Shabbat Parashat Vayishlah

Loving-kindness is Good for the Heart and Soul

On Tuesday morning, faculty members from the five Jewish day schools in Greater Vancouver gathered together for a most enlightening and enriching professional development day. By now, I am sure many of you have heard about Dr. Wendy Mogel and her message about raising resilient children. She served as our first keynote speaker and was most engaging and entertaining. After a short break, the gathered educators heard a presentation by our second keynote speaker, Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, an Applied Developmental Psychologist and Associate Professor at UBC, entitled "Educating the Heart." Her message spoke to the essence of what it means to experience fully Jewish education in a Jewish day school. Most schools have a clear focus on the cognitive and intellectual development of students. Children must learn certain bodies of knowledge and skills in order to find success as they go on to advanced education and careers. Dr. Schonert-Reichl argues, however, that schools who do not also focus on the education of the heart are only doing part of their job and are actually costing their students their greatest opportunity to live up to their fullest potential. Her research has shown that teaching and learning about and then performing acts of loving-kindness lead to greater physical health of the heart and body and open students up to more engaged academic learning. Education of the mind, heart, and soul are the bedrock of Jewish day school education and are an outgrowth of Torah.