PHDS’s principal has high expectations for her students and herself

Jewish Rhode Island recently sat down with Miriam  Esther Weiner to discuss education, Jewish education in particular and a few of her favorite things.

How did you get involved in Jewish education?

I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, and as soon as I started in college, I knew I wanted to be involved in school leadership, and I was very lucky to find the positions that made that happen.

What was the path that brought you to where you are now?

When I finished graduate school, I got a job as an assistant administrator in a brand-new Jewish high school in New York. I was there for three and a half years, until we moved to Providence, where I was able to take over for a PHDS teacher who had moved into an administrative position.

Over the years, my job there evolved, and when the current dean, Rabbi [Peretz] Scheinerman, was hired, I didn’t know that they were looking for somebody to be more in charge of day-to-day education. I was speaking to the head of the search committee, coincidentally, and said, “Oh, my dream is to do the following …,” and he said, “Well, I have a job for you!”

What would you like the community to know about the day school?

That it’s a very warm and caring place where every student has an individualized relationship with his or her teachers and the administration, and it’s the kind of place where students, parents, teachers all know that my door is open 24/7. It’s not just a job during school hours, and I think we all recognize that we’re a community, and that makes it very special.

A large percentage of our students live near the school, and when school lets out, they play in my driveway, hang out with my kids, borrow a cup of sugar, you know?

It sounds like you’ve done a lot to build those relationships and make yourself available. What in-school accomplishments are you most proud of?

I’ve worked hard at accessing as much as we can from federal and state funds for our students. Given that there’s always a need for more money in Jewish education, that’s something that I’m very proud of, and I think that my teachers feel that I’m on their side. Sometimes, when you become an administrator, there’s that sense that you forgot what it’s like to be in front of the room all day, and I’ve worked really hard to not lose that. I involve the teachers in the decision-making process, so it’s not top-down, but everybody working together.

What would you like to accomplish moving forward?

To better individualize instruction as we become more aware of students’ needs, and to further individualize instruction without losing teaching the group. How do we maintain that warm, caring, nurturing, taking-care-of-the-individual while also growing?

Any memorable stories from teaching?

I taught a class on the Book of Jeremiah, and years later I went to a lecture in the synagogue. A former student of mine was there, and the rabbi started speaking, and [the student] turned to me in the middle of the lecture and said, “You taught us that.” And that was an amazing feeling, that she remembered that from years before.

In a more general sense, it’s when the kids come to visit, and thank us for where they are today; that we made that connection, and they want to come back and talk to us, I think that’s really special. [Also] There’s a Jewish custom to have a week of festive meals after a wedding, and we’ll do that for a lot of our students after they get married.

You mentioned that funding is a challenge; what about academic challenges?

Keeping up with curricular changes. Math education has become very language-based, which I think is unfair to students who struggle with language. You can know your multiplication facts backwards, forwards, and still fail a math test because of word problems. We’re trying to find that balance to allows the child who may struggle with language to still feel success in math, but also be successful on standardized testing. Finding time in the day to teach everything that’s become the school’s responsibility is a big challenge.

Are there any challenges regarding religious education?

Finding enough time to teach everything. Our school day is longer than the public schools’, but fitting everything in the dual curriculum into the school day, and meeting the needs of all students, is huge. From a religious perspective, making sure that children can be successful in a text-based culture, which most of the religious studies are, is a challenge.

Especially with a completely different alphabet.

Right, an alphabet that goes in the opposite direction! So, if you’re dyslexic … but, if anything, there are more resources now, which makes things easier, but there are higher expectations of what every child is going to come out knowing.

 How does technology figure in?

We have very limited screen time in school, and that’s very intentional because we don’t want the students learning from computers; we want them learning from teachers.

Do you have a favorite Jewish holiday?

Pesach, because it’s a tremendous amount of work … but when you sit down at the seder, there’s this sense of accomplishment of working together. It’s not, “I did everything,” but “we did.” We make a point of having everyone home; it’s that sense of family.

Do you have a favorite Jewish food?

Anything that we’re eating that’s being shared with family. I don’t think I have a particular favorite.

How about a favorite Hebrew word?

Can I do Yiddish? I would say mensch, because that’s what we’re all striving to be.

What three people, living or dead, would you have at your seder?

I would go first with my namesakes, Miriam and Esther. Miriam, Moses’ sister, was a very behind-the-scenes leader in the Exodus. And Queen Esther was also a leader, but it was her behind-the-scenes role that God used to invoke the miracle. Both of them changed the destiny of the Jewish people, but from a subtle perspective, and I think that’s fascinating. And Sarah Schenirer, who is the reason we have formalized Jewish education for females, and a fascinating woman who never had any children of her own, but is called “the mother of the Jewish learning movement for women.”

I don’t need to be in the front of the room, but I can invoke a difference, and I think that’s what these women have done.

MICHAEL SCHEMAILLE (mschemaille@jewishallianceri.org) writes for Jewish Rhode Island and the Jewish Alliance of Greater RI.