The rapid advancement of technology is a continuous marvel of modern society, most recently seen with the rise of AI and its incorporation into several major areas of everyday life.
But just 40 years ago, the big new thing coming into schools and businesses was the computer, with young people using it as a tool to improve their educational experience.
In this edition of “Remember When,” we look at an article from the Dec. 20, 1985, Philadelphia Jewish Exponent titled “At Torah Academy, Computer Training is as Logical as Learning Talmud,” by Galya Ben-Arieh.
Ben-Arieh described Torah Academy sixth-grader student Yonah Pransky’s experience doing his Sunday school lessons on the computer. Pransky correctly answered all the questions on his quiz, and the computer rewarded him by loading a dice game to play.
“While other fifth- through eighth-grade boys are out playing catch on the typical Sunday morning, the boys at Torah Academy are in class for half a day. But they don’t seem to mind as long as computers are part of the curriculum,” Ben-Arieh wrote.
Ben-Arieh explained that 1985 was the second year the school taught computers as a formal subject and that the technology had become an essential part of the school system.
From first grade and up the students were taught Logo, a computer language, something administrators said gave them skills similar to those used to learn Talmud and Gemara, the rabbinical analysis of the Mishnah.
Rabbi Harry Mayer, the school’s principal, described why the Orthodox institution starting using computers, becoming the only city school to introduce the technology into Hebrew studies.
“We try to teach the kids the logic process. Gemara and Talmud are also based on that concept. You can’t get to D unless you do A, B and C in order. It ties in very well,’” Mayer told Ben-Arieh.
Ben-Arieh said the school did not want computers to replace teachers but saw the technology as reinforcement of the school’s Hebrew studies.
We see a similar trend today, with new technology being introduced into classrooms and students finding new ways to use it. Who knows where we’ll be in another 40 years?