EDUCATION
Lehrman & Linfield
Combining Tradition & Innovation
What makes Lehrman Community Day School (LCDS) unique cannot be attributed to one simple characteristic. LCDS is a rare institution upholding creativity, moral value and responsibility alongside math, science and history in its daily curriculum. The Jewish school is a pluralistic, covenantal, coeducational, college-prepatory day school that instills in its pupils the responsibility of balancing Jewish values, American citizenry and a global economy. Leading the students through their cultural and educational obligations is Head of School, Rabbi Seth Linfield. “Part of our success is our philosophical commitment. God granted us all divine gifts and even higher responsibilities,” says Linfield, “Our goal is for each student to wake up in the morning and ask, ‘What’s my responsibility?’” The youth of Lehrman are given the opportunity to explore the needs in their environment and can be found in the 166
SOCIAL AFFAIRS
community cleaning beaches, volunteering at nursing homes and working with adults at the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind. Academically, the school is breaking ground for both Judaic and secular studies. In the two years Rabbi Linfield has been Head of School, an educational makeover has been in progress. LCDS now offers Chalav U’D’vash, TalAM and NETA—all Hebrew language immersion programs for the three stages of pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade. He has also implemented Core Knowledge, a predetermined, school-wide academic structure that offers a coherent sequence of knowledge to be built upon year by year. If students in the sixth grade are studying Greek mythology and culture in history, they are also studying relevant lessons in art, science and math. “An observer can pop into any classroom and watch our students of all ages analyze and debate the great philosophical questions of the ages… Our parents recount how their children cannot wait to bring what they have learned home to the dinner table. We have also seen a statistically significant increase in our student’s median test
Images courtesy of Lehrman Community Day School
By Amber Smith
Our goal is for each student to wake up in the morning and ask, “What’s my responsibility?”
scores on the ERB national achievement tests,” says Linfield of what Core Knowledge has done for the school. Lehrman proves that education starts when learning starts. Classes are offered to children at as early as three months old. Baby yoga at LCDS has been a very successful program and prepares children to be a part of a community that will envelope them from early childhood through middle school; however, the plans no longer stop there. Linfield is campaigning for an entirely new school to accommodate students all the way through their senior year of high school. A $50 million project to relocate Lehrman from 77th and Dickens to an alternative campus is in its earliest stage of fundraising, and Kobi Karp has already agreed to donate his architectural and construction management services. “Our current plan is for this year’s sixth graders to continue into a pluralistic community high school… The unified community school would adopt the best educational practices from across the globe, with math, science and engineering laboratories, state-of-the-art
instructional technologies, Israel trips for 9th and 12th graders, and centers for after-school support and studying,” says Rabbi Linfield. For now LCDS is not focusing on the future of their location, but the future of their students. A kosher meal accommodating the demands of all orthodox, conservative and reform diets is served daily to the 320 students. If children are interested in extracurricular sports, they have a choice of ten teams in six sports including basketball and soccer. The music and arts programs are hands on and treated with the same consideration as their rivaling academic and athletic subjects. With all of the innovation Rabbi Seth Linfield has brought to the tradition of Lehrman, what has Lehrman brought to Linfield? Two things according to Seth: “first, the daily opportunity to see our students gaining intellectual and spiritual firepower and confidence; and second, resonant relationships with wonderful people, our faculty, parents and supporters, as we create the academic community of our dreams.” SA JUNE • JULY • AUGUST 2008
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