“Hey son, for your bedtime story would you like me to tell you about the super-strong hero named Shimshon who saved the Jews with his super-strength?” “Nah, that’s ok Dad, but can you tell me one about Ninjago, or Hero Factory or Super Mario?”

So, what’s the problem here? We’ve got a parent who is anxious to make his kid interested in a story from Tanach, and the child’s response clues us in on a great many things.

To a kid stories from Tanach are basically as real as cartoon characters Even stories from Tanach which seem ‘super hero-esque’ are not nearly as cool as whatever the latest cartoon phase has to offer There is no innate value to learning stories from Tanach. Meaning the child doesn't feel he will benefit in any tangible way from hearing the story above and beyond the way he would benefit from hearing a super hero story. Namely, being entertained.

How is a parent to respond? Is there a way to make Torah engaging to a child when its in competition with all the cool stuff popular culture has to offer? Having posed this question online the twitter responses were thoughtful.

‘It’s not bigger of a challenge than motivating a student to learn any subject s/he is uninterested in, like say math’.

or

'We need to add gamification to Torah learning.’

I believe these responses miss the mark. Consider a child who enjoys painting. How did it start? Maybe she was given an art project with paint in school or camp, or maybe it was seeing a beautiful painting in a museum. Whatever the case, once she was exposed to the medium she felt an affinity. That affinity was given support and room to grow. Was she told she would have to master various techniques, understanding lighting and shading, learn about historical periods etc.? Nope. Better yet, when she paints, does she feel that it is coming at the expense of fun time that could be better spent in front of a screen? Nyet.

What can we learn from this? Well, let’s ask the hard questions.

Why is Torah taught in schools? Meaning why is it a subject instead of an experience? Why does every Jewish kid need to learn everything about everything all at once?

As education theorist would say, kids today are a mile wide and an inch deep. Do they know the Chanukah story and accompanying 3 songs? Check. Do they boo Haman because he tried to kill us? Check. (Do they have any idea what the point of booing him is?!) Mock seder? Check. Parsha projects? Check. Can the boy in 5th grade regurgitate that Mishnah in Pesachim about eating chometz that is tu'mai b'shogeg on Pesach and paying back the keren and chomesh? Heck ya! Does he care about any of that? Well, why would he?

Why can’t Yossi or Shira find that one thing (or number of things) in Yiddishkeit that really excites them? Because there is an expectation that Judaism is just another subject, like math. I hate math. Its boring. And you know what, I hate learning Jewish stuff too. Its BORING.

But I bet any m'chanech worth his salt could take one or two aspects of Judaism and make them really awesome if they had 3 months to spend on them.

What about (ready for a shocker) asking the kids what they’d like to learn about and then structuring a hands on learning experience (read: project that does not involving sitting at a desk) around the topics the kids have already expressed interest in?

For example, what if it was ok for a highschooler like Bracha to decide that what she’s really interested in isn’t global Jewish history, but it is her family’s history and documenting her family tree back 300 years is her way of learning Jewish history.

So what is the solution? Here’s step in the right direction. Stop teaching Judaism. It’s not a subject. No, not even gemarah, at least not till high school or possibly later.

I don’t care if a ox gored another ox. Now show me a car crash and tell me one of the drivers has a record for disorderly driving and ask me how a Jewish court would decide who has to pay what, and maybe I’m more interested.

In secular education in the United States there is both a national and a state-by-state set of educational standards. A second grader should be able read chapter books and do addition with double and triple digit numbers. Or whatever.

No such thing exists for Torah studies, right? I submit that is because the operant principle is not how much Jewish knowledge a child has, it is how much that child actually cares about her Yiddishkeit.

“Mom, I don’t want to [insert bentch/daven/say brachos]”. “That’s ok sweety, everyone feels like that some times. But you do know that Hashem provides for us and it is important for you to say thank you, right?” “Yes.” “Ok, than you can say that in whatever way you’d like in your own words to Hashem. But let’s only do that this time because Hashem really enjoys hearing your [insert bentch/daven/say brachos]

There have been those who lament that we treat our Torah education as if the goal is to produce Roshei Yeshiva. I say that even if that is a goal, it doesn’t have to be the only goal. In my humble estimation, another worthwhile goal would be developing young men and women who actually care whether or not there will be Roshei Yeshiva in the future.

Let’s stop treating Judaism as another subject which constantly makes it a second class citizen to entertainment. Instead let’s show our children that there are parts of Yiddishkeit which speak to them and find ways to make those things flourish.