Daphna Levin-Kahn – Head of Jewish Studies High School

Jews, Shoes and Values 

How do you move from Mind to Spirit to Being? From thought to passion to action?

This week Year 9 Jewish Studies students in the Be The Change elective considered the ‘space’ between the values they hold dear and the actions they do to promote positive change in the world. Using their shoes to mark the dissonance, one for values and the other for actions, students had a visual differentiator to contemplate the gap and how they could improve the consonance between them.

The student reflections below are anonymous but demonstrate the diversity and self-awareness of the group:

“At first, I thought the activity was a little weird and silly, but it was actually quite thoughtful and fun. It was good to see the things that I say I care about, but I don’t actually do anything about it.  This will help me focus on the things I care about and that I do something about.”

“Today’s lesson got me thinking about the things that I want to help do in life and the things that I want but I don’t do. There was a big gap between my first shoe and my last one and I really would like to change it.”

“I found this activity very interesting and insightful. This is because I wasn’t expecting my shoe to be at the very back in the second round when it was in the middle in the first round. Hopefully I can use this game to help me “be the change”.”

“Today’s activity helped me see what my expectations are and how I match them up with reality. I think I am pretty good at acting upon my values, but it was still a good refresher.”

“The activity we did today I really enjoyed because it wasn’t boring and I liked that we got to move around. After the first round I didn’t think I would get my second shoe to my first shoe because I don’t feel like I made many changes, but I ended up getting it to my first shoe.”

“Today we did the ‘Jews and Shoes” activity and I learnt a lot.”

“I learnt how much I believe in and what I actually do to help those situations/people that are struggling in humanity. I realised that I mostly do and act in all of the different things that (were) read out but I also thought about how much more I could do. Sure, I give the homeless man loose change who camps out near my local supermarket, but what else could I actually do to help even more, is what I was thinking about throughout the activity.”

So, how far apart are your shoes?

Shabbat Shalom