranging a Curriculum Planning Session for your Judaic Studies department.
