About Lamplighters // Lamplighters Yeshivah Parent Handbook
4. EDUCATION IS AN ORGANIC, LIVING PROCESS
WHAT WE BELIEVE:
Schools are not stagnant places of learning. We are growing “living things,”
not building machines. Education cannot take place in an institution
-- to be truly customized, the educational environment needs to be
crafted around the child.
As educators, we must emphasize process, not product. Education is a life-
long journey and our role as educators is nurture the child on a path toward
enduring curiosity, self-development, and learning. We are nurturing a dy-
namic being, not creating a product.
WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE AT LAMPLIGHTERS YESHIVAH:
• We believe that the behavior of students, educators and administration
is adaptive and elastic -- growth is always possible. Success - whatever
that looks like for each individual - is always attainable.
• Lamplighters Yeshivah utilizes behavioral science to design learning
interactions that work for each child. We test different environments,
curriculum, combinations of children, tools and techniques to custom-
ize the experience for every student. The journey of each student and
teacher is unique, with an emphasis on short feedback loops of reflec-
tion based on actual measurable data. We train our teachers to be “sci-
entists in the classroom,” developing a sensitivity to various layers of
information. We don’t make decisions for a child or the ecology of the
classroom based on assumptions or hearsay. When an approach is not
working, we make a change. When a child branches into success, we
continue that path, even if it was not in the original plan. This school
design requires a process rather than a product approach to teaching
and learning.
“I feel empowered as a teacher to draw a differ-
ent roadmap for every child. With the support
we receive at Lamplighters, we can always
brainstorm and come up with solutions that
work. I see this every day, with every child”
— Morah Tzirl Niasoff (Preschool Learning Specialist)
• Teaching teachers to carry out our model of education is one of the most exciting things we do at Lamplighters! We begin
by constantly nurturing a culture of learning throughout our school -- from the bottom up. Not only do our teachers see
themselves as the heads of classroom pockets of education, but they constantly participate in level-wide curriculum de-
velopment and school-wide learning and development. This is what underpins our entire approach to training. Everyone
at Lamplighters considers himself or herself a learner.
• We highlight measurable successes in education to create an authentic knowledge base and to recognize what truly works
in education and in individual children. As a lab school, we are developing the principles and framework that makes this
organic process possible to recreate in other schools and communities.
• We believe in open-sourced education. Partnering with other educators and creating platforms for educators to exchange
valuable data is the foundation of chinuch for Lamplighters Yeshivah.
• With our revolutionary teacher training program in Jewish Montessori, comprehensive tours and workshops we conduct
for educators the world over, and the Visible Classroom, a prototype for teacher mentorship that combines engineering,
education and science, Lamplighters in on the cutting-edge of a dynamic revolution in Jewish education. We are con-
stantly evaluating our work and motivated to improve.
17