Truvie Teachers: Course Content Policy

Truvie Course Content Policy

Truvie is a place for children to learn how Judaism can inform their everyday lives and help them navigate life’s challenges and joys. Truvie courses should speak to the mind, hands, and heart of each learner.

Truvie’s Jewish learning should…

…be anchored in caring, purposeful relationships
…seek to answer the questions, challenges, and meaning of everyday life
…enable individuals to construct their own meaning through inquiry, problem solving, and discovery
…be content-rich and accessible

Courses should be anchored in caring, purposeful relationships. At Truvie, we believe that meaningful relationships are at the heart of Jewish learning. Historically, Jewish learning has happened in partnership with peers and teachers. Known as the chavruta model, this approach reflects the belief that discovery and exploration with others creates friendships and community. Relationship-based learning happens when learners are encouraged to engage in reflective listening, be curious, and take part in respectful disagreement as they explore content with their class community.

Courses should seek to answer the questions, challenges, and meaning of everyday life. At Truvie, we believe, that the purpose of Jewish learning is to enhance learners’ lives. A Truvie course should include content that has direct application to a child’s daily experience and the opportunity to practice using the content in real-life events.

Courses should enable individuals to construct their own meaning through inquiry, problem solving, and discovery. At Truvie, we believe that the best Jewish learning happens when teachers provide opportunities for learners to explore, ask questions, and develop their own understandings about the content and its application to their lives. This kind of learning happens when a variety of viewpoints are presented, when debate and discussion are core elements, and when lessons are challenging, hands-on, and open-ended. Share a diverse offering of Jewish interpretations, ensuring that no one way of being Jewish is presented as more authentic than another.

Courses should be content-rich and accessible. At Truvie, we believe that Jewish learning should be grounded in core texts, history, and rituals. These content areas should be offered in a way that helps learners see their relevance and application to their personal experiences.

We also believe that classes should be age-appropriate:

Material that may be disturbing to young children should be highlighted in the class description, so each learner, with their family, can determine if the course is a good fit, or if they need to do any discussion before starting the class.
Material that may be objectionable to parents should be made clear - for example, topics are violent or sexual in nature, or that touch on sensitive issues

In addition, Truvie courses may not promote discrimination, hate speech, or violence.  Truvie welcomes learners, families, and teachers across all pillars of diversity; this includes, but is not limited to, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status, and gender identity.  

Teachers and classes that do not abide by these standards will be removed from Truvie.

Sensitive or higher-risk topics.  There are classes that are not allowed on the platform, or are subject to higher scrutiny, because of their sensitive or potentially controversial nature.   

Israel education should provide learners with the opportunity to engage with the idea of a Jewish homeland in Israel, in all of its complexity. Truvie does not allow courses that engage in Israel advocacy.

For more on our approach to Israel education, visit this site.

For courses that deal with mental health and physical health we require the teacher to have training and/or experience teaching the topic to young learners.

Medical services

We do not support classes that provide medical training or medical services.  This includes, but is not limited to, first aid, CPR, therapy, counseling, psychiatric evaluations, or evaluations for special education services.  We do not offer these courses on Truvie out of concern for learners’ safety and well-being.  We recognize that many courses can touch on these subjects, so we have provided some clarifying examples below:

Courses offering workouts, dance, or exercise routines are allowed, but courses offering physical therapy are considered medical services.
Courses teaching general information about nutrition or a type of diet (e.g. What is Eco-kashrut?) are allowed, but classes with targeted nutrition advice to learners are considered medical services and require more expertise. They may not be appropriate for the Truvie platform. All class subject matter must be science/fact based, and not promote any single perspective on nutrition and diet. Any course promoting weight loss is not allowed on Truvie.
Courses offering information about mental health or non-medical symptom management strategies are allowed, but courses offering individual or group therapy targeted towards learners with diagnosed medical conditions, trauma, or grief are considered a medical service.  For example, courses offering techniques to handle day-to-day stress or anxiety are allowed, but courses offering therapeutic support specifically for learners suffering from chronic anxiety or anxiety disorders would be a medical service. Social support groups, for learners with a shared experience or identity, are not usually considered a medical service. However, they are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, with a higher degree of scrutiny for both teacher expertise and course structure, in order to ensure the teacher is qualified and the course does not veer into group therapy.

Safety hazards

Courses that present a higher risk for potential safety hazards will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. For courses that are appropriate for the platform, we will require teachers to have a high level of professional training, expertise, or experience working with youth in the subject.  Additionally, we require teachers to provide extensive parental guidance information.

Marginalized Groups

Marginalized groups of people include groups who have historically been overlooked or who have faced discrimination based on factors including, but not limited to, sex, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Truvie believes that courses based on these groups and topics deserve equal treatment and, occasionally, special consideration. In order to ensure that Truvie is not spreading false narratives nor reinforcing discrimination and prejudice, Truvie has high expectations and scrutiny for evaluating these courses and the teachers who lead them. We would expect to see expertise in areas like education, community involvement, life experience, additional training or other things that might show expertise based on the marginalized group you are teaching about.

Expectations for these classes:

Teachers have a degree connected to the topic they are teaching or additional training/education related to the topic. 
The sources used in class need to come from widely respected scholars/professionals in the field. 
The Class Experience section of the class’s description will need to contain an explanation of any resources that deal with racism and discrimination and include how those will be handled.

Teaching the history and experiences of these marginalized groups leads to content being more objective: objectivity gives a more complete picture than has been traditionally told or studied. To counter the traditional narrative, more focus may be given to these groups in some classes and there may be classes entirely devoted to these specific groups or their experiences. Other perspectives must still be acknowledged so that the full story of the issue in question is taught.

Role-Playing 

Truvie understands the value of role-playing in education. Allowing learners to take various perspectives and make decisions or solve crises helps learners understand the concepts and learn empathy for those involved. Role-playing can include events or situations that are hypothetical or historical and any activity from acting out a situation like a play to making decisions based on historical text or hypothetical situations.

When creating course listings that include role-playing, there are certain things that the teacher will need to consider:

Be sure there is time before the lesson to teach any important information and lay out the parameters for the role-playing. Consider how you will approach any learners that do not follow those parameters.
If learners are role-playing various perspectives, they may only really learn the one they play.  Consider how you can ensure they learn numerous different perspectives.
Ensure that there is ample time set aside after the role-playing to discuss any situations that arose that may need extra discussion or clarification, come back to the larger context and purpose of the role play, and to tie up any loose ends.

Some topics are so sensitive that they fall outside of Truvie policies if they are role-played.  

Role-playing scenarios NOT allowed:

Scenarios that have kids play oppressor/oppressed roles 
Examples: prison guard/prisoner, biblical ancient Egyptian task master /Israelite slave, S.S. guard/Concentration Camp internee.
Any group being depicted as superior or inferior
Role-playing violence
Role-playing marginalized groups in any way that is not empowering 
Anything in bad taste or in violation of our class standards or other Truvie policies.

Role-play that will face higher scrutiny, but may be acceptable:

Not acting, but taking perspectives of various groups to understand a complex problem.
Kids simulate a process like an assembly line, passing a law, making financial decisions. mimic an artist’s craft, learning the Charleston, etc. 
Trials, hypothetical or historical, will be considered based on the content.

If you have any questions about a topic you would like to teach, please reach out to info@truvie.org and we would be happy to help.