Private to Public

A look into how BVN students who have come from religious private schools and transitioned to a larger public school.

By Caroline Haines

Junior Avi Silverberg used to wake up and put on his khakis and polo shirt. He would partake in morning prayer, religion classes and prayers before and after meals. He is now able to pick out his own ensemble of clothing that gives him the freedom to express himself and take classes at Blue Valley North that go beyond religious views.

From kindergarten through eighth grade, Silverberg attended Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy. HBHA is a Jewish day school located inside the Jewish Community Center that teaches grades K-12. The school places an emphasis on dual-language curriculum where students learn Hebrew and English, and general Jewish and Hebrew studies.

Silverberg found the school to be restricting in what he wanted he wanted to get out of his education. He was interested in learning about other topics that were not offered in the curriculum, such as different languages, but that was not available.

“It was a strict social bubble,” Silverberg said.

According to Silverberg, few people sought out friendships outside of the school, and they were not exposed to people with different religious values or beliefs than them.

After eighth grade, Silverberg and his family made the decision to transfer to BVN.

“The absence of religion at BVN was such a nice change,” Silverberg said. “It was not restricting at all and let me think about things independently and didn’t interlude.”

Once he came to BVN, he said he did not maintain the religious practices he had learned for the past nine years of his life.

“I stopped being religious once I left the school because I saw it as a waste of time from the start,” Silverberg said.

He said he does not see the value of organized religion and believing in an entity that he struggles to believe exists.

Sophomore Agam Gur-Esh transferred from Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy to Overland Trail Middle School in eighth grade. Gur-Esh felt the school was too small for her and she was looking for a public school experience where she could diversify her social circle. At her time in HBHA, she said she would spend approximately an hour every morning doing prayers. She would also do a prayer before lunch, called the Hamotzi, and the Birkat Hamazon for after lunch. When

Gur-Esh first transferred to public school her days felt incomplete without the religious aspect and like she was missing something.

“I thought it was kind of weird, just like, oh my God should we be doing prayers right now? Because I’m supposed to be doing prayers right now,” Gur-esh said.

Gur-Esh said she now implements Judaism in her life through celebrating Shabbat and holidays, but does not practice it to the extent she used to.

Within the midst of transitioning to online school, sophomore Miller Brown also transitioned into a new school environment. After spending four years at HBHA, Brown transferred to BVN. Although he was nervous to start at a new school, the transition was not as difficult because most of his year has been spent online. He also knew some friends from HBHA and other experiences. Brown said his entire grade was 18 students, so he was unsure of what to expect when BVN students come back in person, when he may have a class with 30 or so people. According to Brown, the curriculum was rather similar to Blue Valley North, except they had Hebrew and Jewish studies.

“My ninth grade year I had three Jewish classes, Hebrew Jewish studies and yoga which they ran as a Jewish class,” Brown said.

Another difference at Hyman Brand versus public school is the flexibility in the food. At HBHA everyone was required to maintain kosher laws — essentially not to eat pork products or mix meat with dairy. Students were not allowed to bring meat to school, a rule that isn’t in place at BVN. Since leaving HBHA Brown does not follow the kosher laws when contemplating what he will have for school lunch.

I stopped being religious once I left the school because I saw it as a waste of time from the start -Avi Silverberg

Brown continues to connect to his Judaism by maintaining connections in his community and applying his knowledge from his Jewish studies courses to the real world.

Senior Maddie Jones spent kindergarten through eighth grade at Christian Lutheran School, located just off Nieman Road.

Jones’s parents decided to send her to the school because of a lack of other schooling options that offered full-day kindergarten. Jones said her parents quickly fell in love with the school and found it was the best fit for her.

“I was just learning so much and it was just a great environment,” Jones said.

Jones spent kindergarten through eighth grade with the same 20 kids in her grade. The curriculum focused both on traditional core subjects, like math and English, and offered a more religious aspect to education. According to Jones, students were taught to memorize the U.S. presidents alongside Bible verses. Each morning there were religion classes that taught the principles of Lutheranism. Every Wednesday students were also expected to attend chapel. When Jones came to BVN, she noticed a change in the content being taught.

“We didn’t learn evolution like we did in bio freshmen year,” Jones said. “We leaned it based on Christianity and what the Bible says.”

I was just learning so much and it was just a great environment. - Maddie Jones

When Jones was in eighth grade, she began to think about which school she would attend as a freshman. She could have continued the path of attending private schools, such as Saint Thomas Aquinas. However, Jones said she was ready to get out of her bubble and experience a new environment with new students and be exposed to new religions and cultures.

Junior Anna Hamilton had a similar schooling experience to Jones. Hamilton was enrolled in Nativity Parish School from third to eighth grade. Her parents chose to enroll her there because of her previous experience at her private school in Kentucky.

“They wanted to keep things kind of similar for me, size-wise and environment- wise, so Nativity was the best fit for us,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton was in a grade with 44 other students where they were very close and attended outside activities like the Catholic Youth Organization of Johnson County. In school, she said they upheld religious practices with a morning prayer after the pledge of allegiance, a prayer before and after class, a prayer before lunch and before they were dismissed for the day. They also had an all school mass every Tuesday morning. When Hamilton came to North in ninth grade, she said she had to learn how to connect to her faith on her own without structured religion in her life.

She also experienced somewhat of a culture shock as her time at Nativity was sheltered.

“It definitely feels more real world to me, instead of just only talking and interacting with people like you,” Hamilton said.