7th & 8th Grade
“When I was a Young person, I wanted to change the world. But I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my country. When I found I couldn’t change my country, I began to focus on my town. However, I discovered that I couldn’t change the town, and so as I grew older I tried to change my family. Now as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself. But, I’ve come to recognize that if long ago I had started with myself, then I could have made an impact on my family. And my family and I could have made an impact on our town. And that, in turn could have changed the country and we could all indeed have changed the world.”
Our Goals
Celebrate teens’ areas of strength and explore their areas of potential growth.- Explore Judaism as a toolbox which can help us find intentional ways to grow as human beings and to relate to our families, friends, and community.
- Create a community that celebrates our strengths and our weaknesses and that presents each person on a journey of their own spiritual growth.
- Challenge our teens to look at situations through the lens’ of others to develop their ability to respect and connect with different strengths and points of view.
How will we accomplish this?
- Learn: Use a variety of Jewish texts and stories to help students learn about different character traits. Students will set goals for their own character development and we will check-in throughout the year. Check out this Periodic Table of Making a Mensch for an overview of these traits. Which do you see in your teen? Which does your teen value in others?
- Apply: We will use our collective goals and existing strengths to team up and address global issues. For example, how might someone with the strength of creativity play a role in this pandemic? How might that be different from someone who wants to grow the trait of bravery?
- Create and Teach: We will use different media to share our learning with the Religious School.
Details
- Where: We plan for 7th & 8th grade to return to fully in-person sessions in Fall 2022.
- When: Weekly with options on both Sunday mornings (9:30 AM – 12:00 PM) and Monday afternoons (4:00 – 6:00 PM), during the same times that Religious School meets for the younger grades.
- Who: Talented and engaging members of our Emanu-El Clergy and Religious School Faculty will teach 7th & 8th grade.
- Cost: For full Religious School tuition rates for 2023-24 please visit the registration page HERE.
- How: All 7th and 8th grade member families have received a personalized link to pre-filled registration forms via email; please email if you need your link re-sent
