Presence

Iam at Rambam blogging from a blackberry. I will summarize later but its pretty cool that I can do this.

R Bald reviewed the changes and said that, with all due respect, he doesn't understand why anyone would have a problem with them.

The floor is open to parents. A woman who refers to he husbands education at ta and hers at ha of clev as not a "true torah education.". She is saddened to see the school that she loves following the rest of orthodoxy in out-frumming each other. Lots of clapping.

Another woman asks about how the school could be considered coed if the kids are separate from fourth grade on. Dr. Shloush says there are still opportunities for interaction.

Another woman asks eveyone to consider if the coed nature needs to define the school. Some clapping.

Another woman asks if the rebbe will speak hebrew as well as the moros who teach parsha now (and more clapping for the moros).

[Note: from this point on, I'm writing from home after the meeting; I actually took more notes, but someone, who shall remain nameless, felt that playing Breakout was more important than my blogging]

The rest of the evening was pretty much more of the same, with comments both for and against. Overall everyone was very respectful (there was only one person who I thought was disrespectful). Many people brought up the rational or pragmatic benefits of coeducation vs. non-coeducation, or on the the other side, the religious values of non-coeducation (one person even referred to Da'as Torah).

The issue of trust came up many times, with many people feeling that the school had betrayed their trust or broken their trust. Dr. Shloush made an excellent point that other families may have felt as equally betrayed had the school not made changes. I think that the parents of Rambam are lucky that the school is as open and responsive as they are; it's not a characteristic that is to be found in great abundance, particularly in institutions of Jewish education.