Dan Goldberg – Moreh Dan to his students at the Toronto Heschel School – believes in teaching through hands-on experience.
Last week, his Grade 5 students concluded an “excavation” by assembling pottery that Goldberg had broken and labelled himself. To teach his class about a “tel” (an ancient mound, in archeology), Goldberg brought a layer cake to school. “We ‘excavated’ the cake,” he said. “You could see the different layers.”
As well, he fashioned a grid from string so that students could divide the cake into sections, and catalogue their findings the way archeologists do. The highlight, he said, was eating the cake.
At the same time, Goldberg – who is 51, but likes to tell his students he’s 88 – focuses on less tangible aspects of education. Establishing a good relationship with every student is key, he believes.
A psychologist by training, with a PhD from the California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles, Goldberg said he thinks a lot about “what kind of childhood [students] are having under my watch.”
The Berkeley native, who grew up in Phoenix, has been involved in Jewish education for many years, having put himself through university by teaching Hebrew school.
After studying European Jewish history at Harvard University, he entered the rabbinical program at Los Angeles’ University of Judaism (now part of American Jewish University), but changed direction after completing four years of the six-year program.
He was drawn to psychology because of the “relationship that you form with another human being, that somehow transforms that person.”
The role of an educator is similar, he believes. “We preside over a significant portion of our students’ childhood.”
Fourteen years ago, Goldberg segued from his work as a clinical psychologist, when he and his wife, Netta Zweig, moved back to Toronto from Buffalo, N.Y. with their daughter, who is now 18. The couple met when Zweig, a Toronto native, was studying Jewish education at the University of Judaism.
Goldberg began to work at Beth Tzedec Congregation as director of education and youth while he was waiting to be licensed as a psychologist here. He ended up staying until 2005.
Now in his third year at Heschel, he also spent two years as head of Judaic studies at a Baltimore Jewish middle school, from 2005 to 2007.
“I felt that school was a lot of fun,” he said of his decision to continue working as an educator. “I love working with children.”
Goldberg believes it’s his obligation to do “everything I can” to ensure that children have a positive experience.
“Part of it is being happy to see them, and you can’t fake that. You have to find something about every kid that you can talk about, so that when they come into the room, you see this opportunity to connect with someone that means something to you.”
A lesson from the teacher: “I want my students to remember my classroom as a place where they felt valued as human beings, and where they felt inspired to value others.”
