I write this op-ed as a response to Eyal Rav-Noy’s article titled, “Op-Ed: Why Mendel Can’t Read” from Oct 24th.
As a Lubavitcher Special educator directing a learning enhancement program in Crown Heights which includes children with reading difficulties, I am compelled to respond to some of the views outlined in the article which I feel are heretic in nature from a spiritual standpoint and inaccurate and misleading from a professional standpoint.
The author asserts that the way our mesorah is interpreted by mainstream Chabad mechanchim is misconstrued and the cause of the struggles some of our children are experiencing in learning how to read Loshon Hakodesh. He bases this on four main points.
1. Reading upside down – The children think in the context of Kametz Aleph ‘Aw’ which puts the vowel before the letter (when the vowel are on the bottom of the letter).
2. What’s in a name – We teach the names before the sounds, when the sounds are more important.
3. Information overload – The child is expected to memorize two words for every single phonetic combination which makes reading difficult.
4. Identity crisis – Children are taught that the letters do not have sounds and that we are not allowed to say that the letters create sounds when this is obviously not true.
These four factors are the sole cause for reading problems in our communities and why 20% to 30% cannot read Hebrew properly.
The author then suggests that we teach the sounds of the Aleph Beis first and change the order of Komatz Aleph ‘Aw’ to Aleph Komatz ‘Aw’.
I must state clearly that to change the above would be breaking parts of the mesorah as the names of Aleph Beis and nekudois are holy and the order the mesorah is undisputedly Komatz Aleph and not Aleph Komatz. The author has inaccurately represented the true mesorah. In addition, the author shows an ignorance of the nature of reading difficulties and dyslexia by assuming that the mesorah is to blame for the reading problems facing our communities.
Rabbi Levi Goldstein’s article on the mesorah is well written and backed with numerous sources. One can take the sources at face value without relying on others’ interpretation. I would suggest that everyone should be familiar with it before jumping to a conclusion. It can be downloaded from his website www.chinuchtime.com.
I will attempt to give a basic understanding of what dyslexia is based on the mainstream scientific research and what we can do for children that struggle without breaking the mesorah. I will then try to briefly outline why the above 4 pointers are kefirah (heretic) and inaccurate.
WHAT IS DYSLEXIA?
Contrary to the myth that dyslexia is the reversal of letters, dyslexia is a weakness in the brain in processing the sounds of language to symbols and in turn producing them into speech sounds. It can carry delays in vision, auditory, or speech. This will universally affect reading in any language.
For more on Dyslexia look up the International Association of Dyslexia http://www.interdys.org/FactSheets.htm
WHY THE MESORAH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH READING DIFFICULTIES
How to remediate kriah:
Kriah is built on blocks.
1. The letters
2. The vowels
3. The two together which form an open syllable (Kametz and Aleph = ‘Aw’)
4. A letter –vowel-letter to form a closed syllable
5. Two and multi syllable words
6. There are also some special rules (such as silent Aleph, yud at the end of a word etc…)
The problem lies not in the mesorah. The child needs to memorize the sounds of the vowels, the letters and then put them together, before moving on to reading closed syllables and multi syllable words. In the mesorah way the child learns this through remembering the sounds by the beginning of the name (Aleph = Ah, Komatz = ‘Aw’). If the child masters open syllables this way vs learning the sounds on their own, it will not matter. Skipping the mesorah without mastering this step will reach the same difficulties in kriah.
The problems begin when this step is taught quickly and the child has to move to two and three syllable words within a few weeks of Pre 1A. While the Movoi Lakriah and its Eizer counterpart are solid books, they expect that the child catches on to create open syllables correctly, and can read three syllable words right away. This works for 80% of the population, but not for the 15 -20% of the population that suffer from some sort of a reading delay (as quoted by the International Dyslexia Association). These children also need to master the skill without patterns as the kriah books usually have patterns which handicap these children. I advocate that these children be given much reinforcement sheets of open syllables before moving on their kriah books to closed and two syllable words.
If remembering the sounds the mesorah way proves to be inadequate, only then should they learn the sounds separately from the names as a remedial tool without compromising on the mesorah by skipping it out.
For the 80% that do catch on, they do fine with the mesorah in learning how to produce multi syllable words. The slowed reading we see in this population is purely lack of practice. Rabbi Yanky Karp of Psok Li Psukecha, a telephone recording system for kriah has in his possession thousands of kriah recordings from schools all over the country. A student’s recording from Elul to Nissan can testify the extent how much practice really does improve kriah.
HOW EACH POINT IS HERETICAL AND INACCURATE
Reading upside down – The mesorah in the past was always to read Kametz Aleph ‘Aw’ in that order and not the other way around. There obviously must be a reason for it. To say that it was by accident and we should change to Aleph Kametz ‘Aw’ is a change and a break from how it was done. Especially from the sicha of Chai Elul 5742 which explains how the letters and nekudois are like the neshama and guf. The neshama is put into the guf and not the other way around.
Children with reading difficulties usually find more problems with vowels and not the consonants both in English and Hebrew. It makes sense for the child to isolate the vowel first. (In English, this is not possible as the vowels come later, so the child just reads each letter separately) Ultimately, the child has to memorize all 300 or so combinations of open syllables by sight with numerous practice before moving on. It doesn’t matter if they think of the vowel first or the letter first. If an educator thinks that this will make it or break it, at least the child should be introduced to the concept through kametz aleph ‘Aw’ first to imbue him with kedusha.
What’s in a name – There are numerous sources from the Rebbeim about the kedusha of the names aside from the fact that Hashem created the world with oisyois and not reading words. The rebbeim emphasized how important it is for the child to learn the names. The following are some quotes from various sources.
Igros Kodesh Vol 13 P93.
“The holiness of the Alef-Beis letters, the Nekudos, as well as their names originate from Moshe Rabeinu who received it from Hashem at Har Sinai. The names of the Nekudos are the acronym (Roshei-Teivos) of the names of Malochim etc.”
Igros Kodesh Vol 8 P82.
“It is obvious that one must teach children how to read by first teaching them the letters and the Nekudos separately, as it is a well known fact as to how much the Gedolei Yisroel as well as our saintly Rebbeim “waged wars” for this purpose, to engrave into the children the holiness of the Alef-Beis letters and the holiness of the Nekudos”.
Aside from this, were we to teach the sounds first, we would cripple all our children, even the reading bright. In preschool when the children learn the names, their brain is simply not mature enough to understand the sounds for the symbols of the letters, it is easier to remember the symbols as names and then when they turn five years old and mature they are ready to understand that these symbols have a sound to them. This is why even non-jewish schools all teach the names of the alphabet in preschool before the sounds. In fact, most 3 year old children hearing the Morah say Aleph for Abba are unable to generalize and produce another aleph sounding word.
Information overload – This is total fiction. The child is not expected to memorize two words for every syllable. The child learns the sounds of the letters and vowels just the same. Only, he is using the beginning of the names to remember them instead of having to remember them as a sound on their own. This is why every English teacher spends weeks and weeks teaching the sounds of English which do not work that way, yet most children learn the sounds of Aleph Beis in a mere few days. The remedial population will need to spend much more time learning the sounds and producing open syllables regardless of the method as mentioned earlier.
Identity crisis –The author asserts that children are taught that the letters do not have sounds and that we are not allowed to say that the letters create sounds. This is also inaccurate. The children are taught that the letters and vowels do have sounds. Only, these sounds are taught through remembering the beginning of their names in the order of kametz aleph ‘aw’. What the Lubavitcher mechanchim are saying based on the Rebbe’s sicha from Chai Elul 5742 is that the sounds of the letters only get pronounced through the vowels and spiritually speaking their whole existence only happens through the vowels. So much so, that the end of a word which seemingly does not have a vowel, still has a hidden shevo.
As mentioned above, if a child has difficulty producing open syllables fluently this way, then remedial sheets can be introduced which teach the sounds of the vowels and the letters separately before joining them together, but only after the mesorah has been introduced to imbue the child with kedusha.
TIP FOR DYSLEXIA
I will add one more detail about the nature of reading difficulties. If a child sees something as important, the learning process will go much smoother and his or her abilities will be enhanced. A difficulty may be minimized or even eliminated.
From the time a child interacts years before learning how to read in Pre 1A, wire their brain to want to read by reading to them as much as possible, and make sure they see their parent reading and learning as much as possible. This is especially so, if a family member already developed a reading difficulty.
Rabbi Yehuda Adelist MA SpEd is the director of Cheder Darchai Limud, a learning enhancement program in Crown Heights for elementary boys. He has worked in remediation for over 9 years.
For more information, workshops, or remedial help, contact Rabbi Yehuda Adelist at (347) 743- 6132 [email protected]
the people in “teaching” don’t get paid enough to do that stuff.. maybe you and ur big suggestions would like to sponsor those costs.. and not every teacher is bad.
It is both. I know people born to be teachers. But there are also scientific components to learning, and that born teacher must become aware of those ramifications. I think the issue is sociological, psychological, medical,spiritual, you name it. My point is : It is a complex issue, and without treating it as such fails the student. People in a teaching position should be required to study the depths of their craft, just as other professionals are required to do. The fact that they are not always required to do so in every setting speaks volumes. In those places we… Read more »
A Gogol novel, and we are going back to the circle;’mine is better’, the absurd is that we all want the best for our kids, but we don’t know how.
So many approaches, then be proud of your system of education, love and interest more than method and PhD.
-Skagi ‘ya’
– ‘tey’.
Everypne here agrees that 1 of 5 children are not learning hebrew reading. Are you blaming this on the pre-1A teachers? My experience is the teachers with the degrees are able to teach the non-cookie cutter kids better. For the 60% or 70% of kids that fit and conform to the run of the mill student profile th e degree does not do much. So we have a choice. Either we put 30-40%of our kids in alternative schools or after school programs or we require our teachers to have at least masters degree before they can be the ain teacher… Read more »
Teacher: You see, a quater past 6 is really the same thinng as 15 minutes. That’s why a quater is less then half an hour. 4 year old: You mean a quater is less then a dollar? Teacher: No, a “half hour.” 4 year old. but a “half” is less then 15, so it can’t be that 15 minutes be less then a half? What’s wrong with this kid? a) he has dislexia b) he has ADD c) he has ADHD d) he has ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP what solutions are there to remedy this problem? a) Special Ed b) Workshops for parents… Read more »
To number 38, I fear you might be too late. Much of Chabad has devolved to hardcore krumkeit. This is not yiddishkeit but the “zeidineh zuprtzeh” In all his glory.
Thank you, thank you. I am with you. I believe you are right, and I wish some of these other bloggers would try to open their neshamas to thinking like yours. It is NOT Lite, it is NOT Reform, it is intelligent, cogent, and relevant to us RIGHT NOW! If we do not have more on board, we may be headed for disaster. Will they welcome disaster , or will they offset it by opening up to at least considering a deeper approach to the problem? What can we do to avert disaster in actuality?
No one is trying to TRASH anything. It appears you don’t get it. There are many developments over the years. One happens to be the very internet you adapted your communication to. Another is a gradual change in many in newer generations , regarding their needs , strengths, and weaknesses in the area of learning. There are many reasons for this, but I will share a few. Please try not to close your mind to the following: Years ago food was eaten from its oroginal form, Now many of us buy frozen dinners, snacks with chemicals and msg. That makes… Read more »
Well written Yehudah. (c’mon Aussie). Komatz Alef OH is the only way all children should be taught to read. It is for their Neshomo.Children must go through all the alef Bais letters with all the Nekudois eg. Komatz Alef OH, Komatz Bais BOH, Komatz Gimel GOH …….. before attempting any other method of teaching children to read. All educators know that there are some children who need extra help and support in learning to read. In a typical classroom there are children who are auditory learners, which means they can learn by listening. There are also visual learners (which a… Read more »
The problem with the poor reading skills also stems from the fact that the children do not know what the words they are reading mean. A lot of our reading speed and accuracy comes from predicting what the next words will be based on the meaning of what we are reading. For most English or other language speaking kids, Hebrew words don’t mean much to them, so they will end up reading slowly because they have to sound out words instead of say/read them beacuse they cannot predict or expect what comes next or what make sense.
use all the arguments you want.the sicha given here and others in the article mentioned by r goldman ,are very clear. do you think there’s no such thing as children w/ reading diffuculties attending public school and being taught with the latest methodologies? 17 said there are no reading problems in willy etc-go visit the chabad drug rehab in LA and talk to the the several frum guys currently there,several who have learning disabilities.
First of all rabbi adelist has experience in special ed and is moishy definitely not in it for the money, u can ask anyone who knows him. Second his school doesn’t act like a tutor, its only second half day and its to bring them back to par with theyr class, which he has already helped a few kids. His way is especially that it shouldn’t be like tutoring. And he’s nidrey definitely not close minded and mabey if parent’s would spend more time caring for the kids and learn a little more with them and go over it, the… Read more »
Eyal’s brother runs the friendship circle in LA and he has real world experience working with all sorts of “challenged” kids. I’m not an expert so I can’t say that Eyal is “right” however he presented a coherent arguement as to why his system is superior to the “mesora” method and why it shouldn’t be frowned upon like other “heretical” systems. Adelist didn’t refute anything he said except to say “we’ve done it this way for years, and 80% of the class learns to read this way so it must be correct”. Also, it says in the igros that the… Read more »
1. Rav Noy’s premise is that Mesora originated in sounds. Does he have a source for this? 2. Meshorah method has 314 ois-nekuda combinations and the phonetic approach (including cholam malei and choser) has 46 sounds. 3. Poor teacher instruction does not negate Mesorah. If the teacher failed to say “we name bottom up and read top to bottom”, thus confusing the student, the teacher’s instruction needs improvement, not Mesorah. 4. Being that most students in Chasidishe schools do learn the “up- side-down” way, those identified as being “burdened” can be remediated privately (as Rabbi Heller instructed, see previous). 5.… Read more »
this qualification of “heretic”is a terible insult and is out of place and shows weakness
its the tipical “you think different, you are heretic”
don’t judge
just contrast your opinions with sources againts Rabbi Rav Noi’s points
The maskilim of yesteryear also advocated for change in teaching to read… Funny thing is noone argued that their method was more effective – the fight was to preserve the kedusha…
You have no clue what you are saying!!!!!
If te letters are not given a name, they don’t have a category in our brain. In laymen language our brain is compared to a computers desktop organizing mechanism where give file names and categorize them where they fall under. The masterfile is called alef bet under that you have nekudos and letters. Under nekudos you will find files called KamatZ patach etc. when you open them you will hear their sounds. But you can’t search for the sound without having the name of the file… This explaines why everything we learn just like musical notes so do letters too… Read more »
I can bring you a thousand people in each field who don’t agree with each other. Just because he works in the field does not mean that he’s the only one who is allowed to have an opinion. I can bet you that real professionals in the field who read his article will laugh outright at his hypothisis.
We should not forget that we are created, as anything in the world, every moment, with the Alef Bais. We have those letters inside of us since we were in the womb. The role of the parent / teacher is to bring them out. It is misleading to think that we have to teach to children letters that are foreign to them. (as opposed to A B C that are indeed foreign and need to be taught from outside in) so the solution is to find for each type of child the way to bring out the letters he knows… Read more »
Uh, I may be a bit “ahead of the times” but doesn’t the word ‘Mesora’ connote an evolution and assimilation (in their non derogatory definitions) of the Torah? People wrote in Rashi script at one point and then it was considered a Holy Mesora, but we don’t write in Rashi. Even Yiddish is a generational thing (no offense to those purists out there). So in today’s world, with the forever changing (for the better) of the human mind (cheder children included no matter how insular) isn’t there a need to revamp a style of teaching that has its philosophical routes… Read more »
In our Mesorah (in Lubavitch, the times of the shulcha n oruch, and even back to Moshe Rabenu) there were no blackboards or whiteboards, needless to say no smartboards. There werent even pens and pencils, or desks.
Walk into our schools today and you will see how heretical we’ve become!
To #11
You really need to open sefer and learn what our mesorah is. then re-read your comments. I can’t even type the words i am thinking of you now. Reform?! Maskilim?!
Everyone seems to agree that every 5th child is challenged with reading that has direct result and putting the kid at risk of leaving the derech. Stop throwing baseless insults and give an eitzeh instead.
I hope you are not in chinuch.
why is everybody confused over here. the reason this kid cant read is because he lives in a modern “chabad”family where jewish values are obviously overlooked. if they really cared about their child they would buy rabbi dovvis book on fighting dyslexia. they sell it everywhere.
Reform people r the ones that say get rid of the old bring in the new being jewish is old this is the way it has to be done as i read ur comment i wonder how religious u r also maby u should read the entire article he brings sources from igros kodesh r u going to go against what the rebbe said he not just saying that was the way it was done till now thats the way it has to stay he is saying that it has also been prooven to work like u see 80% of… Read more »
Wow i have never read a op-ed writtin as well as this and with all the sources very impressed
Adelist never misses a chance to advertise his program- whether he has an argument or not. Hey- give others a chance! And to call the other theory “heretical” is unfair disrespectful. To have your students build your sukkah, and call it a “hands-on learning experience”… that “heretical”!
id just add that its not the mesorah thats a problem cv”s, because we see in WillyB, BP, Lakewood the children can read fine.
ever think that maybe the problem is that you let your kids read english fairytales and other garbage?
Redt en yiddish in der heim.
THE ZIONISTS HAVE TAKEN THE KEDUSHA FROM LOSHON HAKODESH. LOOK WHAT PEOPLE ARE WRITING?
big suprise, that after using “ivrit” for mundane putrid speech, no one realizes its kedusha anymore.
I spend AGES on each letter. I first introduce the vowels with a picture of an apple, an orange etc, THEN I introduce a few important sight words (high frequency words)
I think the most important thing is to NOT teach both hebrew and english together but to WAIT until the child can read hebrew before introducing english.
Be aware when demanding change.
The new “new” may just be the older “old”- the one that was used before the latest “new”
You might be upset with the system but don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.
I think you missed the fact that R’ Adelist works with children with these difficulties FULL TIME.
If you’re going to call someone a heretic at least take the time to construct a coherent narrative. This disjointed write up is hardly a refutation. Actually it supports a narrative that says that we need change, logical and coherent change.
You say the article isn’t respectful to the other opinion. I think it would be unethical to show respect toward someone who is out to trash what you valued for thousands of years. would you teach your children to respond respectfully to a missionary who tries to convince him to change his ways? The Maskilim also complained they were mistreated by chasidim and complained that chasidim had in them Midas Talmiday Rabi Akiva. And Christian missionaries have long complained that they were mistreatment by the Jews. Also, eilu vaeilu applies only when its lisheim shamayiim. Not when once side fights… Read more »
As a special educator I would like to stress that there is not a one size fits all solution when it comes to children who have dyslexia, ADHD, and, in some cases, both. A teacher must be a detective to hone in on the problem. In some cases, repitition, while necessary, is unbearably tedious for the brilliant child with attention problems. The challenge for the teacher is to make the lesson interesting enough for the child to be able to focus his attention. If a child is having trouble remembering letters at age five, this is a red flag. The… Read more »
Enough of the old, bring in the new! Hummm sounds Greek to me. Oh yeah, Chanukkah is coming, but the Torah won then, and the Mesorah WILL win again in this battle too! What we need is teachers who know how to teach, teachers who are frum, and care about passing on our holy heritage to our children. I would say at least 25 – 30% of the teachers in our local system are teaching only because they are not qualified to do anything else, many are not really frum, (look at the short skirts that the preschool boys are… Read more »
Dyslexia is not a logical thing, it’s the way G-d made people, if it was all nice and easy to fix up it wouldnt be an international issue.
He is obviously not dyslexic and therefor can’t be talking from experience. Nice theory but not true.
I agree with you, both of these Rabbis don’t have it 100%, I’m starting to feel that Crown Hieghts has a whole money making scam on this learning disability thing. They’re not helping the dyslexic kids because they have no idea what dyslexia is, in fact they may be making the situation worse. Here are just a few points: 1: if a dyslexic kid is under pressure, they read even slower 2: if a kid is named dyslexic and doesn’t know what it is, it can have a major affect on their self esteem, never mind the embarrassment of having… Read more »
Eyal presented a logical, fact based article with real world personal experience behind it. The Adelist fellow’s primary argument to refute him is that this is how it’s always been done and therefore it must be right. Anyone who thinks like this can look at the sad state of our chinch system, see the number of disillusioned youths that are turning away completely from frumkeit and attribute it to this closed-minded attitude. Eyal is a trail blazer and he along with educators like Rabbi Jonathan Rietti are our only hope to save our children. Enough with the rebbies that insist… Read more »
Non of you have it right.
“If remembering the sounds the mesorah way proves to be inadequate, only then should they learn the sounds separately from the names as a remedial tool without compromising on the mesorah by skipping it out.” This sums up R’Adelists remarks nicely. 4 out 5 children are doing fine the way things are and were. For the 5th child we can introduce R’ Rav-Noy’s methodology to get him/her where s/he needs to be. Also, I did not see anything in the quotes of the Rebbe that disavows R’ Rav-Noy’s method, just a matter of how one interprets these exact words. As… Read more »
Very well written!! As a pre 1a Morah i agree that 80% of children do ok with the Eizer but others need a slower method. what is most beneficial to children is the parent teacher partnership where the parents care to help their children and read with them on a continuous basis. If children are not reading or getting it at this point then most likely they do need special help. someone to diagnose where the difficulty is and to help them at this point. Any child will need continuous review to maintain their fluency, its up to parents to… Read more »
Thank You Thank You for standing up and setting the record straight from a expert viewpoint.
The Mesorah and its system is not broke, maybe some of the teachers and schools system of applying the mesorah is broke but if we go back to the source and reapply it correctly and then use additional aids we will be more successful bgashmius and b’ruchnius in helping our children grow and learn!!!