I'm always interested to hear about people's special learning or middos initiatives for kids - particularly those that sustain momentum. I'm deeply interested in what makes an initiative last.
This is the story of one special learning initiative for kids. I thought it might last a couple of weeks. It's been going on now for, gee, almost five months.
Here are some factors that seem to contribute to the success of the program:
1. The task is simple, small, and specific: read a perek of Navi in English and tell me what happened in it.
2. The prizes are varied, cute, and very low-key -- on the order of magnitude of M&Ms, but not edible. The girls pick out one prize per perek. They not infrequently spend several minutes deliberating over which one they want to choose; but - this is my criterion for prizes - although some girls are drawn in by the prizes, I think they take more pleasure in the mastery of the material.
3. The initiative is public. The narrations take place in the shul social hall after davening on Shabbos, so when a girl comes up to tell me about a perek, her friends see and are reminded about the program. As long as someone is doing it, the other someones are interested.
Also, I put the prizes in a translucent bag, so they're in everyone's face. A number of girls have gotten involved because they came over to ask what those are, and can they have one?
Here are a couple of things that surprised me:
1. The e-mail I sent to parents explaining the initiative (with the graphic above) never went further than the parents. The only way communicate with the girls is to speak with them directly.
2. The fact that the initiative is l'ilui nishmas someone significant in our lives, while it is a nice thing and I'm glad we're doing it, seems to make no difference in anyone's motivation.
3. I need to remember not to underestimate the attractiveness of bite-sized anything. I now have several girls who've started learning Pirkei Avos instead of or in addition to Navi. It isn't any easier -- but the bites are smaller.
4. We've had tremendous surges in participation from all ages around Purim and Shavuos, because Megillas Esther and Megillas Rus are particularly user-friendly Navi.
5. We also have higher-than-average participation rates on Shabbosos or yamim tovim when the girls come to shul more than once, e.g. on two-day yontifs.
6. The age range surprised me. Girls who can't read yet are now participating because they get their sisters to tell them the stories in Navi. There is a sharp cut-off in participation at age 11: no one older will condescend to play with us (although several have said they want the prizes). I thought we might have one playful adult or even teen from this whole community, but no: it's turned out to be strictly a kid thing, ages 4-11.
So.
To sum up, I attribute the fact that what I thought might be a three-week program is still running five months later to
(a) nissim v'niflaos
(b) the fact that it's so low-key. It's an easy task and the prizes are tiny and consistent. There's absolutely nothing splashy about it... except that
(c) the content is real. The accomplishment is real. The girls really appreciate that they are learning something.
The one outcome I am still hoping to see that I haven't seen is whether the girls' interest will spill over to others in the community. We are starting an outreach kollel here in Elul but it would be pretty cool, if equally unlikely, if a group of 4-to-11-year-old girls can get the whole kehilla talking in learning before that.
Now that a lot of the girls are learning Pirkei Avos, when they come to tell me a Mishnah I suspect they don't really understand, I tell them they have to find an explanation for it. So they are engaging their parents, which is great.
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