A reader sent me the link to the American Yeshiva in Israel Program designed for 10th graders. The tuition is free, a one-way plane ticket to Israel is included, and some pocket money is also included. There is a $100 application fee and a $150 screening fee included.
While this uplan/yeshiva program might not be for all, it is certainly worthy of a PSA.
my thoughts:
ReplyDeletehttp://agmk.blogspot.com/2010/04/solution-for-high-school-tuition-crisis.html
my biggest objection would be sending a teenager abroad for 3 years. i don't even understand how parents send their teenagers to other cities *in* america for high school.
ReplyDeletealso, this school does not aim to provide a parallel secular education to what one expects from a typical MO high school.
This school looks more like an ulpan than anything else. It doesn't appear to give much torah studies as well as giving much secular stories as well. Its just glorified ulpan.
ReplyDeleteANON:
ReplyDeletethe ulpan component is concentrated almost exclusively in 10th grade (necessary no thanks to the wonderful job our day schools do in teaching hebrew). compare the 10th grade with 11/12th grades.
Given the choices of extreme debt, public school, homeschooling, or this...
ReplyDeletethis comes out as not a bad option. Add in the fact that your kid is then set up to go to college in Israel (tuition $5K per year), and it's economically incredible. Truthfully, though, I would most strongly recommend it to parents who are planning on making aliya soon and are worried about their kid making the adjustment.
It would make sure that the kid would be set up in school while parents are making final arrangements, and would give the parents an extra push for aliya.
"i don't even understand how parents send their teenagers to other cities *in* america for high school."
ReplyDeleteInteresting Lion of Zion, I don't understand how parents who live in cities with poor schooling options can continue to use those, opting for mediocrity over what may be best for their kids. Seems rather selfish.
Leah,
ReplyDeleteI agree. Seems like it's a perfect option for a family on the verge of making aliyah.
As a side note, I think it's kinda funny/sad that shipping to Israel for a program clearly designed to foster aliyah is considered a good solution to the American yeshiva tuition problem.
DAVID:
ReplyDeletei don't know what you mean by "poor" schooling options, but imho they would have to be *really* poor to justify separating a teenager from his/her family for 3-4 years. maybe it's too early in the game for me, but i'm find it difficult to imagine that my kids are meant to be raised by strangers.
JS:
i don't about for the families, but the program (which is subsidized by the government) is clearly intended to get the kids to stay and make aliyah regardless of the parents. free airplane ticket is 1-way, curriculum is designed for bagrut (SAT prep costs extra), etc.
I find the idea of shipping a 10th grade off to boarding school in a foreign country "strange" and a 9th grade in another US city "strange," but I think it's a cultural prejudice and not a problem.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 18, I left home for college, and while I cam back to visit, never lived in my parent's home again. I spent summers where ever I had a job for the summer, came home for Winter Break, Spring Break, Smachot, and a week at the beginning and end of the summer. All told, I spend about 5 weeks and a few weekends back with my parents in any given year.
So I don't fundamentally see a difference with doing it at 14 rather than 18 other than a cultural aversion to it.
Boarding school for minors is extremely common* in the UK. In the US, we don't really have a culture of boarding school... they exist, but are rarities.
* Amongst the well-to-do, not the masses.
So I don't fundamentally see a difference with doing it at 14 rather than 18 other than a cultural aversion to it.
ReplyDeleteAl, as a parent of teenagers, I see a big difference between a 14 year old and an 18 year old.
Also, given what I have heard about dorm life both in English boarding schools and boarding yeshivas, it doesn't sound like an environment I would want for my kid.
Just because we have a cultural aversion to it and it's done it other cultures, doesn't necessarily make it a good idea.
I wish I were a Zionist
ReplyDeleteTesyaa,
ReplyDeleteAnd there is a big difference between an 18 year old and a 21 year old or a 25 year old.
American culture finds it normal to leave home at 18, and strange at 14 or 15. In neither case is one a psycho-logic adult, but in both cases somewhat of a physical adult.
Not what I'd want for my kids, but I'm not sure that I find it unreasonable.
I do, however, find the year or two in Israel somewhat unreasonable. It's total self indulgence without responsibility, which is fine for children, but 18 year olds that are expected to go off to college and get married in the near future should be getting prepared for adulthood, not never ending adolescence.
The residential American college system, for all it's faults, is large part transition from childhood to adulthood. Freshman year is normally somewhat regulated in terms of housing, with more freedom thereafter. Many residential schools transition from dorms -> suites -> independent apartments, or other situations where the student becomes more and more of an adult as they move through school.
Boarding school is a different experience from mine, but I'm hard pressed to call it "wrong."
I wouldn't want that environment for my children, but that's personal/cultural preference, not a right or wrong.
In many other countries students typically stay at home for college and would consider sending 18-year-olds away for school to be odd.
ReplyDeleteLoZ: My parents sent my 4 siblings away to school for most of high school, starting at age 12 or 13. Why? My dad was in the US Army. We lived in Fort Benning, GA (2 hours drive from Atlanta), and then Fort Sill, Oklahoma (4 hours drive from Dallas, Texas, and when the school had problems, my parents transferred my brothers to a school in St. Louis which was a flight away).
ReplyDeleteMy sister was in public school for 11th grade. She managed to get her transcript "massaged" so that she graduated a year early (she had extra foreign language requirements from her religious schools, etc) and basically fled for college (in Israel) at 16...
and JS: with the current situation, I'm fairly convinced that there are pretty much only 3 solutions to getting a whole-day religious education for your child: 1. Make a lot of money and put all of it towards education 2. Home or group school. 3. Move to a country where a religious education is highly subsidized.
In Israel, children going away to a dorm school for high school is quite common. Many religious boys go to full dorms while girls are more likely to go to schools where they sleep in school a few times a week.
ReplyDelete