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Our Head of School

Ruth's Educational Philosophy

Students are wired for curiosity and wonder. Our responsibility as educators is to ensure that we do not squelch these qualities. When we see children “in the wild”, as I sometimes refer to their time away from school, they cannot help but be inquisitive, eager learners. They learn as they play, observe, and experience the world, unconcerned about getting it all figured out by next Tuesday for a test. They learn and experiment, whether they are building a better sand castle, memorizing a song they like, figuring out a social relationship, or deciphering a new computer program.

In schools we need to create an environment that promotes students’ inherent need and desire to grow at their own pace and to learn about and explore the world. Curiously, structure and rules promote exciting learning by making the school experience safe and manageable for students.

These ideas broadly derive from John Dewey, whose views on education have shaped my thinking and continue to intrigue me. Children need to learn information, but information is not education. Children engage in real learning when they have the time to think, to experiment with their ideas, and to develop skills in an engaging context. As Dewey would say, schools need to promote strong educational experiences. Great schools promote this kind of learning.

We prepare our children for more than success in school. We want them ultimately to contribute to society as adults in ways that are both satisfying to them and worthwhile for their communities. Education without character development is both dangerous and inappropriate.

Jewish education shapes our children’s character and provides a source of personal, cultural and religious identity that anchors our children in the world. Through mitzvot, prayer, and study students should come to understand that their Judaism is central to all aspects of their life, while encouraging them to explore the broader world.

As we start the twenty-first century with the blessings and burdens of living in a democratic, multicultural world, we realize that Jewish education, with a commitment to Israel, becomes even more central to the future of Judaism in America. Without a sense of Judaism integrated into their lives, young people will be adrift in America, prey to others’ histories and religions because they are ignorant of the riches of their own birthright.

We also want our children to learn about the history of the United States and the world, about great books, to participate in the arts, and to understand how science and math concepts are discovered, while practicing being scientists and mathematicians. However, this is not enough for our children. Too many Jewish young people learn about the wonders of the secular world and do not learn Jewish history, study Jewish texts, and do not participate in, or learn about, their own traditions.

JCDS is working at this critical juncture of Jewish life in the United States. The school has the capacity to provide the best of Jewish and secular education for a wide range of Jewish practices and beliefs, given its commitment to pluralism and to integrated learning.

A personal story seems apt here, a story about my discovery of pluralism, although I did not know that was what I was experiencing. When I was about seventeen, I was spending the summer with my grandmother in Jerusalem. (My father is Israeli, and most of his family lives in Israel.) My family has been in Israel since about the 1850’s, and by the time I spent that summer with my grandmother, the family had spread throughout the entire Israeli political and social spectrum. I visited relatives in Me’a Shearim who only spoke Yiddish. I spent time with relatives in Haifa who liked to speak French at home; I spent time with family who worked the land on a Kibbutz; and I spent time with my modern Orthodox relatives in Jerusalem. They were all family, and I learned from all of them, learning about the benefits and inevitability of Jewish pluralism.

The American version of that pluralism is supported by schools where students can learn about Judaism in a seamless manner, while learning about the spectrum of Jewish beliefs and practices. We need to educate the next generation of Jewish leaders who are both knowledgeable and respectful of the range of Jewish practices and beliefs.

Also, I have learned over the years that there is no “magic bullet” for great education, whether secular or religious. No perfect math program or literacy program or character education program or Hebrew program will ensure quality education. The irreducible necessity for worthwhile education is a cadre of teachers who are trained well and supported by the school culture. Teachers need to be experts in their fields, and administrators need to create a culture for the staff that reflects the culture we want for our students. To support this goal, schools need to be professional environments where not only the students, but also the teachers and administrators are engaged in continued learning. I like the Ghandi quote that “we each need to be the change we hope to see in the world.”

We all learn best by simply doing things. The old adage is true: you need to do things in order to learn, and life and learning rarely come in discreet packages. Integrated learning is how we all, adults and children, learn best. Learning about history involves reading literature, looking at graphs of movements of resources, people or trade, and exploring the art of different eras. Brain research confirms our common sense perspective that short-term memory is just that: short term. By using a variety of senses and by creating personal meaning, we both learn best and have more fun. I like to look at classrooms and see at what level of Bloom’s taxonomy the teacher is trying to engage students. Are students being asked to report merely on factual information or they being asked to think at higher levels, to compare, contrast, consolidate, create theories, etc.? Integrating Judaic and general studies follows naturally from this pedagogy.

Schools need clear identities in order to thrive. There will always be more good ideas around than any school can use. There will always be problems and questions that need to be addressed. The mark of a healthy, strong school is not the absence of issues, but a way of dealing with the inevitable and changing dilemmas that schools confront. Like all creatures, schools need to grow and change while being faithful to their inherent identity.

Administrators need to create a culture where conversations and questioning can occur, and, critically, school leaders need to help resolve issues in a productive way. I have always told my staff that it is my job to make it easy for all school constituents to let me know about their concerns, with the expectation that they will be truly heard and that I will help facilitate some resolution. If I didn’t hear about issues in a school, I would worry that people did not feel comfortable talking with me about concerns and that I was not perceived as both a partner and leader in efforts to improve the school and to maintain its character.

Schools are complex, intriguing and exciting places. I look forward to returning to a school community, and my philosophy of education and JCDS’s mission seem to be a unique match.

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The Short Story of Ruth: JCDS welcomes our new Head of School

Timing is everything. Just ask Ruth Gass, a dynamic Jewish educator who has been peripherally involved with JCDS since its earliest years. Ruth’s desire to utilize her leadership, experience, and remarkable talents in a new environment came to fruition when she was appointed to the position of Head of School at JCDS, Boston’s Jewish Community Day School. As the process of meeting with various constituencies got rolling, Ruth says, “I absolutely fell in love with the school. I knew I belonged there.”

A six-month international search brought many extraordinary candidates, but Ruth’s range of expertise, familiarity with secular and Jewish education, her joie de vivre, and her philosophy of education made her a unique match for JCDS.

Presently an adjunct professor and field instructor for the Public Elementary School Masters Program at Brandeis University, Ruth is also a teacher, a school coach, and a researcher at The Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education there. A portion of her field work this year includes the supervision of DeLeT Fellows and MAT candidates, two of whom are at JCDS. Prior to teaching at Brandeis, Ruth was Head of School at The Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter School, a K-8 charter school in Franklin, MA, which under her four- year term of leadership became the highest MCAS scoring charter school in Massachusetts. Before the Franklin appointment, Ruth was Upper School Head at Shady Hill School in Cambridge for six years, where she had been on faculty for five years and had worked with students in grades 1 through 8.

Ruth has an impressive education, holding a B.A. from Vassar College, a J.D from Boston University School of Law, and an M. Ed from Harvard University School of Education. She became involved with JCDS through a chance (and most fortuitous) meeting in 1998, after which she became a member of The Board of Trustees and then worked on various other committees of the school, including, most recently, the Committee on Trustees. And now a wondrous confluence of circumstances has enabled Ruth to make a full-time commitment to JCDS.

“I am thrilled about leading this amazing school as it continues to grow, mature, and thrive. My philosophy of education and JCDS’s mission seem to be a perfect match. It is a gift to me, personally, to be able to apply my passion for education in this pluralist community where learning is anchored in Jewish texts that help shape children’s character and that provide a source of personal, cultural, and religious identity. JCDS is a profoundly exciting school with a creative educational design and a dynamic bilingual learning environment that have the capacity to provide the best of secular and Jewish education to children from families that span a wide range of Jewish beliefs, practices, and connections.”

“A child is not a vessel to be filled but a flame to be kindled,” the JCDS maxim, reflects its commitment to igniting and nourishing the love of learning in its students. As it bids a fond farewell to Hamutal Gavish, Head of School since 1996, the JCDS community joyfully anticipates the beginning of its second decade as its flame continues to burn brightly, but now with Gass!

Meet the rest of our staff . . .