While the pandemic has become a constantly evolving dynamic, Rabbi Avrohom Stulberger did not need long to ponder how it has affected Valley Torah High School, where he is rosh yeshiva.
“We have not been significantly impacted,” said Stulberger, who has led the Valley Village school for 36 years. “The real question is how has this impacted the kids. [It’s] hard to quantify. Emotionally, there are kids who have been drawn into themselves because this experience has taken a year-and-a-half out of their lives.”
Since what Stulberger calls “this craziness” struck 22 months ago, he has been concerned about the internal, often invisible, toll on the most vulnerable boys and girls.
Since what Stulberger calls “this craziness” struck 22 months ago, he has been concerned about the internal, often invisible, toll on the most vulnerable boys and girls.
“I think about the residual damage to individual students who, maybe, their families weren’t that sensitive to the need for social interactions,” he said. “Maybe there were other factors. Some students might have been a little more inclined to depression or being introverted in general. And then you give them this added factor of COVID, of being alone, of being in isolation. It took a toll.”
A few of the boys in the school, which consists of 130 students, dropped out when COVID struck. “Minimally, I would say 10% of our students have been adversely affected,” Stulberger said.
The girls’ campus also has been impacted.
Sheindy Gross, the girls’ principal, told Stulberger numerous times about girls who “went into a shell. They were not who they could have been as part of the natural process of maturing as a teenager going into adolescence. COVID threw a whole monkey wrench into the works. That is where the untold story is. This is what you hear throughout the country.”
Stulberger said he believes he knows where to assign fault.
“The government has been so quick to say they are closing schools,” he said. “But they are not taking into account the incredible damage done to our youth in not giving them the social norms they are so used to.”
The rosh yeshiva and Valley Torah leadership have been implementing creative ways to combat this. When COVID first hit, Stulberger – who is no fan of Zoom – and Valley Torah were determined to restore normalcy with lightning speed.
By September, students were back on campus 50% of the time. In a camp-style setting, Torah classes were taught on campus and secular classes were on Zoom. By last Passover, the school resumed a normal class schedule “pretty much all the way,” said Stulberger.
Then came one of the proudest moments for Stulberger.
“We decided to end the year in an incredible fashion,” he said. “We felt the kids had been missing so many special opportunities throughout the year [like] Shabbatons, onegs and the various experiences that allow them to bond. We just said we are going to go all out, and we did something crazy.”
He took 100 students to Utah for a four-day trip.
“We wanted to give these kids as much, as large a dose of normalcy, of excitement, of interaction and fun because we felt they really deserved it.”
“We called it an Epic-aton (as in a Shabbaton). It was done specifically because we wanted to give these kids as much, as large a dose of normalcy, of excitement, of interaction and fun because they have been hurting for a long time. We felt they really deserved it.”
The students went to Yellowstone National Park, did river rafting and hung out at a hotel and resort, where they barbecued and relaxed.
Afterward, teachers noticed that students were upbeat and positive.
“They felt bonded and connected with each other,” Stulberger said. “It was a welcome dose of normalcy, of real social interactions that clearly had been lacking.”
In striving for a regular environment, he said that Valley Torah tries, but there is so much caution and concern. The school has in-person therapists available each day at both campuses to help.
While therapists were present on campus before COVID, “there is no comparison to then and now,” Stulberger said. “The number of individuals who were having real challenges definitely has increased. Some were not comfortable coming back to classes.”
He continued, “We don’t really know the [extent of] residual damages, because when a family says ‘My child is not returning,’ we don’t know if they were too afraid to come back to school. Some kids developed a real phobia about germs, about COVID, about what it’s going to be.”
Some reasons were valid, the rosh yeshiva acknowledged. “But to take it to the extreme, saying ‘I am not coming back to school,’ we did lose kids. We lost families because of that. But we can’t measure [the legitimacy] because they are not here [with] us to see how they are doing.”
Finally, there is the centerpiece of much contemporary learning: Zoom.
“Based on our experience, Zoom learning is pretty much doomed learning.”
– Rabbi Avrohom Stulberger
“Based on our experience, Zoom learning is pretty much doomed learning,” Stulberger said. “It is not learning. It’s a poor replacement. Is it better than nothing? It is, but not much better.”
He continued, “You can be in your ivory tower and say ‘let’s learn remotely,’ and you can get statistics back and forth. But if you are not on that computer, looking at those kids’ faces, seeing who is not engaged, seeing who is lost, seeing who is not interested, seeing who puts a picture up there while they are watching Netflix – and they have a picture up there making you think they are present but they are really not – it is a complete joke. The people on the front lines know it. Is it better than nothing? Yes, but really slightly.”
