Topics for Teenagers
The topics in this section are suitable for b’nai mitzvah students as well as Jewish high school students. They have proved to be particularly compatible with teenagers’ capabilities and interests, whether in synagogue programs or in Hebrew school.
I grew up without knowing that Jews wrote, or write, poems in English. There were no poems by Jews in the anthologies I was given in high school and college, and Jewish poems in English are still largely excluded from college texts.
---Daniel A. Harris
Poems are a primary means of introducing teenagers to important perspectives on Jewish life and creativity–here in the United States, and throughout Jewish history. They make our cultural experience vital for the future. Our writers provide role models.
I don't want the next generations to have my experience, and I don't want them to think, also, that Jews write only novels and short stories.
Poems are among the best tools we have to teach fundamental literacies to our children; they prepare our students for college work. These writings push students to consider the operations of language with the very best critical skills they can develop. There is no reason why we cannot teach literacy in English through Jewish as well as other texts.
Teenager education often occurs especially well in intergenerational formats, where adults and students can learn together, at the same time, in different combinations.
Chanukah