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A child finishes a long day of learning in Talmud Torah.

He has already spent many hours learning, with a significant part of the
morning devoted to Gemara. By the afternoon, naturally, he may want to
rest or do something else.

And yet, over the years I have seen children choose to come and learn
again.

Yeshivas Erev differs from the framework in which a child learns during
the day in one very simple way:

The child does not have to come.

There is no regular Talmud Torah attendance requirement. Some children
come more often, others less often, and each one progresses according to
the time he invests and his individual abilities.

That led me over time to a practical question:

How do we create a framework that a child will want to join after a full
school day---while making sure that Gemara learning remains at the
center?

When the Children Themselves Ask for More

Yeshivas Erev did not begin for me as a large program.

At first, I learned with individual students. Later, a group formed, and
gradually more children began to come.

One of the interesting moments in that development came when a younger
student approached me and asked if we could open a learning group for
boys his age as well.

Until then, the program had been meeting on certain days.

He wanted us to add more days.

I agreed.

I did not expect what happened next.

That child showed up with more than twenty boys---a large portion of his
class.

Suddenly, I found myself teaching a large group that I had not
recruited.

One child had brought his friends to learn.

At the time, I did not build an educational theory around the
experience. We simply began learning.

But looking back, it taught me something about a framework that is
voluntary.

When a child feels that he wants to be part of it, something about his
relationship with the learning changes.

Not Turning Yeshivas Erev into Another School Day

To me, one of the advantages of Yeshivas Erev is precisely that it is
not another Talmud Torah.

The children have already spent many hours within a structured school
framework.

I therefore do not want to take a child who has finished his school day
and place him once again in the same kind of compulsory system.

Yeshivas Erev is meant to give him another opportunity to learn.

He can come.

Learn.

Progress.

Acquire tools that may require additional practice.

And do all of this in a somewhat different setting.

That freedom does not mean that there is no structure or serious
learning.

Quite the opposite.

It requires me to think about how to help a child choose to invest
effort.

And What About a Treat?

It is important to describe things as they really are.

Not every child comes in the afternoon simply because he has decided
that what he wants most is another hour of Gemara.

Children are children.

Sometimes a small treat helps.

Sometimes a competition.

Sometimes a quiz.

Sometimes knowing that the child with the most points will receive a
small prize at the end.

I do not see this as contradicting the purpose of the learning.

The incentive is not the content.

It can be the way that brings the child to the content.

If a quiz gets a child to listen to another twenty Aramaic words, try to
remember their meanings, and raise his hand to answer, then as far as I
am concerned, it has done its job.

Sometimes This Generation Needs Help Building Motivation

I remember these things from my own perspective as well.

The way children learn today is not necessarily identical to the way we
learned as children.

In my experience, children today often need more incentives.

Rather than arguing with that reality, I prefer to use it appropriately.

The prize remains small.

The learning remains the main thing.

And the hope is that as a child progresses and sees that he is able to
understand more, he will also begin to experience satisfaction from the
achievement itself.

When a Child Discovers: "I Know This"

There is a beautiful moment that happens during our vocabulary quizzes.

I ask a word.

A child answers.

Another word.

He knows that one too.

And another.

Sometimes it is only during the quiz that you can see how much knowledge
the child has already accumulated.

The child who may have come partly because of his friends, the points,
or the treat discovers something else:

I know this.

Words that once seemed foreign are now familiar.

Later, when those same words appear inside the Gemara, that knowledge
takes on real meaning.

He is not only succeeding in a quiz.

He understands more of what he is reading.

A Place Where Different Children Can Progress at Different Paces

There is another advantage to a framework that is not a regular school
system.

Not every child needs to progress at exactly the same pace.

One student comes consistently and builds a larger vocabulary more
quickly.

Another comes less often.

One child already knows some of the words, while another needs to begin
with the basics.

I can check which words a student already knows, give him material that
better matches where he is, and move forward from there.

In this way, Yeshivas Erev can be a place where children at very
different levels sit and learn, with each one progressing according to
his abilities and the time he invests.

What Began with a Few Children

Over the years, the program grew.

From a few students, we expanded to additional groups, different ages,
and activities on more days of the week.

But that is precisely why it is important for me to remember how it
began.

I did not sit down one day and decide to build a large system.

There were children who wanted to learn.

We began learning with them.

More children came.

Another group became necessary.

Then younger children began coming as well.

And gradually, the framework grew.

In that sense, Yeshivas Erev was built to a large degree around the
children who came to it.

At the End of the Day, We Have to Open the Gemara

We can give points.

We can give a treat.

We can create a quiz.

We can enjoy the social atmosphere.

All of these things can help a child come.

But once he is there, the thing for which we gathered has to happen:

We open the Gemara and learn.

We learn the words.

We review them.

We read the Gemara.

We try to understand.

And gradually, the child discovers that he can do something today that
was more difficult for him a year ago.

Perhaps that is the right way to view incentives.

There is no need to be embarrassed by them, and there is no need to make
them the center.

They remain around the learning.

At the center is the Gemara.