“Why Don’t Boys’ Schools Talk about Technology?”       

“We’re using blanket rules to shroud the values behind them”

Question

Why do the girls’ schools talk so much about technology — ranging from the hashkafic issues to practical ramifications and eitzos — equipping our teenage daughters with the tools to deal with the nisayon, while the boys’ high schools seem to ignore it? The message for the boys seems to be basically limited to “assur.” But later down the line, as adults, these boys may in fact have to use technology. What tools and understanding will they have?

Answer

Although I was the principal of a boy’s high school for many years before opening the seminary, long before smartphones were available, I’m still not sure if your question is a result of your experience or reflects a general phenomenon that you have observed. If indeed this is a widespread reality, it would be best to discuss it in the context of a general educational challenge that our generation’s yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs face, that we all could use chizuk in addressing.

Not so many years ago, the grandfathers and grandmothers of today’s yeshivah and Bais Yaakov students were accepted in any Torah institution they wished to attend. Almost every yeshivah and Bais Yaakov was a kiruv school, working to get as many children as possible to attend. With tremendous mesirus nefesh, the schools’ founders did everything possible to get another Jewish boy or girl to join our ranks.

Baruch Hashem, in the past 60 years, our schools have experienced tremendous exponential growth. And while today as well we have public servants with mesirus nefesh who are building mosdos to service our children, unfortunately, one piece has gotten lost to a certain extent.

The first generation of yeshivah and Bais Yaakov educators in the US and Europe recognized the need to explain, inspire, and teach their students the standards of their institutions. Now, however, we are building schools for a generation that “knows” what is right and wrong. We’re aware that our students know what is allowed and what is assur, and we assume this knowledge alone will be enough to keep them on the straight path. For many, this is indeed the case. But we lose out tremendous chinuch possibilities when “rules” replace chinuch.