A unitary philosophy for U.K. Jewish primary schools educating pupils within two diverse educational conceptions :the Jewish religious and that of the national curriculum

摘要

ABSTRACTudThis philosophy addresses the complex educational issues arising inudAnglo-Jewish education catering for a community which is rooted in twoudcultures: the Jewish-Orthodox and the Western-liberal, a community thatudincorporates all aspects of Western culture that do not conflict with Jewish lawudor its value system.udUnderpinned by diverse ontologies and epistemologies these culturesuddiffer in many aspects, most significantly for educators, in their value systemsudand therefore in the hermeneutic understanding of the "excellences" to beuddesignated as ultimate and proximate aims for the education. Whereas theudliberal Western culture endorses anti-authoritarian, individual autonomy, theudJewish thesis endorses such only in areas for which Jewish law has notudlegislated. For all other, free choices are to be exercised against the divinelyudcommanded value system.udThe National Curriculum, through which secular subjects are delivered, andudJudaism both require holism in education. In both, all knowledge is to serveudalso as a vehicle for pupils' overall personal and social growth: theudcognitive/intellectual, ethical, spiritual and physical. Since holism necessarilyudhas to be governed by an overall organic quality of wholeness, in which all theudeducational aims permeate every area of education, it is axiomatic thatudcontradictions in the aims cannot be accommodated within any specificudeducational structure.udThis unitary philosophy responds to the requirements of holism byudestablishing an educational structure which, in itself, is free of conflict. This isudachievable due to the liberal National Curriculum's acceptance, qua beingudliberal, of non-public values to overlay the statutory political ones in the entireudschool's curriculum — which, for Jewish education is the Halakhic value system.udA conflict-free philosophy, however, does not guarantee conflict-freeuddevelopment of pupils who live their lives within both the Jewish thesis and theudall pervasive, multi-media imposed Western culture. The unitary philosophyudsets out strategies for dealing with these conflicts within carefully structured programmes.