WOODBRDIGE – Ezra Academy has introduced a new grant-funded social curriculum to its program that is the product of a unique collaboration between four Jewish day schools located across the country, it was announced recently by Dr. Melanie Waynick, the Woodbridge day school’s head of school.

After Waynick met with and shared her vision for the innovative curriculum with the heads of the three other schools – including N.E. Miles Jewish Day School in Birmingham, Alabama, Hillel Day School in Rochester, New York and B’nai Shalom in Greensboro, North Carolina – the four schools formed a group dubbed “The Alliance” and agreed to implement a three-year middle-school curriculum focusing on social justice.

The curriculum, which engages students in working together, includes: the study in sixth grade of the novel The Lions of Little Rock, which will culminate with a week spent in Alabama; the continued study of social justice issues in seventh grade, with the aspect of advocacy added into the program, culminating with a week-long program in Washington, D.C.; and, finally, the study of social justice and innovation in Israel.

“The students are enthusiastic and engaged in our distance learning and collaborative techniques with students around the country,” says Waynick. “We consider learning about these subjects as a moral imperative so that our students will become knowledgable, active American citizens.”

CAP: Dr. Melanie Waynick