Built on your ideas from the field of Jewish education, The Covenant Foundation views itself as a platform for dreams.  The foundation aims to facilitate, not legislate, to help construct ideas from the field into a compelling reality. In reviewing letters of inquiry for grants, the foundation seizes on those that conjure new realities and possibilities.  In John Dewey’s words, those that “… look at things as if they could be otherwise.”

In 2010, we are focusing on a new decade.  Here are some observations about what we know and what we are still learning.

We know something about ideas:

• Great ideas don’t have a zip code.
• They’re oblivious to their surroundings.
• They resent the implication that they’d be better off living in a major metropolitan area.
• They don’t care if they were born in a corner office, a corner of a classroom or a street corner.
• Great ideas can come from anywhere.
• In the spirit of creative excellence, the words of the Addy Awards, above, recognize media of all types, of all sizes and from anywhere in the world.

What we are still learning:

• How to seek out the uncommon connections among great ideas, embrace contrary notions, and live in the messiness of emergence.

We know something about human behavior:

• We support the ideas we help to create.
• The Gemara tells us that a person always prefers fruit that he has grown himself to fruit purchased in the market.  In fact, the Gemara even tells us that a person would prefer one measure of his own fruit to ten measures of fruit purchased in the market!  That is a very significant preference!

What we are still learning:

• How we should balance the common sense of not having to reinvent the wheel with the hunger and passion to see our own idea come to fruition.

We know something about education:

• In the words of George Santayana: “A child educated only in school is an uneducated child.”
• We know that the family (however defined) is a key ingredient in the success a child has in learning. In addition, we know that if the parent is dispassionate about what a child learns or the need for him to learn at all, that the child will be far less likely to learn. We also know that if a child is trying to solve what he perceives to be a relevant problem, he will attack it with passion and enthusiasm. Both the parent and the child are most apt to learn about things that are valuable, compelling and relevant to them.

What we are still learning:

• How to really engage parents in the process of education and lower the barriers that make certain that neither parent nor child is disenfranchised from the school and the classroom.  And how to put years of valuable wisdom into a context that feels compelling and relevant.

We know something about learning in the digital age:

• A challenge for educators in the 21st century is integrating learning into the growing richness of digital life where students are active and engaged every day. The Internet is where they already enjoy autonomy, where they see themselves as doers. Combining cell phones and web services, students are hands-on learners who adapt technology to their own personal uses. As students realize that the tools for living are the same for learning, they will naturally expand the range of things they can do and we will continue to watch a mash up, i.e. combining data from physical and virtual worlds, where what you do in real life is reflected in what you do online and vice versa  (Adapted from Dale Dougherty’s Twitter piece, “.eDO -  Learning as Doing”).

What we are still learning:

• How to understand that all of education is about relationships: We transmit knowledge but we teach people. No matter how many people we can reach technologically, if reaching them is not a highway to building relationships, we will not have moved ahead one iota.

As we move into the second decade of the 21^st century, we will face new challenges.  The Covenant Foundation will continue to foster creativity, uncommon connections, and teaching excellence.  It will continue “to look at things as though they could be otherwise.”

Our 2009 grantees, just announced, are a diverse group of organizations moving us all into the new decade. Take a look at their innovative and trailblazing initiatives here and consider your own proposal for a 2010 Covenant Foundation grant by visiting our grants section.

And, as always, I welcome your comments and thinking, as we strive together for long-lasting impact in the critical work that we all do.

Harlene Winnick Appelman

Executive Director