DeLeT & ACE Retreat 2005
Thompson Island, Boston Harbor
Aspiring and new Catholic school teachers (ACE) and Jewish day school teachers (DeLeT) pose during their retreat on Thompson Island.
In early May, 2005 a small group of DeLeT (Day School Leadership Through Teaching) Fellows, alumni, and faculty and a small group of University of Notre Dame’s ACE (Alliance for Catholic Education) teachers and faculty (30 in all) embarked on a three day retreat to Thompson Island, one of Boston’s harbor islands. Throughout the intense days that the early-career teachers spent on the retreat, they explored the fundamental questions: Why do I teach? Why do I teach in a Jewish or Catholic school?
Aspiring and new Catholic school teachers (ACE) and Jewish day school teachers (DeLeT) study Talmud together hevruta-style.
Together, these Jewish and Catholic novice teachers and their faculties learned about hevruta study (paired study) and used the age-old method of studying Jewish texts to explore the themes of teaching and learning as they exist in the Torah, Talmud, contemporary Jewish thought, the New Testament, and contemporary Catholic thought.
The retreat was further enhanced by the participation of Rabbi Allan Lehmann, Brandeis’ Jewish chaplain and Rabbinic Hillel Director, and Father Tim Scully, Executive Director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives and Co-Founder of ACE.
Father Tim Scully, Executive Director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives and Co-Founder of ACE, joins a hevruta study with ACE and DeLeT students.
Participants reported that the shared exploration of these fundamental questions and the opportunity to learn about each other’s traditions and commitments to education provided the new teachers an opportunity to reflect on their teaching experiences, grapple with new questions, and strengthen their commitments to teaching in their particular contexts. Authentic friendships were formed among the two sets of teachers, faculty, and chaplains.
In a piece in the May 27, 2005 Forward newspaper, Bethamie Horowitz, consultant to the Choosing to Teach research project, reflected on her experience on the retreat. Click here to read "A Tradition of Questioning Tradition".
(left to right) Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Mandel Center Director; Bethamie Horowitz, Director of Research and Development for the Mandel Foundation; Father Tim Scully, Executive Director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives and Co-Founder of ACE; and Rabbi Allan Lehmann, Brandeis’ Jewish chaplain and Rabbinic Hillel Director, unwind with ACE and DeLeT students after a powerful retreat day.