Charlotte Jewish Day School: Nurturing Growth, Independence, and Jewish Values in Middle School

October 2024

By Donna Lerner and CJDS Staff

Middle school is a big step, and a challenging time for both students and their families. Middle schoolers must adjust to new routines and higher academic expectations. They also receive less guidance from teachers and face new social situations. Fortunately, with our grades 6-8 in place, Charlotte Jewish Day School, (CJDS) provides the scaffold the students require to ease their journey as they mature physically and mentally, encounter more social and academic challenges and engage with them, and begin to question and challenge convention.

The CJDS Middle School is an exceptional environment for students. Like most middle schools, the students have different teachers for each subject. However, CJDS is unique. Our team of teachers is certified in their area of instruction and leads the students in an inquiry-based journey of discovery, providing opportunities to question, challenge, choose, and struggle.

Mrs. Rebecca Westneat, the middle school STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) and social studies teacher, quotes the famed Ms. Frizzle when referring to what happens in her Spark Lab. “We are ‘taking chances, making mistakes, and getting messy’ — in other words, embracing the ‘productive struggle.’” She believes her job as a teacher is to facilitate the learning process and ease away from spoon-feeding information. As the year progresses, she hopes to nurture creative thinkers and lifelong learners.

“We are pushing the bird out of the nest, and teaching them how to fly, but we are there as teachers to teach them the skills necessary to fly and pick them up when they have a crash landing or two.”

Similarly, our English teacher, Ms. Sophie Moss, pushes the students to think independently and take ownership of their learning.

Within certain boundaries, the students can choose the novels they read and how they present what they have learned. She ensures they analyze and interpret complex ideas while also learning about theme, motif, genre, and grammar. Krista Adams, one of our math instructors, is teaching the students to approach problems analytically, preparing them with skills readying them for the advanced math of high school.

Our students continue to build on their knowledge and love of Israel. However, in Judaica, Morah Chaya also addresses the complex and often controversial political realities by teaching critical thinking skills, weeding through disinformation, and demonstrating both the existence of multiple points of view and the need to understand them. And our differences go beyond academics. The Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum provides an opportunity and safe place for students to confront difficult social challenges and develop self-regulation skills. These soft skills are important to students’ development as they influence their ability to communicate and collaborate. The students have increased leadership opportunities. They can play on our basketball team or run for our cross-country team. They also have input on their choices for electives, only possible in a small school environment.

Studies have shown that K-8 schools can often provide a stronger learning environment than a separate 6-8 school for students. Students have stronger test results and perform better in classrooms in K-8 schools than their peers in stand-alone middle schools. CJDS Middle School provides the perfect place for students to learn, grow, and develop the tools necessary for a successful academic career.