Memorandum submitted by the United Synagogue
Agency for Jewish Education (USAJE)
1. My name is Simon Goulden and I am the
Chief Executive of the United Synagogue Agency for Jewish Education
(USAJE). We are actively involved in initial teacher training,
curriculum development and governor training, as well as acting
as the first point of contact for the vast majority of Jewish
voluntary-aided schools in the country. By way of a brief biography,
I qualified as a civil engineer and after some years in senior
positions, took up a management post at the London School of Jewish
Studies (then Jews' College, London) and 11 years ago became the
Chief Executive of the USAJE. I have taught in Sunday schools
and informally for many years.
2. The Education and Skills Select Committee,
in seeking information on citizenship education, has asked specifically
for the views of faith schools. Speaking on behalf of the Jewish
faith school system with which I am familiar, I find it a challenge
to compartmentalise citizenship education as a specific subject.
Throughout Jewish history, the concepts of social and moral responsibility,
community involvement and political literacy have been intrinsic
to our culture, heritage and literature. As Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan
Sacks wrote, "Society is, for Judaism, a process of education.
Education is at the very heart of the society building enterprise.
What education is, in the Judaic vision, is a significant counterforce
to the other two great and dominant factors in society: on the
one hand, government, politics and the distribution of power;
on the other, markets, economics and the distribution of wealth."
He noted: "There is one significant difference between those
two and the realm of education and the difference is simple: power
on the one hand and wealth on the other are at any given moment
zero sum games. The more power I give away, the more money I give
away, the less I have. The more I share it, the less I individually
possess. Knowledge is precisely not a zero sum gain. That is why
education allows others to resolve certain dilemmas that are never
resolvable in politics and economics." (Sacks, 2003)
3. Members of the Select Committee can see
from the above, which comes from an article he wrote for our journal
The Jewish Educator, that the concepts of citizenship can
be—and, indeed, often are—dealt with in terms of Jewish
religious education in our schools. Certainly for the past 2,500
years, from the end of the Babylonian Exile, education was for
Judaism neither simply the transfer of information, nor even merely
the acquisition of skills. Judaism believes that education is
precisely the process of becoming a citizen, becoming literate
and articulate in the laws and narratives that constitute the
democratic society in which we live and for which we all carry
collective responsibility. Richard Hoggart wrote challengingly
that "some people want children to be literate enough to
be handed over to the persuaders, not literate enough to blow
the gaff on them" (Hoggart 1995). For the Jewish community,
citizenship and education are but two sides of the same coin.
4. There is undoubtedly an implication for
many Jewish schools in terms of additional workload, an implication
I know is shared by other, non-faith schools in the state system.
That is why the majority of them have taken the opportunity to
include citizenship either in PSHE or in Religious Education.
The Initial Teacher Training courses which we run suggest other
strategies, for example the use of cross-curricular links to the
literacy strategy or the history curriculum. Students in both
our SCITT and Graduate Teacher Programmes are taught about the
importance of citizenship education and have to complete assignments
specifically based on the significance of the topic.
5. Whilst citizenship is not a statutory
requirement in terms of National Curriculum at Key Stages 1 and
2, my research indicates that almost every Jewish school will
be taking the subject extremely seriously. Visits from the local
police, or local councillors, charitable projects for a wide range
of charities both at home and abroad, student councils to learn
the value of the democratic process, active involvement in cross-borough
sports and cultural activities, all confirm the view that the
Jewish faith school system is actively involved in the primary
phase in citizenship education, as well as at the statutory Key
Stages 3 and 4. Don Rowe, of the Citizenship Foundation wrote
about the pedagogy of moral education in terms of its relevance
to citizenship education, claiming that "it is not enough
for teachers to remain `neutral' and hope for a good quality lesson.
Moral education requires specific pedagogies according to the
task in hand." (Rowe and Newton 1994). It would be my contention
that a Jewish faith-based day school would and does offer exactly
that, with teachers able to enthuse their pupils about the value
and importance of citizenship education from a specifically religious
standpoint.
6. Turning to curricular matters, the "National
Jewish Curriculum", which we are currently developing, places
significant emphasis on citizenship subjects. Rights and responsibilities,
behaviour towards others, stewardship of the world in which we
live, involvement in and service to the wider community are all
dealt with in terms of understanding the Jewish moral under-pinning
of these topics. Curricular resources have already been produced
under the heading of The World Around Us on such subjects
as concern for animals, the environment, Jewish responsibility,
etc. Others are planned for the future.
7. The Select Committee wanted to know what
faith schools were doing to examine the relationship between citizenship
education and the current debate about identity and Britishness,
a debate which has been brought into even sharper focus through
the statement of Bill Rammell MP but a few days ago. To the Jewish
community, this is simply not an issue. Chief Rabbi Sacks wrote
that when thinking about citizenship, we must never forget about
the very close connection between giving and belonging. As an
example, a house in which I take refuge is one where I am a guest,
but a house that I help to build is one that I can call mine.
In the Jewish tradition, social inclusion is a concept that cannot
be fully translated into the language of rights. It is essentially
related to the idea of participation. If a citizen can say "I
helped to make this" then he or she can say "I belong".
8. For hundreds, perhaps, thousands of years,
for the Jewish community, schools have not themselves been independent
variables. They cannot exclusively be agents of change. The Jewish
community has always been built around a tripartite structure:
the home, the synagogue, the school—which we can perhaps
rename today as the reciprocal support of schools, families and
communities. We believe that if that alliance is missing, schools
cannot do what we ask them to do and, if they fail to do it, that
is not because they have failed society, but because society has
failed them.
9. As a former Minister of School Standards
said at a lecture organised by the Agency for Jewish Education:
"Jewish and other faith schools have a unique contribution
to the citizenship debate within the communities they draw from.
They can set an example of good citizenship. If children see their
parents actively engaged in the synagogue, church, temple and
also in the wider community, they will learn how to do this. If
we teach our children how society works and how they can change
things then we will inspire our young people to engage in the
democratic process. That is good for us. But above all, it is
good for them as citizens of the future."
May 2006
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