Tefillah Tardiness Prompts New Initiative
To combat increasing tardiness to Tefillah a new system of “morning greeters” has been implemented this year, building on a revamped Tefillah remediation program started near the end of last year.
Students coming late to school this year may have noticed a change as they step into what used to be an empty lobby by the time 8:25 rolled around: there is somebody waiting for them.
The school administration implemented this system of staff greeters in the first quarter of this year as an attempt to cut down on Teffilah tardiness. A rotating schedule of teachers and other members of the professional community greet students at the lobby doors each morning, serving as reminders that it matters if a student shows up late.
Assistant Head of School Mallory Rome explained the rationale behind the new policy in an interview.
“We wanted to make it clear that the school day starts at 8:15,” Rome said. “One of the ways that we wanted to reinforce that was by having more of an adult presence in the mornings.”
She added that in the past, “There was sometimes this feeling that you could just come in and be very under the radar, and we want people here at 8:15, and we want them to know that we notice if they’re not.”
Rome also said that the new initiative includes the entire professional community on a rotating schedule, intended to help unite the faculty and staff. She said it also makes the lobby warmer for everyone when adults are there to greet the students.
If it doesn’t work…
Dr. Peg Sandel, who oversees the Tefillah program in her capacity as Dean of Jewish Studies and Hebrew, said the new
English Teacher Karie Rubin greets sophomore Sophie Rinkoff-Murland as part of the new "morning greeters" intiative.
policy of morning greeters stemmed from a chronic tardiness problem among students.
“There’s a significant percentage of the student body that [has come] in late for Tefillah” over the last several years, Sandel said. “We suspect that it isn’t a ‘start of Tefillah’ problem, but rather a ‘start of the school day’ problem.”
While Sandel hopes the morning greeters will solve the tardiness issue, she says the school may explore other avenues if it fails. Tefillah might be moved to later in the day, with an academic block put in the 8:15 slot to compel students to get to school on time.
Sandel made clear though, that she hopes a move like that would never be necessary.
Lee Carter, a history teacher who is now sometimes responsible for greeting students in the morning, said he felt just fine about it.
“Fifteen minutes in the morning is not really that big of an obligation. I think it really becomes a matter of how you look at it and approach it. If we do it in a kind of ‘You have to get to Tefillah now’ and it’s negative, then it’s a real pain for everybody,” he said. “But if you go at it in kind of a lighthearted fashion… it doesn’t really offend the child that much, I don’t think.”
Student Views
Students offered varied views on the new system.
Senior Max Malakoff said he felt as though the system reflects a lack of trust in students to be honest and sign themselves in at the front desk when they are late to school.
He added, however, that “we do have the responsibility to be on time, and also just to respect ourselves we should sign in even if there is no one standing there.”
Fellow senior Eric Temkin, who says he comes late nearly every day, says he has been feeling the effects of the new system.
“I do feel a little bit more pressure to come on time when I see the teachers all standing there. They see me late every day … it makes me feel a little guilty inside, like teachers know you’re late every day, it’s not just something you can do sneakily.”
But is the “Tefillah roundup,” as Carter called it, really making a difference in Teffilah tardiness? According to Sandel, it is. She says that even though there’s only a quarter’s worth of data so far, there has been a decrease in the number of students earning an incomplete in Tefillah.
While the number of Noncoms, as the school refers to incomplete Teffilah credits, has not itself decreased, according to data obtained by The Observer, Teffilah tardiness has gone down 33% this quarter over the same period last year.
Whether this improvement is due to the morning greeters or something else is hard to say, though it is a very noticeable improvement.
Part of the improvement may be due to a new Teffilah remediation system begun during the second semester of last year. The remediation system requires students to perform a set number of community service hours cleaning the school during lunch. Previously individual Teffilah leaders decided how students would make-up the credit, and the make-up was usually much less strenuous than the community service now required.
Whether or not these results last, junior Shai Tabb is confident the new system will help.
“Even though it’s new and it’s different, I think it’s good, because now students don’t have the opportunity to skip Tefillah,” Tabb said. “[Now] the teachers are there to pressure them.”
